Ɛpsilon

To J. M. Herbert   30 January [1868]1

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

Jan 30

My dear old Friend

Many thanks for your very kind congratulations. Our son’s success has given us very great pleasure, & no small part of it has been derived from the sympathy of our friends.2 Talking & thinking so much of wranglers has recalled to my mind so vividly the old time when we gloried in Whitley being Senior Wrangler & you being I think 7 th .3 I never see that old Microscope which to my amazement I received anonymously without thinking with pleasure of our old friendship.4

Pray give our united very kind regards to Mrs Herbert5 & believe me yours ever | very sincerely | Charles Darwin

LS

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from J. M. Herbert, 26 January 1868.
2
See letter from J. M. Herbert, 26 January 1868. George Howard Darwin was second in the final examination for the mathematical tripos at Cambridge (that is, second wrangler; Cambridge University calendar 1868).
3
Charles Thomas Whitley, a cousin of Herbert’s, had been at Shrewsbury School with CD, and graduated as senior wrangler at Cambridge in 1830. See Correspondence vol. 1.
4
Herbert had given CD the microscope shortly after CD had taken his degree at Cambridge (see Correspondence vol. 1, letter from [J. M. Herbert], [early May 1831]).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5815,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5815