Ɛpsilon

To Adam Sedgwick   13 October 1868

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

Oct 13 1868

My dear Professor Sedgwick

I have been deeply gratified by your kindness in remembering me & sending your congratulations on my son’s election as a Fellow of Trinity.1 This certainly is a very great honour to him & a source of much pleasure to me. I often think of the Geological tour in N. Wales, when you allowed me to accompany you, & which was so great a pleasure & advantage to me.2 You, also, during my expedition in the Beagle sent me several encouraging messages, the actual words of some of which I still remember.3 With these recollections & feelings you will believe how deeply I have been gratified by receiving your letter.

I am very sorry to hear that you suffer from so many serious complaints; but considering how often you were formerly unwell you seem to me a wonderful instance of prolonged vigour of mind & body. As for myself I am always an invalid, & fear that I shall never see Cambridge again, though from the many happy days spent there I shd much like to do so.

With the most sincere respect pray believe me | your obliged friend | Charles Darwin

LS

2
See letter from Adam Sedgwick, 11 October 1868 and n. 5; for more on CD’s geological tour with Sedgwick, see Peter Lucas 2002a and Herbert 2005, pp. 38–47.
3
Sedgwick’s letters to CD while he was on the Beagle have not been found; however, CD’s sister Susan sent CD an extract from a letter from Sedgwick to Samuel Butler: ‘He is doing admirably in S. America, & has already sent home a collection above all praise.— It was the best thing in the world for him that he went out on a Voyage of Discovery— There was some risk of his turning out an idle man: but his character will now be fixed, & if God spare his life, he will have a great name among the Naturalists of Europe’ (Correspondence vol. 1, letter from Susan Darwin, 22 November 1835).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6418,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6418