Ɛpsilon

From Thomas Henry Farrer   15 January 1869

3 Gloucester Terrace | R.P

15. Jan/69

My dear Mr Darwin

You always contrive to send something pleasant. It comes alas! in the midst of much Red Tape which leaves no time for Botany.1 New Ministers laudably attempting economies—many of them, I fear, impossible, give much trouble: almost as much, though more satisfactorily, as expensive & jobbing Ministers.2

Would Mrs Darwin or Miss D. kindly give me one line to say whether I shall send the beautiful French Book your son so kindly lent me back to Cambridge   I heard with much regret that an accident had kept him there.3

Believe me | Most truly yours | T H Farrer

C Darwin Esq FRS

1
CD’s letter to Farrer has not been found. Farrer was the sole permanent secretary of the Board of Trade (ODNB).
2
Parliamentary elections had taken place in November 1868; re-elected member John Bright became president of the Board of Trade on 11 December 1868 (The Times, 12 December 1868, p. 6).
3
Farrer refers to Emma Darwin and Henrietta Emma Darwin. George Howard Darwin had sent Farrer Traité générale de botanique descriptive et analytique (Le Maout and Decaisne 1868) from Trinity College, Cambridge (Correspondence vol. 16, letter to T. H. Farrer, 26 November 1868 and n. 3).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6556,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6556