Ɛpsilon

From E. A. Darwin   19 [December 1870]1

19th

Dear Charles

I have received the enclosed which I suppose is all right tho’ I never read the resolution referred to.

I see I have 2 packets of Certificates both £12-10-0 shares and an awful heap they are.

Please to return Secy. letter & let me know if it is all right as far as you know.2

What an escape George has had and it is very well if the instruments have escaped uninjured3

ED

1
The month and year are established by the reference to George Howard Darwin’s escape (see n. 3, below).
2
The Maryport and Carlisle Railway had passed a resolution to convert their 4 per cent and 412 per cent shares into stock (The Times, 4 November 1870, p. 7). The ‘two packets of certificates’ were part of Emma Darwin’s trust (Erasmus was a trustee); see letter from E. A. Darwin, 21 [December 1870], and CD’s Investment book (Down House MS), p. 124. The secretary was John Addison (Bradshaw’s Railway Manual, Shareholders’ Guide and Official Directory 1870).
3
George was a member of the expedition to observe the solar eclipse from Sicily (The Times, 9 December 1870, p. 7). Their ship, Psyche, struck a rock off Catania, Italy, on 15 December 1870; the instruments and the expedition party were saved, but their personal effects lost (see The Times, 19 December 1870, p. 5, and 28 December 1870, p. 3). There is a letter from Henrietta Emma Darwin to George, written shortly after she received news of the wreck, in DAR 245: 297.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7066,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7066