To J. B. Innes   18 January [1871]¹

My dear Innes

I was truly obliged for your kind & extremely pleasant letter.² I was at first awfully annoyed: I really think being examined in court w^d half-kill me.— I have had no communication with M^r Horsman; but my solicitor from what I c^d. told him, thought the man w^d. never be such a fool, as to bring the case into court.³ He advises me to take no trouble till he hears from M^r. Horsman’s solicitors that he is earnest.— I have already heard of 3 unpaid debts in this village.

If things go on I will apply to Lubbock for chance of his having preserved the letters to which you refer.—⁴ If I have to defend myself, I will push things to extreme. I heard that he bolted from Hotel at Torquay, after leaving Down, without paying his bill.— I suspect that M^r Robinson⁵ is the informant, as he is now in this neighbourhood—curate at Brasted, & is a friend of Horsman’s. If he is informant, it is too bad, for I remember explaining to M^r R, why people w^d not pay subscriptions for School &c to him, only to me, & why persons did not call on him, as his predecessor had been a mere swindler. Poor little M^r R. will look like a fool, if asked in court why he left Down.—⁶ I believe & hope that you will prove right, & that the case will never come to trial. Certainly we have been unfortunate in M^r H. & M^r R.   M^r Powell is, I think, a thoroughly good man & gentleman.⁷ Does good work of all kinds in the Parish, but preaches, I hear, very dull sermons. I sh^d. be a wonderful brute, if I had one single unpleasant recollection of or association with your name. We often differed, but you are one of those rare mortals, from whom one can differ & yet feel no shade of animosity,—& that is a thing which I sh^d feel very proud of, if anyone c^d. say of me.—⁸

Farewell with very kind remembrances to M^rs Innes & your son⁹ | Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin