Ɛpsilon

To H. E. Litchfield   [after 5] November 18711

November 1871

My dearest Etty—

We were all so rejoiced yesterday, & what a very good girl you are to write us so long a letter—   I did not expect that you would have been able to go. We have been all profoundly interested & touched by your account.— Pray tell Litchfield how much I have been pleased & more than pleased by what he said about me.2 When the address & your letter had been read, the first thought which passed through my mind was “What a grand career he has run,”— but I hope his career is very far from finished.—3 I congratulate you with all my heart at having so noble a husband. What an admirable address, & how well-written. Even You, Miss Rhadamanthus4 could not have improved a word. It is as superior to all ordinary addresses, as some of the old Buccaneer voyages are to modern travels.—

Goodbye, Dearest. Keep quiet. Goodbye. | Your affect. | C. Darwin

Copy

1
The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from H. E. Litchfield, [5 November 1871].
2
Richard Buckley Litchfield had mentioned CD in a speech at the London Working Men’s College (see letter from H. E. Litchfield, [5 November 1871]).
3
George Tansley had given an address honouring R. B. Litchfield at the London Working Men’s College. See letter from H. E. Litchfield, [5 November 1871].
4
Rhadamanthus is a character from Greek mythology: a son of Zeus and Europa, and one of the judges in the lower world. The term is used to denote an ‘inflexible judge; a rigorous or severe master’ (OED). Henrietta had first been been called ‘Miss Minor Rhadamanthus’ by Thomas Henry Huxley after she criticised one of his publications (see Correspondence vol. 11, letter from T. H. Huxley, 25 February 1863).
5
Most of the letter was transcribed from a copy in the Darwin Archive–CUL, but the words ‘could not have improved a word’ were supplied from the published version in Emma Darwin.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8040,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8040