Ɛpsilon

To Charles Crawley   19 April [1872]1

Down. | Beckenham. Kent.

April 19

My dear Mr Crawley.

Pray thank your Father sincerely for me for having sent so venerable a Relic—2 It is characteristic how much more most of us consider our superiors than our inferiors, that I remember more or less almost every boy above me or in the same form & very few of those below me in the school.

I am very much obliged to you for your translation which seems to me Capital—3 I fear as snapping the fingers here means being puzzled & not contempt, it will not serve my purpose— But “he has pillared his chin upon his hand” will come in under puzzled meditation.4

With my best thanks. | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin.

Frank is gone to Chatham for the Engineers Ball.5

Copy

1
The year is established by the reference to the Engineers’ Ball (see n. 4, below).
2
See letter from Charles Crawley, [18 April 1872] and n. 2. The venerable relic was a list of pupils at Shrewsbury School.
3
See letter from Charles Crawley, [18 April 1872] and n. 3. In Expression, p. 230, CD quoted these words from the passage of Plautus’s Miles gloriosus that Crawley had translated for him.
4
See letter from Charles Crawley, [18 April 1872] and n. 3. In Expression, p. 230, CD quoted these words from the passage of Plautus’s Miles gloriosus that Crawley had translated for him.
5
Brompton Barracks in Chatham is the headquarters of the Corps of Royal Engineers. Francis Darwin’s brother Leonard was commissioned in the Royal Engineers in January 1871 (RMAS archives, Sandhurst collection). A grand ball was held on 18 April 1872 at the barracks (The Times, 20 April 1872, p. 5).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8294,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8294