Ɛpsilon

From Eliza Meteyard   20 April 1874

5 Squires Mount. | Hampstead. N.W.

April 20. 1874

Dear Sir,

I send you my Memorial to ask you to have the goodness to sign it once more.1 It failed—on being presented last autumn—simply for the reason that applicants were so numerous—but Lord Sandon who presented it—promised that if his party came into power, I might hope for better success.2 Accordingly my kind friend Mr Falke3 is at work again for me—& to the form of Memorial in his hands—he has obtained some excellent signatures.

I hope you will not think me intrusive or troublesome. My health has wholly given way owing to my life of constant anxiety & toil without respite of any kind—& the addition of £40 per annum to what I have at present—£60—would be the greatest possible boon.

I have now passing through the press—the ‘Handbook for Collectors of Wedgwood-ware’ of which I shall venture to send Mrs Darwin a copy as soon as it is out.4

With great respect— | Yours faithfully | Eliza Meteyard.

C. Darwin Esq.

1
The memorial and previous correspondence about it have not been found. CD had signed a successful petition for a Civil List pension of £60 for Meteyard in 1869 (see Correspondence vol. 17, letter to John Lubbock, [before 13 February 1869] and n. 2, and letter to Eliza Meteyard, [18 February 1869]).
2
Dudley Francis Stuart Ryder, Viscount Sandon, was vice-president of the Privy Council in 1874 under the Conservative government of Benjamin Disraeli.
3
Mr Falke has not been identified.
4
Meteyard had written a life of CD’s grandfather Josiah Wedgwood I; it included an account of the Wedgwood pottery (Meteyard 1865–6). Her new book was The Wedgwood handbook (Meteyard 1875).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9422,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9422