Ɛpsilon

From Francis Darwin   [4 May 1875]1

Pantlludw, | Machynlleth.

Tuesday

My dear Father

I send some off this afternoon. & got some from you this morning— I am afraid I have corrected a good lot p’raps some are twaddly ones2 Thank mother for her nice letter3   Hang Lady D & the rest of the Royal Family4

Yours affec | F D

Found a golden crested nest5

Will you please tell somebody to tell Ashdown to use the syringe which ought to have come for me6

1
The date is established by the references to making corrections and to ‘Lady D’. In April 1875, CD received proof-sheets of Insectivorous plants, which Francis was helping to correct (see letter from Francis Darwin, 1 and 2 May [1875] and n. 2). Dorothy Fanny Nevill visited CD on 4 May 1875 (see n. 4, below). The first Tuesday after the letter from Francis Darwin, 1 and 2 May [1875], was 4 May.
2
Francis was correcting proof-sheets of Insectivorous plants for CD (see letter from Francis Darwin, 1 and 2 May [1875] and n. 2).
3
Emma Darwin’s letter has not been found.
4
Lady Dorothy Nevill came to lunch with the Darwins on 4 May 1875 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)); Emma Darwin implied that the visit from Nevill would be a strain because it required CD to be ‘so friendly & adoring (if possible)’ (letter from Emma Darwin to W. E. Darwin, [1 May 1875] (DAR 219.1: 89)). ‘The rest of the Royal Family’ may refer to Francis, duke of Teck; a meeting with the duke had been planned for 11 May (see letter to John Lubbock, 3 May [1875] and n. 3).
5
The golden-crested wren or goldcrest (Regulus regulus) builds a three-layered nest on the branches of coniferous trees. The nest has an outer layer of mosses and lichens bound together and to the conifer branch with strands of cobweb, a middle layer of flimsy mosses and lichens, and an inner layer made up of hair, feathers, and downy seeds (Birds of the world 11: 340).
6
Francis probably wanted a garden syringe to continue CD’s experiments on how plants move in order to avoid damage by rain; in 1874, William Turner Thiselton-Dyer had carried out similar experiments for CD at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (see Correspondence vol. 22, letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 31 May 1874). In Movement in plants, pp. 126, 128, and 262, CD referred to movements produced by syringing plants. Robert Ashdown was a gardener in Down.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9961G,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9961G