From T. H. Farrer 6 October 1880
Abinger Hall, | Dorking. | (Gomshall S.E.R. | Station & Telegraph).
6 Oct/80
My dear Mr Darwin
Your note followed us on our travels where, inter alia, we had been seeing Silchester, and talked there of you & “worms”—1
Now for your questions.
1. The concrete floor is not protected or dry. It has perished much with wet & frost, & is also in parts grown over with moss & grass & weeds. This morning we have had such heavy rain that the worm casts are much washed away. But I will look at it the first calm rainless morning and tell you about the worms. I have little doubt that they are at work there & think I trace them this morning.2
2. I send you Mr Wrights article with plan— also a plan I made myself.3
3 All our walks near the house are underlaid with some 6 inches of brick rubbish: and some of them are now on still mornings covered with worm casts; to my gardening feelings, a great nuisance, for they spoil the gravel surface. This morning the rain has washed them into indistinguishable lumps—but you shall have some worm casts on the first favourable day.4 Under the fir trees the fallen leaves wash into the holes making a little crown of spines.
4. As to Torbitt— the address is
James Caird Esq C.B
Inclosure Commrs Office
St James Square.
I was very sorry that Torbitts case did not come before the recent Irish Committee on Potatoes—but I did not know there was such a Committee till it was over, or I would have suggested their calling him—5 He will I trust advertize his potatoes. Put a price on a thing—says Sir W Thompson and you make people think it worth notice.6
We found here a rather better account of “Aunt Eliz”: but we can scarcely look for a much better one.7
Effie & I have had a charming little excursion to our friends the Maskelynes in Wiltshire—driving back with our own horses & seeing Abury & many other remains.8 They are very curious—but still more curious is the infinite quantity written and the infinitesimal quantity known about them
Very sincerely yours | T H Farrer
Ida & Horace we hear are busy furnishing. It is delightful to see her turned into a “Martha” & cumbered with much serving9
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
DeArce, Miguel. 2008. Correspondence of Charles Darwin on James Torbitt’s project to breed blight-resistant potatoes. Archives of Natural History 35: 208–22.
Ucko, Peter J. et al. 1991. Avebury reconsidered: from the 1660s to the 1990s. London: Unwin Hyman.
Summary
Replies to CD’s questions [in 12732] regarding the Abinger Hall excavations.
Torbitt.
Family news.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12739
- From
- Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st baronet and 1st Baron Farrer
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Abinger Hall
- Source of text
- DAR 164: 100
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12739,” accessed on 29 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12739.xml