To W. E. Darwin 14 [May 1858]1
Down.—
Saturday | 14th
My dear Gulielmus
I am sorry that you cannot get a tin-box.2 I am dreadfully weak on Botany; but I can positively say that your plant is not Lady’s fingers.— I think it is a Lotus: but the specimen was so crumpled.—
Etty has begun Botany by natural system in earnest & made out that a Primrose had a central placenta & was one of the Primulaceæ!— She & Mamma have gone to London today about Etty’s teeth, & I expect them back every minute.—3 On Saturday Georgy comes, on Monday Aunt Susan,4 & on Wednesday I go to London; so we are all on the move.
I have this minute returned from a Vestry to compel that beast, Mr Ainslie,5 to pay a Church-rate;6 but he has floored us.— I have great hopes that the beast is ruined & will soon be clear of the village.— I have been working as usual too hard, & have almost quite lost the good which Moor Park did me; but I think I have settled the theory of Bees-cells.—7
I have had no answer to my letter to Mr. Wilson, in which I asked what his terms for you were from Sept. 1st to Oct. 16th; or as I put it delicately, whether it was a full quarter (by the way do not leave this note about) & then I must settle at once, when I hear, what must be done.—8 I sometimes doubt; but it wd. be so horridly vexatious if you were nearly & yet not quite get the Scholarship.—9 I shall be very glad to hear anything more about the “Belgiman”; it is by far the best case which I have got, & you have described the case, better than anyone.10
Footnotes
Bibliography
Cambridge University calendar: The Cambridge University calendar. Cambridge: W. Page [and others]. 1796–1950.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
EB: The Encyclopædia Britannica. A dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information. 11th edition. 29 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1910–11.
Summary
Relates events at home;
hopes WED gets the scholarship.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2273
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Erasmus Darwin
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 210.6: 26
- Physical description
- inc
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2273,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2273.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 7