From G. H. Darwin 6 February 1869
Amateur Dramatic Club [Cambridge]
Saturday
My dear Father,
I have looked thro’ every number of the Philosophical Mag. for the last year & cannot find any translation of a paper by Delaunay; And Strutt who takes it in has not seen any thing and so I can do no more unless you can get another reference.1 Strutt has been here since I have been up—but has gone away today as the Fellows’ meeting is over. I asked him about the Magnetic Storm business & he seemed to consider that any effect that cd be produced by the Sun’s energy in retarding the cooling of the earth must be utterly insignificant.2
My visit to Eton was a great success; I got down there are 11.30 & went & saw Rawlins, who shewed me all the lions.3 I don’t wonder at Etonians liking the the place, it is so divine. At 2 we went to luncheon (or dinner) & there I met 3 other masters 2 of whom I knew a little thro’ Cambridge, & the 4th. was a nephew of Browning’s & of the same name.4 He is one of their shining lights & was an extremely pleasant man— he actually offered to give me a bed when I came there again.5 I had heard of him before thro’ Colvin.—6
After lunch I went & saw Browning’s house & a brother of a Cambridge man in it. And then R. & I took a loaf round Windsor Castle & I came back to London dined at Uncle Ras’7 & came on here.
I suppose Frank has written to you & told of his sprained ankle. He is just beginning to hobble about, & he is reading v. hard. Pryor seems quite indefatigable in coaching him.8
Last night Jim turned up at 8.30 & came & tea’d with me & Strutt dropt in & had tea After tea L. & I talked such mathematics that it drove Jim away to Frank’s.9 Jim went off this mg. at 1. after loafing about all the A.M.
That letter that was forwarded to me was from Mr. Hamilton telling me that the Solicitor Mr. Hollams was willing to take me for 6 mos.10
Bristowe11 told me that I had better not go till after 6 mos. with a conveyancer. If you don’t think it giving too much bother I shd be v. much obliged if you wd write to Grove12 (at once) & ask him whether he thinks it wd be good for me to go to a Solicitors taking into consideration the fact that I am going to Equity & that in all proby. the Solicitor would treat me just like any other clerk.
I saw the bust & am just a little disappointed13
The college has paid me a scholar’s dividend. Pollock a co-fellow with me told me that he had’nt got one & so I believed him14
Yrs | G H Darwin
Feb. 6. 69
Footnotes
Bibliography
Browning, Oscar. 1910. Memories of sixty years at Eton, Cambridge and elsewhere. 2d edition. London: John Lane; New York: John Lane company.
Brush, Stephen G. 1979. Nineteenth-century debates about the inside of the earth: solid, liquid or gas? Annals of Science 36: 225–54.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Delaunay, Charles Eugène. 1868a. Sur l’hypothèse de la fluidité intérieure du globe terrestre. Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des Sciences 67: 65–70.
Forbes, David. 1869. The nature of the interior of the earth. Popular Science Review 8: 121–30.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Summary
Has inquired about magnetic storms. Any effect that could be produced by the sun’s energy in retarding the cooling of the earth would be utterly insignificant.
Tells of his visit to Eton.
Is uncertain about next steps to take for a legal career.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6604
- From
- George Howard Darwin
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Cambridge
- Source of text
- DAR 210.2: 6
- Physical description
- ALS 8pp inc?
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6604,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6604.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 17