To John Higgins1 13 June [1860]
Down Bromley Kent
June 13th
My dear Sir
You need not fear my changing my mind, I have £18,000 as good as ready money (ie £16,800 on Grt. N., & N.W. Railway Bonds; & the remainder on Deposit account at 7 days notice) & I shd not object to sell Railway shares for another £2000. or even £3000. Beyond this £21,000, I shd. not much like to go.—2 I have no objection to the situation of the Farm; as I want it as a safe investment for my sons, it will depend whether land good— Buildings in fair repair & price what you consider reasonable. On all these points I must rely on your kindness & judgment. If what you hear is promising I trust to your being so good as to inspect the land; for this is for me an important purchase.—
I may mention that my Bonds have about 1 year to run, & pay me good interest 4 & 4, so that I am in no hurry & my Deposit account will slowly increase.— So please not to purchase unless you think the investment a fairly good one. I shall certainly invest in land to above amount.3
I do not know how you will manage if you buy at auction about paying Deposit money, until titles are examined by my solicitors.4 I may mention that I have about £1400 or £1500 current account & on emergency I could draw nearly all out.—
With my sincere thanks for your uniform kindness, I remain My dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | C. Darwin
P.S. | As soon as you have decided that the Land seems promising, kindly inform me as my eldest son,5 would like to see it & will start immediately; & will after looking at it, probably come on to Alford & look at Beesby & Claythorpe.—6
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Summary
Discusses possible purchase of land.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2831
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Higgins
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Lincolnshire Archives (HIG/4/2/3/3)
- Physical description
- ALS 5pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2831,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2831.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 8