From J. B. Innes 16 December [1862]1
Milton Brodie | Forres | NB.
Decr. 16th.
Dear Darwin,
When I left Downe I could not find Johnny’s Savings Bank book.2 It had been put away with other papers and has only now turned up. Will you be so kind as to have it made up and returned to me.
I hope its absence has not increased the trouble you and the other managers are so kind as to take on behalf of depositors.3
I am glad to have a reason for writing to you and to be able to wish you and yours a happy Christmas and New year. Stephens has not mentioned you in any very recent letter wherefore I conclude you are all well.4 I hope William continues to like his occupation and finds it as golden as he could anticipate.5 Henry Lubbock seems to hang on to the paternal nest very firmly at present.6 John must be a great loss to Lady Lubbock but his own party increased too fast to remain with comfort.7 I am sorry to hear Ring’s wife is so ill.8 She has been a good wife and brought up her children far better than most— I had a very cheerful letter from Knight Bruce a few days ago. He is still without a house and has just returned to his Father’s at Roehampton from Versailles where he has been all the summer.9
We lead a very quiet life here. My wife10 is quite as well as she was in England and has several times gone out to dinner some 4 or 5 miles, which she could not, or would not do at Downe. Our change has been of the greatest advantage to Johnny’s health. He has grown quite stout and robust as well as tall, and has not had an hour’s illness, indeed I am thankful to say that we have had no need for a doctor in the house since we have been here. We want a cook very badly but it is not much use to ask you as I don’t think they grow abundantly in your soil. There is no special natural history that has come under my unscientific observation, except that I saw a white rabbit with black tips to his ears on a muir where only brown and occasionally a black one commonly dwell. What do you say to wheat being grown from oats in the second year? Do you trust it enough to try it for yourself?11
With all our best regards | Believe me | Dear Darwin | Yours faithfully | J Brodie Innes—
Footnotes
Bibliography
Calendar: A calendar of the correspondence of Charles Darwin, 1821–1882. With supplement. 2d edition. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1994.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Horsburgh, E. L. S. 1980. Bromley, Kent: from the earliest times to the present century, compiled from materials collected from original sources by various hands. Reprint edition. Chislehurst, Kent: Lodgemark Press.
Hutchinson, Horace Gordon. 1914. Life of Sir John Lubbock, Lord Avebury. 2 vols. London: Macmillan.
Post Office directory of the six home counties: Post Office directory of the six home counties, viz., Essex, Herts, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex. London: W. Kelly & Co. 1845–78.
Post Office London directory: Post-Office annual directory. … A list of the principal merchants, traders of eminence, &c. in the cities of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and parts adjacent … general and special information relating to the Post Office. Post Office London directory. London: His Majesty’s Postmaster-General [and others]. 1802–1967.
Summary
News of family and friends.
Saw a white rabbit with black-tipped ears on a moor where only brown ones commonly and black ones occasionally dwell.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3863
- From
- John Brodie Innes
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Milton Brodie
- Source of text
- DAR 167: 10
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3863,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3863.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10