To H. W. Crosskey [4 March 1880]1
Down, Beckenham, Kent.
Dear sir,
I have this day received, through Mr. Lawson Tait, the address from the Birmingham Philosophical Society congratulating me on my birthday, and communicating to me the fact of my election as honorary member.2 The society has thus conferred on me an honour which I believe to be unprecedented.3 Both the address and my election have gratified me deeply, more especially as coming from Birmingham, the birthplace or residence of so many distinguished men, and where the famous Lunar Club, which included my grandfather as one of its members, used to meet.4 At my age I cannot expect to do much more scientific work, but the society may be assured that so great an honour as it has conferred on me will encourage me to further exertion.—
I beg leave to remain, dear sir, yours faithfully and obliged, Charles Darwin.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Schofield, Robert E. 1963. The Lunar Society of Birmingham. A social history of provincial science and industry in eighteenth-century England. Oxford: Clarendon Press of Oxford University.
Uglow, Jenny. 2002. The lunar men: the friends who made the future, 1730–1810. London: Faber and Faber.
Summary
Thanks HWC and the Birmingham Philosophical Society for their address in his honour.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12503
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Henry William Crosskey
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Birmingham Daily Post, 21 April 1882, p. 4
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12503,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12503.xml