My Dear Darwin

I have to thank you for a very kind letter.¹ If time served (to you or me) I could amuse you with many forgotten passages in our juvenile life. But, the 4 barrel discharge, Sept^r 1 “telum imbelle sine ictu”, near Frankwell, you surely never forgot?!² My Son & Dau^r. made an attempt to call on you from Wallington lately;³ &, after being out 4 hours, & in 7 diff^t trains, never got within 5 or 6 miles, & nearly missed their dinner! They tho^t Down was the name of your house! I sh^d. not be surprised if you know no more of the route than they did! Pray remember me to Wedgwood; I ought to have written to condole with him, as he must be one of the many who will miss dear old Raz sorely⁴ “Multis ille bonis” &^c which I hope you keep up.⁵ Poor Nathan Hubbersty is, I fear, in a very poor way, confined to bed, & his Wife all but blind: he & you had a troublesome journey, after you left me to die at my old home, as seemed likely; Ffestiniog, I think, puzzled you.⁶ I was, & am, preserved, præter spem, for some purpose; & am now working to show up the unfitness of the Revised Tes^t for national acceptance.⁷ James Hildyard, in The Rock, is “perfectly astonished” at 24 men for 10 years working to so little purpose.⁸ I have a touch in Public Opinⁿ Sept^r 3.⁹ Your young ones may have time to see what Old Price has to say.

Yours affect^y | John Price

Chester | Sep^r 17 | 1881