To W. D. Fox 10 October [1850]
Summary
Is concerned about the education of his boys and is undecided between Rugby and Bruce Castle schools; is inclined toward the latter, but afraid to experiment on so important a subject.
Reports on his pear-trees.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 10 Oct [1850] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 78) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1362 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … See letter to Syms Covington, 23 November 1850 , n. 4. See letter to W. D. …
- … the old stereotyped stupid classical education’. See letter to W. D. Fox, [May 1850] . …
- … See letter to W. D. Fox, 4 September [1850] . The final decision was to send William to …
- … letter to W. D. Fox, [20 November 1843] . Henry James Wharton , vicar of Mitcham, Surrey. CD’s Account Book (Down House MS) has an entry for 19 August 1850: ‘ …
To W. D. Fox 17 December [1857]
Summary
Thanks WDF for his letter about a rabbit breed that he thinks is the Himalaya. He is particularly glad to hear of it because it breeds so true.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 17 Dec [1857] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 105) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2187 |
To W. D. Fox [May 1850]
Summary
Details of his continuing water-cure regimen.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | [May 1850] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 76) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1323 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … See CD’s reference to Fox’s ‘Noah’s Ark’ in his letter to W. D. Fox, 10 October [1850] . …
- … and a shallow bath. See also letter to W. D. Fox, 4 September [1850] , n. 2. CD’s Health …
- … letter to J. D. Hooker, 28 March 1849 , n. 2. When he began treatment at Malvern (12 March 1849), CD weighed 10 st. 7 lb 12 oz; on 12 May 1850 …
To W. D. Fox 3 January [1856]
Summary
Thanks WDF for his help and reports on progress in "the Cock and Hen line of business". Has written to every quarter of the world for skins of poultry and pigeons.
As for seeds, Hooker and Bentham obstinately refuse to believe they can live even a few years in the ground.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 3 Jan [1856] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 86) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1815 |
To W. D. Fox 7 March [1852]
Summary
Congratulates and "condoles" with WDF on a tenth child.
On education, he has not had courage to break away from "the old stereotyped stupid classical education"; has sent William to Rugby.
The first Ray Society volume [Living Cirripedia] is finished.
Has joined in a society to prosecute violators of the act against use of children in climbing chimneys.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 7 Mar [1852] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 80) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1476 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … Correspondence vol. 4, letter to Syms Covington, 23 November 1850 ) and the 1851 gold- …
- … letters to the Naval and Military Gazette (10 and 31 January 1852), proposing the establishment of a volunteer corps (Sulivan ed. 1896, p. 426). Henry James Wharton had been William Darwin’s tutor from autumn 1850 …
From W. D. Fox 19 December [1856]
Summary
Informs CD that in his experience with peas he has never found the seed to deteriorate.
| Author: | William Darwin Fox |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 19 Dec [1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 77: 170 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11799 |
To W. D. Fox 30 October [1857]
Summary
Has come to think his brains were not made for thinking – he immediately feels better when at Moor Park.
News of his family.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 30 Oct [1857] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 104) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2161 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … 10 October [1850] . John Stevens Henslow visited Down House in August 1857 (see letter to …
- … 1850 under the care of James Manby Gully in Malvern, Worcestershire (see Correspondence vol. 4 and J. Browne 1990 ). Lane 1857 . Edward Wickstead Lane did not move his hydropathic establishment from Moor Park until 1860, when he transferred to Sudbrook Park, near Richmond, Surrey (see Colp 1977 , p. 68). Henrietta Darwin returned to Down House from Moor Park on 31 October 1857 ( Emma Darwin’s diary). See letter …
To W. D. Fox 8 February [1857]
Summary
Birth of his sixth son [C. W. Darwin]. It is dreadful "to think of all the sendings to school and the professions afterwards".
CD is not well but has not the courage for water-cure again; trying mineral acids.
Working hard on the book [Natural selection]; is overwhelmed with riches in facts and interested in way facts fall into groups.
To his surprise [Helix pomatia] has withstood 14 days in salt water.
Pigeons’ skins come in from all parts of the world.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 8 Feb [1857] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 110) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2049 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … see Correspondence vol. 4, letters to W. D. Fox, [17 January 1850] , and to J. …
- … 1850]). Fox had twelve children in all, five by his first marriage and seven by his second. Of these, four were boys. An allusion to the advanced stage of Ellen Sophia Fox’s pregnancy. Edith Darwin Fox was born on 13 February 1857 ( Darwin pedigree ). In April 1855, a plan was drawn up for an extension to the South Eastern Railway to run from Lewisham to Beckenham. John William Lubbock was the chairman of the committee; CD was a shareholder ( Correspondence vol. 5, letter …
To W. D. Fox 29 January [1853]
Summary
Discusses education of his sons. Would like to see more diversity.
He is pleased that Richard Owen and others had a good opinion of his first volume [on Living Cirripedia].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 29 Jan [1853] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 82) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1499 |
To W. D. Fox [6 October 1859]
Summary
First impressions of the water-cure establishment are not favourable – "I always hate everything new".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | [6 Oct 1859] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 123) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2502 |
To W. D. Fox [30 April 1857]
Summary
His impressions of the hydropathic establishment and E. W. Lane. Is convinced the only thing for "chronic cases" is the water-cure.
Asks if WDF knows of any breed of pig that originated or was modified by a cross with a Chinese or Neapolitan pig, and whether the crossbreed bred true.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | [30 Apr 1857] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 103) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2085 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … 4, letters to Susan Darwin, [19 March 1849] , and to W. D. Fox, 4 September [1850]. Lane …
- … letter to having been at Moor Park ‘for exactly one week’ (‘Journal’; Appendix II). Edward Wickstead Lane was 34 years old. He took over the lease of Moor Park, a large country house with associated parkland, from Thomas Smethurst . Smethurst had turned the house into a hydropathic establishment in or around 1850; …
To W. D. Fox 29 [July 1853]
Summary
Sympathises with WDF’s tribulations.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 29 [July 1853] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 83) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1526 |
To W. D. Fox [17 January 1850]
Summary
Account of the birth of Leonard Darwin, during which he administered the chloroform to Emma.
Continues the water-cure.
Has begun work on fossil cirripedes.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | [17 Jan 1850] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 75) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1292 |
To W. D. Fox [16 November 1859]
Summary
News of his health and the water-cure establishment.
[Origin] "my weariful book on Species" has been sent to WDF, who will not agree with it. Hooker is a convert, and Lyell is "staggered".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | [16 Nov 1859] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 124) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2533 |
Matches: 1 hit
To W. D. Fox 4 September [1850]
Summary
Has heard that Louis Agassiz maintains the doctrine of several species of man "much I daresay to the comfort of the slave-holding southerners".
Homeopathy excites his wrath even more than clairvoyance.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 4 Sept [1850] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 77) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1352 |
To W. D. Fox [27 March 1851]
Summary
Sends condolences to WDF on the death of his father. Has brought his daughter [Anne] to J. M. Gully for the water-cure.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | [27 Mar 1851] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 78a) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1396 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from Catherine Darwin, [13 November 1848] , n. 1. Fox was a clergyman in the Church of England. See Correspondence vol. 1 for CD and Fox’s friendship at Cambridge. CD had first been treated by James Manby Gully at his hydropathic establishment in Malvern in 1849. Anne Elizabeth Darwin , whose health had been failing since the summer of 1850 ( …
To W. D. Fox 8 July [1861]
Summary
Family news.
Henslow’s death a sad loss. Leonard Jenyns will write a biography.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 8 July [1861] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 131) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3204 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letters to John Lubbock , 10 July [1861] , 1 August [1861], and [2 August 1861]. Elston Hall, near Newark, Nottinghamshire, was the seat of the senior branch of the Darwin family. CD’s grandfather Erasmus Darwin was born at Elston Hall. The head of the family was Francis Rhodes Darwin , husband of Charlotte Maria Cooper Darwin , the granddaughter of Erasmus Darwin’s older brother, William Alvey Darwin . Francis Rhodes took the Darwin family name in 1850 …
From Emma Darwin to W. D. Fox [6 May 1864]
Summary
CD has been so ill they must discourage visit by WDF. Recovering slowly with new treatment.
| Author: | Emma Wedgwood; Emma Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | [6 May 1864] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 143) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4487 |
From Emma Darwin to W. D. Fox [29 September 1863]
Summary
Thanks to WDF’s directions, Anne’s tombstone has been found.
CD improved, but recovery is slow. She describes treatment.
Encloses paper she and CD have written [see 4294, which was wrongly addressed by ED and had not reached WDF].
| Author: | Emma Wedgwood; Emma Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | [29 Sept 1863] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (Fox 141) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4312 |
| letter | (19) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (16) |
| Darwin, Emma | (2) |
| Wedgwood, Emma | (2) |
| Fox, W. D. | (1) |
| Fox, W. D. | (18) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (1) |
| Fox, W. D. | |
| Darwin, C. R. | (17) |
| Darwin, Emma | (2) |
| Wedgwood, Emma | (2) |
Syms Covington
Summary
When Charles Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831, Syms Covington was ‘fiddler & boy to Poop-cabin’. Covington kept an illustrated journal of his observations and experiences on the voyage, noting wildlife, landscapes, buildings and people and,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … When Charles Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831, Syms Covington was ‘ fiddler & boy …
What is an experiment?
Summary
Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand theorist. His early career seems to confirm this. He began with detailed note-taking, collecting and cataloguing on the Beagle, and edited a descriptive zoology…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand …
Darwin’s study of the Cirripedia
Summary
Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for historians. Coming between his transmutation notebooks and the Origin of species, it has frequently been interpreted as a digression from Darwin’s species work. Yet…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for …
Scientific Practice
Summary
Specialism|Experiment|Microscopes|Collecting|Theory Letter writing is often seen as a part of scientific communication, rather than as integral to knowledge making. This section shows how correspondence could help to shape the practice of science, from…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Specialism | Experiment | Microscopes | Collecting | Theory Letter writing …
Darwin and Fatherhood
Summary
Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten children. It is often assumed that Darwin was an exceptional Victorian father. But how extraordinary was he? The Correspondence Project allows an unusually…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten …
Darwin in letters, 1851-1855: Death of a daughter
Summary
The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. The period opens with a family tragedy in the death of Darwin’s oldest and favourite daughter, Anne, and it shows how, weary and mourning his dead child,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. …
Scientific Networks
Summary
Friendship|Mentors|Class|Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific network is a set of connections between people, places, and things that channel the communication of knowledge, and that substantially determine both its intellectual form and content,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Friendship | Mentors | Class | Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific …
Darwin in letters, 1847-1850: Microscopes and barnacles
Summary
Darwin's study of barnacles, begun in 1844, took him eight years to complete. The correspondence reveals how his interest in a species found during the Beagle voyage developed into an investigation of the comparative anatomy of other cirripedes and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Species theory In November 1845, Charles Darwin wrote to his friend and confidant Joseph …
Darwin’s reading notebooks
Summary
In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to …
Darwin and the Church
Summary
The story of Charles Darwin’s involvement with the church is one that is told far too rarely. It shows another side of the man who is more often remembered for his personal struggles with faith, or for his role in large-scale controversies over the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The story of Charles Darwin’s involvement with the church is one that is told far too rarely. It …
Living and fossil cirripedia
Summary
Darwin published four volumes on barnacles, the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia, between 1851 and 1854, two on living species and two on fossil species. Written for a specialist audience, they are among the most challenging and least read of Darwin’s works…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin published four volumes on the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia between 1851 and 1854, two on …
Barnacles
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Darwin and barnacles Darwin’s interest in Cirripedia, a class of marine arthropods, was first piqued by the discovery of an odd burrowing barnacle, which he later named “Mr. Arthrobalanus," while he was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment Darwin and barnacles …
Darwin in letters, 1882: Nothing too great or too small
Summary
In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and for the first time in decades he was not working on another book. He remained active in botanical research, however. Building on his recent studies in plant…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and …
1.3 Thomas Herbert Maguire, lithograph
Summary
< Back to Introduction This striking portrait of Darwin, dating from 1849, belonged to a series of about sixty lithographic portraits of naturalists and other scientists drawn by Thomas Herbert Maguire. They were successively commissioned over a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction This striking portrait of Darwin, dating from 1849, belonged …
Darwin’s observations on his children
Summary
Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children, began the research that culminated in his book The Expression of the emotions in man and animals, published in 1872, and his article ‘A biographical sketch of an infant’, published in Mind…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children,[1] began the research that …
Bartholomew James Sulivan
Summary
On Christmas Day 1866, Bartholomew Sulivan sat down to write a typically long and chatty letter to his old friend, Charles Darwin, commiserating on shared ill-health, glorying in the achievements of their children, offering to collect plant specimens, and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On Christmas Day 1866, Bartholomew Sulivan sat down to write a typically long and chatty letter to …
Darwin in letters,1866: Survival of the fittest
Summary
The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was now considerably improved. In February, Darwin received a request from his publisher, John Murray, for a new edition of Origin. Darwin got the fourth…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was …
New material added to the American edition of Origin
Summary
A ‘revised and augmented’ American edition of Origin came on the market in July 1860, and was the only authorised edition available in the US until 1873. It incorporated many of the changes Darwin made to the second English edition, but still contained…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The ‘historical sketch’ printed as a preface to the American edition ( Origin US ed., pp …
Bibliography of Darwin’s geological publications
Summary
This list includes papers read by Darwin to the Geological Society of London, his books on the geology of the Beagle voyage, and other publications on geological topics. Author-date citations refer to entries in the Darwin Correspondence Project’s…
Matches: 1 hits
- … This list includes papers read by Darwin to the Geological Society of London, his books on the …
What did Darwin believe?
Summary
What did Darwin really believe about God? the Christian revelation? the implications of his theory of evolution for religious faith? These questions were asked again and again in the years following the publication of Origin of species (1859). They are…
Matches: 1 hits
- … What did Darwin really believe about God? the Christian revelation? the implications of his theory …
