Summary

Has been away from parish because of a three-month illness. Refers briefly to events in England since the Beagle sailed.

Summary

News of family and friends.

Summary

Reports on the commissions CD requested of him [in a missing letter]; comments on English political issues.

Summary

He is staying on the Isle of Wight because he has been unwell. He is thought to be in danger of contracting consumption, and the climate is beneficial. He is convalescent now, but will spend the winter there.

Offers to forward any natural history stores CD may want.

Summary

Notes for CD on a river trip to Mercedes on the Rio Negro [Uruguay].

Summary

Family news.

Summary

Sends news of himself and CD’s friends. Discusses changes in England, the coming elections, Cambridge politics.

Summary

Heights of various points on Quail Island [Cape Verde Is.].

Summary

News of Cambridge: the recent examinations; memorial tablet for Marmaduke Ramsay.

Summary

Chronicles the events of February, principally of the family and of a few friends: engagements, marriages, deaths, some visits.

Summary

Writes of his family and Shropshire events. Comments on the slow progress of the Reform Bill.

Summary

Writes news of Cambridge friends, professors, music, the Reform Bill, and cholera. Expresses belief that CD will take his place with Cuvier and Humboldt.

Summary

News from Maer and Shrewsbury of family, friends, and reports of reactions to CD’s first letters.

Sedgwick suggests he look for fossils in gravel banks of rivers.

Fanny Owen is married to R. M. Biddulph. Reform Bill prospects.

Summary

Brings CD up to date on family and many friends. Describes the wedding of Fanny Owen and R. M. Biddulph. Sedgwick called on return from Wales. W. D. Fox has been very ill.

Summary

Tells of the family’s pleasure in reading CD’s first two letters and his journal.

Comments on Shrewsbury politics, the cholera, and the family. Sedgwick calls often; Catherine thinks he is interested in Susan.

Summary

News of the Darwin, Wedgwood, and Owen families, including a report on Frances Wedgwood’s death.

Summary

Rejoices in what she hears of his voyage and his pleasures in it.

Writes of her new life, and of their relatives and friends.

Summary

Writes news of family, Maer, and Woodhouse. His father has sent for a banana tree

and plans to buy J. J. Audubon’s book [Birds of America (1827)].

Charles Langton has been given a living near Ludlow.

Summary

News of family and friends, much of it about forthcoming marriages: Fanny Owen and R. M. Biddulph, Fanny Mackintosh and Hensleigh Wedgwood. Charlotte Wedgwood will write to him of her own engagement to Charles Langton.

Summary

Writes about Hensleigh Wedgwood’s marriage to Frances Mackintosh and her own engagement to Charles Langton. Also gives news of other relatives and friends.