From John Price [July 1826]1
Thursday
Dear Darwin
Many thanks for your friendly letter of yesterday wh. I am, thank God able to answer favorably, with my own hand. I have no trace of my disorder but extreme weakness from depletion, wh. is also rapidly going—no one could be more speedy & I am satisfied the attack has cleared my constitution & made a new man of me. I have not felt for a day since Xmas, so well & clear as I do at this moment—farewell blue devils & indigestion & aching shoulders. I shall now take extreme care of my health. I wish you would tell your Father that I forgot to mention that I drank a pint of ale a day during those 3 months, when my health was so particularly good, & wh. he told me ought therefore to be a pattern for my manner of living: at the same time I do not in the least wish to rebel if he thinks malt liquor bad for me, but I have a prejudice in favor of cwrw 2 wh. I have seen made over & over again whereas wine may be the devil’s dam’s milk, for ought I know: I am going to commence the dinner pills, having disbanded all other physic. Please to call at Bisco’s 3 for the prescription, & ask the cuckoldy knave what business he had to keep it, & send it me soon, or I shall be run out. I left my bed on Saturday, having suffered after you left far worse than ever, Stranguary4 being added to my other ailments from excessive blistering, & a very fair imitation of the clap it is, to tell the truth. I hope you hear good accts. of your sister & Stroll to whom give my best regards when you write. I hope you will be in Shrewsbury when I return— I never thought to see you again, being not far from death, as my poor Mother also thought, who tended me like a guardian angel night and day to the injury of her own health wh. is however recovering fast with my own. We go to the sea side as soon as I can move. Buxton is too far. I am glad you derived some pleasure from your tour wh. I much wish I could have joined & should have been glad to assist you by speaking the British language: “chattering” I do not understand— I am in your debt for the transplanter wh. pleases my Mother in theory vastly. She begs to be kindly remembered & is sorry you had such a comfortless visit, but you knew the cause & I hope will not be deterred from a second trial under better auspices. Present my best compts. to your Father & the s⟨is⟩ters & tell the former that I have disinherited my undutiful child & never mean to countenance him again— And do not forget to ask about John Barleycorn. I have shaved my skull & started a devilish smart crop wig, wh. makes my upper works very imposing, but my legs, my dear fellow, are deplorably reduced, & would qualify me to enact Trinculo5 to a shaving. I talk of planting them in a box & watering them, but perchance roast beef, butter milk &c will make ’em grow quite as fast: not forgetting a modicum of cwrw if allowed— We expect my Father from his living tonight. I walk out every day & the view of these glorious mountains & smell of their air is life to me. I am tired & have in deed filled my sheet—
Believe me dear D. Yours v truly J. Price
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Summary
Tells CD he is recovering from the illness with which he was afflicted when CD visited.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-32
- From
- John Price
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- unstated
- Source of text
- DAR 204: 40
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 32,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-32.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 1