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Darwin Correspondence Project

From G. H. Darwin   [4 November 1874]1

Wedn.

My dear Father,

I am sorry that you shd. think that I ever wished that your work shd. be postponed to mine, & I gather from your letter that you think I ought not to have sent M.S to Norman without consulting you, But I thought he would know what time he had at his own disposal, & as he expressly wrote last week that he cd. undertake it, I don’t think I was very wrong in sending it—especially as 2 hrs wd. do the job.2 Immediately on getting Mother’s letter3 I wrote to tell him to get some one else to copy it, if it wd. delay your work. As I thought that, combined with yr. order that he was not to do it wd. be sufficient, I have not written again— I asked him to get some one else to copy it & I’ve no doubt he knows some one who can do so.

My cold has gone to my stomach a good deal & I’m pretty seedy, tho’ I’ve been playing tennis this a.m.

As I wrote yest. I will come home for a few days on this day week4

Yrs affectionately | G H Darwin

Footnotes

The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to G. H. Darwin, 5 November [1874]. In 1874, the Wednesday before 5 November was 4 November.
Ebenezer Norman, schoolmaster in Down and CD’s copyist, was probably making fair copies of chapters of CD’s book on insectivorous plants. George may have wanted Norman to make a copy of his lecture on political economy (see letter to G. H. Darwin, 5 November [1874] and n. 6).
Emma Darwin’s letter to George has not been found.
There is no record of George’s arriving at Down on 11 November, but Emma Darwin’s diary records that ‘G’ left on 16 November (DAR 242).

Summary

GHD has been using E. Norman [CD’s copyist], and he apologises if this has caused delays to CD’s work.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-9708
From
George Howard Darwin
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
unstated
Source of text
DAR 210.2: 44
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9708,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9708.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22

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