Darwin, E. A. to Darwin, C. R.
- +
Has found a shop with supplies of chemical equipment, and a mineral collector.
Summary Add
Transcription
[Cambridge]
25
Dear Bobby.
I feel sorry we sent to y
I forgot to tell you that I got a very nice little blow pipe made of glass for 1"6, which gives a great deal of heat, & will be very useful if we do not get a better one.—
Hary came down to Cam last night quite unexpectedly & made his bed upon a sofa in Henesly's Rooms.—
If Blunt gets y
I am getting on very comfortably here Settlled in fruiterers, where y
I know you dont like long letters & I have nothing more to say so good bye be a good boy & you shall have a sugar plum I remain yours | affect E. Darwin
- +
- f1 2.f1
Erasmus, CD's elder brother, was admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge, in February 1822 (Alum. Cantab.). - +
- f2 2.f2
Members of the family called CD `Bobby', as well as `Charley', during his boyhood. The letter is addressed to `R. Darwin Esq. Revd Dr . Butlers, Shrewsbury'. CD was a boarder at Shrewsbury School, of which Samuel Butler was headmaster from 1798 to 1836. Under Butler's direction Shrewsbury had become one of the leading schools in England. - +
- f3 2.f3
Edward Daniel Clarke, Professor of Mineralogy at Cambridge, 1808--22. - +
- f4 2.f4
In the Autobiography, p. 45, CD says that during his school years he `continued collecting minerals with much zeal, but quite unscientifically—all that I cared for was a new named mineral, and I hardly attempted to classify them.' - +
- f5 2.f5
Identified in Judd 1909, p. 340, as Richard Cotton, a Shrewsbury naturalist. See Autobiography, p. 52, for CD's account of the deep impression made by Mr Cotton's solemn assurance `that the world would come to an end' before anyone would be able to explain how the bell-stone, a well-known boulder, came to be at Shrewsbury, the nearest rock like it being no nearer than Cumberland or Scotland. - +
- f6 2.f6
Henry Allen Wedgwood, cousin of the Darwin brothers. See genealogical chart. - +
- f7 2.f7
Hensleigh Wedgwood, brother of the above. - +
- f8 2.f8
Thomas Blunt, Shrewsbury chemist, believed by the Darwins to be the `best chemist in the world' (Emma Darwin 2: 118). - +
- f9 2.f9
A reference to Pieter Bruegel the Elder's `Das Schlaraffenland' or `Land of Cockayne' (1567). The painting depicts, among other gluttons' fantasies, pigs as described by Erasmus. `Lumberland' is a slip either for `Slumberland' or for `Lubberland', a literal translation of the title. - +
- f10 2.f10
Until the 1830s the post office stamps of many towns included the mileage to London— that being the most frequent destination. The recipient, who normally paid the postage, would be charged according to the distance on a seven-zone mileage scale.