Edinburgh.
Jan 29.
My dear Susan
The whole family have been so very good in writing to me so often that I do not know
whom to begin to thank first, so to save trouble I return my humble thanks to you all,
from my Father down to little Kitty.— The Gaieties of Edinburgh are now just
beginning, last week there was an Assembly, & shortly there will be another.
Erasmus & < > intended to have gone to the first, but mean to make
it up by going to the next.— We also have been very dissipated.— We
dined at Dr. Hawley's on Saturday, & had a very pleasant party,
after which we went to the Theatre, with a Mr. Greville I believe a
relation of the great Botanist, Dr. Greville.
Dr. Hawley has procured some information about my Fathers questions
& will write it shortly to him. Next Friday we are going to the old
Dr. Duncan, & I hope it will be a
pleasanter party than the last; which a very specimen of stupidity. What an
extraordinary old man he is, now being past 80, & continuing to lecture.
Dr. Hawley hints that he is rapidly failing. I have been most
shockingly idle, actually reading two novels at once. a good scolding would do
me a vast deal of good, & I hope you will send one of your most severe
one's.— What an entertaining book Granby is; do you
remember Lady Harriet talking about inhaling <Ni>tric Oxide? Johnson has
actually done it, & describes the effects as the most intense pleasure he ever
felt. We both mean to get tipsey in the Vacation.—. The old Mr.
Wedgwood, I see in Ure's Chem. Dic., did nothing else but hold
his nose & kick. It occasionally brings on fainting. Erasmus knows a man in
Cambridge, who when in that state had the faculty of hearing, but not of motion or
speech & to his horror, heard them consulting whether they should open the
Temporal Artery.— Poor Eyre is most dangerously ill of
a Fever, a friend of his has written to Erasmus stating that Eyre has a great wish to
see him.— Erasmus is in a state of great perplexity what what to do, since he
could not set out directly on account of not having sufficient money & by the
time he could get there the fever in all probability would have terminated <one
w>ay or another. So he has written to his < >
[ther] to find out some more particulars. <We> met when
we dined at Dr. Hope's, a Mr. Stuart, whose father was
twin brother to Lord Murray or Moray I suppose
this can be no relation to the Lady Jane Stuart My Father mentioned.— Would
you also tell my Father that I should be much obliged if would pay Wilding's bill,
& am quite ashamed that I forgot it myself. I am going to learn to stuff birds,
from a blackamoor I believe an old servant of Dr.
Duncan: it has the recommmendation of cheapness, if it has nothing else, as he only
charges one guinea, for an hour every day for two months.
I rem. n— | Charles Darwin
Catherine mentions that Dr. Parker is very fond of
Spark I hope he will not forget, that she is Erasmus', &
that he returns at the end of April.—
P.S. This letter was written & sealed & I have reopened it, to
acknowledge & thank for the monies. Good Bye—
