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Darwin Correspondence Project

From Robert Monsey Rolfe, Lord Cranworth   28 November 1862

Holwood | Bromley

28 Novr 1862.

My dear Mr Darwin

At this time of the year I become your debtor as my Almoner for the parish of Downe—1 I therefore enclose a cheque of which you will perhaps at your leisure acknowledge the receipt—

I was pleased to hear from Lady Cranworth a short time ago that she had seen & conversed with you & that you appeared very well—2

I hope that Mrs Darwin is now well, though I believe she was not so when Lady C. called—3

Believe me | yours very truly | Cranworth

Footnotes

Almoner: ‘An official distributor of the alms of another’ (OED). CD was treasurer of the Down Friendly Club and the Down Coal and Clothing Club (Freeman 1978); in addition, he apparently distributed Cranworth’s annual subscriptions to a day school and a Sunday school in Down (see Correspondence vol. 7, letter to John Lubbock, 14 December [1859]). CD’s Account book–cash account (Down House MS) records a payment of £10 10s. on 30 November 1862 under the heading ‘Ld Cranworth Subscription for several Down Charities’; the receipt of Cranworth’s cheque is recorded in CD’s Account book–banking account (Down House MS) on 3 December 1862. The Down Coal and Clothing Club account book (Down House MS) records a payment of £2 2s. from Lord Cranworth on 29 November 1862.
Laura Rolfe, Lady Cranworth. In a letter to William Erasmus Darwin of [13 November 1862] (DAR 219.1: 66), Emma Darwin wrote: ‘They had a visit from Lady Cran[worth]. when I was away & a little flirtation with her always pleases your father’; according to her diary (DAR 242), Emma was in London from 8 to 12 November.
Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242) records that she had been ‘feverish’ with a ‘bad cold’ at the end of October.

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Freeman, Richard Broke. 1978. Charles Darwin: a companion. Folkestone, Kent: William Dawson & Sons. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, Shoe String Press.

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

Sends cheque to CD for Down parish charities.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-3833
From
Robert Monsey Rolfe, 1st Baron Cranworth of Cranworth
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Holwood, Bromley
Source of text
DAR 161: 229
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3833,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3833.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10

letter