Darwin Correspondence Project

 

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Letter 726

Darwin, C. R. to Darwin, Emma

[3 June 1845]

    Summary Add

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    Arrangements for Emma's return to Down.

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    CD has been "wonderfully strong".

Transcription

[Down]

Monday

My dear Em.

Thank goodness this is my last note & that in two more days, you will be here—

The horse cannot go for you, so Parslow will go up & meet you at the Train, take you 16 & afterwards by 14 past 3 to the Bolt-in-tun. You will come quicker this way, than by the Phaeton; I endeavoured to get the Coach call at 16, but they cd not under some penalty— It is rather extravagant sending up Parslow, as John might have done, but I thought you wd like it best.— Marianne must walk from the Station to 16, & I fear one Coach will not hold you to the Bolt-in-Tun.—

You had better lie down & rest at 16 & be a good girl.— I do hope you will stand the Journey well.—

I have been wonderfully strong; on Saturday I sat up reading till 14 before eleven, not dreaming it was so late & then went to bed & never awakened till I was called.—a thing which I can hardly remember having happened to me.— I long for you to be back—for I do so enjoy being at home again. Try & remember, just before you drive in at our gate, to rise from your seat & look over the wall, & see how nice the place looks.

Farewell, my dearest. | Yours, C. D.

I can fancy poor Annies scarlet face at Minnys kisses, poor dear Boddy Bumpkins.—

    Footnotes Add

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    f1 726.f1
    Endorsed by Emma Darwin: ‘1844 Down— I had been at Betley’. Betley Hall, Staffordshire, was the home of the Tollet family. Later, on the cover, Emma wrote ‘On my return to Down after absence in Staff—1845?’ The date given above is the most likely. CD and Emma had been in Staffordshire and Shropshire between 23 April and 30 May 1844 (see ‘Journal’; Correspondence vol. 3, Appendix II); CD had then returned to Down but Emma did not come home until 5 June, as evidenced by her diary and CD's Account Book (Down House MS).
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    f2 726.f2
    Joseph Parslow was the butler at Down House.
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    f3 726.f3
    Emma's brother and his wife, Hensleigh and Fanny Mackintosh Wedgwood, lived in London at 16 Gower Street.
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    f4 726.f4
    Probably John Jordan, a servant at Down House.
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    f5 726.f5
    Anne Elizabeth Darwin, Emma and CD's oldest daughter. Minny has not been identified.
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