To J. B. Innes 22 December [1862]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Dec. 22d
Dear Innes
We were very glad to hear so good an account of your son & of Mrs. Innes; for dining out I know is a triumph of strength for her.2 As the Highlands do so much good, I wish some honest old gentlemean would leave us an estate, for I am sure we all want doing good to.3 Both our younger Boys are delicate & whether they will be fit for school, I am sure I hardly know.4 As for myself I doubt whether I shall ever dine out again, so Mrs. Innes has clearly beaten me.—
The next time I send to the Bank at Bromley, I will send the Book & return it to you when I get it back.—5 Poor Mrs Ring is a dying woman:6 I don’t remember any other piece of news. The Clubs go on well & everything else in the parish, as far as I know. At last Coal Club there was a brilliant attendance of four members.—7 The man (name unknown) from Clapham who bought Mr Ainslies house, must be as odd a man as Mr A;8 for he never came to see it; & enquired anxiously whether there was a place for a single cow & was astounded when he saw all the ranges of stalls. He bought everything in the House & amongst other things a large Box full of personal letters. He opened one & put it back with a laugh, “saying this could never have been meant for a stranger to see.”—
I do not believe a word about the wheat story,9 which has been repeated at intervals for a century; but when carefully tried (as it has been) has always failed. How it arises I know not.
With my wife’s very kind remembrances to Mrs Innes & yourself, Believe me | Dear Innes | Always yours very truly | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Calendar: A calendar of the correspondence of Charles Darwin, 1821–1882. With supplement. 2d edition. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1994.
[Chambers, Robert.] 1844. Vestiges of the natural history of creation. London: John Churchill.
[Chambers, Robert.] 1845. Explanations: a sequel to ‘Vestiges of the natural history of creation’. London: John Churchill.
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.
Moore, James Richard. 1985. Darwin of Down: the evolutionist as squarson-naturalist. In The Darwinian heritage, edited by David Kohn. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press in association with Nova Pacifica (Wellington, NZ).
Notebooks: Charles Darwin’s notebooks, 1836–1844. Geology, transmutation of species, metaphysical enquiries. Transcribed and edited by Paul H. Barrett et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press for the British Museum (Natural History). 1987.
Weissenborn, W. 1837. On the alleged transformation of Avèna satïva into Secàle cereàle. Magazine of Natural History n.s. 1: 574–7.
Summary
Family and local news.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3872
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Brodie Innes
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3872,” accessed on 20 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3872.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10