My dear Father,

I will look out in the cloisters for worm-castings, but I do not remember ever to have seen any on the pavement.¹ The pavement under the library is very uneven, but it is all made ground, and the river used to flow there some 300 years ago   I believe the library is built on logs of wood.² The staircase at my end of the library & the part of the new court at the other end have settled so much as to crack the walls, which have been strengthened within my memory. I suppose the ground was not so carefully prepared there. I am very glad to see the account of that paper before the Acad. of Vienna as I was intending to use the secular acceleration of the moon’s motion in my work. I find it hard to believe that M. Littrow is correct in having explained it, as it has received so much attention from Laplace Adams & Delaunay.³

I am very glad to hear that you enjoyed your stay here & that the hurly burly was’nt too much for you. I will look at the Cambridge papers when they come out on Sat. & send you copies if there is anything in them of interest⁴

I shall not come home on Saturday because we have got another of our meetings & I c^d. not start until evening,—also I want to get on with my work.

I have been finding out some extraordinary things in the last few days, but have been muddling unprofitably over some long arithmetic of which I know the result as far as it is interesting to know it, but which won’t come quite right. I have hit on a possible fallacy in Sir W. T’s investigation as to the secular cooling of the earth— these tides in it w^d. be continually heating it & I think it possible that it might be sufficient to render his calculation of the date of consolidation fallacious by a good deal— however it all depends on numbers & I’ve no conjecture how they will turn out   I can’t take it up now but sh^d. like to bowl him over.⁵

Adams Maxwell & Thomson have signed my RS paper & I rather expect Cayley will do so too. Glaisher is going to do so & Jevons will I have no doubt also— So I shall have a grand set of names to back me.⁶

I have received an invit. to dinner on the 28^th at Burn’s to meet the Fawcetts but I met Burn & told him I sh^d. prob. have to be in London—⁷ he told me I might leave it open if I liked   I want to know therefore whether there will be any chance of seeing anybody in London on Wednesday & if I c^d. find a bed anywhere—altho’ I c^d. go to a hotel for that matter. If I sh^d. see W^m. Hen⁸ Mother or any of them I w^d. not go to this dinner— Also I c^dn’t be in London until 10.30 on Thursday & w^d. that be in time for the wedding.

I sh^d. rather like to go to the dinner but am not partic. desirous of doing so & w^d. prefer a family gathering in London.

As I sh^d. like to be able to give an answer soon will Mother send me a telegram as it what she thinks.

I have heard so little of the plans as to the wedding that I cant settle for myself

I had a civil letter from Evans & also from Jas Geikie⁹

Your affectionate Son | G H Darwin