To G. J. Romanes 9 April [1878]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
April 9th
My dear Romanes
I was just going to write to you, when I read in the newspapers the dreadful loss which you has suffered.2 I sympathise most truly with you & all your family. I did not even know that your sister was out of health.
My object in writing was to say that we leave home on the 27th, returning on the 13th of May,3 & to ask whether you could come here either before or after these dates; but probably you will not now feel inclined to do so. The onions are not yet up, & I doubt whether you will be able to do anything with them before your return to Scotland.4 Should you at any time whatever be inclined to come here, I beg you to inform me, & I will tell you whether the house will then be free of visitors.5
Believe me dear Romanes | Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Summary
Sympathises with GJR on dreadful loss [of his sister, Georgina].
Can GJR visit Down?
Onions not yet up.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11466
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- George John Romanes
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.533)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11466,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11466.xml