The year is established by the address. Hengwrt was a house in the small market and resort town of Dolgelly (now Dolgellau) in north-west Wales, rented for the summer of 1865 by the Hensleigh Wedgwoods (Emma Darwin (1904), 2: 207). Henrietta Emma Darwin and George Howard Darwin had spent some time there in June with some of their Wedgwood cousins (letter from H. E. Darwin to Emma Darwin, DAR 245: 26; this letter should be dated 19 June 1865).

The reference is to shares in the Monmouth Canal and Railway Company.

Erasmus Alvey Darwin refers to Josiah Wedgwood III, to his wife, Caroline Sarah, who was CD’s sister, and to Emma Darwin. Both Emma and CD had owned Monmouth Canal and Railway shares. Emma’s shares were in Erasmus’s name, as he was a trustee, along with Josiah, of Emma’s property (see Correspondence vol. 3, letter to Solicitor?, 1 October 1844). CD acquired further shares in 1847 (see Correspondence vol. 4, letter from Henry Allen Wedgwood, 21 February 1847 and nn. 7 and 9) and in 1852 Emma’s shares were transferred to CD (see Correspondence vol. 5, letter to Josiah Wedgwood III, 20 November 1852 and n. 3). CD recorded the 1852 transfer of Emma’s shares in his Investment book (Down House MS), p. 29. He recorded the payment of dividends on his shares in ibid., pp. 5–8, 72–3. There is no record of any new shares in the Monmouth Canal and Railway company being acquired by Emma or CD in 1865.