To Rolla Charles Meadows Rouse [after 12 March 1868]1
My Dear Sir
Will you be so good as to inform me at what exact date, in about a fortnights time, it will suit you to receive my son Horace.—2 As you were so good as to say that you had heard from Dr Wrigley, I have not troubled you with his Quarterly characters, which as I have said, have all been as good as possible.3 As I previously mentioned, he is backward in Classics, but he tells me that he has been getting on better of late. I care about Classics only so far that he may pass his matriculation & afterwards his Little-Go—4 For mathematics he has a strong taste, & I suppose is fairly well advanced for his age of 17 years, considering, however, that he formerly lost 3 years from ill-health.5 As at present advised, & following my sons own wish, I intend that he shd try for the degree in the Sciences.— I beg leave to call your attention to a singular incapacity for spelling, & shd be much obliged, if you wd mark in all exercises his mistakes. He is anxious to improve & is ashamed of his ignorance. But the incapacity runs to a certain extent in our blood. I think that you will find my son anxious to please you in all ways, & I do not fear that he will be idle, but rather that he may work too hard.—
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Summary
Discusses tuition arrangements for Horace Darwin.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5962
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Rolla Charles Meadows Rouse
- Sent from
- unstated
- Source of text
- DAR 96: 39-40
- Physical description
- ADraft 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5962,” accessed on 30 May 2023, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5962.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16