My dear Darwin

If all the sea & fresh water fishes together had tumbled on to my head I could not have been more astonished than I was by your letter & its inclosures or rather by the inclosures for I am never astonished by any amount of kindness in your letters—¹

Do you recollect that I jokingly told you long ago after I had been to see Rich that I had half a mind to try & cut you out?² Upon my life I feel almost as if I had defrauded you, in spite of the innocence of my heart and if it had been decent I should like to have requested to M^r Rich that he had better let the house go along with the rest to you & yours.

Don’t you covet it, like Naboth’s vineyard?—³ You will be forgetting that I am a man of peace now, & be for putting me “in the forefront of the battle”.—⁴

I have written to M^r. Rich and asked him to let my wife & me pay him a visit sometime this spring—⁵ Wife is immensely pleased—and bless her, has no doubt that M^r Rich is the one of the few men of discernment now living— It is really wonderfully kind & thoughtful of him—but he is a tough old gentleman & has a good chance of outlasting his legatee—who grieves to confess the fact that he is unmistakably growing older

I sometimes think I must have a row with somebody just to see if there is any of the old stuff left!

With all our loves | Ever Yours | T H Huxley