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Darwin Correspondence Project

To T. H. Huxley   9 September 1881

Worthing

Sept 9th. 1881

(Home tomorrow)

My dear Huxley

We have been paying Mr Rich a little visit, & he has often spoken of you & I think he enjoyed much your & Mrs. Huxley’s visit here.—1 But my object in writing now is to tell you something, which I am very doubtful whether it is worth while for you to hear, because it is uncertain.— My brother Erasmus has left me half his fortune, which is very considerable.2 Therefore I thought myself bound to tell Mr Rich of this, stating the large amount, as far as the executors as yet know it roughly. I then added that my wife & self thought that under these new circumstances he was most fully justified in altering his will, & leaving his property in some other way.3 I begged him to take a week to consider what I had told him & then by letter to inform me of the result.— But he would not, however, hardly allow me to finish what I had to say, & expressed a firm determination not to alter his will, adding that I had five sons to provide for. After a short pause he implied, (but unfortunately he here became very confused & forgot a word, which on subsequent reflexion, I think was probably “reversionary”.) anyhow he implied that there was a chance, whether good or bad I know not, of his becoming possessed of some other property, & he finished by saying distinctly “I will bequeath this to Huxley”. What the amount may be, (I believe not large)— what the chance may be, God only knows; & one cannot cross examine a man about his will.—4 He did not bind me to secrecy, so I think I am justified in telling you what passed, but whether it is wicked on my part to send so vague a story, I am not at all sure; but as a general rule it is best to tell everything.— As I know that you hate writing letters do not trouble yourself to answer this. From what I have seen in a sort of summary in the Times, I am anxious to read your address at York; & I do hope that it will appear in Nature or in some separate form.—5

With kindest remembrances to all your party, ever my dear Huxley yours most sincerely Charles Darwin

PS. On further reflexion I shd. like to hear that you receive this note safely. I have used up all my black-edged paper.

Footnotes

CD and Emma Darwin visited Anthony Rich in Worthing from 8 to 10 September 1881 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)). Henrietta Anne Huxley and Thomas Henry Huxley had visited Rich in the spring of 1881 (see letter from T. H. Huxley, 6 March 1881).
Erasmus Alvey Darwin had died on 26 August 1881.
In 1878, Rich had declared his intention of bequeathing some valuable property to CD, and had agreed to CD’s settling this on his children (see Correspondence vol. 26, letter from Anthony Rich, 10 December 1878).
Rich had already bequeathed his house Chappell Croft in Heene, Worthing, to Huxley (see letter from Anthony Rich, 1 March 1881 and n. 7). It is unclear whether he intended to leave an additional property to Huxley, but there was no mention of this when Rich’s bequests were described in the Pall Mall Gazette, 12 May 1891, p. 6.
On 2 September 1881, Huxley had given an address, ‘The rise and progress of palaeontology’, in the exhibition at the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in York (Report of the 51st Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at York (1881): xxxii). A summary of Huxley’s discourse was published in The Times, 3 September 1881, p. 7, and a longer version appeared in Nature, 8 September 1881, pp. 452–5.

Summary

Erasmus has left half his fortune to CD. Anthony Rich nevertheless insists on keeping to his testamentary arrangements. He also referred to leaving some additional property to THH.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-13324
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Thomas Henry Huxley
Sent from
Worthing
Source of text
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 368)
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13324,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13324.xml

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