To H. E. Litchfield [after 5] November 18711
November 1871
My dearest Etty—
We were all so rejoiced yesterday, & what a very good girl you are to write us so long a letter— I did not expect that you would have been able to go. We have been all profoundly interested & touched by your account.— Pray tell Litchfield how much I have been pleased & more than pleased by what he said about me.2 When the address & your letter had been read, the first thought which passed through my mind was “What a grand career he has run,”— but I hope his career is very far from finished.—3 I congratulate you with all my heart at having so noble a husband. What an admirable address, & how well-written. Even You, Miss Rhadamanthus4 could not have improved a word. It is as superior to all ordinary addresses, as some of the old Buccaneer voyages are to modern travels.—
Goodbye, Dearest. Keep quiet. Goodbye. | Your affect. | C. Darwin
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
CD is "more than pleased" by what R. B. Litchfield said of him. Congratulates HEL on having "so noble a husband".
All were "profoundly" interested by HEL’s account [of their welcome at the Working Men’s College].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8040
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Henrietta Emma Darwin/Henrietta Emma Litchfield
- Sent from
- unstated
- Source of text
- Emma Darwin (1904) 2: 251–2; DAR 153: 79
- Physical description
- C 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8040,” accessed on 11 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8040.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19