The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

RECORD: Rich, Anthony. 1882.04.22. Letter to George Darwin. CUL-DAR215.7o. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 11.2021. Corrections by Anne Secord 4.2022. RN2n

NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin.

"Rich, Anthony, 1804-91. Chapel Croft, Heene, Worthing, Sussex. Honorary Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge. 1878 R made a will leaving nearly all his property to CD, on death of himself, then 74, and his sister; at that time it included some property in Cornhill, London, with income above £1,000. As CD predeceased R, CD's children wrote to R in May 1882 expressing how grateful they were for his generous intention of leaving his property to CD. They also said R was free to alter his will. In the return letter R wrote "nothing could induce me to alter it in that respect. It is a source of pleasure and pride to me to think that it could have been in my power to do anything which would give him ever so small an amount of gratification, and I am equally pleased to think that, when my course is also run, property which belonged to me will descend to the worthy children of so noble a man". ED2:259. 1879 May 6 and 1881 Sept. 8 CD visited R at Worthing. 1882 CD to R about success of Earthworms. LL3:217. 1882 After CD's death R left his estate to the Darwin children, except house and contents which went to Huxley who immediately sold it. Net value of estate £15,083. The gift was in recognition of CD "to whose transcendent genius and subtle investigation, extending over a long period of years, the discovery and practical proofs of the law of evolution is due". ML2:445-448." (Paul van Helvert & John van Wyhe, Darwin: A Companion, 2021)

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April 22-82.

Chappell Croft, Hearne, Worthing.

My dear George Darwin

I had, as you surmise seen the announcement of your father's death in the Newspapers – and not, I can assure you, without a genuine sense of pain and sorrow. I had always thought and hoped that he would have out lasted me; but as that is a fate which we have all to undergo sooner or later, and cannot choose our own times, I think that the one which has befallen him, is, on the whole to be envied, and certainly is so by me. A noble life generously spent in gathering and dispensing knowledge, not to a clique or party, but to

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all of us, comes well to an end while in possession of all its faculties, when its teachings have been triumphant over all opponents worthy of the name, and the last struggle has passed away without long continued pain. For myself I seem to mourn the loss of as it were an old and valued friend – the kindest, most genial, and most sympathetic of men – whom in this my solitude I may remember but never more shall see.

Please to thank your brother William for his message – I suppose that he will now become the head man of business in your family; and I will take the liberty of informing him of any thing which may turn up of course suppose respecting the city property, or requiring council, as the interest of your family are now at my years almost, if not quite paramount to my own.

I am going up to London for one week on Wednesday next; to consult Sir Henry Thomson, and some oculist, as my eyes are getting rather weak. Shall be lodged at 17 Princess St. Hanover Square – and would be pleasant to see you or him, or any of yours, if by chance any one should happen to be in the neighbourhood with a little time to spare, with one who is

Very truly yours

Anthony Rich

Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)