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1700 13th St. n. w.,

Washington, D. C.

June 8th 1882

My dear Mr Darwin,

In reply to your favor of May 25th I take pleasure in enclosing the only letters which so far as I can find, I ever received from your father. These are appreciated all the more, that they were written voluntarily, for I could never bring myself to write to him from a feeling that his time was too valuable to be wasted by suggestions or letters from me.

Do with these three letters as you see fit, so long as you return them to me as memorials always to be cherished.

We have a flourishing Biological Society here, conceived only two years since and numbering now some 150 members. As you may note from the enclosed card we held a special meeting in honor of your father and it was wonderfully well attended. After giving some account of his work in Entomology, I was called upon for some personal reminiscences, and as the proceedings of the meeting will be published I know you will pardon the liberty I take in enclosing the rough draft of my remarks, and in asking you to correct any errors of memory or judgement. I would especially like to have a few more exact dates in reference to the peculiarities of the house, your father's exact height and whether or not the lane I speak of, opens into the estate. Also the color of his eyes, my impression being that they were brown, but I am probably wrong. Pray make my [illeg] or additions to the rough draft I send and return it to me.

In closing allow me to express my heartfelt sympathy and condolence with those of his family who mourn this loss. It certainly happens to few men to be so feelingly and universally mourned and though your grief is nor lessened by the number who share it with you, yet it is, I trust, tempered in the knowledge that he has been so greatly honored, not only for what he did for the world, but for his lovely and lovable private character.

Very sincerely yours

C. V. Riley

 

Francis Darwin Esq.