1882-1884] A Letter from Anthony Rich 259 



we shall never feel that we owe you any less gratitude for 

 your generous intentions towards our dear father; and we 

 ask you to keep this letter, in order that you may always 

 bear in mind that this is our most deliberate request. 



I am, 

 Yours always gratefully and sincerely, 



W. E. DARWIN. 



Anthony Rich to W. E. Darwin. 



DEAR WILLIAM DARWIN, Ma y !7 1882. 



Yours of yesterday just received. I answer it at 

 once without leaving the table at which I was sitting while 

 reading it. 



First of all: many thanks for the photograph of your 

 father, which is exceedingly good, both for the likeness 

 and the execution. The one which your brother Leonard 

 gave me of his own taking, I have had framed and hung up 

 in my room, where it reminds me daily of the actual presence 

 of one for whom I seemed to feel a positive affection, as well 

 as veneration and respect. . . . 



I made my will before writing to your father to tell him 

 the dispositions I had made ; and 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. I do not 

 usually keep letters after answering them, but I may perhaps 

 leave this one of yours in my desk, not for the purpose you 

 suggest, but as an evidence, if wanted, of the dignified dis- 

 interestedness of yourself and brothers and sisters. Pos- 

 sibly I may see you here some day or other, in the fulness 

 of time ? . . . . I hope that you and your brother George 

 will send me a line now and then, just to keep me en rapport 

 with you all. In the monotony of my daily life, I never 



