48 letters to W. H. Thompson dated 1831-1866, and 1 letter addressed to [John] Allen dated 24 Aug. 1840. Names mentioned in the accompanying calendar of the letters include Henry Alford; John Allen; Robert Leslie Ellis; Edward FitzGerald; Arthur Hallam; Walter Savage Landor; Samuel Laurence; Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton; Stephen Spring Rice; Sir Henry Taylor; Robert John Tennant; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; Charles Tennyson [later Turner]; and William Wordsworth. Spedding also refers to his work on Francis Bacon.
With a further 35 letters to William Aldis Wright and William George Clark, dated 1862-1881. Letters to William George Clark date from 1862 to 1864 and relate to collations of Shakespeare's plays. Letters from 1881 to William Aldis Wright relate to Frederick James Furnivall, with copies of Spedding's letters to Furnivall, and one letter from Furnivall to Spedding dated 26 Feb. 1881. Accompanied by a mechanical copy of the Northumberland Manuscript.
Three letters from H. M. Butler, two from John Venn, and one from William Aldis Wright.
H. M. Butler asks if Darwin would consider contributing to the purchase price of the original MS of "Poems by Two Brothers" by Charles and Alfred Tennyson in a letter dated 13 Dec. 1893. Darwin is asked to contribute to the purchase of something else [a medal?] in May 1896 and is thanked later that week, with the suggestion that his great-great grandson donate Darwin's medal to the Library. A letter from William Aldis Wright (9 May 1896) suggests that Darwin's emissary wait until he is a Fellow to cycle down the Avenue at Trinity.
Two letters from John Venn refer to the provenance of astrolabes and one letter dated 25 Dec. 1895 refers to something that happened the week before that has made him feel he is in a nightmare.
Darwin, Sir George Howard (1845-1912), knight, mathematician and geophysicist