From E. A. Wheler 17 April 1879
3 Bertie Terrace
17 Apl 1879
My dear Cousin,
I wrote last week to my Cousin Mrs. Nixon, & enclose you her reply.1 She is Daughter to the late Mr. & Mrs. John Gisborne, & her mother was Millicent Pole, my grandmother’s youngest Daughter, by her first marriage.2 Mrs. Gisborne was nine years older than my mother, & was very fond of talking over old times with her Daughter Mrs. Nixon. You will see she gives a different version of the cause which drew Dr. D. to Newmarket, & which certainly sounds more probable tho’ my mother always said it happened on his way to Margate.3 Mrs. Nixon spoke to me once about my Uncle Erasmus Darwin’s sad death, & said it was Mrs. Pole of Radbourne (Daughter in law to my gdmother) who by her impatience to have some law matters settled caused him to overwork his brain.4
Another anecdote came into my mind the other day, shewing how much my grandfather was appreciated. Lady Charlotte Finch, governess to Queen Charlotte’s Daughters, had two granddaughters, the Miss Fieldings, who were much at court.5 Mrs. Fielding brought one of her Daughters to Derby to consult Dr. D. & the Miss Fieldings staid some little time at the House on a visit to my gdmother. When they returned home, they visited their gdmother Lady C Finch, & thro’ her, George the 3d. heard of Dr Darwin’s fame, & said “Why does not Dr. D come to London. He shall be my Physician if he comes”, & repeated this in his usual way. My mother said that he & my gd.mother disliked the thought of a London life so much, that the hint was not acted upon.6 I was talking to Emma about this, & she perfectly remembers my mother telling us this, & yesterday, on looking into Baroness de Bunsen’s memoirs, which we have just received, in page 68 she mentions Mrs. Fielding consulting Dr. D for her Daughter, & in page 38 she mentions paying a call at the Priory & being so struck with the beauty of the three Miss Darwins.7
You need not return Mrs. Nixon’s letter & with my kind remembrances to Mrs. Darwin
Believe me | very truly yours | E A Wheler
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Erasmus Darwin. By Ernst Krause. Translated from the German by W. S. Dallas, with a preliminary notice by Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1879.
Hare, Augustus J. C. 1879. The life and letters of Frances Baroness Bunsen. 2 vols. London: Daldy, Isbister & Co.
King-Hele, Desmond, ed. 2003. Charles Darwin’s ‘The Life of Erasmus Darwin’. First unabridged edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Summary
Relates more family history and anecdotes concerning Dr Erasmus Darwin.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12000
- From
- Elizabeth Anne Galton/Elizabeth Anne Wheler
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- [Leamington]
- Source of text
- DAR 210.14: 23
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12000,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12000.xml