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Darwin Correspondence Project

From Emma Nixon   10 December 1879

15 Vernon Street | Derby

Decr. 10th. 1879

Dear Mr. Darwin

Please accept my best thanks for your great kindness in sending me a copy of “Erasmus Darwin”.1 I am only just returned home from London, so have had no time to look into the book, but I am looking forward with real pleasure to the time when I shall be able to sit down to read the Memoir, which to me will be full of interest. I did so rejoice when I heard you were going to write the character of that great man.

My Father2 always regreted no one had written the life & character of one so richly gifted with such splendid talents.

You will, I am sure, be sorry to hear Violetta Darwin is sinking   Tapping has given great relief—but her days on Earth cannot now be many—3 She is most patient & resigned to the Will of her Heavenly Father.

I hope your health does not suffer from our present most severe weather?4

Again thanking you for your kind remembrance of me, and with kind regards | Believe me | Yours sincerely | Emma Nixon

Footnotes

Nixon had sent CD information on family history via her cousin Elizabeth Anne Wheler (see letters from E. A. Wheler, 17 April 1879 and 18 April 1879). Her name appears on CD’s presentation list for Erasmus Darwin (Appendix IV).
Violetta Harriot Darwin died on 9 January 1880 (Darwin pedigree). ‘Tapping’ refers to a medical procedure designed to drain off fluid (OED).
Temperatures had been below freezing earlier in the week (see The Times, 8 December 1879, p. 10).

Summary

Thanks for Erasmus Darwin.

Violetta Darwin is near death.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12348
From
Emma Gisborne/Emma Nixon
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Derby
Source of text
DAR 99: 189–90
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12348,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12348.xml

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