To W. D. Fox 18 April [1849]
The Lodge. | Malvern
April 18th
My dear Fox
Many thanks for your most friendly note a fortnight ago. I did not write sooner, till I knew our plans more definitely. Dr. G. now says we may return home at end of May (it will be on Friday 1st of June that we shall arrive, I hope at dear old Down) but that I shall have to go on with the Aqueous treatment for many months at home under his direction.— Our remaining here all May will, I hope give us a better chance of seeing you here, but your account of yourself & gigantic family1 shows that it is but a chance; nevertheless we shall hope for it—
I am very sorry to hear that you have not been very well this winter. With respect to myself I believe I am going on very well; but I am rather weary of my present inactive life & the Water Cure has the most extraordinary effect in producing indolence & stagnation of mind; till experiencing it, I cd not have believed it possible.— I now increase in weight, have escaped sickness for 30 days, which is thrice as long an interval, as I have had for last year; & yesterday in 4 walks I managed seven miles! I am turned into a mere walking & eating machine.— Dr. G. however finds he is obliged to treat me cautiously, & during last week all my treatment has been much relaxed. There are many patients here even already: last summer I hear he had 120!— He must be making an immense fortune.—2 Lady Wilmot lives here with her son Col. Wilmot;3 I have not called, for I was frightened at this great Dandy of a son: if it had been summer I wd. have called to have seen the flower garden.— You need not send Athenæum4 or Glacier Paper5 till our return to Down.—
Yours very affectionately | C. Darwin
For auld langsyn I have looked for Beetles on the hills here, but cannot find one.—6
Footnotes
Bibliography
Chambers, Robert. 1848. Ancient sea margins. Edinburgh.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Forbes, James David. 1849. Fifteenth letter on glaciers; containing observations on the analogies derived from mudslides on a large scale and from some processes in the arts; in favour of the viscous theory of glaciers. Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal 46: 139–48.
Summary
Continues to improve, but water-cure has produced "indolence and stagnation of mind".
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1240
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Darwin Fox
- Sent from
- Malvern
- Source of text
- Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 73a)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1240,” accessed on 6 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1240.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 4