To W. D. Fox 29 April [1851]
Down Farnborough Kent
Apr 29th.
My dear Fox
I do not suppose you will have heard of our bitter & cruel loss. Poor dear little Annie, when going on very well at Malvern, was taken with a vomiting attack, which was at first thought of the smallest importance, but it rapidly assumed the form of a low & dreadful fever, which carried her off in 10 days.— Thank God she suffered hardly at all, & expired as tranquilly as a little angel.— Our only consolation is, that she passed a short, though joyous life.— She was my favourite child; her cordiality, openness, buoyant joyousness & strong affection made her most loveable.1 Poor dear little soul. Well it is all over. My dear Emma supports herself admirably & is calm & courageous.— It was a severe aggravation that Emma could not possibly join me in nursing our darling: she almost daily expects her confinement.
I have not yet thanked you for your most kind & interesting letter of the 10th. I most truly hope that your health is better.
Yours affectionately | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Colp, Ralph, Jr. 1987. Charles Darwin’s ‘insufferable grief’. Free Associations 9: 7–44.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Emma Darwin (1915): Emma Darwin: a century of family letters, 1792–1896. Edited by Henrietta Litchfield. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1915.
Moore, James R. 1989. Of love and death: why Darwin "gave up Christianity’. In Moore, James R., ed. History, humanity, and evolution: essays for John C. Greene. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Summary
His favourite child, Anne, has unexpectedly died.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1425
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Darwin Fox
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 79)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1425,” accessed on 7 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1425.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5