To W. D. Fox 25–6 October [1865]
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Oct. 25
My dear Fox
It is a long time since we have had any communication & I should like much to hear how you are yourself as well as Mrs Fox1 & all your family.
I know you will wish to hear about me. I have had a bad time for the last 6 months & have been able to do no scientific work. I have put myself under Dr Bence Jones’s care & he has stopped my vomiting by a scanty diet of toast & meat; but I cannot recover my strength.2 I know you are half a Doctor therefore I thought you wd like to hear these details.
My Sister Susan’s health has lately been much failing & I fear from the last accounts that her state is becoming serious.3 As for the rest of us we are pretty well, at least for Darwins, & that is not saying much. My children however are all well I am thankful to say
Oct 26. I had dictated thus far yesterday, & now by an odd chance your kind & welcome letter has arrived.4 I heartily rejoice at the good account you give of yourself, patriarch as you are with your half dozen grandchildren I congratulate you most sincerely on the brilliant success of your son & my Godson.5 My eldest son6 is established as a banker at Southampton & is fairly well contented with his lot. My second son George has just passed his Little go at Trin. Coll.7 He has a turn for mathematics, & means to try for a scholarship there this Easter.8 As for myself I have not gone out of my grounds for the last 12 months; but on Nov. 7. we go for a week to Erasmus’s in order that Dr Bence Jones may see me two or three times.9 I hope this may coincide with part of your visit, as I shd like extremely to see you again for a few minutes,—more than that I fear I cd not stand.
My wife desires to join in very kind remembrances to Mrs Fox | My dear old friend | Yours affectionately | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Cambridge University calendar: The Cambridge University calendar. Cambridge: W. Page [and others]. 1796–1950.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Summary
Bad health during last six months has prevented scientific work.
News of family.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4924
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Darwin Fox
- Sent from
- Down
- Postmark
- OC 27 65
- Source of text
- Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 146)
- Physical description
- LS(A) 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4924,” accessed on 29 March 2023, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4924.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 13