To C. S. Wedgwood 20 April 1876
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
April 20th, (1876)
My dear Caroline
Emma is in bed with a feverish cold, so I am glad of the opportunity of writing.1 It is a good sign that you are able to write at all, but we grieve over the poor account which you give of yourself. You speak of your patience as almost exhausted, but I have been full of admiration at the wonderful endurance which you have shown in your long and terrible illness. I hardly ever heard of such long suffering. How I do wish we could hear a really better account.2 You are right that we last met at Abinger, and a very pleasant remembrance I have of your little visit.3 We have a sick house here: Henriette has had much internal pain and we had Dr. Andrew Clarke here yesterday evening.4 He thank Heaven thinks nothing very serious is the matter, but says she has some fever and is fearfully weak so that he could not count her pulse. She is to eat every 2 hours at all cost, she has managed pretty well today in eating, and I have just left her with no pain and dosing. We were to have gone for 6 days to Erasmus today, for I want a change and rest, but of course this is all knocked on the head.5 Poor Etty wants to be at home and as soon as she can move she will do so, and we shall probably get one of the bed-carriages about which we wrote to you. Nothing can be nicer than Litchfield about her.6 George went back to Cambridge yesterday wonderfully well, and he quite recovered Malta which was an utter failure.7 We heard grand news this morning that Leonard will come home in latter part of May: he had the choice between then and late in Autumn, and could not resist the former,8 but as he begs in the
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Summary
Grieves over poor account of her health. Emma and Henrietta are also ill.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10461
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Caroline Sarah (Caroline) Darwin/Caroline Sarah (Caroline) Wedgwood
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 153: 3
- Physical description
- C 2pp inc
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10461,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10461.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24