From E. A. Darwin to Emma Darwin   1 September [1875?]1

1 Sept

My dear Emma

I am afraid the account today is rather alarming pain & tenderness less but a good deal of port wine ordered which looks as if her weakness was excessive. There never was anything so unlikely as their being from home when food is so important & so difficult of course to get.2

I shall try not to think about coming to you till the time of your return as I am now in an aguish state and any thought of moving is terrifying to me, tho’ being unwell at Down is only being in the fashion.3

Yours affec. | EAD

1
The year is conjectured from an archivist’s date on the letter.
2
The invalid may have been Caroline Sarah Wedgwood, CD’s sister. In a letter to Leonard Darwin of 26 October 1875, Emma wrote: ‘Aunt Caroline is no better & still at Felixstowe & we seem surrounded with illness’ (DAR 239.23: 1.35).
3
The Darwins were in Southampton from 28 August to 11 September 1875 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10146,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10146