From E. A. Wheler   28 March 1879

My dear Cousin,

Emma will send you a book written by our Uncle Charles Darwin, & which gained him a name as a very clever & promising young man. At the end, you will see a short account of his life. His Father D^r. Darwin was not with him at his death. There would not have been time in those days to get there. He felt his son’s death most acutely, & his friends said he never recovered it, but was a different man after. Charles was sent at that early age to France on account of his stammering as he never stammered when speaking french.¹

When D^r. Darwin married M^rs. Pole, he left Lichfield, & lived about two years at Radbourne, till her son M^r. Pole came of age, & my Mother was born there also our Uncle Edward her elder Brother.² They then lived in the Full St in Derby, & the garden was just over the river Derwent, which they crossed in a ferry boat. D^r. D. had all his children taught to swim when they were four years old, & all were capital swimmers. My Mother twice saved a young friend’s life who was drowning in a swimming bath. I suppose you know that D^r. D. never took wine, & recommended all his Patients & friends to abstain & in my earlier days I can remember, among those of my Mothers standing, how few I knew in Derbyshire who took wine. I have seen some of my g^dfather’s letters. I think Reg^d Darwin must have lent them to us—they were clever, playful & witty. Reg^d. has a sort of day book of his, which interested us, with cases of his patients, verses, remarks &c³

with kind remembrances | Yours very sincerely | E A Wheler

With regard to that tale about my g^dfather & the Jockey I find he went to Margate to see my aunt in 1793 & his fee was 100 guineas.⁴ The month July.

Emma reminds me my g^dfather left Radbourne because of the inconvenience to his practice, that his step son was not then of age⁵   She will like to have C Darwin’s book returned when you have quite done with it.