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To E. A. Wheler   31 March [1879]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

March 31st

My dear Cousin

I want to trouble you on one very little point. I looked on map to see how far it was from Derby to Margate & to my surprise found that Newmarket was quite out of the line. I suppose that you are sure that it was Margate where your Aunt was.— If indeed our grandfather went to Harwich & thence a short Voyage by sea to Margate, the route wd. be intelligible.2 But it seems odd that a Doctor shd have chosen even short sea transit before the time for steam-ships.

Owing to your most useful suggestion, I wrote to R. Darwin & have an extremely kind answer from him, & he will send the Journal with some letters.3 I am now trying to find out how far the Zoonomia influenced medical practice in England, but doubt whether I shall succeed.4

My dear Cousin | Yours sincerely obliged | Charles Darwin

P.S. I have got a photograph of Elston Hall,— but I think I mentioned this before.—5

I will post the life of Ch. Darwin tomorrow & will register it.6

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letters to E. A. Wheler, 25 March 1879 and 28 March 1879.
2
See letter from E. A. Wheler, 25 March 1879 and n. 7. Wheler had recounted a story that took place when Erasmus Darwin stopped at Newmarket on his way to Margate. At the time (1793; letter from E. A. Wheler, 28 March 1879), he was living in Derby. Wheler’s aunt was Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck. Harwich is the northernmost coastal town in Essex; Newmarket, in west Suffolk, lies in a direct line between Derby and Harwich. Margate is on the Isle of Thanet in north-east Kent.
3
See letter from Reginald Darwin, 29 March 1879 and n. 2. The journal was Erasmus Darwin’s Commonplace book (Down House MS).
4
Zoonomia; or, the laws of organic life (E. Darwin 1794–6) contained observations on anatomy, diseases, and treatment, as well as presenting a theory of organic evolution; CD’s annotated copy is in the Darwin Library–CUL. For CD’s remarks on its influence, see Erasmus Darwin, pp. 105–9.
5
Charlotte Maria Cooper Darwin had sent CD two photographs of Elston Hall with her letter of 27 March 1879.
6
Emma Sophia Galton, who was Wheler’s sister and neighbour, had sent CD a book compiled by Erasmus Darwin containing the medical writings of his son Charles Darwin (1758–78), together with a brief biography (see letter from E. A. Wheler, 28 March 1879 and n. 1).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

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Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11963A,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11963A