Ɛpsilon

From Reginald Darwin   18 April 1879

Fern | Buxton

April 18 | 1879

My dear Cousin

Most gratefully do I acknowledge your kindness & thoughtful generosity— The letters are most valuable to me, having next to no records of my Fathers early days; beyond a few sketches of his school days, the history of his life until the Journal of his Travels, (which I have,) it was almost a blank—1

All the letters are most interesting, as confirming the true regard & affection he always expressed towards your Father—2

They contain also the earliest records of the birth of Erasmus, of yourself, & of my own appearance in the world—3

With best regards & repeated thanks | affectly yours | R Darwin

1
See letter to Reginald Darwin, 16 April 1879 and n. 1. CD had given Reginald some letters from Francis Sacherevel Darwin to Robert Waring Darwin (1766–1848). These letters have not been found. Francis had taken a tour of the Mediterranean from 1808 to 1810 (F. S. Darwin 1927).
2
Robert Waring Darwin, CD’s father, was twenty years older than his half-brother Frances Sacherevel Darwin. On the death of their father, Erasmus Darwin, in 1802, Robert became Francis’s guardian (note at the end of Erasmus Darwin’s Commonplace book (Down House MS)).
3
The letters covered the period from 1804 to 1818 (see letter to Reginald Darwin, 16 April 1879 and n. 1). Erasmus Alvey Darwin, CD, and Reginald Darwin were born in 1804, 1809, and 1818, respectively.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11987,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11987