From Emma Nixon   10 December 1879

Dear M^r. Darwin

Please accept my best thanks for your great kindness in sending me a copy of “Erasmus Darwin”.¹ I am only just returned home from London, so have had no time to look into the book, but I am looking forward with real pleasure to the time when I shall be able to sit down to read the Memoir, which to me will be full of interest. I did so rejoice when I heard you were going to write the character of that great man.

My Father² always regreted no one had written the life & character of one so richly gifted with such splendid talents.

You will, I am sure, be sorry to hear Violetta Darwin is sinking   Tapping has given great relief—but her days on Earth cannot now be many—³ She is most patient & resigned to the Will of her Heavenly Father.

I hope your health does not suffer from our present most severe weather?⁴

Again thanking you for your kind remembrance of me, and with kind regards | Believe me | Yours sincerely | Emma Nixon