Ɛpsilon

To A. S. Horner   25 May [1851]1

Down Farnboro’ Kent

May 25th.

My dear Mrs. Horner

We are truly grateful to you & all your party for your most kind sympathy.2 As you ask after Emma, I write a line to say that she & Baby are essentially going on perfectly well, but she does not recover her strength or spirits so quickly as I could wish.3 In the profound quietudes of Down all your schemes & movements seem awfully bustling: I hope that your spirite⁠⟨⁠d⁠⟩⁠ tour will answer in every respect, & that directly on your return you may hear from the Cape. You will no doubt feel much this the first separation: pray give my very kind remembrances to Katharine & Capt. Lyell.4

Emma desires me to send her affectionate love to you & all your party.—

Pray believe me | Dear Mrs Horner | Yours truly & gratefully | C. Darwin

1
The year is established by the allusion to Annie Darwin’s death.
2
Anne Elizabeth (Annie) Darwin, CD and Emma Darwin’s 10-year-old daughter, died on 23 April 1851 (Correspondence vol. 5, Appendix II). Horner’s letter to CD has not been found.
3
Horace Darwin was born on 13 May 1851 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).
4
Anne Susanna Horner and her husband, Leonard Horner, were about to embark on a tour of Germany and Switzerland; their daughter Katharine Murray Lyell and her husband, Henry Lyell, were about to leave for India, via the Cape of Good Hope (K. M. Lyell ed. 1890, pp. 182, 192).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1428F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1428F