To Fanny Mackintosh Wedgwood   18 [August 1854]1

Down.

18th.

My dear Fanny

We are infinitely obliged to you, after all your fatigue, writing to us about poor dear old Erasmus’ illness.— We had heard nothing of it. As he seemed somewhat better when you wrote, I will not doubt that the worst is over, for I think a Fever hardly ever lulls when it once begins. But it must pull him down terribly, weak as he always is.— I shd. very much like to hear pretty soon ever so briefly. I daresay Caroline or Jos. would find time to write a line.— You must all have been very much frightened.2

Good bye my dear Fanny, how many you have aided in illness. I shall never forget the comfort you were once to me, My dear Fanny.—3

C. Darwin

1
Dated by the reference to the illness of Erasmus Alvey Darwin, which was also mentioned in the letter from J. D. Hooker, 25 August 1854.
2
Fanny Mackintosh Wedgwood had been residing at Erasmus Darwin’s new house in Queen Anne Street in order to nurse him (Wedgwood and Wedgwood 1980, p. 262).
3
During the fatal illness of CD’s daughter Anne. See letters to Fanny Mackintosh Wedgwood, [24 April 1851] and [25 April 1851].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1547,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1547