To T. H. Huxley   18 September [1860]

Down Bromley Kent

Sept 18th.

My dear Huxley

I was indeed grieved to receive your news this morning.— 1 I cannot resist writing, though there is nothing to be said.

I know well how intolerable is the bitterness of such grief.2 Yet believe me, that time, & time alone, acts wonderfully. To this day, though so many years have passed away, I cannot think of one child without tears rising in my eyes; but the grief is become tenderer & I can even call up the smile of our lost darling, with something like pleasure. My wife & self deeply sympathise with Mrs. Huxley & yourself. Reflect that your poor little fellow cannot have had much suffering.

God Bless you. | Charles Darwin

I have written to John Lubbock

Postmark: SP 19 60

1
Noel Huxley, the Huxleys’ oldest child, died from scarlet fever on 15 September 1860. He was nearly four years old. See L. Huxley ed. 1900, 1: 151–2, 216.
2
CD refers to the death of his oldest daughter, Anne Elizabeth Darwin, aged ten, in 1851. See Correspondence vol. 5.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2920B,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2920B