To W. D. Fox   4 [September 1863]

My dear Fox

I have had a bad amount of sickness of late & came here yesterday; & as I could get no country in Grt. Malvern we are here & I have put myself under D^r. Ayrehurst, though very sorry not to be under D^r. Gully.¹ Emma came here a day or two first & took this house.²

And now I come to the painful subject which makes me write at once. Emma went yesterday to the church-yard & found the gravestone of our poor child Anne gone.³ The Sexton declared he remembered it, & searched well for it & came to the conclusion that it has disappeared.⁴ He says the churchyard a few years ago, was much altered & we suppose that the stone was then stolen.

Now some years ago, you with your usual kindness visited the grave & sent us an account.⁵ Can you tell what year this was? I was so ill at the time & Emma hourly expecting her confinement that I went home & did not see the grave.⁶ It is not likely, but will you tell us what you can remember about the kind of stone & where it stood; I think you said there was a little tree planted. We want, of course, to put another stone. I know your great & true kindness will forgive this trouble.

Your affect | C. Darwin