From Emma Darwin to W. D. Fox   [6–27 September 1863]1

Malvern Wells

Sunday.

Dear Mr Fox

I have been sending out a good many of these papers & have been very much surprized & pleased to find that a good many persons Squires Ladies & MPs are interested in the matter & anxious to find a remedy.2

Charles recommends me to send one to you & to beg you to send one to Mr Wilmot (Sir F’s son in law)3   I send one or two more in hopes that you or Mrs Fox4 may approve of them & use them in some way.

With my very kind remembrances to her I am yours | very sincerely | E. Darwin

Several have suggested offering a prize for a humane trap—5

1
The date range is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Emma Darwin to W. D. Fox, [29 September 1863], and by the address. According to her diary (DAR 242), Emma arrived in Malvern Wells, Worcestershire, on 1 September 1863; the first Sunday after her arrival was 6 September.
2
The reference is to An appeal, a four-page circular concerning the cruelty of using steel traps for catching vermin, which Emma and CD had privately printed for distribution in August (see letter from G. B. Sowerby Jr to Emma Darwin, 22 July 1863, and Appendix IX). None of the replies to the circular mentioned here have been found.
3
Emma refers to Francis Sacheverel Darwin and to his son-in-law, Edward Woollett Wilmot, who was CD’s first and Fox’s second cousin by marriage (Darwin pedigree).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4294,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4294