From D. A. Spalding   21 July 1874

Ravenscroft | Chepstow

July 21/74

My dear Mr Darwin

I have only too good an excuse to offer for not having written sooner to thank you for your letter & for the observations your son was kind enough to send me.1 Nursing Lord Amberley’s oldest boy in London had exhausted me, & when we came here I was very ill. Then in the death of Lady Amberley I lost the best & kindest friend I had ever had.2 I still feel as if it would be impossible for me ever to recover. She was more or less generally recognised as a superior woman, but only those who lived with her could know anything of the altogether exceptional goodness of her character. Her loss not only to her husband but to others also is quite irreparable.

She had arranged opportunities for me to observe & experiment on various kinds of young animals— These opportunities have passed away, & I do not know when I shall have the heart to begin again.3

I am at present planning to go to Scotland for a change.

In thanking you for having so kindly allowed me to pay you a visit I must say that I never spent two hours more pleasantly than on that occasion & that I shall always esteem it one of the highest honours I have been permitted to enjoy.4

With kind regards to Mrs Darwin & many thanks to your son

I am yours sincerely | D. A Spalding

1
CD’s letter has not been found, but see the letter to G. H. Darwin, 27 May [1874]. George Howard Darwin evidently sent some of his notes to Spalding, but they have not been identified or found.
2
Spalding had become tutor to Frank Russell, the son of Lord and Lady Amberley (John and Katharine Louisa Russell), in 1873. In May 1874, Frank became ill with diphtheria, but recovered; his mother caught the disease and died in June 1874 (Moorehead 1992, p. 14). For more on Spalding’s relationships with Lady Amberley, see ODNB s.v. Spalding, Douglas Alexander.
3
Spalding’s earlier article on instinct had interested CD (see Spalding 1873 and Correspondence vol. 21, letter to Nature, [before 13 February 1873]).
4
Spalding visited CD on 27 May 1874 (see letter to G. H. Darwin, 27 May [1874]).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9557,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9557