To Emma Darwin   [25 June 1846]1

[Down]

Thursday afternoon

My dear wife

Today has been stormy & gloomy, but rather pleasant in the intervals, only I have been stomachy & sick again, but not very uncomfortable; I will take blue-pill again. A proof has come from the Printers & saying the Compositor is in want of M.S. which he cannot have & I am tired & overdone2 I am ungracious old dog to howl, for I have been sitting in summer-house, whilst watching the thunder-storms, & thinking what a fortunate man I am, so well off in worldly circumstances, with such dear little children, & such a Trotty,3 & far more than all with such a wife. Often have I thought over Elizabeths words, when I married you, that she had never heard a word pass your lips, which she had rather not have been uttered, and sure am I that I can now say so & shall say so on my death-bed,—bless you my dear wife.—4

Your very long letter of Monday has delighted me, with all the particulars about the children—how happy they seem: I will forward it to Caroline, though twice it has “my dearest N.”.—5 Trotty is quite charming, though I am vexed how little I am able to stand her: somehow I have been extra bothered & busy; this morning I sent off five letters.—

Lady L.6 has asked me to meet on Saturday the old Griffin & the Browns, & I have accepted it doubtfully, though I do not think I shall have the heart to go.—

Remember I go to London on Monday— You do not say how Jane is.—

Trotty has just said “that rascal has not gone into Garden”—so I asked whom do you mean? “Georgy, cause he ps. so”

Your affect. | C. D.

1
A notation on the letter in Emma’s hand reads ‘June 1846 when I was at Tenby’. CD’s reference to a London trip can only mean that of 29 June recorded in his Account Book (Down House MS) on 1 July.
2
The early parts of South America were being set up at this time.
3
Henrietta Emma Darwin. The nickname ‘Trotty’ was taken from the nickname for Toby Veck in Charles Dickens’ The chimes (London, 1845 [1844]).
4
A sentiment repeated in Autobiography, p. 96.
5
CD referred to himself as Emma’s ‘Nigger’. The letter was presumably sent on to Caroline Wedgwood, CD’s sister, who had married Emma’s brother Josiah.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.4 of] over ‘in’
1.9 have] interl
1.10 been] altered from ‘be’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-981,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-981