RECORD: Litchfield, Henrietta Emma. [1871].09.14. Letter to Jane Lushington. CUL-DAR245.500. (John van Wyhe ed., 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 11.2023. RN1
NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volume CUL-DAR245 contains correspondence and papers of Henrietta Emma Darwin, later Litchfield.
Jane Lushington née Mowatt. Married Vernon Lushington in 1865. Henrietta met Richard Litchfield through their friendship. Close family friends.
Hotel Sonnenburg Seelisburg Lucerne
Sept 14. [date added later:] 1871
My dear Jane,
Your kind & affectionate letter followed us here, after some wanderings, which will account for my delay in answering it. The fact is we have rather changed our plans & have stayed on in Switzerland which all our letters have been sent to Italy.
Thank you very much for writing to me. It will make a
beginning of our new relationship & I hope, as you say, that we shall meet very soon after we come back to England. […]
underground station & a few other little necessities.
I believe Richard has not written to you since the wedding which we think a model one.
It was so nice to have no fuss whatever, a wedding cake seemed like a festivity. (I hope they sent your children a good lump to eat to our happiness.)
You know Richard even did without a best man. This was very good on his part, but it made such a difference to
my Father to have the house absolutely quiet. He was in such a particularly low nervous state that I was afraid my eldest brother would have to give me away, which neither my Father nor I should have liked, but I am glad to say he did manage to come to church & since I have had good accounts of him. This has been such a comfort to me — it would have been very melancholy to leave home just when I was most wanted.
We are in a lovely place here
The hotel is on the edge of great cliffs […]
people are so free we can change our minds as often as ever we like. […]
With Richard's & my love to you all.
believe me, yours affectly
Henrietta Litchfield
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
File last updated 19 November, 2023