The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

RECORD: Darwin, Henrietta Emma. [1866.02]. Letter to George Howard Darwin. CUL-DAR245.273. Edited by John van Wyhe (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.

Catherine Langton née Darwin, died 2 February 1866. She married Charles Langton in 1863 as second wife.

[1]

[date added later:] 66?

[January - February 1866]

My dear George

It is all over & poor Aunt Catherine is at rest.

She died most calmly & peacefully with no suffering at the last.

aunt Caroline had been with her in the night a good deal. and left her to go to sleep after her opeate - & then the nurse was just in time to call Uncle Charles & he saw that

[1v]

she died without pain which is a great comfort to him. Edmund is going down there. I fear poor Aunt Susan will suffer for all this.

I must write to William & Frank, so goodbye dear George.

This will be a great grief to Papa. I don't feel as if I realised it. I cannot take in that she is gone for ever – that she knows the great mystery now -

[2]

It all seems unreal to me.

yours ever

H.E.D.

Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)