TSAWTB Section 6 - Interlude - A Miscellany of Items

262 Section 6 - Interlude
In his introduction to this, Fawkes describes the person as “the lady who had
nursed Darwin”, but then describes her as one who “had been in attendance”.
Moore contends this is Lady Hope, but Croft says it is probably a Mrs. Evans
who “had been with the Darwin household as a nurse for many years”.
(Another writer says she was the cook. Actually she was the old housekeeper).
Which is correct - was it Lady Hope or a lady in the house?
In her account Lady Hope was not asked to read to him and she does not
mention a specific hymn he requested. Croft notes that Mrs. Evans was a
member of the Gospel Room congregation and could easily arrange for the
children to sing. However, there is no record of this taking place.
The crucial point is not who this lady was, but that Nicholls heard of
Darwin’s change. If it was Lady Hope, then he must have heard of this soon
after the event as probably she was not in the area for long. If it was another
lady, then this would be a totally independent witness from Lady Hope.
Nicholls’ account is so close to Darwin’s home that it gives support to the
story, no matter by what route it came to him.
(C) Sir Robert Anderson
One of the most interesting references Moore mentions involves Sir Robert
Anderson who was the head of the C.I.D. at Scotland Yard during the time of
the investigation of the “Jack the Ripper Murders”. He was a well known
evangelical, and a very close friend of Lady Hope. Obviously referring to Lady
Hope, he wrote as early as 1907:
..a friend of mine who was much with Darwin during his last
illness assures me that he expressed the greatest reverence for the
scriptures and bore testimony to their value (M:48).
This is an important comment which we discuss later.
3. There were accounts circulating unconnected with her
Moore gives several of these incidents.
(A) May 1882 - only eight months after her visit and one month after
Darwin’s death in April. A preacher, Mr. Huntingdon, at Tenby refers to
Darwin “in his last utterances confessed his true faith.” Tenby “had been the
home of Emma Darwin’s (Charles’s wife) Allen aunts; the Darwin’s first
cousin, the Rev. John Allen Wedgewood, still lived there.”
Moore (p71) speculates that “perhaps clerical chit-chat got worked into the
sermon”. This is an interesting account, for, chit-chat or not, here we have a
direct connection between the Darwin family and a report of a “recantation”,
and Lady Hope is not involved. If Huntingdon had fabricated his anecdote,
his close neighbour would surely have heard of it and sharply corrected the
record. This is surely of some value as independent evidence that there had
been a “recantation” of some sort!
(B) September 1882. Robert Eadie F.R.G.S. is said to have sent to the
Darwin family, who were collecting his letters for publication, a note he had
received from Darwin in which he said that “he [Darwin] can with confidence
look to Calvary”. No letter from Eadie ever appeared in the published letters
of Darwin (M:73) - which is not surprising in view of its explosive content.
(C) 1928. Ivor Panin (See Appendix 7) received information by a circuitous
route that an Oxford professor had received a letter from Darwin, whom he
claimed was a close friend, saying he had become a firm Christian. The
professor had commented that, “The position is odd as both his son and
grandson deny his Christianity” (M:85). His acknowledgement that the letter