Did Darwin deny evolution

No. The story traces back to Lady Hope. In a publication 33 years after Darwin's death Lady Hope claimed that Darwin was reading The Bible, that he made some non-committal statements, and that he had asked her to speak to his servants about Jesus. Lady Hope did not claim that Darwin became a Christian, nor did she say he denied evolution. This conversation, if it happened, was during a visit than half a year before Darwin's death.

All of Darwin's writings up until the end, including those after the claimed conversation, are all supportive of Evolution and being agnostic. When stories arose about Darwin converting or denying evolution, Darwin's wife and all of his children denounced it as a fabrication. One of the tensions between Darwin and his wife was her deep faith and his agnosticism. If the stories of conversion and recantation were true then his wife certainly would not have denied it.

Historians consider this to be an urban legend. Even the Creationist organisation answersingenesis says: Lady Hope's story is unsupportable, even if she did actually visit Darwin. He never became a Christian, and he never renounced evolution.