OBITUARY i 



[1888] 



CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN was the fifth child 

 and second son of Robert Waring Darwin and 

 Susannah Wedgwood, and was born on the 12th 

 February, 1809, at Shrewsbury, where his father 

 was a physician in large practice. 



Mrs. Robert Darwin died when her son Charles 

 was only eight years old, and he hardly remem- 

 bered her. A daughter of the famous Josiah 

 Wedgwood, who created a new branch of the 

 potter's art, and established the great works of 

 Etruria, could hardly fail to transmit important 

 mental and moral qualities to her children ; and 

 there is a solitary record of her direct influence 

 in the story told by a schoolfellow, who remembers 

 Charles Darwin " bringing a flower to school, and 



1 From the Obituary Notices of the Proceedings of the Royal 

 Society, vol. 44. 



