ch. vii.] 1836-1842. 157 



house, with a drawing-room in front, and a small room be- 

 hind, in which they lived for the sake of quietness. In later 

 years my father used to laugh over the surpassing ugliness 

 of the furniture, carpets, &c, of the Gower Street house. 

 The only redeeming feature was a better garden than most 

 London houses have, a strip as wide as the house, and. thirty 

 yards long. Even this small space of dingy grass made 

 their London house more tolerable to its two country-bred 

 inhabitants. 



Of his life in London he writes to Fox (October 1839) : 

 " We are living a life of extreme quietness ; Delamere itself, 

 which you describe as so secluded a spot, is, I will answer 

 for it, quite dissipated compared with Gower Street. We 

 have given up all parties, for they agree with neither of us ; 

 and if one is quiet in London, there is nothing like its quiet- 

 ness there is a grandeur about its smoky fogs, and the dull 

 distant sounds of cabs and coaches ; in fact you may per- 

 ceive I am becoming a thorough-paced Cockney, and I glory 

 in the thought that I shall be here for the next six months." 



The entries of ill health in the Diary increase in number 

 during these years, and as a consequence the holidays become 

 longer and more frequent. 



The entry under August 1839 is : " Read a little, was 

 much unwell and scandalouslv idle. I have derived this 

 much good, that nothing is so intolerable as idleness." 



At the end of 1839 his first child was born, and it was 

 then that he began his observations ultimately published in 

 the Expression of the Emotions. His book on this subject, 

 and the short paper published in Mind* show how closely 

 he observed his child. He seems to have been surprised at 

 his own feeling for a young baby, for he wrote to Fox (July 

 1840) : " He [i.e. the baby] is so charming that I cannot 

 pretend to any modestv. I defy anvbodv to flatter us on 

 our baby, for I defy anyone to say anything in its praise of 

 which we are not fully conscious. ... I had not the smallest 

 conception there was so much in a five-month baby. You 

 will perceive by this that I have a fine degree of paternal 

 fervour." 



In 1841 some improvement in his health became apparent ; 

 he wrote in September : 



" I have steadily been gaining ground, and really believe 

 now I shall some day be quite strong. I write daily for a 



' . . - - - - - - - ' - i -* 



* July 1877. 



