56 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, m 



enchanted castle, everything was there before one wanted 

 it; you inspired your servants too I think. When I asked 

 for the washing bills, they said they had orders not to send 

 the linen to the wash till after we were gone. Is not this 

 your very mother ? and is it not conspiring against your 

 husband's purse ? 



I have just been down to ask S. if he had any commands. 

 I found him in an ecstasy over your husband's book. 1 He 

 said it was the most attractive reading he had met with; 

 that notwithstanding his ignorance of natural history he 

 found the greatest interest in it, that it was written with so 

 much feeling, so good, so right a heart. . . . 



In Maria Edge worth's published letters there is the fol- 

 lowing description of my mother. There had been a friend- 

 ship between the Edgeworths and Wedgwoods dating back 

 from the time of the first Josiah Wedgwood. In 1340 

 Miss Edgeworth was 73 years old. Pec. 26, 1840) : " Off we 

 went to Mrs Debrizey's, Mrs Darwin's, Mrs Edward 

 Romilly's. Mrs Darwin is the youngest daughter of Jos 

 W T edgwood, and is worthy of both father and mother; 

 affectionate and unaffected, and, young as she is, full of 

 old times. She has her mother's radiantly cheerful counte- 

 nance, even now, debarred from all London gaieties and all 

 gaiety but that of her own mind by close attendance on her 

 sick husband." 



The life of watching and nursing, which was to be my 

 mother's for so long, had now cut her off from the world. 

 London was no longer suitable for either of my parents and 

 they were beginning to think of moving to the country. 



Madame Sismondi to her niece Emma Darwin. 



CHNE, Jan. 26, 1841. 



... If I had written to you ten days ago I should have 

 told you Sismondi was much better, 2 but within that time 

 his hiccup has returned as violent as ever, and lasts the 

 whole day. He continues to work in spite of it all the 



1 A Naturalist's Voyage round the World. 



2 Sismondi's fatal illness began during their stay in England in 1840. 



