A CENTURY OF FAMILY LETTERS 



CHAPTER T 



18381839 



Charles and Emma engaged Dr. Darwin's delight Suburbs versus 

 London A letter from Sismondi Ho use -hunting. 



IT seems to have been in the summer of 1838 that my 

 father determined to ask Emma to be his wife. He was 

 however far from hopeful, partly because of his looks, for 

 he had the strange idea that his delightful face, so full of 

 power and sweetness, was repellently plain. He went to 

 Maer on Nov. 8, and on Nov. 11 " The day of days," is 

 written in his diary. The letters which follow show how 

 warmly the engagement was received by friends and 

 relatives alike. 



Charles Darwin to Charles Lyell. 



DREWSBUKY, 



MY DEAB LYELL, Monday [12 November, 1838]. 



I suppose you will be in Hart St. to-morrow, the 

 14th. I write because I cannot avoid wishing to be the 

 first person to tell Mrs Lyell and yourself that I have the 

 very good, and shortly since very unexpected fortune, of 

 going to be married. The lady is my cousin, Miss Emma 

 Wedgwood, the sister of Hensleigh Wedgwood, and of the 

 elder brother who married my sister, so we are connected 

 by manifold ties, besides on my part by the most sincere 

 love and hearty gratitude to her for accepting such a one 

 as myself. 



I determined when last at Maer to try my chance, but 

 VOL. n. 1 



