70 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, iv 



book on Coral islands, which he says no human being will 

 ever read, but there is such a rage for geology that I hope 

 better things. Will you give my kindest love to my Uncle 

 Sis. ? God bless you, my dearest Aunt J. 



. 



Charles Darwin to Emma Darwin (at Maer). 



Monday Morning [May, 1842]. 



... On Saturday I went in the City and did a deal of 

 printing business. I came back gloomy and tired; the 

 government money has gone much quicker than I thought, 

 and the expenses of the Coral volume are greater, being from 

 130 to 140. I am be-blue-deviled. I am daily growing 

 very old, very very cold and I daresay very sly. 1 I will 

 give you statistics of time spent on my Coral volume, not 

 including all the work on board the Beagle. I commenced 

 it 3 years and 7 months ago, and have done scarcely any- 

 thing besides. I have actually spent 20 months out of this 

 period on it ! and nearly all the remainder sickness and 

 visiting ! ! ! Catty stops till Saturday; notwithstanding 

 all my boasting of not caring for solitude, I believe I should 

 have been dreary without her. . . . Yesterday I went at 

 2 o'clock and [had] an hour's hard talk with Horner on 

 affairs of Geolog. Soc., and it quite knocked me up, and this 

 makes my letter rather blue in its early stages. After long 

 watching the postman your letter has at last arrived. You 

 cannot tell how much I enjoy hearing about you all. How 

 astonishing your walking round Birth Hill; I believe now 

 the country will do you good. What a nice account you 

 give of Charlotte's tranquil maternity. I wish the Baby 

 was livelier, for liveliness is an extreme charm in bab-chicks. 

 Good-bye I long to kiss Annie. 



C. D. 



1 An allusion to one of Harry Wedgwood's verses an epitaph on 

 Susan Darwin. 



Here the bones of Susan lie, 

 She was old and cold and sly. 



