1876-1880] William Darwin s Engagement 229 



Charles Darwin to Sara Sedgwick. 



MY DEAR SARA, DOWN, Sept. 2Mh [1877]. 



I must tell you how deeply I rejoice over my son's 

 good fortune. You will believe me, when I say that for 

 very many years I have not seen any woman, whom I have 

 liked and esteemed so much as you. I hope and firmly 

 believe that you will be very happy together, notwithstand- 

 ing that you may find Southampton rather a dull place, 

 about which my son feels such great fears. His dread that 

 you are sacrificing too much in giving up your American 

 home is natural, but I trust will prove groundless. Judging 

 from my own experience life would be a most dreary blank 

 without a dear wife to love with all one's soul. 1 can say 

 with absolute truth that no act or conduct of William has 

 ever in his whole life caused me one minute's anxiety or 

 disapproval. His temper is beautifully sweet and affec- 

 tionate and he delights in doing little kindnesses. That you 

 may be happy together is my strong desire, and I thank you 

 from the bottom of my heart for having accepted him. 

 My dear Sara, Yours affectionately, 



CHARLES DARWIN. 



He was saved from this fate by Ma marriage recorded above. All 

 that his wife and his home at Basset were to his parents will 

 appear in the text. His wife shared the special affection that 

 united their eldest child to his father and mother. 



After Sara's death in 1902 and his retirement from business, he 

 moved to 11, Egerton Place, London, where he welcomed brothers, 

 sisters, nephews and nieces with a self-effacing hospitality which 

 reminded some of them of their uncle Erasmus Darwin. He gave 

 an English home to his American nieces, the Miss Nortons, with 

 whom, as also with the daughters of his brother George, the bond of 

 affection was strong. 



In 1900 he lost his leg from a hunting accident a deprivation 

 borne with unconscious patience. To the end he remained erect and 

 active looking. He was particularly neat in dress, and with his 

 shaven face and small whiskers he had somewhat the air of a naval 

 officer. He read much in a wide range of subjects biography, 

 history, fiction and science. A familiar occurrence was his being a 

 few minutes late for a meal because he was " just finishing a para- 

 graph." As regards science he had some practical knowledge of 

 geology and of field-botany; his careful observations on the pollina- 

 tion of Epipactis palustris are referred to in the Fertilisation of 

 Orchids, 2nd Edit., 1877, p. 99. F. D 



