1876-1880] The Darwin Pedigree 237 



of species is nothing to me." Altogether it was very 

 interesting, and he talked very easily and without any 

 condescension, or oracularly. 



Good-bye, dear Mother, you will see us at Easter, 



Your affec. son, 



W. E. D. 



Emma Darwin to her son Francis. 



Whit Tuesday [June 3rd, 1879]. 



. . . We are expecting the Club and band before long, 

 and Bernard has been very full of it since yesterday, and 

 wanting to know all details, and who will carry the flag - 

 the flag is dead which proved a disappointment. You 

 will be surprised to hear of Babba's 1 sternness. He found 

 Bernard overbearing with little Alice, and not giving her 

 her rights about the slide, and pulled him up short with 

 " Oh, nonsense, &c." B. was astonished, but it quite 

 answered. He is very good and placid, and I have had no 

 temptation to resort to lumps of sugar since the day at 

 Basset; but I will not yield to the temptation in any way, 

 as you do not approve of that method of education. . . . He 

 was most solemn listening to the band holding Babba's 

 hand; but he likes to talk about it to-day. . . . 



My brothers had been having the pedigree of the Darwins 

 made out by Colonel Chester, an American who had an 

 enthusiasm for such researches. 



Charles Darwin to his son George. 



MY DEAR GEORGE, June 25 [1879] * 



All your astronomical work is a mere insignificant 



joke compared with your Darwin discoveries. Oh good 



Lord that we should be descended from a ; ' Steward of the 



Peverel "; but what in the name of Heaven does this mean ? 



1 Bernard's name for his grandfather. 



