1843-1845] Charles and his Children 93 



Charles Darwin to Emma Darwin at Maer. 



MY DEAR WrFE [DOWN], Monday night, Feb., 1845. 



Now for my day's annals. In the morning I was 

 baddish, and did hardly any work, and was as much over- 

 come by my children as ever Bishop Copleston was with 

 duck. 1 But the children have been very good all day, and 

 I have grown a good deal better this afternoon, and had 

 a good romp with Baby I see, however, very little of the 

 blesseds. The day was so thick and wet a fog that none 

 of them went out, though a thaw and not very cold; I had 

 a long pace in the kitchen garden : Lewis came up to mend 

 the pipe, and from first dinner to second dinner was a first- 

 rate dispensary [dispensation] as they never left him. They, 

 also, dined in the kitchen, and I believe have had a particu- 

 larly pleasant day. 



I was playing with Baby in the window of the drawing- 

 room this morning and she was blowing a feeble fly and 

 blew it on its back, when it kicked so hard that to my great 

 amusement Baby grew red in the face, looked frightened, 

 and pushed away from the window. The children are 

 growing so quite out of all rule in the drawing-room, jumping 

 on everything and butting like young bulls at every chair 

 and sofa, that I am going to have the dining-room fire lighted 

 to-morrow and keep them out of the drawing-room. I 

 declare a month's such wear would spoil everything in the 

 whole drawing-room. 



I read Whately's 2 Shakespeare, and very ingenious and 

 interesting it is and what do you think Mitford's Greece 

 has made me begin, the Iliad by Cowper which we were 

 talking of; and I have read three books with much more 

 pleasure than I anticipated. 



Tuesday morning. I am impatient for your letter this 



1 This must be some family joke. Bishop Copleston had been a 

 friend of Sir James Mackintosh. 



2 Thomas Whately (d. 1772), nncle of Archbishop Whately, wrote 

 Remarks on some of the Characters of Shakespeare. The Archbishop 

 called it " one of the ablest critical works that ever appeared." 



