28 EARLY LETTERS [CHAP. I 



Letter 8 To Josiah Wedgwood. 



[Shrewsbury, Oct. 5th, 1836.] 



MY DEAR UNCLE 



The Beagle arrived at Falmouth on Sunday evening, 

 and I reached home late last night. My head is quite con- 

 fused with so much delight, but I cannot allow my sisters to 

 tell you first how happy I am to see all my dear friends again. 

 I am obliged to return in three or four days to London, where 

 the Beagle will be paid off, and then I shall pay Shrewsbury 

 a longer visit. I am most anxious once again to see Maer, 

 and all its inhabitants, so that in the course of two or three 

 weeks, I hope in person to thank you, as being my first Lord 

 of the Admiralty. 1 I am so very happy I hardly know what 

 I am writing. Believe me your most affectionate nephew, 



CHAS. DARWIN. 



Letter 9 To C. Lyell. 



Shrewsbury, Monday [Nov. I2th, 1838]. 



MY DEAR LYELL 



I suppose you will be in Hart St. 2 to-morrow [or] the 

 1 4th. 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 [i.e. until lately] 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 



1 Readers of the Life and Letters will remember that it was to Josiah 

 Wedgwood that Darwin owed the great opportunity of his life (Life and 

 Letters, Vol. I., page 59), and it was fitting that he should report himself 

 to his " first Lord of the Admiralty." The present letter clears up a 

 small obscurity to which Mr. Poulton has called attention (Charles 

 Darwin and the Theory of Natural Selection, "Century" Series, 1896, 

 p. 25). Writing to Fitz-Roy from Shrewsbury on October 6th, Darwin 

 says, " I arrived here yesterday morning at breakfast time." This 

 refers to his arrival at his father's house, after having slept at the inn. 

 The date of his arrival in Shrewsbury was, therefore, October 4th, as 

 given in the Life and Letters, I., p. 272. The entries in his Diary are : 



Oct. 2, 1831. Took leave of my home. 



Oct. 4, 1836. Reached Shrewsbury after absence of 5 years and 2 days. 



2 Sir Charles Lyell lived at 16, Hart Street, Bloomsbury. 



