58 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



Here, and in the by-paths of adjacent woods and meadows, Mr. 

 Darwin was accustomed to take daily exercise with a characteristic 

 regularity. Up to ten or twelve years ago, his tall figure, mounted 

 on a favorite old black horse, was a familiar object in the country 

 lanes. This animal fell and died suddenly one day, after which it 

 was noted that Mr. Darwin rode no more. His invariable hours for 

 walking, in these later years, were seven in the morning, noon, and 

 four o'clock in the afternoon, usually accompanied by one or more 

 of his sons ; one of whom, Mr. Francis Darwin, has long been es- 

 tablished as a surgeon in the hamlet of Downe. His habits were ex- 

 tremely regular. He rose at six, took a cold plunge bath (which 

 was repeated in the evening), breakfasted alone, and after his first 

 morning walk was usually in his library by 8 A. M. At nine he 

 would spend a little time in the dining-room opening his mail, and 

 in the evening would linger an hour or two in the society of his 

 family, or that of some of his scientific friends who occasionally 

 visited him ; but the greater part of his time was spent in his library, 

 his garden, and the adjacent grounds. A few friends, among whom 

 were Sir John Lubbock and Dr. Farr, near residents, were often 

 with him, and with such he was social, frank and ever ready to en- 

 joy a joke or frolic ; with all men he was unpretentious, kind, and 

 devoid of any artificiality of manner ; but his life was essentially a 

 secluded one, as may be judged from the fact that the news of his 

 death did not reach London until noon of the following day. 



Nevertheless, his life was far from solitary, for his family formed 

 quite a colony in itself until the children reached maturity. Two 

 children, a boy and girl, were lost in infancy, one dying in 1842 

 and the other in 1858, and are buried in the village churchyard of 

 Downe, near by some of the Wedgewoods. 



In the family who lived Mr. Darwin was fortunate. His eldest 

 son, William, is a banker at Southampton ; the second, George, 

 took high honors at Cambridge, and is now a Fellow of Trinity Col- 

 lege and a distinguished mathematician ; the third, Frank, having 

 inherited his father's delicate constitution, acted as his secretary; 

 the fourth, Leonard, an officer of artillery, has distinguished himself 



