DARWIN. 17 



" The Mount." * Having thus provided the nest, in 1796 

 he brought home his wife, Susannah Wedgwood, eldest 

 daughter of the celebrated potter, to whom he was 

 married at Marylebone Church on April i8th. 



The character and education of Charles Darwin's 

 mother is a matter of considerable interest, notwithstand- 

 ing that her death when he was only eight years old cut 

 short her opportunities of influencing him. She was born 

 at Burslem in January, 1765, and a year after her father 

 describes her as a " fine, sprightly lass : " she became his 

 best-beloved child. She was partly educated in London, 

 under the eye of her father's partner, the accomplished 

 Thomas Bentley, in whose heart she won as tender a place 

 as in her father's. Later she continued her education at 

 home with her brothers, under good tuition. Many 

 visits were exchanged between the Darwins and the 



1 "The house is seen," says Mr. Wooclall, " from the line imme- 

 diately beyond the low tower of St. George's Church. Visitors who 

 make a pilgrimage there, after crossing the Welsh Bridge, follow the 

 main street until St. George's Church is passed, and the continuous 

 line of houses ceases. The next carriage drive, on the right, cutting 

 in two a lofty side-walk, is the entrance to The Mount. A short 

 street of new houses, near St. George's Church, has been called 

 4 Darwin Street ; ' as yet the only public recognition in the town of 

 the greatest of Salopians. A memorial of a more private character 

 has been placed in the Unitarian Chapel, in the form of a tablet 

 bearing the following inscription : ' To the memory of Charles 

 Robert Darwin, author of " The Origin of Species," born in Shrews- 

 bury, February I2th, 1809. In early life a member and constant 

 worshipper in this church. Died April igth, 1882.' Mrs. Darwin, 

 we believe, was not strict in her adhesion to the communion in 

 which she had been brought up, but often attended St. Chad's 

 Church, where Charles and his brother were baptized," 

 2 



