18 LIFE OF 



Wedgwoods, and old Erasmus Darwin became very fond 

 of Miss Wedgwood. By the time of her marriage she 

 was matured by much intercourse with notable people, as 

 well as by extensive reading, and from her experience of 

 London society and varied travel in England was well 

 fitted to shine as the county doctor's wife. From her 

 father, who died in 1795, she had doubtless inherited, in 

 addition to a handsome fortune, many valuable faculties, 

 and probably she transmitted more of them to her son 

 Charles than she herself manifested. Josiah Wedgwood, 

 over whose career it would be delightful to linger, is well 

 described by Miss Meteyard in words which might be 

 precisely applied to Charles Darwin, as " patient, stedfast, 

 humble, simple, unconscious of half his own greatness, 

 and yet by this very simplicity, patience, and stedfastness 

 displaying the high quality of his moral and intellectual 

 characteristics, even whilst insuring that each step was in 

 the right direction, and firmly planted." A truly experi- 

 mental genius in artistic manufacture, Wedgwood fore- 

 shadowed a far greater experimental genius in science. 



Before her famous son was born, however, Mrs. 

 Darwin's health had begun to fail, and in 1807 she wrote 

 to a friend : " Every one seems young but me." Her 

 second son (four daughters having preceded him) was 

 born at The Mount on February 12, 1809, and christened 

 " Charles Robert," at St. Chad's Church, Shrewsbury, on 

 November i7th following. No doubt her declining health 

 emphasised her attachment to home pursuits, to quiet 

 reading, to the luxuriant garden, and to her numerous 

 domestic pets. The beauty, variety, and lameness of The 

 Mount pigeons was well known in the town and far 



