CHAPTER XIV. 



HOME LIFE. 



Appearance of Darwin — Continued Ill-Health — Daily Habits — 

 Change in Musical and Literary Tastes — Affection 

 for His Children. 



NE of the most speaking 

 descriptions, or rather im- 

 pressions, of Darwin, as he 

 appeared late in Hfe in his 

 own home, has been given 

 by Professor Haeckel, of 

 Jena. He writes : " In 

 Darwin's own carriage, 

 which he had thought- 

 fully sent for my conve- 

 nience to the railway sta- 

 tion, I drove one sunny 

 morning in October through the graceful hilly land- 

 scape of Kent, that with the chequered foliage of its 

 woods, with its stretches of purple heath, yellow 

 broom, and evergreen oaks, was arrayed in its fairest 

 autumnal dress. As the carriage drew up in front of 

 Darwin's pleasant country-house, clad in a vesture of 



131 



