10 THE DARWIN FAMILY. 



favourite tree as a boy, where he and his sister Catherine had 

 each their special seat. 



The Doctor took great pleasure in his garden, planting it 

 with ornamental trees and shrubs, and being especially suc- 

 cessful in fruit-trees ; and this love of plants was, I think, the 

 only taste kindred to natural history which he possessed. Of 

 the " Mount pigeons," which Miss Meteyard describes as 

 illustrating Dr. Darwin's natural-history tastes, I have not 

 been able to hear from those most capable of knowing. Miss 

 Meteyard's account of him is not quite accurate in a few 

 points. For instance, it is incorrect to describe Dr. Darwin as 

 having a philosophical mind ; his was a mind especially given 

 to detail, and not to generalising. Again, those who knew him 

 intimately describe him as eating remarkably little, so that 

 he was not " a great feeder, eating a goose for his dinner, as 

 easily as other men do a partridge." * In the matter of dress 

 he was conservative, and wore to the end of his life knee- 

 breeches and drab gaiters, which, however, certainly did not, 

 as Miss Meteyard says, button above the knee a form of 

 costume chiefly known to us in grenadiers of Queen Anne's 

 day, and in modern wood-cutters and ploughboys. 



Charles Darwin had the strongest feeling of love and 

 respect for his father's memory. His recollection of every- 

 thing that was connected with him was peculiarly distinct, 

 and he spoke of him frequently ; generally prefacing an anec- 

 dote with some such phrase as, "My father, who was the 

 wisest man I ever knew, &c." It was astonishing how clearly 

 he remembered his father's opinions, so that he was able to 

 quote some maxims or hint of his in most cases of illness. 

 As a rule he put small faith in doctors, and thus his 

 unlimited belief in Dr. Darwin's medical instinct, and 

 methods of treatment was all the more striking. 



His reverence for him was boundless and most touching. He 

 would have wished to judge everything else in the world dis- 

 * ' A Group of Englishmen,' p. 263. 



