The Ancestry of Francis Gallon 17 



that we can find so little trace of it in the generations of Darwins before 

 Erasmus. They belonged more recently to the smaller squirearchy 

 and ultimately to the yeoman class. As far as a full pedigree has 

 yet been traced the Darwin stock is linked by the marriage of 

 Erasmus' great-grandfather William Darwin with Ann Earle to a stock 

 of considerable ability. Ann's father Erasmus Earle (whence ulti- 

 mately the name Erasmus) was " Own Serjeant " to the Commonwealth, 

 a lawyer and diplomatist of some distinction, from whom through 

 the female line the Lytton Bulwers or Bulwer-Lyttons trace descent (see 

 Plate LXII). There is no evidence, however, of any member of the 

 Earles having had scientific ability, and such distinction of the more 

 literary kind as might come from this family must have laid dormant 

 for two generations. Until the pedigree of the Hills is more fully 

 worked out, I am inclined to think that Erasmus Darwin's mother, 

 Elizabeth Hill of Sleaford, may have brought some of their exceptional 

 ability into the family 1 . Her portrait (see Plate VII) shows her to 

 have been a lady of much character and her husband Robert Darwin 

 (see Plate VI) is reported to have composed the verse : 



" From a morning that doth shine, 



From a boy that drinketh wine, 



From a wife that talketh Latine, 



Good Lord deliver me ! " 



where the third line is suggested by Charles Darwin to have had some 

 relation to the learned character of Robert's own wife ! 



So far we have kept to Charles Darwin's line of descent in the 

 Darwin family, i.e. that connected with Erasmus Darwin's first wife Mary 

 Howard (see Note II, Appendix). It seems likely that a certain delicacy, 

 but possibly also a certain increase of sympathy and gentleness, was 

 brought into the Darwin stock by this lady ; she died at 30 years of age. 



For eleven years Erasmus Darwin remained unmarried 2 , then at 



1 I have examined all the available wills of the Sleaford Hills and the church 

 registers in the hope of linking up Erasmus Darwin with Sir John Hill, the botanist, 

 who sprung from Lincoln, but I have found no link so far. 



2 From the standpoint of heredity it is of interest to know that he had in the 

 interval two natural daughters whom he educated ; he set up a school and wrote a book 

 on female education for them, and provided his own later daughters as pupils. One of 

 these ladies afterwards married a doctor and her son became a distinguished surgeon. 

 This lady and her future husband are shown in the "hydrophobia" staircase scene from 

 the MS. autobiography of Sir Francis S. Darwin's boyhood : see Plate X. 



p. G. 3 



