Ch. I.] THE DAKWINS. 3 



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 

 dispassionately, but anything his father had said was received 

 with almost implicit faith. His daughter, Mrs. Litchfield, 

 remembers him saying that he hoped none of his sons would 

 ever believe anything because he said it, unless they were 

 themselves convinced of its truth — a feeling in striking contrast 

 with his own manner of faith. 



A visit which Charles Darwin made to Shrewsbury in 1869 

 left on the mind of the daughter who accompanied him a strong 

 impression of his love for his old home. The tenant of the 

 Mount at the time, showed them over the house, and with mis- 

 taken hospitality remained with the party during the whole 

 visit. As they were leaving, Charles Darwin said, with a 

 pathetic look of regret, " If I could have been left alone in 

 that green-house for five minutes, I know I should have been 

 able to see my father in his wheel-chair as vividly as if he had 

 been there before me." 



Perhaps this incident shows what I think is the truth, that 

 the memory of his father he loved the best, was that of him as 

 an old man. Mrs. Litchfield has noted down a few words 

 which illustrate well his feeling towards his father. She 

 describes him as saying with the most tender respect, " I think 

 my father was a little unjust to me when I was young ; but 

 afterwards, I am thankful to think I became a prime favourite 

 with him." She has a vivid recollection of the expression of 

 happy reverie that accompanied these words, as if ho were 

 reviewing the whole relation, and the remembrance left a deep 

 sense of peace and gratitude. 



Dr. Darwin had six children, of whom none are now living : 

 Marianne, married Dr. Henry Parker ; Caroline, married Josiah 

 Wedgwood ; Erasmus Alvey ; Susan, died unmarried ; Charles 

 Robert ; Catharine, married Eev. Charles Langton. 



The elder son, Erasmus, was born in 1801, and died un- 

 married at the age of seventy-seven. 



His name, not known to the general public, may be remem- 

 bered from a few words of description occurring in Carlyle's 

 J: •miniscences (vol. ii. p. 208). A truer and more sympathetic 

 sketch of his character, by his cousin, Miss Julia Wedgwood, 

 was published in the Spectator, September 3, 1881. 



There was something pathetic in Charles Darwin's affection 

 for his brother Erasmus, as if he always recollected his solitary 



B 2 



