THE DARWIN FAMILY. 3 



family.* A portrait of this William Darwin at Elston shows 

 him as a good-looking young man in a full-bottomed wig. 



This third William had two sons, William, and Robert who 

 was educated as a barrister. The Cleatham property was 

 left to William, but on the termination of his line in daughters 

 reverted to the younger brother, who had received Elston. 

 On his mother's death Robert gave up his profession and 

 resided ever afterwards at Elston Hall. Of this Robert, 

 Charles Darwin writes f : — 



" He seems to have had some taste for science, for he was 

 an early member of the well-known Spalding Club ; and the 

 celebrated antiquary Dr. Stukeley, in 'An Account of the 

 almost entire Sceleton of a large Animal,' &c., published in 

 the 'Philosophical Transactions,' April and May 1719, begins 

 the paper as follows : ' Having an account from my friend 

 Robert Darwin, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, a person of curiosity, 

 of a human sceleton impressed in stone, found lately by the 

 rector of Elston,' &c. Stukeley then speaks of it as a great 

 rarity, ' the like whereof has not been observed before in this 

 island to my knowledge.' Judging from a sort of litany 

 written by Robert, and handed down in the family, he was a 

 strong advocate of temperance, which his son ever afterwards 

 so strongly advocated : — 



From a morning that doth shine, 



From a boy that drinketh wine, 



From a wife that talketh Latine, 



Good Lord deliver me ! 



* Captain Lassells, or Lascelles, of Elston was military secretary to 

 Monk, Duke of Albemarle, during the Civil Wars. A large volume of 

 account books, countersigned in many places by Monk, are now in the 

 possession of my cousin Francis Darwin. The accounts might possibly 

 prove of interest to the antiquarian or historian. A portrait of Captain 

 Lassells in armour, although used at one time as an archery-target by some 

 small boys of our name, was not irretrievably ruined. 



f What follows is quoted from Charles Darwin's biography of his grand- 

 father, forming the preliminary notice to Ernst Krause's interesting essay, 

 'Erasmus Darwin,' London, 1879, p. 4. 



i 



