212 Charles Darwin. 



two in the society of his family, or that of some of his 

 scientific friends who occasionally visited him ; but 

 the greater part of his time was spent in his library, 

 his garden, and the adjacent grounds. A few friends, 

 among whom were Sir John Lubbock and Dr. Farr, 

 near residents, were often with him, and with such 

 he was social, frank, and ever ready to enjoy a joke 

 or frolic ; with all men he was unpretentious, kind, 

 and devoid of any artificiality of manner ; but his 

 life was essentially a secluded one, as may be judged 

 from the fact that the news of his death did not 

 reach London until noon of the following day. 



Nevertheless, his life was far from solitary, for 

 his family formed quite a colony in itself until the 

 children reached maturity. Two children, a boy and 

 a girl, were lost in infancy, one dying in 1842 and the 

 other in 1858, and are buried in the village church- 

 yard of Down, near by some of the Wedgwoods. 



In the family who lived Mr. Darwin was fortunate. 

 His eldest son, William, is a banker at Southampton ; 

 the second, George, took high honours at Cambridge, 

 and is now a Fellow of Trinity College and a dis- 

 tinguished mathematician ; the third, Frank, having 

 inherited his father's delicate constitution, acted as 

 his secretary ; the fourth, Leonard, an officer of 

 artillery, has distinguished himself in the direction of 

 astronomy ; the fifth, Horace, is an excellent mathe- 

 matician. One married and one unmarried daughter 

 complete a family whose constant care has been 

 to relieve its head from any trouble and anxiety. 



Mr. Darwin has always been in easy circumstances, 

 financially, so that he could use his time as he chose, 



