DR. R. W. DARWIN. II 



passionately, 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 con- 

 trast with his own manner of faith. 



A visit which Charles Darwin made to Shrewsbury in 1869 

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

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

 the Mount showed them over the house, &c., 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 he were reviewing the whole relation, and the remem- 

 brance left a deep sense of peace and gratitude. 



What follows was added by Charles Darwin to his autobio- 

 graphical 'Recollections/ and was written about 1877 or 1878. 



" I may here add a few pages about my father, who was in 

 many ways a remarkable man. 



" He was about 6 feet 2 inches in height, with broad 

 shoulders, and very corpulent, so that he was the largest 

 man whom I ever saw. When he last weighed himself, he 



