1 839.] MARRIAGE. 299 



" I am delighted to hear you are such a good man as not 

 to have forgotten my questions about the crossing of animals. 

 It is my prime hobby, and I really think some day I shall be 

 able to do something in that most intricate subject, species 

 and varieties."] 



1839 to 1841. 



[In the winter of 1839 (Jan. 29) my father was married to 

 his cousin, Emma Wedgwood.* The house in which they 

 lived for the first few years of their married life, No. 12 Upper 

 Gower Street, was a small common-place London house, with 

 a drawing-room in front, and a small room behind, in which 

 they lived for the sake of quietness. In later years my 

 father used to laugh over the surpassing ugliness of the 

 furniture, carpets, &c., of the Gower Street house. The only 

 redeeming feature was a better garden than most London 

 houses have, a strip as wide as the house, and thirty yards 

 long. Even this small space of dingy grass made their 

 London house more tolerable to its two country-bred 

 inhabitants. 



Of his life in London he writes to Fox (October 1839): 

 " We are living a life of extreme quietness ; Delamere itself, 

 which you describe as so secluded a spot, is, I will answer for 

 it, quite dissipated compared with Gower Street. We have 

 given up all parties, for they agree with neither of us ; and if 

 one is quiet in London, there is nothing like its quietness 

 there is a grandeur about its smoky fogs, and the dull distant 

 sounds of cabs and coaches ; in fact you may perceive I am 

 becoming a thorough-paced Cockney, and I glory in thoughts 

 that I shall be here for the next six months." 



The entries of ill health in the Diary increase in number 

 during these years, and as a consequence the holidays 

 become longer and more frequent. From April 26 to May 13, 



* Daughter of Josiah Wedgwood of Maer, and grand-daughter of the 

 founder of the Etruria Pottery Works. 



