A SKETCH OF DARWIN'S LIFE 1 



1809 Charles Robert Darwin, born Feb. 12, at The Mount, Shrewsbury 



(Plate I), the house of his father, Dr Robert Waring Darwin (b. 1766, 

 d. 1848), who was the son of Erasmus Darwin (b. 1731, d. 1802), Poet, 

 Physician and Evolutionist. On the mother's side Charles Darwin was 

 grandson of Josiah Wedgwood (b. 1730, d. 1795), the founder of the Etruria 

 Pottery Works, Staffordshire. 



Charles Darwin retained a strong feeling of love and respect for his 

 father's memory. His recollection of everything connected with him was 

 peculiarly distinct, and he spoke of him frequently, generally prefacing an 

 anecdote with some such phrase as " My father, who was the wisest man 

 I ever knew." 



"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. ...His 

 chief mental characteristics were his powers of observation and his 

 sympathy, neither of which have I ever seen exceeded or even equalled." 

 Darwin's Autobiography. 



The house is charmingly placed on a steep bank above the Severn. 

 The terraced bank is traversed by a long walk leading from end to end, still 

 called " The Doctor's Walk." At one point in this walk grows a Spanish 

 chestnut, the branches of which bend back parallel to themselves in a 

 curious manner, and this was Darwin's favourite tree as a boy where he 

 and his sister Catherine (Plate II) had each their special seat. 



1817 " At 8^ years old I went to Mr Case's school." [A day-school at Shrews- 



bury kept by the Rev. G. Case, Minister of the Unitarian Chapel.] " By 

 the time I went to this day-school my taste for natural history, and more 

 especially for collecting, was well developed. I tried to make out the names 

 of plants, and collected all sorts of things, shells, seals, franks, coins, and 



1 The quotations are taken for the most part from Charles Darwin's Autobiography {Life 

 and Letters of Charles Darwin, Vol. 1, Chapters 1 and n), from the Pocket Diary, and from 

 letters published in the Life and Letters or in More Letters of Charles Da?ivin. 



