I839-] MARRIAGE. 269 



[The record of what he wrote during the year does not 

 give a true index of the most important work that was in 

 progress, — the laying of the foundation-stones of what was to 

 be the achievement of his life. This is shown in the fore- 

 going letter to Lyell, where he speaks of being "idle," and 

 the following extract from a letter to Fox, written in June, is 

 of interest in this point of view : 



" 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 be- 

 hind, 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 Lon- 

 don 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 in- 

 habitants. 



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 quiet- 



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

 founder of the Etruria Works. 



