|
|
EMMA DARWIN
A CENTURY OF FAMILY LETTERS
1792-1896
EDITED BY HER DAUGHTER
HENRIETTA LITCHFIELD
IN TWO VOLUMES ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME I
JOHN MURRAY, LONDON 1915
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I
Frontispiece.
Mrs Charles Darwin, 1839.
From a water-colour painting by George Richmond, R.A.,
in possession of Charles Galton Darwin.
Serene will be our days and bright,
And happy will our nature be,
When love is an unerring light,
And joy its own security.
And they a blissful course may hold
Even now, who, not unwisely bold,
Live in the spirit of this creed;
Yet seek thy firm support, according to their need.
WORDSWORTH: Ode to Duty.TO MY NIECE FRANCES CORNFORD
MY WISE AND SYMPATHETIC COUNSELLOR
IN EDITING THIS BOOK
PREFACE
ERASMUS DARWIN
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
FAMILY PEDIGREES
CHAPTER I. 1792—1800.
Emma Wedgwood—The Allens of Cresselly—Sir James Mackintosh—The Wedgwoods and Darwins—Josiah Wedgwood's marriage—A ball at Ramsgate—Tom Wedgwood's ill-health—The Wedgwoods at Gunville
CHAPTER II. 1804—1807.
John Hensleigh Allen inherits Cresselly—Departure of the Mackintoshes for India—A press-gang story—Tom Wedgwood's death—Return of the Josiah Wedgwoods to Staffordshire—Sarah Wedgwood and Jessie Allen
CHAPTER III. 1813—1814.
John Allen's marriage—Jessie, Emma, and Fanny Allen at Dulwich—The Mackintoshes in Great George Street—An escapade of the Duke of Brunswick—London parties and Madame de Staël
CHAPTER IV. MAER.
Maer Hall—The children of Josiah Wedgwood—A picnic at Trentham—Emma Caldwell's picture of life at Maer—Emma Darwin's comment seventy-two years later—Emma's childhood
CHAPTER V. 1814—1815.
The Prudent Man's Friend Society—The John Wedgwoods and Drewes at Exeter—The Battle of Waterloo—Ensign Tom Wedgwood's letters from Waterloo and Paris—Fanny Allen's pro-Buonapartism—The Maer party at a Race ball
CHAPTER VI. 1815—1816.
The Allen sisters abroad—Paris after Waterloo—Fanny Allen and William Clifford—Harriet Drewe's engagement to Mr Gifford—A family gathering at Bath—Sarah Wedgwood's love-affairs—Bessy visits Mrs Surtees—Geneva society—The Sydney Smiths at Etruria—Kitty Mackintosh and her daughters—The Allen sisters" journey to Florence
CHAPTER VII. 1816.
The crisis in Davison's Bank—Its failure averted—The loss of the John Wedgwood's fortune—Their move to Betley
CHAPTER VIII. 1817.
The Allen sisters at Pisa, with Caroline Drewe and her family—Sismondi's courtship—Algernon Langton and Marianne Drewe—Sarah Wedgwood and Jessie Allen—Anne Caldwell's marriage
CHAPTER IX. 1818.
The Josiah Wedgwoods in Paris—The Collos Cousins—William Clifford—Dancing lessons—Madame Catalani—Emma's first letter—Society and housekeeping in Paris—Fanny and Emma at school—A letter from their old nurse
CHAPTER X. 1819.
Jessie Allen and Sismondi—An outpour to her sister—Bessy's reply—Some account of Sismondi—Their early married life—Posting across France
CHAPTER XI. 1819—1823.
Emma Allen and her nieces, Fanny and Emma Wedgwood—A gigantic cheese—Races and Race-Balls—Dr Darwin and his daughters—A singing party of girls at the Mount, Shrewsbury—Fanny and Emma at school in London—Sunday-school at Maer—The Sismondis at Geneva
CHAPTER XII. 1823—1824.
Bessy's lessening strength—A Wedgwood-Darwin party at Scarborough—Visit to Sydney Smith at Foston Rectory—a memorable debate—An averted duel—Emma confirmed—Revels and flirtations—Kitty Wedgwood's death—Sarah Wedgwood builds on Maer Heath
CHAPTER XIII. 1825—1826.
Fanny and Emma Allen return to Cresselly—The death of Caroline Wedgwood—The Grand Tour of the Josiah Wedgwoods—Frank Wedgwood at Maer—Their return home in October—Allen Wedgwood Vicar of Maer—The anti-slavery agitation
CHAPTER XIV. 1826—1827.
The Sismondis in England—Fanny and Emma Wedgwood at Geneva—Bessy and her daughter Charlotte at Ampthill—Life at Geneva—Sarah Wedgwood's generosity—The Prince of Denmark—Edward Drewe's love-affair—Harry Wedgwood on French plays—Fanny and Emma return home—Lady Byron at Geneva
CHAPTER XV. 1827—1830.
The Mackintoshes at Maer—A bazaar at Newcastle—Bessy on the Drewe-Prévost affair—The house in York Street sold—The John Wedgwoods abroad—Edward Drewe's marriage—The Mackintoshes at Clapham—Bessy's illness at Roehampton—Harriet Surtees at Chêne—Harry Wedgwood's engagement—A gay week at Woodhouse
CHAPTER XVI. 1830—1831.
Lady Mackintosh's death—Sir James Mackintosh a member of the Board of Control—Hensleigh Wedgwood engaged to Fanny Mackintosh—Elizabeth in London—The second reading of the Reform Bill—A meeting between Wordsworth and Jeffrey—Josiah Wedgwood defeated at Newcastle—Edward and Adèle Drewe—Fear of cholera—Mrs Patterson and Countess Guiccioli
CHAPTER XVII. 1831—1832.
Charles Darwin's voyage round the world—Hensleigh Wedgwood appointed a Police Magistrate in London—His marriage to Fanny Mackintosh—Fanny Allen and the Irvingites—The cholera—Sir James Mackintosh's death—Charlotte Wedgwood marries Charles Langton—Frank Wedgwood marries Fanny Mosley—Charlotte at Ripley—Fanny Wedgwood's death
CHAPTER XVIII. 1832—1834.
Josiah Wedgwood elected for Stoke-upon-Trent—Bessy's fall at Roehampton and serious illness—The Langtons at Onibury—Miss Martineau and Mrs Marsh—Hensleigh Wedgwood's scruples as to administering oaths—William Clifford abroad—A tour in Switzerland and visit to Queen Hortense at Constance
CHAPTER XIX. 1835—1837.
Home life at Maer—Mrs Marsh as novelist—Fanny Allen on Mr Scott—Emma Wedgwood visits Cresselly—Mrs John Wedgwood's sudden death at Shrewsbury—Emma Wedgwood at musical festivals—Charles Darwin returns home—Emma at Edinburgh—C. D. on marriage
CHAPTER XX. 1837—1838.
The younger Josiah Wedgwood's engagement to his cousin
Caroline Darwin—The Sismondis at Pescia—A tour in the
Apennines—Mrs Norton at Cresselly—Emma at Shrewsbury
and Onibury—Hensleigh resigns his Police Magistracy—A
family meeting in Paris—Bro's illness
PREFACE
A NUMBER of family letters (originally in the possession of my aunt, Miss Elizabeth Wedgwood) were found amongst my mother's papers, and were placed in my hands by her executors, my brothers William and George Darwin. Broadly speaking, these letters cover the period during which my grandfather, Josiah Wedgwood, lived at Maer Hall in Staffordshire, and I shall speak of them as the "Maer letters."
After my mother's death I thought that some record of her life and character would be of value to her grandchildren, and with this view began to put down all that I could remember. Whilst reading these old letters in order to get light on her youth and early middle life, I became much interested in the personalities of the writers, and it seemed best to include such of them as are of interest in themselves, as well as those that bear on my mother. The letters written by the Allens (Mrs Josiah Wedgwood and her sisters) fill most of the first volume, and there are but few of my mother's until the second.
The whole mass of letters, on which the early part of this family record is founded, were given to me in a state of absolute confusion. It was the habit of the family to send letters to and from London in boxes of goods despatched from the pottery works at Etruria, hence there is often no postmark; and the writers frequently give only the day of the week or month. During the enforced leisure of a long illness my husband arranged, dated, and annotated the whole series, a task which required the same sort of minute care and endless patience as the piecing out of a gigantic puzzle.
He read aloud to me every one of the hundreds of letters, and we discussed together what was worth preserving. In the earlier chapters most of the notes are written by him. Some of these may appear superfluous, but it should be remembered that his object was to make the book interesting to the younger members of the Darwin family.
Many omissions are made without putting any sign that this has been done, and neither the punctuation nor the spelling has been rigidly followed.
The pedigrees of the Allen, Wedgwood, and Darwin families, and a list of the principal characters, are given for convenience of reference at the beginning of each volume.
I have received valuable help, criticism, and encouragement from various friends, and especially from Professor A. V. Dicey, Miss M. J. Shaen, my brother Francis, and my niece Mrs F. M. Cornford. To the late Sir John Simon I owe the first idea of this book. Up to the day of his death, in July, 1904, he never ceased to interest himself in its progress. He read the whole in the typewritten copy and followed the proofs as they came from the press.
I wish to thank Mr John Murray for kindly allowing me to give several of the illustrations from More Letters of Charles Darwin; Messrs Elliott and Fry for their permission to make use of the fine portrait of my father in the second volume of that work, and Messrs Barraud for the same permission with regard to their portrait of my mother; Messrs Maull and Fox for allowing me to reproduce an early photograph of my mother; and Mr Prescott Row, the Editor of the Homeland Handbook Association, and Mr G. W. Smith for their kind permission to make use of Mr Smith's photograph of Down Village.
Mrs Vaughan Williams of Leith Hill Place, Mrs Godfrey Wedgwood, Mr Cecil Wedgwood, my brother Horace, and my nephew Charles Darwin, have been so good as to allow me to reproduce various family pictures. I also wish to thank Miss M. J. Shaen for allowing me to use her excellent photograph of my mother, taken in the drawing-room at Down, three months before her death.
These volumes were originally prepared for private circulation only. It was suggested to me by many of those who read them that they would interest a larger public. I have, therefore, prepared them for publication by omitting what was of purely private interest.
H. E. L.
BURROWS HILL,
GOMSHALL,
SURREY.
ERASMUS DARWIN
BORN DECEMBER 7, 1881. KILLED IN ACTION APRIL 24, 1915.
SINCE this book was finished Erasmus Darwin, a grandson of Charles and Emma Darwin, has been killed in action. He was only thirty-three years old, and his life was cut short before all its promise could be fulfilled; but he had already shown himself a man of such rare abilities and so fine and lovable a character that it has been felt that some account of him should be put on record. At the request of his aunt, Mrs. Litchfield, I therefore add to her book this little tribute to his memory. I have made use of a notice already published in The Times, and have supplemented it from letters written by the Commanding Officer and some of the men of Erasmus's battalion, and by those of his friends who can speak of a side of his life of which I have no direct knowledge.
Erasmus was the eldest child and only son of Horace and Ida Darwin, and a grandson on his mother's side of the first Lord Farrer. He was born on December 7, 1881, at Cambridge, which was throughout his life the home of his father and mother. He was in Cotton House at Marlborough, and gained an exhibition for mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge. He came up to Trinity in October, 1901, and took the Mathematical Tripos in his second year, being placed among the Senior Optimes. Afterwards he took the Mechanical Sciences Tripos, and was placed in the second class in 1905. On leaving Cambridge, he went through the shops at Messrs. Mather and Platt's at Manchester. After this he worked for some little while with the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, of which he was a director, and then became assistant secretary of Bolckow, Vaughan and Company, Ltd., at Middlesbrough. Here he stayed for seven years, and at the outbreak of war occupied the position of secretary to the company.
As soon as the war broke out, Erasmus decided to join the army, and in September, 1914, he was gazetted a Second-Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion (Territorial) of Alexandra Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment. The Commanding Officer, Colonel Bell, and many of the other officers were among his personal friends at Middlesbrough. The battalion crossed to France, as part of the Northumbrian Division, on April 17, 1915, and was almost immediately called upon to take part in very severe fighting in the neighbourhood of Ypres. It is impossible to give any very accurate or detailed account of the action, but to their honour be it said that these Territorial troops, fresh from home and tried at the very outset almost as highly as men could be tried, played a worthy part in the battle which has earned such undying glory for the soldiers of Canada. They behaved with a steadiness and coolness which gained for them the congratulations of the Generals commanding respectively their Division and their Army Corps. Early in the afternoon of April 24 the regiment had lined some trenches. Later, at about three o'clock, they were withdrawn from the trenches and ordered to attack. This attack they successfully carried out, and drove the enemy back for a mile or more before being ordered to retire about dusk. It was during this advance that Erasmus fell, killed instantaneously. The Royal Irish Fusiliers recovered his body, together with that of his friend, Captain John Nancarrow, and the two lie buried in one grave, with a little cross over it, by a farmhouse near St. Julien.
I cannot do better than quote a letter written to Erasmus's mother by Corporal Wearmouth, who was in his platoon:
"I am a section leader in his platoon, and when we got the order to advance he proved himself a hero. He nursed us men; in fact, the comment was, 'You would say we were >on a field-day." We had got to within twenty yards of our halting-place when he turned to our platoon to say something. As he turned he fell, and I am sure he never spoke. As soon as I could I went to him, but he was beyond human aid. Our platoon sadly miss him, as he could not do enough for us, and we are all extremely sorry for you in your great loss."
To this extract should be added one from a letter written by Private Wood to a friend in Middlesbrough:
"I expect you would know poor Mr. Darwin.... I was in his platoon, and I can tell you he died a hero. He led us absolutely regardless of the bullets from the German Maxim guns and snipers that whistled all round him."
Finally, Colonel Bell, his Commanding Officer, writes of him:
"Loyalty, courage, and devotion to duty—he had them all.... He died in an attack which gained many compliments to the Battalion. He was right in front. It was a man's death."
No soldier could wish a better epitaph. Yet something remains to be said, because soldiering was for Erasmus only a brief and splendid episode. Corporal Wearmouth's letter bears witness not only to his gallantry in the supreme hour of his life, but also to a quality that had been conspicuous throughout its whole previous course, without mention of which no account of him could be complete. He had the most genuine sympathy with and affection for working men, and never tired of trying to help them. And this quality which made him love his work at Middlesbrough brought him the keenest pleasure when soldiering came to him as a wholly new and unlooked-for experience. He delighted in his men, and especially enjoyed long expeditions across the moors, often at night-time, with his Scouts. And the men quickly appreciated his feeling, and responded to it. "The Battalion loved him," says Colonel Bell, "and called him Uncle." It would be hard to find anything more eloquent than that one simple statement.
This gift of sympathy was only one of many that made his life at Middlesbrough a singularly happy and successful one. He had all the attributes of a good man of business in the best and widest sense. It was impossible to meet him without realizing that he combined with real intellectual power a calm, sound, and practical judgment and a general capacity for doing things well and thoroughly. No one who knew him even slightly could be surprised to hear that his associates in business conceived the highest opinion of him, and that not only on account of his acuteness and administrative ability, but of his fine and high-minded nature. Many words full of praise and affection have been written of this side of his life, and I am sorry that I cannot quote them all. Mr. Storr, who was his predecessor as secretary of Bolckow, Vaughan and Co., writes of him:
"I admired his great abilities as I loved his character.... I (in conjunction with the Chairman of the Company) selected him as my successor, trained him for the position, worked for years in the closest contact and friendship with him, and when I retired did so with the fullest confidence that he had a long and successful career before him, and that the Company could not have chosen a better man."
Dr. J. E. Stead, the distinguished metallurgist of Middlesbrough, who had been his companion on a business tour in America, says:
"During our American tour I got to know him well and find out what he really was. Before that, however, I had learnt that he had ability and intelligence of the highest order.... It was impossible to be with him long without gaining for him a most affectionate regard, and I looked forward and anticipated for him a splendid record of usefulness."
To these two striking pieces of testimony I should like to add one more, not from Middlesbrough, but from London. Mr. E. F. Turner, for many years the friend and solicitor of the Darwin family, who has occupied a distinguished place in his profession and enjoyed a peculiarly wide commercial experience, writes of Erasmus in these terms:
"Looking back on my closed professional experience, he stands out as the ablest man of his generation that I have ever come across, and his modesty was as great as his mental powers."
A very dear friend of Erasmus, Charles Tennant, who was killed in action only a fortnight later, wrote of him: "There never was, that I ever met, a man so strong and yet so gentle." All who knew him would agree, as they would about another of his qualities, namely, a conscientiousness that was eminently sane and wide-minded, and completely unswerving. No one in the world was more certain to do what he believed to be right. Just before he left England, when his Battalion was under orders for the front, he was summoned to the War Office and offered a Staff appointment at home in connection with munitions of war. This would have given great scope to his capabilities. "It would have been interesting and important work," he wrote, "but of course there are plenty of older men who can do it just as well as I can." He felt that at that moment his place should be with his regiment, and made, in the words of one present at the interview, a "fine appeal" to be allowed to go with his men. It was granted, and he went gladly and with no looking back.
It was, I think, more than anything else this intense feeling for duty that made him so deeply respected, and gained for him in Middlesbrough a very particular position and influence. "There was no one else in his surroundings," writes one of his friends there, "who had the sort of influence he had." I am almost afraid to emphasize this point, lest a wrong impression be given and affection be cast unduly in the shade. He had many devoted friendships, and possessed, as his friend and tutor at Trinity, Dr. Parry, has said, "an unwavering loyalty of affection." Some of his friends of Cambridge days he was only able to see at long intervals, but his feeling for them and theirs for him remained as fresh and warm as ever. He was always simple and natural, and no one could be more wholly delightful and light-hearted than he was when in a holiday mood. He loved the open air and the country, more especially the north country, and Yorkshire best of all. Fishing had been a source of the very keenest pleasure to him ever since he was a boy. Some will have memories of long days of walking in the Lakes; others of the jolly times of the May week at Cambridge—of dances and early morning rides and expeditions up the river in Canadian canoes. Whether we think of him at work or at play, we cannot remember a word or an action that does not make us proud of him. He is only one of many as to whom it may be said that they would have done much; but whatever he might have achieved, he never could have left a memory more lovable or more honourable.
BERNARD DARWIN.
May 19, 1915.
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
CHILDREN OF JOHN BARTLETT ALLEN OF CRESSELLY
(1733–1803).
1. Elizabeth (Bessy) (1764—1846) m. Josiah Wedgwood of Maer.
2. Catherine (Kitty) (1765—1830) m. Sir James Mackintosh.
3. Caroline (1768—1835) m. Rev. Edward Drewe.
4. John Hensleigh (1769—1843) of Cresselly, m. Gertrude Seymour.
5. Louisa Jane (Jane or Jenny) (1771—1836) m. John Wedgwood.
6. Lancelot Baugh (Baugh) (1774—1845), Master of Dulwich College, m. 2ce.
7. Harriet (sometimes called Sad) (1776—1847) m. Rev. Matthew Surtees, of North Cerney.
8. Jessie (1777—1853) m. J. C. de Sismondi, historian.
9. Octavia, died young.
10. Emma (1780—1866) unmarried.
11. Frances (Fanny) (1781—1875) unmarried.
CHILDREN OF JOHN HENSLEIGH ALLEN OF CRESSELLY (1769–1843).
1. Seymour Phillips (1814—1861) of Cresselly, m. Catherine dan. of Earl of Portsmouth.
2. Henry George (1815—1908).
3. John Hensleigh (1818—1868).
4. Isabella Georgina, m. G. Lort Phillips of Laurenny.
CHILDREN OF SIR JAMES AND LADY MACKINTOSH.
1. Bessy (1799—1823) unmarried.
2. Fanny (1800—1889) m. her cousin Hensleigh Wedgwood.
3. Robert (1806—1864) m. Mary Appleton.
CHILDREN OF MRS DREWE.
1. Harriet, Lady Gifford.
2. Marianne, Mrs Algernon Langton.
3. Georgina, Lady Alderson.
4. Edward, m. Adèle Prévost.
CHILDREN OF JOSIAH WEDGWOOD OF ETRURIA (1730–1795).
1. Susannah (1765—1817) m. Dr Robert Waring Darwin. Charles Darwin was their son.
2. John (1766—1844) Banker, m. Jane Allen.
3. Josiah (1769—1843) of Maer, Potter, m. Elizabeth Allen.
4. Thomas (1771—1805).
5. Catherine (Kitty) (1774—1823) unmarried.
6. Sarah Elizabeth (1778—1856) unmarried.
CHILDREN OF JOHN WEDGWOOD (1766–1844).
1. Sarah Elizabeth (Sally, then Eliza) (1795—1857) unmarried.
2. Rev. John Allen (Allen) (1796—1882), Vicar of Maer.
3. Thomas (Tom) (1797—1862) Colonel in the Guards, m. Anne Tyler.
4. Caroline, died young.
5. Jessie (1804—1872) m. her cousin Harry Wedgwood.
6. Robert (1806—1880) m. 2ce.
CHILDREN OF JOSIAH WEDGWOOD OF MAER (1769–1843).
1. Sarah Elizabeth (Elizabeth) (1793—1880) unmarried.
2. Josiah (Joe or Jos) (1795—1880) of Leith Hill Place, m. his cousin Caroline Darwin.
3. Charlotte (1797—1862) m. Rev. Charles Langton.
4. Henry Allen (Harry) (1799—1885) Barrister, m. his cousin Jessie Wedgwood.
5. Francis (1800—1888) Potter, m. Frances Mosley.
6. Hensleigh (1803—1891) Police Magistrate, Philologist, m. his cousin Fanny Mackintosh.
7. Fanny (1806—1832) unmarried.
8. Emma (1808—1896) m. her cousin Charles Darwin
CHILDREN OF DR ROBERT WARING DARWIN (1766–1848)
AND HIS WIFE SUSANNAH WEDGWOOD (1765–1817).
1. Marianne (1798—1858) m. Dr Henry Parker.
2. Caroline (1800—1888) m. her cousin Josiah Wedgwood of Leith Hill Place.
3. Susan (1803—1866) unmarried.
4. Erasmus Alvey (1804—1881) unmarried.
5. Charles Robert (1809—1882) m. his cousin Emma Wedgwood.
6. Catherine (1810—1866) m., late in life, Rev. Charles Langton. Charlotte Wedgwood was his 1st wife.
Allen Pedigree
  |
Wedgewood Pedigree
  |
Darwin Pedigree
  |
