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EMMA DARWIN
A CENTURY OF FAMILY LETTERS
1792-1896
VOLUME I
CHAPTER XIX
1835—1837
Home life at Maer—Mrs Marsh as novelist—Emma Wedgwood visits Cresselly—Mrs John Wedgwood's sudden death—Emma Wedgwood at musical festivals—Charles Darwin returns home—Emma at Edinburgh—C. D. on marriage.
THE home life at Maer had by now become much changed. Emma had lost through the death of Fanny the companionship of a sister of her own age, and the failure of their mother's health made it necessary that either Elizabeth or Emma should always be at home. It is as nurse and caretaker that she now appears, and also as aunt to the next generation, which numbered four.
Elizabeth Wedgwood to her mother.
CLAPHAM, Tuesday, 3 March [1835].
... Saturday we dined at [the Marshes].... Anne was very pleasant, and when we got round the fire after dinner she talked a great deal with an openness that was very engaging about her book [Two Old Men's Tales] and her feelings. I was in hopes that her being known as the author would have saved her from hearing disagreeable things; but she told us of some things that had been said that she would have given a thousand pounds rather than they should have been said. I cannot think who could tell her. She was very much amused when she dined at Lady Milman's to find Mr Murray paying court to her as if she was somebody. I think the vexation of being known has more than counterbalanced the pleasure of her success, but the pleasure of the writing itself seems to be very great. (I can hardly write for Snow [just two years old] who is romancing on, and acting, and speechifying, but what it is all about I have not an idea, but "jingle, jingle," comes in very often in the discourse. I have just made out "a large wind blew the little wind down," with a very important shake of the head.) There is wind enough to-day to blow many things down besides little winds....
Emma Wedgwood to her aunt Madame Sismondi.
MAER, Friday, Ap. 11 [1835].
... We have had visits here from Susan Darwin, and the Hollands, so that I have not been at all solitary. I think Susan quite won Allen [Wedgwood]'s heart by her attentions. She was missed one day and nobody could find her anywhere, when at last she was discovered sitting very comfortably with Allen, with a bottle of cowslip wine and some sweetmeats before them. She says Allen coloured up very much when the Colonel's face was seen prying in at the window but she was quite hardened herself. I think she is the happiest person I know, such constant gay spirits and such little things give her so much enjoyment....
Madame Sismondi to her niece Emma Wedgwood.
May 3, 1835.
... I think Anne's Tales particularly interesting; they both robbed me of some of those precious tears I am so chary of shedding. I prefer the first, there is greater purity and far greater truth. The Admiral's Daughter is deficient in both these qualities, and interesting as it is, I can hardly forgive its immorality. Nevertheless I should like to read more by the same author, and shall be sorry if indeed she is, as she now feels, exhausted. I have received the last Edinburgh too, and have again and again to thank my beloved Bessy. If she is one-tenth part as prodigal to others as she is to me, she will not reserve for herself enough even for "a ha'porth of snuff, God bless her," as Montagu1 would say, but I say it with more fervour and less affectation.
1 Basil Montagu (1770—1851), natural son of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, was a friend of Coleridge, Mackintosh, etc. He had tried to marry Sarah Wedgwood, it was always supposed for her money, but at what date does not appear.
Like you I do not know whereabouts you are in our history, so forgive me if I radote. Harriet [Surtees] wrote lately to your aunt Sara, and doubtless told her of our plan of going into Italy in August for a twelvemonth. For my own part, I quit my dear little Chêne and all its dumb inhabitants with great pain. I hate moving, I hate travelling, and already I have been crying over the warning I have given all the servants who have been crying too.
We are going this evening to take leave of our great friend Lady Osborne, who goes to Ireland soon, and I take to her a cadeau for my dear old friend Mrs Dillon. It is the first handsome present I ever made (that is to say handsome for my purse), and you cannot think how much happiness it gives me to make it—I am only afraid it will never reach her. It is a chain of gold enamel, nearly £15, and it is astonishingly cheap, I have seldom seen so handsome a one. My generous Sis. insists upon paying for it, but then I should not feel it my gift, so he shall not have that pleasure.
In the autumn of this year Emma was three months away from home, paying visits to Cresselly and elsewhere.
Emma Wedgwood to her aunt Madame Sismondi.
MAER, Nov. 29 [1835].
... Aunt Fanny was in charming spirits and conversation, which was a fresh pleasure to me every day, especially in our walks, and she used to curl her hair with me. I liked renewing my recollections of Tenby, and it looked as bright and pretty as it used to when I was a child.
A Miss X. of this country is making a great noise in the world. She has been in love with her father's coachman for 10 years and is now quite resolved to marry him. Her father is in despair about it, and says he will shoot himself if she does, and he and the other sisters are so ill that they think they will die of it. The coachman is drunken and a bad man, and engaged to the cook, but Miss X. remains quite steady in her purpose and as she is 25 nobody can stop her....1
1 Strange to say, Miss X. was believed to be happy in her married life. She lived according to her husband's position and brought up her children in the same rank.
Fanny Allen wrote to Emma (March 2, 1836): "Did I tell you what success your beasts met with at the school? I have been trying my hand at a lion, but it looks like nothing at all. I wish you would do me a bear and a lion, goodsized, any leisure time of yours, and let them be by you for any opportunity that may happen in the next 5 or 6 months. The beasts your acquaintance here are all well. Clio wins her way with everyone. John's particular love to you. You have won his heart completely."
These "beasts" were cut out in paper, for which art my mother had a particular talent, though I remember pigs as being her chefs d'oeuvre.
Jane, Mrs John Wedgwood, who had never had good health, died quite suddenly at Shrewsbury, where she had gone to consult Dr Darwin.
Fanny Allen to her niece Emma Wedgwood.
CRESSELLY, Ap. 25, 1836.
MY DEAR EMMA,
We were totally unprepared for the intelligence from Shrewsbury yesterday, it seems yet to me like a painful dream that makes me restless. One's understanding as well as one's eyes are holden sometimes with regard to the illness of those dear to one; and it has been so in this instance more than in any other case I ever remember. Almost every word and action of hers during the past winter is before me, and I can think and speak of nothing else; and my own foolish blindness is before me too. There never was such ardent and unbounded affection as in her; it seemed as if her religious feelings had given her a power of loving unknown to less pious characters. The last ten months have carried away with them a treasure of affection, of tenderness, and of religious example to us. I trust the prayers of these two dear sisters1 for us may be heard, and that we may join them in a very few years.
1 Caroline, Mrs Drewe, had died in 1835.
Several letters of my mother to Fanny Hensleigh Wedgwood, written in 1836 and 1837, have been preserved. They remind me of her later letters; they are written in the same casual, careless style, often giving a picture of the family life in a few words with a happy touch, but are intermixed with little details which would now be of no interest.
Emma went to the Manchester Festival this year and heard Malibran, who made an undying impression on her. She often spoke of her charm as quite unequalled, and especially of her possessing the full beauty of a soprano and contralto voice. She also went to the Festival at Worcester, staying with her cousin Charlotte Isaac (neé Holland), at Henwick. There she heard Clara Novello.
Emma Wedgwood to her sister-in-law Mrs Hensleigh Wedgwood.
Clara has such a simple dawdling little voice and way of speaking, one feels quite surprised that such sounds can come out of her.2 There is something quite tragical in poor Malibran's death [23 Sept., 1836] especially after having seen her singing away so few days before. Mrs Novello, who is an acquaintance of Charlotte's, told her that as soon as ever Malibran was dead, de Beriot (her husband) set off to Brussels without even leaving a servant with the body.3 It is hardly possible that he should not have cared for her. I have been wishing to have you for a companion at these concerts so much....
2 Clara Novello was then a girl of eighteen, but she was already famous, having been singing in public for two or three years.
3 "Two hours after her death he was in his carriage on his way to Brussels to secure her property." Grove, Dict, of Music.
These festivals were an immense joy to her all through her youth, and in this way she heard a good deal of the best music. She was calm over music, deeply as she enjoyed it. But one of the very few times in my life that I saw her lose her self-control was when Clara Novello sang the solo verse of God Save the Queen at the opening of the Crystal Palace. My mother broke down then and sobbed audibly. The scene was extraordinarily impressive—the standing crowd, the Queen and Prince Albert present, and the wonderful volume of the rich soprano voice, sustained and round and full, filling the enormous building.
Charles Darwin returned from his voyage round the world in October, 1836.
Charles Darwin to his uncle Josiah Wedgwood.
[SHREWSBURY, Oct. 5th, 1836].
MY DEAR UNCLE,
The Beagle arrived on Sunday evening and I reached home late last night. My head is quite confused with so much delight, but I cannot allow my sisters to tell you first how happy I am to see all my dear friends again.
I am obliged to return in three or four days to London when the Beagle will be paid off, and then I shall pay Shrewsbury a longer visit. I am most anxious once again to see Maer and all its inhabitants, so that in the course of two or three weeks I hope in person to thank you, as being my First Lord of the Admiralty.1 I am so very happy I hardly know what I am writing.
Believe me,
Your most affectionate nephew,
CHAS. DARWIN.
Remember me most kindly to aunt Bessy and all at dear Maer.
1 It was, as before said, his uncle's influence which had induced his father to consent to his joining the Beagle.
Caroline Darwin added on the same sheet:
MY DEAR ELIZABETH,
Charles is come home so little altered in looks from what he was five years ago and not a bit changed in his own dear self. He had landed at Falmouth on Sunday evening, and travelled night and day till he came to Shrewsbury late last night. We heard nothing of him till this morning, when he walked in just before breakfast. We have had the very happiest morning—Charles so full of affection and delight at seeing my father looking so well and being with us all again.
He is looking very thin but well—he was so much pleased by finding your and Charlotte's kind notes ready to receive him. I shall indeed enjoy, my dear Eliz., going to Maer with him. How happy he will be to see you all again. When I began this letter I did not know he would feel tranquil enough to write himself, but he said he must be the first to tell uncle Jos of his arrival. He feels so very grateful to uncle Jos and you all, and has been asking about every one of you.
Now we have him really again at home I intend to begin to be glad he went this expedition, and now I can allow he has gained happiness and interest for the rest of his life. Good-bye, dear Eliz. It is pleasant to write to those who sympathise so entirely with us.
Emma Wedgwood to her sister-in-law Mrs Hensleigh Wedgwood.
MAER, Monday [Oct. 1836].
... We are getting impatient for Charles's arrival. We all ought to get up a little knowledge for him. I have taken to no deeper study than Capt. Head's gallop1 which I have never read before. I am afraid it won't instruct me much. Charles seems to have been much struck with the sight of Hensleigh walking up the street with a bandbox in one hand and a child in the other. He seems to have nearly settled in favour of living at Cambridge, which is a pity for Erasmus's sake; but I should feel sure that Charles would like Cambridge best, as he has a particular spite to London I believe....
1 Sir Francis Head's Rapid Journeys across the Pampas, published in 1828.
I took to gardening at a great rate. I think one enjoys being alive more in that sort of late autumn fine weather than at any other time of the year. Good-bye, my dear F.
Emma Wedgwood to her sister-in-law Mrs Hensleigh Wedgwood.
MAER, Monday [Nov. 21, 1836].
... We enjoyed Charles's visit uncommonly. We had been very handsome in inviting all the outlyers of the family to meet him, and the last morning the chaise from Tern Hill1 did not come, and we persuaded them to stay, and had just made ourselves comfortable and planned a walk when the chaise arrived. However we got them to let us send it off, though Caroline felt it to be rather naughty, and we had a very nice snug day of them to ourselves. Charles talked away most pleasantly all the time; we plied him with questions without any mercy. Harry and Frank made the most of him and enjoyed him thoroughly. Caroline looks so happy and proud of him it is delightful to see her. We had her a whole month, and I never enjoyed a visit of hers so much; she was so very nice and settled herself more at home here than usual.
Charles was quite angry with Charlotte's picture. He studied it many times to see if he could find any likeness and said: "I hope to fate she is not like that picture." I suppose he has rather a poetical idea of her, for the picture is certainly very like.
1 Tern Hill, on the road to Shrewsbury.
Elizabeth Wedgwood to her aunt Madame Sismondi.
MAER, Dec 14. [1836].
MY DEAR JESSIE,
I received your dear letter while our pleasant guests were with us. I never saw uncle Allen looking better nor in better spirits in my life. His perpetual pleasant and sweet looks and merry laugh were quite delightful to see and hear.
He enjoyed very much seeing my mother so well and gay, and she was exhilarated by his company in a manner that she would not have been capable of two or three years ago. They had a merry battle at whist every night, in which numberless old scraps of songs used to come forth from the extraordinary store-houses of both their memories, and enquiries about people so long gone by, that the wonder was how they even recollected their names....
Emma Wedgwood to her sister-in-law Mrs Hensleigh Wedgwood.
MAER, Saturday, 17th Dec., 1836.
... We are in such a dissipated humour that we have actually invited the Mainwarings and Mrs Moreton for next Wednesday, and then we shall be clear of the world for a year to come.
Catherine tells me they are very anxious to have your and Hensleigh's real opinion of Charles's journal. I am convinced Dr Holland is mistaken if he thinks it not worth publishing. I don't believe he is any judge as to what is amusing or interesting. Cath. does not approve of its being mixed up with Capt. Fitzroy's, and wants it to be put altogether by itself in an Appendix.1
1 The Journal was originally published in 1839 as vol. iii. of the Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of her Majesty's ships "Adventure" and "Beagle" between the years 1826 and 1836. In his autobiography (Life and Letters, i. p. 80) he wrote: "The success of this my first literary child always tickles my vanity more than that of any of my other books."
I envy you Mr Scott's lectures. If he makes you understand the Epistle to the Romans I shall think him a great genius. We had a very nice visit from Godfrey.1 It was pleasant to see how fond he is of his little maid, he always saved some dessert or asked for some for her. His only bon mot was enquiring what papa's overalls were and saying, "Are they to prevent his hurting his knees when he tumbles down?" I began teaching him to read, which he did not much like but never rebelled....
1 Godfrey Wedgwood was now just upon four years old; Amy his sister was seventeen months.
Emma, accompanied by her brother Jos, went to Edinburgh this winter to pay a visit of about two months to her cousin Lady Gifford, who was then living there.
Emma Wedgwood to her sister-in-law Mrs Hensleigh Wedgwood.
1, ATHOLL CRESCENT, EDINBURGH,
Tuesday [Jan. 24, 1837].
... We found Harriet [Gifford] blazing with gas in a handsome house, and she gave us a very pleasant, cordial reception. We are quite surprized at the wonderful civility of all Harriet's friends, calling upon us and inviting us out just as if we were somebody, and I think their manners are so much more civil and cordial than English people's. We have the Celtic ball on Friday and that is all our gaiety at present. We found all the family here just recovering from the influenza and looking ill.
Godfrey's picture turned out very successful; Mr Holmes1 has carried him off and means to put him in the Suffolk St. exhibition. It is much more beautifully painted than Mr Richmond, but I don't believe he has so much talent. Indeed he is such a perfect little idiot that one can't imagine how he has sense enough to do anything. He used to say, "I'm just a going to walk round your beautiful river" [meaning the pool], till one day Shot fell upon him and tore his cheek, and he would not venture out again. We were very sorry for the poor little man, for the fright put him quite out of spirits, and I don't think he will ever venture to face a dog again, as he seems to think they have a particular spite to him. And I think it must be so, or what could have possessed Shot? Lord Gifford is coming next week, which I am sorry for, as I hate a boy of that age [19], one has nothing to say to them. I don't think I shall want any clothes but a bonnet, which I have got, as I don't expect many balls; and I have a new muslin which will do for two or three.
1 James Holmes (1777—1860), water-colour and miniature painter. He had many distinguished sitters, amongst others Lord Byron.
Fanny Hensleigh wrote to her hoping that she would be "smart enough" for her gaieties. A fear of this kind creeps out more than once amongst the cousinhood. Certainly no one thought less of dress in her middle life, although in my memory she was always suitably yet simply dressed. But in her old age she recognised its importance, and I remember her saying that she felt it dismal that her sister Charlotte took so little interest in making herself look nice; in 1883 she wrote: "The two B.s are gone to church, one of them what Bernard thinks quite too swell; and I think her hat too much so. But a person is much happier in my opinion for being fond of dress."
In the following letter Emma alludes to a rumour of Charles Darwin becoming engaged to a Miss ——. There used also to be jokes about Erasmus and Miss Martineau, against whom his father had a great prejudice.
Emma Wedgwood to her sister-in-law Mrs Hensleigh Wedgwood.
MAER [May 23, 1837].
... Disputes run very high here upon the subject of Violet.1 Some of the party are quite convinced it is written by a woman and have some suspicions it is Mrs Marsh. She acted very well when she was here if it is hers, and did not show the least interest on the subject. I think it is much too clever for the author of the two last old men [Old Men's Tales]. Aunt Fanny [Allen] is in a rapture with Sartor and feels quite convinced that Teufelsdröckh is meant for Coleridge, and we want to know from Erasmus whether Mr Carlyle was a friend of Coleridge's. She thinks all the conversations and thoughts are so exactly like Coleridge. For my part it is such very hard reading that I think I must give it up.
1 Violet la danseuse, a pathetic novel that had a great success.
Godfrey's dislike to reading continues quite alarming, and I am obliged to coax down his lesson with a French plum or something of that nature. I shall be very curious to know whether Susan and Catherine [Darwin] really like Miss Martineau—I expect they will. They seem to take very kindly to their other sister.
We find Pickwick not at all too low for our taste, and it reads aloud much better than to oneself.
My mother had always a good opinion of a little bribery for getting over small childish difficulties. Even when there was no difficulty she sometimes resorted to it. I remember her using gingerbread as a bribe to her little grandson Bernard, then about four years old, to induce him to stop drawing the house from the lawn at Down. He had sat there all the morning and she was wearied at his pertinacity.
Charles Darwin was now settled in London. Some rough notes of his which were kept by my mother and endorsed by her "C.D. on marriage," show that ideas on this subject were floating through his mind. They are undated but were probably written in 1837. They were roughly, almost illegibly, jotted down on scraps of paper and perhaps hardly written in earnest. Among the advantages are: "Children (if it please God)—constant companion (and friend in old age)—charms of music and female chit-chat." Among the disadvantages: "Terrible loss of time, if many children forced to gain one's bread; fighting about no society." But he continues, "What is the use of working without sympathy from near and dear friends? Who are near and dear friends to the old, except relatives?" And his conclusion is: "My God, it is intolerable to think of spending one's whole life like a neuter bee, working, working, and nothing after all.—No, no won't do.—Imagine living all one's days solitarily in smoky, dirty London house—Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa, with good fire and books and music perhaps—compare this vision with the dingy reality of Gt Marlboro" St.
Marry, marry, marry.
Q.E.D."
