Ɛpsilon

To C. S. Wedgwood   [3 May 1879]1

Down

My dear Caroline

I distinctly remember my father saying that Lady Charlemont or Charleville remarked that our grandfather was one of the most agreeable persons she had ever met; and my father added that she had constantly met the most agreeable persons in London. I think it was the lady who drew Shelton oak. Now do you know whether it was Charlemont or Charleville; if the former she certainly must have lived with the pleasantest people in London.2

Is your memory distinct about R. Darwin (who must have been the father of Erasmus) pulling down the mill because his horse shyed. It seems almost incredible; more especially as tho’ he lived at Elston he was not the owner of the property, tho’ his son ultimately came into possession of it. How he was rich enough to live at Elston and send 3 sons to Cambridge at the same time is a mystery to me which no inquiry has solved.3 Will you be so good as to write to Bassett, Southampton.4

Yours affectionately | C. Darwin

Copy

1
The date is established by an annotation in an unknown hand on the copy and by CD’s request for information about his grandfather Erasmus Darwin and his instruction to send the reply to Bassett (see n. 4, below). CD worked on his biography of Erasmus in 1879 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
2
Robert Waring Darwin (1766–1848) referred to Hester Moore, Lady Charleville (Erasmus Darwin, p. 40). The Shelton oak was a long-lived oak tree in Shropshire that the Welsh prince Owain Glyn Dŵr was said to have climbed in order to see the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 (Miles 2013).
3
The story about the mill was not recorded in Erasmus Darwin. CD was trying to establish whether Robert Darwin (1682–1754) owned Elston Hall. Three of Robert Darwin’s (1682–1754) sons attended Cambridge University, but only Erasmus Darwin and John Darwin were there at the same time; Robert Waring Darwin (1724–1816) had been there seven years earlier and William Alvey Darwin studied law in London.
4
CD left Down on 6 May 1878 and spent two days in Worthing before travelling on 8 May to Bassett, Southampton, where he stayed until 21 May (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12030,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12030