From Eliza Meteyard   27 June 1874

Dear Sir,

As you so kindly appended your valuable signature to my Memorial I am sure you will be pleased to hear that it has been successful, & that Her Majesty, on the recommendation of Mr Disraeli, has increased my Pension on the Civil List to £100 per annum for the rest of my life.¹ This is a great boon—freeing my mind—as it will do from the constant anxiety of how to live—& enabling me to bend my attention to better work—than any yet done—among which—in a new edition—will I hope be a more perfected Memoir of your illustrious grandfather—Mr Wedgwood.²

I have begun my MS book in relation to “the Darwins” & will send it in November with the ‘Handbook’. The letters, so far as I have copied relate to the proof sheets of the lines on the Portland Vase.³ D^r Johnson⁴ of Shrewsbury has made a collection of letters & papers relative to—as also written by, D^r R. W. Darwin.⁵ Last year D^r Johnson offered them to me for literary use. I have none. Still they might—if copied—be serviceable to the future historian— so, as next month I may be in Shrewsbury—I think of taking loan of the papers & forwarding them to you to look over. Such material so easily perishes, or is lost sight of.

When at work last autumn on ‘Memorials of Wedgwood’ I was deeply struck with the rude vigour of the subject of one of ‘Wedgwood & Bentleys’ plaques—of which—with this is an autotype—which please retain.⁶ The humanization of the fauns & satyrs is most wonderful. Where Wedgwood derived this subject from I cannot say—though the treatment is that of the Renaissance. To me it appears that all forms of this class were primarily derived from living objects; & that the antique artists simply vitalized descriptions of half humanized forms handed down profoundly remote—yet most reliable tradition. The satyrs, the fauns, the pigmies are undoubtedly derivations of actual forms—just as in our own country as elsewhere—the traditions of great worms, dragons, & other mighty reptiles & animals living in & creeping out of caves—point to the time, when man commenced his warfare with, & subdued, the last of the prehistoric fauna. Apropos to the fauns & satyrs, I came upon a remarkable passage in King’s work on ancient gems. He quotes from Cæsar—& Cæsar, if I recollect, refers to the Phœnician voyages. The passage refers to faun-like forms seen on the heights of Gibraltar.⁷

I hope you will not think me presumptuous in referring to these subjects—but they are those in which I take a profound interest. I have been a great reader of your books—& had I had culture sufficient I should be very scientific. From association with my brother William⁸—dead many years—I derive these predilictions. Among his books—was one—which if you have never seen—you may like to look over—& as it is of no use to me—I shall be honoured if you will place it on your book-shelves. Verity was a wonderful man—but he died young—in Paris.⁹ He was an Englishman.

Hoping you will pardon this long note. With compliments to Mrs Darwin. I am—with great respect | Yours obliged & truly | Eliza Meteyard.

In Mr Lewes’s new work ‘Problems of Life & Mind’ is an argument very ably brought out—as to the non-necessity of “missing links”¹⁰

No answer to this note is required, and if when Mrs Darwin sees or writes to M^r Hensleigh Wedgwood—she will thank him—from me—for his signature & will tell him of my success—I shall be very much obliged.