Creation (Movie Tie-In)

by Randal Keynes

  89 it was a pity Mr. Darwin had not something to do—Bernard Darwin, “On being a Darwin,” in Green Memories (London, 1928), p. 22.

  89 “Think how happy I was”—CUL DAR 219.8:27.

  91 “I find fish will greedily eat”—CCD, 6.324.

  92 he was now “almost convinced”—CCD, 4.2.

  93 an essay, arguing each step carefully—“Essay”

  94 it was “repugnant” to all our feelings—Henry Brougham, Dissertations on Subjects of Science Connected with Natural Theology (London, 1839), 2.62.

  95 “the creation of a world so full of evil”—Henry Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Paris, 1839), 4.94.

  95 “Man acts on and is acted on”—Notebooks, p. 415 (E 65).

  95 “To marvel at the extermination”—“Essay,” pp. 167-8.

  96 “Nature is cruel”—Matthew Arnold, “In Harmony with Nature,” Poetical Works, ed. C. B. Tinker and H. F. Lowry (London, 1950), p. 5.

  96 “I have just finished my sketch”—CCD, 3.43-5.

  97 “A great assumption”—CUL DAR 113 folio 89.

  98 “Loving she is, and tractable, though wild”—“Characteristics of a Child Three Years Old,” William Wordsworth, The Poems, ed. John Hayden (Harmondsworth, 1990), 1.858-9.

  98 He was very sad all the next day—Emma Wedgwood, My First Reading Book, CUL DAR 219.112.

  98 a story book—Cobwebs to Catch Flies (London, 1837), pp. 22-3, 26-7.

  100 The Darwins’ neighbour, Louisa Nash—Louisa Nash, “Some memories of Charles Darwin,” Overland Monthly, October 1890, p. 407.

  101 “Everyone who has had much to do”—Expression, p. 239.

  102 “Numbers of children were playing on the beach”—Beagle Diary, p. 367.

  103 Lamprotornis Burchellii—Andrew Smith, Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa (London, 1838-49), Aves, plate 47.

  Chapter Five: The Galloping Tune

  105 “When we were young”—Louisa Nash, “Some memories of Charles Darwin,” Overland Monthly, October 1890, p. 406.

  107 the room “had a white painted floor”—Gwen Raverat, Period Piece (London, 1987), pp. 142-3.

  108 “Children have an uncommon pleasure”—Notebooks, p. 582 (N 66).

  109 “Jugglers and tumblers performed in the garden”—Diary of Harriet, Lady Lubbock, Lubbock family papers.

  110 the habits of the wireworm—Autobiographical note quoted in Horace Hutchinson, Life of Sir John Lubbock, Lord Avebury (London, 1914), 1.23.

  110 “No doubt the wireworm fulfils”—The Skip-Jack or Wireworm and the Slug . . . for the Use of Parish Schools (Edinburgh, 1858), p. 23.

  112 “While there are boys and birds-nests”—William Howitt, The Boy’s Country Book: Being the Real Life of a Country Boy, Written by Himself (London, 1841), p. 49.

  114 “a most diverse kind of mortal”—Thomas Carlyle, Reminiscences, ed. Charles Eliot Norton (London, 1887), 1.173.

  115 their uncle’s “quaint, delicate humour”—Julia Wedgwood, Spectator, 3 September 1881, p. 1132.

  115 Joseph Hooker—Ray Desmond, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, Traveller and Plant Collector (Woodbridge, 1999).

  115 “Often I worked in the dining room”—Leonard Huxley, Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (London, 1918), 2.459.

  115 reading and being read to—Gillian Beer surveyed “Darwin’s reading and the fictions of development” in The Darwinian Heritage, ed. David Kohn (Princeton, 1985) pp. 543-88. She focused on the references in the notebooks of 1836-44, Charles’s reading notebooks and his Autobiography. Other books and periodicals read by Charles, Emma and their children can be identified, with exceptional completeness for a Victorian household, from the surviving books known to have been in the house, a number of catalogues and inventories, the many references to Charles and Emma’s reading in CCD and CFL, Emma’s correspondence and pocketbooks, the London Library’s surviving issue books, and the reminiscences of visitors to Down House.

  117 “The Purple Jar”—The story first appeared in Maria Edgeworth’s The Parent’s Assistant (1796), but was later included in Rosamond (1801).

  117 The Bird Talisman—Henry Allen Wedgwood, The Bird Talisman, an Eastern Tale, reprinted with illustrations by Gwen Raverat (London, 1956), pp. 1-2.

  118 The Emigrant’s Manual—The Emigrant’s Manual: British America and United States of America (Edinburgh, 1851), pp. 104, 105, 107.

  119 Our Cousins in Ohio—Mary Howitt, Our Cousins in Ohio (London, 1849), pp. 5-7, 232, 239.

  120 “life in Ohio”—CCD, 4.479.

  120 Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s revolutionary ideas in Émile—Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile or On Education (Harmondsworth, 1991), pp. 79, 90, 93, 135.

  121 a plan for a girls’ boarding school—Erasmus Darwin, A Plan for the Conduct of Female Education in Boarding Schools, Private Families and Public Seminaries (Derby, 1797).

  121 “a sympathy with the pains and pleasures”—Erasmus Darwin, A Plan for the Conduct of Female Education, pp. 46-7; Charles Darwin, Erasmus Darwin (London, 1879), p. 116.

  121 Tom Wedgwood had met the radical philosopher—David Erdman, “Coleridge, Wordsworth and the Wedgwood Fund,” Bulletin of the New York Public Library, Part I, vol. 60, no. 9 (September 1956), pp. 430-33.

  121 a plan for his governess to follow—Frank Doherty, “The Wedgwood system of education,” The Wedgwoodian, November 1983, pp. 182-7.

  122 Rousseau’s Swiss follower—E. Woodall, “Charles Darwin,” Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 8 (1884), p. 14.

  122 Levana—Jean Paul Friedrich Richter, Levana (London, 1901), pp. 146, 152, 154, 162, 175, 176. The London Library’s Issue Book for 1850 records that “Richter Levana” was issued to Charles on 15 May.

  124 Conversations on Optics—Jane Marcet, “Conversation XVII,” in Conversations on Natural Philosophy (London, 1833), p. 400.

  124 Werner’s Nomenclature—CCD, 5.541-2; Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours, ed. Patrick Syme (Edinburgh, 1821), pp. 27, 29, 40, 42.

  125 “A delicate girl submitted to such a discipline”—James Clark, A Treatise on Pulmonary Consumption (London, 1835), p. 291.

  126 The position of the governess—Kathryn Hughes, The Victorian Governess (London, 1993), explains the role and position of the governess in Victorian families.

  127 “a sliding board for the children”—Bernard Darwin, Life is Sweet, Brother (London, 1940), p. 22.

  128 “Miss Thorley and I are doing a little botanical work”—CCD, 5.343, 354; Natural Selection, p. 230. The field “allowed to run waste for fifteen years” was Great Puck-lands meadow, known to the Darwin family as “Stony Field,” on the downward slope of the valley to the west of the Sand-walk copse. Miss Thorley was among the personal friends invited by the family to Charles’s funeral at Westminster Abbey in 1882.

  130 Mulhauser’s method—M. A. Mulhauser, A Manual of Writing; Founded on Mulhauser’s Method of Teaching Writing, and Adapted to English Use (London, 1842).

  131 The Wide, Wide World—Elizabeth Wetherell, The Wide, Wide World (London, 1880), pp. 25-9.

  134 a book of recipes—CUL DAR 214.

  134 A book of medical preparations—English Heritage Darwin Collection at Down House.

  Chapter Six: Faith, Cricket, and Barnacles

  135 Walking in the village—James Moore has written about Darwin’s life as a country gentleman in Downe in his essay, “Darwin of Down:The Evolutionist as Squarson-Naturalist,” in The Darwinian Heritage, ed. David Kohn (Princeton, 1985), pp. 435-82.

  135 In one year his gifts to charities—The year was September 1850 to August 1851. The details are in Charles’s account books, on deposit by English Heritage in Cambridge University Library.

  135 to form a Friendly Club—CCD, 4.304, Life and Letters, 1.142. The club was registered with the Registrar of Friendly Societies as No. 3043, “The Down Friendly Society.” The documents are
in the Public Record Office.

  136 “Frugality and providence”—Charles Ansell, A Treatise on Friendly Societies (London, 1835), p. 2.

  136 “The game is free”—James Pycroft, The Cricket Field: or The History and Science of the Game of Cricket (London, 1854), pp. 33, 34.

  136 a gin cordial—“Receipts and Memoranda” book, in Ralph Colp, To be an Invalid (Chicago, 1977), Appendix A, pp. 155, 163.

  136 The treatment of animals—James Turner, Reckoning with the Beast: Animals, Pain and Humanity in the Victorian Mind (Baltimore, 1980).

  137 Francis remembered his father—Life and Letters, 3.200.

  137 a gentleman farmer—Speech by William Darwin, Darwin Celebration, Cambridge, June, 1909. Speeches Delivered at the Banquet Held on June 23rd (Cambridge, 1909), pp. 11-12.

  138 their mother “was not only sincerely religious”—CFL (1915), 2.175.

  138 A prayer book used by Unitarians—Theophilus Lindsey, The Book of Common Prayer Reformed . . . for the Use of the Congregation in Essex Street Chapel (London, 1836), pp. 65-6.

  138 “Jesus Christ was a person”—Joseph Priestley, A Catechism for Children and Young Persons (London, 1817), pp. 15, 19-20.

  138 “God looks down from heaven on high”—Ann and Jane Taylor, Hymns for Infant Minds (London, 1852), p. 44.

  139 “Tell me, Mama, if I must die”—Hymns for Infant Minds, p. 48.

  139 “Let not young persons”—Jane Taylor, “Revelation XIV.13” in The Contributions of Q.Q. (London, 1838), p. 103.

  140 a small choir—Diary of Harriet, Lady Lubbock, Lubbock family papers.

  140 Their book of chants—The Hymns of the Church Pointed for Chanting (London, 1849), p. 15. There is a copy among the Downe parish papers in Bromley Public Library’s Local History Collection.

  141 Charles once went to a vestry meeting—Wedgwood/Mosley Collection 193, Letter from Emma Darwin to Jessie Sismondi, 1848.

  141 A book of sermons—John Innes, Five Sermons Preached in Advent and on the Festival of the Holy Innocents, 1851, in the Parish Church of Downe, Kent (London, 1852), pp. 62, 12-13, 3-4. Later the Darwins became good friends with Mr. Innes. After Charles’s death, Innes wrote to Francis that when they last met, Charles remarked that they had “been fast friends for thirty years. We never thoroughly agreed on any subject but once and then we looked hard at each other and thought one of us must be very ill.” Robert Stecher, “The Darwin-Innes letters: The correspondence of an evolutionist with his vicar, 1848-1884,” Annals of Science, vol. 17, no. 4 (December 1961), p. 256.

  141 a National Ecclesiastical Census—The returns are in the Public Record Office.

  142 James Carter—“The late Mr James Carter, Baptist minister, of Down, Kent,” The Earthen Vessel, 2 December 1861, pp. 295-7.

  143 They set out their beliefs in a “declaration”—Kindly shown to me by the church secretary of Downe Baptist Church.

  143 An inspector of schools—Canterbury Cathedral Archives, Inspection of Dartford Deanery Schools, no. 80, 2 July 1851.

  144 Charles thought carefully about his own beliefs—James Moore showed the gradual change through the 1840s in “Of love and death:Why Darwin ‘gave up Christianity’ ” in History, Humanity and Evolution, ed. James Moore (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 195-229.

  144 Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding—Hume dealt with miracles in Section X, “Of miracles.” Charles had noted in 1838 that he found the Enquiry “well worth reading” (Notebooks, p. 559).

  144 Rationale of Religious Enquiry—James Martineau, Rationale of Religious Enquiry (London, 1845).

  144 “the clearest evidence would be requisite”—Autobiography, p. 86.

  145 The Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels—Andrews Norton, The Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels (Boston, 1837-44); CCD, 4.476; annotations in Emma’s interleaved Bible.

  145 “to invent evidence”—Autobiography, pp. 86-7.

  146 a memoir of John Sterling—John Sterling, Essays and Tales Collected and Edited with a Memoir of his Life by J. C. Hare (London, 1848). Sterling’s comments on Paley are on p. lxxxviii of Hare’s memoir.

  146 “how good God was”—Letter from Erasmus Alvey Darwin to Fanny Wedgwood, Wedgwood/Mosley Collection.

  146 Eastern Life—Harriet Martineau, Eastern Life, Present and Past (London, 1848); Vera Wheatley, The Life and Work of Harriet Martineau (London, 1957), p. 264; CCD, 4.478.

  147 “disbelief crept over me”—Autobiography, pp. 86-7.

  147 “I never gave up Christianity”—Edward Aveling, The Religious Views of Charles Darwin (London, 1883), pp. 5, 6.

  147 Francis Newman—Francis Newman, A History of the Hebrew Monarchy from the Administration of Samuel to the Babylonish Captivity (London, 1847), and The Soul, her Sorrows and her Aspirations: An Essay towards the Natural History of the Soul (London, 1849); CCD, 4.451, 479.

  148 a small barnacle—CCD, 4.388-409.

  151 a character called Professor Long—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, What Will He Do with It? (Novels, Knebworth Edition, London, n.d.), 1.162-4.

  157 “And this is a most wonderful process”—Philip Gosse, Evenings at the Microscope (London, 1884), p. 201.

  Chapter Seven: Worlds Away from Home

  160 Sophy’s music—Ursula Vaughan Williams, R.V.W.: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams (London, 1964), p. 13.

  162 a parliamentary committee—Select Committee on the State of the Children Employed in the Manufactories of the United Kingdom, 1816; Report of the Minutes of Evidence, 25 April and 18 June 1816.

  163 “We turned and threw and blunged”—Josiah Wedgwood, Essays and Adventures of a Labour M.P. (London, 1924), p. 31.

  163 “In the labyrinthine stairs and corridors”—C. V. Wedgwood, “Out on a limb,” The Listener, 20 September 1956.

  167 Dr. Gully met Dr. James Wilson—John Harcup, The Malvern Water Cure (Malvern, 1992), and Janet Browne, “Spas and sensibilities: Darwin at Malvern,” in The Medical History of Waters and Spas, ed. Roy Porter, Medical History, Supplement no. 10 (1990).

  167 “How often have I observed the undertaker’s house”—James Wilson, The Water Cure, A Practical Treatise on the Cure of Diseases by Water, Air, Exercise and Diet (London, 1842), pp. xvi-xviii.

  169 “It is, I think, in medicine as in religion”—Joseph Leech, Three Weeks in Wet Sheets (London, 1851), p. 118. The book was published anonymously, but a copy owned by John Harcup has a contemporary inscription attributing it to Leech.

  169 Thomas Carlyle caught an element of the appeal—Charles Norton, The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and R. W. Emerson 1834-1872 (London, 1883), 2.206.

  169 “The three hydropathic doctors”—Joseph Leech, Three Weeks in Wet Sheets, p. 16.

  170 Willy’s Travels on the Railroad—Jane Marcet, Willy’s Travels on the Railroad (London, 1847), pp. 6-7.

  170 When Dickens passed through the city—Charles Dickens, “Malvern water,” Household Words, 11 October 1851, p. 67.

  171 The Lodge—The house is now called Hill House.

  172 “The water itself, which dribbles away”—Joseph Leech, Three Weeks in Wet Sheets, p. 56.

  174 The Young Lady’s Book—The Young Lady’s Book: A Manual of Elegant Recreations, Arts, Sciences, and Accomplishments (London, 1859), pp. 473, 486.

  174 “he bothered my father”—In George’s account of the episode (CUL DAR 112.9), he wrote that it took place in 1851. Francis (CUL DAR 140) placed it during the family’s visit in 1849. Francis’s date is to be preferred, as Charles was not at Malvern “for some time” in 1851.

  176 Old Stones—W. S. Symonds, Old Stones: Notes of Lectures on the Plutonic, Silurian, and Devonian Rocks in the Neighbourhood of Malvern (Malvern, 1855), pp. 7-8, 17, 68. Symonds also knew Charles Lyell.

  176 Edwin Lees—Edwin Lees, Pictures of Nature in the Silurian Region Around the Malvern Hills (Malvern, 1856), pp. 326-7.

  Chapter Eight: The Fretfulness of a Child

  180 “Nothing comes up to the misery”�
��CCD, 4.155.

  180 Obaysch—Wilfrid Blunt, The Ark in the Park: The Zoo in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1976), pp. 106-21.

  181 A guide published in 1839—John Brady, The Visitor’s Guide to Knole, in the County of Kent (Sevenoaks, 1839), pp. 69-70.

  183 Charles watched with his own interests—Notebooks, p. 371 (C 249e); annotations in Johann Bechstein, Naturgeschichte der Stubenvögel (Halle, 1840), Marginalia, pp. 44-7; B. P. Brent, The Canary, British Finches, and Some Other Birds (London, 1864), p. 15; Descent, 2.59.