Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-06-12

again. His invariable hours for walk
ing every day were z in the morning,
MONDAY, and 4 o'clock in the after
noon, sometimes accompanied by his
sons, one Of whom, Mr.. Francis OAR
win, has long been established as a
surgeon in the village, but more often
alone.
Rising always at the early hour of
six to take his cold bath-in which he
was accustomed to plunge both morn
ing and evening-he breakfasted alone;
and after his first morning walk was
in his library, as a rule, at eight. AT
nine, when the post boy arrived from
Marlborough, he would spend a little
time in the dining-room, opening let.
tiers and skimming the papers, and in
the evening would linger an hour or
SO in the society of his family, or some
of those friends distinguished in the
world of science, who occasionally
found their way to Downe Court; but
the greater part Of his time was spent
in his library, his gardens and the
outlying parts of his little domain.
When he extended his walks into the
country round about, it was observed
that he was rarely seen in the village
or met on the roads, preferring, as he
did, to take his way generally south
ward by the footpaths through the
woods and meadows. Little children,
who have a quick instinct for a kind
md gentle nature, would run to open
a gate when they saw Mr.. Darwin, en-.
couraged thereto by a smile and a
kind word. Downe folk, by whom he
was much beloved, like now to dwell
upon these tTifes, and to speak of his
considerable kindness to all about him.
They point with a sort of pride to the
fact that the domestics at Downe
Court are mostly old servants, that his
maid. Margaret Evans, who assisted
in nursing him in his last illness, en-
tered his service when a girl, at
Shrewsbury, nearly forty years ago,
her aunt and uncle being butler and
housekeeper to Mr.. Darwin's father,
DR.. Robert Waring Darwin, in that
city.
The intelligence of his death came
upon the place with a painful sudden
ness. 1t was known that he had been
poorly for a few weeks; that it had
been deemed advisable, about a month
ago, to send a servant to Lou
don to fetch a chair constructed for
carrying an invalid, the weakness Of
the action of the heart rendering even
the slight exertion of ascending the
flight of stairs to his bedroom
perilous in the opinion of his medical
advisers. But, with care, sufferers
from heart disease often live long, and
he was in the main still able to pursue
his customary. habits. On Tuesday
morning his devoted friend and com
rade in the field of science, Sir John
Lubbock, called to see him on his way
to his Parliamentary duties in London,
and found him, as it seemed, pretty
much as usual. That matters had
a grave turn became known for
the first timo when, on Wednesday
afterEoon, his groom arrived, galloping
through the village upon a horse
Sprinkled with foam, and carrying
under his arm a wet and dripping bag
OF ice. He had been dispatched to
Bromley, the nearest point at which
such an article could be obtained, and
accomplished the ride Of twelve miles
in something less than an hour; but
unhappily the relief arrived too late
to be of seVice. The sufferer had
already sunk to his rest, surrounded
by his family, including Mrs. Darwin,
several Of his sons and a married
daurhter.
The churchysrd of Downe, in which
some of MIR. Darwin's children are
buried, can hardly be said to be a
retired spot, being surrounded on
three sides by the village street, from
which it is separated only by a low
wall, but it lies under the shade of
tall elms, while zeal tho porch a ven
cradle yew, with a trunk measuring, it
is said, nearly twenty-three feet in
Girth, adds to the solemn associations
of the place. In the churchyard,
near the south door, lie buried, as
shown by the inscriptions on a fiat
table over the graves, the two infant
children Of Mr.. Darwin-Mary Ell
eanor, who died in 1912, and Charles
Warilg Darwin, who died in 1858,
being then only two years cid. Near
them, under the melancholy boughs
of the great yew tree, sleep two mem
bers Of the WedgwOod family, to
which, as is well known, Mr.. Darwin
was related by the side OF his mother,
as well as by his own marriage with
his cousin, Miss Wedgwood. One of
them is Miss Sarah Wedgwood, grand
daughter of the celebrated manufac-
turer Of art pottery: venerable lady,
who had resided for many years in an
oddly built old house with a lofty
tower in the village, aud who here
went to her rest in November, 1880,
~ tho r;no ora If Q6