From J. G. Fenwick 17 March 1876
Moorlands, | New Castle Tyne
Mch 17—1876
Sir.
Your book on Animal Emotions1 has led me to observe a peculiarity which runs in my own family, perhaps the word “orderliness” best describes it. I have it to a somewhat painful extent, for instance a picture on the wall, in the slightest degree awry will raise me from my seat to put it exactly level, in my library my book shelves must be most exactly in order, and the books even in height on each shelf, if they happen to be disarranged I must have them put right before I can sit down with comfort. I seem to have inherited this from my Mother,2 my eldest sister3 had not this orderliness, at last it led her mother to say, Mary, if you will leave your drawer open, I will send for you to close it wherever you may be, one hot summer day she, and another sister started to visit some friends at a little distance, when over half a mile from home, a little sister came panting after them, to say that Mary was to return home immediately,4 she reluctantly did so, when she arrived, it was to go to her bedroom and shut the door that she had left partly open. This little event happened near forty years ago, and is still remembered, in my own family of eight children then is no special manifestation of this orderliness. but in a nephew a little fellow of some four years old,5 it is shown to an extent that is most trying to his elder brother who is about two years older,6 anything in the house that gets out of place he must have put right, should anything be too heavy for him to move, he will lay down on his back and scream with passion, untill it is rightly placed. I don’t know that these items are of much interest but I venture to send them on.
On another subject, I have a Setter bitch a great favourite, that lives in the house, and she has learnt to turn the tap of a Water Filter when she wants a drink. She manifests her joy, when going out in a remarkable manner, by turning herself completely round, two or three times very rapidly, her Sire and his Dam had exactly the same movement, which I have never seen in any other strain.7
I am, Sir | Your obdt Servt | John Geo Fenwick
Charles Darwin Esqr MA. FRS.
PS. | My little nephew’s orderliness goes to this extent, that if a scuttle of Coal is brought into the room where he is, he must go to it & put the pieces in exact order.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Expression: The expression of the emotions in man and animals. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.
Summary
Recounts family trait of excessive orderliness
and the behaviour of his dog.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10418
- From
- John George Fenwick
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Newcastle-upon-Tyne
- Source of text
- DAR 164: 117
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10418,” accessed on 28 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10418.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24