Summary

CD recounts an idyllic stroll and nap – "as pleasant a rural scene as ever I saw, and I did not care one penny how any of the beasts or birds had been formed".

Summary

Concerned about ED’s headaches, CD writes an affectionate letter.

Believes he has found a rare slave-making species of ant.

Is reading novels: Beneath the surface and Three chances.

Summary

His [first] railway journey was disappointing.

Summary

In his first letter after their engagement, CD reports on the happy reception of the news by his family. He hopes she will not find life with him solitary and dull after the lively social life of Maer.

Summary

Recounts his misadventures on the train journey back to London. Tells of a visit to the FitzRoys and a friendly letter from Lyell. Whether CD and Emma should live in central London or in the suburbs is a perplexing problem, much discussed by relatives and friends.

Summary

CD and Erasmus continue to search for a house in central London. They have tea with the Carlyles.

Summary

His search for a London house. He visits the Lyells, who give solemn advice to choose their London acquaintances carefully.

Summary

The house at 12 Upper Gower Street is theirs.

Summary

Has moved into the Gower Street house. Is pleased with it and its location.

Hopes to be able to finish his Glen Roy paper soon.

Summary

His dinner with the Carlyles. "He is the best worth listening to of any man" – but CD cannot get up much admiration for Mrs C, partly because of her Scots accent, which makes her difficult to understand.

Summary

Has been with the Lyells doing geology.

Is reading a biography of Sir W. Scott [J. G. Lockhart, Memoirs of the life of Sir Walter Scott (1837–8)]; also Mungo Park’s book [Travels (1799)].

Has hired a cook at fourteen guineas a year with tea and sugar.

Summary

Comments on recent visit to Maer. Explains that his notion of happiness as quietness and solitude derives from Beagle experience. Hopes Emma will humanise him. Comments on marriage planned for Tuesday.

Describes recent visit by Lyell and his wife. Talked geology for half an hour "with poor Mrs Lyell sitting by". "I want practice in ill-treating the female sex."

Summary

He has the wedding ring. Agrees to coming straight home after the wedding, if that is what she prefers.

Summary

An amusing description of his railway journey to Shrewsbury.

Summary

Family news. Mainly concerned about Doddy’s [W. E. Darwin’s] health.

Summary

The happy family life at Shrewsbury. CD is looking so well his father would not have known there was anything the matter with him. The year’s accounts come to £1380.

Summary

Family news from Shrewsbury.

Summary

News of family and of his stay at Shrewsbury.

Calculates the newly instituted income tax will mean £30 per annum.

Summary

Is "stomachy and be-blue-devilled" because of costs of publishing [Zoology and Coral reefs]. Wonders how the remainder [of the Zoology and Geology of "Beagle"] can be published without taking £200 or £300 out of their personal funds.

Summary

News of the Shrewsbury family. He cannot get his father to sympathise with the numbness in his finger ends or his fears of "ruin and extravagance".