cupied with precisely
the same pursuits and with an independence enabling him to pursue them
will fall so nearly in my way, and to have had it snatched from me with
the prospect of your residence somewhat far off is a privation I feel as
a very great one. I hope you will not, like Herschell, get far off from
a railway.

LETTER 12. TO CATHERINE DARWIN.

(12/1. The following letter was written to his sister Catherine about
two months before Charles Darwin settled at Down:--)

Sunday [July 1842].

You must have been surprised at not having heard sooner about the house.
Emma and I only returned yesterday afternoon from sleeping there. I will
give you in detail, as my father would like, MY opinion on it--Emma's
slightly differs. Position:--about 1/4 of a mile from the small village
of Down in Kent--16 miles from St. Paul's--8 1/2 miles from station
(with many trains) which station is only 10 from London. This is bad,
as the drive from [i.e. on account of] the hills is long. I calculate we
are two hours going from London Bridge. Village about forty houses with
old walnut trees in the middle where stands an old flint church and the
lanes meet. Inhabitants very respectable--infant school--grown up people
great musicians--all touch their hats as in Wales and sit at their open
doors in the evening; no high road leads through the village. The little
pot-house where we slept is a grocer's shop, and the landlord is the
carpenter--so you may guess the style of the village. There are butcher
and baker and post-office. A carrier goes weekly to London and calls
anywhere for anything in London and takes anything anywhere. On the road
[from London] to the village, on a fine day the scenery is absolutely
beautiful: from close to our house the view is very distant and rather
beautiful, but the house being situated on a rather high tableland has
somewhat of a desolate air. There is a most beautiful old farm-house,
with great thatched barns and old stumps of oak trees, like that of
Skelton, one field off. The charm of the place to me is that almost
every field is intersected (as alas is ours) by one or more foot-paths.
I never saw so many walks in any other county. The country is
extraordinarily rural and quiet with narrow lanes and high hedges and
hardly any ruts. It is really surprising to think London is only 16
miles off. The house stands very badly, close to a tiny lane and near
another man's field. Our field is 15 acres and flat,