"Having said this much about my Father, I will add a few words about my brother & sisters. My brother Erasmus possessed a remarkably clear mind, with extensive & diversified tastes & knowledge in literature, art, & even in science. For a short time he collected & dried plants, & during a somewhat longer time experimented in chemistry. He was extremely agreeable, & his wit often reminded me of that in the letters & works of Charles Lamb. He was very kind-hearted; but his health from his boyhood had been weak, & as a consequence he failed in energy. His spirits were not high, sometimes low, more especially during early & middle manhood. He read much, even whilst a boy, & at school encouraged me to read, lending me books. Our minds & tastes were, however, so different that I do not think that I owe much to him intellectually, nor to my four sisters, who possessed very different characters, & some of them had strongly marked characters. All were extremely kind & affectionate towards me during their whole lives. I am inclined to agree with Francis Galton in believing that education & environment produce only a small effect on the mind of any one, & that most of our qualities are innate. The above sketch of my brother's character was written before that which was published in Carlyle's Remembrances, & which appears to me to have little truth & no merit."


THE FAMILY OF CHARLES & EMMA DARWIN : we now have images of the graves of all 21 members of CHARLES & EMMA DARWIN's immediate family: Charles & Emma themselves, 10 children: with 8 wives and 1 husband; TOTAL OF 19 in England & 1 in Wales and 1 in France.
Cambridge, England = 7:
E.W.D., was E.W.C. (Girton)
F.D., Sir (Ascension)
F.H.D., previously Maitland, was F.H.F., Lady (Ascension)
G.H.D., Sir (Trumpington Extension)
‘I’ (E.C.) D., was E.C. F., Lady (Ascension)
H.D., Sir (Ascension)
M.H.D., was M.H.DuP.,Lady (Trumpington Extension, cremated)
Cannes, France = 1 :
R.B.L.
Corris, Wales = 1
A.R.D. (was A.R.R.)
Downe, England = 5
C.W.D.
E.D.
E.D. (was E.W.)
H.E.L. (was H.E.D.)
M.E.D.
Forest Row, England = 2
L.D.
(C.) M. D. (was C.M.M.)
Great Malvern, England = 1
A.E.D.
London, England = 2
*E.F.D., was E.F.F. (Putney Vale)
C.D. (Westminster Abbey)
North Stoneham, England = 2
W.E.D.
S.P.A.D. (was S.P.A.S.)

The elder brother of Charles Darwin. He was educated at Shrewsbury School from 1815 until 1822 and it was while a pupil there that he developed an interest in books and plants. He became interested in chemistry, and, with his brother Charles as assistant, carried out experiments in his garden shed. From 1822 he studied medicine at Christ's College, Cambridge, and in 1825 went to join his brother at Edinburgh University. On completing his studies under the surgeon John Lizars he travelled to London where he enrolled in anatomy school. He gave up his medical career in 1829 at age twenty-six, on the advice of his father, also a doctor, who considered him to delicate to withstand the stresses of a medical career. He then went to live in London and Charles stayed with him several times before and after his voyage on the Beagle. He spent much of his time in the company of the radical writer Harriett Martineau and giving intellectual dinner parties whose guests included Charles Babbage, Hansleigh Wedgwood and Thomas Carlyle. By 1852 he was regarded as a confirmed bachelor, but he was a popular uncle to Charles' children and a regular visitor to Down House. In 1863 he joined the Council of the Abolitionist Ethnological Society of London. A long term user of opium, by 1880 he was in poor health and he rarely left his house in the months before his death. He was a member of the Cambridge Apostles, the intellectual secret society.