[page] 191

THE LATE CHARLES DARWIN.─ Westminster Abbey, as was fitting, was chosen as the last resting-place of Charles Darwin. The pall-bearers were the Duke of Argyll, the Duke of Devonshire, the Earl of Derby, Sir Joseph Hooker, the American Minister (Mr. Russell Lowell), Dr. Spottiswoode, President of the Royal Society, Professor Huxley, Mr. Alfred Russell Wallace, Canon Farrar, Sir John Lubbock, M.P., and there was an immense and representative gathering of all sections of society. The grave is nearly in the centre of the nave, slightly to the left of the entrance to the choir, and in the organ gallery, and immediately against the grave of Sir Isaac Newton. An anthem composed for the occasion by Dr. Bridge was sung to the words from the Book of Proverbs, "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and getteth understanding. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand

[page] 192

riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace."

The will (dated September 27th, 1881) of Mr. Charles Robert Darwin was proved on the 6th of June, by William Erasmus Darwin and George Howard Darwin, the sons and executors, the value of the personal estate amounting to upwards of £146,000. The testator leaves to his son William Erasmus the family portraits and papers, all medals, the silver candlesticks presented to him by the Royal Society, his manuscript of the voyage of the Beagle, and his manuscript autobiography; to his son Francis, his scientific library; to his wife, Mrs. Emma Darwin, £500, all his furniture, plate, books, effects, horses and carriages, and his residence at Down for life; and to his friends, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker and Thomas Henry Huxley, £1,000 each, free of legacy duty. The residue of his real and personal estate is to be held upon trust for his wife for life, and at her death as to twelve seventy- fourth parts for each of his five sons, and as to seven seventy- fourth parts for each of his two daughters; certain advancements made to his children are to be brought into account on the division.

[pages] 223-4

[In this same journal was a brief mention on Darwin's Insectivorous plants.]

The two insectivorous plants gathered derive, according to the late Dr. Darwin, benefits from the insects, each by a different method; for while the Sundew actually digests the animals entrapped, the Bladder-wort but absorbs the products of decay of the organisms it entombs in the bladders.

[…]

Amongst the results of the ramble which will leave the most lasting impression was the Butter-wort; so called from the sticky nature of its leaves. It is known also as the Snowdon violet. It was in full flower, and a large number of the leaves of the plant had caught and held in their fatal grip a countless number of unfortunate insects. This is one of those insectivorous plants upon which Dr. Charles Darwin made some hundreds of experiments, the record of which forms one of the most charming chapters of his remarkable book on Insectivorous Plants.