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15 May 1873. Called on Darwin at his house near Down: sat half an hour with him, talk on general subjects, but I could carry away nothing of special note.

27 July 1873. Passed our last and on that account rather a melancholy day at Holwood … Called in the afternoon on Mr Darwin, but found him surrounded by his family, and had little talk.

18 August 1875. Wrote to Disraeli at some length on the question of honours or rewards to men of science: I recommended the selection of Darwin and Owen, or of Darwin alone, for the present, leaving for another occasion the recognition of such claims as those of Huxley, Tyndall, Stokes, Thomson, etc. I advised that a pension should be offered to Darwin, and either a baronetcy, or, better, a K.C.B.

10 September 1875. London soon after 2 p.m. Called by appointment on Disraeli: he was in good spirits, satisfied with the work of the year and sanguine of the future: … We spoke of honours to men of science: he proposes to offer the K.C.B. once more to Carlyle, and in the event of his accepting, then to Darwin also: failing any arrangement of this kind, it is always possible to offer a pension.

22 December 1875. Read a letter by Darwin addressed to M. on the occasion of my Edinburgh address, which gave me more pleasure than compliments usually do, for three reasons: because it need not to have been written, and therefore is probably sincere: because it comes from one of the very few men who are eminent as thinkers, not only in their own country, but throughout Europe: and because the passages which he has selected for praise are those which refer to science …

20 July 1877. M. drove over to see Darwin at his house at Downe, & came back much entertained …

27 Nov. 1880 (Saturday): Day fine. Call with M. on Mr. & Mrs. Darwin, at Downe, & stayed nearly an hour…

24 July 1881 (Sunday): In afternoon, walk by Downe & call on Mr. Darwin: with him I had some interesting conversation, though less than I could have wished, for he was anxious to hear about Ireland & affairs of the day that it was not easy to get him to talk on his own topics. The chief thing he told me was that some foreign experimentalists are trying the effect of inoculation in various diseases: that is the virus which causes the disease being known is applied to the animal in a mitigated form, causing only a slight illness, & by this process security from infection is obtained in the same way as vaccination prevents the catching of smallpox. There are hopes, he said, that dogs may be insured in this manner against hydrophobia. Some Italian physicians believe, he said, that they have detected the cause of malarious fever in a certain very minute organism which they had collected from the air, & which administered to a dog produced the ordinary symptoms of poisoning by malaria.

Mr. D. insisted on showing me a better way home than by the road, & gave me his company for some distance. I was glad to see him as well in health & looks as before, though he said he had given up riding in consequence of a severe fall.

23 April 1882. … Heard, two days ago, of the death of Darwin: the greatest scientific discoverer of our age: who has revolutionised opinion to a greater extent, & with farther reaching consequences, than we are as yet aware of. He was 73, & had been all his life in feeble health, requiring him to live in a quiet & retired way: he seldom left his house at Downe, & avoided all personal publicity, while known through his books to the whole civilised world. It is impossible to conceive a character more free from envy, jealousy, or vanity in any form. Indeed his apparent ignorance of his own world-wide fame would in a man of less simple & natural manners have seemed like affectation. He had had his reward: for surely no one ever yet produced such an overthrow of existing beliefs, who provoked so little personal hostility. I am asked by his sons to be one of the pall bearers at his funeral in Westminster Abbey, on Wednesday, & have of course accepted …¹

26 Apr. 1882: By early train to attend the funeral of Mr. Darwin … The pall bearers with me were, D. of Devonshire, D. of Argyll: Lowell, Huxley, Hooker, Spottiswoode, Mr. Wallace the naturalist, & Canon Farrer. Sir J. Lubbock was named one, but I did not see him. Possibly he was shut out, for the arrangements were confused. The grave was close by that of Sir Isaac Newton: which was well.¹

18 June 1882: … Darwin's will is in the papers: he leaves £146,000, which is more than any one thought, and more than any, I should suppose, of his brother philosophers.

10 Jan. 1884: … The papers are full of an American lecturer, a Mr. George,² author of a book which I remember Darwin enquiring about when I saw him last at Downe, the title of which is Progress and Poverty … Davitt, the Fenian convict, joins him, & Labouchere, who dares not profess entire sympathy with his ideas, consented to be chairman of a meeting which he has just held in St. James's Hall …

¹ See Darwin's funeral and the 'Note by Lord Derby' in Francis Darwin's collection of letters in CUL-DAR198.52. JvW

² Henry George (1839-1897), American publicist: author of Progress and Poverty (1879). TP
See A. R. Wallace to Darwin 9 July 1881 and Darwin to Wallace 12 July 1881 in Alfred Russel Wallace letters and reminiscences, vol. 1, pp. 317-18. JvW