Erasmus Alvey Darwin - "Uncle Ras"

"Uncle Ras"

While Charles Darwin's illness made him increasingly reclusive after his move to Downe, he would still visit Erasmus as one of his relatives and friends who provided safe havens. One such occasion was the Great Exhibition in 1851 when the family came to London and stayed with "Uncle Ras". By 1852 Erasmus had become a confirmed bachelor, languid and melancholic, living alone except for servants, but at parties his "playful wit" made him the universal solvent. That summer he stayed at Down House with the family, and delighted his nephews and nieces whom he loved dearly, and who adored him. He romped with them, getting down on his hands and knees and becoming their playmate.

As the reaction to Darwin's theory began following publication of The Origin of Species at the end of 1859, Erasmus thought it "the most interesting book I have ever read", and sent a copy to his old flame Harriet Martineau who at 58 was still reviewing from her home in the Lake District. In 1863 he was on the Council of the abolitionist Ethnological Society of London which at the time of the American Civil War was engaged in debate with the breakaway pro-slavery Anthropological Society.

Francis Galton, having caught the fad for Spiritualism, arranged a séance in January 1874 at Erasmus's house with those attending including Charles, Hensleigh Wedgwood and Thomas Huxley. Charles's son George hired the medium Charles Williams, and they sat round the table in the dark, though Charles left to lie down, missing the show. It "took away all their breaths" with a ringing bell, rushing wind, jumping candlestick and the table rising up above their heads. Galton thought it a "good séance" and Erasmus dabbled in "spirit photographs", but Charles remained convinced that it was "all imposture", as Huxley and George proved at a second séance.

By the autumn of 1880 Erasmus was in poorly health, suffering from the effects of time and opium, in constant pain and scarcely able to leave home. In September 1881 Charles stayed with Erasmus while his portrait was painted by John Collier. Shortly afterwards, Erasmus became gravely ill and died quietly on 26 August. Emma Darwin broke the news to Charles, who commented that he had seen Erasmus dying slowly "for many years", not "a happy man" but always kindhearted, clearheaded and affectionate. The funeral at Downe on 1 September was taken by their cousin John Allen Wedgwood, now 85, who had officiated at the wedding of Charles and Emma. Charles, looking "old and ill" in a long black funeral cloak, was a picture of "sad reverie" as the coffin was lowered. A marble slab was arranged, with words by Thomas Carlyle: "one of the sincerest, truest and most modest of men".