Buckets from an English Sea 1832 and the Making of Charles Darwin Louis B. Rosenblatt 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Oxford University Press 2018 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Rosenblatt, Louis Barry, author. Title: Buckets from an English Sea : 1832 and the making of Charles Darwin / Louis B. Rosenblatt. Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017030144 | ISBN 9780190654405 Subjects: LCSH: Darwin, Charles, 1809–1882. | Beagle Expedition (1831–1836) | Naturalists—England—Biography. | Evolution (Biology)—History. Classification: LCC QH31.D2 R57 2018 | DDC 576.8/2092 [B]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017030144 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix 1. Prelude: A Word on Beginnings and Ends 1 2. Outrageous to Morality, Pernicious to Government 16 3. A Meeting at the Athenaeum 32 4. A Banker’s Son and a Philosophic Radical 53 5. The Victorian Idea of Science 70 6. The Child Is Father to the Man 100 7. Is the Map Any Good? 119 8. In the Wild 140 9. And So . . . 178 Bibliography 187 Index 201 list of illustrations 1.1 R obert Baker’s map of the cholera epidemic in Leeds, 1833, from E. Chadwick’s Report on the Sanitary Conditions, 1842. 8 1.2 William Hogarth’s engraving Reward of Cruelty, plate iv in a series of four, 1751. 9 1.3 J. M. W. Turner’s Helveotsluys, 1832. 12 3.1 John O’Connor’s Pentonville Road, 1884. 47 6.1 Map of Rye, Romney Marsh, from Cinque Ports by Montagu Burrows, early sixteenth century. 111 6.2 John Norden’s map of 1595 of the coast of East Sussex, from Cinque Ports by Montagu Burrows. 112 8.1 Ruins of the Temple of Serapis by Canonico Andrea de Jorio, 1820, and used by Lyell as the frontispiece of vol. i of his Principles, 1830. 151 vii Acknowledgments I am indebted to so many. To all my former students who sought more than I could readily offer, so I had to push what I knew. To former teachers, like Drs. Hannaway, Pocock, and the Fabers, who engaged what I offered. And to a myriad of others whom I only knew through their writings, like Popper and Havelock, who offered clar- ity of judgment where I had only seen “stuff.” And thanks to those who read early drafts: Bobby Loftus, Roy Baxandall, Dave Kinne, Marshall Gordon, and especially Dale Beran. I also want to thank my family, grown now beyond the four of us to include Shanna, Gabe, and Nora, for all our talks and walks. And finally Bonnie, companion, critic, and lovely at both. ix