Buckets from an English Sea: 1832 and the Making of Charles Darwin

217 Pages·2018·2.117 MB·English

by  Louis B. Rosenblatt

Buckets from an English Sea
1832 and the Making of
Charles Darwin
Louis B. Rosenblatt
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1
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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.
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