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 1850 - 1876 (~ 26 years)
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| Name |
Amy Richenda RUCK |
| Born |
Mar Qtr. 1850 |
Machynlleth District, Pennal, Monmouthshire, Wales (vol. 27, p. 92)  |
| Gender |
Female |
| Died |
11 Sep 1876 |
Hartlip, Kent, England |
| Person ID |
I3527 |
Young Kent Ancestors |
| Last Modified |
29 Mar 2021 |
| Father |
Lawrence RUCK, b. 1819, Hartlip, Kent, England , d. post-1881 (Age 62 years) |
| Mother |
Mary Anne MATTHEWS, b. 1822, Esgair Leverin, Pennal, Merioneth, Wales |
| Married |
25 Oct 1841 |
| Notes |
- Marriage date is date of Faculty Office marriage licence.
|
| Family ID |
F1390 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family |
Francis DARWIN, b. 16 Aug 1848, County Down, Ireland , d. 19 Sep 1925 (Age 77 years) |
| Married |
23 Jul 1874 |
| Children |
|
| Last Modified |
20 Mar 2022 |
| Family ID |
F1400 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
-
| Notes |
- In the aftermath of Amy’s death, only a couple of years after her marriage, Emma worried in particular about Elizabeth. Amy was one of the few people Elizabeth could talk to. The Darwins were a chatty bunch and seem to have rather resented people who were ‘too’ quiet. Elizabeth candidly admitted that she found it difficult to open up to Emma herself, much as she might wish to. A remark by Amy’s mother, soon after Bernard’s birth, when she was trying to keep Amy quiet, that ‘now of course Amy would talk’, suggests that Amy may have been similarly withdrawn with her own mother. Both girls were from large families, dominated by boys, with charismatic, even notorious parents. (Amy’s mother, ‘Nain’ Ruck, was a powerful personality, and her father had been committed to an asylum; details of the case, and of his lurid accusations against himself and his wife, had appeared in The Times.) Did each recognise a fellow spirit in the another?
[Source: http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2017/01/darwin-and-women-the-story-of-amy-and-elizabeth/]
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To Amy Ruck 24 February [1872]
9 Devonshire St | Portland Place
Feb 24
My dear Amy
I want you to observe another point for me; so you see that I treat you as my geologist in chief for N. Wales.1
The late Prof. Henslow,2 who was a very accurate man, said that he had often observed on very steep slopes, covered with fine turf, (such as may be found in mountainous countries & no where else) that the surface was marked by little, almost horizontal, sometimes sinuous & bifurcating ledges; or as he called them, wrinkles. These are commonly attributed to sheep walking in nearly horizontal lines along the sloping surface; & they are undoubtedly thus commonly used by the sheep; but Henslow convinced himself that they did not thus originate. Dr Hooker, to whom Henslow made these remarks, has since observed such little ledges on the Himmalayah & Atlas ranges, in parts where there were no sheep & few wild animals—3 Henslow speculated that the earth beneath the turf was in some manner gradually washed away; & he compared the wrinkles on the turf to those on the face of an old man whose face is shrunk. I cannot possibly believe in this notion.
Would you look at any very steep grass covered slopes near you, & if you can find any appearance such as I have described, will you make for me an eye sketch on some approximate scale of the relative appearance & distance of the ledges. I have been speculating whether the ledges can possibly be due to the washing down of the worm castings, & their union into little ridges, on nearly the same principle that when the wind drifts loose sand, it makes numerous little ridges at right angles to the course of the wind.
You must not give yourself much trouble on this subject, but I shd be very much obliged for any observations or remark.
yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
If you find anything of the kind observe whether there are worm-castings on the slope.— Also whether the earth is bare & exposed beneath the little ridges or ledges.—
[Source: https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8224.xml]
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From Amy Ruck 15 March [1872]1
Pantlludw, Machynlleth.
March 15th.
Dear Mr. Darwin
I am very sorry that I am unable to tell you anything about the ledges, as hitherto we have failed to discover any appearance of what you describe— The steep slopes here are perfectly smooth, & it is difficult to imagine any change taking place in them, as worm-casting are rarely to be seen on the hills.2
Thanking you for your letter I am | Your’s sincerely | Amy Ruck
[Source: https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8243.xml;query=amy;brand=default]
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To Amy Ruck [1 November 1872]
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
My dear Amy
I have told Mr Murray to send by tomorrow’s Post (if possible) a copy of my book on Expression &c to you, as a little mark of my affectionate regard.1
My dear Amy | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Some people like pasting an authors hand-writing at beginning so I send the same on next Page2
[Source: https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8590.xml;query=amy;brand=default]
Footnote: Expression: The expression of the emotions in man and animals. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.
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To G. H. Darwin 3 May [1872]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
May 3d
My dear George
Many thanks for the extracts which I will keep, but the subject of music is beyond me.—2
I was thinking the other day of suggesting to you to deliberate over 1 or 2 sentences at the end of your paper on dress, where you speak of the subject being very interesting.3 I remember once putting in some such sentence, & it was objected to me that the Reader was the proper judge of this.
This may be Hypercriticism.—
I am heartily glad that you were not too late for being called to the Bar.—4 Good Heavens what two days work you had—
The Lovers seem supremely happy, & Amy’s eyes are as bright as they can be, & her cheeks rosy.—5 We had a perfectly charming & most cordial letter from Mrs. Ruck today. She approves of my suggestion that the marriage shd. not be immediately. Mr. Ruck’s name is never even mentioned!—6
Yours affectionately | C. Darwin
[Source: https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8308.xml]
Footnotes
1 The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from G. H. Darwin, 2 May 1872.
2 See letter from G. H. Darwin, 2 May 1872.
3 CD refers to George’s article ‘Development in dress’, which was published in the September 1872 issue of Macmillan’s Magazine (G. H. Darwin 1872).
4 George was called to the bar on 30 April 1872 (Men-at-the-bar).
5 According to Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242), Amy Ruck was at Down from 25 April to 4 May 1872; she was engaged to Francis Darwin.
6 Mary Anne Ruck’s letter has not been found. Lawrence Ruck had spent time in the Moorcroft lunatic asylum, Middlesex; among the evidences offered of his insanity were that he had accused his wife of being a prostitute, and claimed that he himself was haunted by a maidservant who had, according to him, borne him two children (see The Times, 25 August 1858, pp. 5–6, 26 August 1858, p. 7). He was found to be sane by the commissioners of lunacy and successfully sued the proprietor of the asylum for illegally and unnecessarily confining him (British Medical Journal, 2 July 1859, pp. 534–5). Amy and Francis were married on 23 July 1874 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).
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From Amy Ruck to Horace Darwin [20 January 1872]1
Pantlludw, | Machynlleth.
Dear Horace
I am afraid I have nothing worth telling about worms. I have been rather in despair this seems such a bad country for them as a “worm casting” is quite a rare sight even on our croquet ground where one might expect to see them, there is very few. Atty2 declares there are a dozen moles to every worm here— However on the top of the Hill there are some steep slopes ploughed about 50 or 60 years ago & we have done some digging & measuring there with these results— the furrows going chiefly crossways—
[DIAG HERE]
We found that the fine soil at the top of the slope was always shallower, being in the furrows at the top 2
1
2
inches, at the bottom 4
1
2
; & that there was always about half an inch difference in the depth of the soil in the ridge & in the furrow, that in the furrow being deepest. We tried a good many times & always found this difference—
It is rare to find furrows running down a slope, but we came across a few in a basin, last ploughed during the Peninsular War—& there they almost disappeared at the bottom—the depth of the furrow between the ridges being at the top 4
1
2
in. at the bottom 1in.3 Papa says, there is a place near his old home Newington called ‘Worm Dale, where they do wonders—4 Dicky & Lenny5 might go & look at it.
My thanks to you for wading through this. | ARR.
[Source: https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8168.xml]
Footnotes
1 The date is established by CD’s annotation.
2 Arthur Ashley Ruck, Amy’s brother.
3 CD reported these findings in Earthworms, pp. 295–6. The Peninsular War took place in Portugal and Spain between 1807 and 1814.
4 Lawrence Ruck referred to Wormdale Hill near Newington in Kent.
5 Richard Matthews Ruck (Amy’s brother), and Leonard Darwin.
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From Amy Ruck to Horace Darwin [1 February 1872]1
Will you tell Mr. Darwin that in the case in which the furrows run down the hill & are 4in at the top & 1in at the bottom—the slope is 15o and faces North East. The furrows are about 7 ft apart & on the level ground above are 4in 3
1
2
in deep, although it is difficult to measure these on account of the mole hills—40 paces long.
On another slope of 15o facing S. West the furrows were scarcely perceptible but on level ground at the bottom the same furrows were 3
1
4
2
1
2
in deep. The length of the slope was 80 paces— On another short slope of 10o the furrows at the top were 3
1
2
at the bottom 1
1
4
1
1
2
in deep.2
[Source: https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8193.xml]
Footnotes
1 The date is established by CD’s annotation.
2 The measurements were made for CD’s research on the action of worms in turning over soil (see also letter from Amy Ruck to Horace Darwin, [20 January 1872]). CD wanted to ascertain how long the ridges of ploughed land would persist after the land was last ploughed (see Earthworms, p. 292).
Bibliography
Earthworms: The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms: with observations on their habits. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1881.
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