Darwin’s bills detailed - March 23, 2009
Details of Charles Darwin’s student days have been revealed by a selection of bills from his time at Cambridge. The University has just released six record books detailing much of Darwin’s time at Christ’s College.
“Before this we didn’t really know very much about Darwin’s daily life at Cambridge at all,” says John van Wyhe, who heads a project which puts all Darwin’s works online. “It had been assumed that there were no significant traces of his time here left to discover, which meant that we were ironically short of information about one of the most formative parts of his life.”
The books show that Darwin enjoyed, says the Cambridge press release, “all the trappings one would expect of a 19th century gentleman, paying service-people to carry out tasks such as stoking his fire and polishing his shoes”. In addition to his fees, Darwin paid a bed-maker, a chimney-sweep, someone to polish his shoes, and various other traders.
All in all, Darwin paid £636 over his three years at Cambridge, plus £14 for his BA and £12 for his MA. The Sun newspaper notes, “Naturalist Charles Darwin spent more money on designer shoes and plush drapes than he did on books while at university, documents reveal.”
Darwin's student bills at Christ's College, Cambridge are available at the The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online website.
