The eldest son of Robert, christened Robert Waring, succeeded to the estate of Elston, and died there at the age of ninety-two, a bachelor. He had a strong taste for poetry, like his youngest brother Erasmus, as I infer from the later having dedicated an MS. volume of juvenile poems to him, with the words, "By whose example and encouragement my mind was directed to the study of poetry in my very early years". The two brothers also corresponded together in verse. Robert also cultivated botany, and, when an oldish man, he published his ''Principia Botanica''. This book in MS. was beautifully written, and my father (R.W. Darwin ) declared that he believed it was published because his old uncle could not endure that such fine calligraphy should be wasted. But this was hardly just, as the work contains many curious notes on biology — a subject wholly neglected in England in the last century. The public, moreover, appreciated the book, as the copy in my possession is the third edition.〔Darwin, 1897. p.4〕