To J. D. Hooker [December 1846]
Down Farnborough Kent
Saturday
My dear Hooker
I shd. have answered your note sooner, only I have been very unwell, with a small abscess at the fangs of one of my grinders, complicated as is invariably the case with me with my wretched stomach: I think, however, I shall be well again tomorrow.—
I am truly delighted to hear that you will have some work & come here in middle of January. In all human probability this time will suit us capitally, as indeed wd almost all times: for the only engagement I know of this winter is a visit for a week to my Father.—
Sorrow take you for wishing me sorrow, merely because I egged you on to make a capital speech, & which I am very glad, if it does not turn you from more valuable work, you are forced to publish.—1 I do not think you were the least “hard” on Bunbury;2 perhaps he hardly got the usual proportion of “butter” on the occasion.— I suggest & urge on you, to find out where the Coal-plants from Melville Isd. are deposited & have a good look at them: the case is all important & never has been gone into even with approximate care, do think of this.—3
When I was drawing with Leonard,4 I was so delighted with the appearance of the objects, especially with their perspective, as seen through the weak powers of a good compound Microscope that I am going to order one: indeed I often have structures, in which the 130th is not power enough.—
I enclose a prospectus of a lady, our neighbour & friend of Berkeley: I do not know how the book will be done, but her own drawings are in truth quite wonderfully beautiful:—
Thanks for the corallines; Heaven knows when I shall begin them; I have been nearly 3 months on Cirripedia & have done only 3 genera!!!
We are both very sorry not to hear a better account of your Sister.
Ever my dear Hooker | Yours | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bunbury, Charles James Fox. 1847. On fossil plants from the coal formation of Cape Breton. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 3: 423–38.
Summary
Hopes JDH can come to stay in January.
Thanks for the corallines.
Mention of JDH’s capital speech.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1035
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 114: 76
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp & C
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1035,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1035.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 3