From J. D. Hooker 18 June 1881
Royal Gardens Kew
June 18/81.
Dear Darwin.
Common as you may regard Oxalis corniculata, it was not that I intended to ask for, but a commoner, the wood-sorrel!—O. Acetosella.1 I had no idea you were away from home— I fear I have bothered you in vain by stupidly asking for the wrong plant (it has not come yet)— however I cannot regret having got so long a letter from you, & with something of yourself in it too.2
I quite understand your misery at finding yourself where you have “all play” offered you, & no work to fall back upon!— I should be as bad; but then I know not the condition.— When I go away I have work that I can always take with me, official & other: & my misery is the lots accumulating at home. I cannot tell you how I long to throw off the trammels of official life & do like Bentham:3 it is horrid at 63 after 42 years of Public Service too, to have to work on a pot-boiler over & above official hours.— but then it is my own fault.— a man who marries & has a family late in life must pay for it.4
I hear that, Greg is dying.5 Mr & Mrs Symonds (my wifes parents) are here, & insist on the children going to them in the holidays so that we shall not want a summer quarters at Knockholt or elsewhere6
So poor Rolleston is dead!. His wife is I hear suffering from acute mania, but some at any rate of her medical attendants regard it as temporary— they have 7 children, & the eldest only 17.7 We have lost no end of friends this year, & it is difficult to resist the pessimistic view of creation— when I look back however, & especially my beloved friend to the days I have spent in intercourse with you & your’s, that view takes wings to itself & flies away: it is a horrid world to be sure, but it could have been worse.
I am sore exercised about my address for York:—of which I fear you will hear more than you will care for during incubation.8
Ever aff yrs | J D Hooker
Footnotes
Bibliography
Hooker, Joseph Dalton. 1881. On geographical distribution. Presidential address, section E, geography. [Read 1 September 1881.] Report of the 51st Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at York, Transactions of the sections, pp. 727–38.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Summary
At 63 JDH still works hard to support his family. Many friends have died. Memories of times past spent with CD lift his pessimism.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13209
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 104: 152–3
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13209,” accessed on 19 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13209.xml