To J. D. Hooker 2 December [1854]
Down Farnborough Kent
Dec. 2d.
My dear Hooker
You are a pretty fellow to talk of funking the returning thanks at the Dinner for the Medal.—1 I heard that it was decidedly the best speech of the evening, given “with perfect fluency, distinctness & command of language”.— And that you showed great self-possession: was the latter the proverbially desperate courage of a coward? But you are a pretty fellow to be so desperately afraid & then to make the crack speak. Many such an ordeal may you have to go through!.— I do not know whether Sir William2 wd. be contented with Ld. Rosse’s speech on giving you the medal;3 but I was very much pleased with it; & really the roll of what you have done was, I think, splendid. What a great pity he half spoiled it by not having taken the trouble just to read it over first. Poor Hoffman came off in this respect even worse.—4 It is is really almost arrogant indolence against everyone not an astronomer.—5
The next morning I was at a very pleasant Breakfast party at Sir R. Inglis.—6
I have received, with very many thanks, the aberrant genera; but I have not had time to consider them, or your remarks on Australian Bot. Geograph.
My dear Hooker | Very truly your’s | C. Darwin
I direct to your Fathers, as I do not know your address in Richmond, which I suppose is a large place.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
ML: More letters of Charles Darwin: a record of his work in a series of hitherto unpublished letters. Edited by Francis Darwin and Albert Charles Seward. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1903.
Summary
JDH’s "grand speech" on receiving the Royal Medal.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1609
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 114: 158
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1609,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1609.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5