skip to content
Home

Darwin Correspondence Project

To J. S. Henslow   26 March [1855]

Down Farnborough Kent

March 26th

My dear Henslow

I found on my return home the Anacharis,1 put by my wife in water & all flourishing for which very many thanks, & for which, as you are not a man to be offended, I send the 14 pennies, as by doing so I feel an honester man, & you will be by 14 pennies a richer man, & therefore according to Sydney Smith’s high morality by exactly that much, a happier man,2 & according to City authorities, a better man. I saw Mr Gosse the other night & he told me that he had now the same several sea-animals & algæ living & breeding for 13 months in the same artificially made sea water!3 Does not this tempt you? it almost tempts me to set up a marine vivarium.—

Remember in due time the second Edit of your Hitcham Flora,4 &, shd. you ever stumble on it, the fact on wild-geese.—5

I saw when in London Archdeacon Clive,6 & he most particularly enquired about you & expressed a very strong wish to see you.—

My dear Henslow | Your affectionate old Pupil | C. D

Footnotes

2
‘I have been very poor the greatest part of my life, and have borne it as well, I believe, as most people, but I can safely say that I have been happier every guinea I have gained.’ (S. Holland 1855, 1: 223). CD had recently read Saba Holland’s memoir of her father Sydney Smith (S. Holland 1855) (Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix IV, 128: 11).
3
CD first met Philip Henry Gosse at the Linnean Society meeting of 2 March 1855 (E. Gosse 1890, p. 256).
4
Henslow 1855a.
5
Possibly a reference to CD’s note dated ‘Feb 55/’ (DAR 205.2: 114) which reads, in part: ‘Henslow has case of Black Barley taken out of goose craw flying from N. in Canada’.
6
William Clive, archdeacon of Montgomery, was an old friend of the Darwin family. He had been an exact contemporary of Henslow at St John’s College, Cambridge, 1813–18.

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Gosse, Edmund. 1890. The life of Philip Henry Gosse F.R.S. London.

Holland, Saba. 1855. A memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith … With a selection from his letters, edited by Mrs. Austin. 2 vols. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.

Summary

Thanks JSH for Anacharis which is flourishing.

P. H. Gosse told him he had several sea animals and algae living in artificial sea-water for over 13 months.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-1655
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
John Stevens Henslow
Sent from
Down
Source of text
DAR 93: A26–A27
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1655,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1655.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5

letter

Darwin Correspondence Project
darwin@lib.cam.ac.uk

© University of Cambridge 2022

Copyright declaration

Privacy policy

Website by Surface Impression

 

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge