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Letter 2174

Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D.

21 Nov [1857]
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    Summary Add

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    Mrs J. S. Henslow's illness.

Transcription

Down Bromley Kent

Nov. 21st

My dear Hooker

I was most sincerely sorry to receive your little note, saying how dangerously ill Mrs Henslow was. I am sure Mrs Hooker & all at Hitcham have my most sincere sympathy. If the worst does happen & you make any stay at Hitcham do just say to my dear & most kind friend, Henslow, how truly I feel for his sorrow. I will not trouble him with writing to him.— To the last day of my life I shall feel under what deep obligations I lie to Henslow & Mrs Henslow for their extraordinary kindness to me at Cambridge. How many pleasant little dinners I have had with them; & how invariably kind poor Mrs Henslow was to me. I do hope she has not suffered much. They were like the nearest & most affectionate relations to me.—

My dear Hooker | Yours affectionately | C. Darwin

I shd like much to have ever so short a scrap to tell me how Henslow is.—

    Footnotes Add

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    f1 2174.f1
    Dated by the reference to the illness of Harriet Henslow (see n. 2, below).
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    f2 2174.f2
    Harriet Henslow, wife of John Stevens Henslow and Hooker's mother-in-law, died on 20 November 1857 (Gentleman's Magazine n.s. 4 (1858) 1: 113).
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    f3 2174.f3
    During his undergraduate days at Cambridge, CD was frequently invited to the Henslows' home. See Correspondence vol. 1.
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