Huxley, T. H. to Darwin, C. R.
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Has returned from holiday. Family news.
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Concern over Hooker's health.
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Transcription
26 Abbey Place | S
Oc
My dear Darwin
`This comes hoping you are well' & for no other purpose than to say as much. I am just back from seven weeks idleness at Littlehampton with my wife & children the first time I have had a holiday of any extent with them for years.
We are all flourishing—the babies particularly so—and I find myself rather loth to begin grinding at the mill again. There is a vein of laziness in me which crops out uncommonly strong in your godson—who is about the idlest, jolliest young four year old I know—
You will have been as much grieved as I have been about dear old Hooker— According to the last accounts however he is mending & I hope to see him in pristine vigour again before long
My wife is gone to bed or she would join me in kindest regards & remembrances
to M
Ever yours faithfully | T H Huxley
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- f1 4905.f1
Littlehampton, a coastal resort in Sussex, was a popular holiday destination for Huxley, his wife Henrietta Anne Huxley, and their six children, Jessie, Marian, Leonard, Rachel, Nettie, and Henry, who ranged in age from 7 years to 9 months (see L. Huxley 1900, 1: 302). - +
- f2 4905.f2
Huxley refers to Leonard Huxley. See A. Desmond 1994--7, 1: 290--1. - +
- f3 4905.f3
Joseph Dalton Hooker had suffered a severe attack of rheumatic fever in August and had recently been recuperating at Buxton, Derbyshire (see letter from F. H. Hooker, [17 August 1865], and letter from J. D. Hooker, [26 September 1865]).