From J. D. Hooker 25 April 1873
Kew
April 25/73
Dear Old Darwin
I am charmed with Huxley’s noble-minded letter.1 We had a walk & talk together yesterday, but no allusion passed.— but he said he had determined on a long holiday & was very doubtful about whether to give up his summer Lectures to schoolmasters or no.— He described himself as slightly better, certainly not worse. He asked if I would go with him in July to Auvergne & Germany, I promised that I would if I did not go to America, of which I have heard nothing more.
Lady Lyell’s death is a complete upset.2 I called today & had a long talk with poor Mrs Lyell3 & saw (at her wish) for the last time that most loveable face shrouded in flowers in the coffin— looking so calm & beautiful. Amid a flood of later memories my mind rushed back to long years ago, when quite a boy, I felt rather than thought it to be so beautiful, that I never could look at it without emotion— I used to dream of it as a child.
I have no morbid or other liking for seeing the faces of the dead, but am glad I have seen this; it was so beautiful— & I should not have liked my last thoughts of her to have been coupled with a face worn by sickness.
She seems never to have suffered any pain whatever of the smallest consequence, no uneasyness even, but to have sunk from the first going to Ludlow,4 gradually, taking abundant food all along & enjoying it.
Poor Lyell I did not see— Mrs. L. thought better not, & rightly. I am sure— he spends his time alternately in piteous sorrow, & in working at his antiquity of man with Miss Buckley.5 They have asked Mr Simmonds to bury her at Woking, beside Mrs. Horner.6 Lyell will live with Mrs Lyell I suppose they will take another Home.7 He is much better & has lost the tremor of the mouth— so Mrs Lyell says— I shall see him when it is all over.
From Mrs Lyell’s account I suspect the fever was typhoid; toward the end there was a slight pain over a spot in the side of the Abdomen, which probably indicated that disorganization of the intestine had set in, (of which I forget the name).8
I hope I have not bored you with all this.
Frances is much the better of her stay at Down & so am I in every way—9 I could eat nothing till I went there. & I did eat & enjoy Down as much as ever—& you know what that covers.
Ever yours affec | J D Hooker
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Budd, William. 1873. Typhoid fever: its nature, mode of spreading, and prevention. London: Longmans, Green.
Lyell, Charles. 1873. The geological evidences of the antiquity of man, with remarks on theories of the origin of species by variation. 4th edition, revised. London: John Murray.
Post Office London directory: Post-Office annual directory. … A list of the principal merchants, traders of eminence, &c. in the cities of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and parts adjacent … general and special information relating to the Post Office. Post Office London directory. London: His Majesty’s Postmaster-General [and others]. 1802–1967.
Summary
Charmed by Huxley’s letter of appreciation [8873].
Lady Lyell’s sudden death.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8880
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 103: 155–6
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8880,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8880.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21