To J. D. Hooker [3 or 4 March 1878]1
4. Bryanston St.
(Return home early on Tuesday M.2
My dear Hooker
Many thanks for your kind note, which answers perfectly for my purpose.—3 I have had interview with Mr Caird, who has been most energetic & kind.— Agricultural Soc. is no good for several reasons, amongst others that Mr. Carruthers thinks any such attempt hopeless.— Mr Caird will see with Farrer whether any small grant can be obtained, but for all that I can hear it is almost hopeless.4 If I had thought to get up a memorial with 4 or 5 good signatures it could, I believe, be done, but I have not strength. With my 100£ Mr Torbitt says he will go on for another year & then he hopes to have money himself to go on.—5 He instantly telegraphed seeds shall be sown tomorrow!6 I will advise him how to proceed.— I daresay he made a fool of himself at Belfast.7 I have often called him “that enthusiastic old fool”—not that I know whether he is old— & now that I am joined people may speak of “that pair of old enthusiastic fools”.—
I have been suffering from constant attacks of swimming of the head which makes life an intolerable burthen & stops all work— Dr. Clark8 has put me on a dry diet & I would have given a guinea yesterday for a wine-glass of water
My dear old friend | Ever yours | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Summary
His attempts to obtain a Government grant for Torbitt seem hopeless.
CD is suffering from constant swimming of the head.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11390
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- London, Bryanston St, 4
- Source of text
- DAR 95: 453–4
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11390,” accessed on 10 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11390.xml