To J. D. Hooker 30 [July 1858]1
Norfolk House | Shanklin | I. of Wight
Friday 30th
My dear Hooker
Will you give enclosed scrap to Sir William to thank him for his kindness;2 & this gives me an excuse to amuse myself by writing to you a note, which requires no answer.—
This is a very charming place & we have got a very comfortable house. But alas I cannot say that the sea has done Etty or Lenny much good. Nor has my stomach recovered all our troubles. I am very glad we left home, for six children have now died of Scarlet Fever in Down.—
We return on the 14th of August.
I have got Bentham & am charmed with it, & William (who has just started for a tour abroad) has been making out all sorts of new (to me) plants capitally.3 The little scraps of information are so capital. By Jove it will take the wind out of poor Babby’s (as my son call him) sails.4 How curious the different estimation of number of species!5 The English names in the analytical Keys drive us mad: give them by all means but why on earth make them subordinate to the Latin; it puts me in a passion.— Willy charged into the Compositæ & Umbelliferæ like a hero & demolished ever so many in grand style.—
I have been comparing your list of vars. from Bentham6 with the Book & am delighted to see that you have tabulated not only the recorded varieties but varying species; this I have never been able to do except with Webbs Canaries island;7 & it will be a very useful addition to give on your authority in my list; but I must consult you about some of the figures which I cannot quite reconcile.8 I pass my time by doing daily a couple of hours of my Abstract & I find it amusing & improving work. I am now most heatily 9 obliged to you & Lyell for having set me on this; for I shall, when it is done, be able to finish my work with greater ease & leisure.— I confess I hated the thought of the job; & now I find it very unsatisfactory in not being able to give my reasons for each conclusion.—
It will be longer than I expected—it will take 35 of my M.S. folio pages to give an abstract on variation under domestication alone;10 but I try to put in nothing which does not seem to me of some interest & which was once new to me. It seems a queer plan to give an abstract of an unpublished work; nevertheless I repeat I am extremely glad I have begun in earnest on it.
I hope you & Mrs Hooker will have a very very pleasant tour.
Farewell my dear Hooker | Yours affect. | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Babington, Charles Cardale. 1843. Manual of British botany, containing the flowering plants and ferns arranged according to the natural orders. London: John Van Voorst.
Babington, Charles Cardale. 1851. Manual of British botany, containing the flowering plants and ferns arranged according to the natural orders. 3d edition. London: John van Voorst.
Bentham, George. 1858. Handbook of the British flora; a description of the flowering plants and ferns indigenous to, or naturalized in, the British Isles. London: Lovell Reeve.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Summary
Six children have died of scarlet fever in Down village.
Writing abstract is amusing and improving work. Thanks JDH and Lyell for setting him to it.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2314
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Shanklin
- Source of text
- DAR 114: 247
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2314,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2314.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 7