My dear Henslow

Your letter of the 31^st has been forwarded to me here & received only this morning.¹ I grieve most sincerely to miss your visit, but we do not return home till the 13^th. or 14^th. & my wife, perhaps not till later; if the sea does my eldest girl good.² We were driven from home by Scarlet Fever, which caused the death of our poor dear little youngest child & was very bad in the village. We had other & bad illness in the House. As yet the sea has not done much for us.—

I the more regret that we shall not see you at Down at the time proposed, (but I hope at some other time) as I sh^d. be extremely glad (& grateful) to hear your objections to my species speculations.³

The difficulties which I can see are many & grave. I am now writing a pretty full abstract of all my notions on this subject.—

My dear Henslow | Your old affectionate pupil | C. Darwin

P.S. | I want to beg a favour of you, which will cost you writing a note, viz can you advise me what I ought to allow my eldest son who goes to X Coll. in October per annum to cover all his expence whatever.—⁴ I can afford & sh^d. wish to give him a liberal allowance, but not to encourage extravagance.