From J. D. Hooker [1 or 3 November 1863]1
Kew
⟨ ⟩u⟨ ⟩2
My dear Darwin
Mrs Darwins very ⟨ ⟩ letter & your scrap are s⟨ilver⟩ linings to my black cloud.3 I do trust that you are to have a little rest from your intolerable illness. I will see about the prickly Palm (Calamus) at once & send it to Down postman.4
I should extremely like ⟨to⟩ see Haast’s letter,5 as I am quite excited about ⟨ ⟩ Geology, in one letter ⟨ ⟩ mentions, besides ⟨ ⟩ cuts in the valley ⟨ ⟩ read like Gl⟨ ⟩ ⟨ ⟩ on Hectors sketches—6 ⟨ ⟩ [illeg] in Otago, which ⟨close⟩ly resemble those on ⟨the up⟩per Himalayan valleys.7 ⟨I h⟩ave been along the Norfolk Coast again with Gunn,8 from Bacton to Happisburgh, & cannot but think all the beds there, from the “forest bed” up to Trimmer’s warp, are terms of one series, & the said warp, ⟨wh⟩ere present, is a myth, only ⟨the⟩ effect of atmosphere &c &c on ⟨ ⟩ part of upper bed.9 ⟨The simi⟩larity of the whole ⟨ ⟩ those of Picardy is ⟨ ⟩ & suggestive10 I ⟨ ⟩ ⟨sa⟩w Ramsay11 at ⟨ ⟩ seemed to agree with me about all being terms of one series & not due to alternations of climates & periods. Surely Prestwich’s distinctions are too fine-drawn:12 he is a wonderful close accurate observer certainly
Willy goes on well,13 but has given the Scarlatina to my Mother who is very ill with it,14 but as there are no bad symptoms we are not alarmed. She took it from me 35 years ago!15 My wife & other children are still away at Yarmouth where I have ordered them to remain & where they will be now I suppose for a month at least,16 & I have turned nurse in my old age, as my father & mother live all alone.17 No doubt it is good for me, but it is a sad mess altogether, & I do not cotton to my condition at all. I bought a whole lot of Wedgwoods some time ago & have not the heart to open them yet:18 by the bye I wish Gladstone would hold his tongue & not raise the price of them with his nonsense.—19 What a clever dog he is, but he seems to me to be but a small minded man in many matters.
What do you think we should do about the Poles, to go to war about them seems absurd, but surely we have behaved ⟨as lo⟩west sneaks, we incurred ⟨res⟩ponsibilities by the Treaty ⟨o⟩f Vienna & now ignore them. I for one wish the French may go at the Russians.20—not but what I suppose the Poles are a miserable race who will never survive the struggle for life if not crossed with some better breed.— If the French do go ahead we must follow.
What does Asa Gray say now? I think Lairds position is a most dishonorable one to a British merchant & Legislator.21 he should make a clean breast of it & cry “peccavi”,22 or justify himself if he can do so. This squabble between Lord Russell & Sir James Hudson is a pitiful affair,23 I supp⟨ose⟩ both are wrong—at leas⟨t⟩ ⟨ ⟩
Thanks many for Huxleys v⟨ery⟩ amusing & clever letter & its enclosure.24
Ramsay told us at Phil. Club that they had found old moraines in Mts of Roxburghshire, at about 12–1500 ft elevation I think.25
Now you are not to answer this discussion of mine; but thank Mrs Darwin heartily for letter.—26
Ever dear old Darwin | Yours | J D Hooker
What a horrible business our destruction of that Japan town is.—27
Footnotes
Bibliography
Allan, Mea. 1967. The Hookers of Kew, 1785–1911. London: Michael Joseph.
Bonney, T. G. 1919. Annals of the Philosophical Club of the Royal Society written from its minute books. London: Macmillan.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.
EB: The Encyclopædia Britannica. A dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information. 11th edition. 29 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1910–11.
Fox, Grace. 1969. Britain and Japan 1858–1883. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Gladstone, William Ewart. 1863. Wedgwood: an address … Delivered at the laying of the foundation stone of the memorial building in honour of Josiah Wedgwood at Burslem, Staffordshire, October 26, 1863. London: John Murray.
Huxley, Leonard, ed. 1918. Life and letters of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, OM, GCSI. Based on materials collected and arranged by Lady Hooker. 2 vols. London: John Murray.
Jenkins, Brian. 1974–80. Britain & the war for the Union. 2 vols. Montreal, Quebec, and London: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Origin 6th ed.: The origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 6th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.
Trimmer, Joshua. 1850. Generalizations respecting the erratic tertiaries or northern drift, founded on the mapping of the superficial deposits of a large portion of Norfolk. With a description of the freshwater deposits of the Gayton-Thorpe Valley; and a note on the contorted strata of Cromer cliffs. [Read 20 November 1850.] Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 7 (1851): 19–31.
Summary
Anxious to see Haast’s letter.
JDH’s views on Poles and Franco-Prussian conflict.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4325
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 101: 173–5
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp damaged
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4325,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4325.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11
