Ɛpsilon

From J. D. Hooker   26 April 1876

Royal Gardens Kew

April 26/76

Dear Darwin

I send “Volc. Islands” & “Geology” by carrier herewith to “work your wicked will” with,1 and would go & see you if I had time. I may tomorrow—2 I leave for Boulogne on Friday morning—as I have been but so-so for the last week

I am indeed glad to hear that Henrietta is better.3

Ever aff yrs | Jos D Hooker.

I am very glad that I had the books—& shall prize the new Edition with thanks.4

The Bakerian Lecture comes off on Thursday at Royal at 812. “Andrews on compression of Gasses” &c. or some such subject.5

1
Hooker sent Volcanic islands and South America for Julius Victor Carus to translate into German; see letter to J. D. Hooker, 25 April [1876] and n. 2. ‘Work your wicked will’: an allusion to John Dryden’s poem ‘The cock and the fox’, a retelling of Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘Tale of the nun’s priest’, lines 70–4 (Dryden 1874, p. 565).
2
CD was in London from 27 April until 3 May 1876 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
3
Henrietta Emma Litchfield, who was visiting Down, was ill from 17 to 21 April 1876 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)), delaying the Darwins’ visit to London; see letter to J. D. Hooker, 19 April [1876] and n. 2.
4
In his letter to Hooker of 25 April [1876], CD had promised to send Hooker the second editions of Volcanic islands and South America.
5
Thomas Andrews delivered the Bakerian Lecture, ‘On the gaseous state of matter’ (Andrews 1876), at the Royal Society of London on Thursday 27 April 1876.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10476,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10476