To J. S. Henslow   26 March [1855]

Down Farnborough Kent

March 26th

My dear Henslow

I found on my return home the Anacharis,1 put by my wife in water & all flourishing for which very many thanks, & for which, as you are not a man to be offended, I send the 14 pennies, as by doing so I feel an honester man, & you will be by 14 pennies a richer man, & therefore according to Sydney Smith’s high morality by exactly that much, a happier man,2 & according to City authorities, a better man. I saw Mr Gosse the other night & he told me that he had now the same several sea-animals & algæ living & breeding for 13 months in the same artificially made sea water!3 Does not this tempt you? it almost tempts me to set up a marine vivarium.—

Remember in due time the second Edit of your Hitcham Flora,4 &, shd. you ever stumble on it, the fact on wild-geese.—5

I saw when in London Archdeacon Clive,6 & he most particularly enquired about you & expressed a very strong wish to see you.—

My dear Henslow | Your affectionate old Pupil | C. D

2
‘I have been very poor the greatest part of my life, and have borne it as well, I believe, as most people, but I can safely say that I have been happier every guinea I have gained.’ (S. Holland 1855, 1: 223). CD had recently read Saba Holland’s memoir of her father Sydney Smith (S. Holland 1855) (Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix IV, 128: 11).
3
CD first met Philip Henry Gosse at the Linnean Society meeting of 2 March 1855 (E. Gosse 1890, p. 256).
4
Henslow 1855a.
5
Possibly a reference to CD’s note dated ‘Feb 55/’ (DAR 205.2: 114) which reads, in part: ‘Henslow has case of Black Barley taken out of goose craw flying from N. in Canada’.
6
William Clive, archdeacon of Montgomery, was an old friend of the Darwin family. He had been an exact contemporary of Henslow at St John’s College, Cambridge, 1813–18.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 to be offended, 1.3] interl
1.7 & algæ] interl
2.1 Hitcham] ‘Hi’ over ‘se’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1655,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1655