Ɛpsilon

To John Maurice Herbert   2 January [1856]1

Down Bromley Kent

Jan. 2d.—

My dear Herbert

I thank you sincerely for your most friendly letter.—2 I shall have to send at end of week to Athenæum3 & will there get the volume of Poems, which Mrs. Herbert & you have so kindly sent us, & which I have no doubt we shall like much.4 My wife desires to be most kindly remembered to Mrs. Herbert, & she has often regretted that we have been so completely separated. Some few months ago I was looking over a few old & valued letters which I keep, & amongst others there were some of yours & which were so pleasant that they quite warmed my old heart.5 I began a letter to you on the strength of old remembrances, but as I was interrupted I afterwards destroyed it, having nothing particular to say, except what I am sure you will believe, that I shall keep to my dying day as unfading remembrance of the many pleasant hours (especially at Barmouth) which we have spent together.—6

My health will, I fear, never be fully reestablished, & though anyone would think me a strong man, this is very far from the case; & hence I never go from home, so that I much fear there is little chance of our being able to visit you at Rocklands,7 though I am very Sure it would give us much pleasure.— If ever you have time to spare when in London it would give us real pleasure, if you could pay us a visit here.—

With our united very kind remembrances to you both, My dear Herbert | Your old & affecte. friend | Charles Darwin

1
The year in which the letter was written is conjectured from an 1855 watermark (Carroll 1976).
2
The letter has not been found. Herbert had been one of CD’s close friends during their undergraduate days at Cambridge University. See Correspondence vol. 1.
3
CD used his London club as an address for the delivery of books and parcels.
4
The volume of poetry has not been identified. In 1877, Herbert edited a book of his wife’s poems entitled Poems by the late Mary Anne Herbert (London).
5
For the extant correspondence between CD and Herbert, see Correspondence vols. 1 and 2.
6
In the summer of 1828, CD spent two months with Herbert and Thomas Butler in Barmouth on an ‘Entomo-Mathematical expedition’ (Correspondence vol. 1, letter to W. D. Fox, [30 June 1828], and Appendix I).
7
Herbert’s home in Herefordshire. Since 1847, Herbert had been a county court judge on the Herefordshire, Radnorshire, and Monmouthshire circuit (Alum. Cantab.).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.4 regretted] ‘ed’ over illeg

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1814,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1814