To J. S. Henslow   4 August [1858]

Norfolk House | Shanklin | Is. of Wight

Augst 4th.

My dear Henslow

Your letter of the 31st 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 13th. or 14th. & 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 shd. 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 & shd. wish to give him a liberal allowance, but not to encourage extravagance.

1
Henslow’s letter has not been found.
2
CD returned to Down on 13 August 1858 (‘Journal’; Appendix II); Emma and Henrietta Emma Darwin remained until 19 August (Emma Darwin’s diary).
4
Henslow’s son George had graduated from Christ’s College, Cambridge earlier in the year. It is not known what Henslow advised, but according to CD’s Account book (Down House MS), £100 was paid into William Erasmus Darwin’s account on 1 January 1859.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

5.3 whatever—] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2320,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2320