From J. D. Hooker   5 July 1864

Kew

July 5/64.

Dear Darwin

I returned this morning for a few days to Kew to meet my Uncle Gunn,1 leaving Frances2 at the 7 Churches Wicklow hills, with Dr & Mrs Harvey,3 where the mt. air is already doing her a deal of good. I return on Friday

I have enquired about the person who wanted a superintendent for a Coffee Plantation in Nilgheries & finding that he is a good man & true, I have therefore written to him & told him of Scott,4 telling him that any enquiry he may wish to make of Scott himself may be sent through you, as I do not know Scott’s address.5 If nothing comes of this I will enquire about a Calcutta ship, for which July & August is a very good time.—landing him at the beginning of the cold season.

I shall be away till the 21st. when I must be back & shall run down to you the first possible Sunday.6

I am very tired, having come straight on from Wicklow last night by car, steamer & express 2d. Class, (which is enough to resuscitate the dead) & have been twice through the Gardens today & written 14 letters—so no more at present.

You will be glad to hear that I am giving up 2 Examinerships, Army & L. University7—not without a pang—as £175 pr annum is no joke to lose for a man who will do Wedgwood,8 & likes travelling   however it is a great incubus off.

I will bring your venerable Gdfather when I come.9

I am delighted that the pendulum of your health has at last swung back.10

Ever yr affec | J D Hooker

Address Jordan’s Hotel

Seven Churches

N Rathdrum

Wicklow

till Saturday week

2
Frances Harriet Hooker was Hooker’s wife.
3
The Hookers had planned a holiday for the first week of July with William Henry Harvey and his wife, Elizabeth Lecky, in County Wicklow, Ireland (see letter from J. D. Hooker, 23 June 1864). Seven Churches is in the vale of Glendalough, in the Wicklow Mountains.
4
Hooker was making enquiries in India about a prospective employer for John Scott, and had recently learned of a vacancy at a coffee plantation in the Nilgiri Hills in south-west India (see letter from J. D. Hooker, 15 June 1864 and n. 13). The person to whom Hooker refers has not been identified. On arriving in India, Scott was given an appointment at a Cinchona plantation in Darjeeling by Thomas Anderson (see Correspondence vol. 13, letter from John Scott, 20 January 1865).
5
Since leaving his position at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Scott had been residing in Denholm, Hawick, in Scotland (see letter from John Scott, 10 March 1864).
6
Hooker visited CD on Sunday 24 July (letter from J. D. Hooker to Asa Gray, 29 July 1864, Gray Herbarium of Harvard University).
7
Hooker gave up his examinership at London University in 1864; he did not resign as examiner in botany for the Indian army medical service until the following year (L. Huxley ed. 1918, 1: 537).
8
Hooker collected Wedgwood ware and was particularly interested in medallions (see, for example, Correspondence vol. 10, letter from J. D. Hooker, [27 or 28 December 1862], and Correspondence vol. 11, letter to J. D. Hooker, 13 January [1863]).
9
Hooker had borrowed CD’s Wedgwood medallion of Erasmus Darwin in March 1863 in order to have it copied for the museum at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (see Correspondence vol. 11, letter to J. D. Hooker, 26 [March 1863] and n. 1).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4552,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4552