From T. H. Huxley   2 October 1865

26 Abbey Place | St Johns Wood

Oct. 2nd 1865

My dear Darwin

‘This comes hoping you are well’ & for no other purpose than to say as much. I am just back from seven weeks idleness at Littlehampton with my wife & children the first time I have had a holiday of any extent with them for years.1

We are all flourishing—the babies particularly so—and I find myself rather loth to begin grinding at the mill again. There is a vein of laziness in me which crops out uncommonly strong in your godson2—who is about the idlest, jolliest young four year old I know—

You will have been as much grieved as I have been about dear old Hooker—3 According to the last accounts however he is mending & I hope to see him in pristine vigour again before long

My wife is gone to bed or she would join me in kindest regards & remembrances to Mrs Darwin & your family—

Ever yours faithfully | T H Huxley

1
Littlehampton, a coastal resort in Sussex, was a popular holiday destination for Huxley, his wife Henrietta Anne Huxley, and their six children, Jessie, Marian, Leonard, Rachel, Nettie, and Henry, who ranged in age from 7 years to 9 months (see L. Huxley 1900, 1: 302).
2
Huxley refers to Leonard Huxley. See A. Desmond 1994–7, 1: 290–1.
3
Joseph Dalton Hooker had suffered a severe attack of rheumatic fever in August and had recently been recuperating at Buxton, Derbyshire (see letter from F. H. Hooker, [17 August 1865], and letter from J. D. Hooker, [26 September 1865]).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4905,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4905