Ɛpsilon

From J. D. Hooker   4 July 1867

Kew

July 4th/67.

Dr Darwin

I thought I never was to get time to write to you again, day after day I have been at my wits ends with things to do, & was greatly disappointed at not seeing you in London—1 The fact is that Smith has been away in Paris, & one of my best men at the Herbarium is very ill—2

Mrs Hooker has worried me into taking her to Switzerland for a fortnight & we are off tonight to return on 23d— we shall stop in the Enghedien.3

A friend of mine was a run-away-boy in his youth, & if I am rightly informed 2 of his boys have run away from home. several times—for no other motive but love of roaming— is the case worth my verifying for you?4

I will take the first Sunday for Down that I can get free after my return— Aug. 4, I hope.5

Ever yrs aff | J D Hooker

I thought Lyell looking well the other day— he seems to be looking into insular floras & faunas well.6

The Earl of Arran (father of my next door neighbour) has twice asked to be most specially remembered to you—as Philip Gore who knew you at Monte Video & arranged for your trip in the interior (he seems a great ass, but goodnatured one)7

1
The Darwins had visited London from 17 to 24 June (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Correspondence vol. 15, Appendix II)). See also letter from J. D. Hooker, 18 June 1867, and letter to J. D. Hooker, [23 June 1867].
2
The reference is to John Smith, curator at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The other man has not been identified. Smith may have been attending the horticultural exhibition at Paris.
3
Hooker’s wife was Frances Harriet Hooker. The Engadine is a valley of the upper Inn River in east Switzerland, renowned for its magnificent scenery and bracing climate (Columbia gazetteer of the world).
4
Hooker’s friend has not been identified.
5
There is no record in Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242) of a visit from Hooker until December 1867. However, see the letter from J. D. Hooker, [27 July 1867], and the letter to J. D. Hooker, 29 July [1867].
6
Charles Lyell was working on the second volume of the tenth edition of Principles of geology; it included a new chapter, chapter 41, ‘Insular floras and faunas considered with reference to the origin of species’ (C. Lyell 1867–8, 2: 402–32). Hooker had read a paper on the subject of insular floras at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in August 1866 (see J. D. Hooker 1866a).
7
Hooker refers to Philip Yorke Gore. Gore had one surviving son and three daughters, all unmarried in 1867 (Burke’s peerage), but no persons of the name of Gore are listed at Kew in the Post Office London suburban directory for 1865 or 1868. As director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Hooker’s residence was 49 The Green, Kew (R. Desmond 1995, p. 416). The neighbour probably lived at 51 The Green, a grace-and-favour residence. CD mentioned Gore in his Beagle diary (R. D. Keynes ed. 1988, pp. 115–16).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5577,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5577