To J. D. Hooker   8 January 1874

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Jan 8. 1874

My dear Hooker

Many thanks for sending me Gray’s interesting letter. What a terrible thing it is about Mrs Agassiz, & how lost he will be.1

We go to 6 Queen Anne St on Sat. & shall be there for a week.2 If you happen to be coming to London, do come & lunch with us (at one o’clock) as it wd be so nice to see you—

Did I give you a copy of my Coral reefs book? If so I wish you wd give it me, & I will let you have a copy of a new edition; for I cannot buy one, & yet want a copy much for correction3   If you have one, please to send it soon to 6 Q. Anne St.

yours affectionately | Ch Darwin

[Enclosure]

26. Dec. /73.

Dear Hooker

Your R.S. diploma came yesterday as a Xmas present.4 I enclose acknowledgements.

Here are 2 or three plants of interest. Turn over to Prof. Oliver,5 & you or he would oblige by a remark on the little Saxifraga.

Most sad it is for Alex v. Agassiz to lose his excellent wife. Took pneumonia by exposure on the night that Agassiz died.6 Tell Darwin

Cant write more, being interrupted— Ever. A. G.

LS

1
Hooker’s letter enclosing the letter from Asa Gray of 26 December 1873 has not been found, but Gray’s letter, which CD returned to Hooker, is included here as the enclosure. See also n. 6, below.
2
CD stayed at Erasmus Alvey Darwin’s house in London from Saturday 10 to Saturday 17 January 1874 (see ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
3
The first edition of Coral reefs was published in 1842; CD had approached the publisher, Smith, Elder & Co, in December 1873 about producing a new edition of the work (see Correspondence vol. 21, letter to Smith, Elder & Co, 17 December [1873]). Coral reefs 2d ed. was published in 1874.
4
Gray was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society of London on 27 November 1873 (Record of the Royal Society of London).
6
Anna Russell Agassiz, the wife of Alexander Agassiz, died only one week after his father, Louis Agassiz (Agassiz ed. 1913, p. 124).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9231,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9231