From J. D. Hooker   8 December 1874

Kew

Dec. 8/74.

Dear Darwin

I hoped to have seen you in town ere this, but what with a cold & cough, & much to do, I have been prevented.

I am extremely obliged for Farrer’s great kindness, & the charming note he has written. Helps has spoken also to Sir Stafford, who has promised to look himself into the matter. I have heard nothing from Lord Henry, but he is coming to the Gardens next week,— at least he says so.1

I am getting on very well, with intervals of great depression, & a feeling of utter desolation which sometimes overmasters me: it comes on like a whirlwind— tho’ I hope will grow less severe as it wanes with time.2

I am still in a sort of trance, living much on long bygone years & overleaping the interval.

Harriet is getting on remarkably well.3

I shall go to the Royal on Thursday4

Ever yours affec | J D Hooker.

1
CD was supporting Hooker’s effort to have an assistant appointed to him at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 2 December [1874]). He had asked Thomas Henry Farrer to intercede with Stafford Northcote, the chancellor of the Exchequer. Arthur Helps was clerk of the Privy Council. Henry Gordon-Lennox was the first commissioner of public works, thus Hooker’s immediate superior.
2
Frances Harriet Hooker, Hooker’s wife, died on 13 November 1874 (Allan 1967, p. 225).
3
Harriet Anne Hooker was the Hookers’ eldest daughter.
4
Hooker chaired the meeting of the Royal Society of London on 10 December 1874 (Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 23 (1874–5): 93).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9750,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9750