WCP5334

[1]

Kew

May 13/[18]66.

My dear Darwin

This may interest you¹. I can talk with A[sa]. Gray² now calmly & dispassionately, which I could not do during the war, holding as I then did, that whatever the rights of the N. may have been, they had no right to resort to bloodshed to procure their ends —

I am longing to know how you go on, after the startling apparition of your [2] face at R[oyal]. S[ociety]. Soirèe³ — which I dreamed of 2 nights running. Tyndall⁴ came up to me in raptures at seeing you — & told me to worship Bence Jones⁵ in future —

Tylor⁶ was here & spent the day last week, I like him much & have persuaded him to draw up questions to be sent to Consuls & especially missionaries, through whose wives a lot of most curious information could be obtained — Tying the umbilical cord has always appeared to me [3] to be the greatest mystery of humanity — how ever did such a custom originate & spread — it is to me an unanswerable argument in favor of unity of species of man.

What shocking twaddle is old Crawfurd[']s⁷ paper⁸ on cultivated plants!.

A fine Surveying ship is going to Magellans [sic] straits & I am doing my utmost to get a good Naturalist⁹ with Zoological acquirements especially to be sent out. Capt Mayne¹⁰ (son of Head Beak¹¹) & who wrote a fair [4] book¹² on Brit[ish] Columbia, is going out — a nice fellow. What a nuisance this "international"¹³ week will be.

M^rs Oliver¹⁴ has been very ill indeed — but is better I hope though still confined to bed — she has had a little daughter¹⁵, prematurely — but her complaint is of the throat & mucous membranes.

Lowe¹⁶ (Rev^d) of Madeira is here — he has had a second second winter in Cape de Verde with Wollaston¹⁷, both in a Mr. Gray's¹⁸ Yacht, He describes the interior as most beautiful & most [5] wild & picturesque. He has got a good many of the Cameroons plants on the high Mt^s which you will be glad to know of — I must get a list for you.

I hope these commerical failures have not affected you or your's. My balance being on the wrong side at my Bankers is a comfort!

Has Woolner¹⁹ begun your bust? Huxley²⁰ has a 7^th daughter²¹!

I hear the Miss Horners²² are in a state of frantic excitement about Katy²³ — I have often thought what [6] a picturesque Joan of Arc²⁴ Susan²⁵ would make. — N.B. my ideas of J[oan of]. A[rc]. are wholly derived from Etty's^{26 & Millais'27} pictures: I do not know even in whose reign she lived, if in amy; and as I have no Wedgwood Medallion of her I have no means of knowing. By the way my pursuit of that blue art is over, & the crockery shops know me no more. I have never time to go to London now, and hope never to have again. — I do hope to have time to get to Down with [7] my wife²⁸ this summer if Mrs Darwin²⁹ will take F[rances].³⁰ in & let me go up & down — What are your plans for June of July?

What news of Etty³¹?

If you could run up to Town to take one peep of this Hort[icultural] show³² on 22^d it would repay you I am sure & I would meet you there. I expect it will recall the Tropics — we are sending 8 Van loads of Palms &c.

Wallace is married you see — a daughter³³ of Mr. [8] Mitten³⁴ a very acute cryptogamic Botanist of Hurst Pier point.

Ever Yours affec[tionately] | J D Hooker [signature]