
          8 Upper Bedford Place
 Russell Square, London
 24 December 1854


 My dear old friend, 


 You will not certainly expect to receive
 Xmas greetings from one so long lost
 to you, as myself, yet sure I am, that
 none can desire more earnestly that
 every comfort & blessing should be, &
 continue with you, & all the dear ones
 that surround your hearths! I do not pretend
 to deny or palliate the wrong which
 I have done to your much-prized friendship
 by my long continued silence. In the first
 instance, several pleas might have been
 urged, for my apparent neglect, which I 
 think you would have admitted as reasonable,
 but as time rolled on I felt as tho'
 I could hardly break the ice, being in truth
 ashamed to remember all your past goodness,
 when contrasted with my seeming indifference.
 But, my dear, warm-hearted 
 little wife will not let me rest, & has 
 told me that however conscious of delinquency,
 I aught not, & must not, allow
 myself to pass out of the kind memory


 [page [5], written at 90 degrees to the above:]


 old brethren of the R.S. [Royal Society] & L.S. [Linnean Society] who received me very kindly on my return [having?]
 given me up as useless. But you will understand how little time I have for
 study when I tell you that I go to my counting-house at 10
 o'clock & do not done [sic] until 6. There are then only for me
 3 or 4 hours left, and these I devote -- as in duty (& in [devotion?]) bound
 to my dear little wife. You will be glad to learn that I have
 every thing very comfortable about me, & feel more settled than
 I have done for many years past. I do not write to Mrs. Torrey
 or either of the dear girls because I could tell them nothing
 beyond what I say to you. Our little domestic matters could
 not, of course, be of any interest to them. The family of my old
 friend, into which I have married, is a very large one. He has
 7 children living & 29 grandchildren, & my wife's father is
 also my partner-in-business, & is an estimable & most
 affectionate friend. It remains only to beg that you will
  give my respectful & kindest regards to Mrs. Torrey-- & my
 sincere & hearty love to the dear girls-- of whom whatever they
 may have thought from my silence, I often think with the
 utmost pleasure -- I am, My dear Torrey-- with a lively remembrance of all
 your kindness-- your affectionate friend  JC.

        