 Around midday on Sunday 4 September Wood received FitzRoy's response, "straightforward and gentlemanlike" but strongly against Darwin joining the expedition; both Darwin and Henslow then "gave up the scheme".Darwin went to London anyway, and next morning met FitzRoy who explained that he had promised the place to his friend Mr. Chester, (possibly the novelist Harry Chester) but Chester had turned it down in a letter received not five minutes before Darwin arrived.FitzRoy emphasised the difficulties including cramped conditions and plain food.