[[1]]
Royal Gardens Kew
March 10/[18]78
My dear Mrs [Susan] Hodgson *1
Thank you much for your kind & full note about dear Brian*2. What you say of his
constitution is quite true--in spite of much trial & illness it is splendid -- & he owes this
much to his habitual temperance -- pray give my love to him & tell him that I don’t
think much of my own politics! -- We dined at Sir Henry Verney[']s two days ago to
meet Mr & Mrs Gladstone & I had, as usual, a long talk
[[2]] with him.-- he was enthusiastic about America & the Californian trees -- & the
methods of felling there & so forth. His memory is wonderful, he remembered
passages in books on Western Americas that he had read 40 years ago! -- Childers
& his Daug[hter] were there. They had followed my route home from San Francisco
America a week after me. he is a equable man & his daughter, a young girl who had
accompanied her father, was light & agreeable.
Last night we dined at the
[[3]] Colviles to bid goodbye to Mrs Strachey who goes to India this week to join her
husband who will be out for a year certain[?] -- Lady Colvile takes 3 children. Mrs
S[trachey]. takes 2 out with her & others will be at school. Colvile looks very old, his
hair is white as silver & he has grown very silent -- I think. The Grants were there, &
Joachin & the Huxley[']s.-- Of course we talked much of you.
Hyacinth & I went to the Old Masters the other day the first dissipation! Either of us
have had since my return. She took the baby [Joseph Symonds Hooker] & left it at
the Royal Society rooms with
[[4]] the porters' wife, who has a baby of her own, & "the Presidents Baby" created
quite a sensation in the house! What a "rum world" it is -- the more I think of my own
life & career, the more unintelligible it appears to me. I feel as if I had been divested
of my individuality every ten years or so of my life, & then been given quite another
body & mind.
Hyacinth is very busy, she sends her best love to you both in which I join most
heartily. & with kind regards & thanks to Miss Townsend for so kindly writing
Ever aff[ectionatel]y y[ou]rs | JDHooker [signature]
ENDNOTES
1. Susan (Susie) Hodgson née Townshend (1844--1912). Photographer and second
wife of naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson (1801--1894), they married in 1869 or
1870.
2. Brian Houghton Hodgson (1801—1894). A pioneer naturalist and ethnologist
working in India and Nepal where he was a British civil servant. Joseph Hooker
stayed at Hodgson’s house in Darjeeling periodically during his expedition to India
and the Himalayas, 1847--1851, and named one of his sons after him.
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