[[1]]
1885 *1
Thursday
Athenaeum Club Pall Mall
Dearest H[yacinth] *2
I have been to the Board with my "nunc dimittis" -- & found Mitford *3 just concluding
a letter to the Treasury announcing my resignation in terms that almost upset me, so
hearty & eloquent. The letter which is I suppose for the F.C. *4 to sign went
[[2]] on recommending [William Thiselton] Dyer *5 for the successorship in the
warmest terms.
I hope to be down by the 1.9 from Richmond -- & shall be if I do not telegraph to the*6
contrary (dipped pen in wrong bottle).
Ever y[ou]r loving | Joseph Hooker [signature]
ENDNOTES
1. Year added in pencil, possibly at later date.
2. Lady Hyacinth Hooker, neé Symonds then Jardine (1843--1921). Joseph
Hooker's second wife, they married in 1876.
3. John Thomas Freeman--Mitford, 1st Earl of Redesdale, 2nd Baron Redesdale
(1805 --1886). A Protestant controversialist, member of the House of Lords and its
Chairman of Committees.
4. First Commissioner of Works and Public Building. The governemnt offical with
oversight of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
5. Sir William Thiselton--Dyer, KCMG FRS FLS (1843 -- 1928), was a leading British
botanist, and the third director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1885--1905). He
was married to Harriet Anne Hooker, the daughter of Joseph Hooker.
6. The word 'the' is written in red ink. Hooker goes on to explain he dipped his pen in
the wrong ink.
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