[[1]]
The Camp.
Sunningdale.
Kew
May 26 / [18]85
My dear friend [Asa Gray]
I do most sincerely rejoice to hear of you & Mrs Gray being back in safety & health,
for I have never been free of anxiety -- your long & most interesting letter posted
from St Louis was a real treat, for we had not heard of you since you left Mexico both
of you coughing your lungs up, or uvulas at least. Well you have had a splendid trip -but not yet seen Vancouver -- I wonder if we should do that together!
We are in status quo -- for the moment at the Camp, for Whit Sunday week when
Symonds is wonderfully well, equal to a walk to Rokey's & back, still under the spell
of chloral which he takes nightly, & a dose of Ol. Caster each morning, with no
apparent injury of any kind. Mrs Symonds too is very much better, in spite of the
[[2]] horrid cold spring. The Hawthorn is only now coming out, & will not be in full
flower for a week, so cold & comfortless is the weather. The Camp is lovely with
birch foliage; but neither Oak Ash or Chestnut is in leaf yet!
We have been living very quietly at Kew, I toiling at ye Indian flora, Bot[anical]
Mag[azine] & countless councils & committees in London, of which I am heartily tired
-- a great effort was made to induce me to take the Presidency of the R[oyal]
G[eological] S[ociety] but I resisted, & the Society has chosen the Marquis of Lorne,
a better choice. I certainly shall not take the Linnean if I can possibly help it -though Lubbock is a wretched President & catching it hot & strong from [William
Thiselton] Dyer! who would make his (Lubbock's) life a [ burden[?] to him if that were
possible -- which it is not -- it is like punching a pillow. Dyer is the only man fit for the
P[residency] & he does not want it. -- I suspect the cliques would be too strong for
his friends to chair him recept[?] indeed we could get up a caucus.
[[3]] We cannot get Lubbock to see the necessity for a good Botanical Secret[ar]y. I
have told him that so long as he will allow of their being not a single Botanist
amongst the Officers I will not go near the Society's meetings.
Huxley is home -- not himself at all complaining of mental fatigue & deafness; he will
resign the Royal & I agree with him that he had better do so -- he gives up all his
official work also & retires on a pension of £1000 about. Frankland too is going to
retire.
We are all well -- per contra Charlie [Charles Paget Hooker] is giving up the
Coltishall practice & is out of work for the moment; meanwhile he has engaged
himself to a niece of [Thomas Robert Evans] Lombes', a very nice girl indeed, but
pennyless[sic], she has rich relatives however. Brian's [Brian Harvey Hodgson
Hooker] engagement at the copper mine is up, & he too comes home to seek other
employment.
Harriet [Thiselton-Dyer nee Hooker] is a good deal better but not strong. Grace still
at Paris, is making excellent progress & begs so hard to be allowed to spend another
year at her studies -- she is most anxious to improve
[[4]] herself & is a really most promising musician, Marmontel*1 (the chief of the
Conservatoire) has given her the highest award ever made to a pupil*2 -- I counted
very much on having her at home with a finishing governess but she is so true &
earnest in her desire for more instruction where she is that I must give in. All speak
most highly of her though except in Music she is not talented & work is no joke to
her. Contrarywise, work is easy to Reggie [Reginald Hawthorn Hooker] -- who will
try for his Bachelor's in Sciences (in which, as far as I can make out, Science has no
part!) this June -- Joey [Joseph Symonds Hooker] progresses & Dick [Richard
Symonds Hooker] dilates.
I think I told you I finished the Indian Polygona & Peppers -- I have ever since been at
Myristica, a dreadful lot. They are impossible to name without ♀ & ♂ flower or fruit
too.
I am amused with Grant Duff's*3 note about the Klustine -- this was only a flirtation. I
do not think it was ever a love affair on B[entham's] part & certainly never such on
the Lady's, who looked much higher. (they never were engaged)*4 One of the Klustines was
engaged to Bentham's sister*5.
Bentham was engaged to a French lady Mademosielle Dax before he left France & positively
jilted her, for which he expressed great the deepest remorse in his journals -- he was not
long after that over head & ears in love with Miss Laura Carr C a r r who did not
[[5]] return his affection but married first Mr Rolfe (afterwards Lord Rolfe) & then Lord
Cranworth. B[entham] kept up his intimacy with the Cranworths to the last.
This reminds me that I am puzzled what to do with his autobiography, which he left
to me without further instructions than left me unfettered what to do with it. It is
contained in about 100 closely written pages of his small hand 4 to & goes down to
1835. It was begun to please his wife & continued to please himself finally broken off
by his illness. It is full of curious matter & to the like of us is most interesting but I am
in doubt how far any considerable public would be interested.
I have still a huge mass of his correspondence to deal with &
[[6]] a huger of his uncle's & father's, I am at my wits end what to do with it all -being an undigested lot of papers. I have been employing Miss Wallich on the
botanical correspondence, but she is awfully slow & -- well -- rather dull. My aunt
has most good naturedly kept her for weeks in the house, & I of course, pay her, but
it clearly won't pay to go on!
Now I must go to meetings which distract me -- for the difficulty of matching[?] the
sexes.
Bessy has paid for the copy of Gen[era] Pl[antarum] -- with postage it came to just
£7 (6.19.8 ½).
Bentham's affairs are not wound
[[7]] up yet, I am sorry to say.
With love to Mrs Gray & hearty thankfulness to think you are both safely at home.
Ever aff[ectionate]ly | J. D. Hooker [signature]
My sister Lombe is just the same, & poor Maria up & down -- at times not herself
ENDNOTES
1. Antoine Francois Marmontel (1816 - 1898), French pianist and teacher at the
Conservatorie de Paris.
2. From 'Marmontel' to 'pupil' is written in the left hand margin of the paper, at right
angles to the main text of the letter.
3. Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff GCSI, CIE, PC FRS (21 February 1829 –
12 January 1906), Scottish politician who served as the Under--Secretary of State for
India from 1868 to 1874, Under--Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1880 to
1881 and the Governor of Madras from 1881 to 1886.
4. The sentence 'One.....sister' is written in the right hand margin of the page, but
has a line indicating that it should be read at this point in the text.
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