[[1]]
Pendock Court
Monday [19 September 1887]
The Camp
Sunningdale
My dear Uncle *1
You will be sorry to hear of poor Symonds' *2 death, which took place last Thursday
at Cheltenham after great suffering. Hyacinth *3 & I were telephoned for & came
down here at once to arrange for the funeral, which took place in the church yard
here yesterday. He is a great loss scientifically & intellectually he was the life of a
large surrounding
[[2]] We return to Kew the Camp today taking Mrs Symonds with us.
I have also very indifferent news of my sister Maria
*4
in Edinburgh.
We returned only a fortnight ago from a short tour in Normandy, where I took with me
Mr Turner's Tour *5-- it was very interesting to look at the originals of Cotman's *6
lovely etchings & my grand--mother's drawings, & I can pronounce them all to be
[[3]] Admirable. We were charmed with the picturesqueness of the country & people.
Have you seen Prestwiche's[sic] *7 last paper on the Glacial period? I think it is
excellent, & especially like his shortenings of the interglacial periods, & of his
assigning to these rational causes. I do not think that sufficient allowances have
ever been made before for fluctuations in the position of the Ice, quite independent of
any great movement & any
[[4]] general changes in the climate of the period. In short that during the height of
the period, as well as during access & recess, great changes occurred in the
distribution of the ice. Along its outer edge & for a good way in land.
Send me a line telling me how you are. I saw a lovely Vincent at Christy's rooms the
other day but dared not buy. With Hyacinth's love & to Aunt
I am ever your aff[ectionate] Nephew | Jos D Hooker[signature]
ENDNOTES
1. Reverend John Gunn (1801--1890). Joseph Hooker's Uncle: husband of Harriet
Gunn née Turner, Joseph Hooker's maternal aunt. Amateur naturalist especially
interested in geology with great knowledge of the geology of East Anglia. Founder
and first President of the Norwich Geological Society.
2. Reverend William Samuel Symonds (1818 -- 1887), English geologist; father of
Hyacinth Hooker.
3. Lady Hyacinth Hooker née Symonds then Jardine (1842--1921), Daughter of Rev
William Samuel Symonds (q.v.), and widow of Sir William Jardine (1800--1874);
second wife of Joseph Hooker, married 1876.
4. Maria McGilvray née Hooker (1819-1889). Joseph Hooker's younger sister.
Married Walter McGilvray (1807-1880) in 1846.
5. Account of a Tour in Normandy, 1820, London, by Dawson Turner (1775--1858)
Joseph Hooker's maternal grandfather.
6. John Sell Cotman (1782--1842). English marine and landscape painter, etcher,
illustrator and author, a leading member of the Norwich school of artists.
7. Joseph Prestwich (1812--1896). British geologist, President of the Geological
Society from 1870-1872. Confirmed Boucher de Perthes discovery of ancient flint
tools in gravel beds in the Somme valley.
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