[[1]]
Kew
April 28/[18]73
My Dear Lady Jardine *1
I have two kind letters to thank you for; & shall soon have the Primula & other things
you are so good as to send. We shall look to the Pinguicula.
The grass is a very nice one -- tell Sir William [Jardine] that it is Sesleria Caerulea -- I
should much like a good tuft of it for the garden if you could conveniently send it.
G[eorge]. Henslow is a trifle better in some respects, but
[[2]] the paralyses is still total of the lower extremities
Thanks too for giving the Gardner[sic] the 20/. Shall I send you a P. O. order where
you are, if so, to or which P.O.?
I was about to write to you about Lady Lyell’s death, which shocked us greatly. I
heard of her alarming illness & death on Friday morning & went to Harley Street, where
I met Leonard at the door & he took me up to Mrs Lyell in the Drawing room, who
[[3]] told me all about it. Lady Lyell had not been well on leaving home for Ludlow &
never got better, getting daily weaker though taking abundant food & enjoying it, and
suffering no pain -- when alarmed they brought her to London, where their house not
being ready, she stopped at the G[rea]t. Western Hotel, where she sunk. & in 10
days died. The day before she died she never opened her eyes, & lay quite still -- on
the following morning at breakfast time, Mrs Lyell went in to take
[[4]] her a jelly -- saw a change, & Lyell went in just in time to kiss her hand & hear
her call out Charles, Charles as she died.
Mr Lyell took me to see her on the coffin, in the back -- drawing[?] -- such a very little
coffin, strewed with flowers, & she so calm & beautiful, without a trace of suffering,
pain or discomposure. I had known the face so long, from its first lovelyness[sic],
about 40 years ago, that I was not sorry to be assured that it bore no trace of
suffering
[[5]] at the last. She Mrs Lyell told me that Sir Charles was alternately grievously
afflicted, & busy with his new edition of the "Antiquity of Man" with Miss Buckley -- It
was thought better that I should not see him...just yet.
He will live with the Lyells, but whether where they are, or in Harley Street, or in a
new House I do not know -- his desolation must be extreme. They hoped that your
father would will bury her at Woking beside Mr Horner.
[[6]] This is all I know & I thought that you would be glad to hear all about it that I
knew.
Frances *2 came back on Friday from Down *3 -- not much better. Harriet [Anne
Hooker] is at Chester with her Gr[eat]. Aunt the Bishop’s wife. She returns soon & I
hope brings a cousin with her.
Willy [William Henslow Hooker] perseveres with his fiddle & turning[?]. Charlie
[Charles Paget Hooker] has spent his holiday with Barnard at Cheltenham.
With united affect[ionate]. regards & to Sir W[il]l[ia]m | Every[ou]r affe[ctionate] | JD
Hooker [signature]
ENDNOTES
1. Lady Hyacinth Jardine (1842--1921). Wife of Sir William Jardine; 6th Baronet of
Applegirth and distinguished naturalist. She was Widowed in 1874 and married Sir
Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1876.
2. Frances Hooker née Henslow. Joseph Hooker's first wife.
3. Down House. Home of Charles Darwin.
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