JDH & his wife [Hyacinth Hooker] have just returned from their honeymoon to North Wales where they climbed Cadair Idris & Snowdon. They also went to the Botanical Association at Glasgow where they & George Bentham stayed with JDH's niece Mrs Campbell. The married tour continued around Scotland to the Clyde, some of JDH's 'old haunts' on Loch Lomond & Inveray [Inveraray], Loch Awe via Crinan, Oban via Ben Cruachan, Skye, Gari Loch [Gairloch], Loch Maree, Dingwall, Inverness, Forres, Rothiemurchus, Stirling, to stay with the McGilvrays at Bridge of Allan & with Brian Houghton Hodgson in Gloucestershire & another visit in Worcestershire. Hyacinth Hooker proved an excellent walker & climber, enduring a long walk through the bogs in Skye, a 25 mile walk to a church in the Cuchillins [Cuillin], & a trek to 2000 feet over Loch Coruisk. He wonders whether Mrs [Jane Loring] Gray is an equally robust walker. JDH has found that he is very compatible with his new wife, she has a genuine interest in plants & will make an excellent step mother. Discusses the correct author attributions for Tripetalia & Tuckermannia. Olvey[?] has not turned up. Thanks Gray for Abies fraseri cones & asks what soil they should be grown in. JDH will begin working on his Anniversary Address for the Royal Society. Thanks Gray for a cheque for Gay's plants.
Transcript
made it all the more enjoyable.
After a short tour to the Clyde & visits to my old haunts there & on Loch Lomond & Inveray [Inveraray] we went to Inveray Loch Awe by Crinan & so by the foot of Ben Cruachan to Oban. There to Skye where we had glorious weather! & over to the Gari Loch [Gairloch], Loch Maree, & Dingwall & on South by Inverness & Forres to Rothiemurchus where we staid[sic] with some old Indian friends of mine. There to Stirling & Bridge of Allan where Mrs McGilvray*1 has a house. She is as well as ever now & very stout, but the Rev. Dr. [Walter McGilvray] is in wretched health suffering from Heart Disease.
Then to my old friend [Brian Houghton] Hodgson in Gloucestershire & another visit in Worcestershire & so home & very glad to get here where we received a warm welcome from the boys. Harriet was visiting at the Hodgsons['] & so we had seen her there -- she will
ROYAL GARDENS KEW
October, 7 [18]76
My dear friend [Asa Gray],
We have just returned to Kew & my first letter abroad must be to you. Thanking you and your dear wife warmly for your congratulations. Our married tour was first to N[orth] Wales where my wife distinguished herself by ascending Cader Edrys [Cadair Idris] in the afternoon & descending in the dark walking some 15 miles, & afterwards by ascending Snowdon in a storm such as I have not seen in mountains since I left the Himalaya, & where after seeing nothing, & having the top of an umbrella incautiously raised blown in, we descended soaked through & through. Thence to the B[ritish] A[ssociation for the Advancement of Science] at Glasgow where we staid[sic] with my niece Mrs Campbell, now a mother of 6 bonny children, & living in great comfort. She is quite unchanged. Bentham staid[sic] there with us which
made it all the more enjoyable.
After a short tour to the Clyde & visits to my old haunts there & on Loch Lomond & Inveray [Inveraray] we went to Inveray Loch Awe by Crinan & so by the foot of Ben Cruachan to Oban. There to Skye where we had glorious weather! & over to the Gari Loch [Gairloch], Loch Maree, & Dingwall & on South by Inverness & Forres to Rothiemurchus where we staid[sic] with some old Indian friends of mine. There to Stirling & Bridge of Allan where Mrs McGilvray*1 has a house. She is as well as ever now & very stout, but the Rev. Dr. [Walter McGilvray] is in wretched health suffering from Heart Disease.
Then to my old friend [Brian Houghton] Hodgson in Gloucestershire & another visit in Worcestershire & so home & very glad to get here where we received a warm welcome from the boys. Harriet was visiting at the Hodgsons['] & so we had seen her there -- she will
soon be back here.
In the midst of our mountaineering & scrambling I got yours of 23rd Aug[ust]; -- telling us of your kind thought of us on the 22? & setting us wondering whether Mrs. Gray would get up the mountains, & whether you or I would walk farthest. I long to know if Mrs Gray got up. Mrs. H[ooker] is a regular bog trotter, & did her 10 hours of most laborious bog bog in Skye without a complaint, & afterward[s] a good 25 miles of tramp to X [church] amongst the Cuchillins [Cuillin], ascending also about 2000 f[ee]t over Loch Coruisk. She knows plants pretty well & is an enthusiast in gardening (not pattern beds but of good plants) -- Indeed my dear Gray I have reason to be thankful for a most amiable wife well suited to my condition & who promises to make a happy step--mother to my children.
Thanks for the Rejoinder -- you are not quite right yet. Tripetaleia is not a parallel
case to your Tuckermannia Gray Nutt applies to the plants which Nuttall [text crossed out, illeg] himself first described, it is a clear blunder, it should have been Tuckermannia Nutt. You might have put it "[text crossed out, illeg.] paragraph 2 Tuckermannia Gray" & cited Nuttal for making it a genus.
Olvey[?] has not turned up -- Thanks for Abies fraseri cones .-- What sort of soil should it have? We find great difficulty with it.
I have now to begin my anniversary address for Royal*2, which will be concerned chiefly with the labour of the Council council during the last session of which the Society hears little or nothing except by at the address.
Thanks for the cheque for £5.00 for Gay’s plants. The letter that you sent with it has been mislaid. I hope that it requires no answer.
Yours affectionately | Jos[eph] D[alton] Hooker [signature].
N.B. I did not refer to the citation of Tuckermannia at line 9 of page 356 but under paragraph 2.
1. Maria McGilvray née Hooker (1819--1889). Joseph Hooker's younger sister. Married Walter McGilvray (1807--1880) in 1846.
2. This refers to the Anniversary address given annually by the President of the Royal Society, of which Joseph Dalton Hooker was elected a fellow at the age of thirty and served as President from 1873--1878.
Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study electronic image(s) of this document where possible.
Powered by Aetopia