Peabody & Co of the United States of America have sent JDH some money, an unexpected remittance of funds deposited with them for his trip in America. JDH tells Asa Gray he is particularly grateful for it as he is trying to raise £800 to set up his son Charles Paget Hooker as a partner in a medical practice in Norfolk. The practice in Coltishall is the same one previously owned by JDH's brother in law, Thomas Evans Lombe, & by a great uncle of JDH's in the previous century. Mentions Gray's correspondence with Henslow. RBG Kew is getting 36 tons of Indian wood & other 'vegetable produce' from the India Store Department. The material is to be accommodated by the RBG Kew museums, necessitating a complete rearrangement, & Sargent would also like a share. Over the last 30 years there has been over collecting of all sorts of things in India due to bad management by the India Museum authorities. He gives the example of Cashmere shawls being left unpacked to ruin in cases. JDH is concerned about the deteriorating production quality of the BOTANICAL MAGAZINE which is not doing justice to the work of the new artist, Mr Barnard. It is published by Reeve & Co who have a bad reputation amongst the trade & craftsmen, e.g. lithographers & printers, for being miserly. Spencer Moore has been dismissed from the RBG Kew herbarium for 'gross insubordination & insolence', JDH calls him 'a lunatic'. Baker is going to work on the Agaves & Fourcroyas. [James Edward Tierney] Aitchison has a lot of news & good things from Afghanistan.
Transcript
find £800 to set Charlie up in practice in Norfolk -- oddly enough in the place that Tom Lombe had! Coltishall & where a great uncle of mine had the practice last century. The said practice is much increased -- a rail-road having gone there from Norwich. The man who now has it bought it from Lombe, & offers Charlie 1/3 share for the said sum, & I must "raise the wind" for the purpose.
Reverting to Peabody & Co I must say that I was staggered when they presented me with my amount on leaving Boston; & I left the consideration of it till I got on board the steamer -- when I could make nothing of it -- & relieved[?] myself with the idea that I had drawn an extra cheque in San Francisco
ROYAL GARDENS KEW
Ja[nuar]y 20/[18]80
My dear [Asa] Gray,
Pea-body & Co startled me by the sending of a letter with a huge red-sealing-wax seal (I thought America had outgrown that pompous aristocratic device) I opened it with a fluttering heart -- had I left unpaid debts in America,? or had the defunct millionaire left me an overlooked legacy! or was it an answer to my touching appeal of the P.O.[?] some 10 years ago, that he would "remember you" -- well, you know the result, & most opportune it is -- for I did not put by 1d last year, & I have now to
find £800 to set Charlie up in practice in Norfolk -- oddly enough in the place that Tom Lombe had! Coltishall & where a great uncle of mine had the practice last century. The said practice is much increased -- a rail-road having gone there from Norwich. The man who now has it bought it from Lombe, & offers Charlie 1/3 share for the said sum, & I must "raise the wind" for the purpose.
Reverting to Peabody & Co I must say that I was staggered when they presented me with my amount on leaving Boston; & I left the consideration of it till I got on board the steamer -- when I could make nothing of it -- & relieved[?] myself with the idea that I had drawn an extra cheque in San Francisco
& any how[sic] had got off so awfully cheap from America that I ought not to even to question enquire into the whereabouts of the balance!
The worst of it is now, that it has brought an uneasy feeling that I owe it to you in some shape! That it never would have been mine (nor treble it) but for your solicitude in my affairs.
Your letter to Henslow is most nice nice & will please him much, I return his to you.
I wrote you the other day & have no further news. Sargent wants any amount of the Indian wood &c of which (& other things) there are 36 tons measurements coming to Kew from the India Store Dep[artmen]t & I cannot tell you how many tons we have already disposed
of -- the accumulation of 30 years extravagant collecting in India without judgement or regard to cost & of utter mismanagement indolence & caprice on the part of the India Museum authorities here -- I suppose there never was such a revelation of the sort (in the museum way). Many many thousands of pounds must have been spent in India upon the collecting of duplicates on duplicates put up in the most expensive manner to be destroyed unopened by rust, dust; rats & insects. There are I am told cases of Cashmere shauls[sic] riddled by vermin, sent for exhibition (those of course are not amongst coming with my 36! of Vegetable produce & a silver elephant Howdah! I need not say we are tremendously hard worked. Dyer gets through work most wonderfully, & is a very skilful manager. The Indian Gov[ernmen]t give us £2000 to
add to the big Museum & I have screwed £450 out if the Treasury to add to the little one (that my father inaugurated), so we shall have space enough: but it will cost us the rearrangement of both Museums "au fond" & as poor Dyer had just completed that operation we do growl at the job.
I am awfully worried with the carelessness bad paper & printing & worse colouring of the Bot[anical] Mag[azine] which has fallen off dismally. Reeve & Co are screws of the tightest; grind down artists, colourists, lithographers paper--makers & printers & do not pay the editor except under threat of withholding the drawings also the "trade" hate them I am told. I am quite disheartened about it. It was hard enough losing Fitch but Mr Barnard’s drawings are charming & justice is not done to them. We have just dismissed
Mr Spencer Moore from the Herb[arium]. for gross insubordination & insolence, in fact he behaved so ill that I insisted on his dismissal from the public service, which was carried out -- & then withdrawn, also with my approval [one word crossed out, illeg.], in favour of his resignation: he is a lunatic.
I see Baker is about to attack the Agaves & Fourcroyas -- oh dear.
[James Edward Tierney] Aitchison has a lot of news & good things from Afghanistan.
Ever aff[ectioantel]y y[ou]rs | JD Hooker [signature]
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