Calcutta [Kolkata]
April 7th 1850
My dear Father
My plans are arranged for this year & I greatly regret to add against Nepal[.] Jung Bahadur goes to England taking letters to you from me, he declares himself anxious & ready to serve me but cannot guarantee me permission during his own absence. The fact is that he himself & he alone is favorable to his own mission to England. You will see Thoresby soon after his arrival, the late Resident at Nepal. I give him a letter to you & beg you to show him all attention -- he is a warm hearted & most excellent man has been extremely serviceable & kind to me & is universally respected & esteemed. I dare say he would like to spend a day or two at Kew & see Richmond &, he is a very quiet person & makes himself happy any where.
I have laid my Dawk for Dorjiling [Darjeeling]

& start on Tuesday the 9th. I have told Thomson to be ready to join me if he is still inclined to do so on his furlough, & to have all my things packed & ready to leave the hills for Sylhet the Khassya & Munnepore, whither we go at once by water. I have utterly failed in my object of visiting Calcutta, but find comfort in the feeling that I have done my best both for myself & Thomson. Though that but be nothing. On the other hand I have given Campbell a good lift unable as I was from constant attendance on Gov[ernmen]t house & the Secretaries & to live at the gardens, I have lapsed into a state of utter idleness & have nothing to show for my Calcutta life but a long list of gaieties --
Still I have managed to spend a week off & on at the gardens & seen a great deal. Falconer is quite indefatigable but has had a fearful task -- The extent of mischief done is inconceivable & Griffiths certainly ruined the garden,

& what is worse so crippled its resources that Falconer cannot buy a book ever. All the Teak plantation & all other timber planted for garden purposes was cut clean away, & sold for a few farthings instead of thousands of Rupees -- consequently timber has now to be bought from Calcutta for the most ordinary purposes not to talk of such extraordinary ones as piling & banking the river. The money now a great item has to be screwed out of other gardens. On the other hand Falconer is working hard & well, obliterating all Griffiths turpentine paths, & throwing very fine leading walks through the Garden as at Kew with well arranged divergent ones -- all arranged with a view to pl replanting the wilderness constructing a Palmetum, Pandanetum, & Arboretum on as fine a scale as at Kew, all of which have been cut away -- The general plan is yours of Kew -- He is now about restoring Wallich's summer house in the Nepal Garden & reconstructing the masonry at

a certain little spot close by to which Wallich was fondly attached so as to put it all in the exact condition that Wallich left it. As a Horticulturalist F[alconer]. Is getting on capitally especially with orchideae, & he is extremely popular with all classes, with Gov[ernmen]t civil & military. His urbanity& good nature are greatly admired & he is as liberal as possible.
Thoresby & Gen[era]l Jung Bahadur will probably talk to you about the advisability of my visiting Nepal with Jung B[ahadur]. on his return when he offers & presses me to visit any & all part of his county. Lord Dalhousie[,] Colvile, Falconer & all people here urge it on me as the finest prospect ever opened to a scientific man in India or elsewhere, & advise me to ask the leave & means from you & the W[oods] & F[orests department]. I have said nothing for the obvious reason that I am not at liberty to do so in common fairness to Frances. My finances are so good that I should not fear running you into any expense worth

mentioning & to a man of my tastes pursuits & prospects, there is the strongest temptation that ever was placed in my way, but I have promised to return to England after this season & have no desire to rev[? part of mss missing, edge torn] my promise. I would therefore beg of you seriously to consider the matter, I know if I were to write to Frances that she would not say a syllable against it, whatever she might think & feel, & therefore will not do so. The matter therefore stands thus -- the advice & recommendation of such men as the above should not be put away on one side on slight grounds, & such some might say was Miss Henslow; if, as I think, she had only to be asked. If therefore you & Prof. Henslow & Mr Phillipps think the matter worth consideration do consider it. If you are favorable, tell Frances of my objections scruples & the grounds -- should she withold[sic] assent, I will dismiss the subject. You may rest assured that I will cheerfully abide by your judgement

in this matter, provided it be biassed[sic] by Miss Henslow alone, who alone biasses[sic] me against it. You are fully aware that I entirely approve your conduct in giving up Borneo grievous as the present sacrifice appears to me. & you need not fear my entire approval of your decision in this case. --
As to the time required it would be as I said before in talking of Nepal -- Nov[embe]r. 18 before I could leave Nepal -- i.e. Nov[embe]r. 1851. when I should give up Ceylon [Sri Lanka] go to Bombay [Mumbai] & embark by the January steamer. Were Miss H[enslow] out of the picture I should have no hesitation in deciding for myself but if you & her Father of your own judgement think that I should not think of it -- or if you both think I should it is any adviseable[sic] & she still should object -- I shall adhere to my

original plan & return at the end of this year, & you may depend upon it never question the propriety of your decision or withold[sic] my acquiescence in it.
Thomson cannot get leave to join me except by taking the time out of his furlough --this is extremely hard. I am well aware that Lord D[alhousie]. would not have refused me this boon had he been able to do otherwise, or it arose from no other motive but the exigeancy[sic] of the military authorities considering how Thomson is employed I should urge you to speak to Sir H. Willock[,] Royle[,] Wallich & others you can about it. His 3 years of furlough leave begins this May. He now spends one year 10 months of that in India with me, if you decide for Nepal he may spend 20, except the Court should hint to Lord D[alhousie]. that Thomsons being placed at his on the service list

so that his time goes on. & he given leave in India, would be agreeable to them. What a thousand pities it is that they do not employ him to collect, where we are now going, materials for the Exposition. I shall see that he does so with his & my small means & hope that that will be a reccomendation. (though surely he wants none) to his Gov[ernmen]t.
Cecil Beadon says he has not heard from you since the arrival of the opium things in England. do send him an official thanks. *1
Bellenden Ker is a brute & has behaved disgracefully to these gardens, he is evidently a dishonest -- trumping[?] Knave -- I have said nothing to Courtenay, but there is a storm brewing here for him for his double play between Bethune & Falconer who happen to have shown one anothers letters to each other!

Both Larch & Rhod[odenron]s. have come up admirably here but the so late that the fearful heat has killed many already.
I took my map down to Calcutta & it is being copied at the Surv[eyor] Gen[era]ls. offices with all speed when done the original shall go at once to you.
Thomson has sent all my collections down, they will arrive here in boats in about 6 weeks & be despatched in Jan[uar]y. by the best ships. -- I hope my large collections are home by this time or will be soon.
As to the Athenaeum I am rather disgusted at having to come on after my name has been down for so many years (1843) & after so much talk was made and a promise too by Brown that I should come on in the committee & after too so many men have come on in that manner whose names were not long, some not at all before the

public. I should have been willing to pay for the honor if I had been brought on within reasonable time, but that is long past. As a club to which I cannot take a friend, it will be useless, & I should at any rate join the "Oriental" where I can take 20 friends at a time if I like -- It would only be the contingency of your & my being in Town together that would ever lead me to the Athenaeum, & whereas you cannot take me there except we are both members & I can you to as good & a cheaper one (the Oriental), I would prefer withdrawing my name, either now or when my election levee comes.
The Rhododendron copies & of my Journal came all safe very many thanks. The little box of this mail has not yet come to hand.
Ever yr affec[tiona]te son | Jos D Hooker [signature]