Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC344
HMS 'Erebus', Hobarton, Van Diemen's Land [Hobart, Tasmania], Australia
JDH/1/3 f.201-204
Palgrave (nee Turner), Lady Elizabeth
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
30-6-1841
© Descendants of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
Correspondence from Antarctic Expedition
The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
English
Contemporary MS copy
4 page letter over 2 folios
 
Transcript

My Mother will, I dare say, tell you that the letter[s] which should have arrived by the Hebe" did not come at all; &, among them must be the one you are so good as to have written: it appears the admiralty bags have gone on to China, with our letters, dispatches &c. I hope to see something of them at Sydney. There is a vessel come this evening, the "Perseus" from London: she is said to have lots of letters for us; but they have not arrived here yet; &, if they do to night, it will, I fear, be too late to answer them by tomorrow's ship for home. I put these on board at once, to save a chance; & then shall go ashore & enquire about the new mails, &, if it can be done, (that is, if any thing delays the sailing of this ship) I shall send an answer, if I receive any thing.
Pray give my kindest love to all at Hampstead, & | Believe me dear Aunt, | Your most affectionate Nephew| J. D. Hooker
P.S. There are very few Quarterly's here. Sir John Franklin however, has it; but her Ladyship is unwell, & there are no callers there now. I shall doubtless find it at Sydney, & shall have great pleasure in reading it; most likely, at Mr McLeay's

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*1
To Lady Palgrave
H. W M. S Erebus Hobart Town June 30th 1841

My dear aunt
It is exceedingly kind of you to think of & to write to me so often; the more so as the narrow circle of my dear correspondents at home is gradually decreasing); to that, should my worst fears be realized; I shall have to return to an almost empty house: under these circumstances, the proofs which I receive of your affectionate regard for me, are as so many consolations for the other irreparable losses.
It is, however, very ungrateful of one to commence troubling you with a repetition of those regrets, which you must know I feel, & which are doubly bittered from any absence & the distance I am from my friends. On the contrary, I have much to thank you for in having given me such good news of those other equally dear branches of my family, which God has been pleased to spare to me. And, in the first, it is especially gratifying to read what you write about my father & Kew gardens. I much feared that his late sorrows & the harassing life he has lately led, in waiting upon so many great men would have told on his constitution. His anxiety to be appointed to the gardens is such, that he may make too many sacrifices to obtain them; &, when he does, he has still much to go through before he can comfortably sit down in his house: should he, on the other hand, be disappointed, it will vex him very much & depress his spirits: by this time it is, I hope, all settled. Gurney's name I have often looked for in the E. India papers

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that have come under my eye, but never met it: poor fellow will now doubtless get on well; & it is very lucky that he has an acting Surgeonship so soon, & so good a commander as Col[onel] Wilkins; for every thing, both in the army & navy, depends upon the good opinion in which you are held by the commanding officer -- of Dawson's appointment I heard before we went to the Southern end ward. I sincerely congratulate him upon obtaining an appointment in a school so well known, & which has produced so many scholars; for I remember the highest of our Glasgow classical honours being one Year taken by one from that seminary. My mother tells me he offered to escort Maria to Jersey, should my father have been prevented by Grandpapa's illness: it was very kind of him, & very generous to make such an offer! I can but wish him preferment, either where he is or into a still higher situation & that speedily. I remember old Mr Gunn very well, & congratulate my Uncle, Jacobson John, on his good health. I shall never forget spending a very happy week shooting with Uncle John at Irstead; &, if you write to him, will you be good enough to ask with my kind compliments on what day pheasant shooting commences?
Then, there is my Aunt Ellen & her Host and husband whom I have never seen; but in whose increasing family I greatly rejoice truly, I shall have a fine party of cousins on my return: well do I remember her trying to drive greek into my head at Hastings, & persuading me that the greek for "we God[?] bless thee, oh Grasshopper", was passing beautiful. I cast a passing look at Pelham crescent the other day, on coming down channel; & it brought crowd of old associations into my head. Aunt Hannah I have not seen nor heard of since her marriage; & what is more, my Uncle owes me a letter for now 3 or 4 years: they live, I suppose

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near or in Yarmouth, where they must be a great comfort to my good Grandfather & Grandmother, as also to Aunt Mary, who, no doubt, is well. My dear Aunt, the letter you sent me so vividly brings all these relations to mind, that it is quite a pleasure to read & reread it; & I find that writing you these few lines has finished for the time all my melancholy forebodings: you surely need no greater proof that it is a pleasure to write to you; nor must the small size of this epistle lead you to think otherwise; for the fact is, I am much straitened for time. Your's[sic] & my Mother's letters have arrived yesterday; & the post for England was made up today: it is now 8 PM: I have been all day writing letters: it is raining hard; & I must get a boat & pull into the cove among the shipping, to find the homeward bound ship, which I understand sails early tomorrow morning) --
The success of your children at the Charter house must be a great comfort to you: how happily each follows the others steps; it is, I feel sure, a precurser[sic.] of greater things to be done at College. Will you tell the boys with my kind love that there are nothing but seals, whales, penguins & a few other birds to be found within the Antarctic circle, : no Walrusses tusks, or bears', or foxes' skins, nothing to bring home as nice presents to your friends except some pieces of rock from Lat[itude] 74° S[outh]. the 'ultima Thule' landed upon. I always like to look back to my journal, & see whereabouts I was when my friends were writing letters to me, on the 10th -- Feb[ruar]y, the date of yours, I find we were hove-to in a heavy gale & wind, with thick weather & snow all day, the therm[ometer] at 26°, passing through much loose Ice, many bergs, & c. Lat[aitude].76. 54 S[ou]th, Long[itude] 183.16 E[ast] -- Again, my dear aunt, let me thank you for your most kind valentine, certainly the most acceptable & welcome one I ever received.

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My Mother will, I dare say, tell you that the letter[s] which should have arrived by the Hebe" did not come at all; &, among them must be the one you are so good as to have written: it appears the admiralty bags have gone on to China, with our letters, dispatches &c. I hope to see something of them at Sydney. There is a vessel come this evening, the "Perseus" from London: she is said to have lots of letters for us; but they have not arrived here yet; &, if they do to night, it will, I fear, be too late to answer them by tomorrow's ship for home. I put these on board at once, to save a chance; & then shall go ashore & enquire about the new mails, &, if it can be done, (that is, if any thing delays the sailing of this ship) I shall send an answer, if I receive any thing.
Pray give my kindest love to all at Hampstead, & | Believe me dear Aunt, | Your most affectionate Nephew| J. D. Hooker
P.S. There are very few Quarterly's here. Sir John Franklin however, has it; but her Ladyship is unwell, & there are no callers there now. I shall doubtless find it at Sydney, & shall have great pleasure in reading it; most likely, at Mr McLeay's

ENDNOTES


1. This letter is a contemporary 19th century copy, not written in the hand of the original author Joseph Dalton Hooker, and not signed by him. The copy was probably made by Hooker's Mother or one of his sisters to be circulated amongst family and friends.

Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study electronic image(s) of this document where possible.

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