Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC420
Alderley Grange, Wotton Under Edge, [Gloucestershire, United Kingdom]
JDH/2/16 f.65
Thiselton-Dyer, Sir William Turner
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
31-12-1879
© Descendants of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
Letters to Thiselton-Dyer
The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
English
Original MS
4 page letter over 1 folio
 

JDH writes to Sir Wiliam Turner Thiselton-Dyer about their mutual poor health. His own health is improving although he still has rheumatic pains & trouble breathing outside. He is keen to get back to work at RBG Kew. JDH is glad that Hubble is gone. He criticizes [John] Smith's tendency to give new untried [RBG Kew] staff the same salary as the experienced men they replace & blames it on his class. JDH is going to wtie to Smith about some other staff: Sharpe, Martin & Masters. He thinks that they need better management of their foremen & suggests [William] Watson. JDH thinks the qualities needed are an outdoor gardener who knows ornamental horticulture, will notice his subordinates deficiencies, which Smith does not, & who will oversee expenditure on labour, materials & plants. Such a man would be worth a good salary. Though JDH fears they would be too qualified & ambitious to remain a foreman. JDH refers to [John Hutton] Balfour selecting a man [to be his successor as Her Majesty's Botanist?]. JDH asks if [Philip Henry Wodehouse] Currie has replied to his letter, JDH forgot to send Currie the promised box of seeds for Cyprus.

Transcript

think I can answer.
Has Mr Currie*4 (F[oreign] O[ffice]) answered my last? I quite forgot to tell Smith to send him the box of seeds for Cyprus. Please see to this, & that it is written outside what the contents are. Best love & congratulations to yourself Harriet [Anne Thiselton-Dyer, née Hooker] & the children from us all, -- The weather is furious.
Ever aff[ectionatel]y yours | J. D. Hooker. [signature]

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[Alderley Hall, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire]
31st Dec [18]79
My dear Dyer*1
Thanks many for your letter. I am concerned to hear that you too are laid up, an unwelcome proof of empathy! I have lost pains & aches except that shots of Rheumatism, but the Bronchitis is very troublesome & I cannot show my air-tubes to the outside of the House. I shall however return on Monday next under any circumstances, as I am very anxious to be back.
I am so glad that Hubble is gone. It is quite absurd Smith's*2 recent craze for giving every new

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untried man the full salary of the old & tried -- it is a sort of extravagance too common of his class, viz spending their money because they have got it to spend.
I am writing to him about Sharpe & Martin -- my detention here is a good excuse. I almost wish we had let Masters explode in the Chronicle.
I quite believe that if we could reorganize the Bot[anic] Garden Foremen, we might do better to have such a man as Watson*3 supreme head over all the others[?]. It will always be difficult to get men Foremen with sufficient knowledge[,] activity and zeal to undertake such very

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small duties as the mere out of door gardening, & on the mere ornamental department, under a head who is himself not up to the not up to the most requirements & cannot see their horticultural deficiencies. Foremen really fit to do the work are worthy of much more extensive charges & naturally ambitious. As it is th Sharpe & Martin get more more soil, pots, tools &c. &c., than they can usefully employ, & no instruction as to how to use them. -- I am quite sure our expenditure on labour & materials might be reduced ¼th by good management: -- but reduce work as you will, & plants too, the expenditure goes on unabated.
On the whole I am glad that Balfour*5 takes a man of his own choice: it is but fair that he should, & it saves us responsibility.
Please send any letters that you

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think I can answer.
Has Mr Currie*4 (F[oreign] O[ffice]) answered my last? I quite forgot to tell Smith to send him the box of seeds for Cyprus. Please see to this, & that it is written outside what the contents are. Best love & congratulations to yourself Harriet [Anne Thiselton-Dyer, née Hooker] & the children from us all, -- The weather is furious.
Ever aff[ectionatel]y yours | J. D. Hooker. [signature]

ENDNOTES


1. Sir William Turner Thiselton--Dyer (1843--1928). British botanist and third Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1885--905). He succeeded Joseph Hooker in the role after serving as his Assistant Director for ten years. He previously held professorships at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, Royal College of Science for Ireland and the Royal Horticultural Society. He married Hooker's eldest daughter Harriet in 1877.
2. John Smith (1821--1888). Curator or 'head gardener' of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew from 1864--1886. His predecessor as Curator was also named John Smith.
3. William Watson (1853--1825). British botanist and horticulturist. He was a gardener at Kew from 1879, assistant Curator from 1886--1901 and Curator from 1901--1922.
4. Philip Henry Wodehouse Currie, 1st Baron Currie (1834--1906). British diplomat, rising to the position of Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire 1893--1898 and Ambassador to Italy 1898--1902. In 1879 he was chosen to supervise the Cyprus Department of the Foreign Office.
5. John Hutton Balfour (1808--1884). Scottish botanist. Professor of Botany first at the University of Glasgow then at Edinburgh University. He also became Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh and 'Her Majesty's Botanist', he held these posts until his retirement in 1879. This letter probably refers to the selection of his successor as the Queen's Botanist.

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