JDH has received a letter from Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD] about his recent holiday with his wife, Hooker's daughter, Harriet. He writes that there is no need for WTTD to rush back to RBG Kew but updates him on the recent garden activities including changes to staff. Walters is stationed in the Palm House & is nervous about rearranging independently, Leighton has been 'packed off', [William] Watson has taken over the orchids, JDH does not know what to do about Burt who attends well to the grounds but not to [museum] number 2, Truelove works hard in the woods but needs time consuming supervision. [John] Smith has recovered from an attack of sciatica. The work on the museums is progressing, but the staircase in [museum] number 1 is a failure. JDH has received correspondence about appointment of a clerk for [Henry] Prestoe [in Trinidad] & recommended that Governor Irving's advice be followed & a Colony man appointed on a modest salary. JDH has brought Smith round to Beischeles[?] coming & [George] Nicholson taking on more garden duties. JDH sends his love to his old friends Brian & Susan Hodgson.
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final nor can be so, for that the plant will grow, & that he, not you, will be responsible for this being regarded:-- that we shall always be ready to advise him; but we expect he will soon not want our advice, except for any great changes. Moore is off in high dudgeon & has not behaved at all well to Smith*2 or to me. I have packed off Leighton too, who is a sulky ill conditioned mongrel.
Watson*3 has taken the Orchids with a will, & I anticipate great things for the change.
As to Burt (or whatever his name
ROYAL GARDENS KEW
Nov 15/ [18]80
Dear Dyer*1
I am very glad to get your letter & find that you & Harriet have enjoyed yourselves so much -- Pray do not hurry back -- there is nothing to bring you to Kew (Garden) & I have just completed the estimates.
You will be glad to hear that I have installed Walters in the Palm House, & I like much what I have seen of him in it, he is very timid about any shifting of your arrangement, but I have told him that no such arrangement is
final nor can be so, for that the plant will grow, & that he, not you, will be responsible for this being regarded:-- that we shall always be ready to advise him; but we expect he will soon not want our advice, except for any great changes. Moore is off in high dudgeon & has not behaved at all well to Smith*2 or to me. I have packed off Leighton too, who is a sulky ill conditioned mongrel.
Watson*3 has taken the Orchids with a will, & I anticipate great things for the change.
As to Burt (or whatever his name
is) I am at my wits end what to do. -- he certainly attends better to the grounds than any predecessor but as for No.2. it is awful --
I get a great deal of good work out of Truelove by daily supervision; but he is far off, & 2 trips a day to the woods takes up a great deal of time.
Smith has had a very bad attack of sciatica, that quite disabled him; but is better & he has been more active since.
The Museums progress, but the stair case at No 1 is a horrid failure for it's going up the wrong way (as you pointed out).
There is a heap of correspondence from the C[olonial]. O[ffice]. about Prestoe's*4 Clerk -- I have settled by counselling Ld Kimberly
to take Gov[eno]r Irving's advice to retain[?] the services of a young man (a Mr Dyer!) in the Colony (of whom Prestoe highly approves) & who has been doing clerk's duty as piece work for Prestoe he can be got for 130 rising by £10 annually to £160 (I think).
Now don't you come back to lay on[,] you are happy holidaying. I will tell you if anything occurs in which you might be needed.
I think I have got Smith to look sweetly[?] on young Beischeles[?] coming & giving Nicholson*5 more garden duties -- but I shall settle nothing till you return.
With best love to Harriet & to my dear old friends the Hodgsons
*7 P.S. Old Berkeley*8 & dau[ghter?] are just arrived in a pouring rain; he looks terribly feeble & exhausted & very short of breath.
1. Sir William Thiselton-Dyer (1843--1928). British botanist and third Director of the Royal Botanic gardens, Kew (1885--1905). He succeeded Joseph Hooker in the role after serving as his Assistant Director for ten years. He also 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 (1858--1925). Gardener employed at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew from 1879. Assistant Curator from 1886 and Curator from Aug 1901 to 1922.
4. Henry Prestoe (1842--1923). Government botanist & Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens in Trinidad 1864--1886. He discovered several of the rare orchids of Trinidad. His collections are preserved at Kew and some are in the Trinidad Herbarium.
5. George Nicholson (1847--1908). English horticulturalist and botanist. Started working at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1873 succeeding John Smith as Curator of the Gardens in 1886, until his own retirement due to ill health in 1901.
6. Brian Houghton Hodgson (1801—1894). A pioneer naturalist and ethnologist working in India and Nepal where he was a British civil servant. Married Susan 'Susie' Townsend in 1869.
7. The text which runs from here until the end of the letter is written vertically up the left margin of page one.
8. Reverend Miles Joseph Berkeley (1803--1889). English cryptogamist and clergyman, and one of the founders of the science of plant pathology. Married Cecilia Emma Campbell, the couple had 15 children.
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