JDH thanks Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD] for his letter & mentions a geological [society?] dinner. JDH describes his contentment with his short commute from the Camp in Sunningdale. He is not surprised that the [RBG Kew Directors'] House needs a lot of work as it has not been renovated in over 100 years & the basement used to flood regularly, but JDH is surprised that WTTD would have to pay for any repairs. He discusses the practicality of WTTD combining the 2 studies in the house. JDH concedes that WTTD may need to go to the 'Liver's' [for new livery?] but hopes that his old herbarium sword & coat will still be usable. JDH offers to write to Welby, on WTTD & [Algernon Freemna-]Mitford's behalf, about the imprudence of giving Byrne any power. JDH will dine with the X club on Thursday & then join WTTD at the Athenaeum Club. He hopes to come to Kew on Monday.
Transcript
such a man should have power -- I will write or say anything to Welby that you & Mitford*3 think prudent.
I am extremely glad that the mens' pension affair is settled.
I wished would dine at Athenaeum on Thursday 4 with pleasure had I not the the impregnable X [club]*4; but I will be able to join you after it by 8.
Smith*5 has taken food at night over & over again at intervals for years, he eats so little at a time.
I hope to be up at Kew on Monday. With our love to Harriet & kindest regards to yourself | Ever y[our] aff[ectionate] J D Hooker[signature]
Royal Gardens Kew
The Camp,*1
Sunningdale
F[ebrua]ry 26th [18]86
My dear Dyer*2
Many thanks for your long newsful letter -- You are lucky to have escaped a punishment for the Geological dinner. I do not at all feel the going up and down, & get through a lot of odd jobs proofs &c. in the train with the spurious satisfaction of saving time thereby, & the real one of being well employed & feeling no sense of impatience for the length of the journey -- which is after all a short one.
I am not the least surprized at the House wanting a great
deal done to it. Nothing has been done to the shell for I suppose well nigh a hundred years: & I only wonder it was free of rats & bugs. In old times too the basement was annually flooded!
Jurd[?] professed to have found out the connection between the Study & Closet, & to have cured it, & prevented its reoccurrence. The points of the great earthenware pipes were merely cemented, not mortared. -- It is incredible that you should have to pay for repairs -- or necessary alterations.
They might charge for the throwing the two studies into one, the policy of which I gravely doubt.
The inner study & wall between the gardens was shockingly built -- part of it was I think utilized for the study outer wall. As to the floors, they were all over like gridirons. -- & I twice had to get them planed down, they cut the carpets so.
Yes I suppose you should have gone go to the Liver's[sic?] but I had hoped my things would have come in for that, at least the Herb[arium] sword & perhaps coat.
What can we do about Byrne -- it is intolerable that
such a man should have power -- I will write or say anything to Welby that you & Mitford*3 think prudent.
I am extremely glad that the mens' pension affair is settled.
I wished would dine at Athenaeum on Thursday 4 with pleasure had I not the the impregnable X [club]*4; but I will be able to join you after it by 8.
Smith*5 has taken food at night over & over again at intervals for years, he eats so little at a time.
I hope to be up at Kew on Monday. With our love to Harriet & kindest regards to yourself | Ever y[our] aff[ectionate] J D Hooker[signature]
1. Joseph Hooker had a residence built in Sunningdale, Berkshire called 'The Camp'. Completed in 1882 he lived there full time, with his second wife Hyacinth and their family, after retiring from RBG Kew in 1885.
2. Sir William Turner 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 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.
3. Algernon Bertam Freeman--Mitford, 1st Baron of Redesdale (1837--1916), was a British diplomat, collector and writer. From 1874 to 1886 he acted as secretary to HM Office of Works.
4. The X Club was a dining club of nine men who supported the theories of natural selection and academic liberalism in late 19th century England. The members of the club were: Joseph Dalton Hooker, George Busk, Thomas Archer Hirst, Edward Frankland, John Lubbock, Herbert Spencer, William Tyndall, William Spottiswoode & Thomas Henry Huxley, who was the club's founder.
5. 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.
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