Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC466
The Camp, Sunningdale, Berkshire, United Kingdom
JDH/2/16 f.109
Thiselton-Dyer, Sir William Turner
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
24-6-1887
© 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 thanks Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD] for his assistance, & Huxley's, in getting Inglis Palgrace elected [to the Athenaeum Society]. He also thanks WTTD for sending him letters & news, JDH was glad to hear that the RBG Kew staff were 'well considered in the Abbey'. He hopes the [Kew?] Palace will be 'taken up & done for'. JDH & the Grays [Asa & Jane] had an interesting time in Oxford & Cambridge & Foster was attentive. But the overblown ceremony for giving an honorary degree to the Lord Mayor, a man who did not deserve it, offended JDH & in his opinion debased the university. He blames the V.C. [Vice Chancellor] & is tempted to send a note to NATURE. Recounts the day in Oxford: breakfast at All Souls College, garden party at Worcester college, dinner at [Archibald] Sayce's with 'old Westwood' in attendance. JDH is surprised there was never a second edition of Westwood's entomology book: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. JDH & the Grays visited Nuneham, where JDH looked over Mr Harcourt's letters from [Charles] Darwin but found nothing of importance in them. Also spent an afternoon in the Botanic Garden of the University of Oxford, JDH praises what [Isaac Bayley] Balfour has done in the gardens & his lectures are much admired. Also met 'old Baxter' & Miss Smith who made a faux pas with MacHassy[?] mistaking his badge of the Greek Order of the Redeemer for a Home Rule rosette. The Grays have gone to Dean Chruches, when they return all will go to visit Lord Blachford, JDH's sister [Maria MacGilvray] in Torquay & possibly to the Rosberg's[?].

Transcript


Camp.
Saturday
24/6/[18]87*1
Dear Dyer*2
Many thanks for your letter & all the news -- I was very anxious to hear of Inglis election.*3 I never before heard of only a single black ball -- I am sure he is immensely indebted for this to you & Huxley.
I am particularly glad to hear that the Kew staff was so well considered in the Abbey &c.
I do hope the "Palace" will at last be "taken up & done for" -- We had really a very interesting time of it at Cambridge & Oxford. Foster was most attentive & useful -- but the degree giving was a "scandalum magnatum" -- It is

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Camp.
Saturday
24/6/[18]87*1
Dear Dyer*2
Many thanks for your letter & all the news -- I was very anxious to hear of Inglis election.*3 I never before heard of only a single black ball -- I am sure he is immensely indebted for this to you & Huxley.
I am particularly glad to hear that the Kew staff was so well considered in the Abbey &c.
I do hope the "Palace" will at last be "taken up & done for" -- We had really a very interesting time of it at Cambridge & Oxford. Foster was most attentive & useful -- but the degree giving was a "scandalum magnatum" -- It is

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incredible -- The Lord Mayor (who ought never to have been proposed for a degree) came down, at the V.Cs. instigation, in state -- from the Schools to the Senate House he preceded headed the procession in robes, with Mace bearer, Sword bearer Gold flunkies & all; & in the Senate House, in front of the V.C., was disrobed by the flunkies, & re-robed also by them in the Doctor's Gown: immediately before the degree was given. I would have given gold to have had a good hiss[?] set up -- a more utter debasement of the dignity of the University is inconceivable. The V.C. seems an utter cad. -- But for loyalty to the University I would send a notice of it to Nature --
At Oxford we staid[sic] at Prices, on Wednesday we had the degree giving, then breakfast at All Souls, & a garden

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party at Worcester -- Dinner at Sayce[']s*4 who I liked very much -- Poor old Westwood*5 was there, who was kind to me as a boy somewhere about 1832. -- every one respects him. I was surprised to hear that no 2d Edn of his Introd[uction]. to Entomology had ever appeared -- a work I considered unique of it's[sic] day; & I am not aware that another of the nature & scope has ever appeared.
Yesterday we drove (with the Grays*6) to Nuneham & I had a pleasant half day with Mr Harcourt, -- & I took the opportunity of looking over his letters from Darwin, but found nothing of moment in them.
By the way we spent Thursday afternoon at the Gardens, & I was delighted with all that Balfour*7 had done:-- it is indeed wonderful -- the Oxford folk are charmed with him & his wife, & his Lectures are immensely admired. He seems to have done an enormous

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deal of work with his own hands, & wants a demonstrator badly. I saw old Baxter, who housed me at Oxford in 1828--9 -- very shaky now -- Dined at Balfour & met Miss Smith, who I also "took in" at the V.C.s the day before. & when the Old Lady made a faux pas by asking MacHassy[?], who sat opposite us, if a rosette which he wore was a badge of Home Rule.-- he riled up till I thought he would have sworn at her -- Everybody looking on. "he was no secret Nundera[sic?]" &c &c, I endeavored to soften her fall by telling her that people who will wear unrecognizable badges (his was the Order of the Redeemer of Greece) must expect to be misjudged.
We returned yesterday by the 4.5 express with slip[?] for Reading[?]. The Grays going out to Dean Churches -- they return here next week, & we go to Lrd Blachfords*8 on Saturday together. -- shall see my sister at Torquay & possibly go on to the Rosberg[']s[?]. Love to Harriet.
E[ve]r aff[ectionately] y[our]s | J. D. Hooker[signature]

ENDNOTES


1. This date is written in pencil in another hand.
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 Royal Horticultural Society. He married Hooker's eldest daughter Harriet in 1877.
3. Refers to the election of Inglis Palgrave to the Gentleman's Club Joseph Hooker was a member of: The Athenaeum. Sir Robert Harry Inglis Palgrave (1827--1919) was a British economist and Joseph Hooker's cousin. Son of Francis Palgrave and Elizabeth Turner; Joseph Hooker's maternal aunt.
4. Reverend Archibald Sayce (1845--1933). Pioneer British Assyriologist and Linguist who held a chair in the former discipline at the University of Oxford from 1891 to 1919.
5. John Obadiah Westwood (1805--1893). English entomologist and archaeologist. Curator & later professor at Oxford University. President of the Entomological Society from 1852 to 1853. His seminal work: An introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects (1839--1840) earned Westwood the Royal Medal of the Royal Society in 1855.
6. American botanist Asa Gray and his wife Jane Gray née Loring.
7. Isaac Bayley Balfour (1853--1922). Scottish botanist, son of botanist John Hutton Balfour. He was Regius Professor of Botany at the University of Glasgow from 1879 to 1885, Sherardian Professor of Botany at the University of Oxford from 1884 to 1888, and Professor of Botany at the University of Edinburgh from 1888 to 1922.
8. Frederic Rogers, 1st Baron Blachford (1811--1889). British civil servant. Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1860 to 1871. Raised to the Peerage in 1871 as Baron Blachford of Wisdome in Devon.

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