Transcript
I have better news of my sister [Elizabeth] Lombe*8, but T. L[ombe]*9 has had a very severe attack with pare temp[erature] at 105! -- He however is now recovering.
With love to Harriet & the children
21 Clifton Crescent
Folkestone[sic].
Feb[ruary] 21/ [18]90
My dear Dyer*1,
I am sending the proofs of March N[umbe]r of Bot[anical] Mag[azine] to Baker*2, & have asked him to look at one or two little matters & then to forward it to you -- who will please send it on to Reeve*4, after any corrections you think advisable. The wretch (Reeve) is printing the Index of Vol[ume] XVi. of Fl[ora of] Brit[ish] Ind[ia] at the rate of half a sheet a month & I suppose will not settle his & my account for Bot[anical] Mag[azine] & Gen[era] Plant[arum] till that part is out.
We are bettered by the change here, & very comfortably housed; but the weather is not enticing. The E[ast] winds are keen, & the sea fogs
dense.
I hope that Frances & Georgia*5 are now well -- or rather the latter, for F[rances] was not ill when I left.
The private houses here are magnificent & innumerable. I am quite surprised. There is a good statue of [William] Harvey by [Albert] Bruce-Joy*6 (or whatever he is hight), with one hand on his heart, & another with a heart -- I never saw a more unaffected speim specimen of the realization of an artist's determination to instruct by his work. [Alfred Joseph] Woolmer's*7 theatrical [James] Cook, intended for Sydney, disgusted me. It might have done for T. P. of that name personifying his the character of the Great Navigator.
I have better news of my sister [Elizabeth] Lombe*8, but T. L[ombe]*9 has had a very severe attack with pare temp[erature] at 105! -- He however is now recovering.
With love to Harriet & the children
1. Sir William Thiselton-Dyer (1843--1928). British botanist and third Director of the Royal Botanic gardens, Kew (1885--1905). He succeeded Joseph
1a. Letter is postmarked 'Royal Gardens Kew 24.FEB.90'.
2. Hooker in the role after serving as his Assistant Director for ten years. He also married Hooker's eldest daughter Harriet in 1877.
Lovell Reeve Publishing Company
3. John Gilbert Baker (1834--1920) English botanist, worked at the library and herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew between 1866 and 1899, and was keeper of the herbarium from 1890 to 1899.
4. Lovell Reeve & Co. publishers. Lovell Reeve (1814--1865) dealt with eminent scientists including the Hookers, the geologist Charles Lyell, and the naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace. He was considered the leading Natural History publisher of his time 'one of the most eminent scientific publishers this country has produced' said the Bookseller in Dec 1865. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society (1846) and of the Geological Society (1853), but, despite being sponsored by Charles Darwin, was unsuccessful in his attempt (1849) to become a fellow of the Royal Society.
5. Frances and Georgia Thiselton-Dyer, Joseph Hooker's grandchildren.
6. Albert Bruce-Joy (1842--1924). Irish sculptor working in England. His original surname was Joy but he became known under his hyphenated name Bruce-Joy later in life.
7. Joseph Woolmer (1805--1892). Painter and sculptor of allegorical subjects and genre scenes. He studied in Italy and was later inspired by Watteau. He was a member of the Society of British Artists & exhibited at SS, BI and mainly at RA 1827-1886.
8. Elizabeth Lombe (nee) Hooker. Joseph Hooker's sister
9. Thomas Evans-Lombe, Joseph Hooker's son-in-law.
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