JDH informs his father Sir William Jackson Hooker of the difficulties he is having getting a passage to London. The steamer boats go from Helvetsluys which is some distance away & to travel there with all his luggage would be expensive so JDH has decided not to take that route. This means he will be unable to visit WJH at [Robert] Brown's. Instead JDH will return to Antwerp, crossing the Maas, Moordike [Moerdijk?] & Scheldt. From Antwerp he should be able to get passage to London on Sunday, but if the river Schledt is frozen there he will have to go on to Ostend. Dr Miguel sends his regards to Brown & to WJH.
Transcript
Helvets. at 5, having been 2 1/2
Tomorrow morning I go to Antwerp again & have the delights of the Maas, Moordike [Moerdijk?] & Scheldt to cross again, but they are frozen harder now; the Steamer leaves Antwerp at 1h on Sundays but if the Scheldt is also frozen I must go t[o] Ostend & my passage is very uncertain, though chiefly terrestrial. I have plenty of money. I write in great haste to reach the Post which goes tomorrow morning but the box closes at 10. I think there is no Sunday delivery but I send this to Mr Brown lest you should be there the first th[ing] on Monday morning.
Ever your most aff[ectionate] Son | Jos. D. Hooker [signature]
Dr Miguel sends his most true[?] & respect[ful] compliments to Mr Brown & yourself.
Rotterdam Dr Miguel's
Friday night. 1845*1
My dear Father*1a,
I write this in the hope that you may think of sending to the Port from Mr Browns*2, after waiting my arrival there on Sunday -- I have only just now been able to get news about the London boat, & that is from the office people themselves, that it would be folly to go by that Steamer (tomorrow's, Saturday's) for several reasons. The boat lies at Helvetsluys, a long way off shore, with 2 miles of Ice between it & the land. [S]he goes only for the mails & the mail will take no passengers or luggage from here; there are no means of going to Helvetsluys but by hiring your own conveyance, that I could do at a great expense, but I must too hire boats to cross the rivers & for anothers to go off by[?] the steamer, besides men to carry my things over the ice. An agent of the steamer goes down, but as the boat does not wait for him
& his main business is at the Customs, they tell me by no means to trust to him, even were he in time my baggage would detain me. The expense of going to Helvet. is about £2 -- my boat to the ship 10 guilders & as much for my pieces of luggage, there is besides this the chance of a ducking of my goods or self & the[n] hiring men to carry my things over the Ice. Taking into account the expense, the difficulty & the probability of being too late, I have, with the serious advice of the agents of the company, who are very polite: given up that route, though I thus miss seeing you at Brown's. Indeed they tell me that the steamer only goes now for the mail, which will not take me, neither goods nor passengers will be sent tomorrow. My great annoyance is, that you will be anxious, that is if you do not send to the Boat office for news or to the Port for this. I could not write before as the agent of the packet only returned from
Helvets. at 5, having been 2 1/2
Tomorrow morning I go to Antwerp again & have the delights of the Maas, Moordike [Moerdijk?] & Scheldt to cross again, but they are frozen harder now; the Steamer leaves Antwerp at 1h on Sundays but if the Scheldt is also frozen I must go t[o] Ostend & my passage is very uncertain, though chiefly terrestrial. I have plenty of money. I write in great haste to reach the Post which goes tomorrow morning but the box closes at 10. I think there is no Sunday delivery but I send this to Mr Brown lest you should be there the first th[ing] on Monday morning.
Ever your most aff[ectionate] Son | Jos. D. Hooker [signature]
Dr Miguel sends his most true[?] & respect[ful] compliments to Mr Brown & yourself.
1. The date '14 Mar' has been written in pencil in a hand not that of the original author of the letter, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker.
1a. Sir William Jackson Hooker (1841--1865). Joseph Dalton Hooker's Father. Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow University from 1820 to 1841 and the first Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew from 1841 until his death in 1865, upon which his son Joseph succeeded him as Director.
2. Robert Brown (1773--1858). Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope. His contributions include one of the earliest detailed descriptions of the cell nucleus and cytoplasmic streaming; the observation of Brownian motion; early work on plant pollination and fertilisation, including being the first to recognise the fundamental difference between gymnosperms and angiosperms; and some of the earliest studies in palynology. He also made numerous contributions to plant taxonomy, including the creation of a number of plant families that are still accepted today; and numerous Australian plant genera and species, the fruit of his exploration of that continent with Matthew Flinders.
3. The manuscript here is damaged, a corner of the letter is missing so the text in angle brackets has been inferred.
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