JDH informs his wife Frances Hooker, that he is on a steamer from Tangiers to Mogadore [Essaouira] & will send this letter by means of a passing vessel going in the opposite direction to Marseille. The boat they are on is good one but the sea is rough & he & his companion [George] Maw are suffering with sea sickness & lack of appetite but [John] Ball is unaffected. JDH send his regards to all at Pendock, & expresses an intention to write to the 'President of the Wanderers' there [Reverend William Samuel Symonds] if he can remember how to spell his surname. They lay off the coast near Rabat earlier in the day but were unable to communicate with the town. There is a Frenchman on board trying to cure his sea sickness by holding lemon-halves on his temples. Sir. J. Hay has informed them that everything is ready for their trip but JDH is anxious to get to Mogadore & make plans, he thinks the trip may take longer than previously predicted. Mr White the consul at Tangier was a pupil of JDH's Uncle, Reverend William Jacobson, at Oxford University & send his regards along with the gift of cup made from Fez earthenware. JDH has met with a Mr Cardwell, a nephew of the War Minister [Edward Cardwell], who is travelling aimlessly. JDH gives some instruction for Mr [John] Smith regarding care of bulbs. [Edward] Crump is a good man, also currently sea sick.
Transcript
communicate. A Frenchman is on a [1 word crossed out, illeg.] couch opposite me noisily sick with a 1/2 lemon clapped on each temple to cure sea sickness!
I shall be glad when we get to Mogadore & know our future movements -- According to Sir J. Hay every thing is arranged for our trip -- but I expect it will take longer than we calculated upon, & as the season is very backward this will be is no disadvantage.
Mr White the Consul at Tangier was a pupil of Uncle Jacobson at Oxford & sends his warm remembrances; he is a very agreeable man & gave me a curious[?] little cup of Fez earthen
Verite
nearing
Cassablanca[sic]
March 21/[18]71
Dearest F*1
This is written on board the steamer which left Tangiers yesterday afternoon & takes us to Mogadore [Essaouira] by Sunday. We are about to communicate with the sister boat of this contrary[?] on its voyage N. to Marseilles & I take the opportunity of writing you these lines to tell you that all is well.
This is a capital boat but there is a tremendous swell on. Mr Maw*2 is quite hors de combat; my apetite[sic] is nothing
[to] boast of. but Mr Ball is as lively as if he were on the Alps. I received your & Harriette[']s letters at Tangier on Monday night. Very many thanks. I think that you have made a capital arrangement for the children -- Kind regards to Pendock I must write to the President of the "Wanderers" but cannot remember whether it is Symonds*4 or Simmonds or Symmonds or Simonds or Simons or any other combination that secures the pronunciation.
This is a deplorable coast we lay 5 hours off Rabat this morning but were unable to
communicate. A Frenchman is on a [1 word crossed out, illeg.] couch opposite me noisily sick with a 1/2 lemon clapped on each temple to cure sea sickness!
I shall be glad when we get to Mogadore & know our future movements -- According to Sir J. Hay every thing is arranged for our trip -- but I expect it will take longer than we calculated upon, & as the season is very backward this will be is no disadvantage.
Mr White the Consul at Tangier was a pupil of Uncle Jacobson at Oxford & sends his warm remembrances; he is a very agreeable man & gave me a curious[?] little cup of Fez earthen
ware which I give to you as I think it will just hit your fancy.
Love & all remembrance to Mamma on her birthday & you on yours. I will write from Mogadore of course but the communication is so uncertain that I do not know when you will get what I do write.
We dined again at Sir J Hays, day before yesterday & met a Mr Cardwell nephew of the War Minister -- a heavy young man who travels about after a purposeless fashion -- the Hays are most agreeable & kind, one & all. -- Please ask Mr Smith*6 to pot the bulbs with green leaves & water very gently; but to keep all the other bulbs in dry sand. Crump*7 is very good indeed, but very sick just now. Ever y[ou]r aff[ectionate] | J. D. Hooker[signature]
Just arrived at Casablanca. 6 pm
1. Frances Harriet Hooker née Henslow (1825--1874). Joseph Hooker's first wife, they married in 1851 and had seven children. Frances was the daughter of naturalist John Stevens Henslow (1796--1861). She assisted Joseph Hooker significantly with his publsihed work and translated from French A General System of Botany, descriptive and analytical by Emmanuel Le Maout and Joseph Decaisne (1873). She died suddenly, perhaps of an undiagnosed heart condition, aged 49.
2. George Maw (1832--1912). Tile manufacturer, geologist, botanist, and antiquarian. Partner with his younger brother Arthur in the encaustic tile company Maw & Co. of Brosley, Shropshire. Established a well-known garden at his residence at Benthall Hall, Shropshire; an expert on crocuses. Wrote on the geology of western England and North Wales. Travelled to Morocco and Algeria with Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1871 and independently in 1873, writing on the geology of these countries.
3. John Ball (1818--1889). Irish politician, naturalist and alpine traveller. Under Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1855--1857, in which role he advanced the natural sciences including aiding efforts to publish colonial floras. A keen naturalist he published papers on botany and glaciers but is best remembered as an alpinist. He travelled to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco with Joseph Hooker in 1871.
4. Reverend William Samuel Symonds (1818--1887). English geologist and author. Rector of Pendock in Worcestershire between 1845 and 1877. He was one of the founders of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club (1851) and of the Malvern Naturalists' Field Club (1853), and was an active member of the Cotteswold Field Club and other local societies. Symonds was the father of Joseph Hooker's second wife, Hyacinth Hooker née Symonds then Jardine, whom Hooker married in 1877.
5. Reverend William Jacobson (1803--1884). Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University (1848--1865) and bishop of Chester (1865--1884). Joseph Hooker's uncle by marriage to his maternal aunt Eleanor [Ellen] Jane Jacobson née Turner.
6. 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.
7. Edward Crump (d.1927/8). Gardener at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1871. Accompanied Joseph Hooker, George Maw and John Ball on a botanical expedition to the Atlas Mountains, Morocco in 1871. Later became a market gardener at Whitnash near Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.
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