Transcript
sketches: [mss torn] all that he may see a view of Kinchin junga[Kangchenjunga], our Survey peak, which Miss Colvile*1 to England took home: it was done by one of Hodgsons*2 artists & is copying in England. I am very glad to hear that Bessy*3 has got through the winter tolerably & hope she will enjoy herself in Yarmouth & Norfolk she must play exceedingly well now from what you say – Gifford*4 is I hear very well indeed again – Gurney*5 writes himself very comfortable & well: he is most attentive to all my manifold commissions in Calcutta[Kolkata]. -- Falconer*6 is much better Gurney thinks he frightens himself, but I heard that F.[Falconer] had very bad health latterly in England: he has to lecture[?] 4 times a week in Calcutta[Kolkata] which calls for a dayly[sic] expenditure of hours; under which circumstances I do not see that he can attend properly to the Garden [illeg. mss torn] He is trying to get his English time of leave commuted into service: but has little chance of succeeding. In this case I doubt not Thomson's*7 getting the garden: but the climate of Calcutta[Kolkata] is so unwholesome for 6 months to those [two words illeg.] of the upper[?] provin[ces?] that I am far from hoping he may especially with such lecturing duty. -- That is a dismal story you tell me about Buckland's*8 experiments; I do not think he is quite right in the head. whether he has realised[?] it himself or no. I received a very long & kind letter from Darwin*9 by last mail which I must answer as soon as I can. If my father thinks my journal now sent worth publishing I should prefer its being still headed as "corrected extracts from Private letters" & the epistolary form to pervade it; as a cloak or excuse for the many errors so crude a performance by so raw an Indian much hope
1 Miss Colvile sister to Sir James William Colvile (1810--1880). British lawyer, civil servant and then judge in India. He became a judge on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the court of last resort for the British Colonies. Colvile became a friend of Joseph Hooker's during the latter's travels in India from 1848--1851.
2 Brian Houghton Hodgson (1801—1894). A pioneer naturalist and ethnologist working in India and Nepal where he was a British civil servant. Joseph Hooker stayed at Hodgson’s house in Darjeeling periodically during his expedition to India and the Himalayas, 1847--1851, and named one of his sons after him. They remained lifelong friends.
3 Elizabeth Evans--Lombe née Hooker (1820--1898). Joseph Hooker's sister.
4 William Gifford Palgrave, (1826--1888). Jesuit priest turned diplomat. Joseph Dalton Hooker's cousin, second son of his maternal Aunt Elizabeth Palgrave.
5 Gurney Turner (1813--1848). Third son of Dawson Turner, brother of Maria Hooker and Elizabeth Palgrave (both nee Turner), uncle of Joseph Dalton Hooker.
6 Hugh Falconer (1808--1865), palaeontologist and botanist. He was appointed Superintendent to Saharanpur Botanical Gardens in 1832. He became Prof. of Botany at Calcutta Medical College, and Superintendant of the Calcutta Botanical Garden in 1848, but returned to England in 1855, due to poor health. At the time of his death he was Vice-President of the Royal Society.
7 Thomas Thomson (1817--1878). On qualifying in medicine in Glasgow in 1839 Thomson became a Surgeon in the Bengal Army. He had been a pupil of W.J. Hooker and in 1847-1848 he collected plants in the western Himalayas publishing an account, Western Himalaya and Tibet: A Narrative of a Journey… 1847-1848 in 1852. He joined Joseph Hooker in his 1849 Himalayan expedition, later helping him to write the first volume of Flora Indica. He was made fellow of the Linnean Society in 1852 and of the Royal Society in 1855; from 1854-1861 he was Superintendent of the Botanic Garden, Calcutta.
8 William Buckland (1784-1856) a pioneer geologist and minister. Professor of Geology at Oxford responsible for the first description of a dinosaur and coining the word “coprolite.” He was notorious for eating many strange animals and even serving them to his dinner guests. Buckland was affluent enough to be considered eccentric, but his eccentricities deepened in the 1840s and after he became Dean of Westminster in 1845 his family realised he had dementia.
9 Sir Charles Robert Darwin (1809--1882). English naturalist and geologist best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory. He was a great friend of Joseph Hooker before and after the publication of the On the Origin of Species in 1859.
10. Incomplete letter. Date of postmark is 25 SEP 1848.
11. Vertical text in left hand margin reads “now writing to [Wallich?] to whom I hope my Father will send a copy of my published letters”
12. Address vertically across centre
Reads “Lady Hooker Kew London Rectory Nr Neatishead Norwich”
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