Chinese jealousy has led the gov[ernmen]t to succumb to this, & the Rajah has now 30 years precedence for refusing permission -- I have no hope of penetrating into Tibet whatever but no European has ever inspected the snow of Kumaon*3 & to do so hope will be a feather in my cap. Mr Mc.[illeg.] son of Harrington[?], has been very active & kind about the matter, though I do not know him. The newspapers too had taken it up, to my disgust, as I hate the[?] notoriety. They who accused[?] Campbell*1 of withholding permission which he had no wish to do, though no power to grant it[?]. On my arrival I was very angry with Campbell who certainly grossly neglected the little requests I had made to him, to look out for some lodging for me on my arrival & when when[sic] I arrived offered me no civility of any kind whatever. I had neither[?] during[?] 6th day of my arrival nor a bed to sleep on -- `I wrote twice to C. long before my arrival telling him that if I could board or go onto a Hotel at D. I would not bring up bed, bedding, kitchen & serv[an]ts, & begged him to tell me whether I would be so accommodated or not; as at [illeg] I could provide myself if necessary. The only answer I got were "oh I can be glad you are coming, pray let me know of your expected arrival” -- not a word answering me. I took for granted that I would be provided with the accommodation I asked. On my arrival I found[?] another Hotel for lodging. He took me to a dilapidated house where was neither furniture nor accommodation, which once was a Hotel, & left me on the verandah[sic] without the offer of any act civility. I need not say I was furious & for several weeks would have nothing to say to Campbell. Hodson*4 however who was Campbell's master in [last line of page illegible]

that it was Campbell's carelessness & lately I have found C. most polite & attentive, constantly getting me plants. His wife too is a nice person. Hodgsons illness further brings us together for long I would not accept his limitations but his important [illeg.] chagrin[?] melts[?] me in time. Dyering years[?] [illeg.] never yet above a mile from the door without a death[?] & my collections bring[?] up more[?] plants than I can [&] will attend[?] to, I first [?] missed this much. This is a very pretty place if it were not for the constant fogs & mists of this season. Hodgson’s house[?] is on a hill & amongst many other[?] hills, all scarcely[?] limited[?] with paths through the wood & lots of new plants close to the door. It is a one storied house with a broad verandah all viewed[?] [illeg.] & the Snowy Mountains. I had two good rooms besides the run of the dining room & parlour. These are also of Surats[?] to go as soon as I please to [illeg.] in call. Cats enter up[?] [illeg.] more Bisless[?] boundaries[?] than at Kew & exactly these. This is about 500 ft above the station & far more varying[?] & misty. I [illeg.] the job of this every day I am here I [illeg.] last month this is nothing[?] for India but it is like the difference between Glasgow & Edinburgh which I could never generalize[?] before, that of E[dinburgh] has more rain than of G[lasgow] though the latter it is expended in a constant drizzle, in the forenoon in a few overwrought[?] showers. There is a [illeg.] act of refrain & then [illeg.] who is a vicar[?] gives services in a large room. This occupied[?] part of [illeg.] the majority of the congregation have so much made up of salt water[?] looking people who did [illeg.], thick [illeg.]. My few people allowed[?] include a school of 5 children who really behave[?] very well [illeg.]

puts me most in mind of Helensburgh*5 is the open doors & windows, the universality of fine weather on Sunday the insects humming through this room, the stray bird, the leaves waving across the windows, & the irresistible attraction I feel to look out on the open valleys with huge mountains all round, the clouds chasing one another across the forest & sunbeams dancing on the heavy masses of mist that keep floating along six thousand feet below us. The wind sighs the same sigh through the leaves that it used through the Limes at Rowe[?] & these rustle in the same note. I see ripe blackberries too & small children gathering them, but don't see the Gare*5 loch & its boats, or smell the sea weeds, no nor the Tansy & peppermint, nor peat smoke of the new washed mitches*6 & red cloaks, & above all the Rev[eren]d Mr Winchester, though a sober man enough is far from a powerful preacher, indeed he may be called a powerless one, for you can't hear him benches off, & his sermons though better than Mr Byams can't keep my mind off the new trees & new weeds that grow up at the very door step. The gentleman rides to x, & the ladies are carried in chairs, which are Brighton chairs in 2 [illeg.] put on 4 Lepchas shoulders, square shouldered [illeg.]-legged[?] men with long pig-tails & Chinese eyes, flat noses, sallow complexions, kind good humored faces, silver earrings & amulets -- the men look like huge women having no beards or whiskers. The women are sometimes very pretty & one just here is so ridiculously like a Rajah that I always stop & speak to her. I have always a tenth of them in pay at 8/ to 16/ a month, I have 18 at the present moment, for the plants are flowering & dying so rapidly that it takes all my energy to keep a good collection up -- the papers too have all to be changed & dried individually over the fire -- the rooms[?] are so damp[?] that hanging up to dry is no use. Every-thing molds if is not kept at the fire, all my plants are in a circle of chairs immediately round the fenders inside which two Lepchas squat & dry papers all day long in 2 rooms. After Church I go 

down[?] with the Campbells to lunch & play with the children for an hour; they are nice well behaved little children the eldest a clean little girl of 6 to which [illeg.] play truant two days ago. Then I go to Mr [illeg.] with whom I spend the rest of the day. I return to Hodgsons at night. Here I get up about 8 and breakfast at 11 1/2, & work all day except it be fine enough to walk a hundred yards or so -- My plants generally come in at 8 or 9 in large baskets on porters[?] backs, these I survey, ticket [illeg.] with their [illeg.] name [illeg.] if any known generally &c. enquiry[?] aside[?] trace[?] I want to draw & examine & giving the rest over to be glued & the roots to be packed in ingots[?]. Except taking observations at intervals which is only yesterday the barometer there jammed[?] & weather[?] every have I am writing & drawing continuously my plants all day long. I will dine at 2 & at 6, if fine enough which it almost never is we ride for an hour, otherwise I work on till dark at 7 o'clock -- & at 8 we have each a [illeg.] & generally had & [illeg.] till 10 or 11 when [illeg.]

to bed & put[?] up writing to you. I should not have omitted about half a dozen people to Doctor[?] every day generally ill with fevers which all wholly confined to the Natives from the plains, the English all perfectly healthy except such as come[?] up for those organic[?] diseases of which Liver is the commonest & this I fear[?] poor old [illeg.] has. I am the picture of health & never was better in my life. Your ever, most affectionate brother[?]| Jos. D Hooker [signature]