From J. D. Hooker 1 January 1872
Royal Gardens Kew
Jany 1/72.
Dear Darwin
I have a confidential communication from Mr Gladstone’s P.S. to the effect that a plan is under the consideration of Govt., by which my “position as regards the First Comms of Works would be materially altered”—1 So I hope I see a way out of the wood.—
Huxley writes, no better for his Brighton trip & evidently much out of sorts. I am quite sure that this miscellaneous work is very prejudicial to him, mentally & bodily—& I do wish he could be put into some good post that would allow the full exercise of his Scientific & administrative abilities, without taxing them too much.2 I fancy that you & I are the only men for whose opinion he cares much.
The organization of the new Nat. Hist. Museum would be just the thing for him. They should give him £1500 a year for 5 years to do it.— I wonder if he would accept this:— he would not I feel sure take the permanent post of Director. I know of no one else competent for the task.3
They should have sent you 2 Pleromas— keep & flower that you have, & I will let you know when mine are coming into flower. I have 2 of them.4
Have you not plenty of Hazels in the coppice where you take your exercise?5 if so may I send a man to take a Score or two of strong suckers? I want to make some Hazel thickets here.
I go to Torquay tomorrow for two days.6
Many happy returns of the season to you & yours’— I hope Henrietta is better.7
Ever yours affec | J D Hooker
I have informed Sir H Holland of Mr West’s communication.8
Footnotes
Bibliography
Allan, Mea. 1967. The Hookers of Kew, 1785–1911. London: Michael Joseph.
Atkins, Hedley J. B. 1974. Down, the home of the Darwins: the story of a house and the people who lived there. London: Royal College of Surgeons.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Cross and self fertilisation: The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1876.
Desmond, Adrian. 1994–7. Huxley. 2 vols. London: Michael Joseph.
Drayton, Richard. 2000. Nature’s government: science, imperial Britain, and the ‘improvement’ of the world. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Endersby, Jim. 2008. Imperial nature: Joseph Hooker and the practices of Victorian science. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Huxley, Leonard, ed. 1918. Life and letters of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, OM, GCSI. Based on materials collected and arranged by Lady Hooker. 2 vols. London: John Murray.
MacLeod, Roy M. 1974. The Ayrton incident: a commentary on the relations of science and government in England, 1870–1873. In Science and values: patterns of tradition and change, edited by Arnold Thackray and Everett Mendelsohn. New York: Humanities Press.
Port, M. H. 1984. A contrast in styles at the office of works. Layard and Ayrton: aesthete and economist. Historical Journal 27: 151–76.
Stearn, William T. 1981. The Natural History Museum at South Kensington: a history of the British Museum (Natural History), 1753–1980. London: Heinemann in association with the British Museum (Natural History).
Summary
Gladstone’s private secretary [West] has written that the Government plans to alter JDH’s position with regard to the First Commissioner of Works [Ayrton].
Huxley is not better after his Brighton trip.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8136
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 103: 101–2
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8136,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8136.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 20