From J. D. Hooker 3 March 1874
Royal Gardens Kew
March 3d/74
Dear Darwin
I have long been waiting to write to you but have been prevented by a “pack of troubles”— The receipt of the enclosed from Asa Gray breaks the silence, & gives me a little pleasure, indeed a great one, for the more honors you get from really independent bodies, the better it is for Science.1
The Linnean rows have distressed me more than I can tell— the brutality of that Owenised Scotchman (of old Crawford “d–d Scotchman” type) has chasséed poor Bentham from the chair,2 & made the Society a Scorn & bye-word3 to the public for the moment.
I have been working every day since to get support for the Council at the special meeting on Thursday, & to inoculate the fellows with good feelings. In all this I am aided most splendidly by Dyer; & Strachey has taken up the war-cry in a way which I hope will do great good. As a councillor, & as one against whom (as representative of Kew & as Bentham’s supporter) the shafts are aimed, I do not like to appear too pessimistic, & others embitter the contest—; but I am working day & night for the sake of peace & quiet: You will receive from Strachey a printed Circular, drawn up by Currey & myself & intended to instruct the Fellows— Carruthers & 12 followers, mostly very young fellows, have sent a most insolent protest to the P. & Council resolving to go to law, if the by-laws recently passed are not rescinded by the Council!4 A special general meeting is called for the 5th at the request of Carruthers & his friends when Busk will take the chair— I shall of course be in the Royal Chair.5
I am much distressed by an affair in the Office of Works—of which the Chief Secretary, Mr. G. Russell, has been detected cheating at cards in the Turf Club! & it is said will have to resign his post. G.R. has been my right-hand man & support at the office for 17 years— he is the only man in the office who knows & cares a rush for Kew & the Parks;6 & I can’t conceive how business can go on without him, for Ayrton chasséed all the gentlemen from the office in 6 months, & except the 2 Secretaries & Galton, there is not a man with an approach to Education in it. Galton is hated by everyone—& the 2d. Secretary, a nice enough fellow, is quite common place.7 I only hope that G.R’s resignation (which is I hear unavoidable) may lead to the reorganization of the whole office on a very different footing from hitherto. On personal grounds G. R’s. conduct has distressed and shocked me more than I can express.
I paid a visit to my official Chief yesterday, Ld Henry Lennox who seems to me a good-natured chatterbox with a very good head-piece; they say he has considerable capacity for work8
This is a dreary letter, but I must add another grief. It is that the Agricult. Socy. have sent to de Bary £100 with a request to investigate the Potato disease.— This, which is Carruthers doing; (he is Botanical Adviser to the Society) is intended as an insult to Berkeley, who feels it keenly—as it was he who 30 years ago first traced the history & development of the disease, got the prize from France: & de Bary has added scarcely any thing to the subject. Then too we have Currey, Broome, Rainey & others all abundantly qualified for such work in this country.9
Ever yours affec & dolourous | Jos D Hooker
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
DSB: Dictionary of scientific biography. Edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie and Frederic L. Holmes. 18 vols. including index and supplements. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1970–90.
Port, M. H. 1984. A contrast in styles at the office of works. Layard and Ayrton: aesthete and economist. Historical Journal 27: 151–76.
Summary
The row at the Linnean Society and other troubles.
The Agricultural Society has sent Anton De Bary £100 to investigate the potato disease – an insult to M. J. Berkeley, who had worked on it for 30 years.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9331
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 103: 189–92
- Physical description
- ALS 8pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9331,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9331.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22