Letter from J.D. Hooker [Joseph Dalton Hooker] to George Maw
Information
Title
Letter from J.D. Hooker [Joseph Dalton Hooker] to George Maw
Record type
Archive
Original Reference
MAW/1/230
Date
12 Jul 1884
Scope & content
Written from Royal Gardens, Kew. Manuscript
It has been a long time since they have heard from Maw; he gets many enquiries about him and his Crocus book, which he hopes is well on its way to publication; he is sending another list for green-tinted hanging tree labels for the temperate house; he hopes to have a lot done this year, as he is arranging for more clerical assistance for that sort of work; he asks Maw to tell them if the writing is not clear enough for his painters; Maw’s croci are doing well and flowering freely, and he wishes they had made the squares larger, though they may be as much as they can manage; they are making new Iris beds under Michael Foster’s [physiologist, secretary of the Royal Society] guidance, as he did not like the long bed under the wall; they are moving the whole collection to the piece of ground opposite the Duchess of Cambridge’s wall; Dyer [William Turner Thiselton-Dyer, Hooker’s assistant] has made great improvements in the garden, and Hooker keeps to the Arboretum; Mrs Dyer [Harriet Anne Thiselton-Dyer, botanical artist, his daughter] has been seriously unwell for some time and they are anxious about her; she suffers from dyspepsia, rheumatic gout, and weakness from disturbed circulation, and cannot safely sit up; she is hardly allowed visitors, but is in better spirits than expected; his father-in-law, Mr Symonds [William Samuel Symonds, geologist], is at their little house at Sunningdale where he is succumbing to cardiac asthma, which is causing Hooker’s wife [Symonds’ daughter Hyacinth] great anxiety, but he is glad they can provide him the comfort of a home since he resigned all his duties at Pendock [Worcestershire] and gave his house to a curate; he asks if Maw has seen Symonds’ ‘Severn Straits’, which is a good introduction to the geology of the valley; he asks when they will see Maw at ‘The Camp’ [Hooker’s house in Sunningdale]; the tiles are beautiful and very suitable; he hopes that the architect has not overdrawn on Maw’s kindness without providing for it; they are very grateful for what Maw has done for them; Bentham [George Bentham, botanist], who is 83, is very ill and keeps to one room, which he can hardly walk across, and Hooker is very anxious as he is charged with all his duties when he dies; Ball [John Ball, botanist] is working hard at his South America plants, which amount to a fine collection; he is writing a new garden and arboretum guide, a book on the ‘Flora of British India’, and a new edition of the ‘British Flora’; the last is a great labour, as he must collate with many other works; Lady Hooker sends her regards to the Maws; he asks if Maw wants any young plants of Sikkim rhododendrons for his greenhouse, as they have a good stock