Letter from Jos. D. Hooker [Joseph Dalton Hooker] to George Maw
Information
Title
Letter from Jos. D. Hooker [Joseph Dalton Hooker] to George Maw
Record type
Archive
Original Reference
MAW/1/236
Date
17 Nov 1885
Scope & content
Written from Royal Gardens, Kew. Manuscript
He writes to tell Maw that he is retiring from the directorship of Kew on the 30th, as he is one of few old friends who he would prefer to tell himself; he finds the duties incompatible with his scientific works, which will never be finished if not by him, notably the Flora of British India; he is 69 and hopes to have several years of work left in him, but it is now or never if he is to finish his books; it is better to face the difficulties of resigning while he still has prospects outside of Kew and the strength to get through it; he has a competent successor [William Turner Thiselton-Dyer] who is interested in every branch of the establishment; he will live with his family at The Camp [Sunningdale], and work as Bentham [George Bentham, botanist] did at the herbarium, with a couple of rooms for him and his wife [Hyacinth Jardine Symonds Hooker] when needed at a small house which his son [William Henslow Hooker], who is a clerk in the India Office, will rent at Kew; they have not heard of Maw in a long time, and he asks how he and his family are doing; they are all well; his second son [Charles Paget Hooker] is married to their great satisfaction and has taken practice at Cirencester; his third son [Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker] has just arrived in Melbourne [Australia], looking for employment in mining; his fourth son [Reginald Hawthorn Hooker], who is 18, has just achieved his Bachelor of Science at the Sorbonne [Paris, France] and he will send him to Cambridge; they prefer their Sunningdale house to Kew, though leaving the garden after 45 years working there is difficult for him