From J. D. Hooker 17 December 1881
Royal Gardens Kew
Dec 17/81.
Dear Darwin
I have gone thoroughly into the matter of the Steudel with Bentham Dyer & Oliver, & all agreeing that Mr Daydon Jackson was the only man well qualified by experience &c, I wrote to him, & had him here, when I asked him to put a plan upon paper, for doing the work on £200 per annum; & submit to me—1
He sends me the enclosed, & says that the work will take 5 years or possibly 6. in so far as he can see.2
From the enclosed you will see that the first year will cost £262.0.6., the remainder £208.8.0.
Of course if you give £250 per annum it would be got out proportionally sooner,—3 It is however impossible to get a nearer estimate until the work is begun.
Mr Jackson asks £115 per annum personal labor, for which he would devote 3 days (full) a week to the work himself.—
We should of course all help. Please return Jackson’s letter with your views. I should not be disposed to say any-thing about the other £50 per annum till we see how the work proceeds.—
Mr Jackson could begin next February— we regard him as competent & entirely trustworthy.
I have been reading Lyells life with great interest. It is a great pity that it was not cut down to one volume, but as it is I am only too glad to get it in any shape. I really think that Mrs Lyell has given us a very important contribution to the history of Science.—& it does make one “warm to” Lyell himself.4 The accounts of the early history of the Geological, it’s dinners &c, are most entertaining & instructive; so too is the substance of many of his journeys, in which he chronicles the labor of many good men whose names deserve to be remembered. The account of Cuvier, & his way of working, is most curious. The letters to Herschel, are the best, they are evidently very careful compositions.5
Do you observe certain passages that seem to prove that he never could expected to come into the Kinnordy property on his father’s death? & that on the contrary he looked from an early age to providing himself with a modest competency for his latter days.6
I cannot but think there is some utter misconception as to his father having deceived him as to Kinnordy. The latter was always regarded as a most upright honorable man; he was not wealthy, & he left 2 sons (one in bad health) with nothing but their pensions & 4? daughters (2 I think in bad health) with nothing at all, but the clothes on their backs.7
We go to Pendock on Friday for Christmas week.8
Ever aff Yrs | Jos. D. Hooker.
Footnotes
Bibliography
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.
Index Kewensis: Index Kewensis: plantarum phanerogamarum, nomina et synonyma omnium generum et specierum … nomine recepto auctore patria unicuique plantae subjectis. 4 vols., and 20 supplements. Compiled by Benjamin Daydon Jackson, et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 1893–1996.
Lyell, Katharine Murray, ed. 1881. Life, letters and journals of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart. 2 vols. London: John Murray.
Steudel, Ernst Gottlieb. 1841. Nomenclator botanicus: seu: synonymia plantarum universalis, enumerans ordine alphabetico nomina atque synonyma, tum generica tum specifica, et a Linnaeo et a recentioribus de re botanica scriptoribus plantis phanerogamis imposita. 2d edition. 2 parts. Stuttgart and Tübingen: J. G. Cotta.
Wilson, Leonard Gilchrist. 1972. Charles Lyell. The years to 1841: the revolution in geology. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Wilson, Leonard Gilchrist. 1998. Lyell in America: transatlantic geology, 1841–1853. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Summary
Benjamin D. Jackson will edit new Steudel’s Nomenclator.
JDH’s impressions of Lyell’s Life and letters, edited by Mrs K. M. Lyell [1881].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13557
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 104: 173–4
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13557,” accessed on 27 November 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13557.xml