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/1/207
Date
14 Jun 1881
Scope & content
Written from Royal Gardens, Kew. Manuscript
The Crocus plates have arrived and are both beautiful and scientifically accurate; they would like a set for their collection of drawings, and he asks Maw to arrange this with his publisher; they are making a list of tree labels for Maw to enamel on Parian [a type of biscuit porcelain imitating marble]; the first commissioner [George Shaw-Lefevre, commissioner of works, later Second Viscount Eversley] visited Kew and was interested in the gardens; he is hopeful for a rock garden; he suggests Maw and friends meet and decide what they think is best for Kew; Elwes [Henry John Elwes, botanist] is proposing a covered garden; the plan must be thoroughly organised before it is laid before the first commissioner; they again have a new man for the herbaceous ground, who is somewhat ignorant but is industrious, careful, does what he is told immediately, and enjoys his work; Gumbleton [William Edward Gumbleton, horticulturist] called the other day and made fun of the new man for his ignorance, despite Hooker explaining that he was new to the place and the work and how much he liked him; Gumbleton himself is an ignorant cultivator and does not deserve the name ‘amateur’ which implies considerable knowledge, as Crewe [Henry Harpur Crewe, rector of Drayton Beauchamp, Buckinghamshire], Elwes, Ellacombe [Henry Nicholson Ellacombe, botanist], and others have