HOME LIFE 21 



off by yellow fever, January 1, 1840. Then came nearly two 

 years' painful anxiety over the two youngest sisters, who 

 were at school in London under Mrs. Teed, at Little Campden 

 House. A few weeks after Joseph set sail in the Erebus, 

 in the autumn of 1839, Elizabeth fell ill, and had to winter at 

 Hastings under the care of a great-aunt, Mrs. Walford Taylor, 

 and to undergo a course of treatment in the next summer under 

 Dr. Jephson at Leamington, where she was joined by Mary 

 Harriette at the beginning of the holidays in July. Worse 

 followed. On reaching Glasgow, Elizabeth fell back ; Mary 

 was found to be very ill. With some difficulty they were taken 

 to Jersey at the end of September. Lady Hooker nursed 

 them with the help of her capable and devoted eldest daughter ; 

 after much suffering, Elizabeth recovered, Mary Harriette 

 slowly faded away. 



Brothers and sisters were warmly attached to one another. 

 Joseph's affections were not spread afield ; they were the more 

 intense for being concentrated upon his family circle ' the 

 seven persons I really love ' and a few other friends. Writing 

 home from the Antarctic after receiving the news of his brother's 

 and sister's death, he accuses himself of the fault of selfishness. 

 More justly, perhaps, he would have used the word self-centred ; 

 he always has the full sympathy of his correspondents, and his 

 own letters show abundant care for those dear to him. 



The home regime was sufficiently firm. Sir William, courtly, 

 handsome, attractive, perhaps laid weight mainly on the duty 

 of pure motive and honourable conduct ; Lady Hooker was 

 also a strict disciplinarian and a stickler for the forms of 

 reverence which the manners of her young days demanded of 

 children for their parents. When Joseph, for instance, came 

 in from school after a long and tiring walk home, he must 

 present himself to his mother, but was not allowed to sit down 

 in her presence without permission, and was kept standing 

 until it was clear that discipline had conquered inclination. 



In their boyish days, William, the firstborn, was clearly 

 the mother's favourite. He was the more clever, lively, and 

 forthcoming. In Lady Hooker's letters to her father, Dawson 

 Turner, Joseph as a rule appears rather as the plodder without 



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