158 THE AtfTAKCTIC VOYAGE : PEESONAL 



The movements of the exploring ships, the irregularity of 

 the post* carried by sailing vessels, the occasional vagaries of 

 the Admiralty letter-bags going from one naval station to 

 another, made the receipt of news from home spasmodic. For 

 instance, he tells his sister on May 26, 1842, ' My latest news 

 from home is March 29, 1841, and that is in answer to a nearly 

 two year old one of mine from Hobarton." Such news was 

 often anticipated by the English newspapers found at ports of 

 call ; the ' Athenaeum ' in particular giving news of persons and 

 events in scientific circles. To this he owed his first intimation 

 of ' the first and last piece of good tidings that has greeted me 

 about our own family/ This was the appointment of Sir 

 William to Kew at Lady Day, 1841. He found a copy of the 

 journal for March 23 with the news when he was at Sydney 

 early in August. His father's letter about the appointment, 

 written six clays later, reached him at the Bay of Islands on 

 November 23. On the strength of it he persuaded Captain 

 Eoss to relax the strict rule of the Expedition and let him 

 send Sir William a box of plants he had collected. 



Hope deferred was at length satisfied ; a month before 

 hearing the news he had written : 



What to think about Kew I do not know ; the ministers 

 have put you off so very often that they may do so longer. 

 Next to my poor little Mary, that subject lies nearest my 

 heart, and most sincerely do I hope you may not be after all 

 disappointed. To live near your friends is now your chief 

 aim and must be essential to your comfort ; and to be able 

 to raise Kew to the rank of a tolerably good national estab- 

 lishment would be the most honourable service a Botanist 

 could render his country, besides being the most pleasant 

 one you could set your mind to. 



Kew, he had felt strongly from the moment of his father's 

 appointment as Director, must eventually become a National 

 establishment. He is amused to find from a newspaper of 1842 

 that Lord Lincoln, head of the official department that ruled 

 Kew, opposed Sir William's scheme of opening of the gardens 

 to the public on the ground that they were ' the only gardens 

 near town to which Her Majesty could repair for exercise,' 



