188 LIFE AND FBIENDSHIP AT KEW 



of Sweden which I settled by asking H.E. Baron Hoch- 

 schild, through Count Steenbock, to * convey to H.M. the K. 

 of S. and N., my grateful sense of the honour he has con- 

 ferred upon me, in holding me worthy of being created a 

 Knight of so illustrious an Order as the North Star, which 

 is distinguished for the high Literary and Scientific attain- 

 ments of its members.' My previous refusal to accept, 

 being official, holds good, and I retain the badge and brevet 

 to please them. If this course approves itself to you, you 

 might write to Count Steenbock, expressing your regret 

 that H.M. Orders in Council peremptorily preclude the 

 formal acceptance and wearing of the Order, and thank him 

 in the sense I have (i.e. for his intentions) and either say 

 nothing about badge and brevet, or that you retain them 

 as a pledge of H.M.'s gracious message. Address, Count 

 Otto Steenbock, 2 Great Cumberland Place, W. 



The death of Lady Lyell in 1873 broke one of the links with 

 olden days. She was the eldest daughter of Leonard Homer, 

 the geologist, education reformer and public worker. 1 Among 

 his friends were the elder generation of Hookers, Lyells, and 

 Darwins, through his friend S. T. Galton, who had married 

 Dr. Darwin's sister. 



Mary Homer, eight years Joseph Hooker's senior, was first 

 of a group of sisters distinguished for beauty and charm, which 

 touched the artist in him as well as the friend. 



To Charles Darwin 



April 25, 1873. 



Lady Lyell's death is a complete upset. I called to-day 

 and had a long talk with poor Mrs. Lyell 2 and saw (at her 

 wish) for the last time that most lovable face shrouded in 

 flowers in the coffin looking so calm and beautiful. Amid 

 a flood of later memories my mind rushed back to long years 

 ago, when quite a boy, I felt rather than thought, that 1 



1 1785-1864. He was the first Warden of University College in London, a 

 founder of the Edinburgh School of Arts and the Academy, the well-known 

 boys' school, President of the Geological Society, and afterwards for twenty- 

 five years a Factory Inspector under the new Factory Act. 



2 Katharine Homer (1817-1914), the fourth sister, married Charles' brother, 

 Ool. Henry Lyell. 



