AND OF BENTHAM 261 



offer me 1000 for the lot, portraits, MSS., swords, medals, 

 autographs, and hoc genus omne. There is all Jeremy's 

 correspondence I suppose piles of letters, from all manner 

 of people to him, apparently never opened since his death, 

 and bound volumes of Sir Samuel's correspondence &c., 

 &c. I have no time to open them even, and no wish. I 

 wish to goodness he had left them to his niece. 



And yet again, on May 26 : 



I am puzzled what to do with his autobiography, which he 

 left to me without further instructions than left me unfettered 

 what to do with it. It is contained in about 700 closely written 

 pages of his small hand, 4to, and goes down to 1883 (?). It 

 was begun to please his wife, and continued to please himself, 

 finally broken off by his illness. It is full of curious matter, 

 and, to the like of us, is most interesting, but I am in doubt 

 how far any considerable public would be interested. 



I have still a huge mass of his correspondence to deal 

 with and a huger of his uncle's and father's, and am at my 

 wits' end to know what to do with it all being an undigested 

 mass of papers. 



As for the botanical papers, they must be for some 

 botanical authority to sort. Not for Kew, however our 

 hands are full enough of unpaid work [not] to care for more, 

 and keeping up the Icones without Bentham's head and pen 

 will be no such easy task, worked as we all are ; for we must 

 both digest and describe, as well as select materials. 



Bentham's fatal illness and the impending duties of executor - 

 ship for him and for Mr. Symonds, whose life for several years 

 hung by a thread, prevented a long planned visit to the Asa 

 Grays in America in the summer of 1884. Hooker had not 

 meant to attend the meeting of the British Association in 

 Canada, but being appointed an official Vice-President, pro- 

 posed to take Toronto on the way. 



This visit, to his great regret, never materialised, though, as 

 appears from the following, it was planned again for 1886, for 

 since their joint trip to Italy in 1881, he had had * no holiday 

 for a single week, but the 10 days in Paris last winter.' ' If we 

 ever do visit you/ he writes, February 15, 1885, ' it will be a 



