NAPOLEON'S TOMB 99 



more hackneyed spot than Eichmond or Kensington 

 Gardens. 



His fears were justified when he reached the tomb. 



It is situated at the head of this valley, guarded by a 

 sentinel who duns you about the mighty dead, and gives you 

 water that the Emperor drank ; on turning your heel upon 

 him, numerous children assail you with flowers, Geraniums, 

 that the Emperor was fond of. On turning into a pretty 

 cottage to get some ale at 25. a bottle, the cork was no 

 sooner drawn than out came the Emperor with it ; it was 

 the Emperor this, that, and the other thing ; our hostess's 

 daughter came in with the Emperor on her lips ; his ubiquity 

 certainly astonished me. As a last resource I commenced 

 gathering Lichens ; surely the hero of Marengo could have 

 nothing to do with Lichens on a stone wall, when another 

 disinterested stranger came to inform me that the Emperor 

 had from it marked out the position of his tomb, and that 

 the Emperor was fond of the wild plants I had in my hand. 

 I fairly took to my heels, heartily wishing that for my own 

 sake as well as for the good cause of humanity, the Emperor 

 had had his wish of living and dying in some remote corner 

 of Britain. 



The Cape was reached on March 17, and left on April 6, 

 1840. There is little to note during this brief stay. Hooker's 

 impressions of the Cape date from his second and longer visit. 

 This time he collected, as has been said, some 300 species of 

 Cape plants to study on the voyage. A long five weeks of 

 saiHng brought the ships to Kerguelen's Land, where Boss's 

 prolonged magnetic observations kept them from May 12 

 to July 20. 



Though this lodestone of Hooker's childish imaginations 

 deserved all too well its other name of Desolation Island, 

 its fascination for him was reinforced, as we have seen, by a 

 still stronger spell, the charm of discoveries leading on to 

 luminous generalisations. The letter to his father from 

 Hobart (August 16, 1840) describing the place deserves fairly 

 full quotation.^ 



^ The passages enclosed in square brackets are from the Journal. 



