CHAPTEE IX 



EDINBUKGH 



On October 17, 1844, appears the first reference to the 

 Edinburgh Professorship of Botany,^ which takes definite 

 shape by Christmas Eve. Dr. Graham's health was very 

 precarious ; he was likely to resign his Chair soon, and as 

 a first step, perhaps, require a substitute to deliver a course 

 of lectures in the following spring. This substitute, if he 

 did well, w^ould be a strong candidate for the Chair with the 

 backing of the retiring Professor. The Professor of Botany 

 generally united two appointments in his single person, 

 the College professorship, in the gift of the Town Council, 

 and the less lucrative but more important Eegius professor- 

 ship attached to the Curatorship of the Botanical Gardens. 

 This latter, being a Crown appointment, was in the gift of 

 Sir James Graham, then Home Secretary, with whom Sir 

 William's official friends would naturally have considerable 

 influence. Acceptable as the prospect of £100 for the course 

 of lectures would be to the young botanist, to interrupt his 

 more serious work on the Flora without aiming at the permanent 

 post would be against his best interests. * It is indeed not easy 



1 J. D. H. to W. H. Harvey. October 17, 1844. 



* I am not much nearer my fortune now than when you were here, and am 

 gettmg very anxious to be doing something that will pay me — on dit that poor 

 Dr. Graham of Edinbro' is on his last legs, and my friends want me, should he 

 go off the hooks (which I from my heart say heaven forefend), to stand for the 

 chair of Botany there (don't laugh). I suppose you like my impudence. 

 I should not be sanguine, as the opposition would be very strong, and if Forbes 

 stands he will be by far the most eligible : I have no great notion of lecturing, 

 but I must pick up a livelihood somehow. How I shall quaque at my first 

 lecture. You must not say anything about this, at present, visionary subject.' 



191 



