DEATH OF MRS. HOOKER 189 



never could look at it without emotion — I used to dream 

 of it as a child. I have no morbid or other liking for seeing 

 the faces of the dead, but am glad I have seen this ; it was 

 so beautiful — and I should not have liked my last thoughts 

 of her to have been coupled with a face worn by sickness. 



The happy but strenuous tenor of his life was soon to be 

 broken in upon by a grievous and unexpected blow. This was 

 the death of Mrs. Hooker. The year had opened with brightness 

 as well as shadows. The Presidency of the Royal Society 

 was the crown of his scientific career. In connexion with a 

 Botanical Congress at Florence during the spring, he made a 

 charming tour with his wife in Northern Italy. He was happily 

 able, as his letter of July 18 tells, to take once more a deep 

 draught of the music he loved so well. But the physical 

 strain was more and more tense, and was aggravated by a bout 

 of whooping cough early in the year, caught from his children 

 who brought it back from school. A sign of fatigue in 

 September was the recurrence of ear-trouble, while, as a last 

 straw, Prof. Dyer was unable to continue as his private secretary. 



I am in the depths of despair [he tells Darwin]. He is 

 quite right — he ought to be at original work, and I am only 

 too glad to think that he will now settle to good work, though 

 to me the loss of his hour a day is dreadful. 



As has been told already, his request to the Office of Works 

 for the assistance so imperatively necessary with the expan- 

 sion of the functions of Kew, was coolly shelved until in the 

 following January he appealed direct to the Treasury. This 

 time the Treasury officials showed no unwise parsimony. The 

 Office of Works was invited to do its duty ; and when, being 

 internally at sixes and sevens, it was again in default, the Prime 

 Minister himself, Mr. Disraeli, intervened. Prof. Dyer was 

 appointed Assistant Director in the summer of 1875, and in 

 August the most obnoxious official was politely retired. 



It was in the midst of this wearing strain that the blow 

 fell. Mrs. Hooker died quite suddenly on November 13, 1874. 

 She had lived to see her husband reach the highest scientific 

 fame and the highest position in the scientific world. The 



