HOME MEMOKIES 191 



25 years ago, and feel as if I had never returned from the 

 East to marry her, — and never shall now. And yet I am 

 perpetually stumbling into pitfalls of recollections of the 

 immediate past. 



The other is in a letter to Darwin eighteen months later; 

 from Nuneham, near Oxford. 



I am here on a two days' visit to a place I had not seen 

 since I was here with Fanny Henslow in 1847 ! I cannot tell 

 you how depressed I feel at times. She, you and Oxford 

 are burnt into my memory. 



The following recollections, contributed by Mrs. Bewicke, 

 date mainly from this period, when she and her mother came 

 to live at Kew after Mrs. Hooker's death. 



From my earliest childhood to the close of Sir Joseph 

 Hooker's long life, I remember ' Cousin Joseph,' as he liked 

 us to call him, as the best and kindest of friends to my mother 

 and myself. His kindness was especially shown at a period 

 of great trouble and anxiety in our lives. It was during this 

 time that I had an opportunity of knowing Sir Joseph well, 

 and appreciating his truly lovable and noble nature. 



My father was ill and had been ordered a long rest and a 

 voyage to the Antipodes. My mother and I were in great 

 trouble, when Cousin Joseph, with the thoughtful kindness 

 so characteristic of him, proposed that we should go and live 

 with him at Kew. He would take no denial, and made us 

 feel it was all for his benefit, when under the circumstances 

 it was entirely for ours. He made Kew a real home to us, 

 and I think my mother was a help to him with his children, 

 while I thoroughly enjoyed the companionship of his daughter 

 Harriet, my contemporary in age. My brother too, then 

 quite a boy, was always a welcome guest, and Cousin Joseph 

 took the greatest interest in his work, helping him in every 

 way he could. 



Nothing gave Cousin Joseph greater joy than the progress 

 of his children, and, if one of them brought a good report 

 from school or answered correctly any of the many questions 

 he asked them at meals, it would make him proud and happy 

 for hours. There never was a father more appreciative of the 



