32 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
that Sir William Hooker was officially selected. It must have been 
obvious to Hooker that his transference from Glasgow to Kew 
would bring him no material benefit. As a matter of fact, his 
salary at the commencement was but £300 a year, with £ 200 in 
lieu of a residence. But in his fine ambition to become the director 
of England’s first really national garden, monetary considerations 
did not weigh with him. We have it on the authority of his son, 
Sir Joseph Hooker, that the removal of his herbarium, library, and 
other effects from Glasgow to Kew cost him his first year’s salary. 
His claims had been strongly supported by the new Duke of 
Bedford, the Duke’s brother Lord John Russell (then in the 
Ministry), and Mr. Spring Rice, Chancellor of the Exchequer, but 
soon afterwards Lord Monteagle. 
Kew had now successfully weathered the severest crisis in its 
history. Although it had to encounter official indifference, more 
especially on the part of Lord Duncannon, the Chief Commissioner, 
who objected to any increase of expense or to any extension of the 
gardens, it had many staunch supporters. However cramped its 
resources for the present, it stood on the threshold of a new and 
hopeful career, and none had a surer confidence in its future than 
the new director. 
