24 EAELY DAYS 
of taking both him and Joseph. [Gurney and Dawson, 
by the way, Dawson Turner's sons, were almost of an age 
with Wilham Hooker, being but three years and one year 
older respectively, and so more like cousins than uncles to 
the boys.] 
In 1829 : They make very fair progress with their 
tutor (who coached them in Latin) and are much more 
incUned to like lessons than they used to be. 
1829 : The boys beg to thank you for your kind present 
of * The Boys' Own Book ' ; it is seldom out of their hands 
during playtime. 
In after life Sir Joseph often talked of how he loved this 
book, and read it and consulted it. 
In 1831 comes the first mention of their repeated stay at 
Helensburgh so that the children may have country air and 
liberty. Burnside was a delightful memory ; but even more 
beloved was Invereck, and it became their country home in 
1837. Indeed, when it came into the market in the late 
seventies, Hooker would have bought it had it not been so 
far from Kew. 
As at thirteen, * Joseph is becoming a zealous botanist,' so 
at fifteen, 'Joseph is contented and happy at home, and studying 
Orchidese most zealously.' 
In 1832, when the boys were sixteen and fifteen respectively, 
they entered Glasgow University, with four sets of lectures 
each, all in Latin and Greek for Joseph. 
Joseph has paid a good deal of attention to collecting 
and drawing insects, though he has not nearly so much 
natural ability for sketching as his brother has. Mrs. 
Lyell sent Joseph a very nice specimen box, stored with 
foui' or five dozen of the rarer insects found near Kinnordy. 
The Lyells of Kinnordy were to play a large part in Hooker's 
hfe. Charles Lyell, the elder,^ was a botanist of distinction and 
1 Charles Lyell (1767-1849), eldest son of Charles Lyell of Kincordy, was 
distinguished both as a Dante scholar and a botanist. Living at Bartley 
in the New Forest from 1798 to 1825, he devoted himself especially to the study 
of the mosses, several species of which bear his name, as well as the genus 
Lycllia of Robert Brown. 
