LECTUEING PROPOSALS 377 
In 1855 a fresh lecturing scheme was suggested in con- 
nection with Hooker's appointment as xVssistant at Kew. 
Kew ought to justify its scientific endowment by giving the 
pubHc of its science as well as its pleasure walks. At the 
cost of his personal inclinations, Hooker w^as ready to help 
the development of Kew by focussing public opinion on its 
national character ; but the official world would have none 
of it. 
Similarly he tells Bentham (January 1854) : 
The Royal Institution are pressing me very hard indeed to 
lecture for them. I refused on the grounds that it was wholly 
incompatible with my duty to Govt., whereupon Faraday 
writes offering to go to Ld. J. Russell ^ and get me the Govt, 
sanction. I have refused definitely again, and added that 
were any apphcation made to Lord J. it would be to appoint 
an assistant to my Father. The offers were most kind and 
flattering and too pressing — it is always excessively disagree- 
able to refuse such invitations, however little inclined one 
may be to accept. 
It was at least the fact that if lecturing in London exacted 
too heavy a toll from the Director's working time at Kew, 
Kew was too far from town for a London audience. The only 
stimulus to public interest that followed was the opening of 
the Gardens in 1857 on Sunday afternoons as well as w^eek- 
days. He tells Bentham on June 1 : 
My Father remonstrated and my Mother is in a sad way 
about it, as you may suppose. For my own part I had no 
wish for it and on private grounds oppose it, as probably 
disturbing the only quiet day I get in the week ; but on the 
'■: other hand I consider it a wise and beneficial measure in a 
pubHc point of view, and therefore feel that I have no right 
to complain. 
The consolidation of the scientific side of the Gardens took 
a long step in advance when Bentham in 1854 presented to 
the nation his great herbarium and library, valued in cash 
1 At that time President of the Council. 
