432 MISCELLANEOUS, 1850-1860 
in their inner correspondence as Brown, Jones, and Robinson 
after Doyle's delightful Tourists. Brown was Harvey ; Jones, 
Hooker ; and Robinson, Thomson, then established at Kew with 
the Hookers. In the autumn after their return the first 
letter to Harvey (November 4) opens : 
My dear Brown, — Your letter greeted us well and we 
were greatly delighted to receive it. Robinson says ' he 
would not like to insure your scrag in Tipperary ' ; Jones 
says he would, petikularly Mrs. Jones says so. 
And a few days later : 
Mrs. Jones begs to report that all at Kew are flourishing ; 
Mr. Robinson especially is in high feather, and evidently 
much the better for his Swiss trip. Has Mr. Brown heard 
that Auguste Balmat is expected in London next month ? 
The Miss Martineaus informed Jones of the fact, hoping he 
might be able to assist in finding some employment for him 
during his stay in England — a difficult affair. 
A thick yellow fog necessitates the writing of these lines 
by candle light ! Finally Mrs. Jones begs her kind regards, 
and will be very glad to see Mr. Brown at Kew again some 
day. 
Afterwards the nicknames were regularly kept up in per- 
sonal messages about * Mrs. Jones ' and ' the httle Joneses,' or 
in planning future trips, as in 1858, when Mrs. Hooker, after 
drawing up a plan of campaign, adds : 
Now do, Mr. Brown, join your faithful friends the Joneses 
on this beautiful little tour, which looks so charmingly 
tempting on paper ; it would add so much to our pleasure 
to have you with us. We don't mean to be away more than 
a month, and I shall set to work soon to lay it out in days, 
so as to get it all in comfortably — and I'll keep all the 
accounts, and you shall have no bother at all, but just 
enjoy yourself, and I am sm^e it will do you a great deal of 
good. Don't say no all in a hurry, but take time to con- 
sider. Joe sends his love. 
It was a year when, owing to press of work, Hooker confessed 
he grudged the very time for a hoHday, and suggested as a 
