
          Ansd. [Answered] Oct. 7th
Recd. [Received] March 1842

Royal Botanical Garden, 
Kew, Jany. [January] 23, 1842.

My dear friend

I have long wished to write to you & 
thank you for your most kind letter 
of Octr. [October] 15 of last year, but I can hardly 
tell you how busy I have been in my 
new appointment & especially since 
my return from Jersey, where we left 
the remains of our beloved Mary Harriett, 
with my sadly reduced family. 
Here I am placed in a comparatively new 
country, with new acquaintances to form, 
(for the customs of socy [society] require this) 
& then I have numerous duties to perform 
at [several?] societies in London, from 
which a residence of 8 or 9 miles distance 
I find will not exempt me, & then in 
the Botanic Garden, I have not only the 
ordinary employment, induced by the 
Directorship of the establishment, but 
all the works to look after consequent
upon the extension & improvement of 
said Garden. Not that I complain of 
any one of these occupations: they are 
        