"I had no idea that your father had kept my letters. Your account of 742
pp. of them is a revelation. I do enjoy re-reading your father's; as to
my own, I regard it as a punishment for my various sins of blindness,
perversity, and inattention to his thousand and one facts and hints that
I did not profit by as much as I should have, all as revealed by my
letters."
In 1907 he received the Order of Merit, the Insignia being conveyed to
him by Colonel Douglas Dawson from the King. I had the honour of being
the only person present on the occasion, though why Sir Joseph allowed me
this pleasure I cannot guess. I remember Colonel Dawson in vain trying
to persuade Sir Joseph not to see him to his carriage at the door. I
have, too, a picture of Sir Joseph fidgeting round the room afterwards,
unwillingly wearing the collar to please his family.
In 1908 he took the chief part in the fiftieth anniversary of the
Darwin-Wallace papers of 1858. He characteristically begged the Darwins
to tell him if they entertained "the _smallest_ doubt of the expediency
or propriety of telling the public the part" which he took on that
historic occasion!
He was also the chief guest at the 1909 celebration at Cambridge of the
centenary of Darwin's birth. I recollect him wandering about at the
evening reception, quite unconsciously the object of all eyes.
Unfortunately, Hooker was not present at the banquet, where, as Mr L.
Huxley says, "Mr Balfour's historic speech was only eclipsed by the sense
of personal charm in Mr W. E. Darwin's reminiscences of his father" (ii.,
p. 467).
It is delightful to find Hooker in 1911 vigorously corresponding with Dr
Bruce, a "brother Antarctic." He writes to Bruce, 20th February 1911, "I
return herewith the proof-sheets, which I have perused with extraordinary
interest and an amount of instruction and information that I never
expected to receive at my age" (_Life_, ii., p. 478). It is touching
that in extreme old age the first work that occupied his youth should
still find so clear an echo in his vigorous old age.
Mr Huxley records (ii., p. 480) that though Sir Joseph "kept at work till
but a little before the end," his physical strength began to fail in the
late summer; but his mental powers were undimmed. He died in his sleep
on 10th December 1911, and was buried (as he had desired) near his
father's grave at Kew.