JDH is about to leave for France. His party will travel via Le Havre, meet Asa & Jane Gray in Rouen & then go on to Caen, Coutances & Avranches visiting the churches[?] on the way. JDH will return in September, the Grays earlier to attend the British Association for the Advancement of Science. JDH has also been to Devonshire to visit his sister & Lord Blachford [Frederic Rogers] & to see Wistman's Wood. Describes the landscape of Wistman's Wood & instructs that the First Commissioner should ask for a specimen for the RBG Kew museum so they can determine whether the Wood is ancient. The Grays visited the Dukeries [in Nottinghamshire], York & Edinburgh. JDH reports that painting & varnishing has been going on in the herbarium, he is worried about the risk of fire. JDH is painting his own shed with asbestos paint & has great faith in its properties. Is glad Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer enjoyed his holiday in Switzerland & recalls his own trip there, specifically Kandersteg & Gemmi Pass. JDH hopes that Bale, an [herbarium] employee will recover. Discusses [Isaac Bayley] Balfour teaching his advanced botany class by the didactic method, a 'modern' kind of teaching JDH does not agree with. JDH thinks that there should be 2 branches of botanical teaching; 1 for biological research, the other for practical purposes. Comments that the needs of medical students regarding botanical knowledge have changed. JDH notes that he has been before [John] Lubbock's committee. JDH reports on his family. His sister Maria McGilvray has been seriously ill. JDH's children Joey [Joseph Symonds Hooker] & Grace Ellen Hooker are accompanying him to France. Frances & Georgie[?] are not coming because of the heat. [William Samuel] Symonds is getting weaker, he is staying with his sister Mrs Tennant. 'Frank' [Henry Francis] Symonds has been ill in Samoa.