The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: Monday ¶ ¶ I am invited, dear Dr Neild, to meet on Wednesday evening the Countess Bussy at Mr Harkers place. It will therefore be at a late hour only, that I can join the medical fete, too late for t...

Document information

Physical location:

Ann Tovell Archives, file no. 1261, Brownless Biomedical Library, University of Melbourne, Melbourne. 76.10.23a

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to James Neild, 1876-10-23 [76.10.23a]. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id//letters/1870-9/1876/76-10-23a-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

MS black-edged; M's brother-in-law, Eduard Wehl, died on 11 February 1876.

Monday

The letter is dated to 1876 based on the presence of Countess Bussy, who arrived in Melbourne from London on 10 February 1876 (Australasian, 12 February 1876, p. 205) and departed for Venice on 28 December 1876 (Argus, 29 December 1876, p. 4). It is dated to 23 October, the Monday preceding the Annual Dinner of the Medical Society of Victoria held on Wednesday 25 October (Australian medical journal, 1876, pp. 311-5). The Countess is probably Elizabeth (née Ward, then Isaacson), 1826-1891, who for her second husband married Count Étienne de Bussy in 1865 in Berne, Switzerland, and who died in 1891 on the Isle of Wight, UK (Inward Overseas Passenger Lists, United Kingdom Ports, Jan-Jun 1876, Public Record Office, Victoria; Bury and Norwich post, 30 May 1865, p. 5; Southern echo (Southampton), 17 March 1891, p. 2).

I am invited, dear Dr Neild, to meet on Wednesday evening the Countess Bussy at Mr Harkers place. It will therefore be at a late hour only, that I can join the medical fete, too late for the toast you desire me to propose. I may be in time for that of the "Ladies" or an other late one.

M is listed as present at the dinner but did not propose or respond to any of the toasts.

I like you to speak to any of the Gentlemen there about my affairs. I want to get back my former Department, so as to get again like Dr Hooker right, while the nurseryman

i.e. William Guilfoyle.

should be kept on the Parks. The vote for the Garden is to come on this week.

The vote for the Government Botanist's department had been approved on August 23 (Victoria, Parliamentary Debates, vol. 26, pp 498-501), where views supporting the additional sums included in the estimates and those advocating the abolition of the Department had been expressed. The vote for the Botanic Gardens was not reached until 23 November (pp. 1519-23), during which comparisons were drawn between the state of the Gardens under M and under William Guilfoyle, with the Member for Ararat, David Gaunson, making detailed comparisons of the vast increase in resources voted for 'the fairy gardens' after Guilfoyle was appointed.

Regardfully

Ferd von Mueller