‘That most extraordinary vegetable’
On This day, 215 years ago, on 25th May 1810, another letter was written by Dawson Turner to Ellen Hutchins.
Read the letter of 25th May 1810 HERE.
Dawson Turner thanked Ellen for her drawings of a freshwater alga, Conferva foetida ( now Hydrurus foetidus) writing that the drawings ‘are all I could possibly wish to illustrate that most extraordinary vegetable’. See featured image above of Conferva foetida – from the collection of Ellen’s drawings of British Algae held by the Library and Archives at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and reproduced here with their permission.
He also wrote that he was ‘exceedingly pleased at this addition to our list of Confervae’. While Lewis Dillwyn had been working on his book, A Synopsis of British Confervae, Ellen’s finds and some of Ellen’s drawings of Confervae had been used by him within in. Dillwyn finished work on the book and published it in 1809. Ellen continued to find suspected new Confervae and sent these to Dawson Turner for help with their identification, and the genuinely new ones formed their list. The drawing was for Dawson Turner’s own reference and maybe he would also consider writing a paper for the Linnean Transactions on their new Confervae.
Dawson Turner chose to give Ellen information about himself and his family in this letter, including his age, 34. One son of his had died aged 5, in a fire in the nursery at Bank House, the Turner family home, above the bank. This had happened in 1806, before the correspondence with Ellen had started in 1807.
His last letter gave a forgery on the bank as the reason for his silence. This letter focuses on his wife’s ill health during pregnancy. He seems to have forgotten the earlier letter he had written (with an illegible date). He also wrote that this was the first letter he had written (in restarting correspondence with friends). It is very rare to find such muddles in Turner’s letters.
He asked if Ellen had the Walter Scott poems, The Lay of the Last Minstrel and Marmion. Ellen had quoted from The Lay of the Last Minstrel in a letter she wrote in December 1808, about her first seaweed drawings:
‘Dear Sir, Your most interesting letter found me employed finishing the drawing you wished for of Fucus tomentosus. I have sent it with drawings of some Confervae. You must not expect very much from me for alas my trembling hand has not “the ease which marks security to please”. These are the very first that I have attempted & I should hardly have brought myself to send them to you but that I thought even such drawings as mine done from the recent plants may be of some use to you.’
Read the letter of 25th May 1810 HERE.
The next letter in the correspondence is 12th July 1810, and there will be a blog post here about it on 12th July 2025.
Madeline Hutchins
Researcher on Ellen and her great-great-grandniece
25th May 2025