‘May the approaching new year be…’
On This Day, 215 years ago, 29th December 1810, Ellen wrote to Dawson Turner. She had been ill again and unable to go out for two months ’until this day’. She gives descriptions and/or make comments on at least eight lichens, a couple of Conferva (fresh water algae) and one flowering plant, a Hawkweed (Hieracium murorum) pictured above.
She wrote of how smooth the skin of the dead whale had been. The final sentence of the letter is ‘May the approaching new year be one of as much happiness as this world can afford.’
Read the whole of the 29th December 1810 letter HERE.
Placing this letter in the correspondence before and after it
The last letter from Dawson Turner to Ellen Hutchins was 17th October 1810 and he asked for Ellen’s ideas on the arrangement of submerged algae. Ellen wrote a long letter back to him on 9th November in which she shared her ideas. At the end of that letter Ellen wrote that she had received another letter from him ‘the night before last’. This letter has not survived. Now, right at the year’s end, Ellen wrote to Dawson Turner again.
End of the series
This is the final On This Day, 215 years ago blog in this series. If you are interested in following the correspondence of early 1811, this is covered in a series written five years ago, as On This Day 210 years ago and starts HERE on 8th March 1811.
Read the whole of the 29th December 1810 letter HERE.
Madeline Hutchins
Researcher on Ellen and her great-great-grandniece
29th December 2025