Correspondence between Ellen Hutchins and Dawson Turner in 1812
Here you can access the text of the twelve letters that survive from the correspondence between Ellen Hutchins and Dawson Turner in 1812. As with 1811 (letters available in three PDFs Here) the correspondence covers more than the plants, seaweeds, freshwater algae and lichens that they were studying. We hear about their health, their families, Ellen’s reaction to Dawson Turner’s visit to Kew Gardens, as well as poetry and literature including Lord Byron’s Childe Harold.
The 1812 letters make for interesting reading and it is rather special to learn about Ellen’s story in her own words:
The little drawer where I keep specimens for you will I hope soon begin to fill again. If I could but get to the mountains I should be sure it would.
One advantage in such a remote country as this is that one can ramble about as one pleases. It would want many advantages to compensate all its disadvantages.
I am as much bound to home as if I had ten children to take care of. My Mother is ever weak & extremely nervous & cannot do without me for two days at a time, & beside the care of her I have a great many other employments that weary me at times to depress my spirits. My health tho’ at times affected bears up better than I expect.
But talk not of wonders until you see a sketch of the Conjugation of Conferva dissiliens. I will send it in my next which shall be very soon. I spent five days examining it, & then I am certain I sketched as I saw. I can’t yet believe it existed. The plant is in all states very singular & beautiful.
January 1812 was when Ellen sent her list of all the plants in her neighbourhood to Dawson Turner. It contained nearly one thousand one hundred plants. Turner had asked her to compile it and it was intended for publication by the Linnean Society but this never happened. We don’t know why.
There are fewer letters in 1812 than in 1811, with eleven letters from Ellen to Dawson Turner but only one letter of his to her has survived. He clearly wrote many more, as Ellen refers to them in hers.
We hope that you enjoy reading the 1812 letters and we are now turning our attention to those of 1813, Ellen’s last year of active ‘botanising’. Do use the ‘contact us’ button below to get in touch if you are studying Ellen Hutchins or her letters.
The 1812 letters are available in a PDF Here.
Madeline Hutchins, Co-Director of the Ellen Hutchins Festival, researcher on Ellen and her great-great-grandniece
29th December 2022