‘The arrangement of submersed algae’

215 years ago, On This Day, 9th November 1810, Ellen Hutchins wrote to Dawson Turner. She laid out her ideas for ‘the arrangement of the submersed Algae’, described a whale that had been killed in Bantry Bay and asked Dawson Turner to write Bantry, Ireland clearly on letters to her as they were being delayed by being sent to Bawtry in Yorkshire instead.

Read the letter HERE

Cross hatching in red

You will see that there were problems transcribing this letter and some words have question marks or blanks. Looking at the image above, of one page of the letter, will show you the difficulty faced with the over writing or cross hatching in red. The letter has four sides of black writing and three of these are cross hatched in red. It is, as far as we know, the only time that Ellen used red ink.

A coincidence of date

Ellen’s letters to Dawson Turner are held in the Wren Library at Trinity College Cambridge, a most impressive building (see below) and giving a splendid view (also pictured below) from one of its staircases out over the backs on the River Cam with Kitchen Bridge and behind it the Bridge of Sighs. It has been a treat to visit the library over the last ten years in order to photograph the letters and puzzle over problem words.

Selecting these photos to use here (the letter above and the views below) from one of my visits to the library, I noticed the date on which they had been taken was 9th November 2023, two years ago today and matching the On This Day date of the letter itself. I love a coincidence! And what a lovely sunny November day it was. 

Read the 9th November 1810 letter HERE .

The next and last letter in the correspondence from 1810 is one written by Ellen to Dawson Turner on 29th December and there will be a blog post about it here on 29th December 2025.

Madeline Hutchins

Researcher on Ellen and her great-great-grandniece

9th November 2025

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