From Dawson Turner to Ellen Hutchins   31 Jul 1809

The postmark is August, so sometimes given that as date,

the letter has been badly damaged (possibly mouse eaten) with paper missing.

[at top of first page]

You mention a parcel of mosses that I have not received — I can find none & am sorry to say they can never have reached me, unless some letter that I wrote replying about them has miscarried to you. If you can send other fragments of them, however small, I will do my best by return of post.

You will undoubtedly, my dear Madam, think me a very strange being, when I tell you that I am not without hopes of a Lichenographia Britannica being soon done, & that, so confident are my expectations on this subject, I would even wish you to delay your list of Bantry Plants till next Spring, in the trust that you may be that time be able to add to it some sort of a catalogue of these provoking, but (like some other provoking things) alluring, vegetables. If you enquire upon what foundation these hopes of mine rest, [you will not] be surprised to learn how small it is; for it is, in few words, that Mr Borrer has been with me for the last month, during which time we have literally described two lichens out of four hundred: but then, though we have done no more, we have [laid] the foundation for more being done, &, I think I [paper missing] inspire him with such a zeal to do it, as will urge him [paper missing] have confidence in himself, & to overcome the [paper missing] numerous as they are. I feel much [paper missing] with our specific characters of the genus Gyrophora [paper missing] xxxx we have set about the task in earnest [paper missing] ly believe I shall send them in a few days together with some specimens of the species, but as the “when” is now uncertain, I would upon no account have you delay in writing in expectation of receiving them. Our idea is to proceed upon the plan of my Synopsis of the Fuci, writing the specific characters alone in Latin, & all the rest in English, which we are inclined to think will best promote the object we have in view, that of extending among British Botanists the study of British Lichens.

I was very much surprised, just after I last wrote to you, to learn, by a letter from Mr Dillwyn that he intended to accompany Mr Woods in his Irish Tour. To visit Bantry was a part of this scheme, so you have probably by this time seen them; or if not so, you soon will. They neither of them yet written to me since they started, nor have I at present heard from Mr Hooker, which I much more regret, as all his friends begin to feel some uneasiness respecting him. I lately fell by accident upon a paragraph in some review, where Southey’s Remains of H.K White were called the sweetest specimen of modern biography. I had not then seen the book, but I have since bought it, & I find it to so well answer its character, that, if you have it not; I must beg of you not to refuse me the gratification of sending it to you. It will, or I am much mistaken, serve to pass not unpleasantly some idle hours, when your headaches [paper missing] should unfortunately return) may disqualify you for [paper missing] application. Southey is a writer that I always like [paper missing] is a great favourite with me, & some of his little [paper missing] beautiful from their affecting tender [paper missing] with which I am acquainted, for the inter [paper missing] in Wieland’s Oberon. This I can read [paper missing] I can read nothing else, & I would almost say that it is more [paper missing] learning German to read Oberon than learning Spanish to read Don Quixote though in the one language there is nothing but Don Quixote, & in the other there is abundance of interest. Mr Sotherby’s translation is indeed far from a bad one, but it does not give the least idea of the simple playful tenderness of the original. My friend, Mr Matthias, some of whose Italian publications you have probably seen, has just sent me a new publication of his, which is, I believe, quite a novel attempt for an Englishman; a translation of Mason’s drama, called Sappho, into Italian, after the manner of Metastasio, whose style metre & turn of expression he has most happily copied. This, he vows, shall be the last of his labours. Lord Valentia’s travels are out, & seem to disappoint expectations. I hear complaints of the style being too familiar, & the anecdotes very trivial in general. How wrong is a man to write a book of which all the world consider themselves competent judges! He is [paper missing] best to be no better off than the painter, who exp[paper missing] his picture in the marketplace two successive days, the one for every beauty, the other for every defect to be marked, & found it each day equally covered. You recollect, my dear Madam, you have not yet told me what mosses you want: — might I not also ask for a list of all the flowering plants which are desiderata with you? — no doubt [paper missing] I could give some, & most assuredly I shall be glad to send all I [paper missing]. You are very kind to enquire in so friendly a manner after my wife & to enter so heartily into our family xxxxx [paper missing] as well as I do: I am happy to add she [paper missing] every [paper missing] greatly recovered: I sincerely hope I shall one day have the pleasure [paper missing] making you personally known to each other. I have seen F[paper missing] in the same state in which you sent it: it appears to be [paper missing] so in Spring: I shall be thankful for the specimen you have been kind enough to save for me, as it may serve to be engraved. On your F Phyllitis I am sorry to say I can find no seeds. You cannot oblige me, my dear Madam, more than by continuing to send me drawings of marine plants from fresh specimens: any whether previously figured or not, have the greatest value in my eyes: I only lament thus occupying your time, nor can your liberality, which is unexampled, prevent me from feeling on this head the regret I ought. Dillwyn’s Confervae, as you know, are, many of them, very imperfect figures. My own Fuci, done from dried specimens, are in some instances, I fear, not much better: & as for the Rivulariae, which I should hope one day to try to illustrate, they positively defy all investigation after they have been dried. Do let me hear what you say to Dante, & if you find difficulties, do not disdain to apply to me, sorry an interpreter as I am: in this, as in other things, I say,

“Né ch[paper missing] io vi da imputar sono,

Che qu [paper missing] Tasso does tutto vi dono” or rather xxxxx volentieri, if you would [paper missing] ll me what to give. The little plant you enclosed in your last [paper missing] is not xxxxtera, but Potamogeton media. I have filled my [paper missing] that I have hardly left room xxx repeat once my xxx & esteem your obliged D T

Yarmouth xx July xxxx

Notes:

William Mason

`Sappho, a Lyrical Drama in three Acts,' by Mason, with an Italian translation by Mathias, was published at Naples in 1809,

George Annesley, 2nd Earl of Mountnorris FRS (4 December 1770 – 23 July 1844), styled Viscount Valentia between 1793 and 1816, was a British peer and politician.

Christoph Martin Wieland wrote an epic poem, Oberon, in 1780.

Tasso:

“Quel ch'io vi debbo, posso di parole pagare in parte e d'opera d'inchiostro; né che poco io vi dia da imputar sono, che quanto io posso dar, tutto vi dono.”