From Dawson Turner to Ellen Hutchins   12 Sep 1809

I cannot tell you, my dear Madam, how much pleasure I have received from the letter that has been brought me from you this evening. I am striving to afford you the most indisputable proof of my pleasure by answering it immediately. Indeed I have for two or three weeks past felt very anxious to write to you, but I have not dared to do it, for I was persuaded from your long silence that you [text missing] unwell, & I was apprehensive that, by showing my anxiety, I might possibly cause you to exert yourself in writing to me before you were well able to do it, & thereby retard instead of promoting the recovery I so much wished. I am much obliged to you for your kindness to my friend, Dillwyn, whom your goodness made exceedingly happy. He is returned to England, having left Mr Woods ill at Mucross, from whence I understand he has but lately been able to set out by slow stages. He (Woods) has not written to me, nor indeed had I ever much acquainted with him; but I have long been upon the most intimate footing with Dillwyn, whose talents I respect, & whose goodness of heart I sincerely value. Since his return he has been so hurried that he has told me nothing about his Tour, except his general route, & what refers to Ballylickey, with which I assure you he is in the highest degree gratified. If I may judge of his feelings from what I myself experienced on my return from Ireland I should have no scruple in saying that he has also been pleased with the rest of his journey. Irish manners are certainly in some degree different from English, nor will I so far dissemble any native prejudices as to say that I in all respects prefer theirs to ours, but really do in many, for you have a cheerful openness of disposition & a liberal hospitality, even to strangers, which, I am sorry to say, are in vain sought for on this side of the channel. Were I not writing to a lady, I would say that the Irish females are beyond all comparison superior to those of any other nation I ever met with in[text missing] charms of their conversation & the amiableness of their manners. I will not however allow to be true what my honest friend, Clemente, has, in the bitterness of his heart, published of England, which I will transcribe for you, but not translate; he is speaking of the inhabitants of San Lucar whom he calls “pueblo franco y generoso, cuya viveza y genial cordialidad hacia en mi idea un contraste tan fuerte con la sombria estupidez y egoismo feroz de la insolente plebe que acababa de ver á las orillas del Támesis.” Poor fellow, I pity him; for his moorish appearance & long beard at once betrayed the foreigner, & foreigners, as you know, do not meet with the best treatment in this island. –

Mr Dillwyn’s last fasciculus which closes his work, is just out: it is done better than most of the rest, tho I still think you will have no reason to feel much pleasure at the manner in which his artist has copied your drawings of C. Hutchinsia, C. Pedicullata, or C. brodiaei. Either self love blinds me, or my engraver has done more justice to your F. tomentosus, which stands at the head of my third volume. Soon after I last wrote to you, Mr Borrer was called from me by the unexpected illness of his Grandmother, so that all the hopes of our projected Lichenographia were nipped in the bud, but he returns to me next week, when I shall again apply to the task with spirit, & about the middle of October I shall have the opportunity of sending you thro’ Mr Mackay a parcel of Lichens which may be of service to you in your future study of the genus. Do not, I beg of you, trouble yourself to make me a single drawing till you are quite well; but, when you are so & have nothing better to do, send/make[text missing] me copies of every one you have. Is not this begging by wholesale[? Text missing] Believe me, however, I would not do it to a person I less esteem. You are quite right in saying that Dillwyn’s plates are in general [text missing] that my clavellosus, kaliformis, dasyphyllus & pry[text missing]thria are far from what they ought. ?Far ?than ?far I shall therefore be particularly thankful for copies of your drawings, perhaps, if I ever grow rich, & do not grow covetous at the same time (which is but too common a consequence of acquired affluence) I may one day be tempted to give my purchasers a new plate of clavellosus which is really execrable. How can you read Dante in English? It is really murdering him to do so, & you are not one of those whom I thought it necessary to tell.

ché, seggendo in piuma,

in fama non si vien, né sotto coltre;

sanza la qual chi sua vita consuma

cotal vestigio in terra di sé lascia,

qual fummo in aere e in acqua la schiuma.

I have an admirable small edition, lately published in London, with a most happy selection of notes, & I could easily send it to you if you have not a good one, without which I know that Dante can neither be read with pleasure nor profit. Thank you for your sketch of the fruit of F edulis; it makes me doubtful whether what I have figured [text missing] be really so: if they be, they must be in a very imperfect state. All these things will form material for an appendix to my work. Your new Fucus, I hope, will occupy a place in the body of it. You have never yet told me what mosses it was that I did not name for you: send me all in which I can be in any wise useful to you, remember that our communication by Captain Mangin is both easy & sure. I think you said you had found Bryum conoideum at Ballylickey – was it so?; or did you, as is often done, take Dicranum viridissimum fruit? We have no news of Mr Hooker. Oblige me by writing, when you receive this if only two lines to say you are quite well. – I am with esteem & regard my dear Madam Your much obliged & very faithful

DT

[A cross hatched piece of 9 lines.]

Surely my dear Madam, if your brother is at an English College, & you might be spared to cross the Channel with him, & might pass with us one term while he is at Oxford or Cambridge. If he could not himself accompany yourself to Yarmouth where we should be very glad to see him Mrs Turner would meet you wherever you pleased. I know I am treading on delicate ground in thus inviting a lady to my house but I do it in the full confidence that you would find in my wife a friend similar to your own & capable of appreciating your talents & acquirements nor it is possible for any family to live more thoroughly xxxx than we do. From our friends Captain & Mrs Mangin than whom the world does not know more ?honorable or more upright people your friends may be satisfied of all that relates to our family.