From Ellen Hutchins to Dawson Turner   24 Jul 1810

My dear Sir

Your last letter has given me so much pleasure that I really know not how to thank you for it or how to express the warm & sincere gratitude I feel for your friendship and kindness in offering me letters so interesting as yours at a time when domestic troubles lean so heavily upon me, when my mind is constantly in a state of anxiety & my spirits depressed by the sufferings of those I love best. I wish you to believe me capable of feeling the full value of the friend who wishes to relieve me. It is no small gratification to my mind that you think of me sometimes, you who seem to have so many valuable & interesting persons to occupy your attention. I am much, very much obliged by your wish to send me the Lady of Lake [sic), which I was so fortunate as to get in Dublin when there was hardly a copy left. I have read it with more pleasure than I can describe. I like it a great deal better than either Marmion or the Lay of the last Minstrel, it seems to me better kept up. All this, the description of the wild country & fine[?] Lake is very delightful & the sentiments & feelings of such characters as are painted[?] very natural & beautiful. I read it over & over with new pleasure. With what ease & spirit it is supported. Having little leisure during the day for reading I sat up the night after the book came & never perceived how the time glided away until daylight appeared.

In Botany I have not been able to do much since I wrote last. I can't go out to look for anything now[?]. I have got six or eight Conferva that you have not yet had from me. I think I shall have them ready to send you with some Lichens & a few other things in about a week or 10 days. I have met with the fruit of the Lichen I sent you as Parmelia perlata, but you were doubtful of my plant being that species, the fruit is very rare. I hope you may get fine Lichens from Sir T. Gage, he is in a very favourable situation. I think the Limestone rocks must be productive. I have been so badly able to collect that I cannot hope that what I have can be valuable. Of Fucus reniformis I have great specimens to send you, a foot long & very broad. The Rivularia I am determined to attend to next month & send you sketches more highly magnified than those you got last year. I wish I had all the known species of this most beautiful family fresh to draw. I cannot see the connection between el[egans], angul[osa] & the marine species with [text missing] Conf. gelatinosa seems to agree. Riv. end[ivifolia] I have not & should thank you very much for it. Of the pretty little Conf. No 65 I enclose you a better sketch than the one sent some time ago. I found the plant much larger & finer, the former drawing was done in winter. Thank you for the specimen of Fucus filicinus, what a pretty little plant. I am highly pleased at being now able to send parcels with ease & security. I gathered Utricularia media yesterday but no flowers. I know of it but in one spot & never could find it in flower. For a specimen of vulgaris I should thank you. You told me you would send a specimen of this plant & one of Conferva Turnerii [Spermothamnion repens] thro' the Bishop of Carlisle, I fear they have been lost. I should also thank you for a specimen of Pinguicula vulgaris to compare with our plant. Mr. Drummond the Cork Botanic Gardener was here a day or two ago & he thinks our Pinguicula a distinct species. The figure of Eng. Botany does not represent our plant which is extremely beautiful & very plenty. Mr. Drummond has pointed out to me the following distinctions: the whole plant much larger than vulgaris, inside of the flower white with strong dark purple lines, segments of the Calyx rounded and of a dark purple colour nearly black, nectary very long bifid, leaves veined. I feel very anxious to know what you think of this plant. If I could find it in flower I would draw it but it is past flowering. I hope it is a new species. It is a most beautiful plant & great ornament to marshy places in spring. All the differences Mr. Drummond pointed out agreed with those I had myself observed between our plant & the figure of English Botany which I thought very incorrect. I am so warm on the subject of this plant that I am tempted to enclose you a specimen of our plant. P. Lusitanica I have, it grows abundantly here. I hope Mr Hooker will publish the Jungermanniae before he leaves England. I greatly admire his busy temper & love for travelling, the more since his Iceland expedition. I think he who can brave danger after having felt it must have strength & superiority of mind, such a mind as to make his friends regret the loss of his society. —

I hope My dear Sir you will not at all times be confined so much to Yarmouth & that at some time you will visit Ireland. I should very unwillingly part the hope of seeing you —

You are so kind as to enquire for my Mothers health. It is rather better than when I wrote last but still in such a state as to leave me no other prospect than that of endeavouring to soften the miseries of lingering declining years & of seeing her in a painful state of suffering for the rest of her life. —

With every kind wish for your & Mrs. Turners happiness. Your very sincere friend

E. Hutchins

July 24th 1810

Can you give me a specimen of Conferva fusco-purpurea [Bangia atropurpurea]. I found Atro purpurea [B. atropurpurea] very fine this summer, growing on the same rock with C. Youngana [Urospora penicilliformis]. I have never seen fusco-purpurea but I strongly suspect that it is not distinct from Atro-purpurea. I should like to see a morsel of Conf. paradoxa. Our plant is so unlike any Conferva that I can hardly think it the same of the English plant. I have a drawing of ours to send you.