From Ellen Hutchins to Dawson Turner   16 Oct 1811

My dear Sir

I have the pleasure to tell you that yesterday Mrs. Townsend sent me Mr. Hooker’s parcel of engravings &ca I had quite given them up as lost. She had them a considerable length of time in the country before she sent them. I am quite delighted with their beauty & accuracy & much pleased to find by Mr. Hooker’s letter that he will publish them. Pray thank him for me I will trouble you with a letter for him in answer to his in a few days when my cold gets better, and send him a few specimens that he wishes for of new Species. What a very curious Moss the Dawsonia is I am quite happy to have got it safe. Mr. Brown was so obliging as to send the paper describing it & also a specimen of a beautiful Lichen Bæomyces seteporus. Let me thank you for your last letter & your good account of little Ellen, very small delicate children do often get on surprisingly well, & I am very

well inclined to persuade myself she is one of those & that I may yet see her a healthy girl. I am glad to find Mrs. Turner is gaining strength & hope she will be fully recovered before winter. She has the advantage of agreeable society to amuse her mind & support her spirits. You seem to have valuable & agreeable people always at your house. Mr. Mathias must be a delightful man. I have often heard of him, though a man may have much celebrity in London & his name be unknown in this obscure corner of the world. However we begin to hear more & be more known than we were a very few years ago, thanks to the French since they visited as Military people & other strangers have got into the country. Before that time you could hardly imagine any thing more retired than this country or more completely shut out from all knowledge of what was passing any where else. Thank you for all you say respecting the Lichenographia. The Lists you shall have in a very short time, as soon as I get well enough to write them. My only reason for delaying that of our plants was that it may be as perfect as possible. Many of the new Confervæ & Rivulariæ are not named, some mosses & a few Lichens. What can I do respecting them? Shall I put their Nos. in the list & will you give them names? This will be putting you to some trouble at the present, & perhaps be inconvenient to publish the names of undescribed species. Before I hope you have got the specimens of Gyrophora pustulata safe. I sent them the day after I got your letter. I hope you will go to the wonderful man who teaches the art of memory though I feel you have no want of his art where I am concerned. I think every person ought to go to him, except the Gentleman at Cambridge whose astonishing memory Mr. Mathias told you of. I do not think his demand for each lesson was extravagant, if he can do what is said. Who would not pay any sum for the acquirement or great improvement of memory. Has nature nothing to do in this business? Can it be possible that a stupid person can learn to do by his art the same that an intelligent person can, with the same assistance? I hope Sir T. Gage can give you information. He had excellent opportunity in Ireland of collecting & observing Lichens & I believe did find many new species. I wish he would give you good specimens. I have some to send you which you shall have as soon as Mr. Mackay comes to Dublin. My Mother is but poorly, very weak & nervous. She is always glad to hear how you & Mrs. Turner are. With kind regards for you all, your faithful friend.

E.H.

Octr 16th 1811