Part No. 60 - Letter from James Dalton to Dawson Turner

1 folded sheet

Transcript

Croft. May 9th 1817.

I have delayed thanking you, my dear Friend, for the beautiful collection of Engravings you sent me, from the supposition that you might be from home. I wrote, however, to the excellent Hooker, & said all I could towards expressing the grateful sense I entertain of your unremitting kindness. My ex-pressions cannot represent my feelings, which, I assure you, are very warmly disposed towards my valued friends at Yarmouth, & all their belongings. Do I not know the elegant female figure, to which no name is attached?—

In my letter to Hooker I attempted to justify my resolution of sending Cecil to Eton. It is not a good cause which demands very elaborate defence. A choice of evils only was left me, & I am not perfectly convinced that I have chosen the least. Much harm, however, cannot be done by the trial of a year. My feelings are acute enough where my children & friends are concerned, & this will render me sufficient-ly observant of whatever may have been done amiss. With good abilities & a tolerable foundation, Cecil will never make a scholar. He has no ambition that way, & the best hopes Eton holds out to me, are those which, as I have told you before, flatter me that his situation & class-fellows may excite a spark of it in him. As to myself, I am by nature of a warm constitution & {1} I sometimes think that my anxiety as a pedagogue may render me less dear to my boy as a father. In short I have done my best, & may possibly—nay very probably find, as I have often found before, that my best endeavors† & intentions have been frustrated. I assure you I tried hard to find a conscientious, able private Tutor, but could not find both qualities united. Had my search been fortunate, Cis had never gone to Eton—a place I cannot yet think of without apprehension. The die, however, is now cast, & I will endeavor† to hope the best.—

What is become of Leache’s† Crustacea? {2}—I have part of that interesting work, but am so completely out of the literary world, that, except from you & Hooker, I hear nothing about it. You now talk seriously about finishing your noble work upon the Fuci. For the public good I hope you will act seriously too. I am happy in possessing a Large-paper-copy of it, as far as it has gone, & will, sh[oul]d it please God that I live to see the finale, have it bound, as nearly as possible, as well as it deserves.

To revert to Mrs Turner’s most beautiful engravings, may I once more beg a likeness of my dear Friend Turner? by the same hand. This w[oul]d make it doubly valuable, & I will promise it a good frame & excellent—i.e worthy as well as scientific company.

I have taken a house at Hartlepool for two months, &, in July, remove the whole of my family thither. Sh[oul]d the weather prove cold & ungenial as it has been for these two months past, & still is, I shall wish myself back again, in my quiet little Study at Croft. Nothing vegetates with us—indeed things appear rather retrograde than progressive. My intentions now are to build a small Green-house (upon which subject I am in the act of pestering dear Hooker) by way of assuring, by means of fire, as little vegetation at the season when it is usual to find it. {3}

You speak cheerily with respect to the times. With us no improvement has yet taken place. The Funds, certainly, rise—but may not this be from the opulent in London not knowing exactly how to employ their capital? America will thrive upon our distresses, for many of our excellent manufacturers are emigrating, & will, no doubt, meet with that encouragement there, which here they cannot have. I cannot say, however partial to national glory, that I think it cheaply bought by national distress, starvation & nearly bankruptcy:—yet at this price does England possess it!!! Delirant reges—plectuntur &c.—Adieu! my dear & highly valued friends! Be assured that I am yours Ἐς ἀν ὐδωρ τε ῤεη, {4} δενδρεα μακρὰ τεθήλη.

I beg my best regards to Mrs Turner—who, also, has my thanks, as is most due, for the parcel mentioned above.—

[Direction:] Dawson Turner Esq[ui]re | Yarmouth | Norfolk.

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Postmarked at Northallerton. Letters missing from words abbreviated by superscript letters have been supplied in square brackets.

{1} Written as a catchword at the foot of a page and repeated, as ‘and’, at the head of the next.

{2} W. E. Leach’s Malacostrata podophthalmata Britanniae, or descriptions of such British species of the Linnean genus Cancer as have their eyes elevated on footstalks, published in 1815, with illustrations by James Sowerby.

{3} ‘by means of … find it’: this appears to be what is written, but the meaning is unclear.

{4} There is an indistinct word of two letters here.

† Sic.

Pasted to a guard in O.13.13.

This description was created by A. C. Green in 2022.