JOHN CHALMERS MORTON - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 02/07/1879 - HFSID 317639

JOHN CHALMERS MORTON


The British agriculturist and writer pens this letter to one of his professors to wish him a good vacation, in iron gall ink


Autograph Letter signed: "J. C. Morton" in iron gall ink.3 pages (integral leaf), 7x4½ [place illegible], 1875 February 7. To "My Dear Professor", in full: "We had no key note for you this week. It was a sensible loss. I am hoping for two writers. Will you kindly keep a [?]happy by a [?] appropriate as it always is in the circumstances. I hope you & yours are well  - & that you have been able to make full use of the four week vacation. I fear it is a [?] time with a great many. Every yours humbly". John Chalmers Morton (1821-1888) was a British agriculturist and writer whose parents were land agent John Morton and his wife Jean Chalmers. He was educated at Merchistoun Castle School, Edinburgh, under his uncle Charles Chalmers and then attended university lectures, took the first prize in mathematics, and was a student in David Low's agricultural classes. In 1838 he went to assist his father on the Whitfield Example Farm, and shortly joined the newly formed Royal Agricultural Society. Morton became editor of the Agricultural Gazette on its foundation in 1844, which took him to London, and the post continued for the rest of his life. When Low retired in 1854 from his chair at Edinburgh, Morton ran the classes till the appointment of John Wilson. He was inspector under the land commissioners, and also served for six years with Edward Frankland and Sir William Denison on the Royal Commission on pollution of rivers; the commission listened to his concerns on abattoir waste. Lightly toned. Lightly soiled. Bottom edge frayed. Corners slightly worn. Folds. Light surface creases. Otherwise, fine condition.