Jean McKillen, left, and Georgina Graham keep the pot warm for visitors to Unlimited Refills, a Christian coffee shop which opened in October 1989 on Great Victoria Street in Belfast to combat “the boozy pubs and clubs of the city's 'Golden Mile'”. Stephen Gilmore, a member of the organising committee behind Unlimited Refills told the News Letter: “We are offering people a better environment than the pub, one free of the influence of alcohol and one promoting a friendly atmosphere.” Picture: News Letter archivesJean McKillen, left, and Georgina Graham keep the pot warm for visitors to Unlimited Refills, a Christian coffee shop which opened in October 1989 on Great Victoria Street in Belfast to combat “the boozy pubs and clubs of the city's 'Golden Mile'”. Stephen Gilmore, a member of the organising committee behind Unlimited Refills told the News Letter: “We are offering people a better environment than the pub, one free of the influence of alcohol and one promoting a friendly atmosphere.” Picture: News Letter archives
Jean McKillen, left, and Georgina Graham keep the pot warm for visitors to Unlimited Refills, a Christian coffee shop which opened in October 1989 on Great Victoria Street in Belfast to combat “the boozy pubs and clubs of the city's 'Golden Mile'”. Stephen Gilmore, a member of the organising committee behind Unlimited Refills told the News Letter: “We are offering people a better environment than the pub, one free of the influence of alcohol and one promoting a friendly atmosphere.” Picture: News Letter archives

THROUGH THE ARCHIVES: From the News Letter of November 1835

An invitation to Sir Robert Peel

A circular which had been issued to the News Letter in November 1835. It detailed an invitation which had been extended to Sir Robert Peel, the former Prime Minister and the current Leader of the Opposition, to come to Londonderry.

It read: “We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, being anxious to testify, in a public manner, our respect for the exalted character of the Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel, Bart, do hereby invite him to an entertainment in Derry, on as early a day as may be convenient. We deem this a suitable period for testifying our gratitude to that distinguished Statesman, at the close of a Parliamentary Session, in which his temper, judgment, firmness, perseverance, and abilities, were powerfully manifested in defending our invaluable institutions against dangerous innovations in Church and State.”

The committee included: Marquess of Londonderry, Marquess of Waterford, Marquess of Downshire, Marquess of Abercorn, Marquess of Ely, Earl of Enniskillen, Earl of Wicklow, Earl of Farnham, Viscount Ferrard, Lord Dufferin, the Mayor of Derry, Sir Robert Bateson, Bart, MP, Captain Jones, MP, Sir James Stewart, Bart, Sir Edmund Hayes, Bart, MP, Colonel Conolly, MP, Sir James Bruce, Bart, Sir Hugh Stewart, Bart, Mayor of Coleraine, Provost of Strabane, Barre Beresford, Esq.

Death of an ‘indefatigable botanist’

An interesting death notice appeared in the News Letter this week in 1835. It noted the passing of Mr Thomas Drummond, “the first Curator of the Belfast Botanic Gardens”, he had left Belfast in 1831 to become an independent plant collector.

The notice read: “That indefatigable botanist, who has sent so many interesting plants to the Glasgow Botanic Gardens, and to various others, has fallen victim to the climate of Cuba, in the prime of life, and just as he was on the point of exploring the botanical riches of that portion of the United States, which, next to Texas, held out the best prospect of rewarding his indefatigable exertions, namely Florida. He had indeed accomplished enough, by his zeal and researches, to secure himself a lasting name throughout the botanical world; yet it is impossible not deeply to regret the loss, both as concerns our favourite science and his friends.”

He was the younger brother of another great botanist, James Drummond (1783-1853), who had explored Western Australia. Their father, another Thomas Drummond was a noted gardener on the Fotheringham estate at Inverarity, Scotland.

Nothing more is known of Drummond’s death and many beautiful Texan plants he discovered have proved difficult in cultivation – apart from colourful and brilliant annual phlox, Phlox drummonii.

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