Text Online
From:
George Davidson
To:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Date:
2 June 1887
Source of text:
Natural History Museum, London: NHM WP1/8/168
Summary:
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Contributor:
Alfred Russel Wallace Correspondence Project
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Description of American travels; the best thing that he has seen are the pine forests and the majestic Sequoias. Wry comments on Americans. A splendid country to travel in, but a poor country to live in. Discusses weather conditions.
Instructs Annie how to complete ARW's tax return in his absence. ARW also chastises Annie for not dating her previous two letters to him and states that their daughter has picked up this bad habit, but their son Willie, "shows the hereditary business instinct of the male animal by duly dating"! ARW bemoans the US government postal weight restrictions affecting his posting of plants back to England. ARW concludes his letter by stating how miserable California is and that "nowhere in America yet have I seen a place I should like to live in".
JDH thanks Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD] for his assistance, & Huxley's, in getting Inglis Palgrace elected [to the Athenaeum Society]. He also thanks WTTD for sending him letters & news, JDH was glad to hear that the RBG Kew staff were 'well considered in the Abbey'. He hopes the [Kew?] Palace will be 'taken up & done for'. JDH & the Grays [Asa & Jane] had an interesting time in Oxford & Cambridge & Foster was attentive. But the overblown ceremony for giving an honorary degree to the Lord Mayor, a man who did not deserve it, offended JDH & in his opinion debased the university. He blames the V.C. [Vice Chancellor] & is tempted to send a note to NATURE. Recounts the day in Oxford: breakfast at All Souls College, garden party at Worcester college, dinner at [Archibald] Sayce's with 'old Westwood' in attendance. JDH is surprised there was never a second edition of Westwood's entomology book: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. JDH & the Grays visited Nuneham, where JDH looked over Mr Harcourt's letters from [Charles] Darwin but found nothing of importance in them. Also spent an afternoon in the Botanic Garden of the University of Oxford, JDH praises what [Isaac Bayley] Balfour has done in the gardens & his lectures are much admired. Also met 'old Baxter' & Miss Smith who made a faux pas with MacHassy[?] mistaking his badge of the Greek Order of the Redeemer for a Home Rule rosette. The Grays have gone to Dean Chruches, when they return all will go to visit Lord Blachford, JDH's sister [Maria MacGilvray] in Torquay & possibly to the Rosberg's[?].
The weather and the seasons and that ARW has not seen a single place he should like to live in. He writes of "Big Trees" including Redwoods and tells of his plans to visit Santa Cruz and Lake Tahoe before coming home in late August. ARW also mentions that he has been lecturing on Spiritualism in San Francisco.
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Papers received from California with news of ARW's lectures there; John's conversion (to spiritualism); possible identity of people named [during a séance]; the Sims's (photography) business, lack of wealthy customers, photographing cowboys from the American Exhibition.
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JDH writes to Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD] regarding the upcoming election for Sir Robert Harry Francis Inglis Palgrave's entry to the Athenaeum Society. Palgrave is anxious about the election as JDH will not be able to attend. JDH has lobbied for positive votes from Evans, Flower, Huxley, Rutsen & Francis Palgrave & asks that if WTTD attends he induce any 'Savilians' to vote for Palgrave. JDH attended a party at Mr Ruterson's[?] where he met with Reverend & Mrs Adie, Sir & Lady Grant Duff, Mrs Stanley, a daughter of Lowthian Bell. Also [Sir Arthur Dyke?] Acland a Member of Parliament who is on the forestry commission but knows nothing about trees, specifically why European Oak is not planted for timber or what an Acacia tree is under any of its names: Robinia, Pseudacacia, False Acacia, or Locust Tree. JDH will be away for his daughter Harriet [Thiselton-Dyer nee Hooker's] birthday but promises to write & sends an enclosure for her [enclosure not present]. JDH mentions hearing about a telegraph[?] from the RBG Kew Board.
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