From A. R. Wallace   14 September 1878

Waldron Edge, Duppas Hill, | Croydon.

Septr. 14th. 1878

Dear Darwin

An appointment is soon to be made of some one to have the superintendence of Epping Forest under the new Act, and as it is a post which of all others I should like I am trying very hard to get up interest enough to secure it.1 One of the means is the enclosed memorial which has been already signed by Sir J. Hooker & Sir J. Lubbock & to which I feel sure you will add your name, which I expect has weight “even in the City”.2

For want of anything better to do I have been grinding away at a book on geography of Australasia for Stanford for the last 6 months.3

Hoping you are in good health and with my best compliments to Mrs. Darwin & the rest of your family | Believe me | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace—

C. Darwin Esq.

1
The 1878 Epping Forest Act appointed the City of London Corporation as conservators of Epping Forest, an area of woodland to the north of London covering about 6,000 acres. The aim of the act was to keep the forest unenclosed and available for public recreation. See Wallace 1878.
2
The memorial has not been found, but see Raby 2001, pp 219–21.
3
Wallace ed. 1879. Edward Stanford was a London publisher of maps and geographical works.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11693,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11693