WCP1265

Transcription (WCP1265.1044)

[1]

Montpelier1

Jany 3rd 1845

Dear William2 & John3

This brings my first day at school again[.]4 I have spent a very pleasant vacation principally with Mrs. Price5 who is a most charming woman about my own age.[] She is married to a widower6 with two infant boys, she has no children and is quite a mother to them & appears as much attached as if they were her own; children, There is a kindly feeling towards strangers in this Country much more than in our own, the Americans have a great many good traits in their character particularly [2] that of hospitality[.] I have read Mamma's7 letters8 at last which cheered me up a little for I had been here 3 months and only had one letter. I hope you spent a merry Christmas[.] I have spent that day in four different countries without counting Wales as one. Our Episcopal Church at Macon9 was nicely ornamented with white roses and evergreens it was a lovely warm day and ever since it has been like Spring, the violets & Cape Jessamine's10 buds are in flower. I will now answer a few of Alfred's questions11 as I suppose this will be sent him at Leicester12 "We have cows & sheep[,] pigs & poultry of all kinds on the lot, also "Oxen, we have a good garden with plenty of Vines without Walls "but they do not attend to them properly. I hope Alfred will bring his book on the culture of the Vine[.]13 That will be useful here[.] We have also apple and Peach orchard besides many fruit trees in the Garden which is large, The mocking bird is common here and many others, the squirrel is the only live animal I have yet seen & it is very tame, snakes are sometimes found on the lot[.] The poor Indians are driven beyond the rocky mountains, you should read "Calkins14 book"15 of the description of his travels among the North American Indians & there are good maps in it[,] you will then see where we are situated — where the Cherokees used to live.

Adieu dear Brothers & believe me your ever Affectionate| Fanny

1
The Montpelier Institute was a boys and girls school in Montpelier Springs, near Macon, Georgia, USA, founded in 1841 by Bishop Stephen Elliott. ARW's sister Frances ("Fanny") had begun as a teacher there in the fall of 1844 (Wallace, A. R. 1905. My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions. Vol. 1. London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd. [p. 223]).
2
Wallace, William Greenell (1809-1845). Brother of ARW; land surveyor and architect.
3
Wallace, John (1818-1895). Brother of ARW; engineer and surveyor.
4
Presumably the first day of winter term at the Montpelier Institute; Frances Wallace had begun teaching at the school in the fall of the previous year.
5
Price, Mrs ( — ). American friend of ARW's sister; resident of Macon, Georgia, USA.
6
Price, Mr ( — ). Husband of American friend of ARW’s sister; resident of Macon, Georgia, USA.
7
Wallace (née Greenell), Mary Ann (1792-1868). Mother of ARW.
8
letters [cross reference to letters if they exist]
9
A city in central Georgia, USA.
10
A common name for Gardenia jasminoides, an evergreen flowering plant.
11
Alfred's questions [cross reference to letter if it exists]
12
From early 1844 to Easter 1855, ARW was a teacher at the Collegiate School in Leicester, England.
13
Probably an edition of the English horticulturalist William Speechly’s (1735-1819) A Treatise on the culture of the Vine, exhibiting new and advantageous methods of propagating, cultivating, and training that plant, so as to render it abundantly fruitful. With new hints on the formation of Vineyards in England, originally published in 1790.
14
Catlin, George (1796-1872). American painter, author and traveller.
15
Catlin, G. 1841. Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians. Written during eight years travel amongst the wildest tribes of Indians in North America, in 1832, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, and 39. New York: Wiley & Putnam.

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Transcription (WCP1265.1044)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Lord, Annette [2012-09-17] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-01-15] Transcription checked by Barton, Michael [2018-11-21]

Please cite as “WCP1265,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP1265