WCP15

Letter (WCP15.15)

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset

Oct 13th. 1891

My dear Will

Thanks for your unusually interesting letter. This is the Professor’s salaries that cost the money. Grandpa & Ma returned on Saturday. We went one day to Corfe by rail — Grandma staid [sic] in the vill[age?]. which we went after Gentians & found a Col. Then on Friday I took Grandpa to Christchurch & we visited the young nurseryroom & had a long jaw with him, — came back to Bournemouth & walked all through the gardens [2] while Ma & Grandma did Bournemouth by themselves. The bronze cucumber must be lonely!

I have only four Zoo. tickets left which I send you. Also two Sundays — the others I had sent to Violet.

The Rain today has heat everything with wind!

There has been a dreadful event here. Poor Monk’s wife has drowned herself! And all for a mistake! She has a baby 2 months old, and last Wednesday night she woke up [3] and found the baby uncovered and cold. She thought it was dying or dead, & told Monk to go directly for the doctor. He dressed and went, & when he came back she was gone. But the baby was alive, only asleep. He was out looking for her for hours & at last found her dead in the little pond on the top of the hill above his house. There was an inquest on Friday. Temporary insanity. Poor Monk is [4] is dreadfully cut up. We made a small subscription for him. He must have been made — not even to wait for this doctor. She had said that if the baby died she would kill herself, or it would kill her.

I read "Ivanhoe" after you were gone. It is very fine, though not quite so fine as I thought it when I read it before. There is lot of fighting in it, — with Robin Hood & Friar Tuck etc. etc.

Your affectionate Papa | Alfred R. Wallace — [signature]

Please cite as “WCP15,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP15