Old Orchard
Broadstone
Wimborne
Dec[embe]r 26th 1908
My dear Miss Macdonald
Many thanks for your useful Xmas present & for your kind wishes previously which I fear I did not acknowledge at the time as your address was mislaid.
I have got over all the "honorary" troubles1 as well as I could possibly expect — & the greatest trouble & anxiety of all which hung over me for weeks, was the [2] alleged necessity of going up to London, getting a Court (fools or footman's) suit of clothes, & going to Court to be "invested" by the King's hand — "on my knees"!
This was happily averted — at my earnest supplication (like a criminal asking pardon) on grounds of age and delicate health — by the King "graciously" sending one of his Equerries (a Colonel Legge2, a very nice man) with the "order", which he duly hung around my neck in the King's name.
He had just half an hour here — we gave him a cup of tea, [3] we had some pleasant talk — & off he went.
The "order" is a gold and enamel cross — hung from a crown at top by a rich crimson & blue ribband. To be worn round the neck just below the neck-tie.
I propose — as a duty — to wear it once in public, at a lecture I have to give at the Royal Institution on January 22nd on "The World of Life"3 — as interpreted by Darwinism.
I am doubtful if my voice will be heard — if not the Secretary will read the address & I shall show myself!
Should you be in London then I can give you tickets for self [4] & friend.
With best wishes for the New Year
Yours very sincerely | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
Status: Draft transcription [Transcription (WCP1563.1342)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP1563,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 30 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP1563