WCP182

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne

Sept. 1st. 1904

My dear Will¹

We have sent off this evening by Parcel Post our 2 Ducks, a dish of peas, and apples for a pie! the latter very good cookers — I think first-rate, if well-cooked. They are best cut in quarters & stewed first. & then put in the pie, ^{with lots of sugar} or else the pie must be baked very well.

I forgot to tell you in my last that a few days after you left the "Bacon" Atlas came. I opened it and at the very first map I said — "this wont do" — looked at a few more [2] then packed it up and sent it back as "not suitable". The maps were of different scales. I think from 2 miles to an inch — to 5 or 6 miles too do. I dare say accurate & full of names &c. but the hills put in very slightly & coarsely, & the whole work more like a lithograph or zincograph than an plate ^engraving. No contours, no heights except the high mountains. The boundaries of the Hundreds or Union's coloured, which is quite useless & unmeaning for ordinary purposes — In fact altogether commonplace maps. [3] So if you should meet with Bartholomews Atlas anywhere let me know.

We are quite glad you had the two ducks, as we do not care about them. Your Grandfather² & Aunt Rose³ are here, came yesterday and are quite jolly.

I have been reading Robert Owens⁴ Autobiography.⁵ If you come across it read it. He was the earliest and greatest of Socialists, and all he says and did is as much wanted now and applies now as well as it did 80 years ago. He was probably the greatest Educator and organiser we have ever had and there is not a Socialist living who would [4] not profit by reading his life and his works. Please enquire at any bookseller you pass for a copy of his Autobiography — 2 vols. I will give up to 10/- for it. He lived some time in Manchester and his works were probably well known there formerly.

I have written 15 chapters of my Autobiog^y!⁶ which takes me up to 21. So if I go on at the same rate there will [sic] ample rooms for a severe weeding out.

Chair not come yet. Sent off by Carrier & lost — Delivered at wrong house apparently!

Your affectionate Pa | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]