WCP1827

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne

June 23rd. 1906

My dear Mr. Musson¹

I am sorry you could not manage to come & see us on your last visit to England, but I hope you will manage to come next time, as I should like you to see our garden & our view. You do not say whether you have bought your house at Aigle or only rented it, & also whether you still take pupils or have "retired from business." During the 3 years we have lived here I have done a great deal of planting under difficulties as our ground is too stiff for easy working. This last autumn I got a 1/2 acre more land — making 3 1/2 acres in all, but 2/3rds of it is wild — & I have during the winter made a [2] new entrance road, and planted on each side of it a large quantity of choice & rare trees & shrubs, so that I have now more species than ever I had before. We had a wet winter, but I could not begin planting till February & March, while many of my choicer things were planted in April ^{or May} — ^- & the whole time from [the] beginning of March has been excessively dry — cold dry wind till May, & since hot blazing sun & dry easterly wind. All my new things are suffering, starting very late & making weak growth, which is being continually dried up — for this last six weeks we have [3] had absolutely no rain, & numbers of seedling shrubs I have planted out at [the] end of May are making no growth at all, owing to dry atmosphere. Such are the troubles of the poor gardener!

I suppose you still go to the higher mountain in the hot months. Violet² wants to go with a friend, for a month in September (or end of August) & wishes me to ask you if you can recommend any place where they can be boarded cheaply & be comfortable in a high & cool situation, with good walks & moderate excursions around [4] with fine views & some glaciers near, if possible. I suppose you have not come across my last-but-one book — "Man's Place in the Universe"³ — which some of my friends think my best, & which I myself believe to be as scientific and as well reasoned as any of my biological works — notwithstanding the Critics!

With fond remembrances to Mrs. Musson

Believe me | Yours very sincerely | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

P.S. I am wonderfully well considering my age — A.R.W.