WCP198

[1]

Old Orchard,

Broadstone,

Wimborne

Jany. 31st. 1909

My dear Will

Violet will have told you about the Lecture &c. & how I got through it much better than I expected as my voice held out & the lecture room with 800 people was very easy to speak in. Sir James Dewar the resident Prof. of Chemistry was most kind [and] got me hot cocoa & sandwiches directly after the meeting in his private room &c..

On Saturday I went to the Museum in the morning & saw the Dipolodocus[sic], and gorgeous new butterflies & B[ird] of Paradise from N. Guinea[.]

[2] Sir W.[illia]^m Preece¹ & his son came to lunch & I had some talk with the latter about you. Sir W.[illiam] was very complimentary & said he had been ill & I was the only person he would leave home to see! But he had not much to say.

Mr. Preece said that the best & most healthy work for you now would be in connection with wireless telegraphy. That to get work you should learn the method of signally[sic?], and that when you leave [3] the Sanatorium and are ready for such training you should learn it at once — that if you will go & see him, or write to him he will give you any further information.

He seemed to think that this was the best opening now, & that those who were familiar with the various forms of apparatus & could do signalling, would have the best chance of engagements.

I hope you are getting on all right.

Your affectionate Pa | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]