WCP202

[1]

Godalming

May 16^th. 1889

My dear Violet

I am glad to hear that you like your work & your companions. I hope you will get on well & pass your preliminary examinations in July with ease. As you have had a good outfit of clothes & other accessories I thought 20^s/- would suffice for your washing & pocket money till midsummer. I will pay for any books you are required to have if you will send me a list of them & the cost. Then [2] I propose to give you for the next year, £5 a quarter, the first payment to be made on Midsummer day for you to find your own clothes & all other things except your board. You can pay it into your Savings bank account, & draw out what you want a pound or two at a time, & you will thus probably make it go further than if you kept it in your purse, and also be quite secure against losing it.

After a year, Madame Michaelis [3] thinks you will be able to earn something towards your expenses the 2^nd. year.

After thoroughly exploring Ryde, Ventnor, and Parkstone near Bournemouth, I fixed on three houses at the latter place & your Ma came down on Tuesday & saw them all, & after careful consideration chose one as decidedly the best for us of any about, & we have taken it from Midsummer, — for such houses may be gone with a day or two of delay. It is small, very pretty, and uncommon house, with lovely views, very sheltered, [4] backed up by a hill & pine wood, with beautiful country all round, a small but pretty garden that we can manage ourselves — flowers only — orchises growing on the lawn, and not a hundred yards from Parkstone station whence Bournemouth is reached in 5 minutes at a cost of two-pence-half penny — the exact amount the "aged man" Received for his "Macassar oil." Poole is only 1 ½ d., where there is a public free library & reading room, with trains both to Bournemouth & Poole up to 10 o’clock at night, & every hour or less all day long. I think Ma is quite pleased with it though there are no cupboards, & a bedroom where the cellars usually are, but that makes it all the more uncommon.

Your affectionate Father | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

For the next 3 months I shall be hard at my ex[aminatio]ⁿ. paper.¹ A.R.W. [signature]²