WCP2219

Letter (WCP2219.2109)

[1]

73 Harley St

March 13. 1869

Dear Wallace

I enclose a copy of a letter1 which I am sending today to Mr Croll.2 I wish you had happened to be at the R[oyal]. S[ociety].3 on Thursday last. My conversation with Mr Scott4 and Captn Inglefield5 has inclined me to believe that much drift-wood from southern regions is now becoming fossil — trunks without leaves & branches, but as to upright modern trees of [the] last glacial age I have heard of no proofs [2] to lend them until he had got an India Museum built.6

I saw Mr Foster7 for a moment. It is evident that the ministers are as yet too unsettled in their new places to have leisure seriously to attend to museums or any educational establishments, and Parliament is too much occupied with other momentous questions.

I am reading your new book8, of which you kindly sent me a copy, with very great pleasure. Nothing equal to it has come out since Darwin’s "Voyage of the Beagle".9 I have sent [3] [p.2] several copies as presents and recommended friends to get it. I hope you have only sold one edition. You should get out a cheaper copy. It is very handsomely turned out, but would sell much more if it cost less, even if the style of printing was inferior. The illustrations are beautifully executed and well chosen. It would be very useful to give a small portion of the trunk of a tree with two or three bamboo steps as pegs, and the connecting ladder which would add to the interest. The history of the Mias is very well done. [4] They must, if there th be such fossils, have been imbedded in a matrix afterwards washed away from them, unless you suppose snow & ice to have buried them by the sudden coming on of an icy period. I suspect the evidence is so loose that you might not [want] to commit yourself to it without much inquiry.

I have had an interview with Lord de Grey10 and recommended him to get your book, which he has ordered: I told him about your being kept in suspense: he has promised [5] to do what he can, which, in the present unsettled state of the whole affair, is not much. I am sure he has no one else in view, and he has read the memorial in your favour.11 He has talked with the Duke of Argyll12, who seems more inclined to have a museum of India revived & improved than to lend their packed up & hidden treasures to East London: but Lord de Grey agreed with me that it would be well to try and persuade the Duke[.] [6]

I am not yet through the first volume, but my wife13 is deep in the second, and much taken with it. It is so rare to be able to depend on the scientific knowledge and accuracy of those who have so much of the wonderful to relate.

Please do return me the copy of my letter to Croll; I hope to get Mr Scott to go into the evidence. He seems to have collected when he was at Dublin all that was known about erect trees from the polar regions[.]

believe me | [7] ever most truly yours | Cha Lyell [signature]

1
The enclosed copy of Charles Lyell's letter to James Croll on 13 March 1869 is presumed lost.
2
Croll, James (1821-1890). Scottish geologist who developed an astronomical-based theory of climate change.
3
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge is a learned society founded on 28 November 1660. The founding members included the scientists Robert Boyle and Bishop John Wilkins. The society was originally formed in order to promote "Physico-Mathematical Experimental Learning" and to run scientific experiments. In the eighteenth century the society developed to include the reading of formal scientific papers and the demonstration of experiments and new scientific devices. (Purver, M. 1967 [2009]. The Royal Society: Concept and Creation. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul).
4
Scott, Dukinfield Henry (1854-1934). British palaeobotanist.
5
Inglefield, Edward Augustus (1820-1894). British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer.
6
The India Museum of London was first established in 1801 as the Oriental Repository in East India House, Leadenhall Street, London and was maintained by the East India Company until 1858. In 1861 the India Museum temporarily relocated to Fife House at Whitehall until 1868 when the India Office terminated its occupancy. The museum subsequently reopened at the India Office in 1869 and was relocated again in 1875 at rooms rented from the South Kensington Museum. In 1879 the India Museum was dissolved and its collection was dispersed. (Desmond R. 1982. The India Musuem 1801-1879. London: HMSO).
7
Foster, William Edward (1818 -1886). British politician; MP for Bradford 1861-66, Chief Secretary for Ireland 1880-82.
8
Wallace, A. R. 1869. The Malay Archipelago; the Land of the Orang-utan and the Bird of Paradise, 2 vols. London, UK: Macmillan.
9
Darwin, C. 1839. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle Between the Years 1826 and 1836, Describing their Examination of the Southern Shores of South America, and the Beagle's Circumnavigation of the Globe. Journal and Remarks. 1832-1836. London: Henry Colburn.
10
Robinson, George Frederick Samuel, first marquess of Ripon (1827-1909). British politician. Earl de Grey and Ripon 1859-71.
11
Lyell drafted a memorial addressed to the Committee of the Council on Education to assist ARW's application for the directorship of the Bethnal Green Museum. The memorial was signed by Darwin, Richard Owen, Thomas Huxley and Roderick Impey Murchison. Henry Cole, the director of the South Kensington Museum, presented the Memorial before the Committee of the Council in 1872 but the funds allocated by the treasury for the museum were deemed insufficient to allow for a director position. See WCP2104.1994, WCP1885.4056 and WCP2286.2176.
12
Campbell, George John Douglas (1823-1900). Scottish politician and scientist, eighth Duke of Argyll in the peerage of Scotland. Leader in the scholarly opposition against Darwinism.
13
Lyell (née Horner), Mary Elizabeth (1808-1873). British geologist and wife of Charles Lyell.

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP2219.2109)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Cooper, Rod [2013-04-22] Transcription checked by Beros, Matt [2020-09-15]

Published letter (WCP2219.6279)

[1] [p. 30]

73 Harley Street.

March 13, 1869.

Dear Wallace, —... I am reading your new book,1 of which you kindly sent me a copy, with very great pleasure. Nothing equal to it has come out since Darwin's2 "Voyage of the Beagle."3... The history of the Mias4 is very well done. I am not yet through the first volume, but my wife is deep in the second and much taken with it. It is so rare to be able to depend on the scientific knowledge and accuracy of those who have so much of the wonderful to relate.... — Believe me ever most truly yours, | CHA. LYELL.

1
Wallace, A.R. (1869) 'The Malay Archipelago: The land of the orang-utan, and the bird of paradise. A narrative of travel, with studies of man and nature' 2 Vols. London, UK: Macmillan
2
Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882). British naturalist, geologist and author, notably of On the Origin of Species (1859).
3
Darwin, C.R. (1839) 'Journal and remarks. 1832-1836.' Volume 3 of 3 of 'The narrative of the voyages of H.M. Ships Adventure and Beagle.' London, UK: Henry Colburn [1st ed.]
4
The Orang Utan.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Published letter (WCP2219.6279)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Siewert, Betsy [2019-12-17] Transcription checked by Paterson, Gavin [2019-12-18] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10]

Please cite as “WCP2219,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2219