WCP2422

Letter (WCP2422.2312)

[1]

Mount House,

Alderley,

Wotton-under-Edge.

23d. April [1890]1

Dear Mr. Wallace,

Thank you much for the Amazon book, I have the original edition which I shall now be able to give away, as your gift with my name written in it is much more valuable to me. I think I have a few plants you & Dr. Allman may both like to have, the Canary island [Erishiam] & the Chilean Puya for instance both of which we raised from seed, but I hope you may find your way home this way [2] way from Scotland & find some other things. I am certainly a degree better & was out for the first time as far as my arbour yesterday afternoon. The anenomies & common fritillaries are a failure this tear but I fancy a good deal owing to mismanagement. I hope things may be better cared for in future my man owns to having neglected everything. General Hale told me yesterday that he finds quantities of dead rooks everywhere, he believes they eat the corn which is soaked in some poison (arsenik [sic] I believe) before it is put into the ground to kill the grub in it. Give my love to Mrs. Wallace & the Allmans.

Believe me | Yours v[er]y truly | Marianne North [signature]2

We can ascertain that this is from 1890, because Wallace mentions this letter having arrived that morning in note sent to William Mitten (Alfred Russel Wallace to William Mitten, 26 April 1890. Library & Archives, MS 140a-10. Linnean Society of London. [WCP3721]) which is sent from Parkstone. Wallace did not move to Parkstone until June 1889. And as North dies by August 1890 the April date can only possibly be in 1890.
British Museum stamp underneath.

Please cite as “WCP2422,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2422