WCP244

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

Nov^r. 26th. 1893

My dear Violet¹

You must certainly write to Mr. Hughes² at once & tell him that you find your work too much for you to write more articles for him now.

I went to Lake Tahoe,³ which Miss Bird describes as such a paradise, but it is nothing like so beautiful as our lakes though very much larger. A good deal of the country in the mountains was just as she described it. I have just been reading "The Deemster".⁴ Of all the horrible melancholy books I ever read! Not a gleam of happiness [2] anywhere! The "Son of Hagar"⁵ is just as bad! No more of Hall Caine’s for me.

You cannot expect an answer from Chicago in less than three weeks. You seem to have plenty of visiting & amusements now. My chair cost £6.6. Mr. Lunds if as you describe, perhaps £8!!!

You did not tell us what you did on your half-term holiday after all. We had a letter from Will⁶ describing the storm[.] It appears to have been at its strongest on that coast, but it was bad all round & there were more wrecks & more lives lost [3] that Saturday than have ever been known before on our coasts. Here it was not remarkable, & we felt it hardly at all as it was a N. E. wind from which we are sheltered. Did I tell you that our hot water cistern began leaking the day before the gale, spirting [sic] out boiling water just as we were going to dinner, so we had to g rush & turn off & run off the water & get the carpet up, & now for a week we have had no hot water. We shall have a new extra strong one put up in a day or two. [4] Old Mr Seller came to see about it. He had been very ill but was better. Then he was suddenly taken ill again last night and died. He was a very nice old man, the best and most sensible of the tradesmen here. The Pond is enlarged & the island made & planted, but I am rather afraid I have not made it quite high enough to keep the roots of the plants out of the water. If it you should go anywhere where they grow orchids you can gently hint that a few spare ones would be acceptable, & bring them me for a Christmas present.

Your affectionate Pa | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]