WCP2651

Letter (WCP2651.2541)

[1]1

Plymouth.

2nd Febr[uar]y 1884

My dear Sir.

I beg to thank you most sincerely for your kindness in sending me a copy of your work "Land Nationalisation"[.]2 Absence from home has prevented[?] an earlier acknowledgement. & has also only allowed me to read a few [2] Chapters of the book as yet.

I have been especially interested in that which tells[?] of the results of landlordism[?] in Scotland[.]3

Will you permit my having the pleasure of sending you a small book in which I have glanced[?] [3]4 at this great subject from another point of view.

I remain | With much respect | Very faithfully yours | W.F. Butler [signature]5

A. R. Wallace6 [4]7, 8

1
Text in another hand in the top right corner reads "73".
2
Wallace, A. R.. (1883). Land Nationalisation: Its Necessity and Its Aims, W. Reeves, London. pp.i-xiv, 1-244. The book was first published in 1882, but a third edition was printed in September 1883. Butler had written to Wallace asking for a copy of Land Nationalisation on 21 January. WCP2649.
3
Chapter IV, pp. 51-96, deals specifically with Landlordism in Scotland.
4
Text in another hand in the top right corner reads "74".
5
Wallace refers to Butler’s description of mosquito swarms in in his book The Wild Lone Land. Wallace, A. R. (1910). The World of Life, Moffat,Yard and Company, New York. i-xvi, 1-441. [p.146]. However, Wallace seems to have amalgamated the titles of Butler’s two books The Great Lone Land, S. Low, Marston Low, & Searle, London. 469 pp., published in 1872, and The Wild North Land, S. Low, Marston Low, & Searle, London. 425 pp., published in 1873.
6
There are several illegible ink squiggles after Wallace's name.
7
Text in another hand one third of the way down the page reads " Gen Sir Willm Butler KCB". Butler was not a KCB (Knight Commander) but a GCB (Knight Grand Cross) of the Order of Bath. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
8
There is a British Museum mark in red ink two thirds of the way down the page.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2651.2541)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Ghosh, Susan [2015-05-21] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-05-21] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10]

Please cite as “WCP2651,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 1 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2651