Ɛpsilon

WCP2949

Letter (WCP2949.2839)

[1]

OLD MILLHOUSE

TRUMPNGTON

CAMBRIDGE

[23 June 1909]1

My dear Dr Wallace,

I feel that I must send you this short line on returning home from the Darwin banquet2 just to say how very warmly and enthusiastically the whole five hundred of us dining welcomed the proposa reading of the telegram which you will have now received.

When Arthur Balfour3 came [2] to the end of his speech without one single allusion to you, and Arrhenius4 of Stockholm with only the casual mention of your name, & Poulton5 with not even that, I could not help wondering what Darwin6 himself would have thought! I was delighted then when Vice-Chancellor7 (Canon Mason, Master of Pembroke) got up and said how much all must regret the absence of [3] two (yourself and Hooker8 — who was there but not at the Dinner) and then read out the telegram.9

It was received with a storm of applause, but by no one more warmly than myself, who had followed you with such delight (not only spiritually but corporeally) through your long Eastern wanderings.

I wished so much you had been there.

I trust that you are keeping fairly well, despite our long winter, I had quite a long [4] talk with Hooker yesterday afternoon, and he seemed extraordinarily keen & interested about things still[.]

With kind regards, | believe me | very sincerely yours | F. H. H. Guillemard10[signature]

If you have a recent photograph to spare I should so much appreciate it.

Did you read Beccari's11 "Wanderings in the Great Forest of Borneo"12 which I edited, translated some little time ago. I thought it an extraordinarily interesting book, and should be glad to hear what you thought of it.

1
Date handwritten by unknown hand.
2
The Darwin Banquet was held on 23 June 1909 i n the New Examination Hall of Cambridge University.
3
Balfour, Arthur James (1848-1930). British Prime Minister from 1902 to 1905.
4
Arrhenius, Svante August (1859-1927). Swedish physicist and chemist. Director of the Physico-Chemical Nobel Institute, Stockholm.
5
Poulton, Edward Bagnall (1856-1943). British Entomologist. Hope Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Jesus College.
6
Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882). British naturalist, geologist and author, notably of On the Origin of Species (1859).
7
Mason, Arthur James (1851-1928). Fellow of Jesus 1896-1903. Master of Pembroke 1903-1912. Elected Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1908-1910.
8
Hooker, Joseph Dalton (1817-1911). British botanist and explorer. Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1865-85. President of the Royal Society 1873-78.
10
Guillemard, Francis Henry Hill (1852-1933). First reader of geography at Cambridge University, a traveller, writer and naturalist.
11
Beccari, Odoardo (1843-1920). Italian naturalist, explorer and collector.
12
Beccari, Odoardo. 1904. Wanderings in the Great Forest of Borneo: Travels and researches of a naturalist in Sarawak. Ed. & translated by F. H. H. Guillemard. London: Archibald Constable.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2949.2839)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Hamburger, Esther [2015-07-16] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-07-16] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Please cite as “WCP2949,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2949