WCP3109

Letter (WCP3109.3077)

[1]1

Kensington & Simpson Court

18 Mar[ch] 1881

My dear Cousin,

With very much pleasure (& even some degree of pride) we have just read the pension1 conferred on you by the Queen2 of £200 per ann[um]. the highest I believe that she bestows. Your name I suppose was brought before Her Majesty by influential parties and did you send to her for acceptance any of your books — perhaps your last Island Life.3 All your friends & readers out here are also much pleased[.]

Since I last wrote wife & I have been to Melbourne to see the exhibition4 from 5 to 17 January — As we went as much to see the Public Institution5 and buildings we spent about a half ½ of our time between [2]6 them & the other in this great show of the Southern hemisphere "The Melbourne Exhibition" — Then the Courts of all Europe & America & the flags of all nations were fully displayed — the buildings are of course very extensive and there are several representatives both outside & in published [sic], not only here but in the London Illustrated Papers such as the "Illustrated L[ondon]. News"7 — the "Graphic"8 &c some of which I suppose you see —. There are upwards of 1,000 pictures — some very large ones:— others lent by the Queen; also about 500 statues all are for sale some being valued as high as £1,000 — Here there are galleries above all full of works past &c &c and underground "Courts" for manufacturing[?] above & below, & the different wines ales &c of all natures — & fountains & tree-ferns growing naturally — Every day music in Building — Piano & organ. — Tremendous quantities of wool & whole suites of furniture to any amount[?] — Prizes awarded to all the Colonies for raw products &c — Many things bought by wealthy colonists from all parts tho[ugh]' nil except packet articles allowed [3]9 to be removed till exhibition closes at end of April — We bought a few small articles for children — In Ceylon10 ([1 word illeg.] coffee & any am[oun]t[?] of Elephants in wood — stone glass & even basket work[.] Glass & porcelain from Austria England & Italy most costly[?] & beautiful & of every size & shape also mosaics — The celebrated P russian ortland Vase11 closely imitated. &c — We went also to Opera in evenings & 2 days to sea-side by rail.

The most important Public Building[s] were are Mint12 — University13 — Town Hall14 — Governm[ent]! Buildings Library15 — National Gallery16 (more pictures & statues) Zoological Museum17 — & Gardens18 — Ethnolog[ica]l. Museum19 Technolog[ica]l. D[itt]o 20 — Botanic[a]l [sic] Gardens21 — Observatory22 — Houses of Parliament23 &c &c[.] At the Mint shown all the processes from the crude gold to the perfect sovereign[.] University new Trust of £40,000 from rich man Sir S. Wilson24 — Town Hall — Fine organ &c &c Library large & well filled Zool[ogical]. Museum[.] Large animals all in natural positions & birds of paradise — many labelled[?] from Collection of A. R. Wallace Esq[uire]25 [4]26 The Botanical [sic] Gardens are very extensive & in fine position plenty of water lakes is[l]ands &c — but not so pretty as ours27 — nor so many flowers[.] The Observatory one of finest telescopes in the world — I[’]m going to & fro from Adelaide28 by steamer 48 hours & both neither Matilda (wife)29 & I the least sea sick — tho’[ough] the deck strewed [sic] with the sick & sore.

We are having a wretched harvest one of the worst [we] ever had from only 2 to 8 bushels per acre30 from droughts & red rust31 — From former also very great scarcity of fruit & that [2 words illeg.][.] Our eldest boy Alley (Algernon)32 now 17 has <matriculated> at our University33 last Thurs[day] & I have since articled him to a legal firm which has cost me upward of £200, so it will be uphill work for a time. Our Philosoph[ica]l [(] now Royal) Soc[iet]y34 — Patron the Queen drags us slow enough along & publishes a yearly vol[ume]. but in this + [5]35 + there is nil remarkable or new. Are you writing any more small or pamphlett [sic] works or lying by on your oars. Hope yourself wife36 and family37 are well.

Yours sincerely | C A Wilson [signature]

1
In a letter of 7 January 1881 (WCP1988) Charles Darwin informed ARW that he had drawn up "a memorial to Mr Gladstone with respect to your services to science." The memorial was sent to the Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone on January 5th and Darwin received a reply from him on the 7th recommending ARW for a pension of £200 per annum.
2
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria) (1819-1901). Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland 1837-1901.
3
Wallace A. R. (1880). Island Life: Or, The Phenomena and Causes of Insular Faunas and Floras, Including a Revision and Attempted Solution of the Problem of Geological Climates. London, Macmillan & Co.
4
Melbourne is the coastal capital of the Australian state of Victoria. The Melbourne International Exhibition was the eighth World’s Fair, with an aim to promote commerce and industry, along with art, science and education. It was the first official World's Fair in the Southern Hemisphere, held from 1 October 1880 until 30 April 1881.
5
The Royal Exhibition Building was completed in 1880 to host the Melbourne International Exhibition, covering an area of over 12,000 square metres.
6
The page is numbered 2 in ink (by the author) in the top RH corner, and struck through in pencil, with the number 58 written below.
7
The world's first illustrated weekly news magazine; its inaugural issue appeared on Saturday, 14 May 1842 and it was published weekly until 1971.
8
A British weekly illustrated newspaper, influential in the art world, first published on 4 December 1869 and then weekly until 1932.
9
Note this page numbered 2 in the scanned images is in fact numbered 3 in ink (by the author) in the top RH corner.
10
A British Crown colony between 1802 and 1948. At first the area it covered did not include the Kingdom of Kandy, which was a protectorate from 1815, but from 1817 to 1948 the British possessions included the whole island of Ceylon, now the nation of Sri Lanka. It is an island country in the Indian Ocean, near south-east India.
11
A Roman cameo glass vase, which is dated to between AD 1 and AD 25. It is the best known piece of Roman cameo glass, first recorded in Rome in 1600-1601, and since 1810 has been in the British Museum in London.
12
The Melbourne Mint was a branch of the British Royal Mint. Until 1916 it minted only gold sovereigns. It is one of the most impressive 19th century government buildings in Victoria, and one of few Australian buildings in the true Renaissance revival style, a virtual copy of the Palazzo Vidfoni-Caffarelli in Rome.
13
The University of Melbourne, founded in 1853, is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria.
14
The central municipal building of the city of Melbourne. The foundation was laid on 29 November 1867. The current Town Hall was officially opened on 9 August 1870.
15
The State Library of Victoria, located in Melbourne was designed by a local architect, Joseph Reed, who later designed the Melbourne Town Hall (see Endnote 16) and the Royal Exhibition Building (see Endnote 7). The foundation stone was laid on 3 July 1854 and the library opened in 1856.
16
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art museum in Melbourne. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest, largest and most visited art museum.
17
There is no extant Zoological Museum in Melbourne. Melbourne’s first public museum, the National Museum of Victoria, established in 1854 focussed on natural history, economic botany and geology. (The Tiegs Museum of the University of Melbourne, a collection of zoological specimens dating from the late 19th century was founded after the date of the letter, in 1887).
18
The Royal Melbourne Zoological Gardens contains animal species from Australia and around the world. It is Australia's oldest zoo and was modeled on the London Zoo. It opened on 6 October 1862.
19
There is no extant Ethnological Museum in Melbourne. The indigenous cultures collections of the National Museum of Victoria include ethnographic material from all regions of Australia and the Pacific Islands and small collections from Europe and Africa.
20
Melbourne’s first public museum, the National Museum of Victoria, was established in 1854 and collections encompassed industry, technology and natural history. The Industrial and Technological Museum was founded in 1870. The nucleus of the Industrial and Technological Museum’s collection was drawn from material exhibited at the Intercolonial Exhibition of 1866-67, and the mining and agricultural collections were transferred from the National Museum.
21
The internationally renowned Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne are located near the centre of the city on the south bank of the Yarra River. The site was selected in 1846 and the first Director in 1857 was Ferdinand von Mueller, who created the National Herbarium of Victoria and brought in many plants.
22
Melbourne Observatory was founded in 1862. It was tasked by the Victorian government with maintaining an accurate time reference for the colony through observations of stars using a transit telescope, as well as general astronomical research. The site chosen was a gentle hill adjacent to the Royal Botanic Gardens. Shortly after founding a 48-inch (120 cm) telescope was installed and for a while it was the largest fully steerable telescope in the world. This instrument was referred to as the "Great Melbourne Telescope".
23
Parliament House in east Melbourne has been the seat of the Parliament of Victoria since 1855 (except for the years 1901 to 1927, when it was the seat of the Federal Parliament of Australia). The building is an example of Neoclassical architecture.
24
Wilson, Samuel (1832-1895). Irish linen manufacturer and farmer who arrived in Victoria, Australia in 1852. He built up extensive interests in mining and sheep grazing and served in the State legislature. His gift in 1874 of £30,000 to build a hall at the University of Melbourne was realized in October 1879 when he set the foundation stone for the Gothic Wilson Hall.
25
During his eight-year expedition to the Malay Archipelago in 1854-1862, ARW observed five different species of birds of paradise, more than any other European at the time. The standardwing bird of paradise, identified by ARW in 1858 was named Semioptera wallacii in his honour.
26
Page numbered 4 in ink (by the author) in the top RH corner.
27
The Adelaide Botanic Garden was established in 1855 and officially opened in 1857. The garden's design was influenced by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and Versailles, France.
28
The distance from the Port of Melbourne to the Port of Adelaide by steamer is 556 nautical miles, which would take approximately two days, steaming at 10 knots.
29
Wilson, Matilda (née King) (?-1909). Wife of the author.
30
A bushel is an imperial unit of weight or mass based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel was equal to 8 gallons and was used mostly for agricultural products such as wheat. The acre is an imperial unit of land area, which is exactly equal to 1⁄640 of a square mile or about 40% of a hectare.
31
Rusts are plant diseases caused by pathogenic fungi of the order Pucciniales. Puccinia persistens subsp. triticina causes wheat rust in grains. It is also known as 'brown or red rust'.
32
Wilson, Algernon Theodore King (1863-1925). Second child and eldest son of the author and his wife Matilda. They had five children, two daughters and three sons.
33
The University of Adelaide established in 1874, is the third-oldest university in Australia.
34
The Adelaide Philosophical Society was established in January 1853; the author was one of the founding members. In 1880 the Society gained the prefix 'Royal' and became known as the Royal Society of South Australia.
35
This text, a continuation of page 4, is written in the LH and top margin of page 1 of the letter.
36
Wallace, Annie (née Mitten) (1846-1914). Wife of ARW.
37
ARW and his wife Annie had two children at the date of the letter: Violet Isabel (1869-1945) and William Greenell (1871-1951). Their eldest son Herbert Spencer ("Bertie") died in 1874, aged 6 years.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP3109.3077)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by O'Dell, Sandra [2018-08-15]

Please cite as “WCP3109,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 1 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3109