WCP3326

Letter (WCP3326.3294)

[1]

Brynhyfryd,

Briton Ferry.

Glamorganshire

South Wales

16.1.13.

Dear Dr. Wallace

Your letter & photo to hand this morning to which please accept my very many thanks. I am more than delighted to have it & can assure you that I am very proud of it. I shall have it framed & hung in my drawing room. I am going to send you, tomorrow, a back stone loaf which I hope you will accept & enjoy for your breakfast on Saturday morning. Wish I had known in[2] time I would have sent one for y[ou]r birthday. We used to bake one every day for my dear father during his life time. He could eat backstone bread & butter when every thing else would fail to tempt him.

I think I shall be able to send you some meal for[?], "Sucan Blawd",1 which I hope you will accept from a daughter of y[ou]r old friend. I wonder if you remember how to prepare it. I think had better say in case you have forgotten (70 odd years is a long time). Well[?] put two good hands full of meal[3] into a stone jar & about a pint of water, let it stand over night until the following evening then stir it up well. then strain through a hair sieve. put the liquid into a saucepan & boil for about 20 minutes & keep stirring all the time (as it burns[?] directly if left) then pour into a soup plate until it cools. & serve with good milk, or cream. I wish you were able to come this way we should be so pleased to have y[ou]r company for a few days[4] We would do our best to make you comfortable & take you to see my dear mother's old home Bryn Coch2farm which is still in existence.

If at any time you would like any news of the old haunts of Neath3 I shall be pleased to give you any information I can. I am sure you will be amused at my writing in this strain but then you know I am a Welsh woman[?].

Hoping to be able to send you some meal in a few days & again thanking you

With kind regards | yours faithfully | Sarah A Jones [signature]

A Welsh steeped oatmeal dish.
Farm near Neath, Glamorgan where ARW had lodged in 1841.
Town in Glamorgan, Wales where ARW lived for several years in the 1840s.

Please cite as “WCP3326,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3326