Ɛpsilon

WCP3349

Letter (WCP3349.3317)

[1]

DEEPDENE,

FRIMLEY GREEN,

SURREY.

Oct 23 [1899-1900]1

My dear Dr Wallace: —

We have finally got our new place in something like settled condition and look forward to planting our hedge in a few days. I have always remembered your recommendation of hedge plants but not the plants themselves — will you do me the great service of writing me those you recommend for a mixed hedge?

I wish you could see the place as it now is in its autumn glory – it [2] is a very pretty place & we hope to improve it in the course of the year. I enclose a photograph of the house & two of views in the grounds.

It is as wild here as I could expect to find it in England, the pine woods extend of hundreds of acres around us & the squirrels come into my ground. I have rescued three families of little ones from the [illeg.] market & most of them are at this moment tearing round my room — four eating their nuts on my writing table at this moment and all happy & fat. I only lost one in the bringing up though four more wee babies unable to eat. I shall let them run in the front when they have got independent, except one or two who are as fond of me as a dog is, & are [3] quite domesticated so that I doubt if they would go away if I put them in the wood. A few minutes minutes ago I had four chasing each other round me as if I were a tree only they found pockets which trees have not.

Kindest regards to Mrs Wallace.2

Yours sincerely | W J Stillman3 [signature]

[4]4

1
In May 1899 ARW wrote to Violet to say “Poor Mr. Stillman has not found a place to suit him yet.” By July 1901 Stillman had passed. This letter therefore would have been written in October 1899 or October 1900.
2
Wallace (née Mitten), Annie (1846-1914). British. Wife of ARW; daughter of William Mitten.
3
Stillman, William James (1828-1901). American journalist, diplomat, author, historian, and photographer.
4
In ARW’s handwriting, “Mr Stilman – with Photos of House”.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP3349.3317)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Paterson, Gavin [2020-06-09] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Enclosure (WCP3349.8381)

Three photographic sepia prints originally enclosed with letter. All photograph are annotated in pencil on the back in ARW's hand; the first annotated 'Deepdene, Frimley Green Surrey W. J. Stilman [sic]', showing a house through trees; the second annotated 'W. J. Stillman's grounds', showing woods with bracken around the base of trees; the third annotated 'W J Stillman's grounds 'showing trees surrounded by almost bare ground, with a post and wire fence and iron barred gate in the background from which leads a walking path partly edged with a rustic wooden fence. [Enclosure (WCP3349.8381)]

Please cite as “WCP3349,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3349