WCP3622

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

Nov^r. 29th. 1901

Prof. W. F. Barrett¹

My dear Barrett

I have at length bought some land only 4 miles from here offering a most charming site for a house, and I am really (at my age!) going to build!

But there is no water laid on & the company want makes an extraordinary demand for "extending the mains". I should therefore prefer to have my own water, & write to ask you if you have the address of any relative "dowser" within a [2] moderate distance of this place. Even if the water should be laid on I should be glad of a surface supply to form ponds &c. for waterlilies. I fancy there must be water very near as there is a good deal of clay about on the surface or a few feet deep, and a surface supply however small would be most useful.

If permanent water can be had at a moderate depth I would put up a small windmill & force pump as I did at the first house I built, 30 years ago.

Believe me | yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]