[1]1
Ternate2
Sept. 6th. 1858.
My dear Fanny3
In the box which will probably reach Mr Stevens4 two months after this, is one of Dumas' best romances "La Reine Margot"5 wh[ich]. was given me by a friend. It is a wonderful story about the massacre of Bartholomew6 &c. &c. &c. & will help you to pass some long evenings or solitary hours.
I hope you will not think of going back to Conduit St.7 now you have once left it. Thomas' country connexion is likely to increase & be more certain & more profitable than the portrait work besides that it is so much less harassing.
I hope G. C. S.8 will get married at last. [2] He has written me a lot about the ladies in question. Let me know how the affair goes on when you write.
With best love | I remain | Dear Fanny | Your affectionate Brother | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
Mrs Sims
Dear Thomas9
I have just seen in the Athenaeum10 an account of Claudet[']s11 great discovery of the Stereomonoscope12 though I cannot clearly see why it sh[oul]d produce the effects described. Of course you have seen it. Is the effect as good & deceptive as in [3] the common Stereoscope13 — What a grand thing to throw two magnified pictures on a transparent screen & show views & figures of the size & solidity of life! to a large audience. Can it be done? I sh[oul]d think the spectator must be within a certain limited range both of distance & direction to get the proper effect.
The photographic compositions by Rylander14 puzzle me. How does he combine his negatives without showing the joints, or are they touched up afterwards to cover them. Again the Photographic Engravings15 are all new to me. Are they really good?
Now I have to recommend you a periodical "The Family Herald"16 only [4] 1d. per. week. You probably know it & perhaps as I did at first, despise it. I took however an odd volume to New Guinea with me & of course was obliged to read it every line, — & what was my astonishment to find in the leading articles a series of essays on the greatest questions of the days which for wit, true philosophy & novelty, are in my opinion unsurpassed in our whole periodical literature.
Besides these is a host of useful matter & lots of amusing & clever tales for odd half hours. Do take it, & when I return I will buy the back volumes wh[ich]. are double price, for the sake of the leading articles. Have you been to hear Spurgeon?17 — the Athenaeum cut him up as a regular ranter.18 Is it your friend Mr. Fry19 who is publishing the Photographs of living celebrities? Can’t you get a set to copy?
Yours affectionately | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
Tho[ma]s Sims Esq.
Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP368.368)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP368,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP368