5, Westbourne Grove Terrace W.
Feb. 19th. 1865
Dear Newton
Many thanks for your kind note1, & for the first of the new brood of Ibises2, which I think first rate. I detect a little of the Newtonian humour cropping out here & there, & expect the "Ibis" to be now quite a jolly bird, less dignified & stately than during the Sclaterian Epoch3, but equally instructive as the ornithologists literary organ.
I shall be most happy to contribute my mite to its support & will promise you that the first time I work at birds again [2] it shall be with the Ibis in my eye! The fact is however I have done nothing for the last six months, — having met with that "tide"4 Shakespear5 [sic] speaks of, which I had thought to have taken at the flood & been carried on, not to fortune but to happiness, — when a wave came & left me high & dry, — & here I am like a fish out of water.
To descend from metaphor I have been considerably cut up. I was to have been married in December, — everything appeared serene, — invitations were [3] sent out, wedding dresses ordered & all the programme settled, when almost at the last moment without the slightest warning the whole affair was broken off.6
I am now getting over it a little, but am not very bright, & cannot tell when I shall go at birds again. I am now working a little at insects, & am also preparing for moving, as I leave here in March & do not yet [4]7 know where I am going.
I will let you know my new address as soon as I have one.
In the mean time | Believe me | Dear Newton | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
A[lfred]. Newton Esq.
Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP4006.3949)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP4006,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 7 February 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4006