Godalming
Aug[ust] 24th 1888
My dear Fanny
We returned home yesterday evening after an absence of 4 weeks. After leaving Penzance (where no decent homes are to be had) we went to Chepstow, & [MS]Tintern Abbey, the legend cliff & the beautiful scenery around Monmouth1 — - perhaps the most beautiful in the world. Some nice homes, very cheap, with land, in that district, but all remote from towns & stations of course. [2] We then spent 4 days at Coleford in the Forest of Dean, a forest bigger by far than the Epping Forest2 or even the New Forest — - then we spent a week with Miss North at her country home at Alderley in Gloucestershire, in the most beautiful country all meadows hills, woods, & streams, very park-like & with grand tree. She has been making a garden which though only 2 years old looks 20. We found there [3] a large home uninhabited for 20 years, set in perfect order repair 3, & to be let at a mere[?] nominal rent, but it has in front of it a huge deserted cloth mill, in ruins, which would repaired & be pulled down and cleared away, & the landlord would rather let it remain empty then go to the expense. It would make a most lovely grounds and gardens & Miss North crys for us to have it. Willie & Violet have been enjoying themselves while we have been away visiting almost everyday4 If I [4] had £500 to spend on it I believe I could have it on lease for £15 to £20 a year with 8 acres of land garden orchard, wood, splendid running trout 5 stream, & materials of old mill to make mounds & rock work! It would be splendid! But I cant. I send zoo tickets for 2 month Sundays. I am better but not well.
Your affectionate Brother | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP401.401)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP401,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 4 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP401