Parkstone, Dorset.
Dec[embe]r. 2nd 1896
Dear Mr. Galton
I was very pleased to have your private circular[?] and letter. I had just written to Poulton, hoping that Oxford would yet do something of the kind. But the R.[oyal] Soc.[iety] will be better still. There are many great landlords & rich men who are Fellows of the R.[oyal] S.[ociety]. Will more of them give a farm for the purpose? Surely many must have farms of very little letting value. And if [2] a great Landlord gave a farm, perhaps some millionaire might devote a fragment of his wealth to endowing it. If they will not do this they are not very worthy fellows of the R.[oyal] S[ociety].
It would be rather a [?] to have the botanical separate from the Zool.[ogical] experiments, as one resident manager could as easily look after [3] both as over one. Even with both his time would be barely occupied. Could not additional land be got near Darwin’s house & the whole Biological Farm established there?
The easy accessibility from London would be a great advantage, and I fancy the adjoining land is rather poor, but dry & healthy.
I hope now something may be done.
Yours very sincerely | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
F. Galton Esq.[uire] F.R.S.
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4134.4151)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP4134,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4134