Broadstone, Dorset.
Feb[ruar]y 23rd. 1903
My dear Poulton
Up to about 15 years ago I thought I was born in 1822. I suppose I had been told so. But I then came into possession of an old Prayer Book in which the date of birth of my father is given by his father, & of all my brothers & sisters in my father’s handwriting, & there I am put down as born in 1823 Jan[uary] 8th. & the date is repeated for my baptism Feb[ruary] 16th. 1823.
I therefore found myself then [2] a year younger than I had supposed, and I gave the correct date to Mr Bettany for an Introduction to the cheap edition of my "Amazon & Rio Negro" in 1889.
I am still very busy, & all the time I can spare from the garden I give to a new book I am writing — a kind of pot-boiler — though one that I am immensely interested in, but that you will not care about.
I can quite understand the West African butterflies going Eastward to the Equatorial Lakes as it is mainly a question of the [3] extension of forests. We knew hardly anything of all that region when I made my map of African sub regions which had to be largely guess-work.
Believe me| Yours very truly| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4415.4686)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Envelope addressed to "Prof. E. B. Poulton F.R.S., Wykeham House, Oxford", with stamp, postmarked "BROADSTONE | A | FE24 | 03". Note on front of envelope in Poulton's hand: "A. R. Wallace 1903. Date of birth Jan 8. 1823 | Feb. 23. 1903."; postmark on back. [Envelope (WCP4415.4687)]
Please cite as “WCP4415,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 1 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4415