WCP4471

[1]

Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter’s Road

Croydon.

Dec^r. 27th. 1880

Dear Mr. Meldola¹

Your arrangement will suit me very well indeed. The most convenient train for me is due at London Bridge at 5.3. & allowing for possible lateness, & getting across, the 5.35 from Liverpool Street seems the earliest I can get, reaching Buckhurst Hill at 5.59 — This however does not seem to stop at Stratford. There may be alterations in the trains however, but this will be the nearest I can say now.

To save further writing will [2] you be so good as to inform Mr Cole² that I have a map about 7ft long by 4 ½ feet high to be hung up[.] It is in two long strips & will want either pinning to a curtain or tacking to a board. If he arranges for this beforehand it can be put up in a few minutes. I shall also want a reading lamp with an opaque shade to throw the light on my notes as without this I cannot see them.

I am glad you like my "Climate" theory. I cannot myself yet see any flaw in it, but it is so complex a question that few people will take the trouble to understand it. If I have [3] really hit upon the true solution of this great puzzle it will I think be the best thing I have done yet. Like most of my other theories it came upon me while writing, for when I began my book I had no notion of how to treat it; I only felt there was a great hitch somewhere in Croll’s³ theory. Poor Croll, by-the-bye, is very ill with incipient paralysis, & has not yet been able to give me his views on my book which I sent him.

Yours very truly| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]