WCP4516

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

July 18^th 1890

My dear Meldola

Many thanks for yours telling me that Willie will be admitted to the intermediate course. I fear he has not much "go" in him, but I was the same at his age, and it took me a long time to understand many things. I got his Report this morning. In Mathematics and all the Laboratory work he is marked Good or Fair, only in the "Lectures", especially Electricity he is "very feeble". But modern Electricity [2] is a very difficult subject, theoretically, and I do not wonder at his not getting a grip of it in one year’s lectures. He tells me, too, that the lecturers (not Prof[essor] Thomson [sic]) are not clear, and that the quantity of formulae they have to take down is puzzling, especially as some of the formulae are in the Differential Calculus wh[ich] they have not got to yet! & have no notion what it means! It seems as if the Lectures were too far in advance of their [3] knowledge.

I am busy now with ^a new editions of my "Natural Selection & Tropical Nature", — and am also preparing notes and small correctingons for a cheaper ed[itio]n of my Malay Archipelago. We are having an awful wet summer so far. Last Wednesday we went to Portland with the Dorset Nat[ural] Hist[ory] & Arch[aeologica]l Society, & saw a Dene Hole recently found there. It was not like the Essex ones but like an underground hut¹ just below the surface lined with [4]² rough stones and about 6ft deep. Several others have been found during the quarrying. I believe Mr. Holmes has been to see it.

Hoping you are all quite well.

Believe me| Yours faithfully| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]