WCP4551

[1]

Broadstone, Dorset.

Feb^y. 17th. 1903

My dear Meldola¹

Many thanks for your kind letter² & good wishes. We are now settled in our new house, & are gradually (very gradually) gettings [sic] things straight, especially in the garden which has been for a year a wilderness of clay heaps & builders’ rubbish & is only now being partially tidied up. But the site is so beautiful the views so charming, & the opportunities of development so wide that I am quite satisfied & hope to enjoy a few years [2] of fully occupied repose.

I have a study which I think you will say is almost ideal — and a drawing & dining room, each in its way picturesque & characteristic, & all with fine views. Also verandahs & balconies, gables & dormer-windows, all red brick & tile & white woodwork, homely but comfortable.

I hope when next taking a holiday anywhere in this part of England you will come & see us. It has, however, cost a lot of money, & I am [3] just beginning a new book on an original but I think popular subject, to try & clear off the balance against me.

Rather curiously, Violet³ has at the same time joined a lady friend in taking a house at Wadhurst near Tunbridge Wells, where they are trying to get half-a-dozen young children to board & teach. They are in a lovely district, 500 ft. above sea-level, & Violet is already much improved in health.

Will⁴ is still with the Houston-Thompson Elect. Eng. firm, but is ^now not at their central works at [4] Rugby, which is much more convenient for him to come out and see us than when he was at Newcastle. He is beginning to make a specialty of the application of Elect. power to mining (at their suggestion) & I hope will soon get a substantial improvement in his salary.

We expect they will both be here for a few days at Easter, & if you can run down then they will be pleased to see you.

With kind remembrances to Mrs. Meldola[.]⁵

Believe me| yours very truly| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

I am glad to say I am very well in health — better than for some years past.⁶