Broadstone, Dorset.
Feby. 17th. 1903
My dear Meldola
Many thanks for your kind letter & 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 verandhas & 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, Violet 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.
Will is still with the Houston-Thompson Elect[rical] Eng[ineering] firm, but is now not at their central works at [4]1 Rugby, which is much more convenient for him to come [word crossed out] and see us than when he was at Newcastle. He is beginning to make a specialty of the application of Elect[rical] 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
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.2
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4551.4858)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP4551,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4551