WCP6137

Letter (WCP6137.7099)

[1]1

GORRINGES,

DOWNE,

KENT.

Feb[ruary] 27 [1930]2

Dear Mr. Wallace3,

Thank you for y[ou]r. letter. I do not think I possess any great mass of y[ou]r. father’s letters to C[harles]. D[arwin].4 but I have got a tremendous box full of papers of my father’s5 & I think there may be a letter or two of your father’s there — I will try to have a look & see & also discover if possible whether any other member of my family has any. I will let you know a little later on.

If I have any I sh[oul]d. be glad to do with them as you suggest — [2] I think Down House6 takes every reasonable care of things but it is not of course like the British Museum7.

I am sorry for being rather vague but I am rather overwhelmed by my boxes [1 word illeg. struck through] and have not yet had them sorted as they ought to be.

Y[ou]rs. truly | Bernard Darwin8 [signature]

Thank you for approving of [1 word illeg.]

1
The page is numbered WP16/1/78 [1 of 3] in pencil in the top RH corner.
2
Year missing in letter. Date from postmark on envelope.
3
Wallace, William Greenell (1871-1951) Electrical engineer, second son and third child of ARW.
4
Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882). English naturalist and writer. Originator of the theory of evolution by natural selection and author (1859) of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
5
Darwin, Francis ("Frank") (1848-1925) British botanist, the third son and seventh child of the British naturalist Charles Darwin and his wife Emma Wedgwood.
6
Down House, the home of Charles Darwin from 1842-1882, was held as a memorial by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, "in custody for the Nation".
7
The British Museum, dedicated to human history, art and culture was established in Bloomsbury, London in 1753. The author refers to the first branch institution, the British Museum (Natural History), which opened in South Kensington in 1881. It is now commonly referred to as the Natural History Museum.
8
Darwin, Bernard Richard Meirion (1876-1961) First grandson of the British naturalist Charles Darwin (see Endnote 4) and son of the botanist Francis Darwin (see Endnote 5). He was a golf writer and high-standard amateur golfer.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP6137.7099)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by O'Dell, Sandra [2018-08-15]

Envelope (WCP6137.7101)

Envelope addressed to "W. G. Wallace Esq., Doveshill Cottage., Ensbury Park, Bournemouth", with stamp, postmarked "DOWNE | C | 26 FE | 30". [Envelope (WCP6137.7101)]

Please cite as “WCP6137,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 30 November 2023, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6137