WCP6215

Letter (WCP6215.7191)

[1]1

WYKEHAM HOUSE.

OXFORD POST & TELEGR[APH].

8: XI: 1931

Dear Mr. Wallace2,

I now return these very interesting letters with many thanks. I gave an account of the "fly" & spider at the Ent[omological]. Soc[iety]3. last week & hope to print the extract in the Proc[eedin]gs. The "blue-tailed fly" recalled memories to me & to others & we finally ran it down to a plantation song of our youth

"So early in the morning

Before the break of day"

The lines on the fly are I [2] believe:—

"Pass the bottle when him dry,

"Brush away the blue-tailed fly."

The other two letters throw much light on the friendly relations between your father & his family & H[enry]. W[alter]. B[ates]4. I think the second, altho[ugh]. addressed to Mr. (Not Mrs.) Sims5, is evidently written to Mrs Wallace6 for Mrs Sims to see.

Again with many thanks & kindest regards,

Yours sincerely, | E. B. Poulton7. [signature]

1
The page is numbered WP16/1/122 in pencil in the top RH corner.
2
Wallace, William Greenell (1871-1951) Electrical engineer, second son and third child of ARW.
3
The Entomological Society of London (now the Royal Entomological Society) was founded in 1833, the successor to a number of short-lived societies dating back to 1745.
4
Bates, Henry Walter (1825-1892) English naturalist and explorer, who gave the first scientific account of mimicry in animals. His expedition to the rainforests of the Amazon with ARW started in 1848. ARW returned in 1852, but lost his collection on the return voyage when his ship caught fire. When Bates arrived home in 1859, he had sent back over 14,712 species (mostly of insects) of which 8,000 were new to science.
5
Sims, Frances ("Fanny") (née Wallace) (1812-1893) Sister of ARW and aunt of the recipient.
6
Wallace, Annie (née Mitten) (1846-1914) Wife of ARW and mother of the recipient.
7
Poulton, Edward Bagnall (1856-1943) British evolutionary biologist, friend of ARW and lifelong advocate of natural selection. He did pioneering work on warning or protective colouration in animals and became Hope Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford in 1893.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP6215.7191)]

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]

Please cite as “WCP6215,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6215