WCP6222

Letter (WCP6222.7200)

[1]1

WYKEHAM HOUSE.

OXFORD POST & TELEGR[APH].

8 May 1936.

Dear Mr Wallace2,

Thank you very much for your letter. As I was going to London yesterday I took all the 8 notebooks to the Linn[ean]. Soc[iet]y3. F.[?] I am sure they will value them as among their greatest treasures. Many of them have the pages with one oblique pencil line through the writing showing no doubt that it had been read and made use of in one of your father’s books. [2] I am sure that he studied all of them that were written on his travels. O The others were notes taken in England in preparation for the travels. I asked them about the hat[?] & shall know later on what they think.

I am very glad that Sherborne4 is doing so well for your boy. I have associations with it in addition to those created by the name of the Head! 5 The man who made it a great School was D[octo]r. Harper6 who, on retiring, about 1877 or 1878 [3]7 became Principal of my own College, Jesus College, here. The School went down under his successor8 & it troubled him very much. However, Mr Nowell Smith9 who now lives in Oxford restored it splendidly.

I am glad to hear that Sir James Marchant10 is well. I have not seen him for a very long time. Please give your sister11 my kindest remembrances when you see [1 word illeg. struck through] or write to her.

With kind regards, | Yours very sincerely, | E. B. Poulton12 [signature]

[4]13

W. G. Wallace Esq[ui]re

16 Bryanstone Road.

Bournemouth.

The page is numbered WP16/1/129 [1 of 3] in pencil in the top LH corner.
Wallace, William Greenell (1871-1951) Electrical engineer, second son and third child of ARW.
A learned society founded in 1788 for the study and dissemination of taxonomy and natural history, named in honour of Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist, who is regarded as the father of modern taxonomy.
English boys’ public school in Sherborne, Dorset, whose origins date back to the eighth century.
Wallace, Alexander Ross (1891-1982) English priest and author, was Headmaster of Sherborne School at the date of the letter (1934-1950).
Harper, Hugo Daniel (1821-1895) Headmaster of Sherborne School 1851-1877 and Principal of Jesus College Oxford 1877-1895.
The page is numbered WP16/1/129 [2 of 3] in pencil in the top LH corner and the numeral "2", encircled, is written in the hand of the author in the centre at the top of the page.
Headmasters of Sherborne School in succession to Hugo Daniel Harper (see Endnote 6) were Rev. Edward Mallet Young (1877-1892) and Rev. Frederick Brooke Westcott (1892-1909), before Charles Nowell-Smith (see Endnote 9), appointed in 1909.
Smith, Nowell Charles (known as Charles Nowell-Smith) (1871-1961), Headmaster of Sherborne School 1909-1927.
Marchant, James (1857-1956) Free Church minister, social activist and philanthropist and close friend of ARW.
Wallace, Violet Isabel (1869-1945) ARW’s daughter and sister of the recipient.
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.
The envelope is numbered WP16/1/129 [3 of 3] in pencil in the top LH corner. It is postmarked "OXFORD 9 45 PM 8 MAY 1936".

Envelope (WCP6222.7201)

Envelope addressed to "W. G. Wallace Esqre, 16 Bryanstone Road, Bournemouth", with stamp, postmarked "OXFORD | 9 45PM | 8 MAY | 1936". [Envelope (WCP6222.7201)]

Please cite as “WCP6222,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6222