WCP6234

Letter (WCP6234.7217)

[1]1

CUCKOO HILL,

SOUTH GORLEY,

FORDINGBRIDGE.

Jan[ua]ry. 24 1931.2

Dear Wallace3,

We are almost strangers. I have often hoped to meet you again at the B[ournemouth]. N[atural]. S[cience]. S[ociety].4 Meetings at 395 — or at Country Meetings — but hope has been deferred. I trust that you, & yours are well.

I am purposing to publish next autumn various Local papers which I have written during the last 12 years, amongst which I wish to include our joint ‘Ancient Earthw[or]ks in the B[ourne]m[ou]th District’ — I have the consent of the Council of the B[ournemouth]. N[atural]. S[cience]. S[ociety].; may I have yours? with, of course, prefacial acknowledgement.

I should be grateful if you would read the enclosed account of our unsatisfactory dig in Dudsbury6 — wh[o]s[e] record I propose to add to the original paper — & w[oul]d. dot my i-s, & cross my l-s where need be.

I have recently sent the 2 shards that you found on the floor of the inner Dudsbury ditch to Christopher Hawkes7 of the B[ritish]. M[useum]. who has had much Iron Age pottery through his hands, at S[ain]t Catherine’s Hill Winchester8, & in some [2] Sussex sites. He accepts them as Iron Age & will refer to them in a paper that he has in hand for ‘Antiquity’9.

I have got these 2 shards here, & am awaiting a convenient opportunity to place them, fully labelled, in our Museum at N[umer]o. 39.

I am Y[ou]rs Sincerely | Heywood Sumner10 [signature]

1
The page is numbered [WP16/1/141] in pencil in the top RH corner.
2
The date is written on the LH side at the foot of the letter on page 2.
3
Wallace, William Greenell (1871-1951) Electrical engineer, second son and third child of ARW.
4
Society formed in 1903 with the aim of promoting the study of all branches of Science and Natural History.
5
The home of the BNSS is located at 39 Christchurch Road, on the outskirts of Bournemouth town centre. It houses a museum containing preserved natural history specimens, as well as extensive collections of fossils, rocks and minerals.
6
Dudsbury Camp (or Dudsbury Rings) is one of a series of Iron Age earthworks between Hambledon Hill and Hengistbury Head, Dorset.
7
Hawkes, Charles Francis Christopher (1905-1992) English archaeologist specialising in European prehistory. He was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford 1946-1972.
8
A chalk hill of 97m elevation, south-east of Winchester, Hampshire. The top of the hill is ringed by the ramparts of an Iron Age hill fort.
9
An academic journal founded in 1927, dedicated to the subject of Archaeology, covering topics worldwide from all periods.
10
Sumner, George Heywood Maunoir (1853-1940) English painter, illustrator and craftsman, closely involved with the Arts and Crafts movement and the late-Victorian London art world. In his mid-forties he relocated to Cuckoo Hill, near Fordingbridge, Hampshire, and spent the rest of his life actively investigating and recording the archaeology, geology and folklore of the New Forest and Cranborne Chase regions.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP6234.7217)]

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 “WCP6234,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6234