WCP6360

Letter (WCP6360.7355)

[1]1

VALLEY CROFT,

NORTHWOOD,

MIDDLESEX.

March 24th [19]142

Dear Sir3

I am sorry not to have replied earlier to your kind letter of Feb[ruary] 20. I had several interesting letters from your father, but doubt if I can at the moment lay hands upon them. I was extremely sorry to hear of his death, the more so as we were just about to meet and discuss the matter of establishing an Institution, such that I proposed before the British Association4. (see enclosed paper) He had askme asked me to go down and see him. He broke wrote that "your work may establish a new science"[.] Well, he has gone, but has left a name [2]5 that will not go. I felt peculiarly in sympathy with his ideas and I think he reciprocated the feeling. My experiences have been a little like his own — long sojourns in South America and abroad, and then a recognition of the great needs of social reform.

I am lecturing to the Royal Society of Arts6 in April on "The Need for a Better Organisation of Economic and Industrial resources" and Lord Milner7 is going to take the chair for me. If you are in town, perhaps you will come and discuss it.

I am very pleased your people liked my book on S[outh]. America8.

Yours truly | C R Enock9 [signature]

(C[ivil].E[ngineer], F[ellow]. [of the] R[oyal]. G[eographical]. S[ociety].

1
The page is numbered [WP16/1/12] in pencil in the top RH corner and "[C R Enock]" is written in pencil in the top LH corner. "W G Wallace Esq[uire]." is written in ink in the hand of the author on the left at the bottom of the page.
2
Year deduced from birth and death dates of author.
3
Wallace, William Greenell (1871-1951) Electrical engineer, second son and third child of ARW.
4
The British Association for the Advancement of Science (founded 1831) is a learned society promoting science, directing general attention to scientific matters and facilitating interaction between scientific workers.
5
The page is numbered [old Ref WP2/50] in the bottom RH corner.
6
A British organisation committed to finding practical solutions to contemporary social challenges, based in London. Founded in 1754 as the Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce, it was granted a Royal Charter in 1847. The shorter version The Royal Society of Arts is used more frequently than the full name.
7
Milner, Alfred, 1st Viscount (1854-1925) British statesman and colonial administrator who played an influential leadership role in the formulation of foreign and domestic policy between the mid-1890s and early 1920s.
8
This sentence and the valediction are written longitudinally in the LH margin.
9
Enock, Charles Reginald (1868-1970) British civil engineer, who travelled on behalf of US companies in Mexico, Ecuador and Peru. He was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and author of several books on the human geography of South America.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP6360.7355)]

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 “WCP6360,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6360