WCP64

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne.

Oct^r.. 26th. 1902

My dear Will¹

It was too late for Bingo² to help us with the books as he had to return to Oxford yesterday week. We have now got all the bookcases & most of the "Study" books in place, — also the "Jennings-Well" fire place up, with tiled sides & ^raised hearth, & when the Teak mantel is up (tomorrow I hope) the room will be really fit to receive the rest of the furniture & to be inhabited.

In the dining-room the Rational Stove is fixed and by means of a panel & border of glazed tiles, I have constructed a kind of high old-fashioned mantel, — which with [2] the teak panelling round it and a mantel-board (not yet designed) will be quite in character with the room. Percy has just finished the teak front-door & is very proud of it. It is certainly a good piece of work and will alone give a character to the house — very simple and massive. It will I expect weigh over a cwt. At last the baths &c. are fitted & the water on, and some of the shelves are up, so that we shall finish unpacking the cases &c. tomorrow, and get the place a little clear.

Just now, when I wanted him most Pennington has got a severe attack of rheumatism & is in bed. Kerley [3] has ^{swept and} scrubbed and the Study & some of the bedrooms and in the absence of the painter — also ill — has stained them. More cupboards & shelves have to be put up upstairs — the top skylight to be made, the 3 verandahs to be put up, the balconies to be finished, so that it seems likely that all will not be finished when you come at ‘Xmas. No extra labourers are to be had now or I would get one.

Doulton’s complete Mantel & fire-place (Violet’s²choice) came yesterday, & we laid the chief parts out on the floor to see that all was complete & unbroken, and I really think it will be very handsome & suit the room admirably. It is [4] all like china in surface of a delicate yellow buff colour, filled up between the inner & outer parts with tiles of a beautiful light blue with a darker blue handsome pattern design of plants & birds, which will have a striking effect. And the cost is only about a third more than the cheapest kind of "Rational" ^{in the Din. room} will come to, and about the price of a handsome marble mantel-piece only.

Many thanks for your kind offer of a contribution towards house by way of loan, but I think now I see my way to get through safely. About seven years back, I invested £.100 in Local Loans Stock 3. p. c. & put it in the Savings Bank in Ma’s name, so that in case of my death she might have cash for emergencies: — and also to serve [5] (5) as a reserve in case of any need such as this. I calculated on this £100 to ^help buy the land with, & then, if there had been less blundering, the house would have been finished without borrowing. When I had to pay for the land I asked Ma to sell it out, — but she gave no answer & I did not press it then, as I had the money. Now, however, seeing the necessity, she has sold out & we have paid the money into bank. But this still left a deficit beyond the £.100 borrowed from the bank. So I sold 100 one-pound shares in "New Vancouver Coal" Co. which formerly paid 5.. 6 p. cent, but the last few years either nothing or 3 or 4 1/2 per cent. — Also the £.25 East Af. Tel. Debenture I bought of you, the two bringing in £.87. This leaves [6] only just enough to pay bills now due or that will be due next month — while wages are still £10 a week or more. So I shall be stumped out again before ‘Xmas.

Macmillan’s² account, due in January, is however about £.60 and I have no doubt they will advance me this a month before due if I ask for it — So I hope to scrape, through, but it will be a close thing. It will still leave £.100 due to Bank but this I hope will be paid off in a year, and to do so we must, if [7] possible, get either 2 ladies or a gent. & wife, as paying guests, which we ought to be able to do, giving them one of the best rooms & the little one. At two guineas a week each person, one guinea ought to be rent & profit, & that would pay of [sic] the £.100 in a year, besides being pleasant company if we got nice people. However that is to be seen.

Your explanation of gravitation is an old one. I forgot who originated it, but it is considered to be the best; but not to account for it fully. L^d. Kelvin³ tried it but found some flaw mathematically, I never understood [8] what, but I fancy it is something to do with resistance to motion, whether of transference or rotation. Otherwise it is very simple & beautiful. I should ^think the law of the inverse square of distance must apply ^{because the} angular ^{areas thus diminish}. I will look up "Gravity" in the Encyclopedia. You should look in the Supplement to the "Encyc. Brittannica" now publishing the volumes of which you are sure to find in your public library, & I think "G" is passed. There you will be sure to find all the theories that have been suggested to account for it. We have not been able to get a servant yet, but I hope to be able to get into the house some time in November. You⁴ might enquire among your friends for a servant wanting to go south.

Your affectionate Pa | Alfred R. Wallace — [signature]