WCP67

[1]

Broadstone, Dorset.

Nov^r. 30^th. 1902

My dear Will¹

We are getting on with our usual slowness. Since I wrote last, the cupboards in the S. & S.E. bedrooms have been put up, the frame of skylight on top of stairs made, and the Drawing-Room dado nearly finished, but stopped again by a stupid mistake of Doulton’s who have sent the top of their fire-place too small for the other part, & that stops the finishing of the dado which must be fitted round it. The porch entrance is also finished & tiled, and looks so well as it is, that I shall not have any of the ornamental woodwork (of Mr. Dawkins’ design) put in — Perhaps a teak seat on one side if we have enough wood left.

Curtis has also just begun [2] the ceiling of the Dining rooms and when that is done, we must the painter again for a week ^{or more} to do the distempering of that, & the East balcony ceiling, and the staining of all the drawing-room dado & the inside windows & doors still to be done. Also to glaze the Verandahs if they are ready for him & then there will only remain the dining-room panelling which certainly cannot be done by ‘Xmas.

We are also having great trouble with the higher ground at back of house draining into the cellar & in the coal place at back. Be We put drains under the cellar but somehow a stoppage occurred [3] & we had to have them opened where several pipes met, & pushed wires up & now they are running pretty freely. These junctions have now small pits covered with boards so that they can be examined & cleared when required. But the water also soaks up into the house coal-cellar which was concreted but not well cemented on surface, & it also works[?] through the steps into shelld & so down the stairs to stoke-hole. I am therefore going to have an open drain laid along the whole back of house, shed, & garden wall to carry all the surface water away before it has time to soak [4] into the house-walls, making the ground on both sides slope slightly towards ^it & giving it a surface of gravel and sand. This flaky kind of clay seems to let all the water spread laterally more easily then downwards, & I do not think anything else can be done ^now though even that I fear will not be a perfect cure. It wanted really, an outer wall all round the house with a drain at the bottom with an outlet to carry all water away, but that would be very expensive. I have begun writing an article for an American paper to earn some money to prevent our bankruptcy, as expenses still keep piling up & still ten or 12 pounds a weeks for wages & small bills.

Your affectionate Pa | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]