WCP6960

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne

Dec^r. 10th. 1904

W. H. Hudson Esq.

Dear Mr. Hudson

Many thanks for your letter & enclosures re Borrow &c. I am afraid the search for the Ghost Story is hopeless. I had already had Mr. Kelly's account through Mr. Garnett. On looking again at "Wild Wales", I see where he tells the story he say to the people — "Shall I tell you a ghost-story which I learnt in Spain" — This implies that he heard it, not read it, and it may have been called Lope de Vega's¹ by mistake. I do not accept Mr. F. Kelly's remarks on Borrows' "inventivenesses" — Mr. Knapp had all his house correspondence & all his private note-books, and he declares that [2] almost every detail of "Lavengro" & the "Rommany Rye", as well of his adventures in Spain are to be found in them. Unless Mr. J.F.Kelly can prove the gross misstatements he alleges by specific cases, I prefer to accept his Biographer's conclusions especially as his preconceptions were the other way. Mr. J.F.K's statement about the mutilation of the "jail record" and "court records" for the "veiled period" of Borrow's life, seems to me the wildest suggestion possible — if the suggestion is that Borrow was in jail there for some disgraceful offence, & that he, the foreigner therefore was able to get the records destroyed!! Has Mr K. published anything of this kind, or is he mad?

His remarks on Parnell are also interesting but not so much so to me.

Before I forget it do not trouble more [3] about the air-plants. Through a friend I am promised a collection from the Argentine.

The Locke[?] book, with the Broadhurst paper absolutely settle the question of the Viper's habit about which I never had any doubt. I will return them by parcel post on Monday.

The Ghost story as summarized by Mr. Kelly is so very commonplace that I cannot believe it could be turned into one that Borrow would call the "best in the world" — and again — "the grand ghost story of the world" — surely there is nothing whatever "grand" in the one referred to!

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]