WCP70

[1]

"Old Orchard"- Broadstone.

Jan^y. 17^th. 1903

My dear Will¹

The Dining Room is now finished & the Sideboard looks very well, and more in harmony with the room than a more elaborate affair. Percy left yesterday to look after Mr. Walker’s alterations at Parkstone, & after that has an engagement with a builder at Bournemouth to superintend the building of a lot of homes at Branksome. His mate White, will stop & finish your shelves and a few other things such as the seats in the Verandah & Porch, which may take him 2 or 3 weeks. Also Kerley will stay in the Garden for I dare say a month to get things a little tidied up.

Bye-the-bye before I forget will [2] you let me have a few copies of your best view of the house here. I want to send one to Mrs. Wallace in California & to other friends abroad.

We had a photographer here last week from "Black & White" & in yesterdays issue you will see a big portrait (and a very good one) to illustrate an article I wrote him about Darwin & myself. I dare say some of your friends will have told you about it.

The frost was very Sharp while it lasted but luckily it broke up yesterday and I hope will not return. We escaped any accidents to our pipes, though quantities burst about here. With the exception of a very slight cold which attacked my nose, I have not suffered. [3] Tom Harwood has wheeled all the great clay bank into the wood, & I am much relieved to be rid of it though it will take time to restore the grass & make the lawns look tidy. I also arranged with him to cut down about a dozen of the trees which most wanted removing, taking all the tops in payment & leaving the saleable timber. This I shall now see about getting buyers for.

My large Geol[logical] Map is Ramsay’s, & if I could find it I would send it to you but it is not anywhere among all the visible books, & must be stuck away in some box still unopened because "there are no books there". Never have we had a moving so bungled though Violet had weeks of preparation, & all her own ^way.

I should think when going to any special Coal field you had better get the Memoir of the Geol[ogical] Survey on that part though whether it would be any use to you [4] I rather doubt as you would of course have access to all the Mine Surveys, & the Manager of the Mine would give all necessary information as to practical necessities of working, & most convenient ways of laying wires &c.

If Mac is not gone give my kind remembrances to him.

I am very busy getting up information for my new book, reading Astronomy, & Physics, — Whewell, Brewster, Proctor &c. in intervals of looking after men. I think I have now finally got rid of smell & cold air from below.

I have begun reading "Eden Holden" & like it very much. Those stories of simple country life whether in America or England when well written always delight me, quite as much as the more exciting stories of wh[ich] I still enjoy as much as ever.

We have had two formal visitors & both may be perhaps, ultimately, friends.

Yours very affectionately | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]