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Darwin Correspondence Project

From A. B. Buckley   13 January 1881

Villa Margherita San Remo—

Jan 13. 1881

Dear Mr. Darwin

I am glad & congratulate you most heartily on the success of your generous undertaking

Of course you were the only person who could tell Mr. Wallace— He may well be proud both of his proposer & seconders, & it is this which will make the pension a pleasure as well as a boon to him.1

Beyond being proud of the instinct which led me to state the particulars to you as the right man, I have really had nothing to do with it—2

I have always felt that your generous friendship for Mr. Wallace, & the almost overdue credit which you have always assigned to him, is one of those bright spots in the history of science, which ought to shame all those who indulge in petty jealousies; & this success is the befitting crown to the whole matter—

I shall now write & congratulate him, telling him that you have let me know, though of course it must not be spoken of till officially announced— I will also let him know who are his supporters.

I am so glad it has come just now when he is looking forward to settling down in a month or two in his little cottage at Godalming,3 so that he can work with his garden & his writing without feeling the pressure which has forced him of late to work at uncongenial writing—

With most sincere congratulations | I remain | Yours very sincerely Arabella B Buckley.

Footnotes

The memorial for a civil list pension for Alfred Russel Wallace had been successful (see letter to A. B. Buckley, 4 January 1881). For a list of the persons who signed the memorial, see the letter to A. B. Buckley, 4 January 1881, enclosure.
Buckley had written to CD in 1879 about Wallace’s financial difficulties and later provided a summary of his career and contributions to science (see Correspondence vol. 27, letter from A. B. Buckley, 16 December 1879, and Correspondence vol. 28, Appendix VI).
Wallace moved to Nutwood Cottage, Godalming, which he had built for himself, in 1881 (Wallace 1905, 2: 103).

Bibliography

Wallace, Alfred Russel. 1905. My life: a record of events and opinions. 2 vols. London: Chapman & Hall.

Summary

Congratulates CD on success of memorial; agrees he should be the one to tell Wallace.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-13010
From
Arabella Burton Buckley
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
San Remo
Source of text
DAR 160: 371
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13010,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13010.xml

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