Dear Darwin

Many thanks for your signature and good wishes.—¹ I have some hopes of success, but am rather doubtful of the Committee of the Corporation who will have the management, for they have just decided after a great struggle in the Court of Common Council, that it is to be a rotatory Committee, every member of the Council (of whom there are 200) coming on it in succession if they please. They evidently look upon it as a Committee which will have great opportunities of excursions picnics, & dinners, at the expense of the Corporation, while the improvement of the Forest will be quite a secondary matter.²

I am very glad to hear you are tolerably well. It is all I can say of myself.

Believe me | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace

Charles Darwin F.R.S.