From A. B. Buckley 16 December 1879
1 St Mary’s Terrace | Paddington W.
Dec 16./79
Private
Dear Mr. Darwin,
I want very much to consult you upon a matter in which I have perhaps no real concern, but with which I believe I am better acquainted than others—
You will no doubt have known that Mr. Wallace was a candidate for the post of Superintendent of Epping Forest & has been making great efforts to get it during the whole past year. He is now rejected & they have chosen a landscape-gardener instead—1
Now he is so modest & sensitive about himself that I am sure he would never tell anyone that which however I know, that “pecuniarily it was of importance to him to get a regular salary”:
He is not strong & literary work tries him very much & the uncertainty of it is a great anxiety to him—
In a letter to me the other day he writes “I want some regular work either partially outdoor, or if indoor then not more than 5 or 6 hours a day & capable of being partially done at home— This I see no probability—hardly a possibility of getting at my age & with my irregular antecedents”—
Now I cannot help thinking that if men like Sir J. Lubbock, Sir J. Hooker & others knew that Mr. Wallace wanted work of a modest kind & not some important post, some good use might be made of his great Natural History power & his future made more secure— Only, of course, my moving in the matter should not appear, I merely suggest that, which if it could come, must do so from men of his own standing & I shall not mention to any one that I have written to you— Years ago he was to have had the East London Museum but it passed into the hands of S. Kensington & he lost it—2 I feel he ought to have something & I could think of no one as good as yourself to whom I could say so—
I remain | Yours very sincerely Arabella B Buckley
Footnotes
Bibliography
Fichman, Martin. 2004. An elusive Victorian: the evolution of Alfred Russel Wallace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Summary
On Wallace’s need for a regular income. He has been rejected as Superintendent of Epping Forest. Thinks men such as Lubbock, Hooker, and CD might help.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12358
- From
- Arabella Burton Buckley
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Paddington
- Source of text
- DAR 160: 366
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12358,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12358.xml