However, we have
stopped that for the future by a drain under the doorstep. The new
breakfast-room is being papered and will look tidy soon. A man has been
to measure for the stairs. The front porch door is promised for
to-morrow, and the stairs, I suppose, in another week. A lot of fresh
pointing is to be done, and all the rain-water pipes and the rain-water
cistern with its overflow pipes, and then the greenhouse, and then all
the outside painting--after which we shall rest for a month and then do
the inside papering; but whether that can be done before Easter seems
very doubtful....
Our alterations still go on. The stairs just up--Friday night we had to
go outside to get to bed, and Saturday and Sunday we _could_ get up, but
over a chasm, and with alarming creaks. Now it is all firm, but no
handrail yet. Painters still at work, and whitewashers. Porch
door up, with two birds in stained glass--looks fine--proposed
new name, "Dicky-bird Lodge." Bath fixed, but waiting to be
varnished--luxurious!...
* * * * *
Dr. Wallace had already received four medals from various scientific
societies, and at our suggestion he had a case made to hold them all,
which is referred to in the following letter. The two new medals
mentioned were those of the Royal Geographical and Linnean Societies. He
attached very little importance to honours conferred upon himself,
except in so far as they showed acceptance of "the truth," as he called
it.
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