..
* * * * *
TO MR. W.G. WALLACE
_Old Orchard, Broadstone, Wimborne. December 17, 1908._
My dear Will,--The ceremony is over, very comfortably. I am duly
"invested," and have got two engrossed documents, both signed by the
King, one appointing me a member of the "Order of Merit" with all sorts
of official and legal phrases, the other a dispensation from being
personally "invested" by the King--as Col. Legge explained, to safeguard
me as having a right to the Order in case anybody says I was not
"invested." ... Colonel Legge was a very pleasant, jolly kind of man,
and he told us he was in attendance on the German Emperor when he was
staying near Christchurch last summer, and went for many drives with the
Emperor only, all about the country.... Col. Legge got here at 2.40, and
had to leave at 3.20 (at station), so we got a carriage from Wimborne to
meet the train and take him back, and Ma gave him some tea, and he said
he had got a nice little place at Stoke Poges but with no view like
ours, and he showed me how to wear the Order and was very pleasant: and
we were all pleased....
The next letter refers to the discovery of a rare moth and some beetles
in the root of an orchid. It was certainly a strange yet pleasant
coincidence that these creatures should find themselves in Dr. Wallace's
greenhouse, where alone they would be noticed and appreciated as
something uncommon.
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