My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

LIFE AT LEICESTER AND NEATH 135the Mechanics' Institute at Neath. It was before themembers of this institute that I made my first essayas a lecturer, having been persuaded to give a seriesof lectures on physics during two winters. I alsogave a lecture describing a short visit I had made toParis.iDuring the two summers that I and my brotherJohn lived at Neath we spent a good deal of ourleisure time in wandering about this beautiful district,on my part in search of insects, while my brotheralways had his eyes open for any uncommon bird orreptile.Though I have by no means a very wide acquaintancewith the mountain districts of Britain, yetI know Wales pretty well ; have visited the best partsof the lake district ; in Scotland have been to LochLomond, Loch Katrine, and Loch Tay ;have climbedBen Lawers, and roamed through Glen Clova in searchfor rare plants ;—but I cannot call to mind a singlevalley that in the same extent of country comprises somuch beautiful and picturesque scenery, and so manyinteresting special features, as the Vale of Neath.The town itself is beautifully situated, with the finewooded and rock-girt Drumau Mountain to the west,while immediately to the east are well-wooded heightscrowned by Gnoll House, and to the south-east, threemiles away, a high rounded hill, up which a chimneyhas been carried from the Cwm Avon copperworks in'In 1895 ^ received a letter from Cardiff, from one of the workmenwho attended the Neath Mechanics' Institution, asking if the author of" Island Life," the " Malay Archipelago," and other books is the sameMr. Alfred Wallace who taught in the evening science classes to theNeath Abbey artificers. He writes— "I have often had a desire toknow, as I benefited more while in your class—if you are the sameMr, A. Wallace—than I ever was taught at school. I have oftenwished I knew how to thank you for the good I and others receivedfrom your teaching. — (Signed) Matthew Jones."