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

2/0 MY LIFEfound here some very pleasant friends among themasters at Charterhouse School, as well as amongresidents who had come to the place for its generaleducational advantages or for the charm of its ruralscenery. We had here about half an acre of groundwith oak trees and hazel bushes (from which I namedour place " Nutwood Cottage "), and during the eightyears we lived there I thoroughly enjoyed making anew garden, in which, and a small greenhouse, Icultivated at one time or other more than a thousandspecies of plants. The soil was a deep bed of theLower Greensand formation, with a thin surface layer ofleaf-mould, and it was very favourable to many kindsof bulbous plants as well as half-hardy shrubs, severalof which grew there more freely and flowered betterthan in any of my other gardens.In 1884 Messrs. Pears offered a prize of ;^IC)0 forthe best essay on "The Depression of Trade," andProfessor Leone Levi had agreed to be one of thejudges. As I had been for some time disgusted withthe utter nonsense of many of the articles on thesubject in the press, while what seemed to me theessential and fundamental causes were never so muchas referred to, I determined to compete, though with-The essay was sentout any expectation of success.in some time during the summer of 1885, and in JulyI received a letter from Professor Leone Levi, inwhich he writes ": My colleague and myself weregreatly pleased with the essay bearing a motto fromGoldsmith. We, however, did not see our way torecommend it for the prize, especially on account ofdisagreement as to the remedies suggested. But, theessay having great merit, we thought it proper to openthe envelope in order to correspond with the author."