Ɛpsilon

From H. N. Moseley   5 February 1879

Coll. Exon.

Feb 5. 79.

Dear Mr Darwin

Very many thanks for your kind remarks about my book.1 It has been a great relief to me to find that you consider it a success and worthy of having been dedicated to you.

A Captain Charles Owen Chief Constable of Oxford and who was for a long while at the Cape of Good Hope was in my rooms a few days ago. He said he knew you well long ago and that he had collected beetles for you. and he wished to be remembered to you2   His son is going out with Mr Wallis Nash to Oregon as an assistant and he called to ask me about the country.3

Again thanking you for your kind letter | I remain | yours truly | H N Moseley

2
Charles Mostyn Owen (1818–94) served in the army in South Africa and became chief constable of Oxfordshire. He probably collected beetles for CD at Woodhouse, Rednal (West Felton), Shropshire, his family home. The Mostyn Owens were family friends of CD and he spent some of his university vacations at Woodhouse (see ‘Recollections’, p. 339, and Correspondence vol. 20, letter from S. H. Haliburton, 3 November [1872] and n. 3).
3
Mostyn Owen’s son Charles Mostyn Owen (1859–1938) emigrated to Oregon, USA, with Nash in 1879.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11860,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11860