From Francis Trevelyan Buckland [1865–6]1
Dear–Mr Darwin.
I was most pleased that you were good enough to speak to me the other day at the museum—2 ⟨ ⟩ favour.
Please to—sign the enclosed and return it to me as above—I am very glad that our Oxford Chancellor joins the Society.3
Yours most obliged | F Buckland—
I should so like to show you my museum you have not touched oysters in your book4 I could show you some curious things thus
A. Falmouth growth
B. French growth—quite different
Yours ever | F Buckland
The date range is established by the reference to the Society for the Acclimatisation of Animals, Birds, Fishes, Insects, and Vegetables within the United Kingdom and by the reference to oyster culture and Buckland’s museum (see nn. 3 and 4, below).
Buckland probably refers to the British Museum, which CD frequently visited when in London.
Buckland refers to the Society for the Acclimatisation of Animals, Birds, Fishes, Insects, and Vegetables within the United Kingdom. The society was founded by Buckland in 1860 and came to an end in 1866 (Ritvo 1990, p. 239). The chancellor of the University of Oxford was Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley. No record of his membership of the society has been found, but his son Edward Henry Stanley had been a subscriber since 1862 and was vice-president from 1863 to 1865 (Annual Report of the Society for the Acclimatisation of Animals, Birds, Fishes, Insects, and Vegetables within the United Kingdom 1865). The enclosure has not been found.
Buckland refers to the South Kensington Museum. After his appointment as scientific referee to the museum in May 1865, Buckland moved his collection illustrating fish and oyster culture there (Bompas 1885, p. 153). Buckland also refers to Origin. In Variation 2: 280, CD cited Buckland for information on regional variation in oysters.
Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7045,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on