From Richard Owen   18 September 1852

My Dear Henslow,

I found your second letter (Augt.28 ^th) awaiting my return from Ireland this morning. It is plain from all that you have imparted to me, that, although the information voluntarily given to me, (and the first that I had heard from any quarter) by G.R. may have been strictly accurate, it did not yield all that a correct judgment of the case required.

Any expression of mine, therefore, to G.R. applies to the statement he made to me & to that alone.

Those of No previous intercourse with him could lead me to suspect that he was telling me anything short of, not the truth merely, but the whole truth of the case, as between him and our common friends & the Museum at Ipswich.

From the confidence that I have in your being disposed, on every account, to act as favourably as the case will allow, towards one for whom I believe that, heretofore, both you & I have felt the most sincere sentiments of esteem and regard, my relations with G.R. will in future be guided by your’s.

You will, probably, have no objection to my transmitting a copy of this note to G.R. with whom I have had no communication since he called on me here in August 21 ^st.

My holidays are exhausted this year: had any remained I believe it would have afforded both M. ^rs Owen & myself much pleasure to have availed ourselves of your kind invitation and have witnessed the progress of your good undertakings than any other way of spending them.

Believe me | very sincerely your’s |Richard Owen