Ɛpsilon

WCP2111

Letter (WCP2111.2001)

[1]

Hendrefoilan Swansea,

Octr. 19. 1863

My dear Sir

Having been from home for the last fortnight I have but just received your letter1 of the 8th —

What Insects I received from your Mother2 are still in my possession and I will take an early opportunity of looking them up— I do not think there are many, if any, of the Coleoptera—3 If there are however I will gladly avail myself of your offer and forward them to you— Indeed as I am now so much occupied with Parliamentary and other business as I have no time to attend [2] to Natural History, and as it [sic] a pity that collections should be kept locked up and unused I shall be very glad if you will accept of them being sure that I could not place them in better hands.

I am my dear Sir | faithfully yours | LL Dillwyn4 [signature]

A. R. Wallace Esqr—

1
The letter has not been found.
2
Wallace (née Greenell), Mary Ann (1792-1868). Mother of ARW.
3
ARW corresponded with Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn's father, Lewis Weston Dillwyn while he was living in Neath in 1848 and provided a list of Coleoptera which was printed in L.W. Dillwyn's Materials for a Fauna and Flora of Swansea and Neighbourhood (1848). L.W. Dillwyn's letter to ARW on 25 February 1848 indicates that ARW's collection of Coleoptera was deposited at Neath Museum (WCP2023.1913). When ARW's mother left Neath the collection appears to have been transferred to L. L. Dillwyn. (Hughes, R. E. 1989. Alfred Russel Wallace: Some Notes On the Welsh Connection. The British Journal for the History of Science, vol. 22, no. 4, 1989, pp. 401-418. <www.jstor.org/stable/4026917> [accessed 14 August 2019]; Dillwyn, L. W. Materials for a Fauna and Flora of Swansea and the Neighbourhood. Swansea: Privately Published. pp.12-25).
4
Dillwyn, Lewis Llewelyn (1814-1892). British industrialist and politician.

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP2111.2001)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Knott, Peter [2013-01-07] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-01-15] Transcription checked by Beros, Matt [2020-09-15] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2025-03-03]

Please cite as “WCP2111,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2111