no HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



West End nearly to the centre of London. In the afternoon 

 I explored it further; imagine enormous smooth spaces of 

 short, fine grass, dotted over with fine old trees or groups 

 of trees, a few paths cut through them which are only used 

 in wet weather (for when it is dry every one walks as he 

 pleases over the grass), and there is the ideal that you wanted 

 for our garden. Huge sheep, as fat as stuffed wool-sacks, graze 

 everywhere on the grass and keep it short. . . . The break- 

 fast with Bunsen was just a way of receiving one's visit at a 

 leisure moment. Milady and two daughters, a Professor Larso 

 from Berlin, and Privatdocent Bottiger from Halle, both 

 Oriental scholars, were there too. The meal was refined 

 without being luxurious, but was swallowed post-haste. Each 

 helped himself as he pleased without waiting for the others. 

 I was last, because I had to talk so much. Bunsen somewhat 

 resembles S., interested in everything, lively, but a little con- 

 ceited. He was most affable and officious, and wrote me 

 a letter of introduction to the zoologist Richard Owen which 

 I did not want. For the rest, everything was on a very grand 

 scale in the house. British Museum. Here were Layard's 

 monuments, Elgin's Marbles from the Parthenon, those from 

 the Lycian tombs, &c., all in real life. The Assyrian bulls 

 with human heads are enormous monsters. The reliefs are 

 far more vigorous than in the drawings; they are very clear 

 and sharply worked out, and parts of them look as if they were 

 quite new. In England they excite more interest than in other 

 places, because they are supposed to confirm certain passages 

 in the Old Testament. As regards style, they are infinitely 

 finer than anything in Egyptian art, and are parallel with the 

 best productions of the ancient Greeks. Bunsen tells me that 

 much progress has been made in deciphering the inscriptions. 

 'My attempts to see Professor Owen were in vain, but 

 I succeeded in finding the first physicist of England and 

 Europe, Faraday perhaps, unfortunately, for the first and last 

 time, since he leaves town on Monday, and does not know 

 if he is coming to Hull. Those were splendid moments. He 

 is as simple, charming, and unaffected as a child ; I have never 

 seen a man with such winning ways. He was, moreover, 

 extremely kind, and showed me all there was to see. That, 

 indeed, was little enough, for a few wires and some old 



