1 849 THE RED LIONS 145 



Institution Friday evening discourses. He thus 

 chronicles the evening of the gih February : * Went to 

 the Royal Institution to hear Owen on Limbs. I 

 stood on the steps. The lecture seemed to be admir- 

 able. Much of it I highly admired, and much of it 

 I did not understand. The theatre was quite full. I 

 saw many I knew : Dr. Fitton looking good-humoured, 

 Sir Roderick looking anxious to keep awake, Dr. 

 Mantell looking eager, Dr. Macdonald looking jolly 

 and anxious for a hole in Owen's coat, Sir Henry 

 looking attentive and queer when Owen came to the 

 orthodox peroration, Sir Charles and Lady Lyell 



looking knightly, Lady S looking vulgar, Nicol 



looking Scotch, with a doubt in his eye, and Mrs. 

 F - looking at her dress.' 



The Red Lions kept up their London dinners, 

 which were sometimes specially mirthful. Thus on 

 the 1 9th April Ramsay writes: 'Walked over to 

 Anderton's with Reeks to dine with the Red Lions. 

 Capital party, Lankester in the chair. I sat between 

 him and Sheean, a barrister, and the great original of 

 the Mulligan of Ballymulligan. He seems a capital 

 fellow, though, and sang some excellent songs. Turn- 

 berry sang well, and put the whole table in a roar. 

 I scarcely recollect a better evening. Owen was 

 capital, and made a most humorous speech, contrasting 

 the pleasure of sitting in this snowy night, so cosy and 

 merry round the table, with the horrors of the Royal 

 Society then sitting, where the members, on cold 

 benches, in a room with newly-lighted smoke-belching 

 fires, sat listening to a dull paper, with the prospect of 

 one still duller before them. Percy enjoyed himself 

 in his usual hearty style.' 



Of the dinner-parties and receptions, room can be 



L 



