112 FIRST JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1839, 



some other distinguished men, as also Brown, whose 

 peculiar dry wit is said to have abounded greatly. 

 Hooker seems as anxious to serve me and aid me here 

 in London as at his own home. He is the most noble 

 man I ever knew. Thence I took a cab and drove 

 into the City, through Temple Bar, down Fleet Street; 

 drove round St. Paul's, to the office of Baring Bro- 

 thers & Company, who are to be my bankers and to 

 whom my letters here may now be addressed ; thence 

 to the office of Wiley & Putnam in Paternoster Row ; 

 did not see Mr. Wiley, but learned that the copies of 

 our " Flora " had not arrived, which I am very sorry 

 for, and don't know how to account for it ; called at C. 

 Rich's, but found no letters, which was a sad disap- 

 pointment indeed ; thence back here to dinner. At 

 eight o'clock went to Somerset House to attend a meet- 

 ing of the Royal Society, where again I met Hooker 

 and Dr. Richardson. Brown was also present, for the 

 first time in eight years. Royle l was in the chair, at 

 which the botanists present sneered much, as they evi- 

 dently think him too small a man to fill the seat occu- 

 pied by Newton, etc. I don't know how he happened 

 to be one of the vice-presidents. I was introduced to 

 him after the meeting, as also to many others. J. E. 

 Gray, 2 who was very polite, gave me and Joseph 

 Hooker tickets for Faraday's lecture of to-morrow 

 evening, invited me to dine with him to-morrow, etc. 

 I was glad to make the acquaintance of Mr. Criff 3 



1 John Forbes Royle, M. D. ; a surgeon in the East India Company. 

 Wrote on the botany of the Himalaya. 



2 John Edward Gray, 1800-1875 ; keeper of the zoological collec- 

 tions of the British Museum for many years. "Of persistent ardor, 

 indomitable energy, and great practical power" [A. G ]. 



3 William Clift, 1775-1849 ; curator of the Hunterian Museum of 

 the Royal College of Surgeons. 



