^T. 28.] JOURNAL. Ill 



splendid drawings. Returned to town, and dined with 

 Bentham. 



This morning we breakfasted with Richard Taylor 

 in the City ; and went afterwards to the College of 

 Surgeons, by appointment Hooker had made, to see 

 Professor Owen, and the fine museum of the college 

 under his charge (John Hunter's originally) ; a mag- 

 nificent collection it is, in the finest possible order ; 

 and the arrangement and plan of the rooms is far, 

 very far better and prettier than any I have seen. 

 I shall make some memoranda about it. We there 

 met Mr. Darwin, the naturalist who accompanied 

 Captain King in the Beagle. I was glad to form the 

 acquaintance of such a profound scientific scholar as 

 Professor Owen, the best comparative anatomist liv- 

 ing, still young, and one of the most mild, gentle, 

 childlike men I ever saw. He gave us a great deal 

 of most interesting information, and showed us per- 

 sonally throughout the whole museum. I am every 

 day under deeper obligations to Sir William Hooker, 

 to whom I owe the gratification of forming so many 

 acquaintances under such favorable circumstances. 

 Hooker stays over night often at his brother-in-law's, 

 Sir Francis Palgrave, the great antiquarian and Saxon 

 scholar, Keeper of the Records, of whom I have read 

 so much in the " British Review." His eldest daugh- 

 ter, Maria, is spending the winter there. On Hooker's 

 return on Monday he was so kind as to bring me an 

 invitation from Lady Palgrave to dine with them on 

 Saturday, which will be the last I shall see of Hooker, 

 as he is to set out on Monday for home. In the after- 

 noon we spent an interesting hour in looking through 

 the vast halls of the British Museum, particularly 

 through the sculpture, the Elgin marbles, Egyptian 



