46 MY LIFE [Chap. 



meeting, in company with a party of scientific friends, chiefly 

 ornithologists. This was both my first visit to Cambridge 

 and to the Association, and under such pleasant conditions I 

 thoroughly enjoyed both. Besides the number of eminent 

 men of science I had the opportunity of hearing or seeing, 

 I had the pleasure of spending an evening with Charles 

 Kingsley in his own house, and enjoying his stimulating 

 conversation. There was also a slight recrudescence of the 

 evolution controversy in the rather painful dispute between 

 Professor Richard Owen and Huxley, supported by Flower, 

 on certain alleged differences between the brains of man and 

 apes. 



I so much enjoyed the meeting, both in its scientific and 

 social aspects, that I attended the next eleven meetings, and 

 generally took part in some of the discussions, besides occa- 

 sionally reading short papers. One of the most enjoyable 

 meetings socially was that at Exeter, where I and a large 

 party of scientific men were hospitably entertained at a 

 country mansion eight or ten miles from the city, into which 

 we were driven and brought back every day. Among the 

 guests there was Professor Rankin, who entertained us by 

 singing some of his own descriptive or witty compositions, 

 especially the " Song of the Engine Driver," and that inimi- 

 table Irish descriptive song on " The City of Mullingar." On 

 this occasion there appeared one of the most humorous 

 parodies of the work of the association that has ever been 

 written, called * Exeter Change for the British Lions." It 

 was in the form of a small magazine, giving reports of the 

 meetings, with absurd papers, witty verses, and clever 

 parodies of the leading members, all worthy of Hood himself 

 in his most humorous vein. One of the best of the parodies 

 is the following, as all will admit who are familiar with the 

 style of the supposed author. 



