46 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. II. 



Owen was obliged, in a large number of cases, to 

 obtain and examine fresh materials. In this way 

 the volumes of the Catalogue appeared, year after 

 year — ' a work of scarcely inferior importance to 

 the museum itself.' 4 No more fitting field can 

 be imagined for the development of Owen's 

 genius. 



In the early part of September Owen took 

 a rest from his work by staying a short time 

 at Lancaster with his mother and sisters. He 

 never lost an opportunity of paying a visit to 

 his native town. Writing to Mrs. Clift from 

 Lancaster, September 13, 1830, he describes his 

 journey through Birmingham and Manchester. 

 His letter gives a good idea of the discomforts 

 of travelling in the early part of the century. 



' My journey,' he says, ' to Manchester was a 

 very wet one, and marked by nothing in particular 

 but a very musical guard, and that instead of 

 riding over the Derbyshire hills I found myself, 

 to my great surprise, discharged at the Swan Inn, 

 Birmingham, about nine o'clock in the evening. 

 They told me that the coach for Manchester would 

 start in half an hour ; but it was near eleven 

 o'clock before we started, so I was prevented 

 from calling on any one in that place, in conse- 

 quence of momentary expectation of being called 

 upon to mount the coach. The night set in so 

 drearily that I agreed to take an inside place if 



4 Knight's Eng. Cyclop. : Biography. 



