1824-33 HIS FIRST VISIT TO CAMBRIDGE 63 



need not dread the contents of this ; in the short 

 struggle we have had 'gainst Fate and Necessity 



you have performed your part nobly I have 



now begun seriously to consider how I may improve 

 my fortunes, and for that purpose have been ex- 

 ploring Chancery and other Lanes in the legal 

 atmosphere for some sufficiently convenient and 

 conspicuous consulting-room, for the only con- 

 nexion I have is a slight one among the lawyers. 

 I have had some distant overtures from the Zoo- 

 logical Society to doctor their brutes, but I feel 

 some degree of repugnance at turning veterinary, 



though it were only for a time I shall soon 



have effected that step which will remove much un- 

 easiness from all [i.e. general practitioner.] I shall 

 then only have to wait for what Providence pleases 

 to send in the way of patients, and trust in time to 

 be independent of the old governors, 4 who have 

 been showing some crusty symptoms of late to all 

 of us.' 



During the time between writing the last 

 two letters Owen evidently paid his first visit to 

 Cambridge, for he says : ' Cambridge is the most 

 interesting place I have ever visited, not even ex- 

 cepting Paris. I was there five days, during which 

 my friend George Langshaw 5 took his M.A. 

 degree. He stands high in his college, but notwith- 



4 Of the College of Surgeons. afterwards Vicar of St. Andrew's 



5 An old schoolfellow and the Great, Cambridge, where 

 fellow-townsman of Owen's, his work was long remembered. 



