1839-40 'A RARE FOSSIL' 157 



The valet began a pitiable tale of his master 

 having been kept at the House till 5 a.m., and 

 that he was still asleep. R. was just saying that 

 he was not to disturb his master, when Sir P. de 

 Grey Egerton appeared in a dressing-gown and 

 begged R. to come upstairs, as he had a strange 

 and rare fossil to show him. He led R. to a 

 room and said, " There it is." There lay poor 

 Lord Cole half asleep, but Sir Philip was re- 

 morseless and made him get up.' 



1 26th. — Two hampers came. When we opened 

 them we found one contained a dead Lophius, 

 the other a live bird of the diver kind. A note 

 with them from the Isle of Wight explained that 

 the bird and fish were seen and caught by some 

 fishermen. The bird partly swallowed and stuck 

 in the mouth of the fish. Perhaps they were 

 both darting after the same object of prey. R. 

 sent the diver to the Zoo, and a few days after 

 the keeper told him the bird frequently dived and 

 brought up fish in the pond. However, R. is 

 afraid that it may not live long in fresh water, 

 being purely a sea bird.' 



' May 1 5. — Our young friend Frederick Pol- 

 lock here. As a very little boy, he once crushed 

 Richard with a remark. We were having a chil- 

 dren's party at our house, and the boy went off 

 to the dining-room and began looking over a 

 huge folio volume on the sofa, while the other 

 children were in the drawing-room dancing. R. 



