J839-40 BRITISH ASSOCIATION 159 



1 2%th. — Shocked to find the young giraffe 

 dead. Nothing discovered to account for it. R. 

 had the melancholy satisfaction of dissecting it.' 



'July 24. — R. to Greenwich with Mr. Stokes 

 and Lord Cole. Whilst the party were dining at 

 the "Crown and Sceptre" some singers enter- 

 tained them with glees. Lord Cole said they 

 should sing " God save the Queen" to finish, 

 and as the waiter was going to give the order 

 Mr. Stokes whispered to him, " Tell them to 

 strike up ' Old King Cole,' " which they did, to 

 the infinite astonishment of King Cole himself.' 



' 2UJ1. — Mr. Hills called to alter the fetlocks of 

 the giraffes in his picture, which R. told him were 

 not right.' 



'August 26. — R. was to have gone to Bir- 

 mingham this morning, but could not get his 

 papers ready. He has been hard at work writing 

 his paper for the Association on British Saurians.' 



* 27th. — R. spent a sleepless night and had a 

 bad headache in the morning, but he had to start 

 for Birmingham at eight. I helped him pack the 

 diagrams, &c, and all was ready by half-past, 

 and he started in a cab.' 



It was at the meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion held in Birmingham in 1839 that Owen read 

 the first part of his ' Report on British Fossil 

 Reptiles,' in which he collected for the first time 

 all the information then known. Previous to the 

 meeting he paid a short visit to the Bristol Museum 



