1839-40 VISITS TO SOMERSETSHIRE 165 



uncle's, Mr. Owen Wynne, of Hazlewood [Sligo]. 

 This gentleman is eighty-five, was in Parliament 

 with Burke, Fox, Sheridan, &c. ; has all his 

 faculties of mind and body unimpaired ; drove 

 me, for example, in a curricle and pair over 

 eighteen miles of the picturesque country around 

 his seat. . . . 



'Sailed for Bristol [from Dublin]. Studied 

 the Saurian remains in that town, and went on 

 to Mr. Hawkins's, Sharpham Park, near Glaston- 

 bury. That worthy and eccentric man of genius 

 had procured me peacocks' eggs for breakfast 

 — no bad things, by the way — and other rarities 

 conformable. I had purposely given him short 

 notice ; but I found all his neighbours within 

 twelve miles — one gentleman came from Wells — 

 invited that day to have, according to the card, 

 the honour to meet Prof. Robt. Owen. 7 A 

 clergyman in the neighbourhood returned a brief 

 and indignant refusal to the invitation ; and when 

 I arrived I found Mr. Hawkins in the anxiety of 

 rectifying the impression. About fifteen mus- 

 tered, more than half expecting to see the 

 Socialist. I tarried in my dressing-room to the 

 last minute to shorten the exhibition ; but was 

 unearthed at last, and contrived to find one or 

 two conversible beings, and established at length 

 my claims to be regarded as one of the same 

 species. . . . Sharpham Park is the oldest house 



7 The social reformer. 



