240 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. vii. 



since written and sent to press No. 5 of " Brit. 

 Foss. Mammalia," and am now engaged in 

 completing my " Odontography." I wish I could 

 finish it before leaving London. To divert my 

 thoughts and unbend the bow, I ran down to 

 Dover last Friday by rail, and found dear Cary 

 on the beach with Mrs. Soulby listening to the 

 band, and Willie digging away in great force 

 amongst the shingle. I stayed Saturday, Sunday, 

 and Monday, and arrived here to-day about an 

 hour ago.' 



On August 24, 1844, m a letter to his wife at 

 Dover, we see Owen as the bachelor in charge : 

 1 I was with Hobhouse inspecting Whitechapel 

 again on Thursday ; discussing Indian skulls to- 

 day with little Schomburgk. Bottled off the 

 Tinta yesterday ; three dozen arid four bottles to 

 my share. All the carpets are now up, and the 

 charwoman comes on Monday.' 



To his wife, still at Dover, Owen writes on 

 September 16 a piteous appeal that she will inter- 

 fere with his washerwoman, who hashad, 'above 

 a fortnight, a valuable assortment, without any 

 symptoms of a return ; ' and again, on September 19, 

 he says : ' Mrs. Wright has volunteered to go to 

 the laundress's this morning, being in a state of 

 righteous indignation. Just as I had commenced 

 my first cup [breakfast], solacing myself with a 

 chapter on German poets, Mrs. Wright, in answer 

 to a bell, entered with a gloomy, awe-struck expres- 



