1846-47 WESTMINSTER PLAY 307 



attend such enlargement of my sphere of public 

 utility.' 



As Owen anticipated, his duties as Com- 

 missioner were not always particularly pleasant. 

 1 He was to have taken the chair this evening 

 at " The Club," ' his wife writes in the journal 

 (December 14), 'but was obliged to get off. He 

 had been too much harassed all day for anything 

 but to stay at home. Commission again ! ' 



On the 19th we have the following entry : 

 ' R. went to Westminster to see the Latin play. 

 He said the play was all very well, but he could 

 not help thinking of the accommodation provided 

 for the boys. They had to stand four hours in 

 a cramped, crowded, and exceedingly close place, 

 without much possibility of moving. R. supped 

 with Mr. Rigaud and the boys.' 



In this year also may be mentioned the foun- 

 dation of the Palaeontographical Society, of which 

 Owen was one of the heartiest supporters. This 

 society, which had for its object the figuring 

 and describing British fossils, owed its origin to 

 the London Clay Club, formed by Bowerbank, 

 Edwards, Searles Wood, Morris, Alfred White, 

 and Wetherell in 1836, for the purpose of inquir- 

 ing into the fauna and flora of the London Clay. 

 In 1847, after the paper by Joseph Prestwich at 

 the Geological Society, ' On the Structure of the 

 London Clay,' Bowerbank urged the geologists 

 present in the tea-room to support him in esta- 



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