334 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. x. 



office across the hall, ready to issue forth when 

 Ford should give notice of the royal carriage. At 

 a few minutes to three, R., who was in the dining- 

 room laughing and talking with my father and 

 mother, left the room with the gentlemen as they 

 went to take their places in the theatre, and just 

 as he was going in at the hall door a carriage 

 drove rapidly up, and he was the only person in 

 the way to receive Prince Albert, and so had to 

 introduce the President to him as he and the 

 others came bundling out of the office into the 

 hall. The Prince joked a great deal about R. 

 being the sea-serpent killer. After the oration 

 the College gave a dinner — their first experiment 

 of dining chez eux. All was brought from the 

 Freemasons', and the dessert, &c., was laid out 

 (preparatively) in R.'s study. The Prince did not 

 stay to dinner, but amongst the guests were 

 Hallam, Sir R. Peel, Bishop of Oxford, Captain 

 Sir Everard Home. When the Bishop had 

 finished grace in his mild, quiet way, the toast- 

 master, leaning forward as when giving out the 

 toasts, said with a loud voice " A-men." On this 

 unexpected response the Bishop's mouth twitched, 

 and he gave one comical look across to where R. 

 sat. The speeches were of various qualities and 

 quantities, but certainly the Captain's (Sir Everard 

 Home's) was one of the best for its brevity, its 

 simple good sense, and its heartiness. He looks, 

 as he has for the last thirty years, a big, fair, 



