34o PROFESSOR OWEN ch. x. 



What outpouring of notes full of all the affection 

 and feeling conceivable ! Came away as soon as 

 the last shower of bouquets had fallen to tell all 

 the story to my dear little wife, who got the 

 conceit in her head that I must be about one of 

 the happiest men in the world ; and truly I must 

 own that yesterday was a day which is worth 

 living for. One enjoys a holiday or a pleasure- 

 making so thoroughly when it has been earned.' 



On June 17, 1849, Owen writes to his sister 

 Eliza, from Worthing, about an excursion he made 

 to some chalk-pits near Arundel (Southeram), 

 together with J. E. Gray, F. Dixon, and Lord 

 Northampton, ' who is an ardent collector of flint 

 fossils.' He says : ' One of the pitmen remarked, 

 when his lordship had been hammering over one 

 heap through a long afternoon, " That man doan't 

 work for his living ; if he went on that gate he 

 could do nought next day. ..." The " Houghton " 

 pit is the oldest and largest of the escarpments ; 

 it forms a magnificent amphitheatre of soil, enclos- 

 ing a verdant, undulating area, along which the 

 river Arun meanders. A wonderful quantity of 

 the rarest British plants flourish in this retired, 

 out-of-the-world spot, from which a fine extent of 

 the chalk country is seen, chequered by shady 

 groves and sunny plains, with much of the demesne 

 of Arundel Castle included in the scene. Here 

 our rustic table was set out with four seats, and 

 here, after some hours' good work, we sat down 



