1848-49 BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT SALISBURY 345 



playing with a bland smile on his face, but the 

 most dreadful compound of discords and noise. 

 R. had gone upstairs for a few minutes, but 

 hearing this strange thumping came down again 

 to see what it was. I explained the situation to 

 him in a whisper, and he soon grasped it. Mr. 

 W. finally retired in discomfiture, and left the 

 Prince still beaming with the most perfect good- 

 humour.' 



In August, Owen received an amusing letter 

 from Sir Philip Egerton, descriptive of the 

 meeting of the British Association at Salisbury, 

 w T hich he was unable to attend. It was chiefly 

 composed of archaeologists, whose efforts were 

 crowned with a success resembling in a strik- 

 ing way the famous discovery made by Mr. 

 Pickwick of the stone bearing the inscription, ' Bill 

 Stumps his mark.' Sir Philip, after saying how 

 much he had been bored by the whole business, 

 continued : — 



"... I felt more at home standing on Inigo 

 Jones's palladian bridge and watching a fat old 

 newt's habit of life in the stream below, than in 

 listening to the Dean of Hereford's account of his 

 diggings in the barrows. I had a sample of this 

 sport quite worthy of " Punch ; " for on our way to 

 Stonehenge we had a grand digging (only to be 

 equalled by the Californian gold-diggers, to judge 

 by the anxious faces and lively scrambles of the 

 expectant archaeologists), and at length found — 



