392 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. xii. 



harmony of autumnal tints, and I think the garden 

 never was more lovely. . . . We were able to 

 offer our guests a dish of Cornish cream of home 

 manufacture with their apple tart, and Dickens 

 enjoyed it like a schoolboy. . . . We discussed 

 some " Household Words" articles which I am to 

 try and find time to write for him.' 



Charles Dickens soon afterwards wrote the 

 following letter to Owen reminding him of this 

 discussion : — 



Tavistock House : Saturday, November 20, 1852. 



* My dear Owen, — What do you think as a 

 general subject for a series of papers of some 

 articles describing the peculiarities and points of 

 interest of many of the animals in the Zoological 

 Gardens under some such title as " Private Lives 

 of Public Friends ? " / think they would be very 

 good in such hands as yours. 



' Faithfully yours ever, 



1 Charles Dickens.' 



In November 1852 Owen attended the 

 funeral of the Duke of Wellington, along with 

 Dean Conybeare, Dr. Bliss, Dr. Ogle, and other 

 Oxford friends, of which ceremony he sends an 

 account to his sister Catherine on the 20th. In 

 this letter he says he walked along the Strand 

 1 very leisurely, looking at the sloping pile of 

 human faces, from the barriers on each side to the 



