20 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. I. 



The following entry in the diary will show 

 that with his work at the British Museum Owen 

 still kept up his musical interests : — 



'July 13. — Mr. Ella, Madame Halle, Signor 

 Piatti and his wife and the two Halle children, 

 spent the day here very pleasantly. Mr. Halle 

 could not come, being laid up with a sore throat. 

 Madame Piatti is small and fair and an accom- 

 plished musician. She and her gifted, quiet 

 husband played some duets in the dusk of the 

 evening, Piatti playing on R.'s beautiful " cello." 3 

 They gave us tickets for Halle s morning concert 

 on the 17th.' 



On August 5 Owen travelled with his wife to 

 Bedford, where he gave a lecture on fossils found 

 in that county. ' We dined with the Mayor,' 

 Mrs. Owen writes, ' who made a speech after the 

 lecture. Hoped Professor Owen's presence and 

 lecture would incite the people of Bedford to set 

 up a museum of their own, and so on.' After 

 leaving Bedford, Owen went on to the meeting of 

 the British Association in Cheltenham, and then 

 travelled up to Scotland, where he was the guest 

 of the Duke of Argyll at Murray Castle, Inver- 

 aray, stopping at Lancaster on the way, to leave 

 his wife with his sisters there. 



While at Inveraray he wrote them a long 

 account of the beauties of the scenery of that 

 district. Leaving on the 26th, he stayed a few 



3 By Foster. 



