142 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. v. 



' I arrived here [at Alnwick] to dinner on 

 Wednesday,' he writes to his wife (September 5), 

 ' and found Professor Tyndall and Lord and 

 Lady Tankerville, &c. On Thursday there was 

 a grand flower and fruit show in the grounds ; 

 since then have arrived, among others, Sir R. 

 Murchison, Captain Grant of Nile celebrity, Sir 

 William Armstrong, and a dark native of Ceylon 

 in gorgeous costume. 



' Alnwick Castle is a wilderness of corridors, 

 staircases, and rooms ; as Lord Ravensworth re- 

 marked last night as we were going to bed, it 

 was hard on gentlemen past sixty to have to 

 mount 1 70 steps to get to rest ! 



' Breakfast bell will soon ring, and I have to 

 get ready to start with Lord Tankerville, and so 

 good-bye.' 



Chillingham Castle, Alnwick. 



' Here at Lord Tankerville's am I enjoying a 

 hearty and lively time. I have had a good view 

 of the wild cattle, and have seen a red deer 

 pulled down. This morning am off to Edinburgh.' 



In the following month, October 7, 1863, 

 Owen sends in a report to the Trustees of the 

 British ' Museum about a whale which was 

 stranded on the coast of Caithness, and which he 

 was anxious that the Museum should possess. 4 



4 It is the skeleton of this Natural History, South Ken- 

 whale that now stands in the sington. 

 entrance hall of the Museum of 



