1865-68 AS UNIVERSAL PROVIDER 159 



a Yorkshire one, which had been sent to them by 

 the Queen of Spain from Madrid ; it was of a 

 snipey flavour, very good.' 



On April 13, 1865, he writes to his sister 

 Maria, in anticipation of the coming visit from 

 his sisters : ' We have now a lovely bed of 

 hyacinths out, and the adjoining tulip-bed is 

 beginning to show colour. The horse chestnut 

 leaves are unfolding, but it is unseasonably dry. 

 The orchard-house shows a glorious blaze of 

 blossom, with the bees busily humming, and the 

 warmth giving quite a midsummer character to 

 the interior. The wild hyacinths, arums, &c, I 

 brought last year from Norfolk are all springing 

 up or in flower. I think you will find the garden 

 this year quite up to the mark.' 



In a brief scrap of a note to his wife in May 

 1865 Owen refers to the extraordinary applica- 

 tions which he was constantly receiving from 

 persons who seemed to think that they had 

 merely to apply to him, and he, by some myste- 

 rious arts, would immediately obtain for them 

 their request, however wild and extravagant it 

 might be : — 



1 Among my letters this morning,' he says, ■ I 

 have one asking for a royal living (vicarage, &c), 

 another for a lieutenant-colonelcy ! ! ' 



In another amusing letter to his wife Owen 

 relates an incident which occurred this year in 

 a certain small town in Suffolk in which he was 



