244 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. vni. 



Professor used to extract a good deal of amuse- 

 ment, was a disreputable old person, long since 

 deceased, whose nefarious proceedings were de- 

 scribed in an article contributed by Owen to 

 ' Blackwood's Magazine' in 1871. 



From 1880 to 1884 Owen was engaged in 

 superintending the removal of the specimens from 

 the British to the Natural History Museum at 

 South Kensington, which was now prepared to 

 receive them. He thus lived to enjoy the realisa- 

 tion of his life-long wish. Before his retire- 

 ment he had the gratification of seeing the collec- 

 tions — many of which had been crowded in the 

 dark vaults of the old Bloomsbury Museum, where 

 it was impossible that they could be properly 

 exhibited — now safely transferred and displayed 

 to their best advantage in the new museum. 



The new museum was not a source of un- 

 mixed delight to everybody. Mr. Ruskin wrote 

 the following letter to Owen about this time in 

 answer to an invitation to go over the building : — 



John Ruskin to R. Owen 



November 6. 



• Dear Professor Owen, — I am entirely grateful 

 for your most kind letter and memory of me ; but 

 I can't come to-day (for cold in teeth and throat). 

 Alas ! My dear old musty Museum was as much 

 a hobby to me as your new one to you, and it 

 would be mere misery to me to see your new 



