1883-92 RETIRES FROM THE BRITISH MUSEUM 259 



Southport Meeting of the British Association, 

 and thus continued : * To the usual inquiry from 

 our masters the Trustees, I replied that " I had no 

 intention to take any vacation this year." So, at 

 present, I am almost the only officer on duty at 

 the New Museum. But my work there is, as 



you may imagine, one of love The birds 



have been received into their gallery, and the 

 beasts into theirs ; and both are steadily getting 

 into their proper places. We are also receiving, 

 without interruption^ the other classes of the 

 existing creation, to which the west wing of the 

 New Museum is devoted. 



1 What a contrast the two gatherings which 

 give food to columns in the daily papers present ! 

 Philosophers in sober garments ; emperors, kings, 

 princes and princesses in gorgeous uniforms and 

 brilliant orders, watching the evolutions of thou- 

 sands of well-drilled soldiers ! 



1 I derived a wholesome lesson from the inau- 

 gural address of my old friend the Cambridge 

 Professor of Mathematics. / could not comprehend 

 a word of it ! My brain was a blank ! Palaeonto- 

 logy may be as strange to him ! ' 



4 With this year (1883),' Owen has written in his 

 diary, ' end my official relations with the national 

 collections of natural history, the several de- 

 partments — Zoology, Geology, Fossils, Minerals, 

 Plants — being arranged and displayed in their 

 respective galleries. I felt that I could now " depart 



