1824-33 
LECTURER AT BART’S 
35 
Before the end of the year Owen was engaged 
*•0 be married to Miss Clift. 
William Clift had a sincere affection for his 
assistant, and from his letters appeared to have no 
objection to his marriage with his only daughter. 
Whatever opposition there was to the match 
proceeded from Mrs. Clift, who insisted that 
Owen should have sufficient means to provide 
*or her daughter, before she would hear of the 
aiarriage taking place. 
In the following year (1828) Owen was 
appointed Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy 
at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, an appointment 
'^bich was the starting point of his career as a 
lecturer. This was not a particularly remunerative 
post, and he soon found, even joining the stipend 
^0 that which he was receiving as Assistant 
Ourator of the Hunterian Collections, that if he 
^’ere to think of getting married he must look out 
l^or something which would provide him with 
Sufficient means to do so. In October his mother 
Writes 
‘ I am most anxious, my dear boy, for your 
^luprovement and success in your profession. I 
have lately been reading a book entitled “ Publick 
’Characters in the Year 1823,” amongst the rest 
^^el, Scarlett, Sir H. Halford, &c. Many of the 
characters are men who by perseverance and 
^*^uadiness in their profession have made their 
c^^rk in the world, and one observation particularly 
H 2 
