1824-33 HIS FIRST VISIT TO CAMBRIDGE 63 
need not dread the contents of this ; in the short 
struggle we have had ’gainst Fate and Necessity 
you have performed your part nobly I have 
now begun seriously to consider how I may improve 
my fortunes, and for that purpose have been ex- 
ploring Chancery and other Lanes in the legal 
atmosphere for some sufficiently convenient and 
conspicuous consulting-room, for the only con- 
nexion I have is a slight one among the lawyers. 
I have had some distant overtures from the Zoo- 
logical Society to doctor their brutes, but I feel 
some degree of repugnance at turning veterinary, 
though it were only for a time I shall soon 
have effected that step which will remove much un- 
easiness from all [i.e. general practitioner.] I shall 
then only have to wait for what Providence pleases 
to send in the way of patients, and trust in time to 
be independent of the old governors,^ who have 
been showing some crusty symptoms of late to all 
of us.’ 
During the time between writing the last 
two letters Owen evidently paid his first visit to 
Cambridge, for he says : ‘ Cambridge is the most 
interesting place I have ever visited, not even ex- 
cepting Paris. I was there five days, during which 
friend George Langshaw® took his M.A. 
degree. He stands high in his college, but notwith- 
■' Of the College of Surgeons. afterwards Vicar of St. .A.ndrew’s 
An old schoolfellow and the Great, Cambridge, where 
fellow-townsman of Owen’s, his work was long remembered. 
