126 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. IV. 
ten minutes and retired to the committee-room, 
and then returned and gave a viva voce account of 
the matter about an hour and a half long. Mrs. 
Buckland and lots of ladies, mostly Quakeresses, 
were there, and I modified the reproductive part of 
the history as delicately as possible. The Stones- 
field opossum and Dr. Buckland were not for- 
gotten.’ He then relates how he visited Ravens- 
worth, where they breakfasted at three. ‘ After 
breakfast dancing commenced, which was sus- 
tained both by the fair and the philosophers in full 
vigour till six, when we drove off’ [to Durham to 
Dr. Gilly’s]. ‘ Dr. Buckland marked out my tour, 
and we agreed to meet at Freiburg, where the 
German naturalists assemble.’ Passing next to 
York, Owen visited the Minster and the Museum, 
and at 7 p.m. the same day he took the mail to 
Hull. The rest of the letter is occupied with 
an account of his sea-passage, which apparently 
caused him little if any discomfort, and he is left 
awaiting at Rotterdam the arrival of his friend 
Cooper. 
His next communication to his wife is dated 
Plants Royaal, Leyden, September 4, 1838, and 
runs as follows : — 
‘ I cannot doubt but that you will already have 
received the notice of my safe arrival at Rotter- 
dam, which I sent in the only cross letter I ever 
wrote, so far as I remember, in my life ; but 
learning that the post for London leaves Leyden 
