130 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. IV. 
evenings at home. . . . My last letter was dated 
Leyden. After examining the collections and 
noting the interesting objects contained in them 
(contemplating the gigantic salamander living in 
his tub of little fishes, on which he has grown 
fat, and is now 3 ft. 3 in. long, examining the 
portraits of the Professors of the University, 
among whom Salmasius, Albinus, Boerhaave, &c., 
promenading round the Botanic Garden with old 
Professor Reinwardt), we set off one fine morning 
for Utrecht.’ Here follows an account of his 
visit to Dr. Suerman and Van der Capella, and 
of a tea he had with the Suerman family, and 
concludes : ‘ After tea the Professors of the 
University arrived to pipes, coffee, and hock, and 
a long night was made of it, in which my wits 
were kept at full stretch. Made my first essay in 
conversing in German ; not so difficult after a 
while. . . . Kind remembrances and thanks [to 
Clift] for his experienced hints to Mr. Hills ;® he 
beats many of the Dutch still at the beasts.’ 
On September 20, 1838, he wrote again to 
his wife from Freiburg im Breisgau : ‘To-day 
about four hundred sat down to the table d'hote of 
the Association. I was between Mrs. Buckland 
and the Prince of Musignano,^ and England and 
home came again very near and warm to my 
® Robert Hills, Secretary to Charles Lucien Bonaparte, 
the Royal Institute of Painters Prince of Musignano and of 
in Water Colours. Canino. 
