1839-40 
‘A RARE FOSSIL’ 
157 
The valet began a pitiable tale of his master 
having been kept at the House till 5 a.m., and 
that he was still asleep. R. was just saying that 
he was not to disturb his master, when Sir P. de 
Grey Egerton appeared in a dressing-gown and 
begged R. to come upstairs, as he had a strange 
and rare fossil to show him. He led R. to a 
room and said, “ There it is.” There lay poor 
Lord Cole half asleep, but Sir Philip was re- 
morseless and made him get up.’ 
‘ 26th . — T wo hampers came. When we opened 
them we found one contained a dead Lophius, 
the other a live bird of the diver kind. A note 
with them from the Isle of Wight explained that 
the bird and fish were seen and caught by some 
fishermen. The bird partly swallowed and stuck 
in the mouth of the fish. Perhaps they were 
both darting after the same object of prey. R. 
sent the diver to the Zoo, and a few days after 
the keeper told him the bird frequently dived and 
brought up fish in the pond. However, R. is 
afraid that it may not live long in fresh water, 
being purely a sea bird.’ 
'■May 15. — Our young friend Frederick Pol- 
lock here. As a very little boy, he once crushed 
Richard with a remark. We were having a chil- 
dren’s party at our house, and the boy went off 
to the dining-room and began looking over a 
huge folio volunre on the sofa, while the other 
children were in the drawing-room dancing. R. 
