1839-40 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION 
159 
‘ 2Ztk . — Shocked to find the young giraffe 
dead. Nothing discovered to account for it. R. 
had the melancholy satisfaction of dissecting it.’ 
‘J'li'h 24. — R. to Greenwich with Mr. Stokes 
and Lord Cole. Whilst the party were dining at 
the “Crown and Sceptre” some singers enter- 
tained them with glees. Lord Cole said they 
should sing “God save the Queen” to finish, 
and a.s the waiter was going to give the order 
Mr. Stokes whispered to him, “Tell them to 
strike up ‘ Old King Cole,’ ” which they did, to 
the infinite astonishment of King Cole himself.’ 
‘ — Mr. Hills called to alter the fetlocks of 
the giraffes in his picture, which R. told him were 
not right.’ 
' AugtLst 26. — R. was to have gone to Bir- 
mingham this morning, but could not get his 
papers ready. He has been hard at work writing 
his paper for the Association on British Saurians.’ 
‘ 2Tth. — R. spent a sleepless night and had a 
bad headache in the morning, but he had to start 
for Birmingham at eight. I helped him pack the 
diagrams, &c., and all was ready by half-past, 
and he started in a cab.’ 
It was at the meeting of the British Associa- 
tion held in Birmingham in 1839 that Owen read 
the first part of his ‘ Report on British Fossil 
Reptiles,’ in which he. collected for the first time 
all the information then known. Previous to the 
meeting he paid a short visit to the Bristol Museum 
