PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. V. 
164 
O’ Kerry and a Mr. Trench are the other guests. 
I must not forget, in describing the house, to men- 
tion the peacocks which for many generations — 
of peacocks — have adorned it, perched on the 
window-sills or under the arches of the cloisters ; 
to my ear their wild scream early of a morning is 
not unmusical. Peat, turf, and wood are the kinds 
of fuel consumed here, and a huge wicker-basket 
of turf is placed by the side of each fireplace. 
. . . I read the last number of “ Nicholas Nickle- 
by ” in bed the other night.’ 
On September 13, 1839, he writes to Clift, 
still from Idorence Court : ‘ I have angled in 
the river and caught trout ; trolled in the lough 
end taken huge predatory pike ; traversed the 
heath-clad moors and shot grouse. An appetite 
sharpened by previous fasting, exercise, and 
mountain air, has enabled me to do ample justice 
to Irish good cheer, and to carry to bed with the 
decorum suitable to a Professor the quantum of 
claret which my lord’s guests are under the 
obligation of swallowing when made free of the 
house out of King William’s Mustard-pot. . . . 
I may spend a day with Mr. Hawkins at Street, 
and take a run down to make love to Mary 
Anning at Lyme, and then post home as fast as 
stage-coach can carry me.’ 
In a letter sent by Owen to his sister Eliza on 
October 18, 1839, after his return to London, 
he writes : ‘ I accompanied Lord Cole to his 
