1839-40 
VISITS TO SOMERSETSHIRE 
165 
uncle’s, Mr. Owen Wynne, of Hazlewood [Sligo]. 
This gentleman is eighty-five, was in Parliament 
with Burke, Fox, Sheridan, &c. ; has all his 
faculties of mind and body unimpaired ; drove 
me, for example, in a curricle and pair over 
eighteen miles of the picturesque country around 
his seat. . . . 
‘Sailed for Bristol [from Dublin]. Studied 
the Saurian remains in that town, and went on 
to Mr. Hawkins’s, Sharpham Park, near Glaston- 
bury, That worthy and eccentric man of genius 
had procured me peacocks’ eggs for breakfast 
— no bad things, by the way — and other rarities 
conformable. I had purposely given him short 
notice ; but I found all his neighbours within 
twelve miles — one gentleman came from Wells — 
invited that day to have, according to the card, 
the honour to meet Prof. Robt. Owen.^ A 
clergyman in the neighbourhood returned a brief 
and indignant refusal to the invitation ; and when 
I arrived I found Mr. Hawkins in the anxiety of 
rectifying the impression. About fifteen mus- 
tered, more than half expecting to see the 
Socialist. I tarried in my dressing-room to the 
last minute to shorten the exhibition ; but was 
unearthed at last, and contrived to fmd one or 
two conversible beings, and established at length 
uiy claims to be regarded as one of the same 
species. . . . Sharpham Park is the oldest house 
' The social reformer. 
