1843-44 
MEETS SPOHR 
219 
The diary continues : — 
' Jttne 22. — R. to King’s College. Prince 
Albert to be received there by the Professors. 
Mr. Wheatstone’s experiment of firing a cannon 
by the electric spark tried, the wire being laid 
from Somerset House along the bed of the river 
to the shot manufactory. Great crowd at the 
entrance of Waterloo Bridge.’ 
‘ 30M. — To Mrs. Taylor’s, to meet Spohr and 
his wife. Spohr is a very tall, big man, with an 
innocent-looking, rather inexpressive fair face, 
and a hideous sandy scratch wig. I was told that 
Spohr’s second marriage had greatly offended his 
Prince (Hesse-Cassel), who wished him to marry 
some other lady. Met also Benedict and M. and 
Madame Moscheles.’ 
The meeting of the British Association was 
held in the August of this year at Cork, and 
Owen attended it. In a letter to his wife, dated 
August 17, he gives an account of his journey 
thither : ‘ I was so lucky as to get a vacant seat 
on the roof of the mail to Carnarvon [at Glou- 
cester]. The ride is through a glorious part 
of S. Wales. ... We passed through two turn- 
pikes that had been visited by the Breakers ; ^ 
one was down, the posts having been neatly 
sawed through, and the toll-house unroofed ; the 
other gate, twenty miles farther on, was similarly 
demolished, and the toll-house razed to the 
ground.’ 
“ The Rebeccaites. 
