262 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. VIII. 
Maynard, Mr. Gregson, Dr. Croly, and myself. 
The great work by Humboldt, “Cosmos,” came 
under discussion. You should have Bailliere’s 
translation of it. . . . To say that it does not give 
the richness of the original is only to say that the 
man who could worthily render the diction of 
Humboldt is not yet found. . . . Arnold I have 
almost wholly read ; but I mean to buy that 
remarkable record of a man who could, and dared 
to, think : a greater rarity than the moa.' 
‘On July 24,’ Mrs. Owen writes in her diary, 
‘ Sir H. de la Beche came with a message from 
Sir Robert Peel to ask Richard if knighthood 
would be acceptable to him. After talking the 
matter over with me, R. declined, as I desired. 
It would not add much to our comfort or re- 
spectability, and if the time should come when 
the collection had become part of a great national 
museum, then it might all be very well’ 
Early in August Owen met Theodore Hook 
and J. M. W. Turner, at a dinner given by his 
friend Broderip, who was a great connoisseur of 
pictures. A few days after this dinner Turner 
invited Owen and Broderip to see his pictures 
in his house in Queen Anne Street. Owen’s 
account of this visit is amusing. He tells hoW, 
on a very bright August day, Broderip and he 
walked together to Turner’s residence, which was 
slightly dingy in outward appearance. When 
they arrived at the door, they waited some time 
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