66 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. III. 
‘ On Monday I am going away for a run to 
certain out-of-the-way places in opposite corners 
of the map of England, with an eye to “ House- 
hold Words.” It is probable that I shall not be 
back here until September is far advanced. 1 
shall then have to give myself up for a week or 
two to some friends who are coming, and then 
the dreary leaves will begin to fall and my wintry 
plans will gather about me. 
‘ So I am afraid I shall not see the old house ’ 
summer. But you describe it so wonderfully 
well, that I seem to have seen it already and to 
be perfectly acquainted with it. That — and your 
and Owen’s remembrance of me — are my con- j 
solation. 
‘With kindest regards to him, and to your 
son, in which all here join, believe me, 
‘ Always most faithfully yours, 
‘Charles Dickens.’ 
In this month there was an interesting dis- 
covery made by some engineers at Newcastle, 
which Owen was called upon to inspect. We 
have in the diary an account of his report and 
explanation of the same : — 
^September ii. — R. going to Newcastle to 
examine into a discovery which has been made 
there of the fossil stump of an old forest-tree, j 
1 An old house in Mortlake which Charles Dickens had said he | 
would like to see. 
