1865-68 AS UNIVERSAL PROVIDER 159 
a Yorkshire one, which had been sent to them by 
the Queen of Spain from Madrid ; it was of a 
snipey flavour, very good.’ 
On April 13, 1865, he writes to his sister 
Maria, in anticipation of the coming visit from 
his sisters: ‘We have now a lovely bed of 
hyacinths out, and the adjoining tulip-bed is 
beginning to show colour. The horse chestnut 
leaves are unfolding, but it is unseasonably dry. 
The orchard-house shows a glorious blaze of 
blossom, with the bees busily humming, and the 
warmth giving quite a midsummer character to 
the interior. The wild hyacinths, arums, &c., I 
brought last year from Norfolk are all springing 
up or in flower. I think you will find the garden 
this year quite up to the mark.’ 
In a brief scrap of a note to his wife in May 
1865 Owen refers to the extraordinary applica- 
tions which he was constantly receiving from 
persons who seemed to think that they had 
merely to apply to him, and he, by some myste- 
rious arts, would immediately obtain for them 
their request, however wild and extravagant it 
might be : — 
‘ Among my letters this morning,’ he says, ‘ I 
have one asking for a royal living (vicarage, &c.), 
another for a lieutenant-colonelcy ! ! ’ 
In another amusing letter to his wife Owen 
relates an incident which occurred this year in 
3 - certain small town in Suffolk in which he was 
