i 62 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. vr. 
to the high ground, the gnats stung them almost 
to unmanageableness.’ 
On August 30 he writes to tell his sisters that 
he is back home again and ready for work at the 
Museum. But he miscalculated his strength and 
powers of endurance during his Highland tour, as 
will be seen from a letter written to his friend 
White Cooper ; — 
‘You know that my wife and I spent August 
among the mountains of Ross and Inverness. 
There I stalked with the stalkers, and walked or 
scrambled with the grouse and ptarmigan-shooters, 
and even waded the salmon streams, rejoicing in 
my well-conserved vigour, outlasting younger 
men. Foolish philosopher ! to think of doing at 
sixty the feats of fifty or forty. Since our return 
home I have become affected with loss of muscular 
power — my arms more feeble than my legs. I’ve 
not long been able to hold a pen, and have made. 
I see, a shameful blot by mismanaging the ink- 
stand.’ 
Soon after his Highland holiday he wrote to 
Alfred Tennyson to ask the ‘ quantity ’ of the word 
‘ embryonic.’ He received the following reply 
from Faringford : — 
‘ My dear Owen, — I suppose when you say 
“ quantity, like most English people, you mean 
accent. “Embryonic” would be the accent, 
though the syllable is a short one— embryonic, 
not embryonic. As for “embryonal,” I never 
