1865-68 A RELIEF TO GLADSTONE 189 
had it entered much deeper. Frank Buckland 
also gave evidence to the same effect. 
On December 16, 1868, Owen writes to his 
sister Maria : ‘. . . I lately attended one of our 
Club meetings, Marquis of Exeter in the chair. 
... It must have been a relief to Gladstone to 
have a quiet literary gossip without a bit of politics.’ 
There were present on this occasion, according 
to a plan of the table appended to the letter : 
Duke of Argyll, Lord Romilly, Grote, Holland, 
Walpole, Murchison, Twiselton, Reeve, Smith, 
Lord Stanley, Lord Dufferin, Sir David Dundas, 
the Lord Chancellor, and Earl Stanhope. 
