236 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. VIII. 
admission of the public, and also of nightly admis- 
sion and admission on Sundays, to portions of 
the building, with exhibited objects of interest 
and extent sufficient to gratify any reasonable 
expectation, and requiring a minimum of super- 
vision.’ 
The removal from Egypt to England of 
Cleopatra’s Needle greatly interested Owen, who 
was anxious that the Government should have the 
obelisk placed in the great forecourt of the 
Museum at Bloomsbury, where it would form a 
fitting supplement to the antiquities within. He 
accordingly wrote letters on the subject, and inter- 
viewed officials at the Board of Works.® H.R. H. 
the Prince of Wales, in 1869, was at the cost 
of removing the dust and displaying England’s 
obelisk in its whole noble length. 
This obelisk, however, was eventually placed 
on the Thames Embankment, not without pro- 
test on the part of Owen and other Egyptolo- 
gists, who objected to its incongruous position. 
A long letter from Oliver Wendell Holmes 
written to Owen, and dated Boston, December 18, 
1878, IS characteristic and interesting. Some 
extracts from it are given below. 
My palaeontological accomplishments are but 
® The obelisk in question is 
the fellow of that now in 
America, for it is one of a pair. 
It was given to England by 
Mohammed Ali in comme- 
moration of the victories in 
Egypt in i8oi, but remained, 
half buried in the sand, till 
Erasmus Wilson paid for its 
removal to London in 1877. 
