Ὁ ἵδιος καιρὸς ― ugh ―! If not colder. ― Wrote a good deal to F.L. & then worked at the Cedars of Lebanon & other drawings till 12 when a mass of people came ― (1)Bright, (2)Mrs. & (3)Miss B. (a very sweet girl), Granville (4)Vernon (― poor silly man) & (5)Mrs. G.N. ― joyous. ― (6)Lord Falkland ― extremely gentlemanly & pleasant. (7)Mr. Herbert ― not so: & (8)Mrs. Herbert, most odious ― a double distillation of Sir [Bengs] & Lady H. which is severe. (9)Wortley, (of New Zealand & Corfû.) (10)Manners Sutton ― a nice fellow ― & (11)S.W. Clowes, & (12)Sir John Duckworth ―:1 to whom I held farther on the Palestine drawings ― & they all seemed benefited! ― Afterwards, S.W.C. sate a time with me, & after he went, a Mrs. Chetwode & Miss C. came ― the former a sister of Walter Evans of Westbank; very nice people indeed. ― After that, I worked & wrote till 4½ ― & then called on Miss Ingram, & walked on the Pincian, (meeting Coleman & his 2 boys & dog, ―) (how curious a life is this of Rome! ―) ― Afterwards, went to the Belli Arti, & dined with Williams in that filthy place. How he can dine so nightly!!! ― I, di parte mia,2 resolved not to do so again. ― Came home ― (curtains up now, & screen ―) ― & sent a note to J. Uwins, ― asking him to come & have a cup ― but he was impegnato.3 ― So I had my cup of coffee ― & good Γεώργι makes one as comfortable as he can. ―

X5

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

  1. In the coming days, the lists of people visiting Lear’s gallery will be very long, I am not going to try to index them, unless their coming is recurrent or Lear sees them in a different context. [↩]
  2. Italian, “for my part.” [↩]
  3. Italian, “busy.” [↩]