Saturday, 4 June 1859
Rose at 5½. Packed ― & then wrote Albanian journals till 8. Chappell seems a good servant, & cared for. Maria was not down to prayers, & is unwell ― & was so yesterday. Lucy reads, as she does everything truly. ― Breakfast. Letter from Foord, & Ruskins’s note. At 10, wished the kind old Admrl good bye. (Lady H. not up.) Maria & Lucy: ― the 2 little girls, Phipps’s ― I saw not. ― Off in a spring cart, morning grey. [] Park, Sir G. Staunton’s, Havant at 11.15. ― 11.30 Rail, & Portsmouth. Fly to pier, & crowd & waiting ― & bye & bye off on Ryde Boat . Burning hulk of the unhappy invalid ship. ― Ryde. ― Car to Newport: ― bright green hedges & fields & smallnesses. ― Lunch at Bugle Inn. Walked to Parkhurst Barrax ― but, meeting officers, they said Capt. Gordon was at Carisbrooke: so, walked there ― & after other delays ― found him, ― very like Mrs. Macbean: ― Col. & Mrs. G. ― & Mrs. M. not yet arrived.
(Monument of Marochette.) Capt. G. a nice fellow ― rough. ― returned to Newport ―.
Very hot afternoon ― & at 5 ― set off in fly for Niton, where I arrived at 5½ ― pretty hedged, but not interesting route. Hotel of [Sandrock] full: attempted to put me in a pill-boxy nest of room, ― but I went to the sea, & a Marine Hotel, & would not suffer so much.
So returning ― & finding that now even more of the [Sandrock] Hotel was inapproachable, I sent all my things down to the Victoria: & there I am well cared for, & the [sands], & situation seem to me at least something.
The quiet flashiness of this Victoria lodging home was a delight to me.
[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]