Fine ― but not hot. Letters from E. Drummond, & Mr. Evans ― (about “once a week”[)] ―: to whom I wrote. At 11 I set out, walking all along the coast, by the little bluffs & Towers, ― with Carmel-like Beachy head afar, ― & the sand girt still sea=pools, ― & the Blockade men, ― & the Pevensey marshes with the “Bullocks” dear Ann used to dread when I was 5 years old ― & the flox of sheep, ― & the old Castle ― & latterly the dull road ― to Eastbourne by 3½. There, I found Terrick Hamilton was not at his old home: so I betook myself to the Burlington  Hotel & dined. A waiter, wh. had been all over the world; & a rheumatic lame Mr. Kidd, with whom I dined: a kindly man. I read AT’s Grandmother1 to him ― which greatly pleased him: ― & then ― finding I had not money to get back, I had to ask him to lend me 6 shilling; ― which he did. ― So, then to the Rail, at 8.10 & waiting at Polegate I got to St. Leonard’s at 9.30. ― But, [gr.]

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

  1. Tennyson’s “The Grandmother,” which had just been published in Once a Week (16 July 1859) with an illustration by John Everett Millais. [↩]