Rose earlier than one might have supposed, ― & extremely queer ― did 3 pages of Sophocles.

Breakfast ― a thunderstorm & rain; ― & resolved to go to nowhere, but to write quietly. ―

But lo! ― who should come in but

F.L.!

We talked till 12 or 1 ― & then it had cleared, & we set out to walk ―: to Hastings, & over the East Hill, & Ecclesbourne, & Lovers Seat;1 ― & how strange were the remembrances of 1852! ―

hunt_strayed_sheep_s

Returning by the upper road, we came to 179 Marina, & found all shut up. ― So we went to the Victoria & dined. ―― Home by 10½.

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

  1. Lear had been to the Lover’s Seat with William Holman Hunt, who was then teaching him oil painting, while the latter was working on Strayed Sheep, also known as Our English Coasts (1852). [↩]