Bitterly cold. ― Unwell, doubting as to going North, or if I should flee at once. Dear old kind C.F. breakfasted with me at 10.30. ― After breakfast ― (& I see him no more as yet ― ) I worked at Gibbs’s drawings ― suffering always from cold ― till 3. Sir R. Bethell called. Wrote many letters. ―

At 3.30 went out EXTREME COLD ― east wind. ― Called on H.T. Phillips ― improved ― but how vain! ([ῶς ματαῖος])1 ― then to various places ― meeting H. Crake ― &c. ― & Foord’s. Back by 6. Dressed ― & cab to Sir R. Bethell’s.

Lady B. unwell as usual ― all things fine for dinner. ―

J.S. Φίλλιμορ ― Mr. & Lady Laura Roundell Palmer ― & various indefinite people, & Gussy. ― Luckily, sat by Lady L.R.P. & dinner was pleasant. ― Sir R.B.’s tirades about Lord John are curious. He is not an imposing man ― though going up still. ― I mean B. ― R.P. struck me as the intellectual woman of the party. Upstairs, after fuss ― arranged drawings ―: but the whole thing was a failure, & but for the attention of R.P. & Lady L. I don’t think I should have carried it through. Tittering & laughing & bore. ― And Sir R. talking Cicero, & D. Roberts ― but no lifelike care for Palestine itself, tho’ they asked to see views of it. Daddy H.’s contempts are not very wrong. ― At 11 I came away ― I confess ― very angry: but when I think of the life of poor Lady B. & the force she has to put on herself, ― I do not wonder at her talking nonsense. “Do you carry that large box always with you? ―” ―― &c.

Home by 11.30. ―

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

  1. “How vain” in Greek. [↩]