Slept well last night. Cold & bright always. After breakfast & arranging drawings in frames, I went to reading room, & to Cagiate’s, where I bought plates, crockery, & glass. Then I worked at the Palestine drawings. S.W.C. came in, & went away. And I worked again till 4 ― when he & Manners Sutton came in & we walked round the Borghese. The mixture of people is a bore. At 6½ ― (having written to Janet Hunt,) I went to S.W.C. to dine. Gibbs, Peacock, & the youngest Sutton. I don’t like Suttons. Peacock was agreeable & Gibbs & we all sat talking till 9 ― I till 10  with P. & S.. ― Overlooked G.’s writing. “It is so old,” said I, as I came to the portone of No. 9 ― walking with G. ― “[…] door.” ― “There is no reason […]”1

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

  1. The rest is unreadable, apparently erased by Lear himself, so Giorgio’s reply, probably a joke, is lost. [↩]