Edward Lear's Diaries

Wrote to
F.L.
Hansen
Dickenson

Of all the very loveliest days of this wonderfully loveliest summer=endless ― perhaps this might be the softest & calmest & brightest.

Read T. Hook’s Tylney Hall¹ ― foolishly.

Worked at the large Petra ― but nearly gave it up altogether. ― Accounts from Rome & Bordeaux singularly interesting.

Afternoon ― worked perhaps a little better.

Letters from S.W.C. & from Macbean, ― I have not overdrawn by 3 dollars. M. represents Rome as “very quiet.” ―

Walked to Hastings ― called on Mrs. W.S. ― & then on the Cockerells, where I sang a lot of songs to nice little Miss Cockerell. ―

Returned at 7½ to dine on M. Chops & mushrooms. & to read Beckford’s Portuguese Convents.²

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

1. Sic, Tilney Hall was actually a novel by Thomas Hood, first published in 1834. [↩]
2. Probably Beckford’s Italy; with Sketches of Spain and Portugal. In a Series of Letters Written during a Residence in those Countries. 2 voll. London, 1834. [↩]