Thursday, 15 March 1860
Wrote letter to F.L. Drew 50£ from Drummonds.
Rose later, i.e. 7½. ―
Gray, finish, cloudy day.
Worked at the Appian Way picture ― only going at 11 to Macbeans. J. Gibson called.
Again working to 5½ ― then calling on Newton, who was busy with his boox ― & forming himself naturally into Roman Consular life.
Home by 6½.
Dined alone. & read Adam Bede, the most singular book one has read since Mrs. Gaskells, & C. Brontë’s. ―
G. vexes me by saying, one … [Pangroti], Corfioti, has told him so & so, at the “Collegio.” ――― whereas I thought he had “no friends” ― (as Lady C. Smith said) in the paese.1
[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]
- Country. [↩]
I’d like to know what book of Mrs. Gaskell’s Lear had read and if he was referring to Charlotte Brontë’s work as a whole. It occurs to me that perhaps he was referring to Mrs. Gaskell’s life of Charlotte Brontë, although it would be a strange book to compare _Adam Bede_ to.