Thursday, 7 June 1860
XXX3
Very hideous fate. ― Rose at 8. ― S.W. Clowes came at 10½. Gibbs later. Worked very little, off & on, at the 3 Parnassi. ― Sleeping and reading, midwhiles. ― Wrote to J.B.H., Mrs. Coombe, C.M. Church, & Mrs. Empson. Rain all the morning.
At 3½ S.W.C. came, & as it hardly rained, we walked to the Z. Gardens. The Balœniceps was the most curious brute there. ― The few ― 4 I think ― older keepers, sadly strangely recall those early days of Z. drawing: ― so narrow does the ruin of life gradually ˇ[seem to] become. ―
Cab home, dressed, & to the Crakes by 6½. A changed house indeed. ― Yet Mr. C. is a brave old man. Mrs. C. is more querulous, more Mrs. Nickelby=ious & indescribably queer & harsh & obstinate & selfish than ever, & that is saying much. M. Anne is more undisguisedly bitter & contemptuous, & ungrammatical. ― Yet they cannot help their faults, albeith the faults make their life unhappy. ― At 10 I walked home. Letters from Mrs. Edward Holmes, ―― most kind & unchanged: ― oh! John Sayres! ――― & from Mrs. G. Clive.
Letters also from Ann, & one from S.S. enclosed.
[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]
“so narrow does the ruin of life gradually ˇ[seem to] become.”
A great phrase for memory in the aging and here it is exiled in an unpublished diary.