Paid Mrs. Shakespear 2£ | No.

Fine ― i.e. no rain; but cloudy always. W.F.B. at breakfast.

A day of bother. Rose at 7. Infinite letters ― & wrote infinitely also. ― Ann came at 11 ― & was pretty happy I think. ― I painted at T. Potter’s Palermo. Willie Nevill at 1: ― he is much improved: Lunch with him & Ann. Painted again till 3. Then Mrs. Shakespear & little Ida: & I got Ann to go in & see her, but Venables came, & Mrs. Headlam & her sister ― so poor Ann escaped. Finally, Ida wouldn’t go, & screeched so as to [resound thro’] Stratford Place, & was forcibly carried into the Brougham. Thereon, near 4 ― I began to dress ― but Lord Somers came ― queer & altered: whom I think descends. ― He went, & I, at 4 ― out to cabinet maker, Tailor, & C. Cross omnibus, seeing Mrs. Shakespear by the way, & Somers also. ― To Camberwell Gate ― & walked to Mr. Maclean’s, where was H. à Dennett.

Evening difficult. Mrs. M. is slow ― & there was little relief, tho’ they are good folk. So I talked. ― Back by 11½.

Found cards & notes from

Col. Caldwell
Mrs. Ford
Mrs. Bouverie. ―

Dreadful accounts of the Lebanon! Zachleh, & Hasbayah destroyed!

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