Garden with J.B. Edwards. ― At 9.10 omnibus to rail.

Lively & pleasant party ― Swedish V. Consul &c. &c. Waterloo Station by 10 or so. ― Cab to Foords & Stratford Place. Arranged paintings & drawings &c. &c. Letter from Macbean; Spillman has taken all furniture in lieu of 3 quarters’ rent; so the whole of my Roman life collapses & is done.

Whereby I rejoice.

At 2 to Count de Paris & Duc de Chartres, & Prince de Joinville came, & looked at drawings till 5. ― They were much pleased: as I was with them, especially with the C.te de Paris, who is peculiar for fun, amiability, & knowledge of what he has seen.

When they left I called to Ann’s, ― but found Ellen there by chance, a sudden visitor.

Dear Ann did not think well: ― I did all I could to enliven.

At 9 was at home again.

X3

H. enlisted & was 7 or 8 years as a foot private: ― then he deserted, to a Cavalry regt. ― whereon, being sent into a Condemned regt., he wrote to his Father: ― & the D. of Yk, then Commander in chief, ― allowed him to be brought out, on account of his not having wished to desert H.M. service, but only to change his position in it.

At that time he was at Carisbrook, & then our father & mother went to see him, & brought him back. ― What a bargain!! ― This I never knew till last night, (I am writing on the 9th) when, on our looking over Sarah’s [at the bottom of the entry for 7 October] letter from the Isle of Wight, Ann & Ellen spoke of it.

I must then have been 7 or 8 years old: anyhow the following Easter Monday came on the 8th of April ― i.e. [that] following after H.J. returned.1

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

  1. See Levi, Peter. Edward Lear. A Biography. New York and London: Scribner, 1995. 180. [↩]