Very fine & bright, & not cold.

Good lack! shall we ever be free?

Arranged clothes & colors &c. all the morning. A message from the Duc d’Aumâle to say he is coming to day. ― Lunch at 2. At 3-4 Mrs. Robinson & Miss [Lowes].

At 5 Duc d’Aumâle, & a Secretary, certainly a very pleasant visit. The Duke staid an hour. ― Arranged mounted drawings of 1838. At 6.30 came Archie Peel ― & Hon. ? Ashley. ― At 7.45 to Sir Roger Palmer’s. (Then Knights’ house ― 56 Portland Pl.) ― room half full ― no one to receive. Continual arrivals. Sir Roger Palmer ― quaint old man, whom A. Peel’s brother had told me “always punned.” A very nice elderly lady & her daughter were most pleasant in the ˇ[dry] wilderness of waiting & stupidity. After 8.15 or 8.20 we went to dinner.

Vast gonfiato1 servant &c.: total want of good cooking & general taste. Was badly placed, & [took me] a very [madcock] old lady.

Mrs. Peel sang very well.

Walked afterwards with A. Seymour pleasantly.

All I said to Sir R. was, on his asking, “Do you like music? ―” “Yes, & especially when the words are so well pronounced, & the notes so distinct:” ― Sir R. “Yes a bad word is worse in a lady’s mouth than elsewhere, & they should be careful in uttering notes, which are costly.”

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

  1. Inflated. [↩]