Very fine & warm. At 11 (having written 10 more letters,) left the good H. Hunts, & came to the Hastings train. (I am to write to John Senior before I go.) Railroad very shaking, & 2 darling little children, ˇ[who with a nurse] were in the carriage, were, not frightened, but  half ill. So I took the boy ― 4 years old, on my knee, & the girl in my arms, & told them my long name & all kinds of nonsense ― till they forgot the shaking bother. At last, after telling them my long name “4 or 5 times, one said, “My name is Robt. George Winsor Clive.” & the other, ― “& my name is Mary Agnes W. Clive.” ― & they were really Robt. Clive’s children!! ― Whereon much talk with the nurse ― they were going to Scotney. I never saw 2 sweeter & more intelligent children than those 2: & I longed to keep them both. At Hastings, bubble busting. And I to the G. Scrivens. The W.S. also there. Great amount of talk, & most pleasant visit. G.S. went with me to the 5.15 train. 6.3 at Ashford. 7.5 at Φώξτον: ― “changed” & supped.

But O! the dreary terror of this day! so unlike all other England leavings ―― no dear Ann!

Cold bitter wind, & rain.

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