Quite dark till 12 ― fog ― & rain.

Then snow! (It snowed to 2 or 3 P.M.)

Of course no work could be done. Foords men came, & fixed in the Damascus & Beirût.

Sent the old sketch or design of Bethell’s Parnassus to Sybella Clive as her wedding present.

Lunched at 3 ― & read Arthur Stanley’s excellent & beautiful Review of “Essays & Reviews.”1

Worked at the Cedars till 5. ― Called on Clowes, out, & Foords. Damp ― cold ― dark dirty.

Health, I rejoice to say, better.

But the sore strange pain of Ann’s loss seems never to heal.

Dined at Sir W. James ― kind good people. Their little boy had met with a curious accident, ― the string of a large top wound up tightly suddenly ran out, & tore off his nail.

Pleasant quiet evening.

Sir W.J. (who was at Oxford with J. Ruskin ―) said there was always something odd about him ― & that his parents brought him there & that Mr. R. Senior ― said, (requesting a private interview with the dean of C. Church,) “would it be against the rules of the University for my son to have a Chessboard in his room?[”]

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

  1. In the Edinburgh Review. Vol. 113, no. 230, April 1861. 236-256. [↩]