Did little but pack, shut up & arrange. Receiving an invitation to the Palace, I went there with a drawing of the Maccaw ― but Lady Y. was unwell. ― Churchill nearly showed me into G.F.B.’s room.  ― His correspondence with F.L. is frightfully illustrative of his character. ― At 11½ went to the Shakespeares & had my φοτογραφ taken ― & lunched there ― very pleasantly & Mrs. S.’s playing poor H.C.’s “Cloches du Monastère”1  was pleasant sad. ― Saw Campbell & Billy2 & I came back. ― Went to F.L. to walk, but he was busy with copying letters of that horrid brute B. & so, meeting Sir J.R. ― walked with him. ― Dined with F.L. having moved there altogether ― & slept but uneasily ― as the wind had risen & the “noises” were various.

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

  1. “Les cloches du monastère. Nocturne,” op. 54, by Louis James Alfred Lefèbure-Wely (1817-1869). It was probably a favourite of Helena Cortazzi’s. [↩]
  2. Campbell’s violent horse, see LEL, 81. [↩]