Rose before 6 ― & penned out till 8.
Cooper is better. No tidings of Trunk. Penned out at intevels ― sleeping now & then, ― & lunching at 1 ― till 4, when I came to Waterloo Station. ― & so to Twickenham ditto, & by cab to Strawberry Hill. No one was there but Edwards? Vernon: very communicative & tiresome.
The afternoon was cloudy ― & rain began to fall. C.F. came ― but without the least kindly enquiry about my trunk ― or what I was doing in any way ― that I had written about W. Nevill & others: (indeed he laughed amain about the trunk.) Taking me to his room ― (where the pictures are all shockingly placed ―) he talk[ed a wh]ile about Storks ― Woolff &c. ― but in 5 minutes he lef[t to f]ind the increasing party ―quite right & his duty ― only [][1] bore to come here nondimeno. Dinner immense & tiresome except that I sate next to good Grenfell. ― My next neighbor, Lady Hislop, half killed me with crinoline & wine.
O what a bore!
[1]A large blot covers part of the page.
[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3. Image.]
Edward Lear's Diaries 