19 November 1866 – 25 November 1866

Farringford. After break- fast T. reads a number of Songs of his under the general title of The Window^ or, The Loves of the Wrens^ pre- facing it by the remark, ' They're quite silly ! ' These songs were privately printed some little time ago at the press of Sir Ivor Guest. Arthur Sullivan saw a copy and managed to get a promise from T. to allow him to set them to music and publish them, all together, on some half-profit arrangement. T. repented of this and tried hard to back out. Some lines in them one remembers like a nursery rhyme — When the winds are up in the morning, Vine, vine and eglantine. Rose, rose and clematis Kiss, kiss ! There are naiVetes and niaiseries — You are small, am I so tall ? Cannot we come together ? Why? For it's easy to find a rhyme — It's ay, ay, ay, ay, ay ! In reading this, T. jumped round most comically, like a cock-pigeon. He is the only person I ever saw who can do the most ludicrous things without any loss of dignity. Reading the lines — After-loves of maids and men Are but meats cook'd up again, he remarked, ' That's very like Shakespeare.'