23 December 1867 – 29 December 1867

Steamer ; Parry ^ meets me, we walk by muddy path and copse to Hook Hill : his wife and baby (3 days old), both well ; luncheon. Take up my quarters with Mrs, Curry at Myrtle Cottage, then to Farringford with Parry. I introduce him to Mrs. Tennyson. He soon retires. A. T. comes in with Sir John Simeon. I go up the Downs alone, to Beacon ; wide sea, misty landscape, western light, melancholy. Myrtle Cottage — dine at Farringford, no guests. T. rages against the Fenians — ' Kelts are all mad furious fools ! ' Irish landscape — 'I saw wonderful things there — twenty different showers at once on a great expanse — a vast yellow cloud with a little bit of rainbow stuck on one corner ' (T. swept his arm round for the cloud and then gave a nick in the air with his thumb for the bit of rainbow) — ' I wish I could bring these things in I I was travelling in Kerry through a great black landscape — bogs. A lady beside me asked how I liked the country ; I said, it might be greener ; to which she replied indignantly, " And where then would the poor man cut his bit of turf V ' Away at 1 1 to Myrtle Cottage.

Parry's ; walk with him to sea-side, black rocks, breakers ghostly white, light at sea. Back with him, tea. His childhood, etc. We walk along the dark road to Albion Hotel, Mr. and Mrs. Murrow personal acquaintances of C. P. P. tells of his tribulations when his wife was confined. No bed, lay down by a fire and went to sleep, wakened by woman putting on pots and kettles ; went into another room and fell asleep by the fire, wakened by some one putting on pots and kettles there ; went out, nearly asleep, and lay down in a passage, wakened by the Doctor wiping his boots upon him, at which the Murrows laugh. Walking back P. explains to me that Murrow (a Welshman) is ' a high Freemason ' — * He doesn't call me " Sir " when we're alone. If you're a Mason your Servant may be a higher Mason than you. Garibaldi head of the Italian Masons, which added greatly to his power. L. Napoleon a High Mason, etc' Has Freemasonry any real importance in the world's affairs ? or is most of this mythical .''

Myrtle Cottage, cold, hoar- frost, misty. Farringford, Lionel and his fiddle. Henry Cameron comes, for rabbit-hunting. I walk to Yarmouth, pretty byroad to shore, hartstongue ferns, a primrose in bloom. Quay, Hallam with carriage and ponies. Cold, foggy wind, gray sea. Steamer comes in with Woolner and Mr. W. G. Clark of Cambridge. We three walk off by shore and byroad. Show them primrose — ' The rath primrose that forsaken dies.' T.'s lines : — the gloomy brewer's soul Went by me, like a stork : Why ' Stork .'' ' Clark says because the Stork was an antimonarchical emblem. To Farringford. At dinner Mr. Clark talks of Rome, Greece, foreign travel (pleasant life). T. denounces publisher P. Says he is trying Hebrew. ' Do you (to Clark) know any Hebrew .? ' C. — ' Only the letters.' T. — ' Exactly ! the priests can't read their own sacred books.' C. (rather disconcerted). — ' The New Testament I can, more or less.' (One forgets that C. is a Rev.)