31 August 1868 – 6 September 1868

Freshwater. Very fine. Lionel and I on ponies, a gallop on the downs. Hinton's Life in Nature (praised by A. T.). I walk to Yarmouth, cross to Lymington, Custom House, and back in the afternoon to dine at Farringford. Dinner : A. T., Mrs. T., Lionel, Mr. Digby (tutor), De Vere, and W. A. De Vere — his talk of Catholicism, eloquently vague, sliding into Newmanism and Jesuistry, The T,'s mildly dissentient, I getting angry. T., De V. and I went out under the stars ; I flared up at last and asked De V,, ' Do you yourself entirely believe the account given by the Roman Catholic Church of God and man } ' De V, — ' I believe it all as surely as that I tread this ground and see those stars.' W. A. — ' And I don't believe one atom of it.' Tennyson. — ' You have no point of contact, then.' De V. and I walked off m the moonlight and said good-night at Plumley's ; he going on, he said, to walk upon the down.

Freshwater. Mrs. Carter's lodging. Very fine and sunny. To Farringford, meet William with the ponies. Breakfast, then out to croquet-lawn, sit in shade, reading odd numbers of a Conservative magazine. A. T. comes, friendly ; says, ' I saw a beast watching me ! I saw his legs behind the ilex.'