9 June 1873 – 15 June 1873

Met Carlyle. We had been talking, on some previous day or days, about Stratford on Avon, to which I had paid a visit this May. When I quoted the tombstone lines ' Good Friend, for Jesus sake forbear,' etc., C. wished to correct me to ' Sweet Friend,' and would not be gainsaid : indeed he has used the ' Sweet Friend,' etc., several times in his writings and very frequently in conversation, and would not give it up save on compulsion. To-day I brought proof in my pocket in the shape of a photograph of the stone with its inscription clearly legible, and as we sat on a tree-trunk I showed this to him in the quietest possible way — (not the least air of triumph, overt or covert). He looked at the photograph, said nothing or very little (' Ah, well,' perhaps, or the like), and handed it back without any formal retractation, though further argument was plainly impossible ; and not long after- wards (I mean a few weeks later) he was using his beloved old formula, ' Sweet Friend,' as if nothing had happened, and so continued.