William Allingham’s diary, 1874

C. has a bad cold, very unusual with him. We call at Froude's, who is gone out. C. manages to get as far as Sloane St. — his laughing always ends in a cough. Speaks…

Carlyle has received the German order Pour le Merite — black ribbon with silver line near each edge ; he dictates to Mary letters to the Ambassador and to Berlin,…

To C.'s 3.30. C. lends me a pair of ' model braces.' He highly admires some practical little inventions, and thinks it must have been one of the most ingenious of…

Carlyle spoke of the first Nigger Minstrels in this country ; some one took him to a theatre to hear them. He was extremely tickled by their ' tempest of enthusiasm…

The post of Historiographer Royal for Scotland was ' about to be offered ' to Carlyle, but the attack on Dizzy in Shooting Niagara put a stop to this. So C. told me…

Walk with C. and Professor Bain to Hyde Park, iTalk of size of heads. C. said (I think) that his own head was 23I- inches round, one inch more than Burns's.…

C, and I walked on the Chelsea Embankment. He praised Wren, always a favourite of his : ' I was some years in Chelsea before I took particular notice of the…

Helen and I about 9.30 to 5 Cheyne Row. Upstairs : Carlyle in gray dressing- gown, reading. Mary Aitken ; C. returned lately from Scotland. ' Saw many things that…

C. : 'Dizzy the most ambitious of living men — was dreadfully unhappy in his time of obscurity ; believes in nothing whatever but success. Has undoubted toughness,…