28 April 1879 – 4 May 1879

To Cheyne Row about 2.15. C. complained, in her presence, of Mary's having ordered the carriage to come to-day : he wanted to go in the omnibus. I proposed to take him ; and, the carriage not appearing in time, we walked slowly to Oakley Street and got into his favourite vehicle — his first trip of the kind these many weeks. The conductor showed special attention, and C. got his favourite seat, namely, next the door on the left-hand side — that on which the conductor's perch is. At Temple Bar we got out, and he consented to come into the Middle Temple, where he said he had never been before in his life. We entered, after a shght demur of the janitor (it being Sunday), by the gate and lane leading to the porch of the Temple Church. ' Close by,' I said, ' is Goldsmith's grave.' 'Where is it .'' ' said C, and crept slowly on my arm till we stood beside the simple but sufficient monument, a stone about coffin length, and eighteen inches high, I read aloud the inscriptions ; C. took ; off his broad-flapped black hat saying, ' A salute.' I 1: followed his example, and thus we stood for a few seconds. When our hats were on and we were turning away, C. laughed and said, ' Strange times, Mr. Rigma- role ! ' Then, * Poor Oliver ! — he said on his deathbed, " I am not at ease in my mind." ' We now heard the organ rolling in the Church, and C. said, ' Can't we go in and sit down there ^. ' We went to the porch, the great door yielded and showed us, better than I hoped, plenty of seats just inside. I We sat down in the middle of the round part. I ' showed C. the recumbent figures of Templars, and he said, with rather alarming audibility, ' Aye, they were so poor that two of them rode on one horse, and they were the richest and powerfullest of orders in their day.' Then the organ and chanting began and filled us both with responsive waves of feeling. Carlyle said one day, ' Black's Oliver Goldsmith is v/orth nothing at all, he gives no credible Goldsmith.' Friedmann. — ' The Vicar of Wakefield is given to young Germans for their first book in English.' C. — ' I read the Vicar again lately, and was dis- appointed.' W. A. thought the latter part of it much below the beginning.