William Allingham’s diary, 1880

I meet Carlyle's carriage in the street and get in, Mary alights," Alick stays. We drive through the Parks, looking green, to Swiss Cottage. Carlyle, poor man, lies…

Mary and Alick came to us in the evening — Professor Tyndall and Mrs. T. had called on Carlyle, who brightened up. They talked of the Fahr- benlehre. C. hoped that…

Helen and I with the babes to Tennyson's. He sits on chair beside us. Two Miss s call (very old family). Tennyson tells us afterwards ' A former Lord H , queer old…

Helen and I walk to T.'s. Blackdown now purple with ling and heather. Lawn : Mrs. Tennyson in invalid chair. Mr. Edward Lear coming on Monday — one of twenty…

Hallam and Lionel Tennyson, with Miss Ritchie, call on us after church. Helen and I walk up to T.'s. At dinner, talk of Ireland. The Church of Rome — I speak of its…

Hallam calls. Helen and I walk up to Aldworth. Find A. T. on seat at end of lower terrace, reading a large type New Testament. We sit beside him. Tennyson shows me…

Drove up to Tennyson's to dinner. H. and I., Aubrey de Vere, Dr. Bradley, Mrs. and Miss Bradley. A. T., Aubrey de Vere and I talk of poetry. T. and I agree on the…

H. and I walked up to Aldworth to dinner. Dr. Johnson. — T. : ' I don't think I should have liked his company, but I like Boswell's book.' Byron. — T. : ' When a…

Haslemere. Our last visit (this time) to Aldworth. Snow on the ground. We all drive up. The Wordsworth Society. — T. entirely objects to it. * They'll give one a…

Tennyson and I drive in his carriage up Hindhead as far as the Huts, to look for gypsies, but find none. T. — ' Old Hallam used to say the longer one lived the…

Chelsea. Yesterday, returned to town. Carlyle's about five o'clock — feebler in look and voice. I told him of Haslemere — Tennyson.

H. and I to Hammersmith, Stephens's. Holly's birthday. W, Rossetti and wife, Jenny and May Morris. Talk with W. M. R. — Shelley, Browning, etc. Home : stars (I…

Helen and I call on Carlyle. His eighty-fifth birthday. C. seems better and easier ; more himself. He asks what I am doing.

H. and I to visit Sir Theodore and Lady Martin. (Burton just going out — ' Fergusons well.') Talk — theatricals — Warner — the Batemans — ' no poetic actress now.'…

To Carlyle's at 2. He was lying on the sofa in the drawing-room. When I spoke to him he held out his hand and shook hands with me, but said nothing. I was not sure…