8 March 1880 – 14 March 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 back crookedly in his corner, noticing nothing of the outer world. Yet he seems rather better than last time, a dim fire still in his eyes, a dusky red in his cheeks. He talks of Erasmus Darwin, the elder, with respect — has been reading a life of him. ' The Loves of the Triangles is a poor thing. The writer (Canning) knew very little about triangles.' On politics he remarked, ' This time will be memorable as the time when England was governed by a perfect Charlatan.'