30 August 1886 – 5 September 1886

Gathering plums and green- gages— warm again. To Godalming with H. and three children, to Wild Beast Show. Camels on grass. Lions, African elephant fanning herself with her ears. Monkeys, etc. : Irish giant, and ' Missing Link,' 2d. extra. Nothing entered till October 12. In September I went to London for the day. Called at Quaritch's to see the Blake facsimiles : some talk with Q. He said ' I never look at pictures, except on vellum. I have as large a collection of these as any bookseller, perhaps. I know nothing about picture exhibitions : my business is with books and I keep my mind fixed upon that.' By and by I referred to a passage in some book and said ' you remember that, of course ' ; to which he replied with brevity and emphasis ' I never read books.' The Old Book Trade is his subject, and he is said to be master of it. I ordered ' Songs of Experience.' He was interested in talking about Evans, a printseller in Great Queen Street, who had a large collection of Blake drawings, which Rossetti and I looked over. ' That must have been twenty-nine years ago, at the least,' says Quaritch — and so it was.