Giant Despair,--from there being no stiles and by-paths in our country.


September 26th.--On Saturday evening my wife and I went to a soiree given
by the Mayor and Mrs. Lloyd at the Town Hall to receive the Earl of
Harrowby. It was quite brilliant, the public rooms being really
magnificent, and adorned for the occasion with a large collection of
pictures, belonging to Mr. Naylor. They were mostly, if not entirely, of
modern artists,--of Turner, Wilkie, Landseer, and others of the best
English painters. Turner's seemed too ethereal to have been done by
mortal hands.

The British Scientific Association being now in session here, many
distinguished strangers were present.


September 29th.--Mr. Monekton Milnes called on me at the Consulate day
before yesterday. He is pleasant and sensible. Speaking of American
politicians, I remarked that they were seldom anything but politicians,
and had no literary or other culture beyond their own calling. He said
the case was the same in England, and instanced Sir ------, who once
called on him for information when an appeal had been made to him
respecting two literary gentlemen. Sir ------ had never heard the names
of either of these gentlemen, and applied to Mr. Milnes as being somewhat
conversant with the literary class, to know whether they were
distinguished and what were their claims. The names of the two literary
men were James Sheridan Knowles and Alfred Tennyson.


October 5th.--Yesterday I was present at a dejeuner on board the James