14 May 1866 – 20 May 1866

Farringford. Walked with Tennyson among the trees and lawns. T. said, ' White lilac used to be my favourite flower.' A. — ' It is something like a white peacock.' Then I told him what Browning said to me about a passage in the 'Princess' — 'Tennyson's taken to white peacocks ! I always intended to use them. The Pope has a number of white peacocks.' We went through the gate and down to Wisley Green. T. remarked, ' I have not been outside my own grounds before for ever so long.' We spoke of Byron. T. greatly admired him in boyhood, but does not now. ' When I heard of his death (it was at Somersby, my Father's rectory) 1 went out to the back of the house and cut on a wall with my knife, " Lord Byron is dead." ' ' Parts of Don Juan are good, but other parts badly done. I like some of his small things.' A. — ' Any of his Tales, or Mysteries, or Plays ^ ' T.— 'No.' A. — ' He was the one English writer who disparaged Shakespeare. He was a Lord, and talked about, and he wrote vulgarly, therefore he was popular.' T. — ' Why am I popular .? I don't write very vulgarly.' A. — ' I have often wondered that you are, and Browning wonders.' T. — ' 1 believe it's because I'm Poet-Laureate. It's something like being a lord.' The true poetic crown, he said, was not made of what we call laurel ; he showed me a specimen of the classic laurel growing at Farringford (sent him, I think, by Mr. Edward Lear), a small bush with pointed twinkling leaves.