16 July 1866 – 22 July 1866

'The Crown.' Breakfast — rough waitress, poorly managed Inn. I pack up and go down the Brockenhurst Road, A. T. having started before me. At Fox Leas corner find him sitting under a tree. Talk of a trip to Ireland. Good-bye, walk to station, train to Lymington.

Considering about T. and Ireland. Brockenhurst. Walk to Lyndhurst by Holland's Wood and Pondhead. Inquire at two places for lodgings, — 'taken.' Crown, all out, engage a bedroom. Dinner, A. T., Mrs. T., H. and L. The sherry here, T. says, a compound of spirits of wine — a bottle of it ' stunned me.' We talk of plans and routes for a trip. T. has decided against Connemara. T. and I out in starlight, down street, lower road. He is surprised to find I have a habit of taking a walk after dinner. ' What is that star ^ ' ' Arcturus.' T. — ' I see it shuddering and tearing away ! — my eyes are so bad. In the Plough each star is a wide blot of misty light. ' The old mail-coach travelling sometimes delightful. ' I remember going from London to Bath in spring outside the coach — all very fresh and bright, a delicious day ! No words can express the heavenly feeling I had.' Dogs — T., ' When I lived in Epping Forest I had a big mastiff; he once ate up a little dog.' ' Did he bite people ? ' ' Sometimes.'

Lyndhurst, fine. Walk with T., Fox Leas, Whitley Wood, Queen's Bower, brook dry ; a heron rises. Another brook, brisk and clear, which pleases T. ' I should like to lie in that pool for an hour. Nothing so delightful to the mind as a brook.' I say good-bye, cross Ober Green and hurry to train, thunder-shower in the evening.