20 July 1868 – 26 July 1868

— Hot. Tennyson and Mrs. T. on the steamer, 1 with them to Brockenhurst. ' To London, the dentist ; then Scotland.' T. said of Longfellow, ' A very gentlemanly man : seemed very tired. We had ten at luncheon. They slept at the hotel, stayed two days. Little King Theodore of Abyssinia now at Farringford with Captain Speedy. * Longfellow — I didn't compliment him — told him I didn't like his hexameters : he rather defended them.' We spoke of Swedenborg : T. says his Hell is more striking than his Heaven ; praises Hinton's book on Man and Nature. The up-train ; T. shakes my hand warmly. It is always 'a real happiness to see him. I walk to Queen's Bower, its brook and oak tree, back by pretty path through New Park, and in by train.