14 September 1868 – 20 September 1868

To Farringford. — Tennyson. — Is writing his ' San Grail.' ' I'm spoiling it. Will you take a turn '^. ' — then we talk on Hinton's book, and on his brother Charles's Sonnets. ' All is not chemistry and matter.' We look at ducks and pigs. Little Alamayu sits on my knee and looks at a book of animals. Zebra especially interesting to him : that is the Abyssinian name of the beast. The Elephant he calls 'zoon.' T. said he had a rich cousin who drank hard and talked loud. ' He used to quote Byron to me — Over the waters of the dark blue sea — and so forth, adding, " Poets have some sense." ' He offered to lend me Castle B for our wedding month — 'will you come down to B .'' then you may go to Hell ! ' A. T. then went upstairs and dulness set in.