29 March 1875 – 4 April 1875

C. spoke of Sydney Smith, to whom he was able to give no praise at all. ' The nature of true Wit is very much misunderstood. Sydney said nothing worth remembering. He said " it took a surgical operation to get a joke into a Scotchman's head " ; the thing is, that what Sydney presented was not a joke worth admitting into any one's head, and the Scotchman refused to have anything to do with it. The Scotch are a people with a large appreciation of fun very generally among them. ... I remember seeing Sydney Smith setting himself to make a company laugh, and I left him there at it, reflecting what a wretched ambition it was in any man.'