1 December 1879 – 7 December 1879

Helen and I to Cheyne Row. Carlyle's eighty-fourth birthday. Mrs. Lecky there. Browning and Ruskin are gone. C. on his sofa by the window, warm and quiet, wearing a new purple and gold cap. Gifts of flowers on the table. Birthday — ' O dear.' He speaks of Ruskin, who, he says, is in better spirits than he was. Asks me what I think of R.'s paper on the clergy, in Contemporary Review. I own myself puzzled as to his real meanings. C. : ' Oh yes, he beheves all that — Can you lend me some book to read } — a large book, that I can have satisfaction with.'