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Has now heard from JB. On the anniversary of a (dining?) club of the 1780s, based on membership of the Western Hunt. JB's son now posted to Charlemont Fort, a spot much more agreeable (and protestant) than any in the south of Ireland. The curate of 22 has clearly not been wholly satisfactory - repeats many of the details of 22. The only exercise he takes is walking up and down the dining room, supported by a rope on one side and his wife on the other. On the exorbitant price of food (except bread). On a wealthy farmer friend with an income of £5,000pa. For light relief recommends some recollections about Napoleon and an account of the last twenty years of the 18th century in England. Repeats story of Liddell's appointment as tutor to the Prince of Wales (see 41) - he may thus look forward to York or Canterbury, like Markham.

Invites JB to stay - discusses his wine cellar and his lack of faith in wine merchants. Recalls how he and JB visited the aftermath of the Gordon Riots in 1780 - present times are even more dangerous, though outbreaks are repressed by the military and special constables. Ireland in rebellion from north to south. Disturbers of the peace in Paris have sent emissaries to other European cities to stir up trouble.

Quotes a golden line from Ovid's Metamorphoses, and explains it. Government spies have anticipated and foiled a Chartist plot to burn the Bank. On atrocities committed by the mob in Paris - the spirits of insurrection in England are checked though not extinguished; he wonders, however, if measures in England are too lenient, whereas the Irish will be infuriated by John Mitchel being sentenced to 14 years' transportation. On the supply and price of various foods. On refugees from poverty or rebellion, both from Ireland and from the continent, crowding the streets of London and raising the poor rates.

Has heard that the author of the epilogue was one Randolph OW (according to Lusus Alteri it was T. Littlehales). On Liddell's change of Latin grammar (see 16 1nd 34). 130 pupils in the school - 2 ushers for the Upper School, and none for the Lower (presided over by the Under Master - but there are only 8 boys in it). A rudimentary central heating pipe has been installed Up School. Only one boarding house in Dean's Yard now (Scott's), and two in Little Dean's Yard where Grant's and Morel's used to be. In College stoves have replaced fires - only used for sleeping, the boys being confined during the lock-up hours in a long room beneath the dormitory. Breakfast at 9, dinner at 2 (used to be 12) and supper at 8. In the Abbey the celebrant's reading desk and pulpit has been sited at the corner of Poets' Corner nearest to the cloisters, so that he can view the congregation both in the transept and in the choir (see 49). An idea had been put forward to unite Westminster and Harrow, using the site of the latter; the low-lying site of Westminster is most unhealthy - the slope towards the river is not enough to carry away the filth from the drains. Tothill Street (see 24) being improved to be a handsome road from Buckingham House to the Abbey.

Shrove Tuesday reminds him of the Pancake Greaze, and Dr Smith's annual joke pan kakon (Greek = everything is bad). Wouldn't be surprised to learn that Liddell has abolished it - no idea where the custom originated, but abolition would hurt the feelings of many. More on the change of grammar textbook and moves to abandon the Latin Play (on the grounds of immorality in the Eunuchus). Smith O'Brien still in prison under sentence - the penal system used to be too brutal, but now seems too compassionate. Cholera continues to scare.

Visits to Monasteries in the Levant by Robert Curzon - maybe a son or nephew of their old friend David Curzon OW (actually David was 1st cousin once removed to Robert). Has no room for new books, so uses a circulating library. His contempt for novels. On the murders at Stanfield Hall. Examinations at Oxford have become tougher - but the clergy of his young day no less effective than clergy nowadays. Has JB's son stationed at Charlemont written of a proposal to drain Lough Neagh, the finest lake in the British dominion ? (Part of a proposal to make the River Hind navigable from Roscommon to the Shannon.) If it happens they may find old arms which HMC removed from rebels and threw in there during the rebellion of 1798. On the excavation of Ninevah.

New Year wishes. Their friendship began in 1779 - list of the senior King's Scholars of that year (Dickens, Markham, Kelly, Greenhill and Lindsay, Wood, Hawkes and Barnard - listed in the order of their election in 1780 to Oxford and Cambridge respectively, so presumably HMC was consulting e.g. Alumni Westmonasterienses).

Answers a query from JB of a year before (actually three - see 13 for more details) - Mr, now Sir, Charles Trevelyan (assistant secretary to Her Majesty's Treasury, appointed KCB in 1848) is the son of their old friend George Trevelyan.

This might be his last letter - suffering appallingly from lumbago.

Lumbago slightly better - he can rise for a little from his bed. During sleepless nights has been recalling passages of Virgil and Horace, some of them rather gloomy.