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Encloses list of the cabinet, members of the government and Her Majesty's household, copied from the Weekly Chronicle. Wonders how John Fawcett (see 7) became Perceval (NB he actually changed his name to Pulteney).

10th of May is approaching, when they and some friends were in the habit of dining together to discuss the pleasures and sports of the preceding winter, and to make plans for the one to come; 3 Wardes (George and William OWW?), Geary, 2 Fawcetts (John aka Pultenay and Thomas? OWW - see 7), 2 Braggs, Sir Narborough D'Aeth (3rd baronet?), Bullock, Mauham (sic), Trevelyan (see 13), Sir Clement Cottrell (?), 2 Ansleys, Cobb and Williams (Sir Watkin Williams Wynn OW? - otherwise, if an OW, there are several Williams whose dates fit).

Years of entry into College of Thomas and James Trebeck, John Fawcett (subsequently John Pulteney) and Charles Simpson. Thomas Trebeck is a rector in Sussex, and James was attached to the court of bankruptcy. Would be good to know the fates of others - John and Thomas Fawcett, Challoner (possibly John Chaloner), and Field (per the Record, possibly John Ventris Field), who HMC admired for his acting in The Siege of Damascus and the comedy The Author. Surprised that JB does not keep a cow or a pig. On the Marquis of Anglesey as Master-Gen. of the Ordnance (NB in the government but not in the cabinet). Some say that the new administration cannot last, but according to HMC Sir Robert Peel and his men will support the government. On the death of his younger brother William Paget from a stiletto wound received while in the Royal Navy in Constantinople; and Arthur (The Hon. Sir Arthur Paget), who quarrelled with the marquis as a result of his scandalous marriage. His wife's admirable cooking, using hints picked up in France.

Has read in The Times of the death of John Fawcett aka Pultenay (see 14 & 17). He used to strut up the school always on the forepart of his feet, as if to add an inch to his height.

Has not forwarded the name of Thomas Trebeck (see 7 and 29) to the committee established to support the play (see 29), since Bull wrote that he did not know if he was still alive. Pulteney reports that cricket balls are now bowled so violently that players must be padded. On translations of Terence - thinks that new translations should appear every 50 years to reflect changing idiom. Westminster said to be improving under new Head Master (see 29) - hopes that he will keep the best of the old customs, such as fagging (what hardship is it to carry 2 or 3 hats on one's shoulders to Tothill Fields, or to blow on a fire?). On the import of cattle and sheep by railroad from the interior of Germany and its negligible effect on London meat prices, and on the state of the potato harvest. To assist his French a Frenchwoman comes in three times a week to read Molieres to him out loud.

Adding his name to JB's in the petition to the Dean of Westminster (Buckland) not to cancel the Latin Play, appreciated as much by town boys as by the scholars (who did the actual acting). (Both HMC and JB appear in the petition A0019/D3FK7.) Quote from Terence Eunuchus. In relation to this asks for address of Thomas Trebeck. Desirable for schools to employ only old boys, in order that frivolous but harmless traditions can be maintained - e.g. Liddell, educated at Charterhouse, has been trying to stop or at least control the Greaze. Pulteney (see 24) visits often, but this will stop for a while as he is visiting a son who has a rich living in Lincolnshire and hunts and shoots - quote from The Chase by William Somerville. Has been reading a Life of Watson, Bishop of LLandaff, father of a KS of 1777 (not so, according to the Record), and also the reminiscences of their fencing coach, Henry Angelo (in a room in Dean's Yard rented from William Pierce, teacher of book-keeping and arithmetic).

Pulteney (see 24) has visited three times. Westminster on the up, but will never attain its former grandeur because of rival schools and Eton (see 3). Remarks on the potato blight and the new Houses of Parliament. The rising price of provisions - the Queen is making all this 'into ridicule' by limiting her household to one pound brown bread per day, but placing no limit on beef and venison; compare also the sums thrown away each week at the French and Italian Theatres.

JB's new curate apparently has a sonorous voice - discussion of what goes towards a good sermon, and the views of the fictional Sir Roger de Coverley (in The Spectator). Old schoolfellow Thomas Feilde has died. People fleeing Ireland are bringing disease with them - London has responded by starting to clear slums - Pie Street (Old Pye Street?) has disappeared, and the government is contemplating throwing open Tothill Street to create a wide road form Buckingham Palace to Parliament. He would very much like to possess a very old map of London which used to be in the shop of the one-eyed baker Jackson on the corner of the Bowling Alley (now Tufton Street). Has JB heard anything of Pulteney (see 8, 20 and 21)?

Increasingly friends and acquaintances die, most recently George Byng, MP for Middlesex (OW) - well-meaning but not very judicious. Lane (Newton Charles), a remarkably stout lad in Grant's, knocked him down with an Ainsworth's dictionary whilst holding forth in the Sixth Form on the superiority of Mr Fox's politics. Westminster education is improving - one usher has been appointed solely to teach maths, and a Frenchman who is a Hebrew scholar has also been employed. Wonders how much exactly Lady Bath bequeathed to Pulteney (see 20).

Quote from the Vulgate (Book of Job, re the illnesses of old age). Alarmed by report that the school had been destroyed by fire, but in fact it was confined to Queen Anne's Bounty Office, between the boarding houses Clapham's and Geary's (NW corner of Dean's Yard). Has received 2 letters from Pulteney, who must have inherited immensely from Lady Bath (wife of Sir James Murray-Pultenay, OW). On the recent discovery by a Boston dentist of ether as an anaesthetic. How the pedantic and erudite use of the original meanings of words in book titles may put many people off buying them (A Catholic History of England, An Apology for the Bible).