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Doubts whether his grandson (up at Balliol) would be able to perform the duties of curate (see 15), since he is not yet quite in holy orders. A Westminster boy was with him yesterday; numbers, at present 90, will rise by 30 after Christmas, the old KS dormitory is now used only for sleeping, rooms have been constructed on the ground floor for use during the day, and School is being heated by hot water pipes. More time is being devoted to study, whole play days have been abolished, and Lily's Latin Grammar now being used. All these changes have been brought about by Dr Buckland, the Dean. More musings on John Fawcett (see 13).

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).

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)?

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.