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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.

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.

JB coming to stay on way to and from Woolwich (see 64), bidding his son farewell before he departs for Newfoundland (see 68).

Gruesome details of the lancing of a carbuncle. Quotes Hor.C.3.14 - is reminded of a translation of Hor.C.3.6 by JB (he asks for a copy), and thus of Westminster. Pupil numbers not above 100 - an inquiry has been held by the visitors the Dean of Christ Church and the Master of Trinity. The HM Dr. Williamson has been dismissed, possibly for overly savage flogging (a boy was unable to sit down for a week). An OW could not be found to replace him, so a Charterhouse-bred man, Dr. Liddell, has been appointed. Westminster's decline partly due to the preference of the aristocracy and royalty for Eton, and partly to the number of much cheaper schools in London. The Corn Laws. The opening of Cremorne Gardens in Chelsea (a rival to Vauxhall) will attract the worst characters in town.

On the rising price of potatoes in London, and the unjustness of the response to the Irish Famine. Public indifference to important questions - so, no disapprobation has been expressed at the House of Commons voting to remove some disabilities experienced by Catholics. HMC says that some (not all) Catholics can buy absolution at confession and then return to their criminality.

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.

Two remedies (with recipes) to cure loss of appetite and want of sleep. The school has been sent home because of a fever - Dean Buckland, fancying himself a chemist, devised a remedy (which only combated bad smells), but has succumbed himself. London full of foreigners fleeing the troubles in Europe - they need less to live on, and so native workers are priced out of employment.

On the family of Charles Trevelyon, a civil servant recently knighted for services in Ireland - son of George Trevelyon, an old friend of HMC and JB.