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.
Does not yet know if the Play will take place this year (see 29). On the theft of £48,000 in 1844 from a safe at Messrs Rogers and Co., a Lombard Street bank, and a reward being offered and recently claimed, on condition of no prosecution and anonymity for the culprit. Does not know when Fawcett (Thomas, brother of John?) will venture south.
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.
