284 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, xx 



word of Coleridge's letters revolts me, they are a mixture 

 of gush and mawkish egotism, and what seems like humbug. 

 Do read Tom Poole's consolation to Coleridge on the death 

 of his baby. It beats that letter to Cicero on the death 

 of his daughter, and yet Poole was a most tender man. 

 I can't imagine how my father ever liked and admired 

 Coleridge. I believe Dr Darwin would have been rjore 

 acute. 



Feb. 28, 1889. 



This visit has been a great pleasure to me. Godfrey's 1 

 charming qualities grow on one. There is much like his 

 father, but he does not keep so much to the outside of life. 



This spring my mother was much out of health and 

 often felt exhausted and uncomfortable. The Special Com- 

 mission to inquire into the question of Parnellism and 

 Crime interested her deeply and she read or had read to 

 her almost all of it. 



May 4th, 1889. 



It was such a lovely afternoon and I sat out a good deal. 

 I am almost comfortable in the air. That blessed Commis- 

 sion and baiting Parnell helps me over the time beautifully. 

 I should think such a defect of memory had never been 

 known since the Queen's trial and non mi ricordo. . . . 

 Frank and George are so nice in coming in often. 



May, 1889. 



Sir George Paget was very leisurely and painstaking, 

 and so handsome. I like his medicine too. . . . 



On Sat. Wm. came at 1 o'clock, and the pleasure of seeing 

 him and talking with him and sitting out with him till 

 2.30 utterly did me up. 



Parnell's confessions of his lies is most cynical. The 

 Commission is the comfort of my life. I can maunder over 

 it for hours. 



1 Godfrey, eldest son of Francis Wedgwood and head of the firm 

 of Josiah. Wedgwood and Sons, Etruria. 



