1862-64 DICKENS AT SHEEN LODGE 131 



Miss Dickens, Miss Hogarth, and Mr. and Mrs. 

 John Forster over here to spend the day. 



' C. D. is not improved in appearance by the 

 scanty beard he has now grown. I think his face 

 is spoiled by it. He greatly admired the picture, 

 the " Monastery Interior " in our dining-room, and 

 he and Mr. Forster were much interested at the 

 story of it. Mr. F. is as cheerful as ever, and we 

 were all very lively at dinner. . Dickens told us 

 some funny anecdotes about Frenchmen he had met 

 abroad, and I told him an adventure which befell 

 me when dining with M. and Madame Leverrier 

 in Paris years ago — how M. Leverrier spilt a 

 glass of champagne over my new dress just after 

 having taken me in to dinner, and how I, having 

 recovered from the first shock, was astonished by 

 his suddenly dropping down on his knees, and 

 frantically catching me round the petticoats till he 

 had ascertained, breadth by breadth, that there 

 was no stain. The conclusion of this affecting 

 narrative brought us to the end of dinner, and we 

 retired into the garden, where we wandered about 

 till it was time for Dickens to go.' 



'July 17. — A visit from Mr. Waterhouse, 

 just returned from Pappenheim, where he has 

 been in treaty for the collection of fossils, in which 

 is the curious fossil with the alleged feathered 

 vertebrate tail. 1 The old German doctor is ob- 

 stinate about his price, and Mr. W. has come 



1 The Archceopteryx macrura, a feather-winged vertebrate. 



K 2 



