Pleasant morning. I passed most of it at the private view of pictures at the British Institution. The collection is remarkably fine. Several Merillos which for the first time gave me an impression of the higher style of that painted. I speak this recollecting the farmers are in the Louvre to which I could not pay the attention it deserves. Some admirable Rembrandts, almost as fine as those in Grosvenor House. Some beautiful Claudes—one especially, better than any in the National Gallery. Others of merit I pass over. Some good pictures of the good specimen. Two or three good ones of Gainsborough and of Romney. On the whole this Exhibition is better than that of last year. I shall endeavour to see it more. I was obliged to hurry home by four o’clock, in order to go with my Wife and daughter to the Station at London Bridge there to meet Mr Lampson with whom we had agreed to go to his place at Rowfant and pass Sunday. He is about thirty miles from London, in Sussex. We went without incident, excepting that he disclosed to me the reception by Mr Morgan of a private telegram by the last Steamer, at Father point, which mentioned that General Banks had been driven back beyond the Potomac. This was enough to alloy the whole of my visit. We get to Rowfant to dinner, were we found only Mrs Lampston and the family.120