My arrearage of miscellaneous correspondence was taken up and steadily labored on until two o’clock, when for a wonder I found myself with nothing to do. My private files, my accounts and bills were all made up, so that I sat down to read a rather amusing volume of Mr Hackett the actor, which he sent to me because of it containing topics of several of my father’s little essays on Shakespeare’s characters in Othello and Hamlet. At five we I went with Mrs Adams and Mary by invitation to spend Sunday at New Lodge, with Mr Bates, at his daughter’s Mrs Van de Weyer. Little company at the house. Mr Clarke a son of Sir James Clarke, and a Mr Ruthern to dinner.462