| Description | Mary had received the overland post for 8 December, but it was overlooked in the waste paper pile. She discusses its contents. She returned home at 7.00pm the evening before, having see Mr Vipan's collection, and Colonel and Mrs Thorpe. She describes the collection, containing skinned birds, flying squirrels, a live porcupine and three chameleons in a box, a wildcat, and skulls of monkeys. In the morning she met Mr Jamieson [William Jameson?] of the Botanical Gardens, describing him and his offer to sent a copy of [Richard Henry] Beddome's 'Ferns of Southern India'. The Librarian sent her [Ralph Waldo] Emerson's 'Society and Solitude' and she discusses his writing style and the content of his essays at length, quoting Emerson on conversation, and his opinions on domestic life. She refers to the 'extraordinary outburst of feeling' about Prince Albert Edward [later King Edward VII, who had contracted typhoid, but recovered]. |