[Venice—Sunday, 18 November 1888]
Browning has been sitting to his son at Palo Dario for his portrait, in the mornings—wh. stopped our walks at Lido—till yesty 17th—when we spent 5 hours in going to Qo Fontane, lunching on the dunes & walking to Malamocco. A day like June—breathless-sea & lagunes as mirrors & too warm the sun[.] Today we went to S. Niccolò & wandered among the trees & back by Hebrew tombs to La Favorita. In all these hours he talked of 1000 topics—wh. I shall try to recall someg of. His early life, school, Shakespeare Williams his school friend– His father[,] gdfather—austerities & licenses– Of his works—Sordello, of the Bible, Apocrypha, the Revised Bible, Tennyson’s Gdson named Browning. Best dinners for talk & company he had found at Macready’s house.
