[Venice—Monday, 30 September 1889]
At dinner at R B Brownings, Palazzo Rezzonico. William Story and Mr Cartwright had much talk of W. S. Landor at Sienna, when his wife turned him out on the high-road at noon of a hot summer day.* Browning protected him and Story sheltered him for six weeks. He was 80 years old, & S. said the embodiment in looks & character of Lear–
Of Lady___ sendg him poem by Lord Lytton—wh. he returned & angrily sd who cd read a poem wh. begins with ‘but’–
Old Lytton said of Swinburne, ‘I don’t like a poet with a vocabulary’ (to Story).
*Landor
Forth from his Paradise an Angel banished Adam–
From mine a Devil drove me. Thank you, Madam–