[Oxford—Monday, 8 August 1859]
Monday 8th at 9 o’clk turned our backs upon Oxford. Charles Reade left orders with our excellent landlady that she must take nothing from us and there was no appeal from such kindness. We would gladly have stayed longer. In an hour and 30 minutes we found ourselves in the great stormy London with a drizzling mist over everything. Read Kenilworth, where I found the origin of the “White Horse of Berks” till Jamie came in bringing heaps of home letters. The dear boy was tired but we took lunch and then went to Madame Tussaud’s. A marvellous faculty is possessed by that woman of comprehending the manner of the man she would represent, quickly, firmly, clearly, sometimes from a hint as it were, reproducing them to the life. A short time there made me giddy. I felt haunted as an uneasy spirit might returning to the scenes where it had lived in the body talking and walking with those about yet unable to be felt or known again.
