[Manchester—Saturday, 22 July 1871]
Saturday July 22. Our household is quiet although it is hardly more than ten o’clock and for the most part sleeping. The weather is cool now a days and in strange contrast with the excessive heats of last summer. The country has not yet entirely recovered from the droughts of last season. Although we have had many delightful showers the wells are very low and water in demand everywhere. “J.” went this morning to Hampton where his brother & the family are passing the summer. I roamed about as usual, over the meadow to the beach, where the day being cloudy I lingered long, and afterwards in “green pleasant meadows” until dinner-time. Lizzie and Mrs Bartol also walking about came upon me stretched on the grass under the apple trees, so I joined them and walked home.
(Jamie is sleeping as I write. I just heard him murmur the name of “Starr King”! Where is he now, and what has sent the wandering thought of the sleeper into his unknown land?)
