Ritual Commission. Evelyn came up to London and we then went down together to Hatfield.

The manuscripts published here are printed in full with routine openings and terminations, and with endorsements and annotations, usually, though not invariably, in the hand of the recipients of the letters. (In the letters received by Thomas Rant, however, many of the marginal annotations which he made on them are purely routine, and have not, therefore, been reproduced in the text of this volume.) The original spellings have been retained, except that modern usage is employed for u and v, and for i and j.1 Punctuation and capitalization have also been modernized. Most abbreviations have been expanded through the use of italics and square brackets. Interlineations are indicated by the use of brackets <thus>. Deletions (where the deleted word is still legible) are indicated thus. Other deletions and obliterations are noted in square brackets. Cross-references to other letters printed here are made by citing the number of the letter in italic type: for example, Letter 23. Underlining of words and passages of text in these letters has been preserved.

Saturday 3 January 1948 The news today is that (1) Winston is better (he has been laid up with a cold at Marrakesh for some days and as Lord Moran and Mrs. Winston are going there I should imagine that he must have been worse than was made out) and (2) there is one less in the Cabinet – Lord Listowel whose job as Secretary of State for Burma has come to an end is now made Minister of State for the Colonies without a seat in the Cabinet. I am told that he is a half-wit – but I don't even know him by sight and expect that a great many other people are in a similar position – Socialist peers are fairly inconspicuous persons. Several hotels have been searched for black market food – one dislikes black marketing and no doubt it is all wrong (as human nature generally is) but one dislikes still more the continual spying and police methods which now go on – shall we ever get back to ‘normality’ I wonder?

Wednesday 7 January I had a word with Tony Lambton … He certainly is doing his share of work nowadays and ought to make a fine leader for the Conservatives of Durham county in a few years' time. He is coming on by leaps and bounds – but I fear that he won't beat the dirty Doctor and will still be minus a seat in the next Parliament – sooner or later I suppose he will have to emulate Anthony Eden's example and find one outside his own county.

Arreragia Ultimi Compoti. Idem reddit compotum de £24 15s. 3¼ de ultimis arreragiis compoti anni precedentis.

Summa patet. Et totum debet.

Redditus assisus. Idem r. c. de 33s. de toto redditu assiso manerii et burgi cum suis pertinenciis ad festum sancti Martini in yeme. Et de £58 5s. ad festum Pasce floridi et non plus quia totum residuum subtrahitur per preceptum factum super ultimum compotum. Et de 33s. ad festum Pentecost’. Et de £58 4s. 11¾d. ad [festum] sancti Michaelis. Et de 4s. de Roberto de Plumpton' pro putura forestariorum. Et de 19½d. de 3 ac. et I roda vasti hoc anno affirmatis. Et de 8s. de incremento 16 ac. terre de novo assarto in mora ad Pasca floridum et festum sancti Michaelis.

Whitehall. 17 February, ½ past 2.—As I find that Sir William Knighton is in London detained here by illness, and that he thinks it may be of importance that some one should wait personally upon the King with the report of the physicians, I propose to come this evening to Brighton after I shall have seen the physicians who are to meet at Fife House at four o'clock.

I will call upon you tomorrow morning. As I am afraid that Canning is not well enough to see the King at present, it is perhaps more necessary that some one should wait upon his Majesty.

The Prussian Government, after having made stupendous Efforts in the successful cause of the great Alliance formed to suppress the Effects of the Revolutionary Spirit in France, is now diligently occupied in repressing a similar Spirit amongst its own Subjects, and in obviating the Dangers, it is calculated to produce; and this Conduct, acting in different Manners upon the Courts, and the Nations of Germany, is more calculated than any Measure I can imagine to be adopted within its Boundaries, to found and to maintain its internal Tranquillity and to render its Union real, and effective. I have the honor to transmit a Translation of an Edict of His Prussian Majesty, in date of the sixth, but published on the eleventh Ins., which republishes the Law of October 1798 against secret Societies, and forbids any further Controversy in print respecting their Existence and Objects.

The Goschens remained in Copenhagen until the beginning of June, when they moved out to ‘Qui si sana’, a house on the coast that they had rented. In July they made a trip to Frijsenborg, an estate in Jutland. On 2 October they left for Tentschach. On 21 November they left Tentschach for England. On 14 December Goschen set out alone for Copenhagen.

The letter-book of Thomas Bentham, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield (1560–79), is to be found in National Library of Wales MS. 4919D. The volume was purchased in May 1923, being one of some 500 volumes sold by Captain Ivor McClure on his removal from London to Malvern. Mr (later Sir) John Ballinger travelled up to London to examine the library on behalf of the National Library of Wales. Personal letters between the Librarian, Mr Ballinger, and Captain McClure survive for this period but provide no clue as to the origins of the library in general or of this volume in particular. The correspondence, moreover, does not indicate how the sale was made. The National Library of Wales Librarian's Report to the half yearly meeting of the court of Governors, held on 30 October 1923, makes no mention whatsoever of this purchase. It is known that at least three other rare books were bought from the same collection—a seventeenth-century Ethiopia psalter; the Divinae Institutiones of Lactantius (Latin, fifteenth century); and Roman Inscribed and Sculptured Stones (nineteenth century).