nge horses, of whom they did not
buy something.

I am living here by myself with no society, or scarcely any, except my
books. I read a play of Calderon before I breakfast; then look over
the newspaper; frank letters; scrawl a line or two to a foolish girl
in Leicestershire; and walk to my Office. There I stay till near five,
examining claims of money-lenders on the native sovereigns of India,
and reading Parliamentary papers. I am beginning to understand something
about the Bank, and hope, when next I go to Rothley Temple, to be
a match for the whole firm of Mansfield and Babington on questions
relating to their own business. When I leave the Board, I walk for two
hours; then I dine; and I end the day quietly over a basin of tea and a
novel.

On Saturday I go to Holland House, and stay there till Monday. Her
Ladyship wants me to take up my quarters almost entirely there; but
I love my own chambers and independence, and am neither qualified nor
inclined to succeed Allen in his post. On Friday week, that is to-morrow
week, I shall go for three days to Sir George Philips's, at Weston,
in Warwickshire. He has written again in terms half complaining; and,
though I can ill spare time for the visit, yet, as he was very kind to
me when his kindness was of some consequence to me, I cannot, and will
not, refuse.

Ever yours

T. B. M.

To Hannah M. Macaulay

London: September 25, 1832.

My dear Sister,--I went on Saturday to Holland House, and stayed
there Sunday. It was legitimate Sabbath employment,--visiting the
sick,--which, as you well know, always stands first among the works of
mercy enumerated in good books. My Lord was ill, and my Lady thought
herself so. He was, during the greater part of the day, in bed. For a
few hours he lay on his sofa, wrapped in flannels. I sate by him about
twenty minutes, and was then ordered away. He was very weak and languid;
and, though the torture of the gout was over, was still in pain; but he
retained all his courage, and all his sweetness of temper. I told his
sister that I did not think that he was suffering much. "I hope not,"
said she; "but it is impossible to judge by what he says; for through
the sharpest pain of the attack he never complained." I admire him
more, I think, than any man whom I know. He is only fifty-seven,
or fifty-eight. He is precisely the man to whom health would be
particularly valuable; for he has the keenest zest for those pleasures
which health would