The weather is improving, which is a blessing in this house, the back of which is not calculated for cheerfulness. My time was spent in the usual routine of the Office, and afterwards I took a walk, to execute one or two commissions for Mrs Adams. On my return I rambled about in the alley, and byways of the city untill I got into the quarter of the Seven Dials, and St Giles’s, which presents a remarkable contrast to the fashionable portion in which I have thus far been. Few vehicles, poor shops, dirty children paying about the lanes and alleys, and here and there ragged men and women, but extreme quiet withal, and nothing indicating crime or vice. The case would probably be changed at a different time of day. The extremes of society are here in tolerable close proximity. I got home in time to dress and go with Mrs Adams, by invitation to Sir Henry Holland’s to dinner. A small company consisting of the Marquis of Lansdown, Lord Elgin, Lord and Lady Hatherton, and some ladies I did not know. Lady Holland is the daughter of Sidney Smith and her biography of her father has made her much known in America. After dinner, there was quite a company among which the most famous was Dr Whewell, the master of Trinity in Cambridge162