I conscientiously follow this kind of life in the hope that it may be of some use to me in my public service, but it is difficult to imagine how I gasp for the end of the season to restore to me some little portion of quiet. This morning I employed myself in writing and in receiving visits until half past one when I was invited to go with Mrs Adams to take luncheon with the Speaker of the House of Commons. We started in the midst of a shower of rain heavier than any I have yet seen in England, with some thunder, after which it cleared with a hot sun. Mr Denison and Lady Charlotte received us very cordially and we took a quasi luncheon, which is in fact his dinner, in their company with the single addition of Mr May, the historian of the Long Parliament, who is also one of the Officers of the House— After an hour spent in this way, the speaker took us into the House and through the library and the halls of this very splendid edifice. We then went home. We dined by invitation with Mr and Mrs Washington Jackson, of whom I know nothing, except that they are originally from Philadelphia, and that they have been living for many years in London. Apparently they are wealth, for the entertainment was among the handsomest I have sen, though there was not the apparatus of silver common in the noblemen’s houses. Of the company I knew as little as usual. On my night was a very old and talkative Dowager Lady Talbot, whist Sir William and Lady Clay and Sir Emerson Tennent were all I caught the names of. I twas however the most lively dinner I have attended. We got home rater late.