Cloudy and dull. The indications all through the country are of heavy and continued rains. In and around Huntingdon as we came the flat lands were flooded. This is not favorable to out-door exercise. Nevertheless one of our party, Captain Boyes went off to hunt, and the speaker made a party with Mary, Miss Wood and her brother, on horseback. I spent my day quietly. Read Dr Vaughn’s four sermons in response in fact to Bishop Colenso. The reasoning is moderate, and generally I can see little to object to it. The best of the four sermons is the third, which is based upon the well balanced text, “What think ye of Christ?” It would be interesting to compare the treatment by Dr Vaughn with that by Dr Channing. The Church here is almost equally pressed on two sides. And resistance to one only brings at attack by the other. Any effort to restrict the right of private judgment which approximates the Catholic faith, lays it open to the assault of the protestant upholders of the reformation. Whilst on the other hand concessions to the same right inevitably encourage relaxations of the faith that are a cause of reproach by the more rigid upholders of creed and discipline. The effort to steer between these two extremes is what marks the production of Dr Vaughan. I took a walk in the direction of the little Church which we visited last year, and went on somewhat beyond it, but the road was so muddy and wet that it spoilt the pleasure of exercise. We had at dinner more guests. Lord and Lady Foley, and Mr Fitzherbert, his Wife and daughter. They did not seem to me particularly interesting. Afterwards, the latter prisons with Mrs Adams and Mary and the young men went to Newark with the speaker to attend a County ball that was taking place there. I remained at home with the rest of the party. Miss Wood played on the Piano, and then we had some conversation. Lady Mary Wood, her mother is a person of decided character and intelligence. She is one of the daughters of Lord Grey, the first of the title, the prime minster of the reform days, and is sister of the present Earl. Sir Charles Wood, her husband too has long been in public life and is now in the Ministry. We retired at eleven, and I did not sit up for the absent ones.269