My morning much taken up with accounts. But at last I made a desperate effort to break away in order to get a sight of the pictures in the gallery of the exhibition of modern artists.I spent about three hours during which time I had opportunity to glance over the whole. A certain class of merit is obvious enough. But is of a rather mechanical sort. The thought is a little monotonous and commonplace. A great effort to paint pretty faces both of men and women in rather pretty coloured dresses, doing a variety of common acts on a very ground is the most marked characteristic. At the same there are fine exceptions. There is a striking piece by Amstel of a couple of negro slaves attacked by hounds, the defect of which is that neither the man nor the woman looks sufficiently impressed by the sense of personal danger. I returned home, in season to accompany Mrs Adams to a reception at Lady Llanover’s. I did not find a soul that I knew. This is one of the peculiarities of London society that yo may stand any where in this way,and nobody will ever think of addressing you. Luckily you can get away after showing yourself. I walked from here to Thomas’s Hotel to see Sidney Brooks and his Wife and spend an hour with them. Then home to dine by invitation with Colonel Wilson Patten. I et here Lord and Lady Stanhope, a Lord Churston and his Wife, Count Zamoyski but not the same I saw at Mr Senior’s, and some others whom I did not ascertain. I sat between my host’s daughters who told me that their father had represented Lancashire for nearly thirty years together. He seems to be a sensible, practical man. The dinner was much after the customary pattern and we got at about eleven o’ clock.