Heavy showers through the day and to such a degree that I omitted my customary walk. I was much engaged however in my regular duties. Several persons came in to whom I explained the positions on the map, and the manner in which these affected the probabilities of the war. I drew up several of the less important Despatches of the week. Went to dine with the Duke and Duchess of Northcumberland. The company consisted of Lord and Lady Macclesfield, Lord Ellenborough, Lord and Lady Colville, Lord and Lady Levayne, Lord and Lady Colchester, Mr and Mrs Spencer Walpole, Baron Cetto and ourselves. Possibly one or two more, whom I did not know, and now I think of it, Mr and Mrs D’Israeli. The entertainment on the whole the most elegant I have seen in London. The palace itself is interesting as retaining more of the antiqute character than is often seen here. For Westminster which was two centuries ago the court and is now almost surrendered to trade, and the high society has nestled in the march of Belgravia. The edifice remains in the Strand as a memorial rather than an exciting institution. I did not find that His Grace could give me much light as to its date or its history. He carried it back two centuries and a half which I suspect is too long. However that may be, it is now handsomer than most of the later structures. His Grace is a fine looking man though now advanced in years. He is a discordant of the Puccis only through two removes of females, and his line dies with him, or rather the succession goes into a Maternal branch of the Smithsons of which Lord Levaine is the heir presumptive. His Wife is the eldest daughter of the Marquis of Westminster, and is yet a handsome woman. After dinner, there was a great reception which we left to go to an assemblage invited by the council of the Society of Artists to be held at the South Kensington Museum. It was very late and the company were going when we got there. There was a prodigious crowd, a band of music, and little or nothing to do. Amusement in England means Ennui in the midst of a multitude. We got home at midnight.95