Continuance of exceedingly disagreeable weather. Prepared some notes to Lord Russell and continued my numismatic researches. The English coinage prior to the civil war is much more interesting than it has been since. The inscriptions mean something, and they are varied with the sovereign and the denomination of coin. And though the mechanical execution of the ship or of the combat of St Michael and the Dragon is is not very superior, it yet is the type of an age of more genuine earnestness than the present. The shield of the nation is fastened to a mast terminating in a cross, then combining the three leading ideas—which is much finer than the escutcheon surrounded by laurels of the present day. Long walk— Dined with Mrs Adams at Mrs Hawkey’s. A pleasant company of whom I knew Sir Charles Wyke and Miss Campbell and Mr Arthur Russell. There was also a son of Sir William Hayter. These dinners are always easy and social. From here we went to a musical party at Mrs Darby Griffith. Not large but a little stiff and awkward. Mrs Griffith plays on the harp very well, but such assemblages as these are never propitious to music. The company should be regularly seated and fixed so as to shut off conversation. Home by midnight.