Gillingwater [Footnote: _Historical Account of the Ancient Town of Lowestoft_ (1790).] tells us that Mr. Hewling Luson found the clay on his estate in 1756, made experiments, was defeated; other persons took it up, and were also hindered through jealousy; another trial proved unsuccessful, but repeated efforts succeeded, and the manufacture began, and went on till about the end of the century, or early in 1800, when my brother bought a few articles at the final sale by way of remembrance, but these, though pretty, are by no means the choicest specimens. A man in the town has a whole dinner service, with, I think, ducal bearings; and only last summer Mr. Bohn [Footnote: Henry George Bohn, the well-known publisher, and almost equally well-known collector of articles of vertu.] gave 5 L to an old man for one little cup, which the poor fellow intended as a legacy to his daughter, and he unwillingly sold it; but 5 L bribed him--or it might be more; the original price was probably 4_d_. or 6_d_. at most. Pray, dear Mr. Reeve, take no trouble to correct the name in Mrs. Palliser's book of pottery. I never was a patroness of the Lowestoft china, know but little about it, and do not wish my name to appear as being in any other way connected with it than as being an inhabitant of the same town.--I am, dear Mr. Reeve, yours faithfully, P. SMITH. And the Journal winds up the year with-- _December 31st_--To Hinton St. George, on a visit to Lord Westbury. 1869. The year opened at Hinton, shooting with Lord Westbury. Montague Smith was there. Nothing ever amused me more than Lord Westbury's society, and I became intimate with him. He was a strange mixture of intellectual power and moral weakness, and his peculiar mode of speaking was at once precise, pertinent, and comical. He had hired Hinton from Lord Paulet, and lived there with a host of children and grandchildren. On Sundays all dined together--I think, thirty-two of them. _From the Duc d'Aumale_ _Woodnorton_, 16 _janvier_.--... Nous aurons une passable chasse a tir le jour sacramental du lr fevrier. Voulez-vous en etre? L'ennui est que c'est un lundi, et que le train du dimanche est d'une lenteur fabuleuse. Voulez-vous venir diner et coucher ici samedi 30, ou dimanche 31? H. D'O. From a later note of the Duke's, it appears that Reeve was unable to accept the invitation to the _passable chasse,_ which he would have enjoyed, especially as after four years there was no longer a question of the 'loose box' or the 'kitchen dresser.' The next letter, from Lord Westbury, is in evident answer to one from Reeve about Lord Campbell's 'Lives of Lyndhurst and Brougham,' then newly published, of which a very severe--not, it was thought, too severe--article appeared in the 'Review' for April. The article was not by Reeve; but we may fairly suppose that he--to some extent, at least--inspired it; and that--also to some extent--the inspiration was supplied by Lord Westbury.