_Hinton St. George, January 24th_--I wish you were here for two or three days' shooting before the season closes, as the weather is so mild and beautiful, and I hear that in London it is miserably cold. So tell Mrs. Reeve that her Zomerzet is a favoured county after all. As to what you say about the book, I remember a celebrated dinner at the Temple, to which I invited Lyndhurst, Brougham, Campbell, and Charlie Wetherell, when the latter warned Lyndhurst and Brougham of Campbell's design, in terms almost prophetic of what has occurred. 'My biographical friend will excel in exhibiting every little foible; _Hunc tu Romane caveto_.' I cannot describe the whole scene to you, but will some day _viva voce_. _From the Duc d'Aumale_ Woodnorton, January 31st. My dear Mr. Reeve,--An absence at Badminton, where I struggled for a few hours' sport, first with the frost and then with hurricanes, has prevented me from sooner answering your letter of the 26th. I have searched the archives at Monte Cassino very minutely; I do not know those of La Cava, which have the reputation of being very curious, but more local and of less general interest than those of Monte Cassino. The Cassinesi had a printing press, to which we owe many beautiful publications, some unpublished sermons of St. Augustine's, several works by the eloquent and learned Father Tosti, &c. They had prepared an edition of an unpublished Commentary on Dante, and also of the valuable correspondence of Mabillon, Montfaucon, and other clerics of the Congregation of St. Maur, when, in consequence of the events of 1848, their printing presses were sequestrated. At that time they were suspected of Liberalism. Now, when secularisation has replaced sequestration, it seems to me that the Italian Government ought to continue the literary and archaeological work of the monks, as it has substituted itself in their proprietary rights; just as, after the French Revolution, the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres carried on the immense work of the clerics of the Congregation de St.-Maur. This is my first impulse on reading M. de Circourt's letter. However, we will speak of it further when I have the pleasure of seeing you again, which I hope will be soon. _Mille amities._ H. D'ORLEANS The Journal notes:-- In London the usual dinners. Dined at Mr. Gladstone's on February 1st. This was the first dinner he gave after becoming Prime Minister. There were present Lord Lansdowne, Clarendon, Hammond, Northbrook, Helps, Kinnaird, Doyle, Hamilton, and Salomons [Footnote: Created a baronet on October 26th of the same year.]--an odd party. He received us in the hall.