Sunday, August 22nd.--... That this drama[170] gained him great reputation in many literary circles, though not extensively known by the public. That Wells married some time after a sister of Williams’s wife, and settled in Brittany, where he is become a great hunter and fisher: that, having fallen into some embarrassments, he sent over to Williams, for him to find a publisher, part of a novel named _De Clisson_, and other things in prose and poetry; but that he (Williams) failed generally in his endeavours,--an article entitled _Boar-hunting in Brittany_ having however been inserted in _Fraser_. That Mrs. Wells came over recently to offer the _Stories_[171] and _Joseph_ for republication; but did not succeed. Gabriel hereupon proposed to make etchings for a new edition, if that might seem likely to be of any avail, and engaged for Hunt, Millais, and Woolner, to do the same after Christmas; and Williams says that he has little doubt but what, with that attraction, a publisher might be procured; also that he is certain Wells would commit the care of the edition to Gabriel with complete confidence. Gabriel thinks that, if each were to do five etchings, and he were to write an elaborate preface (assuming as an undisputed point the very high character of the work), and if I, as having more leisure, were to write a full and minute review soon after the publication, this arrangement would do. Wells is a most fervent Catholic, but has not (as rumoured) retired into a convent; which he has compelled two of his daughters however to do, and urges the third, who was till lately residing with Williams, to follow their example, to which she is most strongly opposed. Williams is reader to Smith and Elder, to whom Browning’s Poems had been offered for republication; when he told them that the work, as a work, ought to be published, but that he could not advise it as a pecuniary speculation: he believes that it was published at the expense of Chapman and Hall, not at Browning’s own cost.... Tuesday 24th.--Gabriel was engaged in the morning looking over and finishing up his _Vita Nuova_. Thursday 26th.--I composed a sonnet[172] a few lines of which had come into my head yesterday, entitled _For the General Oppression of the better by the worse Cause in July 1849_.... Hunt has been making the designs for the _Morning_ and _Evening_ commissioned by Cottingham, which he intends to complete to-morrow morning and present to him. He says it is his intention, after leaving his present lodging (which he will do some three weeks hence), to go for a fortnight into the country, and work on the landscape of his Early Britons picture, and from there to Paris for about three months to paint the commissions. Wednesday, September 12th.--After writing a letter to Woolner[173] I sat down to think as to a subject for a poem, and without much trouble invented one, but it is as yet very incomplete and meagre. I composed 21 lines of it in blank verse....