Sunday 14th.--I read through _Joseph and his Brethren_, which is a glorious work, but, in passages, decidedly too full of images, laboured description, &c. From my old schoolfellow Nussey--to whom I went in the evening, and who is to subscribe to the _Thoughts_, and get as many subscribers at Oxford as he can--I heard some particulars of the poet Clough,[179] who had been Tutor in the College to which he (Nussey) belongs.... Monday 15th.--I called at Millais’s house, and was told that the period of his return is quite undecided. He is now at the house of a Mr. Wyatt,[180] having left Mr. Drury’s some weeks ago--who offered to fit up for him a suite of apartments where he might establish himself and work.--Ford Brown, to whose study I went in the evening, and Cave Thomas whom I met there, will subscribe.... Thursday 18th.--Woolner ... has begun a medallion portrait of Patmore, who has given him three sittings, beginning on Sunday, and who says he thinks he may probably induce Tennyson, when in London, to sit to him likewise.... Being alone together (with Hunt, Millais, and Gabriel, out of hearing), we had some conversation concerning republicanism, universal suffrage, &c.... Thursday, 1st November.--In the morning Gabriel called on Millais, and saw a design he has made of the Holy Family. Christ, having pricked his hand with a nail (in symbol of the nailing to the cross), is being anxiously examined by Joseph, who is pulling his hand backwards, while he, unheeding this, kisses the Virgin with his arm round her neck. Millais thinks of painting this for the Exhibition[181]....