Tuesday 18th.--Woolner not having made his appearance, I went again to try my chance of finding him, and at last succeeded. His delay has arisen from the second part of his poem not having yet been copied out or considered for final revision. The former task I performed, and the latter was achieved by our joint exertions. His medallion of Tennyson is well forward, the head requiring but little more: the hair, however, is only begun. It will have to be suspended for a short time, as Tennyson has left town, and will not be back till about Sunday, when he thinks of remaining for a month or so longer. His poem of King Arthur is not yet commenced, though he has been for years past maturing the conception of it; and he intends that it should occupy him some fifteen years. His poem, “Thou might’st have won the poet’s name,” was, he says, written in a fit of intense disgust after reading Medwin’s book about Byron. He has seen the poem I have reviewed in our first number, _The Bothie of Toper-na-fuosich_, and considers it to be execrable English. He likes Woolner’s bas-relief of _Iris_, but says he cannot understand the _Puck_.[196] Gabriel began to paint the head of the Virgin in his picture of _The Annunciation_. Wednesday 19th.--I delivered to George Tupper Woolner’s poem and Patmore’s _Seasons_, with which he will make a beginning; but he warns me that we must get our materials together with all possible speed, as, next week being Christmas week, it is almost impracticable to get his people to work. In the evening we had a meeting in Gabriel’s study, where, besides the whole P.R.B., the two Tuppers, Deverell, Hancock, and Cave Thomas, as being persons interested in the magazine, were present. The latter brought the commencement of an opening address he is writing for No. 1.... Ford Brown came in at a late hour, and showed us a sonnet which he has composed on _The Love of Beauty_, and which we will find room for in the first number. I gave George Tupper my review, which will (he calculates) occupy at least some eighteen pages; also our sister’s poem of _Dreamland_. It was proposed by Woolner, and carried without opposition except a very strong one by myself, that our names should not be published; and another point in which all present came to the vote was the title to be finally adopted. _The Seed_ was set aside in favour of _The Germ_; and this was near being superseded by _The Scroll_ (also Thomas’s invention),[197] but was finally fixed on by six to four. Gabriel is to do his best to have _Hand and Soul_ completed in time. His morning had been devoted to painting on the Virgin’s head. Thursday 20th.--Gabriel set hard to work at _Hand and Soul_; or at least the spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak against Maitland in the morning, who was engaged in putting together a screen, and against Clayton, North, and Bliss, in the evening.[198]