15th.--... Set to work at _Beauty_, from eight till eleven--scraped out puss, and put in one with a more satisfactory _miow_, finished it all over, but the general effect is spotty, so must work over it yet (seven and a-half hours). 17th.--Sunday.... Found the charcoal of _Beauty_ quite spoiled through my having wet it to fix it, not understanding the steaming process--it is all cockled. To-morrow I must iron it out, and make hot cockles of it, if nothing better.... After dinner we went as far as Mill Hill with the maid and child, and at dusk had tea in some gardens there, and so home; not an aristocratic proceeding, but pleasant and healthful. The scenery is very beautiful and paintable about this part, and I suppose the finest round London. One bit in particular pleased us. It was looking down from a hill; in a deep hollow, surrounded on all sides by beautiful trees, lay part of a road already small by the perspective; through the foliage at the top in the extreme distance was Hendon church. With large foreground figures on the hill in front, it would have made a most admirable picture for perspective depth. Everything alas! cannot be painted, however.... In the evening I worked at _Beauty_. Finished it, and then spoiled it again through wetting it at the back; but a work of art is never spoiled, it can be done again (eight hours). 18th.--... In the evening ironed out _Beauty_, but with no good effect; so had paste made, and, stretching a clean sheet of paper, pasted it down (eight hours). 19th.--Rain; so had out the picture of _The Last of England_, and scraped at the head of the female: afterwards worked at it two hours without model, and four hours with, using zinc white. Afterwards re-touched _Beauty_, which with constant wetting was much blurred. In the evening fixed it in frame, lettered it, and pasted loose drawing in my big book (seven and a-half hours).