December 21 Sunday – Sam wrote from London to George H. Fitzgibbon:

I wish you had been there—it was a beautiful house; tho’ piling the stage full of people made it pretty hard talking. I made no speech, because I had kept the audience there longer than I ever had before, & as I had a jolly good time with them I didn’t want to run the risk of spoiling the thing.

Besides, I was saving myself for tomorrow evening, when 6 or 8 personal friends of mine are to give me a quiet dinner, & I am to make a bit of a speech [MTL 5: 525].

Sam and Frank Finlay took a walk up Portland Place and to Regent’s Park. Frank met a lady he knew there “giving 3 or 4 of her children an airing.” They walked together for an hour and went to her house for a glass of wine [MTL 5: 530-1]. Later, Sam wrote to Livy about the Smalley’s dinner the night before [MTL 5: 527].