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xxxviii PHILIP
conducive to literary work, and though he was less troubled by
illness than in the years before, the records are still all too many.
We moved into Palace Green towards the middle of March. There
is an entry in his diary for 1862, dated Saturday, March 8. " I
pray Almighty God that the words I write in this house may be
pure and honest ; that they be dictated by no personal spite, unworthy
motive, or unjust greed for gain ; that they may tell the
truth as far as I know it ; and tend to promote love and peace
amongst men, for the sake of Christ our Lord." On the 18th of
April he writes, " The May number not finished until to-day, after
repeated derangements." He wrote to Mr. George Smith :—
"I am quite astonished when I read ' Philip' over. Oh, it's
weary work," and on April 30th,—" I don't know whether you or
I should be most pitied. I have had four days' illness at Paris ; no
pleasure except going to see my kind relations in grief—and no
work done."
He quotes the opinion of a doctor he saw at Paris ..." in
which case good-bye Queen Anne, or rather I shall see her sooner
than I expected. So they have given E. Thackeray the V.C.; how
pleased I am.—Yours always, W. M. THACKERAY."
Then come a series of more cheerful memoranda, such as
" Trollope at Star and Garter," " Leech at Richmond," &c. Amongst
these entertainments was a supper-party in honour of the engagement
of our cousin Edward Thackeray to our friend Amy Crowe,
who had long been living with us. The chief attraction of the
festival was that each guest was expected to cook one of the
dishes, and I still have a vision before me of my father and Dr.
Joachim gravely engaged in preparing a salad. There is an old
list of those who were invited—a string of familiar names, of the
people with whom we lived, Millais, Leeches, Charles Collinses,
Coles, Merivales, Cayleys, Lady Elizabeth Thackeray, our cousins
the Lows, &c.
On the 1st of July my father wrote to Mr. George Smith:—
"Sitting in this beautiful room, surrounded by ease and comfort
and finishing the story, I stop writing with rather a full heart for
a minute or two."