Monday, 27 March 1826: 'I answerd two modest requests [for assistance with sons' career advancement] from widow Ladies -- One whom I had already assisted on some law business on the footing of her having visited my mother [...] Another widowed dame whose claim is having read Marmion and the Lady of the Lake besides a promise to read all my other works [...] demands that I shall either pay £200 to get her cub into some place or settle him in a seminary of education [...] I do believe your destitute widow, especially if she hath a charge of children and one or two fit for patronage, is one of the most impudent animals living.'