August 19th, 1872. Fine.

At one o'clock in the afternoon we visited the residence of Lord Granville, the foreign secretary, to report to him the nature of our mission and to request an audience with the queen. At the time the queen was on holiday at her castle [Balmoral] in Scotland. Since there was no precedent in the history of the country for her to return to Buckingham Palace from holiday for the express purpose of seeing foreign ambassadors, it was agreed that we would await Her Majesty's return.

As Lord Granville had invited us to dinner at seven o'clock that evening, we occupied the afternoon with a visit to the South Kensington [later, Victoria and Albert] Museum. This museum, the building of which was begun in 1856, houses a permanent exhibition. Much excitement was aroused among the British people by the Great Exhibition held in Hyde Park in 1851. The Hyde Park exhibition revealed that although British products were able to hold their own against those of other countries in quality of workmanship, they were inferior in design. Plans were therefore made to establish this institution, with the object of encouraging and stimulating improvements in design and decoration. Profits remaining in the hands of the royal commission for the exhibition were allocated to this purpose, and Parliament supplemented this with a sum equivalent to half that given by the commissioners.