Thanks for turkey. Lady Banks recently called on him "as fat, as talkative, & as laughing as ever", concludes that ladies do not affect to mourn as long as they used to; recalls a young Carlisle widow who married a former sweetheart the day after lamenting the loss of her "dear mate". Bemoans the political jobbery being exhibited in Parliament, "who can deny but that all men have their price". Received a plant of 'Neottia speciosa' from the Bishop of Durham [Shute Barrington] but unsure if he can keep it alive. The Bishop has been advised to stop riding; Goodenough often sees him being driven in Regent's Park looking as young as he did thirty years ago. Their Linnean dining club now has between thirty and forty members. His granddaughter's bad back continues. [William] Bullock [(c 1780-1849), naturalist and antiquary] has brought to London two native Laplanders and a herd of reindeer which he hopes to naturalise; he says that Bagshot Heath has enough reindeer moss to support a herd of 100,000.

Urges Smith to write to Archbishop of Canterbury [Charles Manners-Sutton (1755-1828)] at once in support of [William] Swainson as a candidate for British Museum. Political meetings beginning to be held in London, Goodenough thinks it time that party men unite for the benefit of the country and for all ranks of mankind to retrench and "live as they did sometime back" to allow prudence. The government busy curtailing and displacing the clerks in the office but doubts it will save anything.