Sunday, 19 February 1826; 'Being troubled with thick-coming fancies and a slight palpitation of the heart I have been reading the Chronicle of the Good Knight Messire Jacques de Lalain, curious but dull from the constant repetition of the same species of combats in the same stile and phrase [...] It passes the time however, especially in that listless mood when your mind is half on your book half on something else: you catch something to arrest the attention every now and then and what you miss is not worth going back upon. Idle man's studies in short. [goes on to muse upon possibilities for own imaginative use of episodes in text]'