| Description | [Diary Transcription]
181
1827
May Friday 18
7
11 40/60
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Cut my toe and finger nails wrote out the accounts of yesterday (paid George on bringing in breakfast) and from 8 40/60 to 10 1/4 wrote the last 32 lines of yesterday.
with the paper is come an inviting prospectus of a new quarterly review shortly to be published price 7 shillings 6d. by Treuttel and Würtz
no. [number] 30, Soho Square London and sold here by ‘Galignani and all other booksellers’, to be entitled the Foreign quarterly review
and continental Literary miscellany’ — I shall think about this — breakfast at 10 25/60 — (breakfast over at 11 1/2) — and reading the paper
till 12 10/60. vide page 3 column 3. sentence passed on the Wakefields Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield to be confined in the gaol of Newgate 3 years
Mr. William Wakefield to be confined in Lancaster castle for the same length of time — from 12 10/60 to 1 10/60 finishing dressing and dawdling over
1 thing or other — just asked my aunt how she did — her chest which was very painful yesterday evening, better this morning —
she not so sickish as yesterday morning and the day before — From 1 1/4 to 5 tracing Ebel’s 1st route — Dinner at 5 — left the
dining room at 7 — prepared my bedroom — settled with George and my accounts — from 7 1/2 to 8 3/4 looking over Keller’s map and Ebel’s guide, and making
out from Galignani’s Guide through France the English contents in English yards of a French lieue = 2 3/4 mile all but 50 yards
or 1 lieue = 4790 English yards — went into the drawing room to my aunt at 8 50/60 — Looking over Keller’s map —
came to my room at 10 25/60 — o.. —
[margin text:] Fahrenheit 62° at 7 50/60 a.m.
65 1/2° at noon
57° at 10 25/60 p.m.
dull morning rain from
9 to 10 — 1/2 hour’s rain between 11 and 12
and from 5 for the rest of the evening at
6 1/4 heavy rain with thunder
and lightning — great deal of rain this
evening — fair at 10 25/60 p.m. —
Saturday 19
7 35/60
11 1/4
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Bowels right but thirty five minutes on the pot reading Reading Contes de Voltaire — skimming to the end of the amusing story of Zadig — at my desk
at 9 — from then to 10 5/60 looking at my grammaire des grammaires, and the dictionnaire des difficultés Francaises — Why, — (vide Contes de
Voltaire volume 1. page 1. Zadig) ‘On était étonné de voir qu’avec beaucoup d’esprit, il n’insultât jamais’....
why the subjunctive? grammaire volume 2. page 670. et sequentia, and Dictionnaire article ‘subjunctif’ — well accounted for —
I shall get to understand the French use of this mood by and by — breakfast at 10 1/4 — or, rather, read all but the
English debates from 10 1/4 to 10 1/2, and then from 10 1/2 to 11 10/60 breakfast — finished dressing — went out at 11 3/4 — direct to
Quai Malaquais No. [Number] 1 got there in about 20 minutes — the lecture began at 12 10/60 and was over at 1 3/4 — Short Recapitulation
of the properties of matter gone through yesterday on Thursday — began this morning with Divisibility — compass which by means of
a screw (the threads of it being distant the 12th part of a ligne — 12 lignes in the old pied de roi) and index and graduated
scale of 100 degrees, one could divide a line to the 1200th part of a ligne — Ductility of gold shewed the divisibility
of matter — a man at Augsburg had [illegible] drawn out 1 grain of gold to the length of 800 French feet — gold could be beaten so fine, it took
3000 plates (lames) of it 1 upon another to form a plate 1 ligne thick — Gold so very thin exhibited 2 colours —
gold colour by reflexion (i.e. held before one in a common way) verdâtre by refraction (i.e. when held up to the light) —
1 grain gold would cover 50 square inches — on calculating the immense surface over which we could spread a small quantity of gold
it became obvious into how small particles we could divide it — 1 grain of carmine would colour 30 lbs, of water mica very divisible — Sir Isaac Newton had got a
plate of it so thin that the colour it reflected was a deep blue — odoriferous particles of matter a proof of the extreme divisibility
of matter — a grain of musk would perfume an apartment subject to fresh air for several years, with seeming to be diminished —
there had been much discussion whether matter was divisible ad infinitum or not — yes! mechanically speaking — but
perhaps we could not say so physically — but it mattered not to science — when chemists could not decompose a
substance they called it a simple — according to Newton the ultimate molecules of matter unchangeable —
In matter, the interstices between the molecules took up more space than the molecules themselves — then we had explanation the elasticity
dureté, ductilité, and tenacité des corps — and the different relative proportions of these properties of the different metals —
strung upon a bell-glass, held it very near a brass pin suspended by a string — the vibration of the elasticity of the glass proved by the
tremulous noise it caused the brass pin to make against it — Iron much harder and more elastic after hammering —
steel not to be confounded with iron — how carbonized to make it into steel, and then how tempered by being thrown hot
into cold water — steel chiefly useful on account of its great elasticity, by this means forming springs of all sorts —
watches moved by springs clocks by weights — i.e. la force motive des montres, etc. — at first the old watches
went too fast on first winding up, and too slow when almost gone down — how this was remedied, and how the time is equalized
in our present watches — not very intelligible pour ceux qui ne sont pas horlogers — a machine to illustrate
the matter where the same weight is made balance a spring whose cord runs along a spiral — If you twist a
wire, the force with which it will untwist itself called la force de torsion which is in proportion to a 4th of the diameter
[margin text:] Fahrenheit 56° at 7 35/60 a.m.
63° at 11 3/4 ——
63 1/2° at 2 3/4 p.m.
58° at 10 1/2 ——
finish, dullish morning
rain about 5 p.m. for 1/2 hour —
afterwards fine evening
182
1827
May
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of the wire — and varies inversely as the length of the wire — The balance de Torsion be explained another time — a machine called
le montion to prove (I did not quite enter into the connection of this with the subject) how that stones or anything deeply buried might
be loosed and then got up easily — thus in getting a nail out, we always loosed it first — a body is tendre en oppostion to dur
but may be fragile and dur — diamond the hardest substance we know — Gouttes de Batavie (we had all played with them
when young — melted glass dropped into cold water) very hard — you might strike with a hammer and not break them, but break with the finger
the little tail or string of glass, and the [illegible] globule instantly with a crack fell into small dust — the man (assistant) broke
one before us — Ductility not useful when working metals en masse — gold obliged to be alloyed with copper or silver, or
the vessels made of it could not keep their form — then we came to tenacity un fil de fer de la 12me. de ligne en épaisseur
would support (suspended from it) I forget the exact weight but it was above 500 lbs. — then a great deal about the resistance
made by a piece of wood (it was a 1/2 ell? measure he held in his hand) — the resistance to 2 forces one at each end, trying to
pull it from together would be called positive; to 2 ditto trying to press it together would be called negative — to a force trying to break it
in 2 as one breaks a stick would be called relative — he proceeded to say that all builders laid a beam across not en
plat but the edge upmost to give it strength — It would be much more difficult to break a hollow cylinder than a solid one —
hence the great advantage of our bones being hollow an advantage both as to strenght and lightness — feathers how light and towards
the flesh the quill-part how light and strong! — Here we ended — the next lecture we are to have the mechanical powers [illegible] ‘Statique, l’equilibre
des corps’ — about 8 of us there today — only one lady — she and the gentleman with her English — heard them speak — waited till the last —
ask Monsieur Tremery to recommend some book on these subjects to which I could refer — Physique de l’abbé Haüy, 2 volume 8vo. [octavo]
3me. Edition, chez Bachelier Quai des Augustins No. [Number] 55. — went there immediately — bought the work — asked for the 10
percent abatement — abated 1/50 out of 15/. and gave me his catalogue (on asking for his address) price 0/50. — Thought I,
I will try what I can pick up from these lectures and the abbé Haüy on sauntering along the Quais, could not resist
stopping 2 or 3 times to look at the books, and prints — Bought la gonorrhee benigne et des fleurs blanches — got home
at 2 55/60 — wrote all but the 1st 6 lines of today which took me till 4 1/2 — Had just read the 1st 8 ppages of Dr. Doussin-
Dubreuil when Mrs. Barlow came to me (she had been with my aunt) and staid on account of a shower till sometime after we had sat down to dinner —
Dinner at 5 — Left the dining room at 6 35/60 — looking for 1/4 hour at my new books — went out at 7 — direct to Mrs. Barlow we
were off almost immediately — walked a little way beyond the barrière on the new road to the bois de Boulogne — talked of the Swiss journey —
still undecided as ever as I had said to my aunt at dinner — my aunt had told Mrs. Barlow I could never go at a better time and said she wished me to go —
could never leave her at a better time — Left Mrs. Barlow at her own door, and got home at 8 40/60 — prepared my bedroom — changed my stockings —
settled with George and my accounts of the day — wrote the last 4 lines — went into the drawing room at 9 20/60 — cut open the 2 volumes of
Haüy’s physics and came to my room at 10 10/60 o. —
Sunday 20
7
11 55/60
from 7 55/60 to 10 did my clothes for the wash, and wrote out skeleton washing bills — counted over my cash in hand — made out
and wrote out last week’s summary Settled my cash-book up to today, and glad to my loss still the same as on Sunday
22 April last i.e. 33.55 — the having my accounts so right and regular is a great satisfaction and pleasure to me — from
10 to 10 35/60 wrote out index general and literary from last Monday up to now — from 10 35/60 to 11 1/4 breakfast — then finished dressing in
1/2 hour — read a little of Dr. Doussin-Dubreuil, and went in to prayers at 12 1/4 — read all but the liturgy, and sermon 5 bishop
Sandford (on the parable of the unjust steward) in 55 minutes — staid talking to my aunt 40 minutes and came to my room at 1 55/60 —
from then to 2 1/2 reading the English debates in yesterday’s paper — From then to five wrote 1 1/4 ppages to IN. [Isabella Norcliffe] Dinner at 5 —
left the dining room at 6 10/60 — went out at 6 25/60 to Mrs. Barlow had had a headache, was lying down — but got up, and we were
off in about 10 minutes — through the barrière de l’Etoile some distance on the new road to the bois de Boulogne — in returning went to the café
des Ambassadeurs in the champs Elysées near home — took our seats under the awning, and had lemonade — sat there 20 minutes
listening to the music a harp and [illegible] violincello or tenor — and 2 pretty good voices, male and female — delightful evening — fine
mild air — enjoyed ourselves — Mrs Barlow had had a headache she was interesting that is had her cousin which came this morning
Got home at 9 1/4 — prepared my bedroom — came into the drawing room at 9 40/60 — filled up the skeleton washing bills — set down what I had spent — wrote the
last 6 lines — went to my room at 10 1/2 o. — reading contes de Voltaire and Ebel’s Swiss Guide near 1/2 hour just before getting into bed —
[margin text:] Fahrenheit 57° at 8 a.m.
66° at noon
64 1/2° at 6 1/4 p.m.
60 1/2° at 10 1/2 ——
fine morning no sun.
fine day — very fine
mild evening — the sun set
beautifully —
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