| Description | [Diary Transcription]
189
1827
May Monday 28
6 25/60
10 35/60
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No motion Took the 2 pills just before getting into bed last night, and the draught at 7 20/60 this morning – the wash woman
came at 7 35/60 – settled with her in 3 or 4 minutes – Just afterwards parted with three or four little hard bits at my desk at 7 20/60 – began a letter to
Miss MacLean – continuously interrupted – mentioned being from home when her letter arrived and when received it – should have written sooner
but waited to tell my plans, not fixed till Friday last when wrote to IN- [Isabella Norcliffe] on what account cannot accommodate her after the beginning
of October – will be glad to see her any time she may therefore come about the end of July – but I shall go somewhere for 2 or 3 weeks
perhaps to Fontainebleau – will always let Miss MacLean know but she is to direct to me here – had best write Place neuve de
la madeleine – will say nothing on the subject of her going to Boulogne, neither pro nor con, ‘simply because I know
not what I ought to say’ – confidence in her judgement – assured she will judge well – towards the end of page 1 on her
objecting to my styling ‘my elegant friend’, ‘I must protest against your denying my me the use of any epithet I choose –
‘your 1st appearance impressed me with the idea of elegance; and elegance was the spell that charmed me – You know my sincerity’ etc. etc.
and must let me choose my own words – ‘Perhaps I was too severe about the Quaker – Did you understand it thoroughly, you
‘would think this very severely more flattering than the epithet with which you quarrel – this very severely shews a feeling towards you which
‘cannot be the result of every day acquaintances – it marks in strong lines the characters of esteem, and admiration, and regard –
‘Do not say, – do not think ‘my pride requires still further humbling’ If pride be proper pride, ‘tis never so unbending
‘as when the course of circumstances is not smooth; – if pride be proper pride’ (top of page 3), it is a strong arm to lean upon
‘that holds us up however rough the road we have to go – what matters it, if we find rough places where we least
‘expected them; – what if it be our ‘own familiar friend’ who sets himself against us? ‘Thrice is he armed who has his
‘quarrel just’; and that stout-siding champion, conscience, is a host the world can neither conquer, nor cajole – the spirit bends,
‘but is not broken by injustice – I care not for the scourge I have not merited – ‘there is a power that rightly suffers wrong’ –
‘as better illustrative of this than anything I have ever met with, let me remind you (for I have mentioned it before) to read
‘Soame Jenyns – there is a judge that cannot err, who will give judgement – It is enough – the mind is satisfied; and the man
‘is happy in spite of all the powers and principalities of earth – Remember, that you have at least one friend who will not
‘change; and tell me, if, in spite of all the rough-hewn circumstance that seems to hem you in on every side, it be
‘possible that you can be otherwise than happy – Do as you say – If I survive you, give orders for me to have your papers, – your
‘thoughts that you have thought when things of earth looked darkest – I will do all you wish – I trust, you have many years of
‘happiness to come in this world – if not, that will be done which is the wisest and the best – my own loss cannot last long – yet
‘think not that I am ill – I feel that ‘anxious thinking wears our clay’ – yet mine is merely a little out of sorts, and will
‘probably soon recover its usual consistency’ – at this moment under the action of a strong dose from which I shall doubtless
‘be much the better tomorrow – to take my letter as it is – it will, at least, prove my constant remembrance and regard – so interrupted,
‘difficult to write at all – ‘God bless you! my most affectionate regard and best wishes are ever with you, and I am always
‘very faithfully yours’ – Had finished my letter (3 ppages tolerably small and close) at 11 1/2 – read it over – and gave it to George for the little post office
at 11 47/60 to ‘Miss Maclean of Coll, 5 North street David Street, Edinburgh, Ecosse (port payé)’ – Then another
motion the sixth including that named above the second a thick long natural but darkish greenish roll the
others very loose ran like water – Sat down immediately, and wrote down on a scrap of paper all the above extract (which I
will answer for it is verbatim) from memory – I had had 3 large cups of tea between 8 and 9, and at 12 20/60 breakfast –
that is mutton broth and dry bread about my usual quantity – this breakfast and reading the paper took me from 12 20/60 to 1 35/60 –
It was observed by Mr. D. G. Harvey in the house, on asking leaving for bringing in [illegible] a bill to take the bankruptcy jurisdiction
from the lord chancellor (ministers with an immense majority against the bill), that there were 6000 certificated attorneys
in England who received £1,000 a year each on an average – thus the country paid £6,000,000. – from 1 35/60 to 2 10/60 asked my aunt
how she did – read in Gifford’s English lawyer article Benefit of clergy, and had just written the first 17 lines of today – Mrs. Barlow
[margin text:] Fahrenheit 60° at 7 a.m. and at 8 a.m.
69° at 1 3/4 p.m.
66° at 7 1/4 ––
62 1/2° at 9 1/4 ––
dullish morning, but dry –
fine day –
190
1827
May
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staid with me from 2 10/60 to 4 55/60 and then dined with my aunt – I lay on the sofa the whole time with my legs on her knee – feeling
languid and tired the moment of having nothing to do – She read aloud to me ‘Les voyages de Scarmentado’ from page 175. to 192.
tome 1. Contes de Voltaire I merely reading 1 or 2 ppages while she took breath she not being accustomed to read aloud – these Contes
are excellent – at 5 5/60 to 5 20/60 my dinner a large basin of mutton barley-broth, and dry bread, perhaps about near 1/3 of what I usually
take at breakfast – then till 5 3/4 (having written also the 10 minutes before dinner) wrote the last 28 lines of today – Mrs Barlow reads
French like all English people very ill – from 5 50/60 to 7 20/60 settled with George for yesterday and today, and set down the accounts
and wrote out nearly the whole of the notes in my tables on the lecture of Saturday – then washed my hands, adjusted my dressing gown
in which I have remained the whole day and never taken my hair out of the papers, and went into the drawing room to my aunt at 7 3/4 – lay
on the sofa talking to my aunt – at 9 1/2 had 1 1/2 glass warm wine and water and 3 small biscuits which I relished – Came to my room at 9 3/4 –
felt a good deal of rheumatism in my right knee this evening – determine to have a warm bath tomorrow on this account – perhaps
it may otherwise do me good – and ordered mutton barley-broth for breakfast in the morning o. – 20 minutes reading article e grammaire
des grammaires and Dictionnaire des Difficultés –
Tuesday 29
6 1/4
10 3/4
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No motion at all – went out at 7 50/60 – direct to the bains Vigier – got there in 20 minutes waited 10 minutes – undressed
in 10 minutes and in the bath (28° Reaumur – felt coldish – put in hot water 3 times – must have raised the bath to 30°)
from 8 1/2 to 9 1/2 – the woman had left the window open – I had shut it – did not dare open it immediately, though the little rain felt
very hot – perspired profusely all the time I was dressing – my linen scarcely put on before it was wet – dressed in 1/2 hour
in walking across the garden felt a pain on each side the lower stomach as if distended and wanting something tight
round it – got home in 20 minutes at 10 1/4 – 1/4 hour reading the paper – breakfast and reading the paper from 10 1/2 to 11 35/60 – had
a basin of mutton barley-broth – then bread with oil and vinegar as usual (not quite as much as my usual quantity) and 2 glasses hot
wine and water – dared not drink anything cold – did my hair (which though never out of paper since Sunday night would scarcely
curl from my having been so heated) just spoke to my aunt, and went out at 12 – 5th lecture – got there at 12 20/60 –
began – the explanation of roues dentées just finishing – it could not have been long – about the middle of the lecture
very sleepy, believe I nodded a little, in spite of all my efforts to avoid it – at all rates, knew little or nothing of what
was going on – perhaps I staid rather too long in the bath – had no idea of perspiring so profusely on getting out of it – the lecture
over at 1 55/60 – sauntered along the Quais – so taken up at the book stalls, did not get home till 3 3/4 – looked over a
volume (no date) containing 60 views of the principal palaces other monuments and churches in Paris – views of 5 other cathedrals – Rheims,
Strasbourg (the tower 545 feet only 25 feet lower than the highest Egyptian pyramid St. Peter’s at Rome 530 feet – the
tower of the cathedral of Vienna 525), Chartres, Coutance (1 of the finest specimens of Gothic architecture in
Europe), and Orleans – these prints reminded me to see in Paris the palais of the legion of honour, the hotel de ville
the church of St. Paul formerly church of the Jesuits, and to take more notice of the fountaine des Innocens and the barrière de
la Villette – a little beyond my attention arrested by a view of the church of Montivilliers – I know not where
the place is – I can find no trace of it my Gazetteer or in Galignani – from 3 50/60 to 5 writing all the above of
today, and reading Galignani’s Paris guide, and guide through France and just turned to Brookes’s Gazetteer –
# on giving the bath woman a dix-sols pièce she asked me how much elle devait me rendre – rien, said
I – evident her eyes sparkled – very evident she is not accustomed to be paid so much – wrote a little note to Madame Droz
to say we should go to Montmorenci [Montmorency] tomorrow morning at 10 and the carriage should be at her door at that hour or a perhaps a few minutes earlier –
Dinner at 5 10/60 – Left the dining room at 6 3/4 – Settled with George and my accounts – went out at 7 1/4 – walked with Mrs. Barlow through
the barrière de L’Etoile to the Etoile on the new road to the Bois de Boulogne – parted with her at her own door, and got home at
9 5/60 – Monsieur de Cussy and Monsieur de St. Aubin had called on her this morning – the former staid 2 hours – told her all his troubles – will marry
Miss Middleton only waiting for Mr. Middleton to sign the marriage contract – sat with my aunt 10 minutes and came to my room
at 10 1/4 – o. –
[margin text:] Fahrenheit 60° at 7 a.m.
71° at noon
73° at 7 p.m.
69 1/2° at 10 20/60 –
very fine morning
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