Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 3
1829-09-25
Morning rainy and unpleasant. After lounging at home as usual considerably longer than I should have done properly, I went to the Office and passed some time quite uninterrupted in reading Marshall. I found little or nothing today however which struck me as new. Called upon Mr. Brooks for the sake of the visit, conversed upon his intentions for the Winter and regretted to find that he intends remaining there.1 This makes me feel thankful however that I had not another Winter to go through in my character of suitor. Mrs. Brooks is wrong in remaining there and it will much surprise me if she survives the season. Her spirits will not stand the still-dullness of her own condition.2 But I saw that the plan was approved and so I uttered not a syllable of opposition. Indeed from delicacy I would not wish to intrude my opinion.
Mr. Curtis called upon me for a few minutes in relation to Mr. Boylston’s affairs and to know when my Father would be in town. In regard to this, I had expected that he would come tomorrow, but the letter which I especially directed to be sent to Quincy, has been regularly found in my Box each Morning since Wednesday, so that in despair I called upon Abby Adams at Mr. P. Foster’s and gave it to her to take this afternoon.3 There was a thunder shower in the afternoon so that I remained at home and read a portion of a History of the United States by a certain Mr. Graham, which passes through my hands from Mr. Sparks to my Father.4 It is said to be the best extant. Abby went after the rain to see her friend Miss Carter. In the evening I read to her Mackenzie’s Man of Feeling or rather the first portion of it.5 But she did not appear so much interested as I expected. Afterwards a little of La Harpe.
Until 1827, the Brooks family each year moved into Boston from Medford in November, remaining until May. However, in that year Mr. Brooks sold the house on Atkinson Street in which they had lived for 24 years, the neighborhood being no longer suitable (Waste Book, 16 July 1827). Thereafter they planned to remain at Mystic Grove the year round (same, 1 Jan. 1828). In 1829 Mr. and Mrs. Brooks were alone in the house for the first time, their children married or living in Europe. However, Ann Frothingham and her children spent the summer months with her parents, and Charlotte Everett and her children, the winter months.
During her long illness Mrs. Brooks suffered periods of aberration and melancholia (Charlotte Everett to Edward Everett, Jan.–April, Nov.–Dec. 1829 passim, Everett MSS, MHi).
Phineas Foster, a merchant, was married to Frances Harrod, a sister of Mrs. TBA. They lived at 5 Bulfinch Place (vol. 2:260;
Boston Directory, 1829–1830).
The 1827 edition of James Grahame’s The History of the Rise and Progress of the United States ..., 2 vols., London, in MQA has CFA’s autograph. It was a book which continued to interest CFA; see below, entries for 3 April–1 May 1830
passim; 13 April, note.
On Jared Sparks (1789–1866), currently the owner and editor of the
North American Review
, see vol. 1:79, 312;
DAB
; and numerous entries below.
The Man of Feeling is also included in Mackenzie’s Miscellaneous Works (3:1–147); see preceding entry.