Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 4
1832-05-27
Heavy and continued rain all day. I remained at home as the Carriage was full going to Church in the morning. Most of my day was spent in reading the American Register which however does not equal in other parts that of my father’s. I got hold of the Memoirs of Miss Hawkins the daughter of Sir John Hawkins.1 They are trifling but not uninteresting.
It is an object of sincere regret that I cut up my time so much to waste. But I can do nothing. The avenues seem at present all stopped up. I have no friendly faces to encourage me to exertion, and not natural confidence enough to carry me on without them. I do not improve myself sufficiently. I do not give forth what I believe to be in me. The evening passed as the day did.
The edition at MQA of Laetitia Matilda Hawkins’ Memoirs, Anecdotes, Facts, and Opinions, 2 vols., London, 1824, has the signature of Horatio Brooks on the titlepage of the first volume. It would seem likely that CFA found the work among the books at Mystic Grove, had not finished reading it when he left Medford, and took it with him to Quincy.