Beautiful weather. My Wife was tolerably today. My Mother not quite so well, but both on the whole still comfortable. It was the day of general muster, and the noise of guns was somewhat trying, especially in the Afternoon, but they got over it pretty comfortably.

I went to the Office and was engaged there some time in Accounts and the &c. of business. Mr. Knowles called upon me at last to let me know that the Carriage was to be in today. It is a little more than four months since he engaged to make it, which is double the period contracted by him to deliver it in. He has been to Washington and has had a fever.

I went to see a collection of Pictures for sale,1 and took a long walk. 178Exercise is a thing I find absolutely necessary since my removal to town. The ride has a beneficial effect upon my health which I should hardly be able to realize if I did not find the contrast directly. But my regular quantum of exercise restores things.

Afternoon reading, but lazily. I finished in the course of the evening, my Article, and upon reading it over am less satisfied than ever. The positions are loosely stated and the argument disjointed. There is besides a superfluity of words. I must go over it with the file. Virgil and the Mirror.