Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 5
1834-08-16
Morning cloudy but it afterwards grew warm. I went to town and was occupied for considerable time in business and commissions. We hear today that several of the leaders are taken and the investigation in the affair goes on successfully. So much the better. Nothing else material. Returned to Quincy.
Afternoon. Took a walk with Walter Hellen to Mount Wollaston to look at the Orchard. The trees purchased by my father look pretty well and bear some fruit this year, but the Baldwins do not succeed very well. The frost of two years ago seems to have had a very bad effect upon that particular tree every where. On my ascent of the hill, I had a feeling which is always pretty strong with me that I wish I had a house on the spot all ready, but I do not think I should ever have the enterprise to build one. Nor am I sure that I should ever like it after I had got it. The spot is nevertheless decidedly beautiful.1
Home. Read Ovid as usual. Evening some visitors, Mr. Beale and his daughter Anne with Mr. Emmons2 and his Wife of Boston who are staying there.
For other statements of the same theme see vol. 3:268; 4:362–363. The notion of “a mansion house” on Mount Wollaston, long cherished, came closest to fulfillment in 1845 when, upon CFA’s bidding, an architect, Alexander Jackson Davis of New York, had plans “in study,” and with CFA visited the site to explore the question of “placing the house.” Davis’ brief account is printed in The Adamses at Home, Boston, 1970, p. 46.
Perhaps John L. Emmons, merchant, who lived at 11 Beacon Street (
Boston Directory, 1834).