The day was clear and cold for the season. I found my wife as well as I could reasonably expect, so after going to Market, I went to the Office. A meeting of the new board of Directors of the Middlesex Canal drawn up on the new plan. Mr. W. Sullivan retired from the Standing Committee and I was put on in his place. This was the only change excepting in dispensing with two Vice Presidents.

Call from Mr. Perkins who is not yet ready but threatens to be on Monday, and I promised to be ready for him. I then called in to see a collection of old Pictures exhibiting here to a few individuals by a foreigner who appears to have brought them out to sell. They are the first I have seen which give me any accurate idea of the power of the Masters. There is a Fornarina of Raphael, a Madonna by Guido, a Van Dyke without name and one or two other pictures of great merit.1

Late at home and so lost Sophocles. Asked to dine with Mr. Brooks. Nobody but the family. Called in at the Athenaeum to learn the result of my application which is stated to have been successful. Then home. Wife continues mending. Evening, my mind somewhat unsettled for connected study, so I took up Walter Scott’s Romance of the Pirate.