A very hot, windy morning. I felt so much fatigued as to be very unwilling to undertake any long walk in the sun, so that I decided upon remaining in the house. This detention is in this place quite disagreeable as all the places of resort are at a distance from each other, and thus make motion to them laborious and fatiguing. I begin to be very impatient and wish to return. My own occupations on the whole cannot be long supplied by any dissipation.

Wrote Diary, and a letter to Boston,1 also reading the Bank Reports of the State of Alabama. Made a call upon Mrs. Smith and sat an hour conversing in a very easy way. She would have been well calculated for a much higher situation in society.

Evening, accompanied the ladies to a party at Miss Tayloe’s given to the bride, Mrs. Kane. The party was small and composed entirely of strangers. Washington is certainly much changed from what it was.49 There is an absence of the haut ton which it used to have, and a prevalence of half genteel which makes the difference. This is no doubt owing to the bachelor style of the late President and the absence of any presiding female character in the higher departments of Office. We returned at twelve. A thunder shower and rain following.