Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 8
1838-07-09
I was up and dressed early this morning for the sake of going to Cambridge through Boston, in time for the commencement of the examination of the Junior class in Homer’s Iliad. Found there were present four other members of the Committee, J. C. Gray, Judge Merrill, Mr. Hillard, and Mr. Forbes, a new member.1
The general appearance of the class was creditable, and that of some 76members, very good. But of the whole, there was but one thorough recitation. A young man, Eliot, who bears a high character here as a scholar. I recollected him last year.2 At dinner, the usual persons with a Mr. Couthouy, attached to the expedition which is to go out in time.3 Conversation not so lively as usual.
I returned home through town by four o’clock, with my horse who ran away with me, and which I have purchased. The heat of the day very great indeed. I amused myself with Pliny. Evening quiet on the portico watching the beauty of the scene and luxuriating in the freshness of the breeze.
There was no one then living who bore the Forbes name and had attended Harvard College before 1838 (
Harvard Quinquennial Cat.
). Perhaps DAB
).
Samuel Eliot, class of 1839, later professor of history and president of Trinity College, Hartford, and a Harvard overseer (
Harvard Quinquennial Cat.
).
J. P. Couthouy, a sea captain, was associated with the Wilkes Exploring Expedition which sailed from Norfolk, Va., in 1838 for the Antarctic (MH-Ar).