Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 8
1839-09-21
Fine day. At home. Afternoon ride. Evening at the Mansion.
My work upon the letters went on pretty briskly this morning and I begin to perceive the end of the undertaking. Mrs. Greenleaf has furnished me a valuable stock with which to fill up a long interval.1 I read also some of Menzel, always a lively and often a just writer.
After dinner, Tacitus b. 4. s 60–70, went out to take a ride accompanied by my father. Went down to the farms and from thence through the cross roads to Milton Hill. The evening was beautiful and I enjoyed it much. Tea at my father’s and evening. Nothing material.
During the years 1784–1788 AA was with JA in Europe. Her letters in that period were written mostly to her sisters, Mary Smith Cranch and Elizabeth Smith Shaw, and to her niece Lucy Cranch, later Mrs. John Greenleaf. The letters in Mrs. Greenleaf’s possession, to her mother and to herself, were those she allowed CFA to copy for publication in the volume he had in preparation (AA, Letters
, ed. CFA, 1840; entry for 12 Aug., above). In that volume, p. 199–395 would be given in large part to these letters, supplemented by a lesser number to Mrs. Shaw, lent by her daughter, Abigail Adams Shaw (Mrs. Joseph Barlow Felt). On the later history of the collections of AA’s letters, see
Adams Family Correspondence
, 1:xxx.