The morning was bright and clear. I arose early this morning in order to fulfil my agreement with Robert Buchanan and my brother, which was to go down on a fishing excursion to Cohasset rocks.1 We started early in the little Carriage, and enjoyed our ride. The place I had never before seen. It is naked, and rocky, exposed to the action of the sea and the wind, much like Nahant, though not quite so much insulated. There is a beach here very similar to that and much longer. Having reached there, we went down to fish and very soon caught enough to make a considerable quantity. The sport for the first two hours was very good. It afterwards became less so until the latter hours of the day when it was nothing but nibbling.

The day was agreeable, but it is so long since I have had any kind of exposure to the Sun, that when we returned to the Hotel to dine, I found that I had got my face very thoroughly scorched, so much so as to be not a little painful. We found at the House,2 my Uncle, the Judge, and Mr. Gourgas, his future son in law, and we joined parties at dinner. The Hotel can scarcely be called first rate, so that it needed a tolerable appetite to get along. With this we were all gifted to a considerable degree. We returned home about sunset. On the whole my time for parties of this kind is a little gone by. The suffering is a 282severe counterbalance to the amusement. I was so fatigued as to wish Edmund Quincy away, when he called to pay a visit.

The morning was very warm, and I was feeling not a little, the influence of yesterday’s sun, when I started with my Wife to go into town. Our household is very troublesome, as my manservant has concluded to go away, and we do not know what to do with our Cook. There was a consultation which resulted in nothing. I went to the Office where I was engaged in making up my Journal for some days back, as my occupations had prevented regularity. Several little things were also to be attended to which took up the hours so that I did little else. The weather was also of a nature to incapacitate one from much labour. We returned to Quincy to dine and I rarely recollect feeling the heat more than in that ride. The Thermometer ranged considerably over ninety degrees. My Wife was made quite sick by it all the afternoon, and my father made little progress with me in the Catalogue. After tea, my brother John and I started for the bath, which was quite delicious. Mr. Miller and Mr. Beale called in the Evening to pay a visit—After which we had much conversation.

The day appeared as warm as any of the preceding, being entitled to the rank of our hottest weather. I rode into town and passed the morning at my Office and the house. I went to the latter in order to give final directions about shutting up the House. This proceeding is not by any means an agreeable one to me. I had hoped to have got rid of remaining in the Country but it seems that I must now stay longer than I had ever anticipated.

Occupied in drawing up the estimates of New’s debts in order to present it to the Judge on Monday, and in my Journal. The day made me feel languid and illdisposed to action. Returned to Quincy to dine in the heat of the day. The ride was warm and uncomfortable. My Wife was extremely sick all day and the heat of the weather increased her suffering.

The house at Quincy is but poorly qualified either to be cool in Summer or warm in Winter. I sat and continued the Catalogue in my 283Mother’s room which by some chance was the very hottest in the House. We made some progress notwithstanding, and will soon finish as I hope. The work has now become a little tedious to me. My father is indifferent although he keeps up on the whole better than I expected. Evening, the family went to ride, and little was done of any kind.