The day opened very bright and after breakfast we started in an open Barouche, taking leave of some of our friends, for a place seven miles off called Menomet Ponds, where the sea opens to the view and there is a fine chance commonly for catching fish. It proved today exceedingly windy and discouraged almost all of the party. Several gentlemen from Plymouth had joined us and my father insisting upon going, Mr. T. Hedge1 and young Mr. Russel with myself went with him in the boat to the point about thirty rods from the land. We caught very few fish, and what was worse I became very seasick. This was doleful. I had no disposition to fish if I had had ever so many bites which I had not. My father caught two codfish which made him content to return and glad was I when we trod on terra firma again.

Fortunately my stomach was not put entirely out of tone, and I 217made a tolerable dinner. The company present were Dr. Thatcher and Bartlett, Mr. T. Hedge, Judge Russell and his son, Mr. Davis’ nephews and Mr. Gilbert a lawyer who boards at Mrs. Nicholson’s. My father talked with great vigor and appeared to much advantage.

Dinner over, we started again for Sandwich taking leave of the gentlemen who had been very civil and attentive. Our ride in the Barouche was through heaps of sand and a pine forest in which it would appear unpleasant to lose the track. We doubted for one moment, which was very disagreeable, but finally came out right.

The distance was said to be only eight or ten miles but proved fifteen and we did not get to the house at Sandwich until nearly seven. We were expected. There were several persons here whom we knew. Mr. and Mrs. J. Walker, Mr. J. H. Hayward and his Wife, Mr. Gedney King and his Wife, a Mr. Emmons and a Mr. Hooper. After tea we passed the evening in conversation by the fire and dipping into the Newspapers. Much talk of the appearance of the Comet.

Another magnificent day. Our party changed its face much today. Mr. King and his Wife and Mr. Hooper went home. Mr. Davis proposed to spend the morning in a drive to Sandwich while Mr. Hayward and Mr. Emmons went out to try and kill a Deer and Mr. Walker in quest of a companion to his place whither he goes from the College, Marshpee.1 All these however, to return to dinner.

We enjoyed our share of the morning very much. The town is very prettily situated, looks thriving and contented. We went round it stopping at the glassworks of the Sandwich company. These are very complete. We examined the process from the outset through its various ramifications to the perfected article, saw the mode of making the pressed glass and some of us pressed some plates. This is ingenious and American. I think it very pretty though not so much so as some do. There is no more extraordinary evidence of the ingenuity of man. The beauty of the result and the many changes of form which the materials undergo before they reach perfection renders every part of the work interesting. This establishment was fixed here on account of it’s distance from the City, the cheapness of the surrounding woodland principally pine and the healthiness of the air. It employs about three hundred and fifty men and boys and turns out a vast deal of 218work.2 At present they do well. Mr. Deming Jarves the Agent was very civil to us indeed. And we returned to our house, Swift’s, now Hinkley’s, very well satisfied.

We found our party reassembled, the hunters without any game and Mr. Walker with a Mr. Merrick, the Clergyman of the town.3 A pleasant and a very excellent dinner and then off. The house is very well kept now and on the whole I know no place I could enjoy myself better for a month or two than here. We now took a drive in the same barouche across the neck of land called Cape Cod to the water on the other side, about twenty two miles and as pleasant a ride as I ever took in my life.

The weather was magnificent and the Country in all the beauty of early vegetation. Indeed it is not probable that in the course of many years I should have so fine an opportunity to see this section of country. The season has been uncommonly wet and has therefore given to the grass and the trees a degree of verdure uncommon in this region. The people are comfortable and independent. I saw no poverty, no distress. Perhaps there is no greater moral spectacle on the face of the earth, than this of the victory of honest industry over the disadvantages of soil and climate. The orchards appeared loaded with trees and the houses and grounds in perfect repair.

We passed through Falmouth and reached the place of destination called Woodville or Wood’s hole shortly after sunset. It was a sort of headland jutting out from between a couple of small bays, on which were three or four houses, the most modern of which was the Hotel. We had good supper and after a little conversation with a curious character called Hatch who was summoned for further operations in the morning,4 we retired.