The morning was very warm. After breakfast my Wife and I went out to witness the guardmounting and to see Hull for the last time prior to our departure. We remained conversing pleasantly with him and some other of the young men who went out to meet us until it became time to return in order to prepare for the boat up the River. West Point is a delightful situation and the hotel is beautifully situated directly upon the point which looks through the Highlands up the River. Here one can watch the navigation which is perpetually moving 9through the gorge and derive perpetual enjoyment from the variation of the scene. Notwithstanding this I was glad to get away in the Steamer Albany which stopped at about noon just as full as it was on Thursday, and with just as many strangers on board. We met nobody but Alfred Brooks whom we knew and he was sitting alone on the upper deck reading Sartor Resartus.

The passage from West Point to Newburgh which was our next stopping place is only of an hour’s duration, and we soon found ourselves thrown ashore at Newburg and waiting for the Ferry boat which happened to be on the other side of the River. My Wife who is entirely without experience in travelling takes these little delays and awkward situations unpleasantly. Because she is alone, she thinks every body is looking at her and she does not understand that easy way of claiming one’s rights without which people in this Country and indeed in any fare very hardly. The ferry boat came at last and a hot and close little thing it was so that our passage across the River was none of the pleasantest. We found however Mr. DeWint’s man on board who informed me that the carriage would be waiting on the other side to take us directly to his house. Accordingly we were driven to his door and there found Mrs. De Wint with her various children, Mrs. T. B. Adams, her daughter and son, and Mr. J. A. Smith whom I had not seen before since our departure from England nineteen years ago. He is less altered within that time than any person I ever knew.1

It was refreshing to get into the large and cool rooms of this house after broiling in the Sun across the River. The place itself has been somewhat altered since my former visit here ten years ago. A large and handsome addition has been erected which accommodates better Mr. D’s numerous family and at the same time very much improves the whole appearance of the building.2 We had a pleasant dinner after which a heavy thunder shower that effectually cooled the air. Conversation with Mr. Smith who is pleasant as ever. Evening, we took a ride around the town and enjoyed the air even after it became too dark to observe the scenery. Retired early, not a little fatigued.

Abby does not stand travelling well. She was quite unwell today from continued head ach and sore throat. The weather was sultry in the morning which brought on a heavy thunder shower. I went out 10with the young ladies to take a walk along the shore and about the place, which heated me so much as to prevent my going to Meeting as I had proposed. Many of the family went.

There is a good deal of improvement over at Newburgh since I was here, which adds very much to the beauty of the prospect from this side of the River. A judicious clearing of vistas about the place would heighten greatly the effect of the very pretty scenery along here. As it is there is a little too much of foliage.

We received today a letter from home written the day after our departure.1 All well.

At dinner we had Mr. and Mrs. Pell of New York. She was formerly of Boston, an heiress, but has suffered much since her marriage from ill health and loss of children. He seems a good natured man somewhat subdued in his spirits. The table was necessarily large, so large that it weighed upon my conscience to be burdening his hospitality at this time. Mr. DeWint is a good natured man well disposed to all about him, but neither in his family nor in life possessed of that energy which makes regularity, and success. His Wife has many of the Adams characteristics of which the love of money is by no means one. I see no trace of the disposition in any of the family excepting perhaps in my father and myself, and with us it is subsidiary to other views. But a truce to reflection.

I passed the Afternoon lounging and chatting with John Smith on the portico, watching the clouds and the view of Newburgh as it varied under their passage. Evening, we all went to see Mrs. DeWint the mother, who lives in a small house close by. She is a fine old lady with energy sufficient for herself and her son too. She is a sort of Lady Bountiful and has with her a niece, Miss Smaltz who provides all the rose water and little charity fair works for the village. Upon returning home we found it raining and the girls had to make a scamper of it home which was not a little amusing.