Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 1
1781-06-24
Nothing remarkable in the forenoon, Mr. Thaxter din'd at Mr. Sigourney's; I din'd at home, after dinner I went to take a walk with Mr. Dana; we walk'd someways out of town, in the evening I went to Madam Chabanel's where I supp'd; got home at about 10 1/2 o'clock.
84(Continuation from yesterday) From Guthrie's grammar. Chapter 4th §: 17th.1
Here follows, on about one page in the Diary, the first paragraph of the section on the Dutch constitution and government (p. 405). JQA did not resume his copying from this section until 7 July.
1781-06-25
This morning I went to Mr. Crajenschot's to get the 20th No. of the Politique Hollandois which comes out every week, there is
something in the last No. worth coppying which I shall do at the end of this day's journal.
Din'd at home, after dinner went to see Mr. Bordly and afterwards to Madam Chabanel's. Got
home at about half past nine o'clock.
From the Politique Hollandois Chapter 5th.1
On the following two pages in the Diary, JQA has translated into English the
first half of a portion of an article in the 25 June issue of Le
politique hollandais, 1:315. The passage, which is continued in the following day's entry, relates an imaginary dream
in which a Dutch courier is sent to St. Petersburg to exchange diplomatic assurances for
armed ships of war (under the Russian Declaration of Armed Neutrality of 1780) and
concludes with what the Russians supposedly gave in return. As a whole, the article argues
for all-out war by the Dutch against the English, since Russia's friendship with England
makes the league of armed neutrality futile.
1781-06-26
Nothing remarkable in the forenoon; after dinner I went with Doctor Brown to the New French Coffy House where we found Mr. Greaves and Mr. Brush, we then went and took a long walk and came along by the first bible and there I left the gentlemen and went to see Mr. Bordly, brother Charles came in soon after. We staid there some time and got home at about 8 o'clock.
From the Politique Hollandois (continued from yesterday).1
Same, p. 315–316, on two pages in the Diary.
1781-06-27
This morning I went to take a walk with Mr. Bordly met in the street two of my old
schoolmates; went to Madam Chabanel's. We did not Stay there long; din'd at home; after
dinner brother Charles and I went out of the Leyden Gate, and from thence to the Haerlem
Schout with an intention of going to Leyden this 85day. When
we got to the Schout we found the Roof was hir'd and some were obliged to go in the
Ruim.1 We had a number of fellow travellers,
but one of them who was some peasant or other, and who had drank full his portion, thinking
himself very wise took all the conversation to himself and pleas'd us very much by his talk.
When we had got half ways to Haerlem we chang'd boats, and our Boor2 took another glass of gin which made his tongue run about
half as fast again as it did before. We got to Haerlem at about half past five o'clock; we
found that the fair is at Haerlem at present; We passed through the city and went out to the
Leyden Boat; but found that the Roof was hir'd again and so we were oblig'd to go again in
the Ruim; Our Boor did not go to Leyden with us; we arriv'd at Leyden at about half past
ten.
Fine weather all day.
Chapter 6th. From Pope's works. Messiah. a sacred eclogue, in imitation of Virgil's Pollio.3
Schout (schuyt or schuit): a boat or barge; roof (roef): the cabin of a small vessel;
ruim: the hold of a boat (William Sewel, Nieuw Woordenboek Der
Nederduytsche en Engelsche Taale, Amsterdam, n.d.). “A treckscuit [covered boat] is
divided into two different apartments, called the roof and the ruim; the first for
gentlemen, and the other for common people, who may read, smoke, eat, drink, or converse
with people of various nations, dresses, and languages” (Guthrie, Geographical Grammar
, p.
404, which JQA copied into his Diary entry of 20 June, above).
That is, a boer, or Dutch peasant.
Here follows, on five and one-half pages in the Diary, Pope's “Messiah . . .,” which had
been copied in JQA's entry of 12 Sept. 1780 from The
Spectator. It is likely that here JQA was using the J. Balfour edition
of The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., Edinburgh, 1764. The
JA Library contains an incomplete set of this six-volume edition. Three of
the four extant volumes contain JQA's earliest bookplate and classification
numbers, which indicate that the volumes were probably purchased sometime in 1781 (
Catalogue of
JA's Library
). In the Balfour edition this poem is at
1:37–43.