Aug. 10th. Sunday.
This morning, at about 10 o’clock, I accompanied my Father to Passy, to see Dr. Franklin whom I knew already, and Mr. Jay, the american Minister at Madrid, whom I had never seen before; they were at breakfast and had a great deal of Company. Mr. Jay and my Father took a walk in the Garden and had a Conversation upon politicks, which, is of no Necessity here.1 From thence we went to Auteuil; to see Mr. Barclay,2 the American ConsulGeneral in France, but found he was gone, and therefore we saw only Mr. Ridley.3 The House where they are is a very fine one; but, above all there is in it, one thing, which is very curious. It is a small octogonal room with a bath in the middle of it, and in every one of the eight corners of it is a Looking-glass. The cieling, is also made of a Looking-glass; so that a person can see himself in more than thirty different positions in it. The garden is a small and pretty one filled with fruit Trees; we took a walk in it. Mr. Ridley told me that Sammy Cooper Johonnot and Ben. Bache, two of my old schoolmates here had returned from Geneva, where they have been for some time, and that Sam Cooper is gone to Nantes.
1. JQA probably means, as is hinted in the following entry, that at this time political discussions were of no interest to him.
2. Thomas Barclay, a merchant from Philadelphia, American consul in France from 1781, and consul general there from 1783; he was also a partner in the firm of Barclay & Moylan at Lorient. Barclay also rented the Hôtel de Rouault at Auteuil, in which JA and JQA occupied an apartment, 22 Sept.–20 Oct., following the execution of the Definitive Treaty, and to which JA brought his family the following summer (entries for 22 Sept., 20 Oct., below; , 3:143–144, 171; , 20:698; 24:3; , 11:496; Howard C. Rice Jr., ed., The Adams Family in Auteuil, 1784–1785 . . ., MHS Picturebook, Boston, 1956).
3. Matthew Ridley, a Maryland merchant and agent for the state appointed to obtain a loan in Europe (Herbert E. Klingelhofer, “Matthew Ridley’s Diary during the Peace Negotiations of 1782,” , 3d ser., 20:95–98 [Jan. 1963]).