1551Sunday Novr. 16th. (Adams Papers)
Dined at Mr. Hartley’s.
1552Saturday Novr. 15th. (Adams Papers)
Dined at Mr. West’s. In the evening I went to the Covent Garden Theatre, and saw Douglas, and the Poor Soldier: Mrs. Crawford appeared in the Character of Lady Randolph in Douglas. Douglas , London, 1757, by John Home; The Poor Soldier, a comic opera by John O’Keeffe, first produced on 4 Nov. ( Biographia Dramatica David Erskine Baker and others, eds., Biographia Dramatica; Or, A Companion to...
1553Friday Novr. 14th. (Adams Papers)
Dined with Mr. Grierson. In the evening; we went to see Hughes’s Royal Circus, or exercises of equitation, which are not equal to those performed by Astley at Paris which I saw some time agone. Both Charles Hughes and Philip Astley were English equestrian performers who set up rival shows (Raymond Toole-Scott, Circus and Allied Arts: A World Bibliography, 1500–1970, 4 vols., Derby, England,...
1554Thursday Novr. 13th. (Adams Papers)
Dined at Mr. J. Johnson. In the evening we went to see the Transactions of the Royal Society; but unluckily we happened to come on a very barren Night: nothing was read, except a dry, unphilosophical account of the late Earthquake in Calabria: after which we went and supp’d with the Club at the London Coffee House. Joshua Johnson (1742–1802) , Maryland merchant, who undertook various...
1555Wednesday Novr. 12th. 1783. (Adams Papers)
Went to the Drury Lane Theatre; the pieces represented were, the West Indian and Fortunatus. The West Indian , London, 1771, by Richard Cumberland; Fortunatus, an unpublished pantomime, by Henry Woodward, originally produced in 1753 ( Biographia Dramatica David Erskine Baker and others, eds., Biographia Dramatica; Or, A Companion to the Play House ... , London, 1764-1812; 3 vols, in 4. ).
1556Tuesday Novr. 11th. (Adams Papers)
This day the Parliament met for the first Time; the Prince of Wales took his seat in the House of Peers, as duke of Cornwall, the King also made his most gracious speech from the Throne: All the Peers were in their Robes which are scarlet and white; the Kings, and the Prince of Wales’s were of purple velvet. George Augustus Frederick (1762–1830) , Prince Regent, 1811–1820, and afterward King...
1557Monday Novr. 10th. (Adams Papers)
Went to the Covent Garden Theatre. King Henry VIII. and the Lord Mayor’s day, or a flight to Lapland; with the Grand Procession. Lord Mayor’s day. The day of the lord mayor of London’s inauguration, held usually every 9 Nov., is marked with a pageant known as the Lord Mayor’s Show. JQA saw Lord Mayor’s Day; or, A Flight from Lapland, a speaking pantomime, originally produced in 1782,...
1558Sunday [9th.] (Adams Papers)
Dined at Dr. Jebbs. John Jebb , doctor of medicine, encyclopedic scholar, and a thoroughgoing supporter of America from the outset of the quarrel between England and her colonies. JA described him as a man “for whom I have the highest Esteem; as one of the best Citizens of the little Commonwealth of the just upon Earth” (Caroline Robbins, The Eighteenth-Century Commonwealthman ..., Cambridge,...
1559Saturday Novr. 8. 1783. (Adams Papers)
Went with Mr. West to see the Queen’s Palace called Buckingham House; from its having been built by Villiers: Duke of Buckingham; in the first Chamber, are the famous Cartoons of Raphael; which were Painted on Paper to be taken on Tapestry; at Brussels; there are 7. of them; they represented several of the Acts of the apostles; the name of the Painter makes it unnecessary to say, in what...
1560Friday Novr. 7th. (Adams Papers)
In the forenoon I went with M: W. Vaughan; and saw the Pantheon; a place of public entertainment; it is only remarkable for one Room which is very large and elegant. We went also to see the Cathedral of St Paul’s; the largest Protestant Church, extant. It is very magnificent on the outside; but the inside is by no means extraordinary; there is one thing which they say is to be met with no...