241Sunday July the 15th 1781. (Adams Papers)
This morning at about four o’clock we set off from Coblentz for Francfort, Where we arriv’d at 8 ½ o’clock, the distance is 84 English Miles; All the way, the roads are mountainous till you get within about 10 Miles of Frankfort, and then you come upon a very large plain. The roads till the plain are in general very bad; but the soil is good, and cultivated in some places. On this plain we saw...
242Monday July the 16th 1781. (Adams Papers)
This morning we enquired something about this city: It is situated upon the river Meyn and is call’d Francfort upon the Meyn to distinguish it from another city in Germany call’d Francfort upon the Oder. It is an imperial city, govern’d by its own magistrates: they Choose every year a new burgermaster or mayor. The dominant religion in this city is Lutheran. Catholics and Jews are tolerated,...
243Tuesday July 17th 1781. (Adams Papers)
Stay’d at Francfort all day, nothing remarkable happen’d.
244Wednesday 18th 1781. (Adams Papers)
This afternoon at about 4 o’clock we set of f from Francfort upon the Meyn for Hannau where we arrived at about 7 o’clock. It is about 12 English Miles distant from Francfort. The road for the most part is Sandy, the soil poor; about two Miles from Hannau is a Chateau belonging to the prince of Hannau. About this City are several very large fields of the same corn, we saw some days ago, but...
245Thursday 19th 1781. (Adams Papers)
This morning we set away from Hannau at 4 o’clock A.M. and arriv’d at Hunfeld (which is distant 75 Miles,) at about 8 o’clock P.M. The roads this day were for the most part mountainous but in some places there was a very good made road. The mountains in general, which we have pass’d over this day are pretty well cultivated.
246Friday 20th 1781. (Adams Papers)
This morning we set off from Hunfeld at about 5 o’clock for Gotha where we arriv’d at about 9 o’clock P.M. It is about 66 Miles. The 2 first Posts to Vaach Vacha and to Bercka we had very bad roads but the rest was pretty good; Vaach belongs to the Prince of Hesse-Cassel, and Bercka is the first town in Saxony. Here we saw a new Married couple going about the streets with some musicians before...
247Saturday 21st 1781. (Adams Papers)
This morning at five o’clock we set of f from Gotha and arriv’d at Naumburg (distant 60 Miles) at about 6 o’clock. Pretty good roads the ground wholly cultivated; flat level country till we get about 10 Miles from Naumburg and then it begins to be a little mountainous.
248Sunday July 22d 1781. (Adams Papers)
This morning at 4 o’clock we set off from Naumburg for Leipsic where we arriv’d at about 11 o’clock A.M. The distance is about 36 Miles. The first post was a little mountainous but pretty well cultivated, the last post is a large plain well cultivated also. A German Post Mile is 6 English Miles And a German post is generally two German Miles; You pay a German Guilder per post for each horse;...
249Wednesday July the 25th 1781. (Adams Papers)
On Monday at about 1 o’clock P.M. we set away from Leipsig for Berlin, Where we arriv’d this day at about 11 o’clock A.M. The distance is 120 English Miles; The soil, all the way is thin and sandy, and some part of the way foresty. We rode all night on Monday. At about half past eleven at Night, being in the middle of a Forest and the road being at the bottom of a hill, The postilon run our...
250Thursday July 26th 1781. (Adams Papers)
Nothing remarkable this day.
251Friday July 27th 1781. (Adams Papers)
This morning we went to see the kings arsenal, The break in the present entry and the absence of all succeeding entries to that of 17 Aug., together with the opening lines of that entry, are attributable to the loss of MS p. 149–156; see note to entry of 8 July (above). The journey from Berlin to Riga can be reconstructed from Dana’s Journal. They remained in Berlin until 2 Aug. On that...
252[August 1781] (Adams Papers)
Nie mersat we enter’d Poland and were searched there, and about a Mile farther we enter’d into Courland which is a Prus- sian Polish Province , taken from Poland in the late division . We rode in Courland till we came at about 60 English Miles from this place and then we enter’d Semigaul Semigallia , which is a different Province but the same dutchy as Courland; it is call’d the dutchy of...
253Friday August 17th 1781. (Adams Papers)
Nie mersat we enter’d Poland and were searched there, and about a Mile farther we enter’d into Courland which is a Prus- sian Polish Province , taken from Poland in the late division . We rode in Courland till we came at about 60 English Miles from this place and then we enter’d Semigaul Semigallia , which is a different Province but the same dutchy as Courland; it is call’d the dutchy of...
254Monday August 20th. 1781. (Adams Papers)
This day at about 2 o’clock P.M we left Riga, and arriv’d at a village call’d Neuermuhlen at about half past 4, here we are obliged to stop because we found all the horses were gone away; The road is sandy from Riga here, and the land bad. JQA and Dana remained in Riga over the weekend (18–19 Aug.) in order to obtain the passport mentioned in the previous Diary entry ( Dana, Journal ).
255Friday August 24th. 1781. (Adams Papers)
This day at about 3 o’clock P.M. we arriv’d at Narva after having rode night and day from Neuermuhlen Which we left the 21st at about 3 o’clock A.M. The distance from Riga here is 409 Russian Wersts 7 of Which make 5 English Miles; Part of this way, the roads are very fine as is the soil but here and there you find a station of Sand. Just before you come to Nenal (a Village which is about 110...
256Monday August 27th. 1781. (Adams Papers)
This day at about 10 o’clock A.M. we arriv’d at St. Petersburg having left Narva yesterday morning at about 9 ½ o’clock. The roads in general are very good, the country in some part is sandy; but there it is almost all paved, the distance is about 145 Wersts.
257John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 1 September 1781 (Adams Papers)
We arrived here on Monday the 16/27 instant having left Amsterdam the N.S. 7th of July And rode the greatest part of the way day and night. The distance is about 2400 English Miles. The first place of any consequence we stopp’d at was Berlin the capital of the king of Prussia’s Dominions; this is a very pretty town, much more so than Paris, or London as Mr. Dana says; but it will be still more...
258John Quincy Adams to John Thaxter, 19 September 1781 (Adams Papers)
We arriv’d here the 16th of August old stile, (which is universally used yet, all over this Country;) having left Berlin, the 2d. of the same month, new stile, and rode the whole way, day and night, stopping only at the principal towns which lay in our way, viz: at Dantzic, three days, at Konigsberg, one, at Memel, one night, at Riga, four days, and at Narva, two: between these places, which...
259John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 23 October 1781 (Adams Papers)
I am afraid you will think I was negligent in not writing more than I did by so good an opportunity as my brother Charles, but I hope you will excuse me as a journey of two thousand of our miles of which I had not the least thought a week before I set out was the only reason for it, so that I had not time to write before I left Holland, as all my time was employed in getting ready to go. We...
260John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 23 October 1781 (Adams Papers)
I wrote you just after I arrived here, and gave you a short sketch of my Journey from Amsterdam to this Place, and promised you in my next a description of this city, but I dont find any thing more than what Voltaire says of it in his history of Russia nor even quite so much, for according to his description, the city is situated upon the Gulf of Cronstadt in the midst of nine branches of...
261John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 12 January 1782 (Adams Papers)
Last night I received your letters of the 14th and 15th. You make me a great number of questions at a time, but I will answer them as well as I can. The Houses are for the most part built of Brick, and plastered over. They are from two to four Stories high. They are glazed with large panes as in France, and in the winter they have double windows which are taken down in the Spring, that is, in...
262John Quincy Adams to John Thaxter, 13 January 1782 (Adams Papers)
Je viens de recevoir la lettre que vous m’avez fait l’honneur de m’écrire le 22 du mois passé et je suis bien embarassé pour vous repondre. Car vous écrivez le Francais comme un Parisien, en sorte que j’ai peur de m’engager avec une personne de votre force; Mais il le faut bien, et je vous écrirai comme je pourrai. Je vous enverrais bien quelques morceaux de mon Journal, mais je l’ai...
263[Titlepage] (Adams Papers)
Titlepage of D/JQA/5 which covers the period 27 Jan.–23 Nov. 1782 and consists of JQA ’s entries for the remainder of his stay in St. Petersburg and for part of his return trip to western Europe. This Diary, the first actual blank book purchased for this purpose, measures approximately 5⅞″ × 3¾″” and contains 118 pages. Presumably it was JQA who marked off in pencil margins on the top and left...
264[January 1782] (Adams Papers)
Began to read Hume’s history of England. David Hume, The History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688, 8 vols., London, 1763, which JQA borrowed from the English or British Library of St. Petersburg, where he found “a good collection of English Authors” (Dana to JA , 25 Jan. , Adams Papers ). JQA ’s notes (copied quotations) from his reading of Hume appear...
265N.(1782)S. January 27th (Adams Papers)
Began to read Hume’s history of England. David Hume, The History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688, 8 vols., London, 1763, which JQA borrowed from the English or British Library of St. Petersburg, where he found “a good collection of English Authors” (Dana to JA , 25 Jan. , Adams Papers ). JQA ’s notes (copied quotations) from his reading of Hume appear...
26629th (Adams Papers)
Dined at Mr. Rimbert’s; changed Lodgings. Or Raimbert, French vice-consul in St. Petersburg ( Almanach royal, 1783 Almanach royal, année M.DCCLXXVHI [8cc.]. Présenté à sa majesté pour la première fois en 1699 , Paris, no date. , p. 262).
26730th. Wednesday. (Adams Papers)
Went to the Shops, bought this book, with some other matters. Began to translate Cicero’s first Catilinary. Finish’d Hume’s first volume of the History of England 503. Pages. That is, his Diary booklet, D/JQA/5. Probably the edition JQA used for his translations into French was Selectae . . . Orationes . . . , Paris, 1747, p. 510–525, in which JQA has inscribed “J.Q.Adams, a present from Mr....
26831st. Thursday. (Adams Papers)
Began Hume’s second volume of the History of England. Went to the shops and bought some things.
269[February 1782] (Adams Papers)
Stay’d at home all day. Went to the shops, and bought some things A.M. P.M Mr. D. and Mr. Artaud went to the German play, I stay’d at home. Artaud’s identity is uncertain, but in a Diary entry written seventeen years later, JQA provides a fuller account of his relationship with this man. “The Chevalier de Villenotte, told me,” JQA wrote, “he had seen me at Artaud’s at Petersburg in the year...
270N.(1782)S. February 1st. (Adams Papers)
Stay’d at home all day.