Saturday, May 16, 1829

 

1829

May

Saturday 16

5 20/60 

1 1/2

Breakfast at 6 1/4 – Off at 6 43/60 – In the lecture room in 50 minutes – (my pendule 13 minutes too soon) The lecture lasted just an hour –

Then, meaning to go by the rue Saint Jacques to the rue de Sorbonne, somehow turned into the place Maubert, and along the rue Montagne Sainte Geneviève till I came out upon Saint Etienne Du Mont – One of the handsomest churches in Paris which I have somehow (I think) never been in – Of course went in – It is a very good church, and among the handsomest –

Then by Sainte Geneviève into the rue Saint Jacques and so to the rue de Sorbonne No. 3 by the rue de l’Ecole de Medicine etc., straight into the rue de Seine and thence to Madame Galvani’s (rue des Marais 15)for 5 minutes – Said I thought No. 34 rue Bourbon would suit me better than No. 9 – She will look at it today – said I thought 2400 francs per annum would

be enough to give for it –

Got home at 10 20/60 in exactly 1 1/2 hour from the lecture room –

The last lecture was on the epidermis, écorce , tissue, cellulaire de la graffe etc. and today we had a recapitulation of it – Of the vaisseaux propres de l’écorce, vide Mérat page 32 – The life of vegetables principally in the écorce – The ancients used to write on the epiderme or écorce of the papyrus – Barks very useful – Birch bark used to cover houses and make shoes and boots in North America –

Today he lectured on the wood (vide Mérat page 33 et seq.).  Les trachés ou des tubes en spirale (Mérat 34) – Trees of the tropics which are much harder wooded than ours killed by the least frost – While our trees of tenderer wood will stand the frost very well – Why is this – We cannot account for it – Probably as a late spring frost does our trees harm because the sap is then rising, so it may be that the frost injures tropical trees because in them the sap is never dormant, but always in motion –

Shewed us some specimens of woods, among which praised the Erable de sucre, Sugar Maple as the handsomest – Said one should fancy the aubier would change into the cœur by insensible degrees and would take the coleur of the cœur by little and little, but no, the change was, as we saw, quite abrupt – The coleurs of the aubier and the cœur very distinctly marked – We could not account for this –

Then explained the excentricity des couches du cœur de bois – The canal medullaire never exactly in the middle – because a large root or branch on one side would make more sap rise and then the couches would be thicker on that side –

On returning home, wrote the above of today and had just done it 11 1/4 – Then 1/4 hour’s nap on my chair –

From 11 35/60 to 1 1/2 wrote (large sheet of letter paper) 3 pages and the ends and under the seal to Mariana –

The 1st 1 1/2 pages expressing how much my aunt and I, and even the servants little less than ourselves, were shocked at Charles’s accident and narrow escape, and how anxious we are for good accounts – Mariana must write more frequently than usual till he is recovered etc. etc.  Very proper, kind letter on the occasion –

Ask for an answer about her watch –

‘My aunt is not so well as I expected, or thought at 1st – In fact, I begin to fear, the climate has nearly done all the good it can for her, and that she may gradually get worse and worse till she is little better than she was on leaving Shibden – She says, she shall be better by and by – She is very anxious about Mr. Lawton.  A very little more on Thursday and yesterday would have brought on her spasms as formerly – I am afraid changing our apartment will be a great pother to her; but this we have does not suit me, even on account of health –

Your remarks upon my giving up books for the world, liking the world and being liked by it, etc. amuse me – In proof of how little I have made up my mind to give up the greatest pleasure I have (books), I get up every Tuesday Thursday and Saturday at 5 a.m. to be at the Jardin des Plantes at 7 1/2, to attend 2 courses of lectures – Without companion (for my aunt says she is none for me), what should I do without books? I could not abide long in any one stay where I had nothing to do – A little of the world is very well in an evening; but I should soon find it stupid if I had it every day from morning to night – Activity is what I want; and without it, my life is nought but sleep or slumber – without books, and if the lectures did not give my mind some twig to rest upon, I should be perpetually making little excursions here or there to prevent my dying of ennui’ –

Then mention that an apartment in the rue de Bourbon is now the one most likely to suit us –

Do not know when Miss MacLean will come ‘Mr. Long gives no leave yet’ –

‘Miss Hobart is naturally elegant in her manners’ this I think her 6th visit to Paris ‘that she has had opportunity enough of Parisianizing a little’ ….. Speaks French well and in 1st rate French society –

‘As to your school, consult Mrs. Wilbraham; but I should think, you ought only to take the children of the poor – But there are local interests I do not understand – If there be no proper school for the farmers’ children, and if you enlarge your plan so as to do good to all (and to do all the good you can is your object) why should not the farmers pay something which might form a fund for the benefit of the poor children, and to enable you to have better instructors, and to teach writing where you think it advisable? In fact, the being taught writing might be your great reward for regular attendance, and good conduct , and progress made in sewing and reading, each girl being able by her own merit to attain, at a certain fixed age, the high honour of learning to write – Think of this at your leisure – I am writing in a hurry without reflecting much myself – I have merely given you the idea as it just occurs to me’ –

Her school and friendly society will soon quite occupy her , and she will see herself at the head of a larger concern than she perhaps thought of – The school-made things will be bought up as fast as she can get them made, and she may employ as many children as she pleases – If there be a school to which the farmers can send their children she must not interfere with this – To charge a reasonable profit for the things made ‘suppose 5 per cent but you know best’ –

Mention having a paper of Mrs. Priestley’s prices, which I will look for, and mention (1st time) sending the newspaper respecting the shop in Soho Square back to Mrs. Belcombe, per post, from London – Mention Mademoiselle Victorine’s having married and given up business – She and husband have 25000/. or £1000 a year to live upon, of which she made about 1/2 ‘pretty well for a person of her age – not much more than 36 or 37’ –

Had just written the last 38 lines of today at 2 25/60 – Sent off to the post at 2 1/2 my letter to ‘Mrs. Lawton, Lawton Hall, Lawton, Cheshire, Angleterre’ – From then to 5 3/4, reading Mérat’s Botany from page 12 to 59 very attentively and turning to Mr. Littleton’s Latin dictionary for the terminations of different technical terms –

Changed my dress – Dinner at 6 – Came to my room at 7 3/4 – Read a page or 2 Merat’s, then dozing on my sofa till 9 – Then read a few pages Williams’s Study and Practice of the Law –

Coffee at 9 25/60 – Talked to my aunt about getting a French cuisiniêre –

Came to my room at 10 35/60 – unluckily took up Williams, and could not put him down till having finished the book – Just before and after coffee, had read from page 104 to the end, page 208.  Capital book – the very thing for me as to a course of reading – Can glean out enough to suit my purpose – Then reading some articles in Watkins’s biographical dictionary and looking a little at the peerage and Red book, court calendar, and writing the last 4 1/2 lines till 2 10/60 –

 

WYAS Finding Numbers SH:7/ML/E/12/0023 and SH:7/ML/E/12/0024