[Campton—Wednesday, 13 June 1866]
Wednesday. Morning perfect, non cloudy, afternoon rain, soft and mild.
By the way last night, “Don Santiago Duello” arrived in town, “the world renowned contortionist” the people said this morning he did all he said he would and they had their “money’s worth.” J. saw him drive out of town and said a more decayed miserable set than the “Don” in his buggy, his wife and child and boy, and rattletraps, which preceded him, were, could not easily be conceived.
Hills veiled all the afternoon, reading Gerald Massey’s book on Shakspeare’s Sonnets aloud with J. while sewing goes forward. This book peoples our mountain home with the graceful figures of the Elizabethan age and makes the genius of Shakspeare speak more clearly to us.
Cold easterly rain.
Yesterday we saw the first buttercups.
