[Manchester—Thursday, 19 July 1866]
Thursday July 19. Yesterday was Commencement at Cambridge but the intense heat made a thinner assemblage than usual. Mr R.W. Emerson came down to go although Edward has already left for Iowa. Jamie did not go with him at which he expressed some astonishment then asked him if he had heard of the birth of his grandchild—to be sure he said, the infant is so small and so bad-looking yet that no one is allowed to see him.
The weather was comfortable at Man.; in the afternoon cool and resplendent with a low murmur of thunder in the east which ripened before night into a black thunder-storm & rain.
Today cloudy & misty, early—but later cool and magnificently beautiful—went over to the Dana island where a superb natural aquarium has been found holding hundreds of anemones—but the most beautiful experience there—was the rushing away of the white clouds and the calm beauty of the unveiled sky. Color awoke on the surface of the sea which had been still and grey—purple-green—blue-green all glimmered and shone there together while the white fringe glistened like snow in the re-appearing sunlight. Roses are in profusion everywhere here—near the shore it seemed once as if we were floating in a sea of roses when the wind rushed over and bent their perfumed heads.
