-as splendid a
spectacle, in its way, as could be imagined. Princeton is a little town,
lying on a high ridge, exposed to all the stirrings of the upper air,
and with a prospect of a score of miles round about. The great family of
this place is that of the Boylstons, who own Wachusett, and have a
mansion, with good pretensions to architecture, in Princeton.

Notables: Old Gregory, the dweller of the mountain-side; his
high-spirited wife; the son, speaking gruffly from behind the scenes, in
answer to his father's inquiries as to the expediency of lodging us. The
brisk little landlord at Princeton, recently married, intelligent,
honest, lively, agreeable; his wife, with her young-ladyish manners
still about her; the second class of annuals, and other popular
literature, in the parlors of the house; colored engraving of the
explosion of the Princeton's gun, with the principal characters in that
scene, designated by name; also Death of Napoleon, &c. A young Mr.
Boylston boarding at the inn, and driving out in a beautiful, city-built
phaeton, of exquisite lightness. We met him and a lady in the phaeton,
and two other ladies on horseback, in a narrow path, densely wooded, on
the ascent of a hill. It was quite romantic. Likewise old Mr. Boylston,
frequenting the tavern, coming in after church, and smoking a cigar,...
entering into conversation with strangers about the ascent of the
mountain. The tailor of the place, with his queer advertisement pasted
on the wall of the barroom, comprising certificates from tailors in New
York City, and various recommendations, from clergymen and others, of
his moral and religious character. Two Shakers in the cars,--both, if I
mistake not, with thread gloves on. The foundation of the old
meeting-house of Princeton, standing on a height above the village, as
bleak and windy as the top of Mount Ararat; also the old deserted
town-house. The edifices were probably thus located in order to be more
exactly in the centre of the township.

* * * * *

From July 25 to August 9, 1845, at Portsmouth Navy Yard. Remarkables:
the free and social mode of life among the officers and their families,
meeting at evening on the door-steps or in front of their houses, or
stepping in familiarly; the rough-hewn first lieutenant, with no ideas
beyond the service; the doctor, priding himself on his cultivation and
refinement, pretending to elegance, sensitive, touchy; the
sailing-mast