Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 1
This day the Parliament met for the first Time; the Prince of Wales1 took his seat in the House of Peers, as duke of Cornwall, the King also made his most gracious speech from the Throne: All the Peers were in their Robes which are scarlet and white; the Kings, and the Prince of Wales's were of purple velvet.
Went to the Drury Lane Theatre; the pieces represented were, the West Indian and Fortunatus.1
The West Indian, London, 1771, by Richard Cumberland; Fortunatus, an unpublished pantomime, by Henry Woodward, originally produced in 1753 (
Biographia Dramatica
).
Dined at Mr. J. Johnson.1 In the evening we went to see the Transactions of the Royal Society; but unluckily we happened to come on a very barren Night: nothing was read, except a dry, unphilosophical account of the late Earthquake in Calabria:2 after which we went and supp'd with the Club at the London Coffee House.3
Diary and Autobiography
, 2:300).
“Account of the Earthquake in Calabria, March 28, 1783, In a Letter from Count Francesco Ippolito to Sir W[illiam] Hamilton. From the Italian,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London . . ., abridged edn., ed. Charles Hutton and others, 15 (1809):373, 383–386.
Styled by Franklin, “the Club of Honest Whigs,” it met fortnightly on Thursdays at the London Coffeehouse, Ludgate Hill. Its members were primarily dissenting clergymen and men of scientific interests, and it was frequented by visiting Americans (Verner W. Crane, “The Club of Honest Whigs: Friends of Science and Liberty,”
WMQ
, 3d ser., 23:210–233 [April 1966]).
Dined with Mr. Grierson. In the evening; we went to see Hughes's Royal Circus, or exercises of equitation, which are not equal to those performed by Astley at Paris which I saw some time agone.1
Both Charles Hughes and Philip Astley were English equestrian performers who set up rival shows (Raymond Toole-Scott, Circus and Allied Arts: A World Bibliography, 1500–1970, 4 vols., Derby, England, 1958–1971, 4:95;
DNB
).
Dined at Mr. West's. In the evening I went to the Covent Garden Theatre, and saw Douglas, and the Poor Soldier:1 Mrs. 204Crawford2 appeared in the Character of Lady Randolph in Douglas.
Douglas, London, 1757, by John Home; The Poor Soldier, a comic opera by John O'Keeffe, first produced on 4 Nov. (
Biographia Dramatica
; Hogan, ed., London Stage, 1660–1800
).
That is, Mrs. Ann Spranger Barry, née Street, whose Lady Randolph in Douglas was regarded as one of her two greatest characterizations. At this time she was known by her stage name, Mrs. Crawford (
DNB
).