Adams Papers Digital Edition

Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 1

Back Cover

2d Sunday.
1780 January 1st Saturday. JQA 1780 January 1st Saturday. Adams, John Quincy
1780 January 1st Saturday.

This morning Mr. Thaxter wak'd me up by sounding in my ears, I wish you a happy new year and about half an hour before 23sun rise we sot out from Sebrero which was the place where we lodg'd last night and went 5 leagues before dinner. We stopt at a little cottage where we dined. After dinner we went two leagues and at about 5 o clock we arrived at a city call'd Ville Franc Villafranca del Bierzo where we lodg'd to night. As we were coming along we saw on the Top of a high hill an ancient castle of the moors and right over against us there is a castle of one of the Lords built before the use of musquets were known. There is a convent of men which is of the Franciscan order and a parish church. We have come 7 leagues to day. We expect to arrive at Astorga Monday night. There we shall determine whether to go directly to Bayonne, by the way of Madrid, or by the way of Bilboa Bilbao as the routs change there.1

1.

First entry in D/JQA/2, which covers the period, 1–31 Jan. 1780 and JQA's travels from Sebrero, Spain, to Bordeaux, France. No titlepage was made for this Diary booklet; instead, JQA used the outside pages as the cover, which he illustrated with drawings. This Diary booklet, measuring 7⅞″ × 5¾″, consists of six leaves of paper folded over and stitched. Fifteen pages are used for the Diary, others are left blank, and four pages contain drawings. The cover designs are reproduced in this volume; see the Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 2, and the entry for 31 Jan., note 1 (below).