I went out to get a bath. Found a slat water tepid affair in a narrow marble frame which I tried but did not like. The propriety recommended a machine, which is scarcely less inviting. Ryde is rather a pretty place, situated on a height lying along the water, but in beauty and convenience not comparable to Torquay. The very extended surface of flats left by the tide is a defect and there is no breach. The bottom is hard sad. Yet the place is much more fashionable as indeed is every nook and cranny in the island since the Queen selected it for a place of residence. This morning the scene was very animated from our windows which opened on the water, as it was the day fixed for a regatta. There was little wind so that sailing had no interest. But we witnessed a well contested race of four varied boats, before we departed on an excursion to the south of the island. This trip was not a part of my original plan on leaving London. But it was suggested by the fact that my son Brooks had been invited by Mrs Durant to pay her son who is a school mate a visit and we thought it convenient to bring him round with us as we returned to London. Hence this project of driving to Ventnor and leaving him at Shanklin with Mrs Durant, on our way. The distance is about twelve miles, the latter portion of it very pretty. We passed Mrs D. on her way to Ryde to meet Brooks, but too late to stop her so that we took him ton the Ventor and left him as we came back. At Ventnor the first person we met at the Hotel where Mr and Mrs Bartlett and Mrs Harrod. And Henry went out soon bringing back with him Mr Sohier and Mr Thorndike who are spending the season here. The effect of this was to consume in social forms all the interval designed for an examination of the place. It is quite peculiar, shut in a gap, which shelters it from the sea and high winds, and gives it a climate of the more southern latitudes. Hence the presence of many plants and bushes which cannot resist frost, and a vegetation of exotics. The effect is beautiful to look at, and it may be pleasant for temporary occupation but it carries and idea of cramp and unemployment to which I should find it hard to be reconciled. We got home to a rather late dinner, having now but four of the party.187