[Washington] Nov. 12th ’88
My Dear Angelo and Percival [at college], ... Sam. is reading Goethe’s Faust aloud to me when I can sit down to sew, and perhaps I told you that he is helping me to get things together for my Prometheus Unbound. He is translating now Aeschylos’ fragments for I wish to know as far as possible how Aeschylos treated the subject. I have a plan all my own which I think a good one, and have made a beginning. I know I shall have to work hard if I write any thing good, but am willing to work. You must write often. Father and Sam. and I went to Mr. Kings to tea last evening. On the next day after Thanksgiving our Historical Society begins its work.
With love
C. A. S. Hall.
Clinton, N.Y. Sept. 8th, 1890
My Dear Boys [Angelo and Percival], I arrived here safely early this afternoon. Miss Waitt and I had a very pleasant drive on Thursday. We passed the Cascade Lakes. Stopped at the John Brown place for lunch, then drove over to Lake Placid, we went up to the top of the tower at Grand View House and had a good look at the mountains and the lake as far as we could see it there. Then we passed on to Wilmington Notch which I think much finer than any mountain pass which I have before seen. We went on to Wilmington and stayed over night. There was a hard shower before breakfast, but the rain stopped in time for the renewal of our journey. We arrived at Au Sable Chasm a little after noon on Saturday. The Chasm is very picturesque but not so grand as the Wilmington Pass. We saw the falls in the Au Sable near the Pass; there are several other falls before the river reaches the Chasm. From the Chasm we went on to Port Kent where Miss Waitt took the steamer for Burlington, and where I stayed over night. In the morning I took the steamer for Ticonderoga. We plunged into a fog which shut out all view till we neared Burlington, when it lifted a little. After a while it nearly all went away, and I had a farewell look of the mountains as we passed. It began to rain before we reached Ticonderoga but we got a very good view of the old Fort. I thought of Asaph Hall the first, and old Ethan Allen, and of your great great grandfather David Hall whose bones lie in an unknown grave somewhere in the vicinity.
The steamer goes south only to Ticonderoga; and there I took the cars for Whitehall where I found my cousin Elizabeth Benjamin seemingly most happy to see me. She is an intelligent woman though she has had very little opportunity for book learning. She has a fine looking son at Whitehall.
It will soon be time for you to leave Keene. I think it would be well for you to pack your tent the day before you go if you can sleep one night in the large tent. Of course the tent should be dry when it is packed if possible, otherwise you will have to dry it after you get to Cambridge. Remember to take all the things out of my room there. The essence of peppermint set near the west window.
They are all well here at the Borsts.
I shall go up to Aunt Elmina’s this week. Write to me there.