PREFACE
FOR some years it has been the delightful privilege of the writer of the present volume to ramble and sojourn in the scenes amid which his best-beloved authors erst lived and wrote. He has made repeated pilgrimages to most of the shrines herein described, and has been, at one time or another, favored by intercourse and correspondence with many of the authors adverted to or with their surviving friends and neighbors. In the ensuing pages he has endeavored to portray these shrines in pen-pictures which, it is hoped, may be interesting to those who are unable to visit them and helpful and companionable for those who can and will. If certain prominent American authors receive little more than mention in these pages, it is mainly because so few objects and places associated with their lives and writings can now be indisputably identified: in some instances the writer has expended more time upon fruitless quests for shrines which proved to be non-existent or of doubtful genuineness than upon others which are themes for the chapters of this booklet.
T. F. W.
CONTENTS
| THE CONCORD PILGRIMAGE | |
| PAGE | |
| I. A Village of Literary Shrines. | |
| Abodes of Thoreau—The Alcotts—Channing—Sanborn—Hudson—Hoar—Wheildon—Bartlett—TheHistoricCommon—Cemetery—Church | [17] |
| II. The Old Manse. | |
| Abode of Dr. Ripley—The Emersons—Hawthorne—LearnedMrs. Ripley—Its Famed Study andApartments—Grounds—Guests—Ghosts—A TranscendentalSocial Court | [28] |
| III. A Storied River and Battle-field. | |
| Where Zenobia Drowned—Where Embattled FarmersFought—Thoreau's Hemlocks—Haunts of Hawthorne—Channing—Thoreau—Emerson,etc. | [39] |
| IV. The Home of Emerson. | |
| An Intellectual Capitol and Pharos—Its Grounds, Library,and Literary Workshop—Famous Roomsand Visitants—Relics and Reminiscences of theConcord Sage | [45] |
| V. The Orchard House and its Neighbors. | |
| Ellery Channing—Margaret Fuller—The Alcotts—ProfessorHarris—Summer School of Philosophy—WhereLittle Women was written and RobertHagburn lived—Where Cyril Norton was slain | [52] |
| VI. Hawthorne's Wayside Home. | |
| Sometime Abode of Alcott—Hawthorne—Lathrop—MargaretSidney—Storied Apartments—Hawthorne'sStudy—His Mount of Vision—Where SeptimiusFelton and Rose Garfield dwelt | [58] |
| VII. The Walden of Thoreau. | |
| A Transcendental Font—Emerson's Garden—Thoreau'sCove—Cairn—Beanfield—Resort of Emerson—Hawthorne—Channing—Hosmer—Alcott,etc. | [68] |
| VIII. The Hill-top Hearsed with Pines. | |
| Last Resting-Place of the Illustrious Concord Company—TheirGraves beneath the Piny Boughs | [75] |
| IN AND OUT OF LITERARY BOSTON | |
| IN BOSTON | |
| A Golden Age of Letters—Literary Associations—Isms—Clubs—WhereHester Prynne and Silas Laphamlived—The Corner Book-store—Home of Fields—Sargent—Hilliard—Aldrich—Deland—Parkman—Holmes—Howells—Moulton—Hale—Howe—JaneAustin, etc. | [83] |
| OUT OF BOSTON | |
| I. Cambridge: Elmwood: Mount Auburn. | |
| Holmes's Church-yard—Bridge—Smithy, Chapel, andRiver of Longfellow's Verse—Abodes of LetteredCulture—Holmes—Higginson—Agassiz—Norton—Clough—Howells—Fuller—Longfellow—Lowell—Longfellow'sCity of the Dead and its PreciousGraves | [103] |
| II. Belmont: The Wayside Inn: Home of Whittier. | |
| Lowell's Beaver Brook—Abode of Trowbridge—RedHorse Tavern—Parsons and the Company of Longfellow'sFriends—Birthplace of Whittier—Scenes ofhis Poems—Dwelling and Grave of the Countess—PowowHill—Whittier's Amesbury Home—HisChurch and Tomb | [117] |
| III. Salem: Whittier's Oak-Knoll and Beyond. | |
| Cemetery of Hawthorne's Ancestors—Birthplace of Hawthorneand his Wife—Where Fame was won—Houseof the Seven Gables—Custom-House—WhereScarlet Letter was written—Main Street andWitch Hill—Sights from a Steeple—Later Homeof Whittier—Norman's Woe—Lucy Larcom—Parton,etc.—Rivermouth—Thaxter | [128] |
| IV. Webster's Marshfield: Brook Farm, etc. | |
| Scenes of the Old Oaken Bucket—Webster's Home andGrave—Where Emerson won his Wife—Home ofMiss Peabody—Parkman—Miss Guiney—Aldrich'sPonkapog—Farm of Ripley's Community—Relicsand Reminiscences | [141] |
| IN BERKSHIRE WITH HAWTHORNE | |
| I. The Graylock and Hoosac Region. | |
| North Adams and about—Hawthorne's Acquaintancesand Excursions—Actors and Incidents of EthanBrand—Kiln of Bertram the Lime-Burner—NaturalBridge—Graylock—Thoreau—Hoosac Mountain—DeerfieldArch—Williamstown—Bryant | [155] |
| II. Lenox and Middle Berkshire. | |
| Beloved of the Littérateurs—La Maison Rouge—WhereThe House of the Seven Gables was written—Wonder-Bookand Tanglewood Scenes—The Bowl—Beecher'sLaurel Lake—Kemble—Bryant's MonumentMountain—Stockbridge—Catherine Sedgwick—Melville'sPiazza and Chimney—Holmes—Longfellow—Pittsfield | [176] |
| A DAY WITH THE GOOD GRAY POET | |
| Walk and Talk with Socrates in Camden—The Bard'sAppearance and Surroundings—Recollections of hisLife and Work—Hospital Service—Praise for hisCritics—His Literary Habit, Purpose, Equipment,and Style—His Religious Bent—Readings | [201] |
ILLUSTRATIONS