I 
 
 PASSAGES 
 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS 
 
 OF 
 
 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " TRANSFORMATION," " OUR OLD HOME," 
 ETC. ETC. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: SMITH, ELDER AND CO. 
 1868. 
 
UFT 
 

 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THIS selection of passages from the American 
 Journal and Note - Books of the late Nathaniel 
 Hawthorne extends over a period of eighteen years, 
 including a time when the author had to struggle 
 with difficulties, before he became famous by the 
 publication of "The Scarlet Letter ;" it also includes 
 that memorable episode in his life, his association 
 with the communistic experiment of " Brook Farm," 
 the story of which he has told in " The Blithedale 
 Romance." 
 
 These American Notes were written before 
 Nathaniel Hawthorne came to England as Consul 
 of the United States at Liverpool. His im 
 pressions of English scenery, life, and character 
 during his sojourn in this country are given in a 
 previous work "Our Old Home;" and in the 
 
 070 
 
iv ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 Dedicatory Letter prefixed to that work the author 
 thus states the purpose he had in view in keeping 
 his Journals : " These and other sketches, with 
 which, in a somewhat rougher form than I have 
 given them here, my Journal was copiously filled, 
 were intended for the side scenes and backgrounds 
 and exterior adornment of a work of fiction, of 
 which the plan had imperfectly developed itself in 
 my mind, and into which I ambitiously proposed 
 to convey more of various modes of truth than I 
 could have grasped by a direct effort." 
 
 This explanation will account for the fragmentary 
 and miscellaneous character of the contents of these 
 volumes. 
 
PASSAGES 
 
 FROM 
 
 HAWTHORNE S AMEEICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 
 
 SALEM, June 15, 1835. A walk down to the Juniper. 
 The shore of the coves strewn with bunches of sea 
 weed, driven in by recent winds. Eel-grass, rolled 
 and bundled up, and entangled with it, large marine 
 vegetables, of an olive colour, with round, slender, 
 snake-like stalks, four or five feet long, and nearly 
 two feet broad : these are the herbage of the deep 
 sea. Shoals of fishes, at a little distance from the 
 shore, discernible by their fins out of water. Among 
 the heaps of sea-weed there were sometimes small 
 pieces of painted wood, bark, and other driftage. On 
 the shore, with pebbles of granite, there were round 
 or oval pieces of brick, which the waves had rolled 
 about till they resembled a natural mineral. Huge 
 stones tossed about, in every variety of confusion, 
 VOL. I. I 
 
2 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1835. 
 
 some shagged all over with sea-weed, others only 
 partly covered, others bare. The old ten-gun battery, 
 at the outer angle of the Juniper, very verdant, and 
 besprinkled with white-weed, clover, and buttercups. 
 The juniper-trees are very aged and decayed and 
 moss-grown. The grass about the hospital is rank, 
 being trodden, probably, by nobody but myself. 
 There is a representation of a vessel under sail, cut 
 with a penknife, on the corner of the house. 
 
 Returning by the almshouse, I stopped a good 
 while to look at the pigs, a great herd, who seemed 
 to be just finishing their suppers. They certainly are 
 types of unmitigated sensuality, some standing in 
 the trough, in the midst of their own and others 
 victuals, some thrusting their noses deep into the 
 food, some rubbing their backs against a post, 
 some huddled together between sleeping and waking, 
 breathing hard, all wallowing about ; a great boar 
 swaggering round, and a big sow waddling along with 
 her huge paunch. Notwithstanding the unspeakable 
 defilement with which these strange sensualists spice 
 all their food, they seem to have a quick and delicate 
 sense of smell. What ridiculous-looking animals ! 
 Swift himself could not have imagined anything 
 nastier than what they practise by the mere impulse 
 
1835.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 3 
 
 of natural genius. Yet the Shakers keep their pigs 
 very clean, and with great advantage. The legion of 
 devils in the herd of swine, what a scene it must 
 have been ! 
 
 Sunday evening, going by the jail, the setting 
 sun kindled up the windows most cheerfully ; as if 
 there were a bright, comfortable light within its dark 
 some stone wall. 
 
 June 1 8. A walk in North Salem in the decline 
 of yesterday afternoon, beautiful weather, bright, 
 sunny, with a western or north-western wind just 
 cool enough, and a slight superfluity of heat. The 
 verdure, both of trees and grass, is now in its prime, 
 the leaves elastic, all life. The grass-fields are plen- 
 teously bestrewn with white - weed, large spaces 
 looking as white as a sheet of snow, at a distance, 
 yet with an indescribably warmer tinge than snow, 
 living white, intermixed with living green. The 
 hills and hollows beyond the Cold Spring copiously 
 shaded, principally with oaks of good growth, 
 and some walnut-trees, with the rich sun bright 
 ening in the midst of the open spaces, and mellow 
 ing and fading into the shade, and single trees, 
 with their cool spot of shade, in the waste of 
 
4 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1835. 
 
 sun : quite a picture of beauty, gently picturesque. 
 The surface of the land is so varied, with woodland 
 mingled, that the eye cannot reach far away, except 
 now and then in vistas perhaps across the river, show 
 ing houses, or a church and surrounding village, in 
 Upper Beverly. In one of the sunny bits of pasture, 
 walled irregularly in with oak-shade, I saw a gray 
 mare feeding, and, as I drew near, a colt sprang up 
 from amid the grass, a very small colt. He looked 
 me in the face, and I tried to startle him, so as to 
 make him gallop ; but he stretched his long legs, one 
 after another, walked quietly to his mother, and 
 began to suck, just wetting his lips, not being very 
 hungry. Then he rubbed his head, alternately, with 
 each hind leg. He was a graceful little beast. 
 
 I bathed in the cove, overhung with maples and 
 walnuts, the water cool and thrilling. At a distance 
 it sparkled bright and blue in the breeze and sun. 
 There were jelly-fish swimming about, and several 
 left to melt away on the shore. On the shore, sprout 
 ing amongst the sand and gravel, I found samphire, 
 growing somewhat like asparagus. It is an excellent 
 salad at this season, salt, yet with an herb-like 
 vivacity, and very tender. I strolled slowly through 
 the pastures, watching my long shadow making 
 
1835.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 5 
 
 grave, fantastic gestures in the sun. It is a pretty 
 sight to see the sunshine brightening the entrance of 
 a road which shortly becomes deeply overshadowed 
 by trees on both sides. At the Cold Spring, three 
 little girls, from six to nine, were seated on the 
 stones in which the fountain is set, and paddling in 
 the water. It was a pretty picture, and would have 
 been prettier, if they had shown bare little legs, 
 instead of pantalets. Very large trees overhung 
 them, and the sun was so nearly gone down that a 
 pleasant gloom made the spot sombre, in contrast 
 with these light and laughing little figures. On per 
 ceiving me, they rose up, tittering among themselves. 
 It seemed that there was a sort of playful malice in 
 those who first saw me ; for they allowed the other 
 to keep on paddling, without warning her of my 
 approach. I passed along, and heard them come 
 chattering behind. 
 
 June 22. I rode to Boston in the afternoon with 
 Mr. Proctor. It was a coolish day, with clouds and 
 intermitting sunshine, and a pretty fresh breeze. We 
 stopped about an hour at the Maverick House, in the 
 sprouting branch of the city, at East Boston a 
 stylish house, with doors painted in imitation of oak ; 
 
6 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1835. 
 
 a large bar ; bells ringing-, the bar-keeper calls out, 
 when a bell rings, "Number ;" then a waiter 
 replies, "Number answered;" and scampers up 
 stairs. A ticket is given by the hostler, on taking 
 the horse and chaise, which is returned to the bar 
 keeper when the chaise is wanted. The landlord was 
 fashionably dressed, with the whitest of linen, neatly 
 plaited, and as courteous as a Lord Chamberlain. 
 Visitors from Boston thronging the house, some 
 standing at the bar, watching the process of pre 
 paring tumblers of punch, others sitting at the 
 windows of different parlours, some with faces 
 flushed, puffing cigars. The bill of fare for the day 
 was stuck up beside the bar. Opposite this principal 
 hotel there was another, called "The Mechanics," 
 which seemed to be equally thronged. I suspect that 
 the company were about on a par in each ; for at the 
 Maverick House, though well dressed, they seemed 
 to be merely Sunday gentlemen, most young 
 fellows, clerks in dry-goods stores being the aris 
 tocracy of them. One very fashionable in appear 
 ance, with a handsome cane, happened to stop by 
 me and lift up his foot, and I noticed that the sole 
 of his boot (which was exquisitely polished) was all 
 worn out. I apprehend that some such minor 
 
1 835.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 7 
 
 deficiencies might have been detected in the general 
 showiness of most of them. There were girls, too, 
 but not pretty ones, nor, on the whole, such good 
 imitations of gentility as the young men. There 
 were as many people as are usually collected at a 
 muster, or on similar occasions, lounging about, 
 without any apparent enjoyment ; but the obser 
 vation of this may serve me to make a sketch of 
 the mode of spending the Sabbath by the majority 
 of unmarried, young, middling-class people, near a 
 great town. Most of the people had smart canes 
 and bosom-pins. 
 
 Crossing the ferry into Boston, we went to the 
 City Tavern, where the bar-room presented a Sabbath 
 scene of repose, stage-folk lounging in chairs half 
 asleep, smoking cigars, generally with clean linen and 
 other niceties of apparel, to mark the day. The 
 doors and blinds of an oyster and refreshment shop 
 across the street were closed, but I saw people enter 
 it. There were two owls in a back court, visible 
 through a window of the bar-room, speckled gray, 
 with dark-blue eyes, the queerest-looking birds that 
 exist, so solemn and wise, dozing away the day, 
 much like the rest of the people, only that they looked 
 wiser than any others. Their hooked beaks looked 
 
8 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1835. 
 
 like hooked noses. A dull scene this. A stranger, 
 here and there, poring over a newspaper. Many of 
 the stage-folk sitting in chairs on the pavement, in 
 front of the door. 
 
 We went to the top of the hill which formed part 
 of Gardiner Greene s estate, and which is now in the 
 process of levelling, and pretty much taken away, 
 except the highest point, and a narrow path to ascend 
 to it. It gives an admirable view of the city, being 
 almost as high as the steeples and the dome of the 
 State House, and overlooking the whole mass of brick 
 buildings, and slated roofs, with glimpses of streets 
 far below. It was really a pity to take it down. I 
 noticed the stump of a very large elm, recently felled. 
 No house in the city could have reared its roof so 
 high as the roots of that tree, if indeed the church- 
 spires did so. 
 
 On our drive home we passed through Charles- 
 town. Stages in abundance were passing the road, 
 burdened with passengers inside and out ; also chaises 
 and barouches, horsemen and footmen. We are a 
 community of Sabbath-breakers ! 
 
 August 31. A drive to Nahant yesterday after 
 noon. Stopped at Rice s, and afterwards walked 
 
1835.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 9 
 
 down to the steamboat wharf to see the passengers 
 land. It is strange how few good faces there are in 
 the world, comparatively to the ugly ones. Scarcely a 
 single comely one in all this collection. Then to the 
 hotel. Barouches at the doors, and gentlemen and 
 ladies going to drive, and gentlemen smoking round 
 the piazza. The bar-keeper had one of Benton s mint- 
 drops for a bosom-brooch ! It made a very hand 
 some one. I crossed the beach for home about sun 
 set. The tide was so far down as just to give me a 
 passage on the hard sand, between the sea and the 
 loose gravel. The sea was calm and smooth, with 
 only the surf-waves whitening along the beach. Seve 
 ral ladies and gentlemen on horseback were cantering 
 and galloping before and behind me. 
 
 A hint of a story, some incident which should 
 bring on a general war ; and the chief actor in the 
 incident to have something corresponding to the mis 
 chief he had caused. 
 
 September 7. A drive to Ipswich with B . At 
 
 the tavern was an old, fat, country major, and another 
 old fellow, laughing and playing off jokes on each 
 other, one tying a ribbon upon the other s hat. One 
 
10 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1835. 
 
 had been a trumpeter to the major s troop. Walking 
 about town, we knocked, for a whim, at the door of a 
 dark old house, and inquired if Miss Hannah Lord 
 lived there. A woman of about thirty came to the 
 door, with rather a confused smile, and a disorder 
 about the bosom of her dress, as if she had been dis 
 turbed while nursing her child. She answered us with 
 great kindness. 
 
 Entering the burial-ground, where some masons 
 were building a tomb, we found a good many old 
 monuments, and several covered with slabs of red free 
 stone or slate, and with arms sculptured on the slab, 
 or an inlaid circle of slate. On one slate grave-stone, 
 of the Rev. Nathl. Rogers, there was a portrait of that 
 worthy, about a third of the size of life, carved in 
 relief, with his cloak, band, and wig, in excellent pre 
 servation, all the buttons of his waistcoat being cut 
 with great minuteness, the minister s nose being on 
 a level with his cheeks. It was an upright grave 
 stone. Returning home, I held a colloquy with a 
 young girl about the right road. She had come out 
 to feed a pig, and was a little suspicious that we 
 were making fun of her, yet answered us with a shy 
 laugh and good-nature, the pig all the time squealing 
 for his dinner. 
 
1835.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. II 
 
 Displayed along the walls, and suspended from the 
 pillars of the original King s Chapel, were coats-of- 
 arms of the king, the successive governors, and other 
 distinguished men. In the pulpit there was an hour 
 glass on a large and elaborate brass stand. The organ 
 was surmounted by a gilt crown in the centre, sup 
 ported by a gilt mitre on each side. The governor s 
 pew had Corinthian pillars, and crimson damask 
 tapestry. In 1727 it was lined with china, probably 
 tiles. 
 
 Saint Augustin, at mass, charged all that were 
 accursed to go out of the church. "Then a dead 
 body arose, and went out of the church into the 
 churchyard with a white cloth on its head, and stood 
 there till mass was over. It was a former lord of the 
 manor, whom a curate had cursed because he refused 
 to pay his tithes. A justice also commanded the dead 
 curate to arise, and gave him a rod ; and the dead 
 lord, kneeling, received penance thereby." He then 
 ordered the lord to go again to his grave, which he 
 did, and fell immediately to ashes. Saint Augustin 
 offered to pray for the curate, that he might remain 
 on earth to confirm men in their belief ; but the curate 
 refused, because he was in the place of rest. 
 
12 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1835. 
 
 A sketch to be given of a modern reformer, a 
 type of the extreme doctrines on the subject of 
 slaves, cold water, and other such topics. He goes 
 about the streets haranguing most eloquently, and is 
 on the point of making many converts, when his 
 labours are suddenly interrupted by the appearance of 
 the keeper of a mad-house, whence he has escaped. 
 Much may be made of this idea. 
 
 A change from a gay young girl to an old 
 woman ; the melancholy events, the effects of which 
 have clustered around her character, and gradually 
 imbued it with their influence, till she becomes a 
 lover of sick-chambers, taking pleasure in receiving 
 dying breaths and in laying out the dead ; also 
 having her mind full of funeral reminiscences, and 
 possessing more acquaintances beneath the burial turf 
 than above it. 
 
 A well-concerted train of events to be thrown 
 into confusion by some misplaced circumstance, 
 unsuspected till the catastrophe, yet exerting its 
 influence from beginning to end. 
 
 On the common, at dusk, after a salute from two 
 
1835.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 13 
 
 field-pieces, the smoke lay long and heavily on the 
 ground, without much spreading beyond the original 
 space over which it had gushed from the guns. It was 
 about the height of a man. The evening clear, but 
 with an autumnal chill. 
 
 The world is so sad and solemn, that things meant 
 in jest are liable, by an overpowering influence, to 
 become dreadful earnest, gaily dressed fantasies 
 turning to ghostly and black-clad images of them 
 selves. 
 
 A story, the hero of which is to be represented as 
 naturally capable of deep and strong passion, and 
 looking forward to the time when he shall feel pas 
 sionate love, which is to be the great event of his 
 existence. But it so chances that he never falls in 
 love ; and although he gives up the expectation of so 
 doing, and marries calmly, yet it is somewhat sadly, 
 with sentiments merely of esteem for his bride. The 
 lady might be one who had loved him early in life, 
 but whom then, in his expectation of passionate love, 
 he had scorned. 
 
 The scene of a story or sketch to be laid within 
 
14 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1835. 
 
 the light of a street lantern ; the time, when the 
 lamp is near going out ; and the catastrophe to be 
 simultaneous with the last flickering gleam. 
 
 The peculiar weariness and depression of spirits 
 which is felt after a day wasted in turning over a 
 magazine or other light miscellany, different from the 
 state of the mind after severe study ; because there 
 has been no excitement, no difficulties to be over 
 come, but the spirits have evaporated insensibly. 
 
 To represent the process by which sober truth 
 gradually strips off all the beautiful draperies with 
 which imagination has enveloped a beloved object, 
 till from an angel she turns out to be a merely 
 ordinary woman. This to be done without caricature, 
 perhaps with a quiet humour interfused, but the pre 
 vailing impression to be a sad one. The story might 
 consist of the various alterations in the feelings of 
 the absent lover, caused by successive events that 
 display the true character of his mistress ; and the 
 catastrophe should take place at their meeting, when 
 he finds himself equally disappointed in her person ; 
 or the whole spirit of the thing may here be repro 
 duced. 
 
1835-] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 1 5 
 
 Last evening, from the opposite shore of the 
 North River, a view of the town mirrored in the 
 water, which was as smooth as glass, with no per 
 ceptible tide or agitation, except a trifling swell and 
 reflux on the sand, although the shadow of the moon 
 danced in it. The picture of the town perfect in the 
 water, towers of churches, houses, with here and 
 there a light gleaming near the shore above, and 
 more faintly glimmering under water, all perfect, 
 but somewhat more hazy and indistinct than the 
 reality. There were many clouds flitting about 
 the sky ; and the picture of each could be traced in 
 the water, the ghost of what was itself unsub 
 stantial. The rattling of wheels heard long and far 
 through the town. Voices of people talking on the 
 other side of the river, the tones being so distinguish 
 able in all their variations that it seemed as if what 
 was there said might be understood ; but it was 
 not so. 
 
 Two persons might be bitter enemies through life, 
 and mutually cause the ruin of one another, and of 
 all that were dear to them. Finally, meeting at the 
 funeral of a grandchild, the offspring of a son and 
 daughter married without their consent, and who, 
 
1 6 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1835. 
 
 as well as the child, had been the victims of their 
 hatred, they might discover that the supposed 
 ground of the quarrel was altogether a mistake, and 
 then be wofully reconciled. 
 
 Two persons, by mutual agreement, to make their 
 wills in each other s favour, then to wait impatiently 
 for one another s death, and both to be informed of 
 the desired event at the same time. Both, in most 
 joyous sorrow, hasten to be present at the funeral, 
 meet, and find themselves both hoaxed. 
 
 The story of a man, cold and hard-hearted, and 
 acknowledging no brotherhood with mankind. At 
 his death they might try to dig him a grave, but, at 
 a little space beneath the ground, strike upon a rock, 
 as if the earth refused to receive the unnatural son 
 into her bosom. Then they would put him into an 
 old sepulchre, where the coffins and corpses were all 
 turned to dust, and so he would be alone. Then the 
 body would petrify ; and he having died in some 
 characteristic act and expression, he would seem, 
 through endless ages of death, to repel society as 
 in life, and no one would be buried in that tomb 
 for ever. 
 
1835.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. I/ 
 
 Cannon transformed to church-bells. 
 
 A person, even before middle age, may become 
 musty and faded among the people with whom he 
 has grown up from childhood ; but, by migrating to 
 a new place, he appears fresh with the effect of youth, 
 which may be communicated from the impressions of 
 others to his own feelings. 
 
 In an old house, a mysterious knocking might be 
 heard on the wall, where had formerly been a door 
 way, now bricked up. 
 
 It might be stated, as the closing circumstance of 
 a tale, that the body of one of the characters had 
 been petrified, and still existed in that state. 
 
 A young man to win the love of a girl, without 
 any serious intentions, and to find that in that love, 
 which might have been the greatest blessing of his life, 
 he had conjured up a spirit of mischief which pursued 
 him throughout his whole career, and this without any 
 revengeful purposes on the part of the deserted girl. 
 
 Two lovers, or other persons, on the most private 
 VOL. I. 2 
 
1 8 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1835. 
 
 business, to appoint a meeting in what they supposed 
 to be a place of the utmost solitude, and to find it 
 thronged with people. 
 
 October 17. Some of the oaks are now a deep 
 brown red ; others are changed to a light green, 
 which at a little distance, especially in the sunshine, 
 looks like the green of early spring. In some trees, 
 different masses of the foliage show each of these 
 hues. Some of the walnut-trees have a yet more 
 delicate green. Others are of a bright sunny yellow. 
 
 Mr. was married to Miss last Wednes 
 day. Yesterday Mr. Brazer, preaching on the comet, 
 observed that not one, probably, of all who heard 
 him, would witness its" reappearance. Mrs. - 
 shed tears. Poor soul ! she would be contented to 
 dwell in earthly love to all eternity ! 
 
 Some treasure or other thing to be buried, and a 
 tree planted directly over the spot, so as to embrace 
 it with its roots. 
 
 A tree, tall and venerable, to be said by tradition 
 to have been the staff of some famous man, who 
 
1835.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 19 
 
 happened to thrust it into the ground, where it took 
 root. 
 
 A fellow without money, having a hundred and 
 seventy miles to go, fastened a chain and padlock to 
 his legs, and lay down to sleep in a field. He was 
 apprehended, and carried gratis to a gaol in the town 
 whither he desired to go. 
 
 An old volume in a large library, every one to 
 be afraid to unclasp and open it, because it was said 
 to be a book of magic. 
 
 A ghost seen by moonlight ; when the moon \vas 
 out, it would shine and melt through the airy sub 
 stance of the ghost, as through a cloud. 
 
 Prideaux, Bishop of Worcester, during the sway 
 of the Parliament was forced to support himself and 
 his family by selling his household goods. A friend 
 asked him, " How doth your lordship ? " " Never 
 better in my life," said the Bishop, " only I have too 
 great a stomach : for I have eaten that little plate 
 which the sequestrators left me. I have eaten a 
 great library of excellent books. I have eaten a 
 
20 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1835. 
 
 great deal of linen, much of my brass, some of my 
 pewter, and now I am come to eat iron ; and what 
 will come next I know not." 
 
 A scold and a blockhead, brimstone and wood, 
 a good match. 
 
 To make one s own reflection in a mirror the 
 subject of a story. 
 
 In a dream to wander to some place where may 
 be heard the complaints of all the miserable on earth. 
 
 Some common quality or circumstance that should 
 bring together people the most unlike in all other 
 respects, and make a brotherhood and sisterhood 
 of them, the rich and the proud finding them 
 selves in the same category with the mean and the 
 despised. 
 
 A person to consider himself as the prime mover 
 of certain remarkable events, but to discover that his 
 actions have not contributed in the least thereto. 
 Another person to be the cause, without suspect- 
 incr it. 
 
1835.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 21 
 
 October 25. A person or family long desires some 
 particular good. At last it comes in such profusion 
 as to be the great pest of their lives. 
 
 A man, perhaps with a persuasion that he shall 
 make his fortune by some singular means, and with 
 an eager longing so to do, while digging or boring 
 for water, to strike upon a salt-spring. 
 
 To have one event operate in several places, as, 
 for example, if a man s head were to be cut off in one 
 town, men s heads to drop off in several towns. 
 
 Follow out the fantasy of a man taking his life by 
 instalments, instead of at one payment, say ten 
 years of life alternately with ten years of suspended 
 animation. 
 
 Sentiments in a foreign language, which merely 
 convey the sentiment without retaining to the reader 
 any graces of style or harmony of sound, have some 
 what of the charm of thoughts in one s own mind 
 that have not yet been put into words. No possible 
 words that we might adapt to them could realize the 
 unshaped beauty that they appear to possess. This 
 
22 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1835. 
 
 is the reason that translations are never satisfactory, 
 and less so, I should think, to one who cannot than 
 to one who can pronounce the language. 
 
 A person to be writing a tale, and to find that it 
 shapes itself against his intentions ; that the charac 
 ters act otherwise than he thought ; that unforeseen 
 events occur ; and a catastrophe comes which he 
 strives in vain to avert. It might shadow forth his 
 own fate, he having made himself one of the per- 
 
 It is a singular thing, that, at the distance, say, of 
 five feet, the work of the greatest dunce looks just as 
 well as that of the greatest genius, that little space 
 being all the distance between genius and stupidity. 
 
 Mrs. Sigourney says, after Coleridge, that " poetry 
 has been its own exceeding great reward." For 
 the writing, perhaps ; but would it be so for the 
 reading ? 
 
 Four precepts : To break off customs ; to shake 
 off spirits ill-disposed ; to meditate on youth ; to do 
 nothing against one s genius. 
 
1836.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 23 
 
 Salem, August 31, 1836. A walk, yesterday, 
 down to the shore, near the hospital. Standing on 
 the old grassy battery, that forms a semicircle, and 
 looking seaward. The sun not a great way above the 
 horizon, yet so far as to give a very gold en brightness, 
 when it shone out. Clouds in the vicinity of the sun, 
 and nearly all the rest of the sky covered with clouds 
 in masses, not a gray uniformity of cloud. A fresh 
 breeze blowing from land seaward. If it had been 
 blowing from the sea, it would have raised it in heavy 
 billows, and caused it to dash high against the rocks. 
 But now its surface was not at all commoved with 
 billows ; there was only roughness enough to take off 
 the gleam, and give it the aspect of iron after cooling. 
 The clouds above added to the black appearance. 
 A few sea-birds were flitting over the water, only 
 visible at moments, when they turned their white 
 bosoms towards me, as if they were then first created. 
 The sunshine had a singular effect. The clouds 
 would interpose in such a manner that some objects 
 were shaded from it, while others were strongly illu 
 minated. Some of the islands lay in the shade, dark 
 and gloomy, while others were bright and favoured 
 spots. The white light-house was sometimes very 
 cheerfully marked. There w r as a schooner about a 
 
24 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1836. 
 
 mile from the shore, at anchor, laden apparently 
 with lumber. The sea all about her had the black, 
 iron aspect which I have described ; but the vessel 
 herself was alight. Hull, masts, and spars were all 
 gilded, and the rigging was made of golden threads. 
 A small white streak of foam breaking around the 
 bows, which were towards the wind. The shadowiness 
 of the clouds overhead made the effect of the sunlight 
 strange where it fell. 
 
 September. The elm-trees have golden branches 
 intermingled with their green already, and so they 
 had on the first of the month. 
 
 To picture the predicament of worldly people, if 
 admitted to paradise. 
 
 As the architecture of a country always follows 
 the earliest structures, American architecture should 
 be a refinement of the log-house. The Egyptian is 
 so of the cavern and mound ; the Chinese of the 
 tent ; the Gothic, of overarching trees ; the Greek, 
 of a cabin. 
 
 Though we speak nonsense, God will pick out 
 
1836.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 25 
 
 the meaning of it," an extempore prayer by a New j 
 England divine. 
 
 In old times it must have been much less cus 
 tomary than now to drink pure water. Walker 
 emphatically mentions, among the sufferings of a 
 clergyman s wife and family in the Great Rebellion, 
 that they were forced to drink water, with crab-apples 
 stamped in it to relish it. 
 
 Mr. Kirby, author of a work on the History, 
 Habits, and Instincts of Animals, questions whether 
 there may not be an abyss of waters within the globe, 
 communicating with the ocean, and whether the 
 huge animals of the Saurian tribe great reptiles, 
 supposed to be exclusively antediluvian, and now 
 extinct may not be inhabitants of it. He quotes a 
 passage from Revelation, where the creatures under 
 the earth are spoken of as Distinct from those of the 
 sea, and speaks of a Saurian fossil that has been 
 found deep in the subterranean regions. He thinks 
 or suggests that these may be the dragons of 
 Scripture. 
 
 The elephant is not particularly sagacious in the 
 
26 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 1.1836. 
 
 wild state, but becomes so when tamed. The fox 
 directly the contrary, and likewise the wolf. 
 
 A modern Jewish adage, " Let a man clothe 
 himself beneath his ability, his children according to 
 his ability, and his wife above his ability." 
 
 It is said of the eagle, that, in however long a 
 flight, he is never seen to clap his wings to his sides. 
 He seems to govern his movements by the inclination 
 of his wings and tail to the wind, as a ship is pro 
 pelled by the action of the wind on her sails. 
 
 In old country-houses in England, instead of glass 
 for windows, they used wicker, or fine strips of oak- 
 disposed checkerwise. Horn was also used. The 
 windows of princes and great noblemen were of 
 crystal ; those of Studley Castle, Holinshed says, of 
 beryl. There were seldom chimneys ; and they 
 cooked their meats by a fire made against an iron 
 back in the great hall. Houses, often of gentry, were 
 built of a heavy timber frame, filled up with lath and 
 plaster. People slept on rough mats or straw pallets, 
 with a round log for a pillow ; seldom better beds 
 than a mattress, with a sack of chaff for a pillow. 
 
1836.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 27 
 
 October 25. A walk yesterday through Dark 
 Lane, and home through the village of Danvers. 
 Landscape now wholly autumnal. Saw an elderly 
 man laden with two dry, yellow, rustling bundles 
 of Indian corn-stalks, a good personification of 
 Autumn. Another man hoeing up potatoes. Rows 
 of white cabbages lay ripening. Fields of dry Indian 
 corn. The grass has still considerable greenness. 
 Wild rose-bushes devoid of leaves, with their deep 
 bright red seed-vessels. Meeting-house in Danvers 
 seen at a distance, with the sun shining through the 
 windows of its belfry. Barberry-bushes, the leaves 
 now of a brown red, still juicy and healthy ; very 
 few berries remaining, mostly frost-bitten and wilted. 
 All among the yet green grass, dry stalks of weeds. 
 The down of thistles occasionally seen flying through 
 the sunny air. 
 
 In this dismal chamber FAME was won. (Salem, 
 Union Street.) 
 
 Those who are very difficult in choosing wives 
 seem as if they would take none of Nature s ready- 
 made works, but want a woman manufactured par 
 ticularly to their order. 
 
28 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1836. 
 
 A council of the passengers in a street : called by 
 somebody to decide upon some points important to 
 him. 
 
 Every individual has a place to fill in the world, 
 and is important in some respects, whether he chooses 
 to be so or not. 
 
 A thanksgiving dinner. All the miserable on 
 earth are to be invited, as the drunkard, the be 
 reaved parent, the ruined merchant, the broken 
 hearted lover, the poor widow, the old man and 
 woman who have outlived their generation, the dis 
 appointed author, the wounded, sick, and broken 
 soldier, the diseased person, the infidel, the man 
 with an evil conscience, little orphan children or 
 children of neglectful parents, shall be admitted to 
 the table, and many others. The giver of the feast 
 goes out to deliver his invitations. Some of the 
 guests he meets in the streets, some he knocks for 
 at the doors of their houses. The description must 
 be rapid. But who must be the giver of the feast, 
 and what his claims to preside? A man who has 
 never found out what he is fit for, who has un 
 settled aims or objects in life, and whose mind 
 
1836.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 29 
 
 gnaws him, making him the sufferer of many kinds 
 of misery. He should meet some pious, old, sor 
 rowful person, with more outward calamities than 
 any other, and invite him, with a reflection that 
 piety would make all that miserable company truly 
 thankful. 
 
 Merry, in " merry England," does not mean 
 mirthful ; but is corrupted from an old Teutonic 
 word signifying famous or renowned. 
 
 In an old London newspaper, 1678, there is an 
 advertisement, among other goods at auction, of a 
 black girl, about fifteen years old, to be sold. 
 
 We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the mo 
 ment of waking from a troubled dream : it may be 
 so the moment after death. 
 
 The race of mankind to be swept away, leaving 
 all their cities and works. Then another human pair 
 to be placed in the world, with native intelligence like 
 Adam and Eve, but knowing nothing of their prede 
 cessors or of their own nature and destiny. They, 
 perhaps, to be described as working out this know- 
 
30 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1836. 
 
 ledge by their sympathy with what they saw, and 
 by their own feelings. 
 
 Memorials of the family of Hawthorne in the 
 church of the village of Dundry, Somersetshire, 
 England. The church is ancient and small, and 
 has a prodigiously high tower of more modern 
 date, being erected in the time of Edward IV. It 
 serves as a landmark for an amazing extent of 
 country. 
 
 A singular fact, that, when man is a brute, he is 
 the most sensual and loathsome of all brutes. 
 
 A snake, taken into a man s stomach and 
 
 nourished there from fifteen years to thirty-five, 
 
 tormenting him most horribly. A type of envy 
 or some other evil passion. 
 
 A sketch illustrating the imperfect compensations 
 which time makes for its devastations on the person, 
 giving a wreath of laurel while it causes baldness, 
 honours for infirmities, wealth for a broken consti 
 tution, and at last, when a man has everything that 
 seems desirable, death seizes him. To contrast the 
 
1836.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 31 
 
 man who has thus reached the summit of ambition 
 with the ambitious youth. 
 
 Walking along the track of the railroad, I observed 
 a place where the workmen had bored a hole through 
 the solid rock, in order to blast it ; but, striking a 
 spring of water beneath the rock, it gushed up 
 through the hole. It looked as if the water were 
 contained within the rock. 
 
 A Fancy Ball, in which the prominent American 
 writers should appear, dressed in character. 
 
 A lament for life s wasted sunshine. 
 
 A new classification of society to be instituted. 
 Instead of rich and poor, high and low, they are to 
 be classed, First, by their sorrows : for instance, 
 whenever there are any, whether in fair mansion or 
 hovel, who are mourning the loss of relations and 
 friends, and who wear black, whether the cloth be 
 coarse or superfine, they are to make one class. 
 Secondly, all who have the same maladies, whether 
 they lie under damask canopies or on straw pallets 
 or in the wards of hospitals, they are to form one 
 
32 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1836. 
 
 class. Thirdly, all who are guilty of the same sins, 
 whether the world knows them or not ; whether they 
 languish in prison, looking forward to the gallows, or 
 walk honoured among men, they also form a class. 
 Then proceed to generalize and classify the whole 
 world together, as none can claim utter exemption 
 from either sorrow, sin, or disease ; and if they could, 
 yet Death, like a great parent, comes and sweeps 
 them all through one darksome portal, all his 
 children. 
 
 Fortune to come like a pedler with his goods, 
 as wreaths of laurel, diamonds, crowns : selling them, 
 but asking for them the sacrifice of health, of integ 
 rity, perhaps of life in the battle-field, and of the real 
 pleasures of existence. Who would buy, if the price 
 were to be paid down ? 
 
 The dying exclamation of the Emperor Augustus, 
 " Has it not been well acted ? " An essay on the 
 misery of being always under a mask. A veil may 
 be needful, but never a mask. Instances of people 
 who wear masks in all classes of society, and never 
 take them off even in the most familiar moments, 
 though sometimes they may chance to slip aside. 
 
1836.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 33 
 
 The various guises under which Ruin makes his 
 approaches to his victims : to the merchant, in the 
 guise of a .merchant offering speculations; to the 
 young heir, a jolly companion ; to the maiden, a 
 sighing, sentimentalist lover. 
 
 What were the contents of the burden of Christian 
 in the " Pilgrim s Progress ? " He must have been 
 taken for a pedler travelling with his pack. 
 
 To think, as the sun goes down, what events have 
 happened in the course of the day, events of ordi 
 nary occurrence : as, the clocks have struck, the dead 
 have been buried. 
 
 Curious to imagine, what murmurings and discon 
 tent would be excited if any of the great so-called 
 calamities of human beings were to be abolished, as, 
 for instance, death. 
 
 Trifles to one are matters of life and death to 
 another. As, for instance, a farmer desires a brisk 
 breeze to winnow his grain ; and mariners, to blow 
 them out of the reach of pirates. 
 
 VOL. I. 3 
 
34 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1836 
 
 A recluse, like myself, or a prisoner, to measure 
 time by the progress of sunshine through his chamber. 
 
 i 
 
 Would it not be wiser for people to rejoice at all 
 that they now sorrow for, and vice versa ? To put on 
 bridal garments at funerals, and mourning at wed 
 dings ? For their friends to condole with them when 
 they attained riches and honour, as only so much care 
 added ? 
 
 If in a village it were a custom to hang a funeral 
 garland or other token of death on a house where 
 some one had died, and there to let it remain till 
 a death occurred elsewhere, and then to hang that 
 same garland over the other house, it would have, 
 methinks, a strong effect. 
 
 No fountain so small but that heaven may be 
 imaged in its bosom. 
 
 Fame ! Some very humble persons in a town 
 may be said to possess it, as, the penny-post, the 
 town-crier, the constable, and they are known to 
 everybody ; while many richer, more intellectual, 
 worthier persons are unknown by the majority of 
 
1836.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 35 
 
 their fellow-citizens. Something analogous in the 
 world at large. 
 
 The ideas of people in general are not raised 
 higher than the roofs of the houses. All their inte 
 rests extend over the earth s surface in a layer of that 
 thickness. The meeting-house steeple reaches out of 
 their sphere. 
 
 Nobody will use other people s experience, nor 
 has any of his own till it is too late to use it. 
 
 Two lovers to plan the building of a pleasure- 
 house on a certain spot of ground, but various 
 seeming accidents prevent it. Once they find a 
 group of miserable children there ; once it is the 
 scene where crime is plotted ; at last the dead body 
 of one of the lovers or of a dear friend is found there ; 
 and, instead of a pleasure-house, they build a marble 
 tomb. The moral, that there is no place on earth 
 fit for the site of a pleasure-house, because there is no 
 spot that may not have been saddened by human 
 grief, stained by crime, or hallowed by death. It 
 might be three friends who plan it, instead of two 
 -lovers ; and the dearest one dies. 
 
36 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 
 
 Comfort for childless people. A married couple 
 with ten children have been the means of bringing 
 about ten funerals. 
 
 A blind man on a dark night carried a torch, in 
 order that people might see him, and not run against 
 him, and direct him how to avoid dangers. 
 
 To picture a child s (one of four or five years old) 
 reminiscences at sunset of a long summer s day, 
 his first awakening, his studies, his sports, his little 
 fits of passion, perhaps a whipping, &c. 
 
 The blind man s walk. 
 
 To picture a virtuous family, the different mem 
 bers, examples of virtuous dispositions in their way ; 
 then introduce a vicious person, and trace out the 
 relations that arise between him and them, and the 
 manner in which all are affected. 
 
 A man to flatter himself with the idea that he 
 would not be guilty of some certain wickedness, 
 as, for instance, to yield to the personal tempta 
 tions of the devil, yet to find, ultimately, that 
 
1836.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 37 
 
 he was at that very time committing that same 
 wickedness. 
 
 What would a man do, if he were compelled to 
 live always in the sultry heat of society, and could 
 never bathe himself in cool solitude ? 
 
 A girl s lover to be slain and buried in her flower- 
 garden, and the earth levelled over him. That par 
 ticular spot, which she happens to plant with some 
 peculiar variety of flowers, produces them of admirable 
 splendour, beauty, and perfume ; and she delights, 
 with an indescribable impulse, to wear them in her 
 bosom, and scent her chamber with them. Thus the 
 classic fantasy would be realized, of dead people trans 
 formed to flowers. 
 
 Objects seen by a magic-lantern reversed. A 
 street, or other location, might be presented, where 
 there would be opportunity to bring forward all ob 
 jects of worldly interest, and thus much pleasant 
 satire might be the result. 
 
 The Abyssinians, after dressing their hair, sleep 
 
38 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1836. 
 
 with their heads in a forked stick, in order not to 
 discompose it. 
 
 At the battle of Edge Hill, October 23, 1642, 
 Captain John Smith, a soldier of note, Captain-Lieu 
 tenant to Lord James Stuart s horse, with only a 
 groom, attacked a Parliament officer, three cuiras 
 siers, and three arquebusiers, and rescued the royal 
 standard, which they had taken and were guarding. 
 Was this the Virginian Smith ? 
 
 Stephen Gowans supposed that the bodies of Adam 
 and Eve were clothed in robes of light, which vanished 
 after their sin. 
 
 Lord Chancellor Clare, towards the close of his 
 life, went to a village church, where he might not be 
 known, to partake of the Sacrament. 
 
 A missionary to the heathen in a great city, to 
 describe his labours in the manner of a foreign 
 
 v 
 
 mission. 
 
 In the tenth century, mechanism of organs so 
 clumsy, that one in Westminster Abbey, with four 
 
1836.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 39 
 
 hundred pipes, required twenty-six bellows and 
 seventy stout men. First organ ever known in 
 Europe received by King Pepin, from the Emperor 
 Constantine in 757. Water boiling was kept in a 
 reservoir under the pipes ; and, the keys being struck, 
 the valves opened, and steam rushed through with 
 noise. The secret of working them thus is now lost. 
 Then came bellows organs, first used by Louis le 
 Debonnaire. 
 
 After the siege of Antwerp, the children played 
 marbles in the streets with grape and cannon shot. 
 
 A shell, in falling, buries itself in the earth, and, 
 when it explodes, a large pit is made by the earth 
 being blown about in all directions, large enough, 
 sometimes, to hold three or four cart-loads of earth. 
 The holes are circular. 
 
 A French artilleryman being buried in his military 
 cloak on the ramparts, a shell exploded, and unburied 
 him. 
 
 In the Netherlands, to form hedges, young trees 
 are interwoven into a sort of lattice-work; and, in 
 
40 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1836. 
 
 time, they grow together at the point of junction, so 
 that the fence is all of one piece. 
 
 To show the effect of gratified revenge. As an 
 instance, merely, suppose a woman sues her lover for 
 breach of promise, and gets the money by instal 
 ments, through a long series of years. At last, when 
 the miserable victim were utterly trodden down, the 
 triumpher would have become a very devil of evil 
 passions, they having overgrown his whole nature ; 
 so that a far greater evil would have come upon him 
 self than on his victim. 
 
 Anciently, when long-buried bodies were found 
 undecayed in the grave, a species of sanctity was 
 attributed to them. 
 
 Some chimneys of ancient halls used to be swept 
 by having a culverin fired up them. 
 
 At Leith, in 1711, a glass bottle was blown of the 
 capacity of two English bushels. 
 
 The buff and blue of the Union were adopted by 
 
1836.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 41 
 
 Fox and the Whig party in England. The Prince 
 of Wales wore them. 
 
 In 1621, a Mr. Copinger left a certain chanty, an 
 almshouse, of which four poor persons were to partake, 
 after the death of his eldest son and his wife. It was 
 a tenement and yard. The parson, headboroughs, 
 and his five other sons were to appoint the persons. 
 At the time specified, however, all but one of his sons 
 were dead ; and he was in such poor circumstances, 
 that he obtained the benefit of the charity for himself, 
 as one of the four. 
 
 A town clerk arranges the publishments that are 
 given in, according to his own judgment. 
 
 To make a story from Robert Raikes seeing dirty 
 children at play, in the streets of London, and inquir 
 ing of a woman about them. She tells him that on 
 Sundays, when they were not employed, they were a 
 great deal worse, making the streets like hell ; playing 
 at church, &c. He was therefore induced to employ 
 women at a shilling to teach them on Sundays, and 
 thus Sunday-schools were established. 
 
4 2 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1836. 
 
 To represent the different departments of the 
 United States government by village functionaries. 
 The War Department by watchmen, the law by 
 constables, the merchants by a variety store, &c. 
 
 At the accession of Bloody Mary, a man, coming 
 into a house, sounded three times with his mouth, as 
 with a trumpet, and then made proclamation to the 
 family. A bonfire was built, and little children were 
 made to carry wood to it, that they might remember 
 the circumstance in old age. Meat and drink were 
 provided at the bonfires. 
 
 To describe a boyish combat with snowballs, and 
 the victorious leader to have a statue of snow erected 
 to him. A satire on ambition and fame to be made 
 out of this idea. It might be a child s story. 
 
 Our body to be possessed by two different spirits ; 
 so that half of the visage shall express one mood, and 
 the other half another. 
 
 An old English sea-captain desires to have a fast- 
 sailing ship, to keep a good table, and to sail between 
 the tropics without making land. 
 
1836.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 43 
 
 A rich man left by will his mansion and estate to 
 a poor couple. They remove into it, and find there a 
 darksome servant, whom they are forbidden by will 
 to turn away. He becomes a torment to them ; and, 
 in the finale, he turns out to be the former master of 
 the estate. 
 
 Two persons to be expecting some occurrence, 
 and watching for the two principal actors in it, and to 
 find that the occurrence is even then passing, and that 
 they themselves are the two actors. 
 
 There is evil in every human heart, which may 
 remain latent, perhaps, through the whole of life ; but 
 circumstances may rouse it to activity. To imagine 
 such circumstances. A woman, tempted to be false 
 to her husband, apparently through mere whim, or a 
 young man to feel an instinctive thirst for blood, and 
 to commit murder. This appetite may be traced in 
 the popularity of criminal trials. The appetite might 
 be observed first in a child, and then traced upwards, 
 manifesting itself in crimes suited to every stage of 
 life. 
 
 The good deeds in an evil life, the generous, 
 
44 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1836. 
 
 noble, and excellent actions done by people habitually 
 wicked, to ask what is to become of them. 
 
 A satirical article might be made out of the idea 
 of an imaginary museum, containing such articles as 
 Aaron s rod ; the petticoat of General Hawion ; the 
 pistol with which Benton shot Jackson, and then a 
 diorama, consisting of political or other scenes, or 
 clone in \vax-work. The idea to be wrought out and 
 extended. Perhaps it might be the museum of a 
 deceased old man. 
 
 An article might be made respecting various 
 kinds of ruin, ruin as regards property, ruin of 
 health, ruin of habits, as drunkenness and all kinds 
 of debauchery, ruin of character, while prosperous 
 in other respects, ruin of the soul. Ruin, perhaps, 
 might be personified as a demon, seizing its victims 
 by various holds. 
 
 An article on fire, on smoke. Diseases of the 
 mind and soul, even more common than bodily 
 diseases. 
 
 Tarleton, of the Revolution, is said to have been 
 
I837-J AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 45 
 
 one of the two handsomest men in Europe, the 
 Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., being the 
 other. Some authorities, however, have represented 
 him as ungainly in person and rough in manners. 
 Tarleton was originally bred to the law, but quitted 
 law for the army early in life. He was son to a 
 mayor of Liverpool, born in 1754, of ancient family. 
 He wrote his own memoirs after returning from 
 America. Afterwards in Parliament. Never after 
 wards distinguished in arms. Created baronet in 
 1818, and died childless in 1833. Thought he was 
 not sufficiently honoured among more modern heroes. 
 Lost part of his right hand in battle of Guildford 
 Court House. A man of pleasure in England. 
 
 It would be a good idea for a painter to paint a 
 picture of a great actor, representing him in several 
 different characters of one scene, lago and Othello, 
 for instance. 
 
 Maine, July 5, 1837. Here I am, settled since 
 night before last with B , and living very singu 
 larly. He leads a bachelor s life in his paternal 
 mansion, only a small part of which is occupied by a 
 family who serve him. He provides his own break- 
 
46 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 fast and supper, and occasionally his dinner ; though 
 this is oftener, I believe, taken at the hotel, or an 
 eating-house, or with some of his relatives. I am 
 his guest, and my presence makes no alteration in his 
 way of life. Our fare, thus far, has consisted of bread, 
 butter, and cheese, crackers, herrings, boiled eggs, 
 coffee, milk, and claret wine. He has another inmate, 
 in the person of a queer little Frenchman, who has 
 his breakfast, tea, and lodging here, and finds his 
 
 dinner elsewhere. Monsieur S does not appear 
 
 to be more than twenty-one years old, a diminutive 
 figure, with eyes askew, and otherwise of an ungainly 
 physiognomy ; he is ill-dressed also, in a coarse blue 
 coat, thin cotton pantaloons, and unbrushed boots ; 
 altogether with as little of French coxcombry as can 
 well be imagined, though with something of the 
 monkey aspect inseparable from a little Frenchman. 
 He is, nevertheless, an intelligent and well-informed 
 man, apparently of extensive reading in his own lan 
 guage, a philosopher, B tells me, and an infidel. 
 
 His insignificant personal appearance stands in the 
 way of his success, and prevents him from receiving 
 the respect which is really due to his talents and 
 acquirements ; wherefore he is bitterly dissatisfied 
 with the country and its inhabitants, and often 
 
1837-1 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 47 
 
 expresses his feelings to B (who has gained his 
 
 confidence to a certain degree) in very strong terms. 
 
 Thus here are three characters, each with some 
 thing out of the common way, living together some 
 what like monks. B , our host, combines more 
 
 high and admirable qualities, of that sort which make 
 up a gentleman, than any other that I have met with. 
 Polished, yet natural, frank, open, and straightfor 
 ward, yet with a delicate feeling for the sensitiveness 
 of his companions ; of excellent temper and warm 
 heart ; well acquainted with the world, with a keen 
 faculty of observation, which he has had many 
 opportunities of exercising, and never varying from a 
 code of honour and principle which is really nice and 
 rigid in its way. There is a sort of philosophy deve 
 loping itself in him which will not impossibly cause 
 him to settle down in this or some other equally 
 singular course of life. He seems almost to have 
 made up his mind never to be married, which I 
 wonder at ; for he has strong affections, and is fond 
 both of women and children. 
 
 The little Frenchman impresses me very strongly, 
 too, so lonely as he is here, struggling against the 
 world, with bitter feelings in his breast, and yet 
 talking with the vivacity and gaiety of his nation ; 
 
48 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 making this his home from darkness to daylight, and 
 enjoying here what little domestic comfort and con 
 fidence there is for him ; and then going about all the 
 livelong day, teaching . French to blockheads who 
 sneer at him, and returning at about ten o clock in 
 the evening (for I was wrong in saying he supped 
 here, he eats no supper) to his solitary room and 
 
 bed. Before retiring, he goes to B s bedside, 
 
 and, if he finds him awake, stands talking French, 
 expressing his dislike of the Americans, " Je Jiais, 
 je hais Ics Yankees ! " thus giving vent to the stifled 
 bitterness of the whole day. In the morning I hear 
 him getting up early, at sunrise or before, humming 
 to himself, scuffling about his chamber with his thick 
 boots, and at last taking his departure for a solitary 
 ramble till breakfast. Then he comes in, cheerful 
 and vivacious enough, eats pretty heartily, and is off 
 again, singing French chansons as he goes down the 
 gravel-walk. The poor fellow has nobody to sympa 
 thize with him but B , and thus a singular con 
 nection is established between two utterly different 
 characters. 
 
 Then here is myself, who am likewise a queer 
 character in my way, and have come to spend a week 
 or two with my friend of half a lifetime, the longest 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 49 
 
 space, probably, that we are ever destined to spend 
 together ; for Fate seems preparing changes for 
 both of us. My circumstances, at least, cannot long 
 
 continue as they are and have been ; and B , too, 
 
 stands between high prosperity and utter ruin. 
 
 I think I should soon become strongly attached 
 
 to our way of life, so independent and untroubled by 
 
 the forms and restrictions of society. The house is 
 
 very pleasantly situated, half a mile distant from 
 
 where the town begins to be thickly settled, and on a 
 
 swell of land, with the road running at a distance of 
 
 fifty yards, and a grassy tract and a gravel-walk 
 
 between. Beyond the road rolls the Kennebec, here 
 
 two or three hundred yards wide. Putting my head 
 
 out of the window, I can see it flowing steadily along 
 
 straightway between wooded banks ; but arriving 
 
 nearly opposite the house, there is a large and level 
 
 sand island in the middle of the stream ; and just 
 
 below the island the current is further interrupted by 
 
 the works of the mill-dam, which is perhaps half 
 
 finished, yet still in so rude a state that it looks as 
 
 much like the ruins of a dam destroyed by the spring 
 
 freshets as like the foundations of a dam yet to be. 
 
 Irishmen and Canadians toil at work on it, and the 
 
 echoes of their hammering and of the voices come 
 
 VOL. I. 4 
 
50 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 across the river and up to this window. Then there 
 is a sound of the wind among the trees round the 
 house ; and, when that is silent, the calm, full, distant 
 voice of the river becomes audible. Looking down 
 ward thither, I see the rush of the current, and mark 
 the different eddies, with here and there white specks 
 or streaks of foam ; and often a log comes floating 
 on, glistening in the sun, as it rolls over among the 
 eddies, having voyaged, for aught I know, hundreds 
 of miles from the wild upper sources of the river, 
 passing down, down, between lines of forest, and 
 sometimes a rough clearing, till here it floats by 
 cultivated banks, and will soon pass by the village. 
 Sometimes a long raft of boards comes along, re 
 quiring the nicest skill in navigating it through the 
 narrow passage left by the mill-dam. Chaises and 
 waggons occasionally go over the road, the riders all 
 giving a passing glance at the dam, or perhaps 
 alighting to examine it more fully, and at last 
 departing with ominous shakes of the head as to the 
 result of the enterprise. My position is so far 
 retired from the river and mill-dam, that, though the 
 latter is really rather a scene, yet a sort of quiet 
 seems to be diffused over the whole. Two or three 
 times a day this quiet is broken by the sudden 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 51 
 
 thunder from a quarry, where the workmen are 
 blasting rocks ; and a peal of thunder sounds 
 strangely in such a green, sunny, and quiet land 
 scape, with the blue sky brightening the river. 
 
 I have not seen much of the people. There have 
 been, however, several incidents which amused me, 
 though scarcely worth telling. A passionate tavern- 
 keeper, quick as a flash of gunpowder, a nervous 
 man, and showing in his demeanour, it seems, a con 
 sciousness of his infirmity of temper. I was a witness 
 of a scuffle of his with a drunken guest. The tavern- 
 keeper, after they were separated, raved like a mad 
 man, and in a tone of voice having a d roily pathetic 
 or lamentable sound mingled with its rage, as if he 
 were lifting up his voice to weep. Then he jumped 
 into a chaise which was standing by, whipped up the 
 horse, and drove off rapidly, as if to give his fury 
 vent in that way. 
 
 On the morning of the Fourth of July, two 
 printer s apprentice-lads, nearly grown, dressed in 
 jackets and very tight pantaloons of check, tight as 
 their skins, so that they looked like harlequins or 
 circus-clowns, yet appeared to think themselves in 
 perfect propriety, with a very calm and quiet 
 assurance of the admiration of the town. A common 
 
52 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 fellow, a carpenter, who, on the strength of political 
 
 partisanship, asked B s assistance in cutting out 
 
 great letters from play-bills in order to print " Martin 
 
 Van Buren Forever" on a flag; but B refused. 
 
 B seems to be considerably of a favourite with 
 
 the lower orders, especially with the Irishmen and 
 French Canadians, the latter accosting him in the 
 street, and asking his assistance as an interpreter in 
 making their bargains for work. 
 
 I meant to dine at the hotel with B to-day ; 
 
 but having returned to the house, leaving him to do 
 some business in the village, I found myself unwilling 
 to move when the dinner-hour approached, and 
 therefore dined very well on bread, cheese, and eggs. 
 Nothing of much interest takes place. We live very 
 comfortably in our bachelor establishment on a cold 
 shoulder of mutton, with ham and smoked beef and 
 boiled eggs ; and as to drinkables, we had both claret 
 and brown sherry on the dinner-table to-day. Last 
 evening we had a long literary and philosophical 
 
 conversation with Monsieur S . He is rather 
 
 remarkably well-informed for a man of his age, and 
 seems to have very just notions on ethics, &c., though 
 damnably perverted as to religion. It is strange to 
 hear philosophy of any sort from such a boyish figure. 
 
1837-] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 53 
 
 "We philosophers," he is fond of saying, to dis 
 tinguish himself and his brethren from the Christians. 
 One of his oddities is, that, while steadfastly main 
 taining an opinion that he is a very small and slow 
 eater, and that we, in common with other Yankees, 
 eat immensely and fast, he actually eats both faster 
 
 and longer than we do, and devours, as B avers, 
 
 more victuals than both of us together. 
 
 Saturday, July 8t/i. Yesterday afternoon, a stroll 
 
 with B up a large brook, he fishing for trout, and 
 
 I looking on. The brook runs through a valley, on 
 one side bordered by a high and precipitous bank ; 
 on the other there is an interval, and then the bank 
 rises upward and upward into a high hill with gorges 
 and ravines separating one summit from another, and 
 here and there are bare places, where the rain-streams 
 have washed away the grass. The brook is bestrewn 
 with stones, some bare, some partially moss-grown, 
 and sometimes so huge as once at least to occupy 
 almost the whole breadth of the current. Amongst 
 these the stream brawls, only that this word does not 
 express its good-natured voice, and " murmur " is too 
 quiet. It sings along, sometimes smooth, with the 
 pebbles visible beneath, sometimes rushing dark and 
 
54 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 swift, eddying and whitening past some rock, or 
 underneath the hither or the farther bank ; and at 
 these places B - cast his line, and sometimes drew 
 out a trout, small, not more than five or six inches 
 long. The farther we went up the brook, the wilder 
 it grew. The opposite bank was covered with pines 
 and hemlocks, ascending high upwards, black and 
 solemn. One knew that there must be almost a 
 precipice behind, yet we could not see it. At the 
 foot you could spy, a little way within the darksome 
 shade, the roots and branches of the trees ; but soon 
 all sight was obstructed amidst the trunks. On the 
 hither side, at first the bank was bare, then fringed 
 with alder-bushes, bending and dipping into the 
 stream, which, farther on, flowed through the midst 
 of a forest of maple, beech, and other trees, its course 
 growing wilder and wilder as we proceeded. For a 
 considerable distance there was a causeway, built 
 long ago of logs, to drag lumber upon ; it was now 
 decayed and rotten, a red decay, sometimes sunken 
 down in the midst, here and there a knotty trunk 
 stretching across, apparently sound. The sun being 
 now low towards the west, a pleasant gloom and 
 brightness were diffused through the forest, spots of 
 brightness scattered upon the branches, or thrown 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 55 
 
 down in gold upon the last year s leaves among the 
 trees. At last we came to where a dam had been 
 built across the brook many years ago, and was now 
 gone to ruin, so as to make the spot look more 
 solitary and wilder than if man had never left vestiges 
 of his toil there. It was a framework of logs with a 
 covering of plank sufficient to obstruct the onward 
 flow of the brook ; but it found its way past the side, 
 and came foaming and struggling along among scat 
 tered rocks. Above the dam there was a broad and 
 deep pool, one side of which was bordered by a pre 
 cipitous wall of rocks, as smooth as if hewn out and 
 squared, and piled one upon another, above which 
 rose the forest. On the other side there was still a 
 gently shelving bank, and the shore was covered with 
 tall trees, among which I particularly remarked a 
 stately pine, wholly devoid of bark, rising white in 
 aged and majestic ruin, thrusting out its barkless 
 arms. It must have stood there in death many years, 
 its own ghost. Above the dam the brook flowed 
 through the forest, a glistening and babbling water- 
 path, illuminated by the sun, which sent its rays 
 almost straight along its course. It was as lovely 
 and wild and peaceful as it could possibly have been 
 a hundred years ago ; and the traces of labours of 
 
56 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 men long departed added a deeper peace to it. I 
 bathed in the pool, and then pursued my way down 
 beside the brook, growing dark with a pleasant gloom, 
 as the sun sank and the water became more shadowy. 
 
 B says that there was formerly a tradition, that 
 
 the Indians used to go up this brook, and return, after 
 a brief absence, with large masses of lead, which they 
 sold at the trading-stations in Augusta ; whence 
 there has always been an idea that there is a lead 
 mine hereabouts. Great toadstools were under the 
 trees, and some small ones as yellow and almost the 
 size of a half-broiled yolk of an egg. Strawberries 
 were scattered along the brookside. 
 
 Dined at the hotel or Mansion House to-day. 
 Men were playing checkers in the parlour. The 
 Marshal of Maine, a corpulent, jolly fellow, famed 
 for humour. A passenger left by the stage, hiring 
 an express onward. A bottle of champagne was 
 quaffed at the bar. 
 
 July gt/i. Went with B to pay a visit to the 
 
 shanties of the Irish and Canadians. He says that 
 they sell and exchange these small houses among 
 themselves continually. They may be built in three 
 or four days, and are valued at four or five dollars. 
 
AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 57 
 
 When the turf that is piled against the walls of some 
 of them becomes covered with grass, it makes quite 
 a picturesque object. It was almost dusk just 
 candle-lighting time when we visited them. A 
 young Frenchwoman, with a baby in her arms, came 
 to the door of one of them, smiling, and looking 
 pretty and happy. Her husband, a dark, black- 
 haired, lively little fellow, caressed the child, laugh 
 ing and singing to it ; and there was a red-bearded 
 Irishman, who likewise fondled the little brat. Then 
 we could hear them within the hut, gabbling merrily, 
 and could see them moving about briskly in the 
 candle-light, through the window and open door. An 
 old Irishwoman sat in the door of another hut, under 
 the influence of an extra dose of rum, she being an 
 old lady of somewhat dissipated habits. She called 
 to B , and began to talk to him about her resolu 
 tion not to give up her house : for it is his design to 
 get her out of it. She is a true virago, and, though 
 somewhat restrained by respect for him, she evinced 
 a sturdy design to remain here through the winter, 
 or at least for a considerable time longer. He per 
 sisting, she took her stand in the doorway of the hut, 
 and stretched out her fist in a very Amazonian 
 attitude. " Nobody," quoth she, " shall drive me out 
 
58 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 of this house, till my praties are out of the ground." 
 Then would she wheedle and laugh and blarney, 
 beginning in a rage, and ending as if she had been in 
 jest. Meanwhile her husband stood by very quiet, 
 occasionally trying to still her ; but it is to be pre 
 sumed that, after our departure, they came to blows, 
 it being a custom with the Irish husbands and wives 
 to settle their disputes with blows ; and it is said the 
 woman often proves the better man. The different 
 families also have battles, and occasionally the Irish 
 fight with the Canadians. The latter, however, are 
 much the more peaceable, never quarrelling among 
 themselves, and seldom with their neighbours. They 
 are frugal, and often go back to Canada with con 
 siderable sums of money. B has gained much 
 
 influence both with the Irish and the French, with 
 the latter, by dint of speaking to them in their own 
 language. He is the umpire in their disputes, and 
 their adviser, and they look up to him as a protector 
 and patron-friend. I have been struck to see with 
 what careful integrity and wisdom he manages 
 matters among them, hitherto having known him 
 only as a free and gay young man. He appears 
 perfectly to understand their general character, of 
 which he gives no very flattering description. In 
 
1837-] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 59 
 
 these huts, less than twenty feet square, he tells me 
 that upwards of twenty people have sometimes been 
 lodged. 
 
 A description of a young lady who had formerly 
 been insane, and now felt the approach of a new fit 
 of madness. She had been out to ride, had exerted 
 herself much, and had been very vivacious. On her 
 return, she sat down in a thoughtful and despondent 
 attitude, looking very sad, but one of the loveliest 
 objects that ever were seen. The family spoke to 
 her, but she made no answer, nor took the least 
 notice ; but still sat like a statue in her chair, a 
 statue of melancholy and beauty. At last they led 
 her away to her chamber. 
 
 We went to meeting this forenoon. I saw nothing 
 remarkable, unless a little girl in the next pew to us, 
 three or four years old, who fell asleep, with her head 
 in the lap of her maid, and looked very pretty : a 
 picture of sleeping innocence. 
 
 July 1 1///, Tuesday. A drive with B to 
 
 Hallowell, yesterday, where we dined, and afterwards 
 to Gardiner. The most curious object in this latter 
 place was the elegant new mansion of . It 
 stands on the site of his former dwelling, which was 
 
60 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 destroyed by fire. The new building was estimated 
 to cost about thirty thousand dollars ; but twice as 
 much has already been expended, and a great deal 
 more will be required to complete it. It is certainly 
 a splendid structure ; the material, granite from the 
 vicinity. At the angles it has small, circular towers ; 
 the portal is lofty and imposing. Relatively to the 
 general style of domestic architecture in our country, 
 it well deserves the name of castle or palace. Its 
 situation, too, is fine, far retired from the public road, 
 and attainable by a winding carriage-drive ; standing 
 amid fertile fields, and with large trees in the vicinity. 
 There is also a beautiful view from the mansion, 
 adown the Kennebec. 
 
 Beneath some of the large trees we saw the 
 remains of circular seats, whereupon the family used 
 to sit before the former house was burned down. 
 There was no one now in the vicinity of the place, 
 save a man and a yoke of oxen ; and what he was 
 
 about, I did not ascertain. Mr. at present 
 
 resides in a small dwelling, little more than a cottage, 
 beside the main road, not far from the gateway which 
 gives access to his palace. 
 
 At Gardiner, on the wharf, I witnessed the start 
 ing of the steamboat " New England " for Boston. 
 
1837. ] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 6 1 
 
 There was quite a collection of people, looking on 
 or taking leave of passengers, the steam puffing, 
 stages arriving, full-freighted with ladies and gentle 
 men. A man was one moment too late ; but running 
 along the gunwale of a mud-scow, and jumping into 
 a skiff, he was put on board by a black fellow. The 
 dark cabin, wherein, descending from the sunshiny 
 deck, it was difficult to discern the furniture, looking- 
 glasses, and mahogany wainscoting. I met two old 
 
 college acquaintances, O , who was going to 
 
 Boston, and B , with whom we afterwards drank 
 
 a glass of wine at the hotel. 
 
 B , Mons. S , and myself continue to live 
 
 in the same style as heretofore. We appear mutually 
 to be very well pleased with each other. Mons. 
 
 S- displays many comical qualities, and manages 
 
 to insure us several hearty laughs every morning and 
 evening, those being the seasons when we meet. 
 I am going to take lessons from him in the pro 
 nunciation of French. Of female society I see 
 nothing. The only petticoat that comes within our 
 premises appertains to Nancy, the pretty, dark-eyed 
 maid-servant of the man who lives in the other part 
 of the house. 
 
 On the road from Hallowell to Augusta we saw 
 
62 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 little booths, in two places, erected on the roadside, 
 where boys offered beer, apples, &c., for sale. We 
 passed an Irishwoman with a child in her arms, and 
 a heavy bundle, and afterwards an Irishman with a 
 light bundle, sitting by the highway. They were 
 husband and wife ; and B - says that an Irishman 
 and his wife, on their journeys, do not usually walk 
 side by side, but that the man gives the woman the 
 heaviest burden to carry, and walks on lightly ahead ! 
 A thought comes into my mind : Which sort of 
 house excites the most contemptuous feelings in the 
 beholder, such a house as Mr. - s, all circum 
 stances considered, or the board-built and turf- 
 buttressed hovels of these wild Irish, scattered about 
 as if they had sprung up like mushrooms, in the 
 dells and gorges, and along the banks of the river ? 
 Mushrooms, by the way, spring up where the roots of 
 an old tree are hidden under the ground. 
 
 Thursday, July i^tJi. Two small Canadian boys 
 came to our house yesterday, with strawberries to 
 sell. It sounds strangely to hear children bargaining 
 in French on the borders of Yankee-land. Among 
 other languages spoken hereabouts must be reckoned 
 the wild Irish. Some of the labourers on the mill- 
 
AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 63 
 
 dam can speak nothing else. The intermixture of 
 foreigners sometimes gives rise to quarrels between 
 them and the natives. As we were going to the 
 village yesterday afternoon, we witnessed the begin 
 ning of a quarrel between a Canadian and a Yankee, 
 the latter accusing the former of striking his oxen. 
 B - thrust himself between and parted them ; 
 but they afterwards renewed their fray, and the 
 Canadian, I believe, thrashed the Yankee soundly, 
 for which he had to pay twelve dollars. Yet he was 
 but a little fellow. 
 
 Coming to the Mansion House about supper-time, 
 we found somewhat of a concourse of people, the 
 Governor and Council being in session on the subject 
 of the disputed territory. The British have lately 
 imprisoned a man who was sent to take the census ; 
 and the Mainiacs are much excited on the subject. 
 They wish the Governor to order out the militia at 
 once, and take possession of the territory with the 
 strong hand. There was a British army-captain at 
 the Mansion House ; and an idea was thrown out 
 that it would be as well to seize upon him as a 
 hostage. I would, for the joke s sake, that it had 
 been done. Personages at the tavern : the Gover 
 nor, somewhat stared after as he walked through 
 
64 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837, 
 
 the bar-room ; Councillors seated about, sitting on 
 benches near the bar, or on the stoop along the front 
 of the house ; the adjutant-general of the State ; two 
 young Blue-Noses, from Canada or the provinces ; a 
 gentleman "thumbing his hat" for liquor, or perhaps 
 playing off the trick of the "honest landlord" on 
 some stranger. The decanters and wine-bottles on 
 the move, and the beer and soda founts pouring out 
 continual streams, with a whiz. Stage-drivers, &c., 
 asked to drink with the aristocracy, and mine host 
 treating and being treated. Rubicund faces ; breaths 
 odorous of brandy-and-water. Occasionally the pop 
 of a champagne cork. 
 
 Returned home, and took a lesson in French of 
 
 Mons. S . I like him very much, and have 
 
 seldom met with a more honest, simple, and appa 
 rently so well-principled a man ; which good qualities 
 I impute to his being, by the father s side, of German 
 blood. He looks more like a Ger.man or, as he 
 says, like a Swiss than a Frenchman, having very 
 light hair and a light complexion, and not a French 
 expression. He is a vivacious little fellow, and 
 wonderfully excitable to mirth ; and it is truly a 
 sight to see him laugh ; every feature partakes of 
 his movement, and even his whole body shares in it, 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 65 
 
 as he rises and dances about the room. He has great 
 variety of conversation, commensurate with his expe 
 riences in life, and sometimes will talk Spanish ore 
 rotundo, sometimes imitate the Catholic priests, 
 chanting Latin songs for the dead, in deep, gruff, 
 awful tones, producing really a very strong impres 
 sion ; then he will break out into a light French 
 song, perhaps of love, perhaps of war, acting it out, 
 as if on the stage of a theatre : all this intermingled 
 with continual fun, excited by the incidents of the 
 passing moment. He has Frenchified all our names, 
 
 calling B Monsieur Du Pont, myself M. de 
 
 1 Aubepine, and himself M. le Berger, and all, 
 Knights of the Round Table. And we live in great 
 harmony and brotherhood, as queer a life as anybody 
 leads, and as queer a set as may be found anywhere. 
 In his more serious intervals, he talks philosophy 
 and deism, and preaches obedience to the law of 
 reason and morality ; which law, he says (and I 
 believe him), he has so well observed, that, notwith 
 standing his residence in dissolute countries, he has 
 never yet been sinful. He wishes me, eight or nine 
 weeks hence, to accompany him on foot to Quebec, 
 and then to Niagara and New York. I should like 
 it well, if my circumstances and other considerations 
 VOL. I. 5 
 
66 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 would permit. What pleases much in Mons. S 
 
 is the simple and childlike enjoyment he finds in 
 trifles, and the joy with which he speaks of going 
 back to his own country, away from the dull Yankees, 
 who here misunderstand and despise him. Yet I 
 have never heard him speak harshly of them. I 
 
 rather think that B and I will be remembered 
 
 by him with more pleasure than anybody else in the 
 country ; for we have sympathized with him, and 
 treated him kindly, and like a gentleman and an 
 equal ; and he comes to us at night as to home 
 and friends. 
 
 I went down to the river to-day to see B fish 
 
 for salmon with a fly, a hopeless business : for he 
 says that only one instance has been known in the 
 United States of salmon being taken otherwise than 
 with a net. A few chubs were all the fruit of his 
 piscatory efforts. But while looking at the rushing 
 and rippling stream, I saw a great fish, some six feet 
 long and thick in proportion, suddenly emerge at 
 whole length, turn a somerset, and then vanish again 
 beneath the water. It was of a glistening, yellowish 
 brown, with its fins all spread, and looking very 
 strange and startling, darting out so lifelike from the 
 black water, throwing itself fully into the bright 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 67 
 
 sunshine, and then lost to sight and to pursuit. I 
 saw also a long, flat-bottomed boat go up the river, 
 with a brisk wind and against a strong stream. Its 
 sails were of curious construction : a long mast, with 
 two sails below, one on each side of the boat, and a 
 broader one surmounting them. The sails were 
 coloured brown, and appeared like leather or skins, 
 but were really cloth. At a distance, the vessel 
 looked like, or at least I compared it to, a monstrous 
 water-insect skimming along the river. If the sails 
 had been crimson or yellow, the resemblance would 
 have been much closer. There was a pretty spacious 
 raised cabin in the after-part of the boat. It moved 
 along lightly, and disappeared between the woody 
 banks. These boats have the two parallel sails 
 attached to the same yard, and some have two sails, 
 one surmounting the other. They trade to Water- 
 ville and thereabouts, names, as " Paul Pry," on 
 their sails. 
 
 Saturday, July i$tk. Went with B yesterday 
 
 to visit several Irish shanties, endeavouring to find 
 out who had stolen some rails of a fence. At the 
 first door at which we knocked, (a shanty with an 
 earthen mound heaped against the wall, two or three 
 
68 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 11837. 
 
 feet thick,) the inmates were not up, though it was 
 past eight o clock. At last a middle-aged woman 
 showed herself, half dressed, and completing her 
 toilet. Threats were made of tearing down her 
 house ; for she is a lady of very indifferent morals, 
 and sells rum. Few of these people are connected 
 with the mill-dam, or, at least, many are not so, 
 but have intruded themselves into the vacant huts 
 which were occupied by the mill-dam people last 
 year. In two or three places hereabouts there is 
 quite a village of these dwellings, with a clay and 
 board chimney, or oftener an old barrel, smoked and 
 charred with the fire. Some of their roofs are 
 covered -with sods, and appear almost subterranean. 
 One of the little hamlets stands on both sides of a 
 deep dell, wooded and bush-grown, with a vista, as it 
 were, into the heart of a wood in one direction, and 
 to the broad, sunny river in the other : there was a 
 little rivulet crossed by a plank, at the bottom of the 
 dell. At two doors we saw very pretty and modest- 
 looking young women, one with a child in her arms. 
 Indeed, they all have innumerable little children ; 
 and they are invariably in good health, though always 
 dirty of face. They come to the door while their 
 mothers are talking with the visitors, standing 
 
1837-] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 69 
 
 straight up on their bare legs, with their little plump 
 bodies protruding, in one hand a small tin saucepan, 
 and in the other an iron spoon, with unwashed 
 mouths, looking as independent as any child or 
 grown person in the land. They stare unabashed, 
 but make no answer when spoken to. " I ve no call 
 
 to your fence, Misser B ." It seems strange that 
 
 a man should have the right, unarmed with any legal 
 instrument, of tearing down the dwelling-houses of a 
 score of families, and driving the inmates forth with 
 out a shelter. Yet B undoubtedly has this right ; 
 
 and it is not a little striking to see how quietly these 
 people contemplate the probability of his exercising 
 it, resolving, indeed, to burrow in their holes as long 
 as may be, yet caring about as little for an ejectment 
 as those who could find a tenement anywhere, and 
 less. Yet the women, amid all the trials of their 
 situation, appear to have kept up the distinction 
 between virtue and vice ; those who can claim the 
 former will not associate with the latter. When the 
 women travel with young children, they carry the 
 baby slung at their backs, and sleeping quietly. The 
 dresses of the new-comers are old-fashioned, making 
 them look aged before their time. 
 
 Monsieur S shaving himself yesterday morn- 
 
/O AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 ing. He was in excellent spirits, and could not keep 
 his tongue or body still more than long enough to 
 make two or three consecutive strokes at his beard. 
 Then he would turn, flourishing his razor and grimac 
 ing joyously, enacting droll antics, breaking out into 
 scraps and verses of drinking-songs, "A boire, a boire!" 
 then laughing heartily, and crying, " Vive la gaietc!" 
 then resuming his task, looking into the glass with 
 grave face, on which, however, a grin would soon 
 break out anew, and all his pranks would be repeated 
 with variations. He turned this foolery to philo 
 sophy, by observing that mirth contributed to good 
 ness of heart, and to make us love our fellow-creatures. 
 Conversing with him in the evening, he affirmed, with 
 evident belief in the truth of what he said, that he 
 would have no objection, except that it would be a 
 very foolish thing, to expose his whole heart, his whole 
 inner man, to the view of the world. Not that there 
 would not be much evil discovered there ; but, as he 
 was conscious of being in a state of mental and moral 
 improvement, working out his progress onward, he 
 would not shrink from such a scrutiny. This talk was 
 introduced by his mentioning the Ministers Black 
 Veil, which, he said, he had seen translated into 
 French, as an exercise, by a Miss Appleton of Bangor. 
 
iS37-J AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 71 
 
 Saw by the river-side, late in the afternoon, one 
 of the above-described boats going into the stream, 
 with the water rippling at the prow, from the strength 
 of the current and of the boat s motion. By and by 
 comes down a raft, perhaps twenty yards long, guided 
 by two men, one at each end, the raft itself of boards 
 sawed at Waterville, and laden with square bundles of 
 shingles and round bundles of clapboards. " Friend," 
 says one man, " how is the tide now ? " this being 
 important to the onward progress. They make fast 
 to a tree, in order to wait for the tide to rise a little 
 higher. It would be pleasant enough to float down 
 the Kennebec on one of these rafts, letting the river 
 conduct you onward at its own pace, leisurely dis 
 playing to you all the wild or ordered beauties along 
 its banks, and perhaps running you aground in some 
 peculiarly picturesque spot, for your longer enjoyment 
 of it. Another object, perhaps, is a solitary man 
 paddling himself down the river in a small canoe, the 
 light, lonely touch of his paddle in the water making 
 the silence seem deeper. Every few minutes a stur 
 geon leaps forth, sometimes behind you, so that you 
 merely hear the splash, and, turning hastily around, 
 see nothing but the disturbed water. Sometimes he 
 darts straight on end out of a quiet black spot on 
 
72 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 which your eyes happen to be fixed, and, when even 
 his tail is clear of the surface, he falls down on his 
 side, and disappears. 
 
 On the river-bank, an Irishwoman washing some 
 clothes, surrounded by her children, whose babbling 
 sounds pleasantly along the edge of the shore ; and 
 she also answers in a sweet, kindly, and cheerful 
 voice, though an immoral woman, and without the 
 certainty of bread or shelter from day to day. An 
 Irishman sitting angling on the brink with an alder- 
 pole and a clothes -line. At frequent intervals the 
 scene is suddenly broken by a loud report like 
 thunder rolling along the banks, echoing and reverbe 
 rating afar. It is a blast of rocks. Along the margin 
 sometimes sticks of timber made fast, either sepa 
 rately or several together : stones of some size, varying 
 the pebbles and sand ; a clayey spot, where a shallow 
 brook runs into the river, not with a deep outlet, but 
 finding its way across the bank in two or three single 
 runlets. Looking upward into the deep glen whence 
 it issues, you see its shady current. Elsewhere a 
 high acclivity, with the beach between it and the 
 river, the ridge broken and caved away, so that the 
 earth looks fresh and yellow, and is penetrated by 
 the nests of birds. An old shining tree-trunk, half in 
 
I837-] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 73 
 
 and half out of the water. An island of gravel, long 
 and narrow, in the centre of the river. Chips, blocks 
 of wood, slabs, and other scraps of lumber, strewed 
 along the beach ; logs drifting down. The high bank 
 covered with various trees and shrubbery, and, in one 
 place, two or three Irish shanties. 
 
 Thursday, July 20. A drive yesterday afternoon 
 to a pond in the vicinity of Augusta, about nine miles 
 off, to fish for white perch. Remarkables : the steering 
 of the boat through the crooked, labyrinthine brook, 
 into the open pond, the man who acted as pilot, his 
 talking with B - about politics, the bank, the iron 
 money of " a king who came to reign, in Greece, over 
 
 a city called Sparta," his advice to E to come 
 
 amongst the labourers on the mill-dam, because it 
 stimulated them " to see a man grinning amongst 
 them." The man took hearty tugs at a bottle of good 
 Scotch whisky, and became pretty merry. The fish 
 caught were the yellow perch, which are not esteemed 
 for eating ; the white perch, a beautiful, silvery, round- 
 backed fish, which bites eagerly, runs about with the 
 line while being pulled up, makes good sport for the 
 angler, and an admirable dish ; a great chub ; and 
 three horned pouts, which swallow the hook into their 
 lowest entrails. Several dozen fish were taken in an 
 
74 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. .1837. 
 
 hour or two, and then we returned to the shop where 
 we had left our horse and waggon, the pilot very 
 eccentric behind us. It was a small, dingy shop, 
 dimly lighted by a single inch of candle, faintly 
 disclosing various boxes, barrels standing on end, 
 articles hanging from the ceiling ; the proprietor at 
 the counter, whereon appear gin and brandy, respec 
 tively contained in a tin pint-measure and an earthen 
 ware jug, with two or three tumblers beside them, out 
 of which nearly all the party drank ; some coming up 
 to the counter frankly, others lingering in the back 
 ground, waiting to be pressed, two paying for their 
 own liquor and withdrawing. B - treated them 
 twice round. The pilot, after drinking his brandy, 
 gave a history of our fishing expedition, and how 
 many and how large fish we caught. B - making 
 acquaintances and renewing them, and gaining great 
 credit for liberality and freeheartedness, two or three 
 boys looking on and listening to the talk, the shop 
 keeper smiling behind his counter, with the tarnished 
 tin scales beside him, the inch of candle burning 
 down almost to extinction. So we got into our 
 waggon, with the fish, and drove to Robinson s tavern, 
 almost five miles off, where we supped and passed the 
 night. In the bar-room was a fat old countryman on 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 75 
 
 a journey, and a quack doctor of the vicinity, and 
 
 an Englishman with a peculiar accent. Seeing B s 
 
 jointed and brass-mounted fishing-pole, he took it 
 for a theodolite, and supposed that we had been on a 
 surveying expedition. At supper, which consisted of 
 bread, butter, cheese, cake, doughnuts, and goose 
 berry-pie, we were waited upon by a tall, very tall 
 woman, young and maiden-looking, yet with a strongly 
 outlined and determined face. Afterwards we found 
 her to be the wife of mine host. She poured out 
 our tea, came in when we rang the table-bell to re 
 fill our cups, and again retired. While at supper, 
 the fat old traveller was ushered through the room 
 into a contiguous bedroom. My own chamber, appa 
 rently the best in the house, had its walls orna 
 mented with a small, gilt-framed, foot-square looking- 
 glass, with a hairbrush hanging beneath it ; a record 
 of the deaths of the family written on a black tomb, 
 in an engraving, where a father, mother, and child 
 were represented in a graveyard, weeping over said 
 tomb ; the mourners dressed in black, country-cut 
 clothes ; the engraving executed in Vermont There 
 was also a wood engraving of the Declaration of 
 Independence, with fac-similes of the autographs ; a 
 portrait of the Empress Josephine, and another of 
 
/6 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 Spring. In the two closets of this chamber were 
 mine hostess s cloak, best bonnet, and go-to-meeting 
 apparel. There was a good bed, in which I slept 
 tolerably well, and, rising betimes, ate breakfast, con 
 sisting of some of our own fish, and then started for 
 Augusta. The fat old traveller had gone off with the 
 harness of our waggon, which the hostler had put on 
 to his horse by mistake. The tavern-keeper gave us 
 his own harness, and started in pursuit of the old 
 man, who was probably aware of the exchange, and 
 well satisfied with it. 
 
 Our drive to Augusta, six or seven miles, was very 
 pleasant, a heavy rain having fallen during the night 
 and laid the oppressive dust of the day before. The 
 road lay parallel with the Kennebec, of which we 
 occasionally had near glimpses. The country swells 
 back from the river in hills and ridges, without any 
 interval of level ground ; and there were frequent 
 w r oods, filling up the valleys or crowning the summits. 
 The land is good, the farms look neat, and the houses 
 comfortable. The latter are generally but of one 
 storey, but with large barns : and it was a good 
 sign, that, while we saw no houses unfinished nor out 
 of repair, one man at least had found it expedient 
 to make an addition to his dwelling. At the distance 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 77 
 
 of more than two miles, we had a view of white 
 Augusta, with its steeples, and the State House, at the 
 farther end of the town. Observable matters along 
 the road were the stage, all the dust of yesterday 
 brushed off, and no new dust contracted, full of pas 
 sengers, inside and out ; among them some gentle 
 manly people and pretty girls, all looking fresh and 
 unsullied, rosy, cheerful, and curious as to the face of 
 the country, the faces of passing travellers, and the 
 incidents of their journey ; not yet damped, in the 
 morning sunshine, by long miles of jolting over rough 
 and hilly roads, to compare this with their appear 
 ance at midday, and as they drive into Bangor at 
 dusk ; two women dashing along in a waggon, and 
 with a child, rattling pretty speedily down hill ; 
 people looking at us from the open doors and 
 windows ; the children staring from the wayside ; 
 the mowers stopping, for a moment, the sway of 
 their scythes ; the matron of a family, indistinctly 
 seen at some distance within the house, her head and 
 shoulders appearing through the window, drawing 
 her handkerchief over her bosom, which had been 
 uncovered to give the baby its breakfast, the said 
 baby, or its immediate predecessor, sitting at the door, 
 turning round to creep away on all fours ; a man 
 
78 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 building a flat-bottomed boat by the roadside : he 
 talked with B - about the boundary question, and 
 swore fervently in favour of driving the British " into 
 hell s kitchen " by main force. 
 
 Colonel B , the engineer of the mill-dam, is 
 
 now here, after about a fortnight s absence. He is a 
 plain country squire, with a good figure, but with 
 rather a heavy brow ; a rough complexion ; a gait 
 stiff, and a general rigidity of manner, something 
 like that of a schoolmaster. He originated in a 
 country town, and is a self-educated man. As he 
 walked down the gravel-path to-day, after dinner, 
 he took up a scythe, which one of the mowers had 
 left on the sward, and began to mow, with quite a 
 scientific swing. On the coming of the mower, he 
 laid it down, perhaps a little ashamed of his amuse 
 ment. I was interested in this ; to see a man, after 
 twenty-five years of scientific occupation, thus trying 
 whether his arms retained their strength and skill 
 for the labours of his youth, mindful of the day 
 when he wore striped trousers, and toiled in his 
 shirt-sleeves, and now tasting again, for pastime, 
 this drudgery beneath a fervid sun. He stood 
 a while, looking at the workmen, and then went to 
 oversee the labourers at the mill-dam. 
 
1837-] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 79 
 
 Monday, July 2^tk. I bathed in the river on 
 Thursday evening, and in the brook at the old dam 
 on Saturday and Sunday, the former time at noon. 
 The aspect of the solitude at noon was peculiarly 
 impressive, there being a cloudless sunshine, no wind, 
 no rustling of the forest-leaves, no waving of the 
 boughs, no noise but the brawling and babbling of 
 the stream, making its way among the stones, and 
 pouring in a little cataract round one side of the 
 mouldering dam. Looking up the brook, there was 
 a long vista, now ripples, now smooth and glassy 
 spaces, now large rocks, almost blocking up the 
 channel ; while the trees stood upon either side, 
 mostly straight, but here and there a branch thrust 
 ing itself out irregularly, and one tree, a pine, leaning 
 over, not bending, but leaning at an angle over 
 the brook, rough and ragged ; birches, alders ; the 
 tallest of all the trees an old, dead, leafless pine, 
 rising white and lonely, though closely surrounded 
 by others. Along the brook, now the grass and 
 herbage extended close to the water; now a small, 
 sandy beach. The wall of rock before described, 
 looking as if it had been hewn, but with irregular 
 strokes of the workman, doing his job by rough and 
 ponderous strength, now chancing to hew it away 
 
80 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 smoothly and cleanly, now carelessly smiting, and 
 making gaps, or piling on the slabs of rock, so as 
 to leave vacant spaces. In the interstices grow brake 
 and broad-leaved forest-grass. The trees that spring 
 from the top of this wall have their roots pressing 
 close to the rock, so that there is no soil between ; 
 they cling powerfully, and grasp the crag tightly with 
 their knotty fingers. The trees on both sides are so 
 thick, that the sight and the thoughts are almost 
 immediately lost among confused stems, branches, 
 and clustering green leaves, a narrow strip of bright 
 blue sky above, the sunshine falling lustrously down, 
 and making the pathway of the brook luminous below. 
 Entering among the thickets, I find the soil strewn 
 with old leaves of preceding seasons, through which 
 may be seen a black or dark mould ; the roots of 
 trees stretch frequently across the path ; often a moss- 
 grown brown log lies athwart, and when you set your 
 foot down, it sinks into the decaying substance into 
 the heart of oak or pine. The leafy boughs and 
 twigs of the underbrush enlace themselve before you, 
 so that you must stoop your head to pass under, or 
 thrust yourself through amain, while they sweep 
 against your face, and perhaps knock off your hat. 
 There are rocks mossy and slippery ; sometimes you 
 
i8 3 7.J AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 8 1 
 
 stagger, with a great rustling of branches, against a 
 clump of bushes, and into the midst of it. From end 
 to end of all this tangled shade goes a pathway 
 scarcely worn, for the leaves are not trodden through, 
 yet plain enough to the eye, winding gently to avoid 
 tree trunks and rocks and little hillocks. In the more 
 open ground, the aspect of a tall, fire-blackened stump, 
 standing alone, high up on a swell of land, that rises 
 gradually from one side of the brook, like a monu 
 ment. Yesterday, I passed a group of children in this 
 solitary valley, two boys, I think, and two girls. 
 One of the little girls seemed to have suffered some 
 wrong from her companions, for she was weeping and 
 complaining violently. Another time, I came sud 
 denly on a small Canadian boy, who was in a hollow 
 place, among the ruined logs of an old causeway, 
 picking raspberries, lonely among bushes and gorges, 
 far up the wild valley, and the lonelier seemed the 
 little boy for the bright sunshine, that showed no one 
 else in a wide space of view except him and me. 
 
 Remarkable items : the observation of Mons. 
 
 S - when B was saying something against the 
 
 character of the French people, " You ought not to 
 form an unfavourable judgment of a great nation 
 from mean fellows like me, strolling about in a foreign 
 
 VOL. I. 6 
 
82 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 country." I thought it very noble thus to protest 
 against anything discreditable in himself personally 
 being used against the honour of his country. He is 
 a very singular person, with an originality in all his 
 notions ; not that nobody has ever had such before, 
 but that he has thought them out for himself. He 
 told me yesterday that one of his sisters was a waiting- 
 maid in the Rocher de Cancale. He is about the 
 sincerest man I ever knew, never pretending to 
 feelings that are not in him, never flattering. His 
 feelings do not seem to be warm, though they are 
 kindly. He is so single-minded that he cannot under 
 stand badinage, but takes it all as if meant in earnest, 
 a German trait. He values himself greatly on 
 being a Frenchman, though all his most valuable 
 qualities come from Germany. His temperament is 
 cool and pure, and he is greatly delighted with any 
 attentions from the ladies. A short time since, a lady 
 gave him a bouquet of roses and pinks ; he capered 
 and danced and sang, put it in water, and carried it 
 to his own chamber ; but he brought it out for us to 
 see and admire two or three times a day, bestowing 
 on it all the epithets of admiration in the French 
 language, " Supcrbc ! magnifique ! " When some of 
 the flowers began to fade, he made the rest, with 
 
I837-] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 83 
 
 others, into a new nosegay, and consulted us whether 
 it would be fit to give to another lady. Contrast this 
 French foppery with his solemn moods, when we sit 
 
 in the twilight, or after B is abed, talking of 
 
 Christianity and Deism, of ways of life, of marriage, 
 of benevolence, in short, of all deep matters of this 
 world and the next. An evening or two since, he 
 began singing all manner of English songs, such as 
 Mrs. Hemans s " Landing of the Pilgrims," "Auld 
 Lang Syne," and some of Moore s, the singing pretty 
 fair, but in the oddest tone and accent Occasionally 
 he breaks out with scraps from French tragedies, 
 which he spouts with corresponding action. He 
 generally gets close to me in these displays of musical 
 and histrionic talent. Once he offered to magnetize 
 me in the manner of Monsieur P . 
 
 Wednesday, July 2.6th. Dined at Barker s yester 
 day. Before dinner, sat with several other persons in 
 
 the stoop of the tavern. There were B , J. A. 
 
 Chandler, Clerk of the Court, a man of middle age or 
 beyond, two or three stage people, and, near by, a 
 negro, whom they call " the Doctor," a crafty-looking 
 fellow, one of whose occupations is nameless. In 
 presence of this goodly company, a man of a depressed, 
 
84 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 neglected air, a soft, simple-looking fellow, with an 
 anxious expression, in a labourer s dress, approached 
 and inquired for Mr. Barker. Mine host being gone 
 to Portland, the stranger was directed to the bar 
 keeper, who stood at the door. The man asked 
 where he should find one Mary Ann Russell, a 
 question which excited general and hardly suppressed 
 mirth ; for the said Mary Ann is one of a knot of 
 women who were routed on Sunday evening by 
 Barker and a constable. The man was told that the 
 black fellow would give him all the information he 
 wanted. The black fellow asked, 
 
 " Do you want to see her ? " 
 
 Others of the by-standers or by-sitters put various 
 questions as to the nature of the man s business with 
 Mary Ann. One asked, 
 
 " Is she your daughter ? " 
 
 " Why, a little nearer than that, I calkilate," said 
 the poor devil. 
 
 Here the mirth was increased, it being evident 
 that the \voman was his wife. The man seemed 
 too simple and obtuse to comprehend the ridicule 
 of his situation, or to be rendered very miser 
 able by it. Nevertheless, he made some touching 
 points. 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 85 
 
 "A man generally places some little dependence 
 on his wife," said he, " whether she s good or not." 
 
 He meant, probably, that he rests some affection 
 on her. He told us that she had behaved well, till 
 committed to jail for striking a child ; and I believe 
 he was absent from home at the time, and had not 
 seen her since. And now he was in search of her, 
 intending, doubtless, to do his best to get her out of 
 her troubles, and then to take her back to his horn*!?. 
 Some advised him not to look after her ; others 
 recommended him to pay " the Doctor " aforesaid for 
 guiding him to her; which finally "the Doctor" did, 
 in consideration of a treat ; and the fellow went off, 
 having heard little but gibes, and not one word of 
 sympathy ! I would like to have witnessed his meet 
 ing with his wife. 
 
 There was a moral picturesqueness in the contrasts 
 of the scene, a man moved as deeply as his nature 
 would admit, in the midst of hardened, gibing spec 
 tators, heartless towards him. It is worth thinking 
 over and studying out. He seemed rather hurt and 
 pricked by the jests thrown at him, yet bore it 
 patiently, and sometimes almost joined in the laugh, 
 being of an easy, unenergetic temper. 
 
 Hints for characters : Nancy, a pretty, black- 
 
86 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 eyed, intelligent servant-girl, living in Captain H s 
 family. She comes daily to make the beds in our 
 part of the house, and exchanges a good morning 
 with me, in a pleasant voice, and with a glance and 
 smile, somewhat shy, because we are not acquainted, 
 yet capable of being made conversable. She washes 
 once a week, and may be seen standing over her tub, 
 with her handkerchief somewhat displaced from her 
 white neck, because it is hot. Often she stands with 
 
 her bare arms in the water talking with Mrs. H , 
 
 or looks through the window, perhaps, at B , or 
 
 somebody else crossing the yard, rather thoughtfully, 
 but soon smiling or laughing, Then goeth she for a 
 pail of water. In the afternoon, very probably, she 
 dresses herself in silks, looking not only pretty, but 
 lady-like, and strolls round the house, not unconscious 
 that some gentleman may be staring at her from 
 behind the green blinds. After supper, she walks to 
 the village. Morning and evening, she goes a-milking. 
 And thus passes her life, cheerfully, usefully, virtu 
 ously, with hopes, doubtless, of a husband and children. 
 Mrs. H - is a particularly plump, soft-fleshed, 
 fair-complexioned, comely woman enough, with rather 
 a simple countenance, not nearly so piquant as 
 Nancy s. Her walk has something of the roll or 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 87 
 
 waddle of a fat woman, though it were too much to 
 call her fat. She seems to be a sociable body, prob 
 ably laughter-loving. Captain H himself has 
 
 commanded a steamboat, and has a certain knowledge 
 of life. 
 
 Query, in relation to the man s missing wife, how 
 much desire and resolution of doing her duty by her 
 husband can a wife retain, while injuring him in what 
 is deemed the most essential point ? 
 
 Observation. The effect of morning sunshine on 
 the wet grass, on sloping and swelling land, between 
 the spectator and the sun at some distance, as across 
 a lawn. It diffused a dim brilliancy over the whole 
 surface of the field. The mists, slow-rising farther 
 ofT, part resting on the earth, the remainder of the 
 column already ascending so high that you doubt 
 whether to call it a fog or a cloud. 
 
 Friday, July 2$t/i. Saw my classmate and for 
 merly intimate friend, - , for the first time since 
 we graduated. He has met with good success in life, 
 in spite of circumstance, having struggled upward 
 against bitter opposition, by the force of his own 
 abilities, to be a member of Congress, after having 
 been for some time the leader of his party in the 
 
88 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 State Legislature. We met like old friends, and 
 conversed almost as freely as we used to do in 
 college days, twelve years ago and more. He is a 
 singular person, shrewd, crafty, insinuating, with 
 wonderful tact, seizing on each man by his manage 
 able point, and using him for his own purpose, often 
 without the man s suspecting that he is made a tool 
 of; and yet, artificial as his character would seem to 
 be, his conversation, at least to myself, was full of 
 natural feeling, the expression of which can hardly be 
 mistaken, and his revelations with regard to himself 
 had really a great deal of frankness. He spoke of 
 his ambition, of the obstacles which he had encoun 
 tered, of the means by which he had overcome them, 
 imputing great efficacy to his personal intercourse 
 with people, and his study of their characters ; then 
 of his course as a member of the Legislature and 
 speaker, and his style of speaking and its effects ; of 
 the dishonourable things which had been imputed 
 to him, and in what manner he had repelled the 
 charges. In short, he would seem to have opened 
 himself very freely as to his public life. Then, as to 
 his private affairs, he spoke of his marriage, of his 
 wife, his children, and told me, with tears in his eyes, 
 of the death of a dear little girl, and how it affected 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 89 
 
 him, and how impossible it had been for him to 
 believe that she was really to die. A man of the 
 most open nature might well have been more reserved 
 to a friend, after twelve years separation, than - 
 was to me. Nevertheless, he is really a crafty man, 
 concealing, like a murder-secret, anything that is not 
 good for him to have known. He by no means feigns 
 the good-feeling that he professes, nor is there any 
 thing affected in the frankness of his conversation ; 
 and it is this that makes him so very fascinating. 
 There is such a quantity of truth and kindliness and 
 warm affections, that a man s heart opens to him, in 
 spite of himself. He deceives by truth. And not 
 only is he crafty, but, when occasion demands, bold 
 and fierce as a tiger, determined, and even straight 
 forward and undisguised in his measures, a daring 
 fellow as well as a sly one. Yet, notwithstanding his 
 consummate art, the general estimate of his character 
 seems to be pretty just. Hardly anybody, probably, 
 thinks him better than he is, and many think him 
 worse. Nevertheless, if no overwhelming discovery 
 of rascality be made, he will always possess influence ; 
 though I should hardly think that he would take any 
 prominent part in Congress. As to any rascality, I 
 rather believe that he has thought out for himself a 
 
90 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 much higher system of morality than any natural 
 integrity would have prompted him to adopt ; that 
 he has seen the thorough advantage of morality and 
 honesty ; and the sentiment of these qualities has 
 now got into his mind and spirit, and pretty well 
 impregnated them. I believe him to be about as 
 honest as the great run of the world, with something 
 even approaching to high-mindedness. His person 
 in some degree accords with his character, thin and 
 with a thin face, sharp features, sallow, a projecting 
 brow not very high, deep-set eyes, an insinuating 
 smile and look, when he meets you, and is about 
 to address you. I should think that he would do 
 away with this peculiar expression, for it reveals more 
 of himself than can be detected in any other way, in 
 personal intercourse with him. Upon the whole, I 
 have quite a good liking for him, and mean to go to 
 to see him. 
 
 Observation. A steam-engine across the river, 
 which almost continually during the day, and some 
 times all night, may be heard puffing and panting, as 
 if it uttered groans for being compelled to labour in the 
 heat and sunshine, and when the world is asleep also. 
 
 Monday, July $ist. Nothing remarkable to record. 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 91 
 
 A child asleep in a young lady s arms, a little baby, 
 two or three months old. Whenever anything par 
 tially disturbed the child, as, for instance, when the 
 young lady or a by-stander patted its cheek or rubbed 
 its chin, the child would smile ; then all its dreams 
 seemed to be of pleasure and happiness. At first the 
 smile was so faint, that I doubted whether it were 
 really a smile or no ; but on further efforts, it bright 
 ened forth very decidedly. This, without opening its 
 eyes. A constable, a homely, good-natured, business- 
 looking man, with a warrant against an Irishman s 
 wife for throwing a brickbat at a fellow. He gave 
 good advice to the Irishman about the best method 
 of coming easiest through the affair. Finally settled, 
 the justice agreeing .to relinquish his fees, on con 
 dition that the Irishman would pay for the mending 
 of his old boots ! 
 
 I went with Monsieur S yesterday to pick 
 
 raspberries. He fell through an old log bridge thrown 
 over a hollow ; looking back, only his head and 
 shoulders appeared through the rotten logs and among 
 the bushes. A shower coming on, the rapid running of 
 a little barefooted boy, coming up unheard, and dashing 
 swiftly past us, and showing the soles of his naked feet 
 as he ran adown the path, and up the opposite rise. 
 
Q2 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 Tuesday, August is/. There having been a heavy 
 rain yesterday, a nest of chimney-swallows was 
 washed down the chimney into the fireplace of one 
 of the front rooms. My attention was drawn to them 
 by a most obstreperous twittering ; and looking be 
 hind the fire-board, there were three young birds, 
 clinging with their feet against one of the jambs, 
 looking at me, open-mouthed, and all clamouring 
 together, so as quite to fill the room with the short, 
 eager, frightened sound. The old birds, by certain 
 signs upon the floor of the room, appeared to have 
 fallen victims to the appetite of the cat. La belle 
 Nancy provided a basket filled with cotton-wool, into 
 which the poor little devils were put ; and I tried to 
 feed them with soaked bread, of which, however, they 
 did not eat with much relish. Tom, the Irish boy, 
 gave it as his opinion that they were not old enough 
 to be weaned. I hung the basket out of the window, 
 in the sunshine, and upon looking in, an hour or two 
 after, found that two of the birds had escaped. The 
 other I tried to feed, and sometimes, when a morsel 
 of bread was thrust into its open mouth, it would 
 swallow it. But it appeared to suffer very much, 
 vociferating loudly when disturbed, and panting, in a 
 sluggish agony, with eyes closed, or half opened, when 
 
1837-] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 93 
 
 let alone. It distressed me a good deal ; and I felt 
 
 relieved, though somewhat shocked, when B put 
 
 an end to its misery by squeezing its head and throw 
 ing it out of the window. They were of a slate-colour, 
 and might, I suppose, have been able to shift for 
 themselves. The other day a little yellow bird flew 
 into one of the empty rooms, of which there are half a 
 dozen on the lower floor, and could not find his way 
 out again, flying at the glass of the windows, instead 
 of at the door, thumping his head against the panes or 
 against the ceiling. I drove him into the entry and 
 chased him from end to end, endeavouring to make 
 him fly through one of the open doors. He would 
 fly at the circular light over the door, clinging to the 
 casement, sometimes alighting on one of the two glass 
 lamps, or on the cords that suspended them, uttering 
 an affrighted and melancholy cry whenever I came 
 near and flapped my handkerchief, and appearing 
 quite tired and sinking into despair. At last he 
 happened to fly low enough to pass through the door, 
 and immediately vanished into the gladsome sunshine. 
 Ludicrous situation of a man, drawing his chaise 
 down a sloping bank, to wash in the river. The chaise 
 got the better of him, and, rushing downward as if it 
 were possessed, compelled him to run at full speed, 
 
94 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 and drove him up to his chin into the water. A 
 singular instance, that a chaise may run away with a 
 man without a horse ! 
 
 Saturday, August 12 th. Left Augusta a week ago 
 
 this morning for . Nothing particular in our 
 
 drive across the country. Fellow-passenger, a Boston 
 dry-goods dealer, travelling to collect bills. At many 
 of the country shops he would get out, and show his 
 unwelcome visage. In the tavern, prints from Scrip 
 ture, varnished and on rollers, such as the Judgment 
 of Christ ; also, a droll set of coloured engravings of 
 the story of the Prodigal Son, the figures being clad 
 in modern costume, or, at least, that of not more 
 than half a century ago. The father, a grave, clerical 
 person, with a white wig and black broadcloth suit ; 
 the son, with a cocked hat and laced clothes, drinking 
 wine out of a glass, and caressing a woman in fashion 
 able dress. At a nice, comfortable, boarding- 
 house tavern, without a bar or any sort of wines or 
 spirits. An old lady from Boston, with her three 
 daughters, one of whom was teaching music, and the 
 other two schoolmistresses. A frank, free, mirthful 
 daughter of the landlady, about twenty-four years old, 
 between whom and myself there immediately sprang 
 
iS37-J AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 95 
 
 up a flirtation, which made us both feel rather melan 
 choly when we parted on Tuesday morning. Music 
 in the evening, with a song by a rather pretty, fantastic 
 little mischief of a brunette, about eighteen years old, 
 who has married within a year, and spent the last 
 summer in a trip to the Springs and elsewhere. Her 
 manner of walking is by jerks, with a quiver, as if she 
 were made of calves-feet jelly. I talk with everybody : 
 
 to Mrs. T good sense, to Mary, good sense, with 
 
 a mixture of fun, to Mrs. G , sentiment, romance, 
 
 and nonsense. 
 
 Walked with to see General Knox s old man 
 sion, a large, rusty-looking edifice of wood, with 
 some grandeur in the architecture, standing on the 
 banks of the river, close by the site of an old burial- 
 ground, and near where an ancient fort had been 
 erected for defence against the French and Indians. 
 General Knox once owned a square of thirty miles in 
 this part of the country ; and he wished to settle it 
 with a tenantry, after the fashion of English gentle 
 men. He would permit no edifice to be erected within 
 a certain distance of his mansion. His patent covered, 
 of course, the whole present town of Waldoborough 
 and divers other flourishing commercial and country 
 villages, and would have been of incalculable value 
 
96 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 could it have remained unbroken to the present time. 
 But the General lived in grand style, and received 
 throngs of visitors from foreign parts, and was obliged 
 to part with large tracts of his possessions, till now 
 there is. little left but the ruinous mansion and the 
 ground immediately around it. His tomb stands near 
 the house, a spacious receptacle, an iron door at the 
 end of a turf-covered mound, and surmounted by an 
 obelisk of marble. There are inscriptions to the 
 memory of several of his family ; for he had many 
 children, all of whom are now dead, except one 
 daughter, a widow of fifty, recently married to Hon. 
 John H . There is a stone fence round the monu 
 ment. On the outside of this are the gravestones, and 
 large flat tombstones of the ancient burial-ground, 
 the tombstones being of red freestone, with vacant 
 spaces, formerly inlaid with slate, on which were the 
 inscriptions, and perhaps coats-of-arms. One of these 
 spaces was in the shape of a heart. The people were 
 very wrathful that the General should have laid out 
 his grounds over this old burial-place ; and he dared 
 never throw down the gravestones, though his wife, a 
 haughty English lady, often teased him to do so. But 
 when the old General was dead, Lady Knox (as they 
 called her) caused them to be prostrated, as they now 
 
1837.1 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 97 
 
 lie. She was a woman of violent passions, and so 
 proud an aristocrat, that, as long as she lived, she 
 would never enter any house in the town except her 
 own. When a married daughter was ill, she used to 
 go in her carriage to the door, and send up to inquire 
 how she did. The General was personally very popu 
 lar ; but his wife ruled him. The house and its 
 vicinity, and the whole tract covered by Knox s 
 patent, may be taken as an illustration of what must 
 be the result of American schemes of aristocracy. It 
 is not forty years since this house was built, and Knox 
 was in his glory ; but now the house is all in decay, 
 while within a stone s throw of it there is a street of 
 smart white edifices of one or two storeys, occupied 
 chiefly by thriving mechanics, which has been laid out 
 where Knox meant to have forests and parks. On 
 the banks of the river, where he intended to have only 
 one wharf for his own West Indian vessels and yacht, 
 there are two wharves, with stores and a limekiln. 
 Little appertains to the mansion except the tomb and 
 the old burial-ground, and the old fort. 
 
 The descendants are all poor, and the inheritance 
 
 was merely sufficient to make a dissipated and drunken 
 
 fellow of the only one of the old General s sons who 
 
 survived to middle age. The man s habits were as 
 
 VOL. I. 7 
 
98 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 bad as possible as long as he had any money ; but 
 when quite ruined, he reformed. The daughter, the 
 only survivor among Knox s children (herself child 
 less), is a mild, amiable woman, therein totally differ 
 ing from her mother. Knox, when he first visited his 
 estate, arriving in a vessel, was waited upon by a depu- 
 tation of the squatters, who had resolved to resist him 
 to the death. He received them with genial courtesy, 
 made them dine with him aboard the vessel, and sent 
 them back to their constituents in great love and 
 admiration of him. He used to have a vessel running 
 to Philadelphia, I think, and bringing him all sorts of 
 delicacies. His way of raising money was to give a 
 mortgage on his estate of a hundred thousand dollars 
 at a time, and receive that nominal amount in goods, 
 which he would immediately sell at auction for per 
 haps thirty thousand. He died by a chicken-bone. 
 Near the house are the remains of a covered way, by 
 which the French once attempted to gain admittance 
 into the fort ; but the work caved in and buried a good 
 many of them, and the rest gave up the siege. There 
 was recently an old inhabitant living, who remembered 
 when the people used to reside in the fort. 
 
 Owl s Head, a watering-place, r terminating a point 
 of land, six or seven miles from Thomaston. A long 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 99 
 
 island shuts out the prospect of the sea. Hither 
 coasters and fishing- smacks run in when a storm is 
 anticipated. Two fat landlords, both young men, with 
 something of a contrast in their dispositions ; one of 
 them being a brisk, lively, active, jesting, fat man ; 
 the other more heavy and inert, making jests slug 
 gishly, if at all. Aboard the steamboat, Professor 
 Stuart of Andover, sitting on a sofa in the saloon, 
 generally in conversation with some person, resolving 
 their doubts on one point or another, speaking in a 
 very audible voice ; and strangers standing or sitting 
 around to hear him, as if he were an ancient apostle 
 or philosopher. He is a bulky man, with a large, 
 massive face, particularly calm in its expression, and 
 mild enough to be pleasing. When not otherwise 
 occupied, he reads, without much notice of what is 
 going on around him. He speaks without effort, yet 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 We got lost in a fog the morning after leaving 
 Owl s Head. Fired a brass cannon, rang bell, blew 
 steam, like a whale snorting. After one of the reports 
 of the cannon, we heard a horn blown at no great 
 distance, the sound coming soon after the report 
 Doubtful whether it came from the shore or a vessel. 
 Continued our ringing and snorting ; and by-and-by 
 
100 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 something was seen to mingle with the fog that 
 obscured everything beyond fifty yards from us. At 
 first it seemed only like a denser wreath of fog ; it 
 darkened still more, till it took the aspect of sails ; 
 then the hull of a small schooner came beating down 
 towards us, the wind laying her over towards us, so 
 that her gunwale was almost in the water, and we 
 could see the whole of her sloping deck. 
 
 " Schooner ahoy ! " say we. " Halloo ! Have you 
 seen Boston Light this morning ? " 
 
 " Yes ; it bears north-northwest, two miles dis 
 tant." 
 
 "Very much obliged to you," cries our captain. 
 
 So the schooner vanishes into the mist behind. 
 We get up our steam, and soon enter the harbour, 
 meeting vessels of every rig ; and the fog, clearing 
 away, shows a cloudy sky. Aboard, an old one-eyed 
 sailor, who had lost one of his feet, and had walked 
 on the stump from Eastport to Bangor, thereby 
 making a shocking ulcer. 
 
 Penobscot Bay is full of islands, close to which the 
 steamboat is continually passing. Some are large, 
 with portions of forest and portions of cleared land ; 
 some are mere rocks, with a little green or none, and 
 inhabited by sea-birds, which fly and flap about 
 
1837.} AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 101 
 
 hoarsely. Their eggs may be gathered by the bushel, 
 and are good to eat. Other islands have one house 
 and barn on them, this sole family being lords and 
 rulers of all the land which the sea girds. The owner of 
 such an island must have a peculiar sense of property 
 and lordship ; he must feel more like his own master 
 and his own man than other people can. Other 
 islands, perhaps high, precipitous, black bluffs, are 
 crowned with a white light-house, whence, as evening 
 comes on, twinkles a star across the melancholy deep, 
 seen by vessels coming on the coast, seen from the 
 main-land, seen from island to island. Darkness de 
 scending, and, looking down at the broad wake left by 
 the wheels of the steamboat, we may see sparkles of 
 sea-fire glittering through the gloom. 
 
 Salem, August 22nd. A walk yesterday afternoon 
 down to the Juniper and Winter Island. Singular 
 effect of partial sunshine, the sky being broadly and 
 heavily clouded, and land and sea, in consequence, being 
 generally overspread with a sombre gloom. But the 
 sunshine, somehow or other, found its way between 
 the interstices of the clouds, and illuminated some of 
 the distant objects very vividly. The white sails of a 
 ship caught it, and gleamed brilliant as sunny snow, 
 
102 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 the hull being scarcely visible, and the sea around 
 dark ; other smaller vessels too, so that they looked 
 like heavenly-winged things, just alighting on a dismal 
 world. Shifting their sails, perhaps, or going on 
 another tack, they almost disappear at once in the 
 obscure distance. Islands are seen in summer sun 
 shine and green glory ; their rocks also sunny and their 
 beaches white ; while other islands, for no apparent 
 reason, are in deep shade, and share the gloom of the 
 rest of the world. Sometimes part of an island is 
 illuminated and part dark. When the sunshine falls on 
 a very distant island, nearer ones being in shade, it 
 seems greatly to extend the bounds of visible space, 
 and put the horizon to a farther distance. The sea 
 roughly rushing against the shore, and dashing 
 against the rocks, and grating back over the sands. 
 A boat a little way from the shore, tossing and 
 swinging at anchor. Beach birds flitting from place 
 to place. 
 
 The family seat of the Hawthornes is Wigcastle, 
 Wigton, Wiltshire. The present head of the family, 
 now residing there, is Hugh Hawthorne. William 
 Hawthorne, who came over in 1635-36, was a younger 
 brother of the family. 
 
I837-J AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. IO3 
 
 A young man and girl meet together, each in 
 search of a person to be known by some particular 
 sign. They watch and wait a great while for that 
 person to pass. At last some casual circumstance 
 discloses that each is the one that the other is waiting 
 for. Moral, that what we need for our happiness 
 is often close at hand, if we knew but how to seek 
 for it. 
 
 The journal of a human heart for a single day in 
 ordinary circumstances. The lights and shadows that 
 flit across it ; its internal vicissitudes. 
 
 Distrust to be thus exemplified : Various good 
 and desirable things to be presented to a young man, 
 and offered to his acceptance, as a friend, a wife, a 
 fortune ; but he to refuse them all, suspecting that it 
 is merely a delusion. Yet all to be real, and he to be 
 told so, when too late. 
 
 A man tries to be happy in love ; he cannot 
 sincerely give his heart, and the affair seems all a 
 dream. In domestic life, the same ; in politics, a 
 seeming patriot ; but still he is sincere, and all seems 
 like a theatre. 
 
104 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 An old man, on a summer day, sits on a hill-top, 
 or on the observatory of his house, and sees the sun s 
 light pass from one object to another connected with 
 the events of his past life, as the school-house, the 
 place where his wife lived in her maidenhood, its 
 setting beams falling on the churchyard. 
 
 An idle man s pleasures and occupations and 
 thoughts during a day spent by the sea-shore : among 
 them, that of sitting on the top of a cliff, and throwing 
 stones at his own shadow, far below. 
 
 A blind man to set forth on a walk through ways 
 unknown to him, and to trust to the guidance of any 
 body who will take the trouble ; the different charac 
 ters who would undertake it : some mischievous, 
 some well-meaning, but incapable ; perhaps one 
 blind man undertakes to lead another. At last, 
 possibly, he rejects all guidance, and blunders on by 
 himself. 
 
 In the cabinet of the Essex Historical Society, 
 old portraits. Governor Leverett ; a dark moustached 
 face, the figure two-thirds length, clothed in a sort of 
 frock-coat, buttoned, and a broad sword-belt girded 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. IO5 
 
 round the waist, and fastened with a large steel 
 buckle ; the hilt of the sword steel, altogether very 
 striking. Sir William Pepperell, in English regi 
 mentals, coat, waistcoat, and breeches, all of red 
 broadcloth, richly gold-embroidered ; he holds a 
 general s truncheon in his right hand, and extends 
 the left towards the batteries erected against Louis- 
 bourg, in the country near which he is standing. 
 Endicott, Pyncheon, and others, in scarlet robes, 
 bands, &c. Half a dozen or more family portraits of 
 the Olivers, some in plain dresses, brown, crimson, or 
 claret ; others with gorgeous gold-embroidered waist 
 coats, descending almost to the knees, so as to form 
 the most conspicuous article of dress. Ladies, with 
 lace ruffles, the painting of which, in one of the 
 pictures, cost five guineas. Peter Oliver, who was 
 crazy, used to fight with these family pictures in the 
 old Mansion House ; and the face and breast of one 
 lady bear cuts and stabs inflicted by him. Miniatures 
 in oil, with the paint peeling off, of stern, old, yellow 
 faces. Oliver Cromwell, apparently an old picture, 
 half length, or one third, in an oval frame, probably 
 painted for some New England partisan. Some 
 pictures that had been partly obliterated by scrubbing 
 with sand. The dresses, embroidery, laces of the 
 
IO6 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 Oliver family are generally better done than the faces. 
 Governor Leverett s gloves, the glove part of coarse 
 leather, but round the wrist a deep, three or four inch 
 border of spangles and silver embroidery. Old drink- 
 ing-glasses, with tall stalks. A black glass bottle, 
 stamped with the name of Philip English, with a 
 broad bottom. The baby-linen, &c., of Governor 
 Bradford of Plymouth County. Old manuscript 
 sermons, some written in shorthand, others in a hand 
 that seems learnt from print. 
 
 Nothing gives a stronger idea of old worm-eaten 
 aristocracy of a family being crazy with age, and of 
 its being time that it was extinct than these black, 
 dusty, faded, antique-dressed portraits, such as those 
 of the Oliver family ; the identical old white wig of an 
 ancient minister producing somewhat the impression 
 that his very scalp, or some other portion of his 
 personal self, would do. 
 
 The excruciating agonies which Nature inflicts on 
 men (who break her laws) to be represented as the 
 work of human tormentors ; as the gout, by screwing 
 the toes. Thus we might find that worse than the 
 tortures of the Spanish Inquisition are daily suffered 
 without exciting notice. 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. IO/ 
 
 Suppose a married couple fondly attached to one 
 another, and to think that they lived solely for one 
 another ; then it to be found out that they were 
 divorced, or that they might separate if they chose. 
 What would be its effect ? 
 
 Monday, August 2jth. Went to Boston last Wed 
 nesday. Remarkables : An author at the American 
 Stationers Company, slapping his hand on his manu 
 script, and crying, " I m going to publish." An 
 excursion aboard a steamboat to Thompson s Island, 
 to visit the Manual Labour School for boys. Aboard 
 the steamboat several poets and various other authors ; 
 a Commodore, Colton, a small, dark brown, sickly 
 man, with a good deal of roughness in his address ; 
 Mr. Waterston, talking poetry and philosophy. Ex 
 amination and exhibition of the boys, little tanned 
 agriculturists. After examination, a stroll round the 
 island, examining the products, as wheat in sheaves 
 on the stubble-field ; oats, somewhat blighted and 
 spoiled ; great pumpkins elsewhere ; pastures ; mow 
 ing ground ; all cultivated by the boys. Their 
 residence, a great brick building, painted green, and 
 standing on the summit of a rising ground, exposed 
 to the winds of the bay. Vessels flitting past ; great 
 
108 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 ships, with intricacy of rigging and various sails ; 
 schooners, sloops, with their one or two broad sheets 
 of canvas : going on different tacks, so that the spec 
 tator might think that there was a different wind for 
 each vessel, or that they scudded across the sea 
 spontaneously, whither their own wills led them. The 
 farm boys remain insulated, looking at the passing 
 show, within sight of the city, yet having nothing to 
 do with it ; beholding their fellow-creatures skimming 
 by them in winged machines, and steamboats snorting 
 and puffing through the waves. Methinks an island 
 would be the most desirable of all landed property, 
 for it seems like a little world by itself ; and the water 
 may answer instead of the atmosphere that surrounds 
 planets. The boys swinging, two together, standing 
 up, and almost causing the ropes and their bodies 
 to stretch out horizontally. On our departure, they 
 ranged themselves on the rails of the fence, and, being 
 dressed in blue, looked not unlike a flock of pigeons. 
 
 On Friday, a visit to the Navy Yard at Charles- 
 town, in company with the naval officer of Boston, 
 and Cilley. Dined aboard the revenue-cutter " Ha 
 milton." A pretty cabin, finished off with bird s-eye 
 maple and mahogany ; two looking-glasses. Two 
 officers in blue frocks, with a stripe of lace on each 
 
I837-] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 1 09 
 
 shoulder. Dinner, chowder, fried fish, corned beef, 
 claret, afterwards champagne. The waiter tells the 
 captain of the cutter that Captain Percival (com 
 mander of the Navy Yard) is sitting on the deck 
 of the anchor hoy (which lies inside of the cutter), 
 smoking his cigar. The captain sends him a glass of 
 champagne, and inquires of the waiter \vhat Percival 
 says to it. " He said, sir, What does he send me 
 this damned stuff for ? but drinks, nevertheless." 
 The captain characterizes Percival as the roughest 
 old devil that ever was in his manners, but a kind, 
 good-hearted man at bottom. By and by comes in 
 the steward. " Captain Percival is coming aboard of 
 you, sir." " Well, ask him to walk down into the 
 cabin ; " and shortly down comes old Captain Per 
 cival, a white-haired, thin-visaged, weather-worn old 
 gentleman, in a blue, Quaker-cut coat, with tarnished 
 lace and brass buttons, a pair of drab pantaloons, and 
 brown waistcoat. There was an eccentric expression 
 in his face, which seemed partly wilful, partly natural. 
 He has not risen to his present rank in the regular 
 line of the profession ; but entered the navy as a 
 sailing-master, and has all the roughness of that class 
 of officers. Nevertheless, he knows how to behave 
 and to talk like a gentleman. Sitting down, and 
 
IIO AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 taking in hand a glass of champagne, he began a 
 lecture on economy, and how well it was that Uncle 
 Sam had a broad back, being compelled to bear so 
 many burdens as were laid on it, alluding to the 
 table covered with wine-bottles. Then he spoke of the 
 fitting-up of the cabin with expensive woods, of 
 the brooch in Captain Scott s bosom. Then he pro 
 ceeded to discourse of politics, taking the opposite 
 side to Cilley, and arguing with much pertinacity. 
 He seems to have moulded and shaped himself to 
 his own whims, till a sort of rough affectation has 
 become thoroughly imbued throughout a kindly 
 nature. He is full of antique prejudices against 
 the modern fashions of the younger officers, their 
 moustaches and such fripperies, and prophesies little 
 better than disgrace in case of another war ; owning 
 that the boys would fight for their country, and die 
 for her, but denying that there are any officers now 
 like Hull and Stuart, whose exploits, nevertheless, he 
 greatly depreciated, saying that the "Boxer" and 
 " Enterprise " fought the only equal battle which we 
 won during the war ; and that, in that action, an 
 officer had proposed to haul down the stars and 
 stripes, and a common sailor threatened to cut him 
 to pieces if he should do so. He spoke of Bain- 
 
I837-] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. Ill 
 
 bridge as a sot and a poltroon, who wanted to run 
 from the " Macedonian," pretending to take her for a 
 line-of-battle ship ; of Commodore Elliot as a liar ; 
 but praised Commodore Downes in the highest terms. 
 Percival seems to be the very pattern of old integrity ; 
 taking as much care of Uncle Sam s interests as if 
 all the money expended were to come out of his own 
 pocket. This quality was displayed in his resistance 
 to the demand of a new patent capstan for the 
 revenue-cutter, which, however, Scott is resolved in 
 such a sailor-like way to get, that he will probably 
 succeed. Percival spoke to me of how his business in 
 the yard absorbed him, especially the fitting of the 
 " Columbus " seventy-four, of which ship he discoursed 
 with great enthusiasm. He seems to have no ambition 
 beyond his present duties, perhaps never had any ; at 
 any rate, he now passes his life with a sort of gruff 
 contentedness, grumbling and growling, yet in good 
 humour enough. He is conscious of his peculiarities ; 
 for when I asked him whether it would be well to 
 make a naval officer secretary of the navy, he said, 
 " God forbid, for that an old sailor was always full 
 of prejudices and stubborn whim-whams," instancing 
 himself ; whereto I agreed. We went round the Navy 
 Yard with Percival and Commodore Downes, the 
 
112 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 latter a sailor and a gentleman too, with rather more 
 of the ocean than the drawing-room about him, but 
 courteous, frank, and good-natured. We looked at 
 ropewalks, rigging-lofts, ships in the stocks ; and saw 
 the sailors of the station laughing and sporting with 
 great mirth and cheerfulness, which the Commodore 
 said was much increased at sea. We returned to the 
 wharf at Boston in the cutter s boat. Captain Scott, 
 of the cutter, told me a singular story of what occurred 
 during the action between the " Constitution " and 
 " Macedonian," he being powder-monkey aboard the 
 former ship. A cannon-shot came through the ship s 
 side, and a - man s head was struck off, probably by a 
 splinter, for it was done without bruising the head 
 or body, as clean as by a razor. Well, the man was 
 walking pretty briskly at the time of the accident ; 
 and Scott seriously affirmed that he kept walking on 
 ward at the same pace, with two jets of blood gushing 
 from his headless trunk, till, after going about twenty 
 feet without a head, he sunk down at once, with his 
 legs under him. 
 
 [In corroboration of the truth of this, see 
 Lord Bacon, Century IV. of his " Sylva Sylvarum, 
 or Natural History, in Ten Centuries," paragraph 
 400.] 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 113 
 
 On Saturday, I called to see E. H , having 
 
 previously appointed a meeting for the purpose of 
 inquiring about our name. He is an old bachelor, 
 and truly forlorn. The pride of ancestry seems to be 
 his great hobby. He had a good many old papers in 
 his desk at the Custom-house, which he produced and 
 dissertated upon, and afterwards went with me to his 
 sister s, and showed me an old book, with a record of 
 the children of the first emigrant (who came over two 
 
 hundred years ago), in his own handwriting. E s 
 
 manners are gentlemanly, and he seems to be very 
 well informed. At a little distance, I think, one 
 would take him to be not much over thirty ; but 
 nearer at hand one finds him to look rather venerable, 
 perhaps fifty or more. He is nervous, and his hands 
 shook while he was looking over the papers, as if he 
 had been startled by my visit ; and when we came to 
 the crossings of streets, he darted across, cautioning 
 me, as if both were in great danger to be run over. 
 Nevertheless, being very quick-tempered, he would 
 face the devil if at all irritated. He gave a most for 
 lorn description of his life ; how, when he came to 
 
 Salem, there was nobody except Mr. whom he 
 
 cared about seeing ; how his position prevented him 
 from accepting of civilities, because he had no home 
 
 VOL. I. 8 
 
114 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 where he could return them ; in short, he seemed 
 about as miserable a being as is to be found any 
 where, lonely, and with sensitiveness to feel his lone 
 liness, and capacities, now withered, to have enjoyed 
 the sweets of life. I suppose he is comfortable enough 
 when busied in his duties at the Custom-house ; for 
 when I spoke to him at my entrance, he was too 
 much absorbed to hear me at first. As we walked, 
 he kept telling stories of the family, which seemed to 
 have comprised many oddities, eccentric men and 
 women, recluses, and other kinds, one of old Philip 
 English (a Jersey man, the name originally L Anglais), 
 who had been persecuted by John Hawthorne, of 
 witch-time memory, and a violent quarrel ensued. 
 When Philip lay on his death-bed, he consented to 
 forgive his persecutor. " But if I get well," said he, 
 " I ll be damned if I forgive him ! " This Philip left 
 daughters, one of whom married, I believe, the son 
 of the persecuting John, and thus all the legitimate 
 
 blood of English is in our family. E passed 
 
 from the matters of birth, pedigree, and ancestral 
 pride to give vent to the most arrant democracy and 
 locofocoism that I ever happened to hear, saying that 
 nobody ought to possess wealth longer than his own 
 life, and that then it should return to the people, &c. 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 11$ 
 
 He says S. I has a great fund of traditions about 
 
 the family, which she learned from her mother or 
 grandmother (I forget which), one of them being a 
 Hawthorne. The old lady was a very proud woman, 
 
 and, as E says, " proud of being proud," and so 
 
 is s. I . 
 
 October *jth. A walk in Northfields in the after 
 noon. Bright sunshine and autumnal warmth, giving 
 a sensation quite unlike the same degree of warmth 
 in summer. Oaks, some brown, some reddish, some 
 still green ; walnuts, yellow, fallen leaves and acorns 
 lying beneath ; the footsteps crumple them in walking. 
 In sunny spots beneath the trees, where green grass 
 is overstrewn by the dry, fallen foliage, as I passed, I 
 disturbed multitudes of grasshoppers basking in the 
 warm sunshine ; and they began to hop, hop, hop, 
 pattering on the dry leaves like big and heavy drops 
 of a thunder shower. They were invisible till they 
 hopped. Boys gathering walnuts. Passed an orchard, 
 where two men were gathering the apples. A waggon, 
 with barrels, stood among the trees ; the men s coats 
 flung on the fence ; the apples lay in heaps, and each 
 of the men was up in a separate tree. They con 
 versed together in loud voices, which the air caused 
 
Il6 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 to ring still louder, jeering each other, boasting of 
 their own feats in shaking clown the apples. One 
 got into the very top of his tree, and gave a long 
 and mighty shake, and the big apples came down 
 thump, thump, bushels hitting on the ground at 
 once. " There ! did you ever hear anything like 
 that ? " cried he. This sunny scene was pretty. A 
 horse feeding apart, belonging to the waggon. The 
 barberry-bushes have some red fruit on them, but 
 they are frostbitten. The rose-bushes have their 
 scarlet hips. 
 
 Distant clumps of trees, now that the variegated 
 foliage adorns them, have a phantasmagorian, an 
 apparition-like appearance. They seem to be of 
 some kindred to the crimson and gold cloud-islands. 
 It would not be strange to see phantoms peeping 
 forth from their recesses. When the sun was almost 
 below the horizon, his rays, gilding the upper 
 branches of a yellow walnut-tree, had an airy and 
 beautiful effect, the gentle contrast between the tint 
 of the yellow in the shade and its ethereal gold in the 
 fading sunshine. The woods that crown distant 
 uplands were seen to great advantage in these last 
 rays, for the sunshine perfectly marked out and 
 distinguished every shade of colour, varnishing them 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 1 1/ 
 
 as it were ; while the country round, both hill and 
 plain, being in gloomy shadow, the woods looked the 
 brighter for it. 
 
 The tide, being high, had flowed almost into the 
 Cold Spring, so its small current hardly issued forth 
 from the basin. As I approached, two little eels, 
 about as long as my finger, and slender in proportion, 
 wriggled out of the basin. They had come from the 
 salt water. An Indian-corn field, as yet unharvested, 
 huge, golden pumpkins scattered among the hills 
 of corn, a noble-looking fruit. After the sun was 
 down, the sky was deeply dyed with a broad sweep 
 of gold, high towards the zenith ; not flaming 
 brightly, but of a somewhat dusky gold. A piece of 
 water, extending toXvards the west, between high 
 banks, caught the reflection, and appeared like a 
 sheet of brighter and more glistening gold than the 
 sky which made it bright. 
 
 Dandelions and blue flowers are still growing in 
 sunny places. Saw in a barn a prodigious treasure 
 of onions in their silvery coats, exhaling a penetrating 
 perfume. 
 
 How exceeding bright looks the sunshine, casually 
 reflected from a looking-glass into a gloomy region 
 
Il8 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 of the chamber, distinctly marking out the figures and 
 colours of the paper hangings, which are scarcely 
 seen elsewhere. It is like the light of mind thrown 
 on an obscure subject. 
 
 Man s finest workmanship, the closer you observe 
 it, the more imperfections it shows ; as in a piece of 
 polished steel a microscope will discover a rough sur 
 face. Whereas, what may look coarse and rough in 
 Nature s workmanship will show an infinitely minute 
 perfection, the closer you look into it. The reason of 
 the minute superiority of Nature s work over man s is, 
 that the former works from the innermost germ, while 
 the latter works merely superficially. 
 
 Standing in the cross-road that leads by the 
 Mineral Spring, and looking towards an opposite 
 shore of the lake, an ascending bank, with a dense 
 border of trees, green, yellow, red, russet, all bright 
 colours, brightened by the mild brilliancy of the 
 descending sun ; it was strange to recognize the 
 sober old friends of spring and summer in this new 
 dress. By the by, a pretty riddle or fable might be 
 made out of the changes in apparel of the familiar trees 
 round a house, adapted for children. But in the lake, 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 1 19 
 
 beneath the aforesaid border of trees, the water 
 being, not rippled, but its glassy surface somewhat 
 moved and shaken by the remote agitation of a 
 breeze that was breathing on the outer lake, this 
 being in a sort of bay, in the slightly agitated 
 mirror, the variegated trees were reflected dreamily 
 and indistinctly ; a broad belt of bright and diver 
 sified colours shining in the water beneath. Some 
 times the image of a tree might be almost traced ; 
 then nothing but this sweep of broken rainbow. It 
 was like the recollection of the real scene in an 
 observer s mind, a confused radiance. 
 
 A whirlwind, whirling the dried leaves round in a 
 circle, not very violently. 
 
 To well consider the characters of a family of 
 persons in a certain condition, in poverty, for in 
 stance, and endeavour to judge how an altered 
 condition would affect the character of each. 
 
 The aromatic odour of peat smoke in the sunny 
 autumnal air is very pleasant. 
 
 Salem, October i^th. A walk through Beverly 
 
120 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 to Browne s Hill, and home by the iron factory. A 
 bright, cool afternoon. The trees, in a large part of 
 the space through which I passed, appeared to be in 
 their fullest glory, bright red, yellow, some of a 
 tender green, appearing at a distance as if bedecked 
 with new foliage, though this emerald tint was like 
 wise the effect of frost. In some places, large tracts 
 of ground were covered as with a scarlet cloth, 
 the underbrush being thus coloured. The general 
 character of these autumnal colours is not gaudy, 
 scarcely gay ; there is something too deep and rich 
 in it : it is gorgeous and magnificent, but with a 
 sobriety diffused. The pastures at the foot of 
 Browne s Hill were plentifully covered with barberry- 
 bushes, the leaves of which were reddish, and they 
 were hung with a prodigious quantity of berries. 
 From the summit of the hill, looking down a tract 
 of woodland at a considerable distance, so that the 
 interstices between the trees could not be seen, their 
 tops presented an unbroken level, and seemed some 
 what like a richly variegated carpet. The prospect 
 from the hill is wide and interesting ; but methinks it 
 is pleasanter in the more immediate vicinity of the 
 hill than miles away. It is agreeable to look down 
 at the square patches of cornfield, or of potato- 
 
I837-J AMERICAN NOTE- BOOKS. 121 
 
 ground, or of cabbages still green, or of beets looking 
 red, all a man s farm, in short, each portion of 
 which he considers separately so important, while you 
 take in the whole at a glance. Then to cast your eye 
 over so many different establishments at once, and 
 rapidly compare them, here a house of gentility, 
 with shady old yellow-leaved elms hanging around 
 it ; there a new little white dwelling ; there an old 
 farm-house ; to see the barns and sheds and all the 
 out-houses clustered together ; to comprehend the 
 oneness and exclusiveness and what constitutes the 
 peculiarity of each of so many establishments, and 
 to have in your mind a multitude of them, each of 
 which is the most important part of the world to 
 those who live in it, this really enlarges the mind, 
 and you come down the hill somewhat wiser than 
 you go up. Pleasant to look over an orchard far 
 below, and see the trees, each casting its own shadow ; 
 the white spires of meeting-houses ; a sheet of water, 
 partly seen among swelling lands. This Browne s 
 Hill is a long ridge, lying in the midst of a large, 
 level plain ; it looks at a distance somewhat like a 
 whale, with its head and tail under water, but its 
 immense back protruding, with steep sides, and a 
 gradual curve along its length. When you have 
 
122 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 climbed it on one side, and gaze from the summit at 
 the other, you feel as if you had made a discovery, 
 the landscape being quite different on the two sides. 
 The cellar of the house which formerly crowned the 
 hill, and used to be named Browne s Folly, still 
 remains, two grass-grown and shallow hollows, on the 
 highest part of the ridge. The house consisted of 
 two wings, each perhaps sixty feet in length, united 
 by a middle part, in which was the entrance-hall, and 
 which looked lengthwise along the hill. The foun 
 dation of a spacious porch may be traced on either 
 side of the central portion ; some of the stones still 
 remain ; but even where they are gone, the line of 
 the porch is still traceable by the greener verdure. 
 In the cellar, or rather in the two cellars, grow one 
 or two barberry-bushes, with frost-bitten fruit ; there 
 is also yarrow with its white flower, and yellow 
 dandelions. The cellars are still deep enough to 
 shelter a person, all but his head at least, from the 
 wind on the summit of the hill; but they are all 
 grass-grown. A line of trees seems to have been 
 planted along the ridge of the hill. The edifice must 
 have made quite a magnificent appearance. 
 
 Characteristics during the walk : Apple-trees with 
 only here and there an apple on the boughs, among 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 123 
 
 the thinned leaves, the relics of a gathering. In others 
 you observe a rustling, and see the boughs shaking 
 and hear the apples thumping down, without seeing 
 the person who does it. Apples scattered by the way 
 side, some with pieces bitten out, others entire, which 
 you pick up, and taste, and find them harsh, crabbed 
 cider-apples, though they have a pretty, waxen ap 
 pearance. In sunny spots of woodland, boys in search 
 of nuts, looking picturesque among the scarlet and 
 golden foliage. There is something in this sunny 
 autumnal atmosphere that gives a peculiar effect to 
 laughter and joyous voices, it makes them infinitely 
 more elastic and gladsome than at other seasons. 
 Heaps of dry leaves tossed together by the wind, as 
 if for a couch and lounging-place for the weary travel 
 ler, while the sun is warming it for him. Golden 
 pumpkins and squashes, heaped in the angle of a 
 house, till they reach the lower windows. Ox-teams, 
 laden with a rustling load of Indian corn, in the stalk 
 and ear. When an inlet of the sea runs far up into 
 the country, you stare to see a large schooner appear 
 amid the rural landscape ; she is unloading a cargo of 
 wood, moist with rain or salt-water that has dashed 
 over it. Perhaps you hear the sound of an axe in the 
 woodland ; occasionally, the report of a fowling-piece. 
 
124 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 The travellers in the early part of the afternoon look- 
 warm and comfortable as if taking a summer drive ; 
 but as eve draws nearer, you meet them well wrapped 
 in top-coats or cloaks, or rough, great surtouts, and 
 red-nosed withal, seeming to take no great comfort, 
 but pressing homeward. The characteristic conver 
 sation among teamsters and country squires, where 
 the ascent of a hill causes the chaise to ^o at the 
 
 o 
 
 same pace as an ox-team, perhaps discussing the 
 qualities of a yoke of oxen. The cold, blue aspects 
 of sheets of water. Some of the country shops with 
 the doors closed ; others still open as in summer. I 
 meet a wood-sawyer, with his horse, and saw on his 
 shoulders, returning from work. As night draws on, 
 you begin to see the gleaming of fires on the ceilings 
 in the houses which you pass. The comfortless ap 
 pearance of houses at bleak and bare spots, you 
 wonder how there can be any enjoyment in them. I 
 meet a girl in a chintz gown, with a small shawl on 
 her shoulders, white stockings, and summer morocco 
 shoes, it looks observable. Turkeys, queer, solemn 
 objects, in black attire, grazing about, and trying to 
 peck the fallen apples, which slip away from their bills. 
 
 October i6t/i. Spent the whole afternoon in a 
 
1837. j AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 12$ 
 
 ramble to the sea-shore, near Phillips s Beach. A beau 
 tiful, warm, sunny afternoon, the very pleasantest 
 day, probably, that there has been in the whole 
 course of the year. People at work, harvesting, 
 without their coats. Cocks, with their squad of hens 
 in the grass-fields, hunting grasshoppers, chasing them 
 eagerly with outspread wings, appearing to take much 
 interest in the sport, apart from the profit. Other 
 hens picking up the ears of Indian corn. Grass 
 hoppers, flies, and flying insects, of all sorts, are more 
 abundant in these warm autumnal days than I have 
 seen them at any other time. Yellow butterflies 
 flutter about in the sunshine, singly, by pairs, or more, 
 and are wafted on the gentle gales. The crickets 
 begin to sing early in the afternoon, and sometimes a 
 locust may be heard. In some warm spots, a pleasant 
 buzz of many insects. 
 
 Crossed the fields near Brookhouse s villa, and 
 came upon a long beach, at least a mile long, I 
 should think, terminated by craggy rocks at either 
 end, and backed by a high broken bank, the grassy 
 summit of which, year by year, is continually break 
 ing away, and precipitated to the bottom. At the foot 
 of the bank, in some parts, is a vast number of pebbles 
 and paving-stones, rolled up thither by the sea long 
 
126 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 ago. The beach is of a brown sand, with hardly any 
 pebbles intermixed upon it. When the tide is part 
 way down, there is a margin of several yards from 
 the water s edge, along the whole mile length of the 
 beach, which glistens like a mirror, and reflects objects, 
 and shines bright in the sunshine, the sand being wet 
 to that distance from the water. Above this margin 
 the sand is not wet, and grows less and less damp the 
 farther towards the bank you keep. In some places 
 your footstep is perfectly implanted, showing the whole 
 shape, and the square toe, and every nail in the heel 
 of your boot. Elsewhere the impression is imperfect, 
 and even when you stamp, you cannot imprint the 
 whole. As you tread, a dry spot flashes around your 
 step, and grows moist as you lift your foot again. 
 Pleasant to pass along this extensive walk, watching 
 the surf-wave ; how sometimes it seems to make 
 a feint of breaking, but dies away ineffectually, 
 merely kissing the strand ; then, after many such 
 abortive efforts, it gathers itself, and forms a high 
 wall, and rolls onward, heightening and heightening 
 without foam at the summit of the green line, and at 
 last throws itself fiercely on the beach, with a loud 
 roar, the spray flying above. As you walk along, you 
 are preceded by a flock of twenty or thirty beach 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 1 27 
 
 birds, which are seeking, I suppose, for food on the 
 margin of the surf, yet seem to be merely sporting, 
 chasing the sea as it retires, and running up before the 
 impending wave. Sometimes they let it bear them 
 off their feet, and float lightly on its breaking summit : 
 sometimes they flutter and seem to rest on the 
 feathery spray. They are little birds with gray backs 
 and snow-white breasts ; their images may be seen 
 in the wet sand almost or quite as distinctly as the 
 reality. Their legs are long. As you draw near, they 
 take a flight of a score of yards or more, and then 
 recommence their dalliance with the surf-wave. You 
 may behold their multitudinous little tracks all along 
 your way. Before you reach the end of the beach, 
 you become quite attached to these little sea-birds, 
 and take much interest in their occupations. After 
 passing in one direction, it is pleasant then to retrace 
 your footsteps. Your tracks being all traceable, you 
 may recall the whole mood and occupation of your 
 mind during your first passage. Here you turned 
 somewhat aside to pick up a shell that you saw 
 nearer the water s edge. Here you examined a long 
 sea-weed, and trailed its length after you for a consi 
 derable distance. Here the effect of the wide sea 
 struck you suddenly. Here you fronted the ocean, 
 
128 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 looking at a sail, distant in the sunny blue. Here you 
 looked at some plant on the bank. Here some vagary 
 of mind seems to have bewildered you ; for your 
 tracks go round and round, and interchange each 
 other without visible reason. Here you picked up 
 pebbles and skipped them upon the water. Here you 
 wrote names and drew faces with a razor sea-shell in 
 the sand. 
 
 After leaving the beach, clambered over crags, all 
 shattered and tossed about everyhow ; in some parts 
 curiously worn and hollowed out, almost into caverns. 
 The rock, shagged with sea-weed, in some places, a 
 thick carpet of sea-weed laid over the pebbles, into 
 which your foot would sink. Deep tanks among 
 these rocks, which the sea replenishes at high tide, 
 and then leaves the bottom all covered with various 
 sorts of sea-plants, as if it were some sea-monster s 
 private garden. I saw a crab in one of them ; five- 
 fingers too. From the edge of the rocks you may 
 look off into deep, deep water, even at low tide. 
 Among the rocks I found a great bird, whether a 
 wild-goose, a loon, or an albatross, I scarcely know. 
 It was in such a position that I almost fancied it 
 might be asleep, and therefore drew near softly, lest 
 it should take flight ; but it was dead, and stirred not 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 1 29 
 
 when I touched it. Sometimes a dead fish was cast 
 up. A ledge of rocks, with a beacon upon it, looking 
 like a monument erected to those who have perished 
 by shipwreck. The smoked, extempore fireplace, 
 where a party cooked their fish. About midway on 
 the beach, a fresh-water brooklet flows towards the 
 sea. Where it leaves the land, it is quite a rippling- 
 little current ; but, in flowing across the sand, it grows 
 shallower and more shallow, and at last is quite lost, 
 and dies in the effort to carry its little tribute to the 
 main. 
 
 An article to be made of telling the stones of the 
 tiles of an old-fashioned chimney-piece to a child. 
 
 A person conscious that he was soon to die, the 
 humour in which he would pay his last visit to fami 
 liar persons and things. 
 
 A description of the various classes of hotels and 
 taverns, and the prominent personages in each. There 
 should be some story connected with it, as of a 
 person commencing with boarding at a great hotel, 
 and gradually, as his means grew less, descending in 
 life, till he got below ground into a cellar. 
 VOL. I. 9 
 
130 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 A person to be in the possession of something as 
 perfect as mortal man has a right to demand ; he tries 
 to make it better, and ruins it entirely. 
 
 A person to spend all his life and splendid talents 
 in trying to achieve something naturally impossible, 
 as to make a conquest over Nature. 
 
 Meditations about the main gas-pipe of a great 
 city, if the supply were to be stopped, what would 
 happen ? How many different scenes it sheds light 
 on ? It might be made emblematical of something. 
 
 December 6tk. A fairy tale about chasing Echo 
 to her hiding-place. Echo is the voice of a reflection 
 in a mirror. 
 
 A house to be built over a natural spring of inflam 
 mable gas, and to be constantly illuminated there 
 with. What moral could be drawn from this ? It is 
 carburetted hydrogen gas, and is cooled from a soft 
 shale or slate, which is sometimes bituminous, and 
 contains more or less carbonate of lime. It appears 
 in the vicinity of Lockport and Niagara Falls, and 
 elsewhere in New York. I believe it indicates coal. 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 131 
 
 At Fredonia, the whole village is lighted by it. Else 
 where, a farm-house was lighted by it, and no other 
 fuel used in the coldest weather. 
 
 Gnomes, or other mischievous little fiends, to be 
 represented as burrowing in the hollow teeth of some 
 person who has subjected himself to their power. It 
 should be a child s story. This should be one of 
 many modes of petty torment. They should be con 
 trasted with beneficent fairies, who minister to the 
 pleasures of the good. 
 
 A man will undergo great toil and hardship for 
 ends that must be many years distant, as wealth or 
 fame but none for an end that may be close at hand, 
 as the joys of heaven. 
 
 Insincerity in a man s own heart must make all 
 his enjoyments, all that concerns him, unreal ; so 
 that his whole life must seem like a merely dramatic 
 representation. And this would be the case, even 
 though he were surrounded by true-hearted relatives 
 and friends. 
 
 A company of men, none of whom have anything 
 
132 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 
 
 worth hoping for on earth, yet who do not look forward 
 to anything beyond earth ! 
 
 Sorrow to be personified, and its effect on a family 
 represented by the way in which the members of the 
 family regard this dark-clad and sad-browed inmate. 
 
 A story to show how we are all wronged and 
 wrongers, and avenge one another. 
 
 To personify winds of various characters. 
 
 A man living a wicked life in one place, and simul 
 taneously a virtuous and religious one in another. 
 
 An ornament to be worn about the person of a 
 lady, as a jewelled heart. After many years it 
 happens to be broken or unscrewed, and a poisonous 
 odour comes out. 
 
 Lieutenant F. W of the navy was an inve 
 terate duellist and. an unerring shot. He had taken 
 
 offence at Lieutenant F and endeavoured to draw 
 
 him into a duel, following him to the Mediterranean 
 for that purpose, and harassing him intolerably. At 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 133 
 
 last, both parties being in Massachusetts, F 
 
 determined to fight, and applied to Lieutenant A 
 
 to be his second. A examined into the merits 
 
 of the quarrel, and came to the conclusion that F 
 
 had not given F. W justifiable cause for driving 
 
 him to a duel, and that he ought not to be shot. He 
 
 instructed F in the use of the pistol, and before 
 
 the meeting, warned him, by all means, to get the 
 
 first fire ; for that, if F. W fired first, he F , 
 
 was infallibly a dead man, as his antagonist could 
 shoot to a hair s breadth. The parties met ; and 
 
 F , firing immediately on the word being given, 
 
 shot F. W through the heart. F. W , with a 
 
 most savage expression of countenance, fired, after 
 the bullet had gone through his heart, and when the 
 blood had entirely left his face, and shot away one of 
 
 F s side-locks. His face probably looked as if 
 
 he were already in the infernal regions ; but after 
 wards it assumed an angelic calmness and repose. 
 
 A company of persons to drink a certain medi 
 cinal preparation, which would prove a poison, or the 
 contrary, according to their different characters. 
 
 Many persons, without a consciousness of so doing, 
 
134 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1837. 
 
 to contribute to some one end ; as to a beggar s 
 feast, made up of broken victuals from many tables ; 
 or a patch carpet, woven of shreds from innumerable 
 garments. 
 
 Some very famous jewel or other thing, much 
 talked of all over the world. Some person to meet 
 with it, and get possession of it in some unexpected 
 manner, amid homely circumstances. 
 
 To poison a person or a party of persons with the 
 sacramental wine. 
 
 A cloud in the shape of an old woman kneeling, 
 with arms extended towards the moon. 
 
 On being transported to strange scenes, we feel as 
 if all were unreal. This is but the perception of the 
 true unreality of earthly things, made evident by the 
 want of congruity between ourselves and them. By 
 and by we become mutually adapted, and the per 
 ception is lost 
 
 An old looking-glass. Somebody finds out the 
 secret of making all the images that have been 
 reflected in it pass back again across its surface. 
 
1837.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 135 
 
 Our Indian races having reared no monuments, 
 like the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians, when they 
 have disappeared from the earth their history will 
 appear a fable, and they misty phantoms. 
 
 A woman to sympathize with all emotions, but to 
 have none of her own. 
 
 A portrait of a person in New England to be 
 recognized as of the same person represented by a 
 portrait in Old England. Having distinguished him 
 self there, he had suddenly vanished, and had never 
 been heard of till he was thus discovered to be iden 
 tical with a distinguished man in New England. 
 
 Men of cold passions have quick eyes. 
 
 A virtuous but giddy girl to attempt to play a 
 trick on a man. He sees what she is about, and 
 contrives matters so that she throws herself com 
 pletely into his power, and is ruined, all in jest. 
 
 A letter, written a century or more ago, but which 
 has never yet been unsealed. 
 
 A partially insane man to believe himself the 
 
136 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 Provincial Governor or other great official of Mas 
 sachusetts. The scene might be the Province House. 
 
 A dreadful secret to be communicated to several 
 people of various characters, grave or gay, and 
 they all to become insane, according to their cha 
 racters, by the influence of the secret. 
 
 Stories to be told of a certain person s appearance 
 in public, of his having been seen in various situa 
 tions, and of his making visits in private circles ; but 
 finally, on looking for this person, to come upon his 
 old grave and mossy tombstone. 
 
 The influence of a peculiar mind, in close com 
 munion with another, to drive the latter to insanity. 
 
 To look at a beautiful girl, and picture all the 
 lovers, in different situations, whose hearts are centred 
 upon her. 
 
 May \\th, 1838. At Boston last week. Items : 
 A young man, with a small moustache, dyed brown, 
 reddish from its original light colour. He walks with 
 an affected gait, his arms crooked outwards, treading 
 much on his toes. His conversation is about the 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 137 
 
 theatre, where he has a season ticket, about an 
 amateur who lately appeared there, and about 
 actresses, with other theatrical scandal. In the 
 smoking-room, two checker and backgammon boards ; 
 the landlord a great player, seemingly a stupid man, 
 but with considerable shrewdness and knowledge of 
 the world. F , the comedian, a stout heavy- 
 looking Englishman, of grave deportment, with no 
 signs of wit or humour, yet aiming at both in con 
 versation, in order to support his character. Very 
 steady and regular in his life, and parsimonious in his 
 disposition, worth $ 50,000, made by his profes- 
 sion. A clergyman, elderly, with a white neckcloth, 
 very unbecoming, an unworldly manner, unacquaint- 
 ance with the customs of the house, and learning 
 them in a childlike way. A ruffle to his shirt, crimped. 
 A gentleman, young, handsome, and sea-flushed, 
 belonging to Oswego, New York, but just arrived in 
 port from the Mediterranean : he inquires of me about 
 the troubles in Canada, which were first beginning to 
 make a noise when he left the country, whether 
 they are all over. I tell him all is finished, except 
 the hanging of the prisoners. Then we talk over the 
 matter, and I tell him the fates of the principal men, 
 some banished to New South Wales, one hanged, 
 
I3 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 others in prison, others, conspicuous at first, now 
 almost forgotten. Apartments of private families in 
 the hotel, what sort of domesticity there may be in 
 them ; eating in public, with no board of their own. 
 The gas that lights the rest of the house lights them 
 also, in the chandelier from the ceiling. A shabby- 
 looking man, quiet, with spectacles, at first wearing 
 an old, coarse brown frock, then appearing in a suit 
 of elderly black, saying nothing unless spoken to, but 
 talking intelligently when addressed. He is an editor, 
 and I suppose printer, of a country paper. Among 
 the guests, he holds intercourse with gentlemen of 
 much more respectable appearance than himself, from 
 the same part of the country. Bill of fare : wines 
 printed on the back, but nobody calls for a bottle. 
 Chairs turned down for expected guests. Three- 
 pronged steel forks. Cold supper from nine to 
 eleven P.M. Great round mahogany table, in the 
 sitting-room, covered with papers. In the morning, 
 before and soon after breakfast, gentlemen reading 
 the morning papers, while others wait for their 
 chance, or try to pick out something from the papers 
 of yesterday or longer ago. In the forenoon the 
 Southern papers are brought in, and thrown damp 
 and folded on the table. The eagerness with which 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 139 
 
 those who happen to be in the room start up and make 
 prize of them. Play-bills, printed on yellow paper, laid 
 upon the table. Towards evening comes the Transcript. 
 
 June i$th. The red light which the sunsets at 
 this season diffuse ; there being showery afternoons, 
 but the sun setting bright amid clouds, and diffusing 
 its radiance over those that are scattered in masses 
 all over the sky. It gives a rich tinge to all objects, 
 even to those of sombre hues, yet without changing 
 the hues. The complexions of people are exceedingly 
 enriched by it ; they look warm, and kindled with a 
 mild fire. The whole scenery and personages acquire, 
 methinks, a passionate character. A love-scene should 
 be laid on such an evening. The trees and the grass 
 have now the brightest possible green, there having 
 been so many showers alternating with such powerful 
 sunshine. There are roses and tulips and honey 
 suckles, with their sweet perfume ; in short, the 
 splendour of a more gorgeous climate than ours 
 might be brought into the picture. 
 
 The situation of a man in the midst of a crowd, 
 yet as completely in the power of another, life and 
 all, as if they two were in the deepest solitude. 
 
AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 Tremont, Boston, June i6th. Tremendously hot 
 weather to-day. Went on board the " Cyane " to see 
 Bridge, the purser. Took boat from the end of Long- 
 Wharf, with two boatmen, who had just landed a man. 
 Row round to the starboard side of the sloop, where 
 we pass up the steps, and are received by Bridge, 
 who introduces us to one of the lieutenants, Hazard. 
 Sailors and midshipmen scattered about, the middies 
 having a foul anchor, that is, an anchor with a cable 
 twisted round it, embroidered on the collars of their 
 jackets. The officers generally wear bluejackets with 
 lace on the shoulders, white pantaloons, and cloth 
 caps. Introduced into the cabin, a handsome 
 room, finished with mahogany, comprehending the 
 width of the vessel ; a sideboard with liquors, and 
 above it a looking-glass ; behind the cabin, an inner 
 room, in which is seated a lady, waiting for the 
 captain to come on board ; on each side of this inner 
 cabin, a large and convenient state-room with bed, 
 the doors opening into the cabin. This cabin is on a 
 level with the quarter-deck, and is covered by the 
 poop-deck. Going down below stairs, you come to 
 the ward-room, a pretty large room, round which are 
 the state-rooms of the lieutenants, the purser, sur 
 geon, &c. A stationary table. The ship s main- 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 141 
 
 mast comes down through the middle of the room, 
 and Bridge s chair, at dinner, is planted against it. 
 Wine and brandy produced ; and Bridge calls to the 
 Doctor to drink with him, who answers affirmatively 
 from his state-room, and shortly after opens the door 
 and makes his appearance. Other officers emerge 
 from the side of the vessel, or disappear into it, in the 
 same way. Forward of the ward-room, adjoining it, 
 and on the same level, is the midshipmen s room, on 
 the larboard side of the vessel, not partitioned off, so 
 as to be shut up. On a shelf a few books ; one mid 
 shipman politely invites us to walk in ; another sits 
 writing. Going farther forward on the same level we 
 come to the crew s department, part of which is 
 occupied by the cooking establishment, where all 
 sorts of cooking is going on for the officers and men. 
 Through the whole of this space, ward-room and all, 
 there is barely room to stand upright, without the hat 
 on. The rules of the quarter-deck (which extends aft 
 from the main-mast) are, that the midshipmen shall 
 not presume to walk on the starboard side of it, nor 
 the men to come upon it at all, unless to speak to an 
 officer. The poop-deck is still .more sacred, the 
 lieutenants being confined to the larboard side, and 
 the captain alone having a right to the starboard. A 
 
142 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 marine was pacing the poop-deck, being the only 
 guard that I saw stationed in the vessel, the more 
 stringent regulations being relaxed while she is 
 preparing for sea. While standing on the quarter 
 deck, a great piping at the gangway, and the second 
 cutter comes alongside, bringing the consul and some 
 other gentlemen to visit the vessel. After a while we 
 are rowed ashore with them, in the same boat. Its 
 crew are new hands, and therefore require much 
 instruction from the cockswain. We are seated under 
 an awning. The guns of the " Cyane" are medium 
 thirty-two pounders ; some of them have percussion 
 locks. 
 
 At the " Tremont," I had Bridge to dine with me : 
 iced champagne, claret in glass pitchers. Nothing 
 very remarkable among the guests. A wine-merchant, 
 French apparently, though he had arrived the day 
 before in a bark from Copenhagen: a somewhat 
 corpulent gentleman, without so good manners as an 
 American would have in the same line of life, but 
 good-natured, sociable, and civil, complaining of the 
 heat. He had rings on his fingers of great weight of 
 metal, and one of them had a seal for letters ; brooches 
 at the bosom, three in a row, up and down ; also a 
 gold watch-guard, with a seal appended. Talks of 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 143 
 
 the comparative price of living, of clothes, &c., here 
 and in Europe. Tells of the prices of wines by the 
 cask and pipe. Champagne, he says, is drunk of 
 better quality here than where it grows. A vendor 
 of patent medicines, Doctor Jaques, makes acquaint 
 ance with me, and shows me his recommendatory 
 letters in favour of himself and drugs, signed by a long 
 list of people. He prefers, he says, booksellers to 
 druggists as his agents, and inquired of me about 
 them in this town. He seems to be an honest man 
 enough, with an intelligent face and sensible in his 
 talk, but not a gentleman, wearing a somewhat shabby 
 brown coat and mixed pantaloons, being ill-shaven, 
 and apparently not well acquainted with the customs 
 of a fashionable hotel. A simplicity about him that 
 is likeable, though I believe he comes from Phila 
 delphia. Naval officers, strolling about town, bar 
 gaining for swords and belts, and other military 
 articles ; with the tailor, to have naval buttons put 
 on their shore-going coats, and for their pantaloons, 
 suited to the climate of the Mediterranean. It is 
 the almost invariable habit of officers, when going 
 ashore or staying on shore, to divest themselves of 
 all military or naval insignia, and appear as private 
 citizens. At the " Tremont," young gentlemen with 
 
144 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 long earlocks, straw hats, light, or dark-mixed. 
 The theatre being closed, the play-bills of many nights 
 ago are posted up against its walls. 
 
 July ^t/i. A very hot, bright, sunny day ; town 
 much thronged ; booths on the Common, selling ginger 
 bread, sugar-plums, and confectionery, spruce-beer, 
 lemonade. Spirits forbidden, but probably sold 
 stealthily. On the top of one of the booths a monkey, 
 with a tail two or three feet long. He is fastened by 
 a cord, which, getting tangled with the flag over the 
 booth, he takes hold and tries to free it. He is the 
 object of much attention from the crowd, and played 
 with by the boys, who toss up gingerbread to him, 
 while he nibbles and throws it down again. He 
 reciprocates notice, of some kind or other, with all 
 who notice him. There is a sort of gravity about 
 him. A boy pulls his long tail, whereat he gives a 
 slight squeak, and for the future elevates it as much 
 as possible. Looking at the same booth by and by, 
 I find that the poor monkey has been obliged to 
 betake himself to the top of one of the wooden joists 
 that stick up high above. There are boys, going about 
 with molasses candy, almost melted down in the 
 sun. Shows : a mammoth rat ; a collection of 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 145 
 
 pirates, murderers, and the like, in wax. Constables 
 in considerable number, parading about with their 
 staves, sometimes conversing with each other, pro 
 ducing an effect by their presence, without having to 
 interfere actively. One or two old salts, rather the 
 worse for liquor : in general the people are very 
 temperate. At evening the effect of things rather 
 more picturesque ; some of the booth-keepers knock 
 ing down the temporary structures, and putting the 
 materials in waggons to carry away ; other booths 
 lighted up, and the lights^gleaming through rents in 
 the sail-cloth tops. The customers are rather riotous, 
 calling loudly and whimsically for what they want ; 
 a young fellow and a girl coming arm in arm ; two 
 girls approaching the booth, and getting into conver 
 sation with the folks thereabout. Perchance a 
 knock-down between two half-sober fellows in the 
 crowd : a knock-down without a heavy blow, the 
 receiver being scarcely able to keep his footing at 
 any rate. Shoutings and hallooings, laughter, oaths, 
 generally a good-natured tumult ; and the con 
 stables use no severity, but interfere, if at all, in a 
 friendly sort of way. I talk with one about the way 
 in which the day has passed, and he bears testimony 
 to the orderliness of the crowd, but suspects one booth 
 
 VOL. I. 10 
 
146 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 of selling liquor, and relates one scuffle. There is a 
 talkative and witty seller of gingerbread holding forth 
 to the people from his cart, making himself quite a 
 noted character by his readiness of remark and 
 humour, and disposing of all his wares. Late in the 
 evening, during the fire-works, people are consulting 
 how they are to get home, many having long miles to 
 walk : a father, with wife, and children, saying it will 
 be twelve o clock before they reach home, the children 
 being already tired to death. The moon beautifully 
 dark-bright, not giving so white a light as sometimes. 
 The girls all look beautiful and fairy-like in it, not 
 exactly distinct, nor yet dim. The different charac 
 ters of female countenances during the day, mirthful 
 and mischievous, slyly humourous, stupid, looking 
 genteel generally, but when they speak often be 
 traying plebeianism by the tones of their voices. Two 
 girls are very tired, one a pale thin, languid-looking 
 creature ; the other plump, rosy, rather overburdened 
 with her own little body. Gingerbread figures in the 
 shape of Jim Crow and other popularities. 
 
 In the old burial-ground, Charter Street, a slate 
 gravestone, carved round the borders, to the memory 
 of " Colonel John Hathorne, Esq.," who died in 1717. 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 147 
 
 This was the witch-judge. The stone is sunk deep 
 into the earth, and leans forward, and the grass grows 
 very long around it ; and, on account of the moss, it 
 was rather difficult to make out the date. Other 
 Hathornes lie buried in a range with him on either 
 side. In a corner of the burial-ground, close under 
 
 Dr. P s garden-fence, are the most ancient stones 
 
 remaining in the grave-yard ; moss-grown, deeply 
 sunken. One to " Dr. John Swinnerton, Physician," 
 in 1688 ; another to his wife. There, too, is the 
 grave of Nathaniel Mather, the younger brother of 
 Cotton, and mentioned in the " Magnolia " as a hard 
 student, and of great promise. "An aged man at 
 nineteen years," saith the grave-stone. It affected me 
 deeply, when I had cleared away the grass from the 
 half-buried stone, and read the name. An apple-tree 
 or two hang over these old graves, and throw down 
 the blighted fruit on Nathaniel Mather s grave, he 
 blighted too. It gives strange ideas, to think how 
 
 convenient to Dr. P s family this burial-ground 
 
 is, the monuments standing almost within arm s 
 reach of the side windows of the parlour, and there 
 being a little gate from the back-yard through which 
 we step forth upon those old graves aforesaid. And 
 the tomb of the P family is right in front and 
 
148 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 close to the gate. It is now filled, the last being the 
 
 refugee Tory, Colonel P - and his wife. M. P 
 
 has trained flowers over this tomb, on account of her 
 friendly relations with Colonel P . 
 
 It is not, I think, the most ancient families that 
 have tombs, their ancestry for two or three genera 
 tions having been reposited in the earth before such a 
 luxury as a tomb was thought of. Men who founded 
 families, and grew rich, a century or so ago, were 
 probably the first. 
 
 There is a tomb of the Lyndes, with a slab of 
 slate affixed to the brick masonry on one side, and 
 carved with a coat of arms. 
 
 July \QtJi. A fishing excursion, last Saturday 
 afternoon, eight or ten miles out in the harbour. A 
 fine wind out, which died away towards evening, and 
 finally became quite calm. We cooked our fish on 
 a rock named " Satan," about forty feet long and 
 twenty broad, irregular in its shape, and of uneven 
 surface, with pools of water here and there, left by 
 the tide, dark brown rock, or whitish ; there was 
 the excrement of sea-fowl scattered on it, and a few 
 feathers. The water was deep around the rock, and 
 swelling up and downward, waving the sea-weed. We 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 149 
 
 built two fires, which, as the dusk deepened, cast a 
 red gleam over the rock and the waves, and made 
 the sea, on the side away from the sunset, look 
 dismal ; but by-and-by up came the moon, red as a 
 house afire, and, as it rose, it grew silvery bright, 
 and threw a line of silver across the calm sea. 
 Beneath the moon and the horizon, the commence 
 ment of its track of brightness, there was a cone of 
 blackness, or of very black blue. It was after nine 
 before w r e finished our supper, which we ate by fire 
 light and moonshine, and then went aboard our 
 decked boat again, no safe achievement in our 
 ticklish little dory. To those remaining in the boat, 
 we had looked very picturesque around our fires, and 
 on the rock above them, our statures being appa 
 rently increased to the size of the sons of Anak. The 
 tide, now coming up, gradually dashed over the fires 
 we had left, and so the rock again became a desert. 
 The wind had now entirely died away, leaving the 
 sea smooth as glass, except a quiet swell, and we 
 could only float along, as the tide bore us, almost 
 imperceptibly. It was as beautiful a night as ever 
 shone, calm, warm, bright, the moon being at full. 
 On one side of us was Marblehead Lighthouse, on 
 the other, Baker s Island ; and both, by the influence 
 
150 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 of the moonlight, had a silvery hue, unlike their 
 ruddy beacon tinge in dark nights. They threw long 
 reflections across the sea, like the moon. There we 
 floated slowly with the tide till about midnight, and 
 then, the tide turning, we fastened our vessel to a 
 pole, which marked a rock, so as to prevent being 
 carried back by the reflux. Some of the passengers 
 turned in below ; some stretched themselves on deck ; 
 some walked about, smoking cigars. I kept the deck 
 all right Once there was a little cat s-paw of a 
 breeze, whereupon we untied ourselves from the pole ; 
 but it almost immediately died away, and we were 
 compelled to make fast again. At about two o clock, 
 up rose the morning star, a round, red, fiery ball, very 
 comparable to the moon at its rising, and, getting 
 upward, it shone marvellously bright, and threw its 
 long reflection into the sea, like the moon and the 
 two lighthouses. It was Venus, and the brightest 
 star I ever beheld ; it was in the north-east. The 
 moon made but a very small circuit in the sky, 
 though it shone all night. The aurora borealis shot 
 upwards to the zenith, and between two and three 
 o clock the first streak of dawn appeared, stretching 
 far along the edge of the eastern horizon, a faint 
 streak of light ; then it gradually broadened and 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 151 
 
 deepened, and became a rich saffron tint, with violet 
 above, and then an ethereal and transparent blue. 
 The saffron became intermixed with splendour, kind 
 ling and kindling, Baker s Island lights being in the 
 centre of the brightness, so that they were extin 
 guished by it, or at least grew invisible. On the 
 other side of the boat, the Marblehead Lighthouse 
 still threw out its silvery gleam, and the moon shone 
 brightly too ; and its light looked very singularly, 
 mingling with the growing daylight. It was not like 
 the moonshine, brightening as the evening twilight 
 deepens ; for now it threw its radiance over the land 
 scape, the green and other tints of which were dis 
 played by the daylight, whereas at evening all those 
 tints are obscured. It looked like a milder sunshine, 
 a dreamy sunshine, the sunshine of a world not 
 quite so real and material as this. All night we had 
 heard the Marblehead clocks telling the hour. Anon, 
 up came the sun, without any bustle, but quietly, his 
 antecedent splendours having gilded the sea for some 
 time before. It had been cold towards morning, but 
 now grew warm, and gradually burning hot in the 
 sun. A breeze sprang up, but our first use of it was 
 to get aground on Coney Island about five o clock, 
 where we lay till nine or thereabout, and then floated 
 
152 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [^JS. 
 
 slowly up to the wharf. The roar of distant surf, the 
 rolling of porpoises, the passing of shoals of fish, a 
 steamboat smoking along at a distance, were the 
 scene on my watch. I fished during the night, and, 
 feeling something on the line, I drew up with great 
 eagerness and vigour. It was two of those broad- 
 leaved seaweeds, with stems like snakes, both rooted 
 on a stone, all which came up together. Often 
 these seaw r eeds root themselves on mussels. In the 
 morning our pilot killed a flounder with the boat- 
 hook, the poor fish thinking himself secure on the 
 bottom. 
 
 Ladurlad, in the " Curse of Kchama," on visiting 
 a certain celestial region, the fire in his heart and 
 brain died away for a season, but was rekindled 
 again on returning to earth. So may it be with 
 me, in my projected three months seclusion from old 
 associations. 
 
 Punishment of a miser, to pay the drafts of his 
 heir in his tomb. 
 
 July 13/7*. A show of wax figures, consisting 
 almost wholly of murderers and their victims, Gibbs 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 153 
 
 and Hansley, the pirates, and the Dutch girl whom 
 Gibbs murdered. Gibbs and Hansley were admirably 
 done, as natural as life ; and many people who had 
 known Gibbs would not, according to the showman, 
 be convinced that this wax figure was not his skin 
 stuffed. The two pirates were represented with 
 halters round their necks, just ready to be turned 
 off; and the sheriff stood behind them, with his 
 watch, waiting for the moment. The clothes, halter, 
 and Gibbs s hair were authentic. E. K. Avery and 
 Cornell, the former a figure in black, leaning on the 
 back of a chair, in the attitude of a clergyman about 
 to pray ; an ugly devil, said to be a good likeness. 
 Ellen Jewett and R. P. Robinson, she dressed richly, 
 in extreme fashion, and very pretty ; he awkward 
 and stiff, it being difficult to stuff a figure to look 
 like a gentleman. The showman seemed very proud 
 of Ellen Jewett, and spoke of her somewhat as if 
 this wax figure were a real creation. Strong and 
 Mrs. Whipple, who together murdered the husband 
 of the latter. Lastly the Siamese twins. The show 
 man is careful to call his exhibition the " Statuary." 
 He walks to and fro before the figures, talking of the 
 history of the persons, the moral lessons to be drawn 
 therefrom, and especially of the excellence of the 
 
154 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 waxwork. He has for sale printed histories of the 
 personages. He is a friendly, easy-mannered sort 
 of a half-genteel character, whose talk has been 
 moulded by the persons who most frequent such a 
 show ; an air of superiority of information, a moral 
 instructor, with a great deal of real knowledge of the 
 world. He invites his departing guests to call again 
 and bring their friends, desiring to know whether they 
 are pleased ; telling that he had a thousand people 
 on the 4th of July, and that they were all perfectly 
 satisfied. He talks with the female visitors, remarking 
 on Ellen Jewett s person and dress to them, he having 
 " spared no expense in dressing her ; and all the ladies 
 say that a dress never set better, and he thinks he 
 never knew a handsomer female." He goes to and 
 fro, snuffing the candles, and now and then holding 
 one to the face of a favourite figure. Ever and anon, 
 hearing steps upon the staircase, he goes to admit a 
 new visitor. The visitors : a half bumpkin, half 
 country-squire-like man, who has something of a 
 knowing air, and yet looks and listens with a good 
 deal of simplicity and faith, smiling between whiles ; 
 a mechanic of the town ; several decent-looking girls 
 and women, who eye Ellen herself with more interest 
 than the other figures, women having much curiosity 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 155 
 
 about such ladies ; a gentlemanly sort of person, who 
 looks somewhat ashamed of himself for being there, 
 and glances at me knowingly, as if to intimate that 
 he was conscious of being out of place ; a boy or two, 
 and myself, who examine wax faces and faces of flesh 
 with equal interest. A political or other satire might 
 be made by describing a show of wax figures of the 
 prominent public men ; and, by the remarks of the 
 showman and the spectators, their characters and 
 public standing might be expressed. And the inci 
 dent of Judge Tyler as related by E - might be 
 introduced. 
 
 A series of strange, mysterious, dreadful events to 
 occur, wholly destructive of a person s happiness. He 
 to impute them to various persons and causes, but 
 ultimately finds that he is himself the sole agent. 
 Moral : that our welfare depends on ourselves. 
 
 The strange incident in the court of Charles IX. 
 of France : he and five other maskers being attired 
 in coats of linen covered with pitch and bestuck with 
 flax to represent hairy savages. They entered the 
 hall dancing, the five being fastened together, and 
 the king in front By accident the five were set on 
 
156 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 fire with a torch. Two were burned to death on the 
 spot, two afterwards died ; one fled to the buttery, 
 and jumped into a vessel of water. It might be 
 represented as the fate of a squad of dissolute men. 
 
 A perception, for a moment, of one s eventual 
 and moral self, as if it were another person, the 
 observant faculty being separated, and looking in 
 tently at the qualities of the character. There is a 
 surprise when this happens, this getting out of one s 
 self, and then the observer sees how queer a fellow 
 he is. 
 
 July 27th. Left home [Salem] on the 23rd instant. 
 To Boston by stage, and took the afternoon cars for 
 Worcester. A little boy returning from the city, 
 several miles, with a basket of empty custard-cups, 
 the contents of which he had probably sold at the 
 depot. Stopped at the Temperance House. An old 
 gentleman, Mr. Phillips of Boston, got into conver 
 sation with me, and inquired very freely as to my 
 character, tastes, habits, and circumstances, a free 
 dom sanctioned by his age, his kindly and beneficent 
 spirit, and the wisdom of his advice. It is strange 
 how little impertinence depends on what is actually 
 
I338.J AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 157 
 
 said, but rather on the manner and motives of saying 
 it. " I want to do you good," said he, with warmth, 
 after becoming, apparently, moved by my communi 
 cations. " Well, sir," replied I, " I wish you could, 
 for both our sakes ; for I have no doubt it would be 
 a great satisfaction to you." He asked the most 
 direct questions of another young man ; for instance, 
 "Are you married?" having before ascertained that 
 point with regard to myself. He told me by all 
 means to act, in whatever way ; observing that he 
 himself would have no objection to be a servant, if 
 no other mode of action presented itself. 
 
 The landlord of the tavern, a decent, active, grave, 
 attentive personage, giving me several cards of his 
 house to distribute on my departure. A judge, a 
 stout, hearty country squire, looking elderly ; a hale 
 and rugged man, in a black coat, and thin, light 
 pantaloons. 
 
 Started for Northampton at half-past nine in the 
 morning. A respectable sort of man and his son on 
 their way to Niagara, grocers, I believe, and calcu 
 lating how to perform the tour, subtracting as few 
 days as possible from the shop. Somewhat inex 
 perienced travellers, and comparing everything advan 
 tageously or otherwise with Boston customs ; and 
 
158 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 considering themselves a long way from home, while 
 yet short of a hundred miles from it. Two ladies, 
 rather good-looking. I rode outside nearly all day, 
 and was very sociable with the driver and another 
 outside passenger. Towards night, took up an 
 essence-vendor for a short distance. He was return 
 ing home, after having been out on a tour two or 
 three weeks, and nearly exhausted his stock. He 
 was not exclusively an essence-pedlar, having a large 
 tin box, which had been filled with dry-goods, combs, 
 jewelry, &c., now mostly sold out. His essences were 
 of aniseed, cloves, red cedar, wormwood, together with 
 opodeldoc, and an oil for the hair. These matters 
 are concocted at Ashfield, and the pedlars are sent 
 about with vast quantities. Cologne-water is among 
 the essences manufactured, though the bottles have 
 foreign labels on them. The pedlar was good-natured 
 and communicative, and spoke very frankly about 
 his trade, which he seemed to like better than farm 
 ing, though his experience of it is yet brief. He 
 spoke of the trials of temper to which pedlars are 
 subjected, but said that it was necessary to be for 
 bearing, because the same road must be travelled 
 again and again. The pedlars find satisfaction for 
 all contumelies in making good bargains out of their 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 159 
 
 customers. This man was a pedlar in quite a small 
 way, making but a narrow circuit, and carrying no 
 more than an open basketful of essences ; but some 
 go out with waggon-loads. He himself contemplated 
 a trip westward, in which case he would send on 
 quantities of his wares ahead to different stations. 
 He seemed to enjoy the intercourse and seeing of the 
 world. He pointed out a rough place in the road, 
 where his stock of essences had formerly been broken 
 by a jolt of the stage. What a waste of sweet smells 
 on the desert air ! The essence labels stated the 
 efficacy of the stuffs for various complaints of chil 
 dren and grown people. The driver was an acquaint 
 ance of the pedlar, and so gave him his drive for 
 nothing, though the pedlar pretended to wish to force 
 some silver into his hand ; and afterwards he got 
 down to water the horses, while the driver was busied 
 with other matters. This driver was a little dark 
 ragamuffin, apparently of irascible temper, speaking 
 with great disapprobation of his way-bill not being 
 timed accurately, but so as to make it appear as if he 
 were longer upon the road than he was. As he spoke, 
 the blood darkened in his cheek, and his eye looked 
 ominous and angry, as if he were enraged with the 
 person to whom he was speaking; yet he had not 
 
160 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 real grit, for he had never said a word of his griev 
 ances to those concerned. " I mean to tell them of 
 it by and by. I won t bear it more than three or four 
 times more," said he. 
 
 Left Northampton the next morning, between one 
 and two o clock. Three other passengers, whose faces 
 were not visible for some hours ; so we went on 
 through unknown space, saying nothing, glancing 
 forth sometimes to see the gleam of the lanterns on 
 wayside objects. 
 
 How very desolate looks a forest when seen in this 
 way, as if, should you venture one step within its 
 wild, tangled, many-stemmed, and dark-shadowed 
 verge, you would inevitably be lost for ever. Some 
 times we passed a house, or rumbled through a village, 
 stopping, perhaps, to arouse some drowsy postmaster, 
 who appeared at the door in shirt and pantaloons, 
 yawning, received the mail, returned it again, and 
 was yawning when last seen. A few words exchanged 
 among the passengers, as they roused themselves 
 from their half-slumbers, or dreamy slumber-like 
 abstraction. Meantime dawn broke, our faces became 
 partially visible, the morning air grew colder, and 
 finally cloudy day came on. We found ourselves 
 driving through quite a romantic country, with hills 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. l6l 
 
 or mountains on all sides, a stream on one side, 
 bordered by a high, precipitous bank, up which would 
 have grown pines, only that, losing their footholds, 
 many of them had slipped downward, The road 
 was not the safest in the world ; for often the carriage 
 approached within two or three feet of a precipice ; 
 but the driver, a merry fellow, lolled on his box, with 
 his feet protruding horizontally, and rattled on at the 
 rate of ten miles an hour. Breakfast between four 
 and five, newly-caught trout, salmon, ham, boiled 
 eggs, and other niceties, truly excellent. A bunch 
 of pickerel, intended for a tavern-keeper farther on, 
 was carried by the stage-driver. The drivers carry a 
 "time-watch " enclosed in a small wooden case, with 
 a lock, so that it may be known in what time they 
 perform their stages. They are allowed so many 
 hours and minutes to do their work, and their desire 
 to go as fast as possible, combined with that of 
 keeping their horses in good order, produces about a 
 right medium. 
 
 One of the passengers was a young man who had 
 been in Pennsylvania, keeping a school, a genteel 
 enough young man, but not a gentleman. He took 
 neither supper nor breakfast, excusing himself from 
 one as being weary with riding all day, and from the 
 
 VOL. I. ii 
 
1 62 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 other because it was so early. He attacked me for a 
 subscription for " building up a destitute church," of 
 which he had taken an agency, and had collected two 
 or three hundred dollars, but wanted as many -thou 
 sands. Betimes in the morning, on the descent of a 
 mountain, we arrived at a house where dwelt the 
 married sister of the young man, whom he was going 
 to visit. 
 
 He alighted, saw his trunk taken off, and then, 
 having perceived his sister at the door, and turning to 
 bid us farewell, there w r as a broad smile, even a laugh 
 of pleasure, which did him more credit with me than 
 anything else ; for hitherto there had been a disagree 
 able scornful twist upon his face, perhaps, however, 
 merely superficial. I saw, as the stage drove off, his 
 comely sister approaching with a lighted-up face to 
 greet him, and one passenger on the front seat beheld 
 them meet. " Is it an affectionate greeting ? " inquired 
 I. "Yes," said he, "I should like to share it;" 
 whereby I concluded that there was a kiss ex 
 changed. 
 
 The highest point of our journey was at Windsor, 
 w r here we could see leagues around, over the mountain, 
 a terribly bare, bleak spot, fit for nothing but sheep, 
 and without shelter of woods. We rattled downward 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 163 
 
 into a warmer region, beholding as we went the sun 
 shining on portions of the landscape, miles ahead of 
 us, while we were yet in chillness and gloom. It is 
 probable that during a part of the stage the mists 
 around us looked like sky clouds to those in the 
 lower regions. Think of driving a stage-coach through 
 the clouds ! Seasonably in the forenoon we arrived 
 at Pittsfield. 
 
 Pittsneld is a large village, quite shut in by 
 mountain walls, generally extending like a rampart 
 on all sides of it, but with insulated great hills rising 
 here and there in the outline. The area of the town 
 is level ; its houses are handsome, mostly wooden and 
 white ; but some are of brick, painted deep red, the 
 bricks being not of a healthy, natural colour. There 
 are handsome churches, Gothic and others, and a 
 court-house and an academy ; the court-house having 
 a marble front. There is a small mall in the centre 
 of the town, and in the centre of the mall rises an elm 
 of the loftiest and straightest stem that ever I beheld, 
 without a branch or leaf upon it till it has soared 
 seventy or perhaps a hundred feet into the air. The 
 top branches unfortunately have been shattered some 
 how or other, so that it does not cast a broad shade ; 
 probably they were broken by their own ponderous 
 
164 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 foliage. The central square of Pittsfield presents all 
 the bustle of a thriving village, the farmers of the 
 vicinity in light waggons, sulkies, or on horseback ; 
 stages at the door of the Berkshire Hotel, under the 
 stoop of which sit or lounge the guests, stage-people, 
 and idlers, observing or assisting in the arrivals and 
 departures. Huge trunks and bandboxes unladed 
 and laded. The courtesy shown to ladies in aiding 
 them to alight, in a shower, under umbrellas. The 
 dull looks of passengers, who have driven all night, 
 scarcely brightened by the excitement of arriving at 
 a new place. The stage agent demanding the names 
 of those who are going on, some to Lebanon Springs, 
 some to Albany. The toddy-stick is still busy at 
 these Berkshire public-houses. At dinner, soup pre 
 liminary, in city style. Guests : the court people ; 
 Briggs, member of Congress, attending a trial here ; 
 horse-dealers, country squires, store-keepers in the 
 village, &c. My room, a narrow crib overlooking a 
 back court-yard, where a young man and a lad were 
 drawing water for the maid-servants, their jokes, 
 especially those of the lad, of whose wit the elder 
 fellow, being a blockhead himself, was in great 
 admiration, and declared to another that he knew 
 as much as them both. Yet he was not very witty. 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 165 
 
 Once in a while the maid-servants would come to the 
 door, and hear and respond to their jokes, with a kind 
 of restraint, yet both permitting and enjoying them. 
 
 After or about sunset there was a heavy shower, 
 the thunder rumbling round and round the mountain 
 wall, and the clouds stretching from rampart to 
 rampart. When it abated, the clouds in all parts of 
 the visible heavens were tinged with glory from the 
 west ; some that hung low being purple and gold, 
 while the higher ones were gray. The slender curve 
 of the new moon was also visible, brightening amidst 
 the fading brightness of the sunny part of the sky. 
 There are marble quarries in and near Pittsfield, 
 which accounts for the fact that there are none but 
 marble grave-stones in the burial-grounds ; some of 
 the monuments well carved ; but the marble does not 
 withstand the wear and tear of time and weather so 
 well as the imported marble, and the sculpture soon 
 loses its sharp outline. The door of one tomb, a 
 wooden door, opening in the side of a green mound, 
 surmounted by a marble obelisk, having been shaken 
 from its hinges by the late explosion of the powder- 
 house, and incompletely repaired, I peeped in at the 
 crevices, and saw the coffins. It was the tomb of 
 Rev. Thomas Allen, first minister of Pittsfield, 
 
1 66 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 deceased in 1810. It contained three coffins, all with 
 white mould on their tops : one, a small child s, rested 
 upon another, and the other was on the opposite side 
 of the tomb, and the lid was considerably displaced ; 
 but, the tomb being dark, I could see neither corpse 
 nor skeleton. 
 
 Marble also occurs here in North Adams, and thus 
 some very ordinary houses have marble doorsteps, 
 and even the stone walls are built of fragments of 
 marble. 
 
 Wednesday, 2.6th. Left Pittsfield at about eight 
 o clock, in the Bennington stage, intending to go to 
 Williamstown. Inside passengers, a new married 
 couple taking a jaunt. The lady, with a clear, pale 
 complexion, and a rather pensive cast of countenance, 
 slender, and with a genteel figure ; the bridegroom, a 
 shopkeeper in New York probably, a young man with 
 a stout black beard, black eyebrows, which formed 
 one line across his forehead. They were very loving ; 
 and while the stage stopped I watched them, quite 
 entranced in each other, both leaning sideways against 
 the back of the coach, and perusing their mutual 
 comeliness, and apparently making complimentary 
 observations upon it to one another. The bride 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. l6/ 
 
 appeared the most absorbed and devoted, referring 
 her whole being to him. The gentleman seemed in a 
 most paradisiacal mood, smiling ineffably upon his 
 bride, and, when she spoke, responding to her with a 
 benign expression of matrimonial sweetness, and, as 
 it were, compassion for the " weaker vessel," mingled 
 with great love and pleasant humour. It was very 
 droll. The driver peeped into the coach once, and 
 said that he had his arm round her waist. He took 
 little freedoms with her, tapping her with his cane 
 love-pats ; and she seemed to see nothing amiss. 
 They kept eating gingerbread all along the road, and 
 dined heartily notwithstanding. 
 
 Our driver was a slender, lathe-like, round-backed, 
 rough-bearded, thin-visaged, middle-aged Yankee, who 
 became very communicative during our drive. He 
 was not bred a stage-driver, but had undertaken the 
 business temporarily, as a favour to his brother-in-law. 
 He was a native of these Berkshire mountains, but 
 had formerly emigrated to Ohio, and had returned 
 for a time to try the benefit of her native air on his 
 wife s declining health she having complaints of a con 
 sumptive nature. He pointed out the house where he 
 was married to her, and told the name of the country 
 squire who tied the knot. His wife has little or no 
 
1 68 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 chance of recovery, and he said he would never marry 
 again this resolution being expressed in answer to a 
 remark of mine relative to a second marriage. He 
 has no children. I pointed to a hill at some distance 
 before us, and asked what it was. " That, sir," said 
 he, " is a very high hill. It is known by the name of 
 Graylock." He seemed to feel that this was a more 
 poetical epithet than Saddleback, which is a more 
 usual name for it. Graylock, or Saddleback, is quite 
 a respectable mountain ; and I suppose the former 
 name has been given to it because it often has a grey 
 cloud, or lock of grey mist, upon its head. It does 
 not ascend into a peak, but heaves up a round ball, 
 and has supporting ridges on each side. Its summit 
 is not bare, like that of Mount Washington, but 
 covered with forests. The driver said, that several 
 years since the students of Williams College erected 
 a building for an observatory on the top of the 
 mountain, and employed him to haul the materials 
 for constructing it ; and he was the only man who 
 had driven an ox-team up Graylock. It was neces 
 sary to drive the team round and round, in ascending. 
 President Griffin rode up on horseback. 
 
 Along our road we passed villages, and often fac 
 tories, the machinery whirring, and girls looking out 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 169 
 
 of the windows at the stage, with heads averted from 
 their tasks, but still busy. These factories have two, 
 three, or more boarding-houses near them, two storeys 
 high, and of double length, often with bean-vines 
 running up round the doors, and with altogether a 
 domestic look. There are several factories in different 
 parts of North Adams along the banks of a stream, 
 a wild, highland rivulet, which, however, does vast 
 work of a civilized nature. It is strange to see such 
 a rough and untamed stream as it looks to be so 
 subdued to the purposes of man, and making cottons 
 and woollens, sawing boards and marbles, and giving 
 employment to so many men and girls. And there 
 is a sort of picturesqueness in finding these factories, 
 supremely artificial establishments, in the midst of 
 such wild scenery. For now the stream will be flow 
 ing through a rude forest, with the trees erect and 
 dark, as when the Indians fished there ; and it brawls 
 and tumbles and eddies over its rock-strewn current. 
 Perhaps there is a precipice, hundreds of feet high, 
 beside it, down which, by heavy rains or the melting 
 of snows, great pine-trees have slid or fallen headlong, 
 and lie at the bottom, or half way down, while their 
 brethren seem to be gazing at their fall from the 
 summit, and anticipating a like fate. And then, 
 
I/O AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 taking a turn in the road, behold these factories and 
 their range of boarding-houses, with the girls looking 
 out of the windows as aforesaid ! And perhaps the 
 wild scenery is all around the very site of the factory, 
 and mingles its impression strangely with those oppo 
 site ones. These observations were made during a 
 walk yesterday. 
 
 I bathed in a pool of the stream that was out of 
 sight, and where its brawling waters were deep enough 
 to cover me, when I lay at length. A part of the road 
 along which I walked was on the edge of a precipice, 
 falling down straight towards the stream ; and in one 
 place the passage of heavy loads had sunk it, so that 
 soon, probably, there will be an avalanche, perhaps 
 carrying a stage coach or heavy wagon down into the 
 bed of the river. 
 
 I met occasional wayfarers ; once two women in 
 a cart, decent, brown-visaged, country matrons, 
 and then an apparent doctor, of whom there are 
 seven or thereabouts in North Adams ; for though 
 this vicinity is very healthy, yet the physicians are 
 obliged to ride considerable distances among the 
 mountain towns, and their practice is very laborious. 
 A nod is always exchanged between strangers meet 
 ing on the road. This morning an underwitted old 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. I/I 
 
 man met me on a walk, and held a pretty long con 
 versation, insisting upon shaking hands (to which I 
 was averse, lest his hand should not be clean), and 
 insisting on his right to do so, as being " a friend of 
 mankind." He was a grey, bald-headed, wrinkled- 
 visaged figure, decently dressed, with cowhide shoes, 
 a coat on one arm, and an umbrella on the other, and 
 said that he was going to see a widow in the neigh 
 bourhood. Finding that I was not provided with 
 a wife, he recommended a certain maiden of forty 
 years, who had three hundred acres of land. He 
 spoke of his children, who are proprietors of a circus 
 establishment, and have taken a granddaughter to 
 bring up in their way of life : and he gave me a 
 message to tell them in case we should meet. While 
 this old man is wandering among the hills, his chil 
 dren are the gaze of multitudes. He told me the 
 place where he was born, directing me to it by 
 pointing to a wreath of mist which lay on the side 
 of a mountain ridge, which he termed "the smoke 
 yonder." Speaking of the widow, he said : " My wife 
 has been dead these seven years, and why should not 
 I enjoy myself a little?" His manner was full of 
 quirks and quibs and eccentricities, waving his um 
 brella and gesticulating strangely, with a great deal 
 
172 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 of action. I suppose, to help his natural foolishness, 
 he had been drinking. We parted, he exhorting me 
 not to forget his message to his sons, and I shouting 
 after him a request to be remembered to the widow. 
 Conceive something tragical to be talked about, and 
 much might be made of this interview in a wild road 
 among the hills, with Graylock, at a great distance, 
 looking sombre and angry, by reason of the gray, 
 heavy, mist upon his head. 
 
 The morning was cloudy, and all the near land 
 scape lay unsunned ; but there was sunshine on distant 
 tracts, in the valleys, and in specks upon the moun 
 tain-tops. Between the ridges of hills, there are long, 
 wide, deep valleys, extending for miles and miles, with 
 houses scattered along them. A bulky company of 
 mountains, swelling round head over round head, rises 
 insulated by such broad vales from the surrounding 
 ridges. 
 
 I ought to have mentioned that I arrived at North 
 Adams in the forenoon of the 26th, and, liking the 
 aspect of matters indifferently well, determined to 
 make my head-quarters here for a short time. 
 
 On the road to Northampton we passed a tame 
 crow, which was sitting on the peak of a barn. The 
 crow flew down from its perch, and followed us a 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 1 73 
 
 great distance, hopping along the road, and flying, 
 with its large, black, flapping wings, from post to post 
 of the fence, or from tree to tree. At last he gave 
 up the pursuit with a croak of disappointment. The 
 driver said, perhaps correctly, that the crow had 
 scented some salmon which was in a basket under 
 the seat, and that this was the secret of his pursuing 
 us. This would be a terrific incident if it were a dead 
 body that the crow scented, instead of a basket of 
 salmon. Suppose, for instance, in a coach travelling 
 along, that one of the passengers suddenly should 
 die, and that one of the indications of his death would 
 be this deportment of the crow. 
 
 July 2^th. Remarkable characters : a disagreeable 
 figure, waning from middle age, clad in a pair of tow 
 homespun pantaloons, and a very soiled shirt, barefoot, 
 and with one of his feet maimed by an axe ; also an 
 arm amputated two or three inches below the elbow. 
 His beard of a week s growth, grim and grisly, with a 
 general effect of black ; altogether a disgusting object. 
 Yet he has the signs of having been a handsome man 
 in his idea, though now such a beastly figure that 
 probably no living thing but his great dog would touch 
 him without an effort. Coming to the stoop, where 
 
1/4 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 several persons were sitting, " Good morning, gentle 
 men," said the wretch. Nobody answered for a time, 
 till at last one said, " I don t know whom you speak 
 to : not to me, I m sure" (meaning that he did not 
 claim to be a gentleman). " Why, I thought I spoke 
 to you all at once," replied the figure, laughing. So he 
 sat himself down on the lower step of the stoop, and 
 began to talk ; and, the conversation being turned upon 
 his bare feet by one of the company, he related the 
 story of his losing his toes by the glancing aside of an 
 axe, and with what great fortitude he bore it. Then he 
 made a transition to the loss of his arm, and, setting 
 his teeth and drawing in his breath, said that the 
 pain was dreadful ; but this, too, he seems to have 
 borne like an Indian ; and a person testified to his 
 fortitude by saying that he did not suppose there was 
 any feeling in him, from observing how he bore it. 
 The man spoke of the pain of cutting the muscles, 
 and the particular agony at one moment, while the 
 bone was being sawed asunder ; and there was a 
 strange expression of remembered anguish, as he 
 shrugged his half-limb, and described the matter. 
 Afterwards, in a reply to a question of mine, whether 
 he still seemed to feel the hand that had been ampu 
 tated, he answered that he did always ; and, baring 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 1/5 
 
 the stump, he moved the severed muscles, saying, 
 "There is the thumb, there the forefinger," and so 
 on. Then he talked to me about phrenology, of 
 which he seems a firm believer, and skilful practi 
 tioner, telling how he had hit upon the true character 
 of many people. There was a great deal of sense and 
 acuteness in his talk, and something of elevation in 
 his expressions, perhaps a studied elevation, and a 
 sort of courtesy in his manner ; but his sense had 
 something out of the way in it ; there was something 
 wild and ruined and desperate in his talk, though I 
 can hardly say what it was. There was a trace of 
 the gentleman and man of intellect through his deep 
 degradation ; and a pleasure in intellectual pursuits, 
 and an acuteness and trained judgment, which bespoke 
 a mind once strong and cultivated. " My study is 
 man," said he. And looking at me, " I do not know 
 your name," he said, " but there is something of the 
 hawk-eye about you, too." 
 
 This man was formerly a lawyer in good practice ; 
 but, taking to drinking, was reduced to the lowest 
 state. Yet not the lowest ; for, after the amputation 
 of his arm, being advised by divers persons to throw 
 himself upon the public for support, he told them 
 that, even if he should lose his other arm, he would 
 
i;6 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 still be able to support himself and a servant Cer 
 tainly he is a strong-minded and iron-constitutioned 
 man ; but, looking at the stump of his arm, he said 
 that the pain of the mind was a thousand times 
 greater than the pain of the body. " That hand 
 could make the pen go fast," said he. Among people 
 in general, he does not seem to have any greater 
 consideration in his ruin because of his former stand 
 ing in society. He supports himself by making 
 soap ; and, on account of the offals used in that busi 
 ness, there is probably rather an evil odour in his 
 domicile. Talking about a dead horse near his 
 house, he said that he could not bear the scent of it. 
 " I should not think you could smell carrion in that 
 house," said a stage-agent. Whereupon the soap- 
 maker dropped his head, with a little snort, as it 
 were, of wounded feeling ; but immediately said that 
 he took all in good part. There was an old squire 
 of the village, a lawyer, probably, whose demeanour 
 was different, with a distance, yet with a kindliness ; 
 for he remembered the times when they met on equal 
 terms. " You and I," said the squire, alluding to 
 their respective troubles and sicknesses, " would have 
 died long ago, if we had not had the courage to live." 
 The poor devil kept talking to me, long after every- 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 177 
 
 body else had left the stoop, giving vent to much 
 practical philosophy, and just observation on the 
 ways of men, mingled with rather more assumption of 
 literature and cultivation than belonged to the present 
 condition of his mind. Meantime his great dog, a 
 cleanly-looking and not ill-bred dog, being the only 
 decent attribute appertaining to his master, a well- 
 natured dog, too, and receiving civilly any demonstra 
 tion of courtesy from other people, though preserving 
 a certain distance of deportment, this great dog grew 
 weary of his master s lengthy talk, and expressed his 
 impatience to be gone by thrusting himself between 
 his legs, rolling over on his back, seizing his ragged 
 trousers, or playfully taking his maimed, bare foot 
 into his mouth, using, in short, the kindly and 
 humourous freedom of a friend, with a wretch to 
 whom all are free enough, but none other kind. His 
 master rebuked him, but with kindness too, and not 
 so that the dog felt himself bound to desist, though 
 he seemed willing to allow his master all the time 
 that could possibly be spared. And at last, having 
 said many times that he must go and shave and dress 
 himself, and as his beard had been at least a week 
 growing, it might have seemed almost a week s work 
 to get rid of it, he rose from the stoop and went his 
 
 VOL. I. 12 
 
178 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 way, a forlorn and miserable thing in the light of 
 the cheerful summer morning. Yet he seems to keep 
 his spirits up, and still preserves himself a man among 
 men, asking nothing from them ; nor is it clearly 
 perceptible what right they have to scorn him, though 
 he seems to acquiesce, in a manner, in their doing so. 
 And yet he cannot wholly have lost his self-respect ; 
 and doubtless there were persons on the stoop more 
 grovelling than himself. 
 
 Another character : A blacksmith of fifty or 
 upwards, a corpulent figure, big in the paunch and 
 enormous in the rear ; yet there is such an appearance 
 of strength and robustness in his frame, that his 
 corpulence appears very proper and necessary to 
 him. A pound of flesh could not be spared from 
 his abundance, any more than from the leanest man ; 
 and he walks about briskly, without any panting or 
 symptom of labour or pain in his motion. He has 
 a round, jolly face, always mirthful and humourous 
 and shrewd, and the air of a man well to do, and 
 well respected, yet not caring much about the opinions 
 of men, because his independence is sufficient to itself. 
 Nobody would take him for other than a man of 
 some importance in the community, though his 
 summer dress is a tow-cloth pair of pantaloons, a 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 
 
 shirt not of the cleanest, open at the breast, and the 
 sleeves rolled up at the elbows, and a straw hat. 
 There is not such a vast difference between this 
 costume and that of Lawyer H above mentioned, 
 yet never was there a greater diversity of appearance 
 than between these two men ; and a glance at them 
 would be sufficient to mark the difference. The black 
 smith loves his glass, and comes to the tavern for it, 
 whenever it seems good to him, not calling for it 
 slyly and shyly, but marching steadily to the bar, 
 or calling across the room for it to be prepared. He 
 speaks with great bitterness against the new licence 
 law, and vows if it be not repealed by fair means it 
 shall be by violence, and that he will be as ready to 
 cock his rifle for such a cause as for any other. On 
 this subject his talk is really fierce ; but as to all 
 other matters he is good-natured and good-hearted, 
 fond of joke, and shaking his jolly sides with frequent 
 laughter. His conversation has much strong, un 
 lettered sense, imbued with humour, as everybody s 
 talk is in New England. 
 
 He takes a queer position sometimes, queer for 
 his figure particularly, straddling across a chair, 
 facing the back, with his arms resting thereon, and 
 his chin on them, for the benefit of conversing closely 
 
1 80 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 with some one. When he has spent as much time in 
 the bar-room or under the stoop as he chooses to 
 spare, he gets up at once, and goes off with a brisk, 
 vigorous pace. He owns a mill, and seems to be 
 prosperous in the world. I know no man who seems 
 more like a man, more indescribably human, than this 
 sturdy blacksmith. 
 
 There came in the afternoon a respectable man 
 in grey homespun cloth, who arrived in a waggon, I 
 believe, and began to inquire, after supper, about a 
 certain new kind of mill machinery. Being referred 
 to the blacksmith, who owned one of these mills, the 
 stranger said that he had come from Vermont to 
 learn about the matter. "What may I call your 
 name ? " said he to the blacksmith. " My name is 
 Hodge," replied the latter. " I believe I have heard 
 of you," said the stranger. Then they colloquied at 
 much length about the various peculiarities and merits 
 of the new invention. The stranger continued here 
 two or three days, making his researches, and forming 
 acquaintance with several millwrights and others. He 
 was a man evidently of influence in his neighbourhood, 
 and the tone of his conversation was in the style of 
 one accustomed to be heard with deference, though 
 all in a plain and homely way. Lawyer H took 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. l8l 
 
 notice of this manner ; for the talk being about the 
 nature of soap, and the evil odour arising from that 
 process, the stranger joined in. " There need not be 
 any disagreeable smell in making soap," said he. 
 
 " Now we are to receive a lesson," said H , and 
 
 the remark was particularly apropos to the large 
 wisdom of the stranger s tone and air. 
 
 Then he gave an account of the process in his 
 domestic establishment, saying that he threw away 
 the whole offals of the hog, as not producing any 
 soap, and preserved the skins of the intestines for 
 sausages. He seemed to be hospitable, inviting those 
 with whom he did business to take "a mouthful of 
 dinner" with him, and treating them with liquors ; 
 for he was not an utter temperance man, though 
 moderate in his potations. I suspect he would turn 
 out a pattern character of the upper class of New 
 England yeomen, if I had an opportunity of studying 
 him. Doubtless he had been select man, representa 
 tive, and justice, and had filled all but weighty offices. 
 He was highly pleased with the new mill contrivance, 
 and expressed his opinion that, when his neighbours 
 saw the success of his, it would be extensively intro 
 duced into that vicinity. 
 
 Mem. The hostlers at taverns call the money given 
 
1 82 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 them " pergasus," corrupted from " perquisites ; " 
 othenvise, "knock-down money." 
 
 Remarkable character : A travelling surgeon- 
 dentist, who has taken a room in the North Adams 
 House, and sticks up his advertising bills on the 
 pillars of the piazza, and all about the town. He is 
 a tall, slim young man, six feet two, dressed in a 
 country-made coat of light blue (taken, as he tells me, 
 in exchange for dental operations), black pantaloons, 
 and clumsy cowhide boots. Self-conceit is very 
 strongly expressed in his air ; and a doctor once told 
 him that he owed his life to that quality ; for, by 
 keeping himself so stiffly upright, he opens his chest, 
 and counteracts a consumptive tendency. He is not 
 only a dentist which trade he follows temporarily 
 but a licensed preacher of the Baptist persuasion, and 
 is now on his way to the West to seek a place of 
 settlement in his spiritual vocation. Whatever educa 
 tion he possesses, he has acquired by his own 
 exertions since the age of twenty-one, he being now 
 twenty- four. We talk together very freely ; and he 
 has given me an account, among other matters, of all 
 his love-affairs, which are rather curious, as illustrative 
 of the life of a smart young country fellow in relation 
 to the gentle sex. Nothing can exceed the exquisite 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 183 
 
 self-conceit which characterizes these confidences, and 
 which is expressed inimitably in his face, his upturned 
 nose, and mouth, so as to be truly a caricature ; and 
 he seems strangely to find as much food for his passion 
 in having been jilted once or twice as in his conquests. 
 It is curious to notice his revengeful feeling against 
 the false ones, hidden from himself, however, under 
 the guise of religious interest, and desire that they 
 may be cured of their follies. 
 
 A little boy named Joe, who haunts about the 
 bar-room and the stoop, four years old, in a thin, 
 short jacket, and full-breeched trousers, and bare feet. 
 The men tease him and put quids of tobacco in his 
 mouth, under pretence of giving him a fig ; and he 
 gets enraged, and utters a peculiar, sharp, spiteful cry, 
 and strikes at them with a stick, to their great mirth. 
 He is always in trouble, yet will not keep away. 
 They despatch him with two or three cents to buy 
 candy and nuts and raisins. They set him down in a 
 niche of the door, and tell him to remain there a day 
 and a half: he sits down very demurely, as if he 
 meant to fulfil his penance ; but a moment after, 
 behold ! there is little Joe capering across the street 
 to join two or three boys who are playing in a waggon. 
 Take this boy as the germ of a tavern-haunter, a 
 
1 84 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 country rone, to spend a wild and brutal youth, ten 
 years of his prime in the State Prison, and his old age 
 in the poor-house. 
 
 There are a great many dogs kept in the village, 
 and many of the travellers also have dogs. Some are 
 almost always playing about ; and if a cow or a pig 
 be passing, two or three of them scamper forth for an 
 attack. Some of the younger sort chase pigeons, 
 wheeling as they wheel. If a contest arises between 
 two dogs, a number of others come with huge barking 
 to join the fray, though I believe that they do not 
 really take any active part in the contest, but swell 
 the uproar by way of encouraging the combatants. 
 When a traveller is starting from the door, his dog 
 often gets in front of the horse, placing his forefeet 
 down, looking the horse in the face, and barking 
 loudly ; then, as the horse comes on, running a little 
 farther, and repeating the process ; and this he does 
 in spite of his master s remonstrances, till, the horse 
 being fairly started, the dog follows on quietly. One 
 dog, a diminutive little beast, has been taught to 
 stand on his hind legs, and rub his face with his paw, 
 which he does with an aspect of much endurance and 
 deprecation. Another springs at people whom his 
 master points out to him, barking and pretending to 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 185 
 
 bite. These tricks make much mirth in the bar-room. 
 All dogs, of whatever different sizes and dissimilar 
 varieties, acknowledge the common bond of species 
 among themselves, and the largest one does not 
 disdain to suffer his tail to be smelt of, nor to recipro 
 cate that courtesy to the smallest. They appear to 
 take much interest in one another; but there is always 
 a degree of caution between two strange dogs when 
 they meet. 
 
 July 31^. A visit to what is called "Hudson s 
 Cave," or " Hudson s Falls," the tradition being that 
 a man by the name of Henry Hudson, many years 
 ago, chasing a deer, the deer fell over the place, which 
 then first became known to white men. It is not 
 properly a cave, but a fissure in a huge ledge of 
 marble, through which a stream has been for ages 
 forcing its way, and has left marks of its gradually 
 wearing power on the tall crags, having made curious 
 hollows from the summit down to the level which it 
 has reached at the present day. The depth of the 
 fissure in some places is at least fifty or sixty feet, 
 perhaps more, and at several points it nearly closes 
 over, and often the sight of the sky is hidden by the 
 interposition of masses of the marble crags. The 
 
1 86 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 fissure is very irregular, so as not to be describable in 
 words, and scarcely to be painted, jetting buttresses, 
 moss-grown, impending crags, with tall trees growing 
 on their verge, nodding over the head of the observer 
 at the bottom of the chasm, and rooted, as it were, in 
 air. The part where the water works its way down is 
 very narrow ; but the chasm widens, after the descent, 
 so as to form a spacious chamber between the crags, 
 open to the sky, and its floor is strewn with fallen 
 fragments of marble, and trees that have been pre 
 cipitated long ago, and are heaped with drift-wood, 
 left there by the freshets, when the scanty stream 
 becomes a considerable waterfall. One crag, with a 
 narrow ridge, which might be climbed without much 
 difficulty, protrudes from the middle of the rock, and 
 divides the fall. The passage through the cave made 
 by the stream is very crooked, and interrupted, not 
 only by fallen wrecks, but by deep pools of water, 
 which probably have been forded by few. As the 
 deepest pool occurs in the most uneven part of the 
 chasm, where the hollows in the sides of the crag are 
 deepest, so that each hollow is almost a cave by itself, 
 I determined to wade through it. There was an 
 accumulation of soft stuff on the bottom, so that the 
 water did not look more than knee-deep ; but, finding 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. l8/ 
 
 that my feet sunk in it, I took off my trousers and 
 waded through, up to my middle. Thus I reached 
 the most interesting part of the cave, where the 
 whirlings of the stream had left the marks of its 
 eddies in the solid marble, all up and down the two 
 sides of the chasm. The water is now dammed for 
 the construction of two marble saw-mills, else it would 
 have been impossible to effect the passage ; and I 
 presume that, for years after the cave was discovered 
 the waters roared and tore their way in a torrent 
 through this part of the chasm. While I was there, 
 I heard voices, and a small stone tumbled down ; and 
 looking up towards the narrow strip of bright light, 
 and the sunny verdure that peeped over the top, 
 looking up thither from the deep, gloomy depth, I 
 saw two or three men ; and, not liking to be to them 
 the most curious part of the spectacle, I waded back, 
 and put on my clothes. The marble crags are over 
 spread with a concretion, which makes them look as 
 grey as granite, except where the continual flow of 
 water keeps them of a snowy whiteness. If they 
 were so white all over, it would be a splendid show. 
 There is a marble quarry close in the rear, above the 
 cave, and in process of time the whole of the crags 
 will be quarried into tombstones, doorsteps, fronts of 
 
1 88 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 edifices, fireplaces, &c. That will be a pity. On such 
 portions of the walls as are within reach, visitors have 
 sculptured their initials, or names at full length ; and 
 the white letters showing plainly on the grey surface, 
 they have more obvious effect than such inscriptions 
 generally have. There was formerly, I believe, a 
 complete arch of marble, forming a natural bridge 
 over the top of the cave ; but this is no longer so. 
 At the bottom of the broad chamber of the cave, 
 standing in its shadow, the effect of the morning 
 sunshine on the dark or bright foliage of the pines 
 and other trees that cluster on the summits of the 
 crags was particularly beautiful ; and it was strange 
 how such great trees had rooted themselves in solid 
 marble, for so it seemed. 
 
 After passing through this romantic and most 
 picturesque spot, the stream goes onward to turn 
 factories. Here its voice resounds within the hollow 
 crags ; there it goes onward, talking to itself, with 
 babbling din, of its own wild thoughts and fantasies, 
 the voice of solitude and the wilderness, loud and 
 continual, but which yet does not seem to disturb the 
 thoughtful wanderer, so that he forgets there is a 
 noise. It talks along its storm-strewn path ; it talks 
 beneath tall precipices and high banks, a voice that 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 189 
 
 has been the same for innumerable ages ; and yet, if 
 you listen, you will perceive a continual change and 
 variety in its babble, and sometimes it seems to swell 
 louder upon the ear than at others, in the same 
 spot, I mean. By and by man makes a dam for it, 
 and it pours over it, still making its voice heard, while 
 it labours. At one shop for manufacturing the marble, 
 I saw the disk of a sun-dial as large as the top of 
 a hogshead, intended for Williams College ; also a 
 small obelisk and numerous gravestones. The marble 
 is coarse-grained, but of a very brilliant whiteness. It 
 is rather a pity that the cave is not formed of some 
 worthless stone. 
 
 In the deep valleys of the neighbourhood, where 
 the shadows at sunset are thrown from mountain to 
 mountain, the clouds have a beautiful effect, flitting 
 high over them, bright with heavenly gold. It seems 
 as if the soul might rise up from the gloom, and 
 alight upon them and soar away. Walking along one 
 of the valleys the other evening, while a pretty fresh 
 breeze blew across it, the clouds that were skimming 
 over my head seemed to conform themselves to the 
 valley s shape. 
 
 At a distance, mountain summits look close 
 together, almost as if forming one mountain, though 
 
190 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 in reality a village lies in the depths between 
 them. 
 
 A steam-engine in a factory to be supposed to 
 possess a malignant spirit. It catches one man s arm, 
 and pulls it off; seizes another by the coat-tails, and 
 almost grapples him bodily ; catches a girl by the 
 hair, and scalps her ; and finally draws in a man, and 
 crushes him to death. 
 
 The one-armed soap-maker, Lawyer H , wears 
 
 an iron hook, which serves him instead of a hand for 
 the purpose of holding on. They nickname him 
 "Black Hawk." 
 
 North Adams still. The village, viewed from the 
 top of a hill to the westward at sunset, has a pecu 
 liarly happy and peaceful look. It lies on a level, sur 
 rounded by hills, and seems as if it lay in the hollow 
 of a large hand. The Union Village may be seen, a 
 manufacturing place, extending up a gorge of the 
 hills. It is amusing to see all the distributed property 
 of the aristocracy and commonalty, the various and 
 conflicting interests of the town, the loves and hates, 
 compressed into a space which the eye takes in as 
 completely as the arrangement of a tea-table. The 
 rush of the streams comes up the hill somewhat like 
 the sound of a city. 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. IQI 
 
 The hills about the village appear very high and 
 steep sometimes, when the shadows of the clouds are 
 thrown blackly upon them, while there is sunshine 
 elsewhere ; so that, seen in front, the effect of their 
 gradual slope is lost. These hills, surrounding the 
 town on all sides, give it a snug and insulated air ; 
 and, viewed from certain points, it would be difficult 
 to tell how to get out, without climbing the mountain 
 ridges ; but the roads wind away and accomplish the 
 passage without ascending very high. Sometimes 
 the notes of a horn or bugle may be heard sounding 
 afar among these passes of the mountains, announcing 
 the coming of the stage-coach from Bennington or 
 Troy or Greenfield or Pittsfield. 
 
 There are multitudes of sheep among the hills, 
 and they appear very tame and gentle ; though some 
 times, like the wicked, they " flee when no man pur- 
 sueth." But, climbing a rude, rough, rocky, stumpy, 
 ferny height yesterday, one or two of them stood and 
 stared at me with great earnestness. I passed on 
 quietly, but soon heard an immense baa-ing up the 
 hill, and all the sheep came galloping and scrambling 
 after me, baa-ing with all their might in innumerable 
 voices, running in a compact body, expressing the 
 utmost eagerness, as if they sought the greatest ima- 
 
192 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 ginable favour from me ; and so they accompanied 
 me down the hillside, a most ridiculous cortege. 
 Doubtless they had taken it into their heads that 
 I brought them salt. 
 
 The aspect of the village is peculiarly beautiful 
 towards sunset, when there are masses of cloud about 
 the sky, the remnants of a thunderstorm. These 
 clouds throw a shade upon large portions of the 
 rampart of hills, and the hills towards the west are 
 shaded of course ; the clouds also make the shades 
 deeper in the village, and thus the sunshine on the 
 houses and trees, and along the street, is a bright, 
 rich gold. The green is deeper in consequence of 
 the recent rain. 
 
 The doctors walk about the village with their 
 saddle-bags on their arms, one always with a pipe 
 in his mouth. 
 
 A little dog, named Snapper, the same who stands 
 on his hind legs, appears to be a roguish little dog, 
 and the other day he stole one of the servant-girls 
 shoes, and ran into the street with it. Being pursued, 
 he would lift the shoe in his mouth (while it almost 
 dragged on the ground), and run a little way, then 
 lie down with his paws on it, and wait to be pursued 
 again. 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. IQ3 
 
 August nth. This morning, it being cloudy and 
 boding of rain, the clouds had settled upon the moun 
 tains, both on the summits and ridges, all round the 
 town, so that there seemed to be no way of gaining 
 access to the rest of the world, unless by climbing 
 above the clouds. By and by they partially dispersed, 
 giving glimpses of the mountain ramparts through 
 their obscurity, the separate clouds lying heavily upon 
 the mountain s breast. In warm mornings, after rain, 
 the mist breaks forth from the forests on the ascent of 
 the mountains, like smoke, the smoke of a volcano ; 
 then it soars up, and becomes a cloud in heaven. But 
 these clouds to-day were real rain-clouds. Sometimes, 
 it is said, while labouring up the mountain-side, they 
 suddenly burst, and pour down their moisture in a 
 cataract, sweeping all before it. 
 
 Every new aspect of the mountains, or view from 
 a different position, creates a surprise in the mind. 
 
 Scenes and characters : A young country fellow, 
 twenty or thereabouts, decently dressed, pained with 
 the toothache. A doctor, passing on horseback, with 
 his black leather saddle-bags behind him, a thin, 
 frosty-haired man. Being asked to operate, he looks 
 at the tooth, lances the gum, and the fellow being 
 content to be dealt with on the spot, he seats himself 
 VOL. I. 13 
 
IQ4 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 in a chair on the stoop with great heroism. The 
 doctor produces a rusty pair of iron forceps ; a man 
 holds the patient s head ; the doctor "perceives that, it 
 being a difficult tooth to get at, wedged between the 
 two largest in his jaws, he must pull very hard ; and 
 the instrument is introduced. A turn of the doctor s 
 hand ; the patient begins to utter a cry, but the tooth 
 comes out first, with four prongs. The patient gets up, 
 half amazed, pays the doctor ninepence, pockets the 
 tooth, and the spectators are in glee and admiration. nS 
 
 There was a fat woman, a stage passenger to-day, 
 a wonder how she could possibly get through the 
 door, which seemed not so wide as she. When she 
 put her foot on the step, the stage gave a great lurch, 
 she joking all the while. A great, coarse, red-faced 
 dame. Other passengers, three or four slender 
 Williamstown students, a young girl, and a man 
 with one leg and two crutches. 
 
 One of the most sensible men in this village is 
 a plain, tall, elderly person, who is overseeing the 
 mending of a road, humourous, intelligent, with 
 much thought about matters and things ; and while 
 at work he has a sort of dignity in handling the hoe 
 or crow-bar, which shows him to be the chief. In the 
 evening he sits under the stoop, silent and observant 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 195 
 
 from under the brim of his hat ; but, occasion calling, 
 he holds an argument about the benefit or otherwise 
 of manufactories or other things. A simplicity cha 
 racterizes him more than appertains to most Yankees. 
 
 A man in a pea-green frock-coat, with velvet 
 collar. Another in a flowered chintz frock-coat. 
 There is a great diversity of hues in garments. A 
 doctor, a stout, tall, round-paunched, red-faced, brutal- 
 looking old fellow, who gets drunk daily. He sat 
 down on the step of our stoop, looking surly, and 
 speaking to nobody ; then got up and walked home 
 ward, with a morose swagger and a slight unevenness 
 of gait, attended by a fine Newfoundland dog. 
 
 A barouche with driver returned from beyond 
 Greenfield or Troy empty, the passengers being left 
 at the former place. The driver stops here for the 
 night, and, while washing, enters into talk with an 
 old man about the different roads over the mountain. 
 
 People washing themselves at a common basin in 
 the bar-room ! and using the common hair-brushes ! 
 perhaps with a consciousness of praiseworthy neat 
 ness ! 
 
 A man with a cradle on his shoulder, having been 
 cradling oats. I attended a child s funeral yesterday 
 afternoon. There was an assemblage of people in a 
 
196 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 plain, homely apartment. Most of the men were 
 dressed in their ordinary clothes, and one or two were 
 in shirtsleeves. The coffin was placed in the midst of 
 us, covered with a velvet pall. A bepaid clergyman 
 prayed, (the audience remaining seated, while he stood 
 up at the head of the coffin,) read a passage of Scrip 
 ture, and commented upon it. While he read and 
 prayed and expounded there was a heavy thunder 
 storm rumbling among the surrounding hills, and the 
 lightning flashed fiercely through the gloomy room ; 
 and the preacher alluded to God s voice of thunder. 
 
 It is the custom in this part of the country and 
 perhaps extensively in the interior of New England 
 to bury the dead first in a charnel-house, or common 
 tomb, where they remain till decay has so far pro 
 gressed as to secure them from the resurrectionists. 
 They are then reburied, with certain ceremonies, in 
 their own peculiar graves. 
 
 O. E. S , a widower of forty or upwards, with 
 
 a son of twelve and a pair of infant twins. He is a 
 sharp, shrewd Yankee, with a Yankee s licence of 
 honesty. He drinks sometimes more than enough, 
 and is guilty of peccadilloes with the fair sex ; yet 
 speaks most affectionately of his wife, and is a fond 
 and careful father. He is a tall, thin, hard-featured 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 1 97 
 
 man, with a sly expression of almost hidden grave 
 humour, as if there were some devilry pretty con 
 stantly in his mind, which is probably the case. 
 His brother tells me that he was driven almost crazy 
 by the loss of his wife. It appears to me that men 
 are more affected by the deaths of their wives than 
 
 wives by the deaths of their husbands. Orrin S 
 
 smokes a pipe, as do many of the guests. 
 
 A walk this forenoon up the mountain ridge that 
 walls in the town towards the east. The road is cut 
 zigzag, the mountain being generally as steep as the 
 roof of a house ; yet the stage to Greenfield passes 
 over this road two or three times a week. Graylock 
 rose up behind me, appearing, with its two summits 
 and a long ridge between, like a huge monster crouch 
 ing down slumbering, with its head slightly elevated. 
 Graylock is properly the name for the highest eleva 
 tion. It appeared to better advantage the higher the 
 point from which I viewed it. There were houses 
 scattered here and there up the mountain-side, growing 
 poorer as I ascended ; the last that I passed was a 
 mean log-hut, rough, rude, and dilapidated, with the 
 smoke issuing from a chimney of small stones, plas 
 tered with clay : around it a garden of beans, with 
 some attempt at flowers, and a green creeper running 
 
198 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 over the side of the cottage. Above this "point there 
 were various excellent views of mountain scenery, far off 
 and near, and one village lying below in the hollow vale. 
 
 Having climbed so far that the road seemed now 
 to go downward, I retraced my steps. There was a 
 waggon descending behind me ; and as it followed the 
 zigzag of the road I could hear the voices of the men 
 high over my head, and sometimes I caught a glimpse 
 of the waggon almost perpendicularly above me, while 
 I was looking almost perpendicularly down to the 
 log-hut aforementioned. Trees were thick on either 
 hand, oaks, pines, and others ; and marble occa 
 sionally peeped up in the road ; and there was a lime 
 kiln by the wayside, ready for burning. 
 
 Graylock had a cloud on his head this morning, 
 the base of a heavy white cloud. The distribution of 
 the sunshine amid mountain scenery is very striking ; 
 one does not see exactly why one spot should be in 
 deep obscurity while others are all bright. The clouds 
 throw their shadows upon the hillsides as they move 
 slowly along, a transitory blackness. 
 
 I passed a doctor high up the road in a sulky, with 
 his black leather saddle-bags. 
 
 Hudson s Cave is formed by Hudson s Brook. 
 There is a natural arch of marble still in one part of 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 199 
 
 it. The cliffs are partly made verdant with green 
 moss, chiefly grey with oxidation ; on some parts the 
 white of the marble is seen ; in interstices grow brake 
 and other shrubs, so that there is naked sublimity 
 seen through a good deal of clustering beauty. Above, 
 the birch, poplars, and pines grow on the utmost verge 
 of the cliffs, which jut far over, so that they are sus 
 pended in air ; and whenever the sunshine finds its 
 way into the depths of the chasm, the branches wave 
 across it. There is a lightness, however, about their 
 foliage, which greatly relieves what would otherwise 
 be a gloomy scene. After the passage of the stream 
 through the cliffs of marble, the cliffs separate on 
 either side, and leave it to flow onward ; intercepting 
 its passage, however, by fragments of marble, some of 
 them huge ones, which the cliffs have flung down, 
 thundering into the bed of the stream through num 
 berless ages. Doubtless some of these immense frag 
 ments had trees growing on them, which have no\v 
 mouldered away. Decaying trunks are heaped in 
 various parts of the gorge. The pieces of marble 
 that are washed by the water are of a snow white, 
 and partially covered with a bright green water- moss, 
 making a beautiful contrast. 
 
 Among the cliffs, strips of earth-beach extend 
 
200 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 downward, and trees and large shrubs root themselves 
 in that earth, thus further contrasting the nakedness of 
 the stone with their green foliage. But the immediate 
 part where the stream forces its winding passage 
 through the rock is stern, dark, and mysterious. 
 
 Along the road, where it runs beneath a steep, 
 there are high ridges, covered with trees, the dew of 
 midnight damping the earth, far towards midnoon. I 
 observed the shadows of water-insects, as they swam 
 in the pools of a stream. Looking down a streamlet, 
 I saw a trunk of a tree, which has been overthrown by 
 the wind, so as to form a bridge, yet sticking up all its 
 branches, as if it were unwilling to assist anybody over. 
 
 Green leaves, following the eddies of the rivulet, 
 were now borne deep under water, and now emerged. 
 Great uprooted trees, adhering midway down a preci 
 pice of earth, hung with their tops downward. 
 
 There is an old man, selling the meats of butternuts 
 under the stoop of the hotel. He makes that his station 
 during a part of the season. He was dressed in a dark 
 thin coat, ribbed velvet pantaloons, and a sort of moc 
 casins, or shoes, appended to the legs of woollen stock 
 ings. He had on a straw hat, and his hair was grey, 
 with a long, thin visage. His nuts were contained in a 
 square tin box, having two compartments, one for the 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 2OI 
 
 nuts, and another for maple-sugar, which he sells in 
 small cakes. He had three small tin measures for 
 nuts, one at one cent, others at two, four, and six 
 cents ; and as fast as they were emptied, he filled them 
 again, and put them on the top of his box. He smoked 
 a pipe, and talked with one man about whether it would 
 be worth while to grow young again, and the duty of 
 being contented with old age ; about predestination and 
 free-will and other metaphysics. I asked him what his 
 sales amounted to in the course of a day. He said that 
 butternuts did not sell so well as walnuts, which are 
 not yet in season ; that he might to-day have sold fifty 
 cents worth ; of walnuts, never less than a dollar s 
 worth, often more ; and when he went round with a 
 caravan, he had sold fifteen dollars worth per day, and 
 once as much as twenty dollars worth. This promises 
 to be an excellent year for walnuts. Chestnuts have 
 been scarce for two or three years. He had one hun 
 dred chestnut-trees on his own land, and last year he 
 offered a man twenty-five cents if he would find him a 
 quart of good chestnuts on them. A bushel of walnuts 
 would cost about ten dollars. He wears a pair of sil 
 ver-rimmed spectacles. 
 
 A drunken fellow sat down by him, and bought a 
 cent s worth of his butternuts, and inquired what he 
 
202 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 would sell out to him for. The old man made an esti 
 mate, though evidently in jest, and then reckoned his 
 box, measures, meats, and what little maple sugar he 
 had, at four dollars. He had a very quiet manner, and 
 expressed an intention of going to the Commencement 
 at Williamstown to-morrow. His name, I believe, is 
 Captain Gavett. 
 
 Wednesday, August i$t/i. I went to Commence 
 ment at Williams College, five miles distant. At 
 the tavern were students with ribbons, pink or blue, 
 fluttering from their button-holes, these being the 
 badges of rival societies. There was a considerable 
 gathering of people, chiefly arriving in waggons or 
 buggies, some in barouches, and very few in chaises. 
 The most characteristic part of the scene was where 
 the pedlars, gingerbread-sellers, &c. were collected, a 
 few hundred yards from the meeting-house. There 
 was a pedlar there from New York State, who sold 
 his wares by auction, and I could have stood and 
 listened to him all day long. Sometimes he would 
 put up a heterogeny * of articles in a lot, as a paper 
 of pins, a lead pencil, and a shaving-box, and knock 
 
 * This is a word made by Mr. Hawthorne, but one that was 
 needed. S. H. 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 20$ 
 
 them all down, perhaps for ninepence. Bunches of 
 lead pencils, steel-pens, pound-cakes of shaving-soap, 
 gilt finger-rings, bracelets, clasps, and other jewelry, 
 cards of pearl buttons, or steel, (" There is some steel 
 about them, gentlemen, for my brother stole em, and 
 I bore him out in it,") bundles of wooden combs, boxes 
 of matches, suspenders, and, in short, everything, 
 dipping his hand down into his wares with the promise 
 of a wonderful lot, and producing, perhaps, a bottle of 
 opodeldoc, and joining it with a lead pencil, and 
 when he had sold several things of the same kind, 
 pretending huge surprise at finding "just one more," 
 if the lads lingered ; saying, " I could not afford to 
 steal them for the price ; for the remorse of conscience 
 would be worth more," all the time keeping an eye 
 upon those who bought, calling for the pay, making 
 change with silver or bills, and deciding on the good 
 ness of banks ; and saying to the boys who climbed 
 upon his cart, " Fall down, roll down, tumble down, 
 only get down ; " and uttering everything in the queer, 
 humourous recitative in which he sold his articles- 
 Sometimes he would pretend that a person had bid, 
 either by word or wink, and raised a laugh thus ; never 
 losing his self-possession, nor getting out of humour. 
 When a man asked whether a bill were good : " No ! 
 
2O4 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 do you suppose I d give you good money ? " When 
 he delivered an article, he exclaimed, " You re the 
 lucky man," setting off his wares with the most 
 extravagant eulogies. The people bought very freely, 
 and seemed also to enjoy the fun. One little boy 
 bought a shaving-box, perhaps meaning to speculate 
 upon it. This character could not possibly be over 
 drawn ; and he was really excellent, with his allusion 
 to what was passing, intermingled, doubtless, with a 
 good deal that was studied. He was a man between 
 thirty and forty, with a face expressive of other ability, 
 as well as of humour. 
 
 A good many people were the better or the worse 
 for liquor. There was one fellow, named Randall, 
 I think, a round-shouldered, bulky, ill-hung devil, 
 with a pale, sallow skin, black beard, and a sort of 
 grin upon his face, a species of laugh, yet not so 
 much mirthful as indicating a strange mental and 
 moral twist. He was very riotous in the crowd, 
 elbowing, thrusting, seizing hold of people ; and at 
 last a ring was formed and a regular wrestling- match 
 commenced between him and a farmer-looking man. 
 Randall brandished his leers about in the most ridi- 
 
 o 
 
 culous style, but proved himself a good wrestler, and 
 finally threw his antagonist. He got up with the same 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 205 
 
 grin upon his features, not a grin of simplicity, but 
 intimating knowingness. When more depth or force 
 of expression was required, he could put on the most 
 strangely ludicrous and ugly aspect (suiting his gesture 
 and attitude to it) that can be imagined. I should 
 like to see this fellow when he was perfectly sober. 
 
 There were a good many blacks among the crowd. 
 I suppose they used to emigrate across the border, 
 while New York was a slave State. There were 
 enough of them to form a party, though greatly in 
 the minority ; and, a squabble arising, some of the 
 blacks were knocked down, and otherwise maltreated. 
 I saw one old negro, a genuine specimen of the slave 
 negro, without any of the foppery of the race in our 
 part of the State, an old fellow, with a bag, I suppose 
 of broken victuals, on his shoulder, and his pockets 
 stuffed out at his hips with the like provender ; full 
 of grimaces and ridiculous antics, laughing laughably, 
 yet without affectation ; then talking with a strange 
 kind of pathos about the whippings he used to get 
 while he was a slave : a singular creature, of mere 
 feeling, with some glimmering of sense. Then there 
 was another grey old negro, but of a different stamp, 
 politic, sage, cautious, yet with boldness enough, 
 talking about the rights of his race, yet so as not 
 
2O6 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 to provoke his audience ; discoursing of the advan 
 tage of living under laws, and the wonders that might 
 ensue, in that very assemblage, if there were no laws ; 
 in the midst of this deep wisdom, turning off the 
 anger of a half-drunken fellow by a merry retort, a 
 leap in the air, and a negro s laugh. I was interested 
 there being a drunken negro ascending the meeting 
 house steps, and near him three or four well-dressed 
 and decent negro wenches to see the look of scorn 
 and shame and sorrow and painful sympathy which 
 one of them assumed at this disgrace of her colour. 
 
 The people here show out their character much 
 more strongly than they do with us ; there was not 
 the quiet, silent, dull decency of our public assem 
 blages, but mirth, anger, eccentricity, all manifesting 
 themselves freely. 
 
 There were many water-melons for sale, and people 
 burying their muzzles deep in the juicy flesh of them. 
 There were cider and beer. Many of the people had 
 their mouths half opened in a grin, which, more than 
 anything else, I think, indicates a low stage of refine 
 ment. A low-crowned hat very low is common. 
 They are respectful to gentlemen. 
 
 A bat being startled, probably, out of the meeting 
 house, by the commotion around, flew blindly about 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 2O/ 
 
 in the sunshine, and alighted on a man s sleeve. I 
 looked at him a droll, winged, beast-insect, creeping 
 up the man s arm, not over-clean, and scattering dust 
 on the man s coat from his vampire wings. The man 
 stared at him, and let the spectators stare for a 
 minute, and then shook him gently off; and the poor 
 devil took a flight across the green to the meeting 
 house, and then, I believe, alighted on somebody else. 
 Probably he was put to death. Bats are very numerous 
 in these parts. 
 
 There was a drunken man, annoying people with 
 his senseless talk and impertinences, impelled to 
 perform eccentricities by an evil spirit in him ; and a 
 pale little boy, with a bandaged leg, whom his father 
 brought out of the tavern, and put into a barouche. 
 Then the boy needfully placed shawls and cushions 
 about his leg to support it, his face expressive of pain 
 and care not transitory, but settled pain, of long and 
 forcedly patient endurance ; and this painful look, 
 perhaps, gave his face more intelligence than it might 
 otherwise have had, though it was naturally a sensitive 
 face. Well-dressed ladies were in the meeting-house 
 in silks and cambrics, the sunburnt necks in con 
 tiguity with the delicate fabrics of the dresses showing 
 the yeomen s daughters. 
 
208 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 Country graduates, rough, brown-featured, school 
 master-looking, half-bumpkin, half-scholarly figures, in 
 black ill-cut broadcloth, their manners quite spoilt 
 by what little of the gentleman there was in them. 
 
 The landlord of the tavern keeping his eye on a 
 man whom he suspected of an intention to bolt.* 
 
 The next day after Commencement was bleak and 
 rainy from midnight till midnight, and a good many 
 guests were added to our table in consequence. 
 Among them were some of the Williamstown students, 
 gentlemanly young fellows, with a brotherly feeling 
 for each other, a freedom about money concerns, a 
 half-boyish, half-manly character ; and my heart 
 warmed to them. They took their departure two 
 for South Adams and two across the Green Mountains 
 in the midst of the rain. There was one of the 
 graduates with his betrothed, and his brother-in-law 
 and wife, who stayed during the day, the graduate 
 the very model of a country schoolmaster in his 
 Sunday clothes, being his Commencement suit of 
 black broadcloth and pumps. He is engaged as 
 assistant teacher of the academy at Shelburne Falls. 
 There was also the high sheriff of Berkshire, Mr. 
 
 * A word meaning in Worcester, I find, " to spring out with speed 
 and suddenness." S. II. 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 2OQ 
 
 Twining, with a bundle of writs under his arm, and 
 some of them peeping out of his pockets. Also several 
 Trojan men and women, who had been to Commence 
 ment. Likewise a young clergyman, graduate of 
 Brown College, and student of the Divinity School at 
 Cambridge. He had come across the Hoosic, or 
 Green Mountains, about eighteen miles, on foot, from 
 Charlemont, where he is preaching, and had been to 
 Commencement. Knowing little of men and matters, 
 and desiring to know more, he was very free in making 
 acquaintance with people, but could not do it hand 
 somely. A singular smile broke out upon his face on 
 slight provocation. He was awkward in his manners, 
 yet it was not an ungentlemanly awkwardness, 
 intelligent as respects book-learning, but much defi 
 cient in worldly tact. It was pleasant to observe his 
 consciousness of this deficiency, and how he strove to 
 remedy it by mixing as much as possible with people, 
 and sitting almost all day in the bar-room to study 
 character. Sometimes he would endeavour to con 
 tribute his share to the general amusement, as by 
 growling comically, to provoke and mystify a dog ; 
 and by some bashful and half-apropos observations. 
 
 In the afternoon there came a fresh bevy of 
 students onward from Williamstown ; but they made 
 VOL. I. 14 
 
210 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 only a transient visit, though it was still raining. 
 These were a rough-hewn, heavy set of fellows, from 
 the hills and woods in this neighbourhood, great, 
 unpolished bumpkins, who had grown up farmer-boys, 
 and had little of the literary man, save green spectacles 
 and black broadcloth (which all of them had not), 
 talking with a broad accent, and laughing clown-like, 
 while sheepishness overspread all, together with a 
 vanity at being students. One of the party was six 
 feet seven inches high, and all his herculean dimensions 
 were in proportion ; his features, too, were cast in 
 a mould suitable to his stature. This giant was not 
 ill-looking, but of a rather intelligent aspect. His 
 motions were devoid of grace, but yet had a rough 
 freedom appropriate enough to such a figure. These 
 fellows stayed awhile, talked uncouthly about college 
 matters, and started in the great open waggon which 
 had brought them and their luggage hither. We had 
 a fire in the bar-room almost all day, a great, blazing 
 fire, and it was pleasant to have this day of bleak 
 November weather, and cheerful fireside talk, and wet 
 garments smoking in the fireside heat, still in the 
 summer-time. Thus the day wore on with a sort of 
 heavy, lazy pleasantness ; and night set in, still stormy. 
 In the morning it was cloudy, but did not rain, 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 211 
 
 and I went with the little clergyman to Hudson s 
 Cave. The stream which they call the North Branch 
 and into which Hudson s Brook empties, was much 
 swollen, and tumbled and dashed and whitened over 
 the rocks, and formed real cascades over the dams, 
 and rushed fast along the side of the cliffs, which had 
 their feet in it. Its colour was deep brown, owing to 
 the washing of the banks, which the rain had poured 
 into it. Looking back, we could see a cloud on 
 Graylock ; but on other parts of Saddle Mountain 
 there were spots of sunshine, some of most glorious 
 brightness, contrasting with the general gloom of the 
 sky and the deep shadow which lay on the earth. 
 
 We looked at the spot where the stream makes 
 its entrance into the marble cliff, and it was (this 
 morning, at least) the most striking view of the cave. 
 The water dashed down in a misty cascade, through 
 what looked like the portal of some infernal sub 
 terranean structure ; and far within the portal we 
 could see the mist and the falling water; and it 
 looked as if, but for these obstructions of view, we 
 might have had a deeper insight into a gloomy region. 
 
 After our return, the little minister set off for his 
 eighteen miles journey across the mountain ; and I 
 was occupied the rest of the forenoon with an affair 
 
212 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 of stealing, a woman of forty or upwards being 
 accused of stealing a needle-case and other trifles 
 from a factory-girl at a boarding-house. She came 
 here to take passage in a stage ; but Putnam, a justice 
 of the peace, examined her, and afterwards ordered 
 her to be searched by Laura and Eliza, the chamber 
 maid and table-waiter. Hereupon was much fun and 
 some sympathy. They searched, and found nothing 
 that they sought, though she gave up a pair of 
 pantalets, which she pretended to have taken by 
 mistake. Afterwards, she being in the parlour, I 
 went in ; and she immediately began to talk to me, 
 giving me an account of the affair, speaking with the 
 bitterness of a wronged person, with a sparkling eye, 
 yet with great fluency and self-possession. She is 
 a yellow, thin, and battered old thing, yet rather 
 country-lady-like in aspect and manners. I heard 
 Eliza telling another girl about it, under my window ; 
 and she seemed to think that the poor woman s 
 reluctance to be searched arose from the poorness of 
 her wardrobe and of the contents of her bandbox. 
 
 At parting, Eliza said to the girl, " What do you 
 think I heard somebody say about you ? That it was 
 enough to make anybody s eyes start square out of 
 their head to look at such red cheeks as yours." 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 213 
 
 Whereupon the girl turned off the compliment with a 
 laugh, and took her leave. 
 
 There is an old blind dog, recognizing his friends 
 by the sense of smell. I observe the eager awkward 
 ness with which he accomplishes the recognition, 
 his carefulness in descending steps, and gener 
 ally in his locomotion. He evidently has not for 
 gotten that he once had the faculty of sight ; for 
 he turns his eyes with earnestness towards those who 
 attract his attention, though the orbs are plainly 
 sightless. 
 
 Here is an Englishman, a thorough-going Tory 
 and Monarchist, upholding everything English^ 
 government, people, habits, education, manufactures, 
 modes of living, and expressing his dislike of all 
 Americanism, and this, in a quiet, calm, reasonable 
 way, as if it were quite proper to live in a country 
 and draw his subsistence from it, and openly abuse it. 
 He imports his clothes from England, and expatiates 
 on the superiority of English boots, hats, cravats, &c. 
 He is a man of unmalleable habits, and wears his 
 dress of the same fashion as that of twenty years ago. 
 
 August i8///. There has come one of the pro 
 prietors, or superintendents, of a caravan of animals, 
 
214 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 a large, portly-paunched, dark-complexioned, brandy- 
 burnt, heavy-faced man of about fifty; with a diminutive 
 nose in proportion to the size of his face, thick lips ; 
 nevertheless he has the air of a man who has seen 
 much and derived such experience as was for his 
 purpose. Also it is the air of a man not in a sub 
 ordinate station, though vulgar and coarse. He 
 arrived in a waggon, with a span of handsome gray 
 horses, and ordered dinner. He had left his caravan 
 at Worcester, and came from thence and over the 
 mountain hither, to settle stopping-places for the 
 caravan. The nearest place to this, I believe, was 
 Charlemont ; the penultimate at Greenfield. In 
 stopping at such a village as this, they do not expect 
 much profit, if any ; but would be content with enough 
 to pay their travelling expenses, while they look to 
 gather gain at larger places. In this village, it seems, 
 the selectmen had resolved not to license any public 
 exhibition of the kind ; and it was interesting to 
 attend to the consultations whether it were feasible 
 to overcome the objections, and what might be the 
 
 best means. Orrin S and the chance passers-by 
 
 took part in the discussion. The scruple is that the 
 factory-girls, having ready money by them, spend it 
 for these nonsenses, quitting their work ; whereas, 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 215 
 
 were it a mere farming-town, the caravan would take 
 little in proportion to their spendings. The opinion 
 generally was that the licence could not be obtained ; 
 and the portly man s face grew darker and downcast 
 at the prospect ; and he took out a travelling-map, 
 and looked it carefully over, to discover some other 
 station. This is something like the planning of the 
 march of an army. It was finally resolved to enlist 
 the influence of a brother-in-law of the head select 
 man, and try to gain his consent. Whereupon the 
 caravan-man and the brother-in-law (who, being a 
 tavern-keeper, was to divide the custom of the caravan 
 people with this house) went to make the attempt, 
 the caravan-man stalking along with stiff, awkward 
 bulk and stature, yet preserving a respectability 
 withal, though with somewhat of the blackguard. 
 Before he went, he offered a wager of " a drink of rum 
 to a chaw of tobacco " that he did not succeed. When 
 he came back, there was a flush in his face and a 
 sparkle in his eye that did not look like failure ; but 
 I know not what was the result. He took a glass of 
 wine with the brother-in-law, a grave, thin, -frosty- 
 haired, shrewd-looking yeoman, in his shirt-sleeves, 
 then ordered his horses, paid his bill, and drove off, 
 accompanied still by the same yeoman, perhaps to get 
 
2l6 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 the permission of the other two selectmen. If he does 
 not get a licence here, he will try at Cheshire. 
 
 A fellow appears with a pink guard-chain and two 
 breast-pins in his shirt, one a masonic one of gold, 
 with a compass and square, and the other of coloured 
 glass, set in filigree brass, and the shirt a soiled one. 
 
 A tendency to obesity is more common in this 
 part of the country than I have noticed it elsewhere. 
 
 August \tyli. I drove with Orrin S last 
 evening to an old farmer s house to get some chickens. 
 Entering the kitchen, I observed a fireplace with 
 rough stone jambs and back, and a marble hearth, 
 cracked, and otherwise contrasting a roughness of 
 workmanship with the value of the material. There 
 was a clock without a case, the weights being visible, 
 and the pendulum swinging in air, and a coffee-mill 
 fixed against the wall. A religious newspaper lay on 
 the mantel-piece. The old farmer was reluctant to go 
 after the fowls, declaring that it would be impossible 
 to find them in the dark ; but Orrin insisting, he- 
 lighted a lamp, and we all went together, and quickly 
 found them, roosted about the wood-pile ; whereupon 
 Orrin speedily laid hands on five, and wrung their 
 necks in a twinkling, they fluttering long after they 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 2 1/ 
 
 should have been dead. When we had taken our 
 departure, Orrin remarked, " How faint-hearted these 
 old fellows are ! " and it was a good observation ; for 
 it was the farmer s timorous age that made him doubt 
 the practicability of catching the chickens, and it 
 contrasted well with the persevering energy of the 
 middled-aged Orrin. But Orrin inquired, somewhat 
 dolefully, whether I should suppose that he himself 
 bewailed the advances of age. It is a grievous point 
 with him. 
 
 In the evening there was a strange fellow in the 
 bar-room, a sort of mock Methodist, a cattle- 
 drover, who had stopped here for the night with two 
 cows and a Durham bull. All his talk turned upon 
 religion, and he would ever and anon burst out in 
 some strain of scriptural-styled eloquence, chanted 
 through his nose, like an exhortation at a camp- 
 meeting. A group of Universalists and no-religionists 
 sat around him, making him their butt, and holding 
 wild argument with him ; and he strangely mingled 
 humour with his enthusiasm, and enthusiasm with 
 his humour, so that it was almost impossible to tell 
 whether he were in jest or earnest. Probably it was 
 neither, but an eccentricity, an almost monomania, 
 that has grown upon him, perhaps the result of 
 
2l8 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 strong religious excitement. And, having been a back 
 slider, he is cursed with a half-frenzied humour. In 
 the morning he talked in the same strain at breakfast, 
 while quaffing fourteen cups of tea, Eliza, all the 
 while, as she supplied him, entreating him not to 
 drink any more. After breakfast (it being the Sab 
 bath) he drove his two cows and bull past the stoop, 
 raising his staff, and running after them with strange, 
 uncouth gestures ; and the last word I heard from 
 him was an exhortation : " Gentlemen, now all of you 
 take your Bibles, and meditate on divine things," 
 this being uttered with raised hands, and a Metho- 
 distical tone, intermingled, as was his expression, with 
 something humourous ; so that, to the last, the puzzle 
 was still kept up, whether he was an enthusiast or a 
 jester. He wore a suit of coarse brown cloth, cut in 
 rather a Quaker fashion ; and he had a large nose, 
 and his face expressed enthusiasm and humour, a 
 sort of smile and twinkle of the eye, with wildness. 
 He is excellent at a bargain ; and if, in the midst 
 of his ghostly exhortation, the talk were turned on 
 cattle, he eagerly seized the topic and expatiated 
 on it. 
 
 While this fellow was enumerating the Univer- 
 salists in neighbouring towns who had turned from 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 2 19 
 
 their errors on their death-beds, some one exclaimed, 
 " John Hodges ! why, he isn t dead, he s alive and 
 well." Whereat there was a roar of laughter. While 
 holding an argument at table, I heard him mutter 
 to himself at something that his adversary said ; and 
 though I could not distinguish what it was, the tone 
 did more to convince me of some degree of earnest 
 ness than aught beside. This character might be 
 wrought into a strange portrait of something sad, 
 terrific, and laughable. 
 
 The Sabbath wore away lazily, and therefore 
 wickedly. The heavy caravan-man inquired for some 
 book of light reading, and, having obtained an old 
 volume of a literary paper, betook himself to the seat 
 of his waggon, to read. At other times he smoked, 
 and talked sensibly enough with anybody that offered. 
 He is a man of sense, though not quick, and seems to 
 be a fair man. 
 
 When he walks, he puts the thumb of each hand 
 into the armhole of his waistcoat, and moves along 
 stiffly, with a knock-kneed gait. His talk was chiefly 
 of hotels, and such matters as a man, always travel 
 ling, without any purpose of observation for mental 
 improvement, would be interested in. He spoke of 
 his life as a hard one. 
 
22O AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 There was a Methodist quarterly meeting here, 
 and a love-feast. 
 
 There is a fellow hereabout who refuses to pay 
 six dollars for the coffin in which his wife was buried. 
 She died about six months since, and I believe he is 
 already engaged to another. Hq is young and rather 
 comely, but has not a straightforward look. 
 
 One man plods along, looking always on the 
 ground, without ever lifting his eyes to the mountain 
 scenery, and forest, and clouds, above and around 
 him. Another walks the street with a quick prying 
 eye, and sharp face, the most expressive possible of 
 one on the look-out for gain, of the most disagreeable 
 class of Yankees. There is also a sour-looking, un 
 wholesome boy, the son of this man, whose voice is 
 querulous and ill-natured, precisely suited to his 
 aspect. So is his character. 
 
 We have another with Indian blood in him, and 
 the straight, black hair, something of the tawny 
 skin and the quick shining eye of the Indian. He 
 seems reserved, but is not ill-natured when spoken to. 
 There is so much of the white in him, that he gives 
 the impression of belonging to a civilized race, which 
 causes the more strange sensation on discovering that 
 he has a wild lineage. 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 221 
 
 August 22nd. I walked out into what is called 
 the Notch this forenoon, between Saddle Mountain 
 and another. There are good farms in this Notch, 
 although the ground is considerably elevated, this 
 morning, indeed, above the clouds ; for I penetrated 
 through one in reaching the higher region, although I 
 found sunshine there. Graylock was hidden in clouds, 
 and the rest of Saddle Mountain had one partially 
 wreathed about it ; but it was withdrawn before long. 
 It was very beautiful cloud-scenery. The clouds lay 
 on the breast of the mountain, dense, white, well- 
 defined, and some of them were in such close vicinity 
 that it seemed as if I could infold myself in them ; 
 while others, belonging to the same fleet, were floating 
 through the blue sky above. I had a view of Wil- 
 liamstown at the distance of a few miles, two or 
 three, perhaps, a white village and steeple in a 
 gradual hollow, with high mountainous swells heaving 
 themselves up, like immense subsiding waves, far and 
 wide around it. On these high mountain waves rested 
 the white summer clouds, or they rested as still in the 
 air above ; and they were formed into such fantastic 
 shapes that they gave the strongest possible impres 
 sion of being confounded or intermixed with the sky. 
 It was like a clay-dream to look at it ; and the 
 
222 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 students ought to be day-dreamers, all of them, 
 when cloud-land is one and the same thing with the 
 substantial earth. By degrees all these clouds flitted 
 away, and the sultry summer sun burned on hill and 
 valley. As I was walking home, an old man came 
 down the mountain-path behind me in a waggon, and 
 gave me a drive to the village. Visitors being few in 
 the Notch, the women and girls looked from the 
 windows after me : the men nodded and greeted me 
 with a look of curiosity ; and two little girls whom 
 I met, bearing tin pails, whispered one another and 
 smiled. 
 
 North Adams, August 2yd. The county com 
 missioners held a court in the bar-room yesterday 
 afternoon, for the purpose of letting out the making 
 of the new road over the mountain. The commis 
 sioners sat together in attitudes of some dignity, with 
 one leg laid across another ; and the people, to the 
 number of twenty or thirty, sat round about with 
 their hats on, in their shirt-sleeves, with but little, 
 yet with some formality. Several had come from 
 a distance to bid for the job. They sat with whips 
 in their hands. The first bid was three dollars, 
 then there was a long silence, then a bid of two 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 223 
 
 dollars eighty-five cents, and finally it was knocked 
 down at two eighteen per rod. A disposition to bid 
 was evidenced in one man by his joking on the bid 
 of another. 
 
 After supper, as the sun was setting, a man passed 
 by the door with a hand -organ, connected with which 
 was a row of figures, such as dancers, pirouetting and 
 turning, a lady playing on a piano, soldiers, a negro 
 wench dancing, and opening and shutting a huge red 
 mouth, all these keeping time to the lively or slow 
 tunes of the organ. The man had a pleasant, but 
 sly, dark face ; he carried his whole establishment on 
 his shoulder, it being fastened to a staff which he 
 rested on the ground when he performed. A little 
 crowd of people gathered about him on the stoop, 
 peeping over each other s heads with huge admiration, 
 fat Otis Hodge, and the tall stage-driver, and the 
 little boys, all declaring that it was the masterpiece 
 of sights. Some few coppers did the man obtain, as 
 well as much praise. He had come over the high, 
 solitary mountain, where for miles there could hardly 
 be a soul to hear his music. 
 
 In the evening, a portly old commissioner, a 
 cheerful man enough, was sitting reading the news 
 paper in the parlour, holding the candle between the 
 
224 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 newspaper and his eyes, its rays glittering on his 
 silver-bowed spectacles and silvery hair. A pensive 
 mood of age had come upon him, and sometimes he 
 heaved a long sigh, while he turned and re-turned the 
 paper, and folded it for convenient reading. By and 
 by a gentleman came to see him, and he talked with 
 him cheerfully. 
 
 The fat old squire, whom I have mentioned more 
 than once, is an odd figure, with his bluff, red face 
 coarsely red set in silver hair, his clumsy legs, 
 which he moves in a strange straddle, using, I believe, 
 a broomstick for a staff. The breadth of back of 
 these fat men is truly a wonder. 
 
 A decent man, at table the other day, took the only 
 remaining potato out of the dish, on the end of his 
 knife, and offered his friend half of it ! 
 
 The mountains look much larger and more majestic 
 sometimes than at others, partly because the mind 
 may be variously disposed, so as to comprehend them 
 more or less, and partly that an imperceptible (or almost 
 so) haze adds a great deal to the effect. Saddleback 
 often looks a huge, black mass, black-green, or black - 
 blue. 
 
 The cave makes a fresh impression upon me every 
 time I visit it, so deep, so irregular, so gloomy, so 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 225 
 
 stern, part of its walls the pure white of the marble, 
 others covered with a grey decomposition and with 
 spots of moss, and with brake growing where there is 
 a handful of earth. I stand and look into its depths at 
 various points, and hear the roar of the stream re-echo 
 ing up. It is like a heart that has been rent asunder by 
 a torrent of passion, which has raged and foamed, and 
 left its ineffaceable traces ; though now there is but a 
 little rill of feeling at the bottom. 
 
 In parts, trees have fallen across the fissure, trees 
 with large trunks. 
 
 I bathed in the stream in this old, secluded spot, 
 which I frequent for that purpose. To reach it, I cross 
 one branch of the stream on stones, and then pass to 
 the other side of a little island, overgrown with trees 
 and underbrush. Where I bathe, the stream has parti 
 ally dammed itself up by sweeping together tree-trunks 
 and slabs and branches, and a thousand things that 
 have come down its current for years perhaps ; so that 
 there is a deep pool, full of eddies and little whirlpools 
 which would carry me away, did I not take hold of the 
 stem of a small tree that lies opportunely transversely 
 across the water. The bottom is uneven, with rocks 
 of various size, against which it is difficult to keep 
 from stumbling, so rapid is the stream. Sometimes 
 
 VOL. I. 15 
 
226 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 it bears along branches and strips of bark, sometimes 
 a green leaf, or perchance a dry one, occasionally 
 overwhelmed by the eddies and borne deep under 
 water, then rushing atop the waves. 
 
 The forest, bordering the stream, produces its effect 
 by a complexity of causes, the old and stern trees* 
 with stately trunks and dark foliage, as the almost 
 black pines, the young trees, with lightsome green 
 foliage, as sapling oaks, maples and poplars, then 
 the old, decayed trunks, that are seen lying here and 
 there, all mouldered, so that the foot would sink into 
 them. The sunshine, falling capriciously on a casual 
 branch considerably within the forest verge, while it 
 leaves nearer trees in shadow, leads the imagination 
 into the depths. But it soon becomes bewildered there. 
 Rocks strewn about, half hidden in the fallen leaves, 
 must not be overlooked. 
 
 August 26f/t. A funeral last evening, nearly at 
 sunset, a coffin of a boy about ten years old laid on 
 a one-horse waggon among some straw, two or three 
 barouches and waggons following. As the funeral 
 passed through the village street, a few men formed a 
 short procession in front of the coffin, among whom 
 were Orrin S and I. The burial-ground (there 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 22/ 
 
 are two in the town) is on the sides and summit of a 
 round hill, which is planted with cypress and other 
 trees, among which the white marble gravestones show 
 pleasantly. The grave was dug on the steep slope of 
 a hill ; and the grave-digger was waiting there, and 
 two or three other shirt-sleeved yeomen, leaning 
 against the trees. 
 
 Orrin S , a wanton and mirth-making middle- 
 aged man, who would not seem to have much 
 domestic feeling, took a chief part on the cccasion, 
 assisting in taking the coffin from the waggon, and in 
 lowering it into the grave. There being some super 
 fluous earth at the bottom of the grave, the coffin 
 was drawn up again, after being once buried, and the 
 obstacle removed with a hoe ; then it was lowered 
 again for the last time. While this was going on, the 
 father and mother stood weeping at the upper end of 
 the grave, at the head of the little procession, the 
 mother sobbing with stifled violence, and peeping 
 forth to discover why the coffin was drawn up again. 
 
 It being fitted in its place, Orrin S strewed some 
 
 straw upon it, this being the custom here, because 
 " the clods on the coffin-lid have an ugly sound." 
 Then the Baptist minister, having first whispered to 
 the father, removed his hat, the spectators all doing 
 
228 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 the same, and thanked them " in the name of these 
 mourners, for this last act of kindness to them." 
 
 In all these rites Orrin S - bore the chief part 
 with real feeling and sadly decorous demeanour. 
 After the funeral I took a walk on the Williamstown 
 road, towards the west. There had been a heavy 
 shower in the afternoon, and clouds were brilliant all 
 over the sky, around Graylock and everywhere else. 
 Those over the hills of the west were the most splendid 
 in purple and gold, and, there being a haze, it added 
 immensely to their majesty and dusky magnificence. 
 
 This morning I walked a little way along the 
 mountain road, and stood awhile in the shadow of 
 some oak and chestnut trees, it being a warm, bright, 
 sunshiny morning. The shades lay long from trees 
 and other objects, as at sunset, but how different this 
 cheerful and light radiance from the mild repose of 
 sunset ! Locusts, crickets, and other insects were 
 making music. Cattle were feeding briskly, with 
 morning appetites. The wakeful voices of children 
 were heard in a neighbouring hollow. The dew 
 damped the road, and formed many-coloured drops 
 in the grass. In short, the world was not weary with 
 a long, sultry day, but in a fresh, recruited state, fit to 
 carry it through such a day. 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 22Q 
 
 A rough-looking, sunburnt, soiled-shirted, odd, 
 middle-aged little man came to the house a day or 
 two ago, seeking work. He had come from Ohio, and 
 was returning to his native place, somewhere in New 
 England, stopping occasionally to earn money to pay 
 his way. There was something rather ludicrous in 
 his physiognomy and aspect. He was very free to 
 talk with all and sundry. He made a long eulogy on 
 his dog Tiger, yesterday, insisting on his good moral 
 character, his not being quarrelsome, his docility, and 
 all other excellent qualities that a huge, strong, fierce 
 mastiff could have. Tiger is the bully of the village, 
 and keeps all the other dogs in awe. His aspect is 
 very spirited, trotting massively along, with his tail 
 elevated and his head likewise. " When he sees a dog 
 that s anything near his size, he s apt to growl a 
 little," Tiger had the marks of a battle on him, 
 "yet he s a good dog." 
 
 Friday, August $isf. A drive on Tuesday to 
 Shelburne Falls, twenty-two miles or thereabouts 
 distant. Started at about eight o clock in a waggon 
 with Mr. Leach and Mr. Birch. Our road lay over 
 the Green Mountains, the long ridge of which was 
 made awful by a dark, heavy, threatening cloud, 
 
230 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 apparently rolled and condensed along the whole 
 summit. As we ascended the zigzag road, we looked 
 behind, at every opening in the forest, and beheld a 
 wide landscape of mountain swells and valleys inter 
 mixed, and old Graylock and the whole of Saddle 
 back. Over the wide scene there was a general 
 gloom ; but there was a continual vicissitude of bright 
 sunshine flitting over it, now resting for a brief space 
 on portions of the heights, now flooding the valleys 
 with green brightness, now making out distinctly each 
 dwelling, and the hotels, and then two small brick 
 churches of the distant village, denoting its prosperity, 
 while all around seemed under adverse fortunes. But 
 we, who stood so elevated above mortal things, and 
 saw so wide and far, could see the sunshine of pros 
 perity departing from one spot and rolling towards 
 another, so that we could not think it much matter 
 which spot were sunny or gloomy at any one moment. 
 The top of this Hoosic Mountain is a long ridge, 
 marked on the county map as two thousand one 
 hundred and sixty feet above the sea ; on this summit 
 is a valley, not very deep, but one or two miles wide, 
 
 in which is the town of L . Here there are 
 
 respectable farmers, though it is a rough, and must 
 be a bleak place. The first house, after reaching the 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 231 
 
 summit, is a small, homely tavern. We left our horse 
 in the shed, and, entering the little unpainted bar 
 room, we heard a voice, in a strange, outlandish 
 accent, exclaiming, " Diorama." It was an old man, 
 with a full, grey-bearded countenance, and Mr. Leach 
 exclaimed, " Ah, here s the old Dutchman again ! " 
 And he answered, "Yes, captain, here s the old 
 Dutchman," though, by the way, he is a German, 
 and travels the country with this diorama in a 
 waggon, and had recently been at South Adams, 
 and was now returning from Saratoga Springs. We 
 looked through the glass orifice of his machine, while 
 he exhibited a succession of the very worst scratches 
 and daubings that can be imagined, worn out, too, 
 and full of cracks and wrinkles, dimmed with tobacco- 
 smoke and every otherwise dilapidated. There were 
 none in a later fashion than thirty years since, except 
 some figures that had been cut from tailors show 
 bills. There were views of cities and edifices in 
 Europe, of Napoleon s battles and Nelson s sea-fights, 
 in the midst of which would be seen a gigantic, brown, 
 hairy hand (the Hand of Destiny) pointing at the 
 principal points of the conflict, while the old Dutch 
 man explained. He gave a good deal of dramatic 
 effect to his descriptions, but his accent and intonation 
 
232 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 cannot be written. He seemed to take interest and 
 pride in his exhibition ; yet when the utter and 
 ludicrous miserability thereof made us laugh, he 
 joined in the joke very readily. When the last picture 
 had been shown, he caused a country boor, who stood 
 gaping beside the machine, to put his head within 
 it, and thrust out his tongue. The head becoming 
 gigantic, a singular effect was produced. 
 
 The old Dutchman s exhibition being over, a great 
 dog, apparently an elderly dog, suddenly made himself 
 the object of notice, evidently in rivalship of the Dutch 
 man. He had seemed to be a good-natured, quiet kind 
 of dog, offering his head to be patted by those who were 
 kindly disposed towards him. This great old dog, un 
 expectedly, and of his own motion, began to run round 
 after his not very long tail with the utmost eagerness ; 
 and, catching hold of it, he growled furiously at it, and 
 still continued to circle round, growling and snarling 
 with increasing rage, as if one half of his body were at 
 deadly enmity with the other. Faster and faster went 
 he, round and round about, growing still fiercer, till at 
 last he ceased in a state of utter exhaustion ; but no 
 sooner had his exhibition finished than he became the 
 same mild, quiet sensible old dog as before ; and no 
 one could have suspected him of such nonsense as get- 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 233 
 
 ting enraged with his own tail. He was first taught 
 this trick by attaching a bell to the end of his tail ; 
 but he now commences entirely of his own accord, 
 and I really believe he feels vain at the attention he 
 excites. 
 
 It was chill and bleak on the mountain-top, and a 
 fire was burning in the bar-room. The old Dutchman 
 bestowed on everybody the title of " Captain," perhaps 
 because such a title has a great chance of suiting an 
 American. 
 
 Leaving the tavern, we drove a mile or two farther 
 to the eastern brow of the mountain, whence we had a 
 view, over the tops of a multitude of heights, into the 
 intersecting valleys down which we were to plunge, 
 and beyond them the blue and indistinctive scene ex 
 tended to the east and north for at least sixty miles. 
 Beyond the hills it looked almost as if the blue ocean 
 might be seen. Monadnock was visible, like a sapphire 
 cloud against the sky. Descending, we by and by got 
 a view of the Deerfield River, which makes a bend in 
 its course from about north and south to about east and 
 west, coming out from one defile among the mountains, 
 and flowing through another. The scenery on the 
 eastern side of the Green Mountains is incomparably 
 more striking than on the western, where the long 
 
234 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 swells and ridges have a flatness of effect ; and even 
 Graylock heaves itself so gradually that it does not 
 much strike the beholder. But on the eastern part, 
 peaks one or two thousand feet high rush up on either 
 bank of the river in ranges, thrusting out their shoul 
 ders side by side. They are almost precipitous, clothed 
 in woods, through which the naked rock pushes itself 
 forth to view. Sometimes the peak is bald, while the 
 forest^wraps the body of the hill, and the baldness gives 
 it an indescribably stern effect. Sometimes the preci 
 pice rises with abruptness from the immediate side of 
 the river ; sometimes there is a cultivated valley on 
 either side, cultivated long, and with all the smooth 
 ness and antique rurality of a farm near cities, this 
 gentle picture strongly set off by the wild mountain- 
 frame around it. Often it would seem a wonder how 
 our road Avas to continue, the mountains rose so ab 
 ruptly on either side, and stood, so direct a wall, across 
 our onward course ; while, looking behind, it would be 
 an equal mystery how we had gotten thither, through 
 the huge base of the mountain, that seemed to have 
 reared itself erect after our passage. But, passing on 
 ward, a narrow defile would give us egress into a scene 
 where new mountains would still appear to bar us. 
 Our road was much of it level ; but scooped out among 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 235 
 
 mountains. The river was a brawling stream, shallow, 
 and roughened by rocks ; now we drove on a plain with 
 it ; now there was a sheer descent down from the road 
 side upon it, often unguarded by any kind of fence, 
 except by the trees that contrived to grow on the head 
 long interval. Between the mountains there were 
 gorges, that led the imagination away into new scenes 
 of wildness. I have never driven through such roman 
 tic scenery, where there was such variety and boldness 
 of mountain shapes as this ; and though it was a broad 
 sunny day, the mountains diversified the view with sun 
 shine and shadow, and glory and gloom. 
 
 In Charlemont (I think), after passing a bridge, 
 we saw a very curious rock on the shore of the river, 
 about twenty feet from the roadside. Clambering 
 down the bank, we found it a complete arch, hollowed 
 out of the solid rock, and as high as the arched 
 entrance of an ancient church, which it might be 
 taken to be, though considerably dilapidated and 
 weather-worn. The water flows through it, though 
 the rock afforded standing-room, beside the pillars. 
 It was really like the archway of an enchanted palace, 
 all of which has vanished, except the entrance, now 
 only into nothingness and empty space. We climbed 
 to the top of the arch, in which the traces of water 
 
236 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 having eddied are very perceptible. This curiosity 
 occurs in a wild part of the river s course, and in a 
 solitude of mountains. 
 
 Farther down, the river becoming deeper, broader, 
 and more placid, little boats were seen moored along 
 it, for the convenience of crossing. Sometimes, too, 
 the well-beaten track of wheels and hoofs passed 
 down to its verge, then vanished, and appeared on 
 the other side, indicating a ford. We saw one house, 
 pretty, small, with green blinds, and much quietness 
 in its environments, on the other side of the river, 
 with a flat-bottomed boat for communication. It was a 
 pleasant idea that the world was kept off by the river. 
 
 Proceeding onward, we reached Shelburne Falls. 
 Here the river, in the distance of a few hundred 
 yards, makes a descent of about a hundred and fifty 
 feet over a prodigious bed of rock. Formerly it 
 doubtless flowed unbroken over the rock, merely 
 creating a rapid ; and traces of water having raged 
 over it are visible in portions of the rock that now lie 
 high and dry. At present the river roars through a 
 channel which it has worn in the stone, leaping in 
 two or three distinct falls, and rushing downward, as 
 from flight to flight of a broken and irregular stair 
 case. The mist rises from the highest of these 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 237 
 
 cataracts, and forms a pleasant object in the sun 
 shine. The best view, I think, is to stand on the 
 verge of the upper and largest fall, and look down 
 through the whole rapid descent of the river, as it 
 hurries, foaming, through its rock-worn path, the 
 rocks seeming to have been hewn away, as when 
 mortals make a road. These falls are the largest in 
 this State, and have a very peculiar character. It 
 seems as if water had had more power at some 
 former period than now to hew and tear its passage 
 through such an immense ledge of rock as here with 
 stood it. In this crag, or parts of it, now far beyond 
 the reach of the water, it has worn what are called 
 pot-holes, being circular hollows in the rock, where 
 for ages stones have been whirled round and round by 
 the eddies of the water ; so that the interior of the pot 
 is as circular and as smooth as it could have been 
 made by art. Often the mouth of the pot is the 
 narrowest part, the inner space being deeply scooped 
 out. Water is contained in most of these pot-holes, 
 sometimes so deep that a man might drown himself 
 therein, and lie undetected at the bottom. Some of 
 them are of a convenient size for cooking, which 
 might be practicable by putting in hot stones. 
 
 The tavern at Shelburne Falls was about the 
 
238 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 worst I ever saw, there being hardly anything to 
 eat, at least nothing of the meat kind. There was a 
 party of students from the Rensselaer school at Troy, 
 who had spent the night there, a set of rough urchins 
 from sixteen to twenty years old, accompanied by 
 the waggon-driver, a short, stubbed little fellow, who 
 walked about with great independence, thrusting his 
 hands into his breeches-pockets, beneath his frock. 
 The queerness was, such a figure being associated 
 with classic youth. They were on an excursion 
 which is yearly made from that school in search of 
 minerals. They seemed in rather better moral habits 
 than students used to be, but wild-spirited, rude, and 
 unpolished, somewhat like German students, which 
 resemblance one or two of them increased by 
 smoking pipes. In the morning, my breakfast being 
 set in a corner of the same room with them, I saw their 
 breakfast-table, with a huge wash-bowl of milk in the 
 centre, and a basin and spoon placed for each guest. 
 
 In the bar-room of this tavern were posted up 
 written advertisements, the smoked chimney-piece 
 being thus made to serve for a newspaper : " I have 
 rye for sale," " I have a fine mare colt," &c. There 
 was one quaintly expressed advertisement of a horse 
 that had strayed or been stolen from a pasture. 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 239 
 
 The students, from year to year, have been in 
 search of a particular rock, somewhere on the moun 
 tains in the vicinity of Shelburne Falls, which is sup 
 posed to contain some valuable ore ; but they cannot 
 find it. One man in the bar-room observed that it 
 must be enchanted ; and spoke of a tinker, during the 
 Revolutionary war, who met with a somewhat similar 
 instance. Roaming along the Hudson River, he came 
 to a precipice which had some bunches of singular 
 appearance embossed upon it. He knocked off one 
 of the bunches, and carrying it home, or to a camp, 
 or wherever he lived, he put it on the fire, and melted 
 it down into clear lead. He sought for the spot again 
 and again, but could never find it. 
 
 Mr. Leach s brother is a student at Shelburne 
 Falls. He is about thirty-five years old, and married ; 
 and at this mature age he is studying for the ministry, 
 and will not finish his course for two or three years. 
 He was bred a farmer, but has sold his farm, and 
 invested the money, and supports himself and wife by 
 dentistry during his studies. Many of the academy 
 students are men r grown, and some, they say, well 
 towards forty years old. Methinks this is charac 
 teristic of American life, these rough, weather-beaten, 
 hard-handed, farmer-bred students. In nine cases out 
 
240 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1858. 
 
 of ten they are incapable of any effectual cultivation ; 
 for men of ripe years, if they have any pith in them, 
 will have long ago got beyond academy or even 
 college instruction. I suspect nothing better than a 
 very wretched smattering is to be obtained in these 
 country academies. 
 
 Mr. Jenkins, an instructor at Amherst, speaking of 
 the western mounds, expressed an opinion that they 
 were of the same nature and origin as some small 
 circular hills which are of very frequent occurrence 
 here in North Adams. The burial-ground is on one 
 of them, and there is another, on the summit of which 
 appears a single tombstone, as if there were some 
 thing natural in making these hills the repositories of 
 the dead. A question of old H - led to Mr. Jenkins s 
 dissertation on this subject, to the great contentment 
 of a large circle round the bar-room fireside on the 
 last rainy day. 
 
 A tailor is detected by Mr. Leach, because his 
 coat had not a single wrinkle in it. I saw him exhi 
 biting patterns of fashions to Randall, the village 
 tailor. Mr. Leach has much tact in finding out the 
 professions of people. He found out a blacksmith, 
 because his right hand was much larger than the other. 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 241 
 
 A man getting subscriptions for a religious and 
 abolition newspaper in New York, somewhat elderly 
 and grey-haired, quick in his movements, hasty in his 
 walk, with an eager, earnest stare through his spec 
 tacles, hurrying about with a pocket-book of subscrip 
 tions in his hand, seldom speaking, and then in brief 
 expressions, sitting down before the stage comes, to 
 write a list of subscribers obtained to his employers 
 in New York. Withal, a city and business air about 
 him, as of one accustomed to hurry through narrow 
 alleys, and dart across thronged streets, and speak 
 hastily to one man and another at jostling corners, 
 though now transacting his affairs in the solitude of 
 mountains. 
 
 An old, grey man, seemingly astray and abandoned 
 in this wide world, sitting in the bar-room, speaking 
 to none, nor addressed by any one. Not understand 
 ing the meaning of the supper-bell till asked to supper 
 by word of mouth. However, he called for a glass of 
 brandy. 
 
 A pedlar, with girls silk neckerchiefs, or gauze, 
 men s silk pocket-handkerchiefs, red bandannas, and 
 a variety of horn combs, trying to trade with the 
 VOL. I. 1 6 
 
242 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838- 
 
 servant-girls of the house. One of them, Laura, 
 attempts to exchange a worked vandyke, which she 
 values at two dollars and a half; Eliza, being re 
 proached by the pedlar, " vows that she buys more of 
 pedlars than any other person in the house." 
 
 A drove of pigs passing at dusk. They appeared 
 not so much disposed to ramble and go astray from 
 the line of march as in daylight, but kept together in 
 a pretty compact body. There was a general grunt 
 ing, not violent at all, but low and quiet, as if they 
 were expressing their sentiments among themselves 
 in a companionable way. Pigs, on a march, do not 
 subject themselves to any leader among themselves, 
 but pass on, higgledy-piggledy, without regard to age 
 or sex. 
 
 September \st. Last evening, during a walk, Gray- 
 lock and the whole of Saddleback were at first imbued 
 with a mild, half-sunshiny tinge, then grew almost 
 black, a huge, dark mass lying on the back of the 
 earth and encumbering it. Stretching up from behind 
 the black mountain, over a third or more of the sky, 
 there was a heavy, sombre blue heap or ledge of 
 clouds, looking almost as solid as rocks. The volumes 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 243 
 
 of which it was composed were perceptible by trans 
 lucent lines and fissures ; but the mass, as a whole, 
 seemed as solid, bulky, and ponderous in the cloud- 
 world as the mountain was on earth. The mountain 
 and cloud together had an indescribably stern and 
 majestic aspect. Beneath this heavy cloud, there 
 was a fleet or flock of light, vapoury mists, flitting in 
 middle air ; and these were tinted, from the vanished 
 sun, with the most gorgeous and living purple that 
 can be conceived, a fringe upon the stern blue. In 
 the opposite quarter of the heavens, a rose-light was 
 reflected, whence I know not, which coloured the 
 clouds around the moon, then well above the horizon, 
 so that the nearly round and silver moon appeared 
 strangely among roseate clouds, sometimes half 
 obscured by them. 
 
 A man with a smart horse, upon which the land 
 lord makes laudatory remarks. He replies that he 
 has " a better at home." Dressed in a brown, bright- 
 buttoned coat, smartly cut. He immediately becomes 
 familiar, and begins to talk of the licence law, and 
 other similar topics, making himself at home, as 
 one who, being much of his time upon the road, finds 
 himself at ease at any tavern. He inquired after a 
 
244 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 stage-agent, named Brigham, who formerly resided 
 here, but now has gone to the West. He himself 
 was probably a horse-jockey. 
 
 An old lady, stopping here over the Sabbath, 
 waiting for to-morrow s stage for Greenfield, having 
 been deceived by the idea that she could proceed on 
 her journey without delay. Quiet, making herself 
 comfortable, taken into the society of the women of 
 the house. 
 
 September yd. On the slope of Bald Mountain 
 a clearing, set in the frame of the forest on all 
 sides, a growth of clover upon it, which having 
 been mowed once this year, is now appropriated to 
 pasturage. Stumps remaining in the ground ; one 
 tall, barkless stem of a tree standing upright, branch 
 less, and with a shattered summit. One or two other 
 stems lying prostrate and partly overgrown with 
 bushes and shrubbery, some of them bearing a yellow 
 flower, a colour which Autumn loves. The stumps 
 and trunks fire-blackened, yet nothing about them 
 that indicates a recent clearing, but the roughness 
 of an old clearing, that, being removed from con 
 venient labour, has none of the polish of the home- 
 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 245 
 
 stead. The field, with slight undulations, slopes 
 pretty directly down. Near the lower verge, a rude 
 sort of barn, or rather haystack roofed over, and with 
 hay protruding and hanging out. An ox feeding, 
 and putting up his muzzle to pull down a mouthful 
 of hay ; but seeing me, a stranger, in the upper part 
 of the field, he remains long gazing, and finally 
 betakes himself to feeding again. A solitary butterfly 
 flitting to and fro, blown slightly on its course by a 
 cool September wind, the coolness of which begins 
 to be tempered by a bright, glittering sun. There is 
 dew on the grass. In front, beyond the lower spread 
 of forest, Saddle Mountain rises, and the valleys and 
 long, swelling hills sweep away. But the impression 
 of this clearing is solitude, as of a forgotten land. 
 
 It is customary here to toll the bell at the death 
 of a person, at the hour of his death, whether A.M. or 
 r.M. Not, however, I suppose, if it happen in deep 
 night. 
 
 " There are three times in a man s life when he is 
 talked about, when he is born, when he is married, 
 
 and when he dies." ""Yes," said Orrin S , "and 
 
 only one of the times has he to pay anything for it 
 
246 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 out of his own pocket." (In reference to a claim 
 by the guests of the bar-room on the man Amasa 
 Richardson for a treat) 
 
 A wood-chopper, travelling the country in search 
 of jobs at chopping. His baggage a bundle, a 
 handkerchief, and a pair of coarse boots. His imple 
 ment an axe, most keenly ground and sharpened, 
 which I had noticed standing in a corner, and thought 
 it would almost serve as a razor. I saw another 
 wood-chopper sitting down on the ascent of Bald 
 Mountain, with his axe on one side and a jug and 
 provisions on the other, on the way to his day s toil. 
 
 The Revolutionary pensioners come out into the 
 sunshine to make oath that they are still above ground. 
 
 One, whom Mr. S saluted as " Uncle John," went 
 
 into the bar-room, walking pretty stoutly by the aid 
 of a long, oaken staff, with an old, creased, broken 
 and ashen bell-crowned hat on his head, and wearing 
 a brown old-fashioned suit of clothes. Pretty portly, 
 fleshy in the face, and with somewhat of a paunch, 
 cheerful, and his senses, bodily and mental, in no very 
 bad order, though he is now in his ninetieth yean 
 "An old withered and wilted apple," quoth Uncle 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 247 
 
 John, " keeps a good while." Mr. S says his 
 
 grandfather lived to be a hundred, and that his legs 
 became covered with moss, like the trunk of an old 
 tree. Uncle John would smile and cackle at a little 
 jest, and what life there was in him seemed a good- 
 natured and comfortable one enough. He can walk 
 two or three miles, he says, "taking it moderate." I 
 suppose his state is that of a drowsy man but partly 
 conscious of life, walking as through a dim dream, 
 but brighter at some seasons than at others. By and 
 by he will fall quite asleep, without any trouble. 
 
 Mr. S , unbidden, gave him a glass of gin, which 
 
 the old man imbibed by the warm fireside, and grew 
 the younger for it. 
 
 September %th. This day an exhibition of animals 
 in the vicinity of the village, under a pavilion of sail 
 cloth, the floor being the natural grass, with here 
 and there a rock partially protruding. A pleasant, 
 mild shade ; a strip of sunshine or a spot of glimmer 
 ing brightness in some parts. Crowded, row above 
 row of women, on an amphitheatre of seats, on one 
 side. In an inner pavilion an exhibition of anacondas, 
 four, which the showman took, one by one, from 
 a large box, under some blankets, and hung round 
 
248 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 his shoulders. They seemed almost torpid when first 
 taken out, but gradually began to assume life, to 
 stretch, to contract, twine and writhe about his neck 
 and person, thrusting out their tongues and erecting 
 their heads. Their weight was as much as he could 
 bear, and they hung down almost to the ground when 
 not contorted, as big round as a man s thigh almost, 
 spotted and richly variegated. Then he put them 
 into the box again, their heads emerging and writhing 
 forth, which the showman thrust back again. He 
 gave a descriptive and historical account of them, and 
 a fanciful and poetical one also. A man put his arm 
 and head into the lion s mouth, all the spectators 
 looking on so attentively that a breath could not be 
 heard. That was impressive, its effect on a thousand 
 persons, more so than the thing itself. 
 
 In the evening the caravan people were at the 
 tavern, talking of their troubles in coming over the 
 mountain, the overturn of a cage containing two 
 leopards and a hyena. They are a rough, ignorant 
 set of men, apparently incapable of taking any par 
 ticular enjoyment from the life of variety and adventure 
 which they lead. There was the man who put his 
 head into the lion s mouth, and, I suppose, the man 
 about whom the anacondas twined, talking about 
 
iSj8.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 249 
 
 their suppers, and blustering for hot meat, and calling 
 for something to drink, without anything of the wild 
 dignity of men familiar with the nobility of nature. 
 
 A character of a desperate young man, who 
 employs high courage and strong faculties in this 
 sort of dangers, and wastes his talents in wild riot, 
 addressing the audience as a snake-man, keeping 
 the ring while the monkey rides the pony, singing 
 negro and other songs. 
 
 The country boors were continually getting within* 
 the barriers, and venturing too near the cages. The 
 great lion lay with his fore paws extended, and a 
 calm, majestic, but awful countenance. He looked on 
 the people as if he had seen many such concourses. 
 The hyena was the most ugly and dangerous-looking 
 beast, full of spite, and on ill terms with all nature, 
 looking a good deal like a hog with the devil in him, 
 the ridge of hair along his back bristling. He was in 
 the cage with a leopard and a panther, and the latter 
 seemed continually on the point of laying his paw on 
 the hyena, who snarled, and showed his teeth. It is 
 strange, though, to see how these wild beasts acknow 
 ledge and practise a degree of mutual forbearance, 
 
250 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 and of obedience to man, with their wild nature yet 
 in them. The great white bear seemed in distress 
 from the heat, moving his head and body in a 
 peculiar, fantastic way, and eagerly drinking water 
 when given it. He was thin and lank. 
 
 The caravan men were so sleepy, Orrin S 
 
 says, that he could hardly wake them in the morning. 
 They turned over on their faces to show him. 
 
 Coming out of the caravansary, there were the 
 mountains, in the quiet sunset, and many men drunk, 
 swearing, and fighting. Shanties with liquor for sale. 
 
 The elephant lodged in the barn. 
 
 September $th. I took a walk of three miles from 
 the village, which brought me into Vermont. The 
 line runs athwart a bridge, a rude bridge, which 
 crosses a mountain stream. The stream runs deep 
 at the bottom of a gorge, plashing downward, with 
 rapids and pools, and bestrewn with large rocks, deep 
 and shady, not to be reached by the sun except in its 
 meridian, as well on account of the depth of the gorge 
 as of the arch of wilderness trees above it. There 
 was a stumpy clearing beyond the bridge, where some 
 men were building a house. I went to them, and 
 inquired if I were in Massachusetts or Vermont, 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 251 
 
 and asked for some water. Whereupon they showed 
 great hospitality, and the master-workman went to 
 the spring, and brought delicious water in a tin basin, 
 and produced another jug containing " new rum, and 
 very good ; and rum does nobody any harm if they 
 make a good use of it," quoth he. I invited them to 
 call on me at the hotel, if they should come to the 
 village within two or three days. Then I took my 
 way back through the forest, for this is a by-road, 
 and is, much of its course, a sequestrated and wild 
 one, with an unseen torrent roaring at an unseen 
 depth, along the roadside. 
 
 My walk forth had been an almost continued 
 ascent, and, returning, I had an excellent view of 
 Graylock and the adjacent mountains, at such a 
 distance that they were all brought into one group 
 and comprehended at one view, as belonging to the 
 same company, all mighty, with a mightier chief. 
 As I drew nearer home, they separated, and the unity 
 of effect was lost. The more distant then disappeared 
 behind the nearer ones, and finally Graylock itself 
 was lost behind the hill which immediately shuts in 
 the village. There was a warm autumnal haze, which, 
 I think, seemed to throw the mountains farther off, 
 and both to enlarge and soften them. 
 
252 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 To imagine the gorges and deep hollows in among 
 the group of mountains, their huge shoulders and 
 protrusions. 
 
 " They were just beginning to pitch over the 
 mountains as I came along," stage-driver s expres 
 sion about the caravan. 
 
 A fantastic figure of a village coxcomb, striding 
 through the bar-room, and standing with folded arms 
 to survey the caravan men. There is much exagge 
 ration and rattle-brain about this fellow. 
 
 A mad girl leaped from the top of a tremendous 
 precipice in Pownall, hundreds of feet high, if the tale 
 be true, and, being buoyed up by her clothes, came 
 safely to the bottom. 
 
 Inquiries about the coming of the caravan, and 
 whether the elephant had got to town, and reports 
 that he had. 
 
 A smart, plump, crimson-faced gentleman, with a 
 travelling portmanteau of peculiar neatness and con 
 venience. He criticises the road over the mountain, 
 having come in the Greenfield stage ; perhaps an 
 engineer. 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 253 
 
 Bears still inhabit Saddleback and the neigh 
 bouring mountains and forests. Six were taken in 
 Pownall last year, and two hundred foxes. Some 
 times they appear on the hills, in close proximity to 
 this village. 
 
 September *jth. Mr. Leach and I took a walk by 
 moonlight last evening, on the road that leads over 
 the mountain. Remote from houses, far up on the 
 hillside, we found a lime-kiln burning near the road ; 
 and, approaching it, a watcher started from the ground, 
 where he had been lying at his length. There are 
 several of these lime-kilns in this vicinity. They are 
 circular, built with stones, like a round tower, eighteen 
 or twenty feet high, having a hillock heaped around 
 in a great portion of their circumference, so that the 
 marble may be brought and thrown in by cart-loads 
 at the top. At the bottom there is a doorway, large 
 enough to admit a man in a stooping posture. Thus 
 an edifice of great solidity is constructed, which will 
 endure for centuries, unless needless pains are taken 
 to tear it down. There is one on the hillside, close to 
 the village, wherein weeds grow at the bottom, and 
 grass and shrubs too are rooted in the interstices of 
 the stones, and its low doorway has a dungeon-like 
 
254 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 
 
 aspect, and we look down from the top as into a 
 roofless tower. It apparently has not been used for 
 many years, and the lime and weather-stained frag 
 ments of marble are scattered about. 
 
 But in the one we saw last night a hard-wood fire 
 was burning merrily, beneath the superincumbent 
 marble, the kiln being heaped full ; and shortly 
 after we came, the man (a dark, black -bearded figure, 
 in shirt-sleeves) opened the iron door, through the 
 chinks of which the fire was gleaming, and thrust in 
 huge logs of wood, and stirred the immense coals, with 
 a long pole, and showed us the glowing limestone, 
 the lower layer of it. The heat of the fire was powerful, 
 at the distance of several yards from the open door. 
 He talked very sensibly with us, being doubtless glad 
 to have two visitors to vary his solitary night-watch ; 
 for it would not do for him to fall asleep, since the 
 fire should be refreshed as often as every twenty 
 minutes. We ascended the hillock to the top of the 
 kiln, and the marble was red-hot, and burning with a 
 bluish, lambent flame, quivering up, sometimes nearly 
 a yard high, and resembling the flame of anthracite 
 coal, only, the marble being in large fragments, the 
 flame was higher. The kiln was perhaps six or eight 
 feet across. Four hundred bushels of marble were 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 255 
 
 then in a state of combustion. The expense of 
 converting this quantity into lime is about fifty dollars, 
 and it sells for twenty-five cents per bushel at the 
 kiln. We asked the man whether he would run 
 across the top of the intensely burning kiln, barefooted, 
 for a thousand dollars ; and he said he would for ten. 
 He told us that the lime had been burning forty-eight 
 hours, and would be finished in thirty-six more. He 
 liked the business of watching better by night than 
 by day ; because the days were often hot, but such a 
 mild and beautiful night as the last was just right. 
 Here a poet might make verses with moonlight in 
 them, and a gleam of fierce firelight flickering through. 
 It is a shame to use this brilliant white, almost trans 
 parent marble in this way. A man said of it, the 
 other day, that into some pieces of it, when polished, 
 one could see a good distance ; and he instanced a 
 certain gravestone. 
 
 Visited the cave. A large portion of it, where 
 water trickles and falls, is perfectly white. The walls 
 present a specimen of how nature packs the stone, 
 crowding huge masses, as it were, into chinks and 
 fissures, and here we see it in the perpendicular or 
 horizontal layers, as Nature laid it. 
 
256 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 September gth. A walk yesterday forenoon through 
 the Notch, formed between Saddle Mountain and 
 another adjacent one. This Notch is otherwise called 
 the Bellowspipe, being a long and narrow valley, with 
 a steep wall on either side. The walls are very high, 
 and the fallen timbers lie strewed adown the precipitous 
 descent. The valley gradually descends from the 
 narrowest part of the Notch, and a stream of water 
 flows through the midst of it, which, farther onward, 
 in its course, turns a mill. The valley is cultivated, 
 there being two or three farm-houses towards the 
 northern end, and extensive fields of grass beyond, 
 where stand the hay-mows of last year, with the hay 
 cut away regularly around their bases. All the more 
 distant portion of the valley is lonesome^in the extreme ; 
 and on the hither side of the narrowest part the land 
 is uncultivated, partly overgrown with forest, partly 
 used as sheep-pastures, for which purpose it is not 
 nearly so barren as sheep-pastures usually are. On 
 the right, facing southward, rises Graylock, all be- 
 shagged with forest, and with headlong precipices of 
 rock appearing among the black pines. Southward 
 there is a most extensive view of the valley, in which 
 Saddleback and his companion mountains are 
 crouched, wide and far, a broad, misty valley, fenced 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 257 
 
 in by a mountain wall, and with villages scattered along 
 it, and miles of forest, which appear but as patches, 
 scattered here and there upon the landscape. The 
 descent from the Notch southward is much more 
 abrupt than on the other side. A stream flows down 
 through it ; and along much of its course it has washed 
 away all the earth from a ledge of rock, and then 
 formed a descending pavement, smooth and regular, 
 which the scanty flow of water scarcely suffices to 
 moisten at this period, though a heavy rain, probably, 
 would send down a torrent, raging, roaring, and 
 foaming. I descended along the course of the stream, 
 and sometimes on the rocky path of it, and, turning 
 off towards the south village, followed a cattle-path 
 till I came to a cottage. 
 
 A horse was standing saddled near the door, but 
 I did not see the rider. I knocked, and an elderly 
 woman, of very pleasing and intelligent aspect, came 
 at the summons, and gave me directions how to get 
 to the south village through an orchard and " across 
 lots," which would bring me into the road near the 
 Quaker meeting-house, with gravestones round it. 
 While she talked, a young woman came into the 
 pantry from the kitchen, with a dirty little brat, 
 whose squalls I had heard all along ; the reason of 
 VOL. I. 17 
 
258 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 his outcry being that his mother was washing him, 
 a very unusual process, if I may judge by his looks. 
 I asked the old lady for some water, and she gave 
 me, I think, the most delicious I ever tasted. These 
 mountaineers ought certainly to be temperance 
 people ; for their mountain springs supply them with 
 a liquor of which the cities and the low countries can 
 have no conception. Pure, fresh, almost sparkling, 
 exhilarating, such water as Adam and Eve drank. 
 I passed the south village on a byroad, without 
 entering it, and was taken up by the stage from 
 Pittsfield a mile or two this side of it. Platt, the 
 driver, a friend of mine, talked familiarly about 
 many matters, intermixing his talk with remarks on 
 his team and addresses to the beasts composing it, 
 who were three mares, and a horse on the near wheel, 
 all bays. The horse he pronounced " a dreadful 
 nice horse to go ; but if he could shirk off the work 
 upon the others, he would," which unfairness Platt 
 corrected by timely strokes of the whip whenever the 
 horse s traces were not tightened. One of the mares 
 wished to go faster, hearing another horse tramp 
 behind her ; " and nothing made her so mad," quoth 
 Platt, " as to be held in when she wanted to go." 
 The near leader started. " Oh, the little devil," said 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 259 
 
 he, "how skittish she is!" Another stumbled, and 
 Platt bantered her thereupon. Then he told of 
 foundering through snow-drifts in winter, and carry 
 ing the mail on his back four miles from Bennington. 
 And thus we jogged on, and got to " mine inn " just 
 as the dinner-bell was ringing. 
 
 Pig-drover, with two hundred pigs. They are 
 much more easily driven on rainy days than on fair 
 ones. One of his pigs, a large one, particularly 
 troublesome as to running off the road towards every 
 object, and leading the drove. Thirteen miles about 
 a day s journey, in the course of which the drover has 
 to travel about thirty. 
 
 They have a dog, who runs to and fro inde- 
 fatigably, barking at those who straggle on the flanks 
 of the line of march, then scampering to the other 
 side and barking there, and sometimes having quite 
 an affair of barking and surly grunting with some 
 refractory pig, who has found something to munch, 
 and refuses to quit it. The pigs are fed on corn at 
 their halts. The drove has some ultimate market, 
 and individuals are peddled out on the march. 
 Some die. 
 
 Merino sheep (which are much raised in Berk- 
 
260 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 shire) are good for hardly anything to eat, a fair- 
 sized quarter dwindling down to almost nothing in 
 the process of roasting. 
 
 The tavern-keeper in Stockbridge, an elderly 
 bachelor, a dusty, black-dressed, antiquated figure, 
 with a white neckcloth setting off a dim yellow 
 complexion, looking like one of the old wax figures 
 of ministers in a corner of the New England 
 Museum. He did not seem old, but like a middle- 
 aged man, who had been preserved in some dark 
 and cobwebby corner for a great while. He is 
 asthmatic. 
 
 In Connecticut, and also sometimes in Berkshire, 
 the villages are situated on the most elevated ground 
 that can be found, so that they are visible for miles 
 around. Litchfield is a remarkable instance, occupy 
 ing a high plain, without the least shelter from the 
 winds, and with almost as wide an expanse of view 
 as from a mountain-top. The streets are very wide, 
 two or three hundred feet, at least, with wide, green 
 margins, and sometimes there is a wide green space 
 between two road tracks. Nothing can be neater 
 than the churches and houses. The graveyard is on 
 the slope, and at the foot of a swell, filled with old 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-LOOKS. 26l 
 
 and new gravestones, some of red freestone, some of 
 grey granite, most of them of white marble, and one 
 of cast-iron with an inscription of raised letters. 
 There was one of the date of about 1776, on which 
 was represented the third-length bas-relief portrait 
 of a gentleman in a wig and other costume of that 
 day ; and as a framework about this portrait was 
 wreathed a garland of vine-leaves and heavy clusters 
 of grapes. The deceased should have been a jolly 
 bottleman ; but the epitaph indicated nothing of the 
 kind. 
 
 In a remote part of the graveyard, remote from 
 the main body of dead people, I noticed a humble, 
 mossy stone, on which I traced out, " To the memory 
 of Julia Africa, servant of Rev. " somebody. There 
 were also the half-obliterated traces of other graves, 
 without any monuments, in the vicinity of this one. 
 Doubtless the slaves here mingled their dark clay 
 with the earth. 
 
 At Litchfield there is a doctor who undertakes to 
 cure deformed people, and humpbacked, lame, and 
 otherwise defective folk go there. Besides these, there 
 were many ladies and others boarding there, for the 
 benefit of the air, I suppose. 
 
 At Canaan, Connecticut, before the tavern, there 
 
262 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 is a doorstep two or three paces large in each of its 
 dimensions ; and on this is inscribed the date when 
 the builder of the house came to the town, namely, 
 1731. The house was built in 1751. Then follows 
 the age and death of the patriarch (at over ninety) 
 and his wife, and the births of, I think, eleven sons 
 and daughters. It would seem as if they were buried 
 underneath ; and many people take that idea. It is 
 odd to put a family record in a spot where it is sure 
 to be trampled under foot. 
 
 At Springfield, a blind man, who came in the 
 stage, elderly, sitting in the reading-room, and, as 
 soon as seated, feeling all around him with his cane, 
 so as to find out his locality, and know where he may 
 spit with safety ! The cautious and scientific air with 
 which he measures his distances. Then he sits still 
 and silent a long while, then inquires the hour, 
 then says, " I should like to go to bed." Nobody of 
 the house being near, he receives no answer, and 
 repeats impatiently, " I ll go to bed." One would 
 suppose that, conscious of his dependent condition, 
 he would have learned a different sort of manner ; 
 but probably he has lived where he could command 
 attention. 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 263 
 
 Two travellers eating bread and cheese of their 
 own in the bar-room at Stockbridge, and drinking 
 water out of a tumbler borrowed from the landlord. 
 Eating immensely, and, when satisfied, putting the 
 relics in their trunk, and rubbing down the table. 
 
 Sample ears of various kinds of corn hanging over 
 the looking-glass or in the bars of taverns. Four ears 
 on a stalk (good ones) are considered a heavy harvest. 
 
 A withered, yellow, sodden, dead-alive looking 
 woman, an opium-eater. A deaf man, with a great 
 fancy for conversation, so that his interlocutor is com 
 pelled to halloo and bawl over the rumbling of the 
 coach, amid which he hears best. The sharp tones 
 of a woman s voice appear to pierce his dull organs 
 much better than a masculine voice. The impossi 
 bility of saying anything but commonplace matters to 
 a deaf man, of expressing any delicacy of thought in 
 a raised tone, of giving utterance to fine feelings in a 
 bawl. This man s deafness seemed to have made his 
 mind and feelings uncommonly coarse ; for, after the 
 opium-eater had renewed an old acquaintance with., 
 him, almost the first question he asked, in his raised 
 voice, was, " Do you eat opium now ? " 
 
264 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 At Hartford, the keeper of a temperance hotel 
 reading a Hebrew Bible in the bar by means of a 
 lexicon and an English version. 
 
 A negro, respectably dressed, and well-mounted 
 on horseback, travelling on his own hook, calling for 
 oats, and drinking a glass of brandy-and-water at the 
 bar, like any other Christian. A young man from 
 Wisconsin said : " I wish I had a thousand such 
 fellows in Alabama." It made a strange impression 
 on me, the negro was really so human ! and to 
 talk of owning a thousand like him ! 
 
 Left North Adams, September nth. Reached 
 home, September 24th, 1838. 
 
 October 2qth. View from a chamber of the Tre- 
 mont of the brick edifice opposite, on the other side 
 of Beacon Street. At one of the lower windows, a 
 woman at work ; at one above, a lady hemming a ruff 
 or some such lady-like thing. She is pretty, young, 
 and married ; for a little boy comes to her knees, and 
 , she parts his hair, and caresses him in a motherly 
 way. A note on coloured paper is brought her ; and 
 she reads it, and puts it in her bosom. At another 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTL-BOOKS. 265 
 
 window, at some depth within the apartment, a gentle 
 man in a dressing-gown, reading, and rocking in an 
 easy-chair, &c. &c. &c. A rainy day, and people 
 passing with umbrellas disconsolately between the 
 spectator and these various scenes of indoor occu 
 pation and comfort. With this sketch might be 
 mingled and worked up some story that was going on 
 within the chamber where the spectator was situated. 
 
 All the dead that had ever been drowned in a 
 certain lake to arise. 
 
 The history of a small lake from the first, till it 
 was drained. 
 
 An autumnal feature, boys had swept together 
 the fallen leaves from the elms along the street in one 
 huge pile, and had made a hollow, nest-shaped, in 
 this pile, in which three or four of them lay curled, 
 like young birds. 
 
 A tombstone-maker, whom Miss B y knew, 
 
 used to cut cherubs on the top of the tombstones, 
 and had the art of carving the cherubs faces in the 
 likeness of the deceased. 
 
266 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1858. 
 
 A child of Rev. E. P was threatened with total 
 
 blindness. A week after the father had been informed 
 of this, the child died ; and, in the meanwhile, his 
 feelings had become so much the more interested in 
 the child, from its threatened blindness, that it was 
 infinitely harder to give it up. Had he not been 
 aware of it till after the child s death, it would 
 probably have been a consolation. 
 
 Singular character of a gentleman (H. H , Esq.) 
 
 living in retirement in Boston, esteemed a man of 
 nicest honour, and his seclusion attributed to wounded 
 feelings on account of the failure of his firm in business. 
 Yet it was discovered that this man had been the 
 mover of intrigues by which men in business had been 
 ruined, and their property absorbed, none knew how 
 or by whom ; love-affairs had been broken off, and 
 much other mischief done ; and for years he was not 
 in the least suspected. He died suddenly, soon after 
 suspicion fell upon him. Probably it was the love of 
 management, of having an influence on affairs, that 
 produced these phenomena. 
 
 Character of a man who., in himself and his external 
 circumstances, shall be equally and totally false : his 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 267 
 
 fortune resting on baseless credit, his patriotism 
 assumed, his domestic affections, his honour and 
 honesty, all a sham. His own misery in the midst of 
 it, it making the whole universe, heaven and earth 
 alike, an unsubstantial mockery to him. 
 
 Dr. Johnson s penance in Uttoxeter Market. A 
 man who does penance in what might appear to 
 lookers-on the most glorious and triumphal circum 
 stance of his life. Each circumstance of the career 
 of an apparently successful man to be a penance and 
 torture to him on account of some fundamental error 
 in early life. 
 
 A person to catch fireflies, and try to kindle his 
 household fire with them. It would be symbolical of 
 something. 
 
 Thanksgiving at the Worcester Lunatic Asylum. 
 A ball and dance of the inmates in the evening, a 
 furious lunatic dancing with the principal s wife. 
 Thanksgiving in an almshouse might make a better 
 sketch. 
 
 The house on the eastern corner of North and 
 
268 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1838. 
 
 Essex Streets [Salem], supposed to have been built 
 about 1640, had, say sixty years later, a brick turret 
 erected, wherein one of the ancestors of the present 
 occupants used to practise alchemy. He was the 
 operative of a scientific person in Boston, the director. 
 There have been other alchemists of old in this town, 
 one who kept his fire burning seven weeks, and then 
 lost the elixir by letting it go out 
 
 An ancient wine-glass (Miss Ingersol s), long- 
 stalked, with a small, cup-like bowl, round which is 
 wreathed a branch of grape-vine, with a rich cluster 
 of grapes, and leaves spread out. There is also some 
 kind of a bird flying. The whole is excellently cut 
 or engraved. 
 
 In the Duke of Buckingham s comedy " The 
 Chances," Don Frederic says of Don John (they are 
 two noble Spanish gentlemen), " One bed contains us 
 ever." 
 
 A person, while awake and in the business of life, 
 to think highly of another, and place perfect con 
 fidence in him, but to be troubled with dreams in 
 which this seeming friend appears to act the part of a 
 
1838.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 269 
 
 most deadly enemy. Finally it is discovered that the 
 dream character is the true one. The explanation 
 would be the soul s instinctive perception. 
 
 Pandora s box for a child s story. 
 Moonlight is sculpture : sunlight is painting. 
 
 " A person to look back on a long life ill-spent, 
 and to picture forth a beautiful life which he would 
 live if he could be permitted to begin his life over 
 again. Finally, to discover that he had only been 
 dreaming of old age, that he was really young, and 
 could live such a life as he had pictured." 
 
 A newspaper, purporting to be published in a 
 family, and satirizing the political and general world 
 by advertisements, remarks on domestic affairs, 
 advertisement of a lady s lost thimble, &c. 
 
 L. H . She was unwilling to die, because she 
 
 had no friends to meet her in the other world. Her 
 little son F. being very ill, on his recovery she con 
 fessed a feeling of disappointment, having supposed 
 that he would have gone before, and welcomed her 
 into heaven ! 
 
2/0 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1839. 
 
 H. C. L heard from a French Canadian a 
 
 story of a young couple in Acadie. On their 
 marriage day, all the men of the Province were 
 summoned to assemble in the church to hear a 
 proclamation. When assembled, they were all seized 
 and shipped off to be distributed through New 
 England, among them the new bridegroom. His 
 bride set off in search of him, wandered about 
 New England all her lifetime, and at last, when she 
 was old, she found her bridegroom on his death-bed. 
 The shock was so great that it killed her likewise. 
 
 January ^tk, 1839. When scattered clouds are 
 resting on the bosoms of hills, it seems as if one 
 might climb into the heavenly region, earth being 
 so intermixed with sky, and gradually transformed 
 into it. 
 
 A stranger, dying, is buried ; and after many 
 years two strangers come in search of his grave, and 
 open it. 
 
 The strange sensation of a person who feels him 
 self an object of deep interest, and close observation, 
 and various construction of all his actions, by another 
 person. 
 
1839-] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 271 
 
 Letters in the shape of figures of men, &c. At 
 a distance, the words composed by the letters are 
 alone distinguishable. Close at hand, the figures 
 alone are seen, and not distinguished as letters. Thus 
 things may have a positive, a relative, and a com 
 posite meaning, according to the point of view. 
 
 " Passing along the street, all muddy with puddles, 
 and suddenly seeing the sky reflected in these puddles 
 in such a way as quite to conceal the foulness of the 
 street." 
 
 A young man in search of happiness, to be per 
 sonified by a figure whom he expects to meet in a 
 crowd, and is to be recognized by certain signs. All 
 these signs are given by a figure in various garbs and 
 actions, but he does not recognize that this is the 
 sought-for person till too late. 
 
 If cities were built by the sound of music, then 
 some edifices would appear to be constructed by 
 grave, solemn tones, others to have danced forth to 
 light, fantastic airs. 
 
 Familiar spirits, according to Lilly, used to be worn 
 
2/2 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1839. 
 
 in rings, watches, sword-hilts. Thumb-rings were set 
 with jewels of extraordinary size. 
 
 A very fanciful person, when dead, to have his 
 burial in a cloud. 
 
 "A story there passeth of an Indian king that sent 
 unto Alexander a fair woman, fed with aconite and 
 other poisons, with this intent complexionally to 
 destroy him ! " Sir T. Browne. 
 
 Dialogues of the unborn, like dialogues of the 
 dead, or between two young children. 
 
 A mortal symptom for a person being to lose 
 his own aspect and to take the family lineaments, 
 which were hidden deep in the healthful visage. 
 Perhaps a seeker might thus recognize the man he had 
 sought, after long intercourse with him unknowingly. 
 
 Some moderns to build a fire on Ararat with the 
 remnants of the ark. 
 
 Two little boats of cork, with a magnet in one and 
 steel in the other. 
 
1840.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 2/3 
 
 To have ice in one s blood. 
 
 To make a story of all strange and impossible 
 things, as the Salamander, the Phoenix. 
 
 The semblance of a human face to be formed on 
 the side of a mountain, or in the fracture of a small 
 stone, by a lusus nature?. The face is an object of 
 curiosity for years or centuries, and by and by a boy- 
 is born, whose features gradually assume the aspect 
 of that portrait. At some critical juncture, the re 
 semblance is found to be perfect. A prophecy may 
 be connected. 
 
 A person to be the death of his beloved in trying 
 to raise her to more than mortal perfection ; yet this 
 should be a comfort to him for having aimed so highly 
 and holily. 
 
 1840. A man, unknown, conscious of temptation 
 to secret crimes, puts up a note in church, desiring the 
 prayers of the congregation for one so tempted. 
 
 Some most secret thing, valued and honoured 
 between lovers, to be hung up in public places, and 
 
 VOL. I. 1 8 
 
2/4 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1840. 
 
 made the subject of remark by the city, remarks, 
 sneers, and laughter. 
 
 To make a story out of a scarecrow, giving it odd 
 attributes. From different points of view, it should 
 appear to change, now an old man, now an old 
 woman, a gunner, a farmer, or the Old Nick. 
 
 A ground-sparrow s nest in the slope of a bank, 
 brought to view by mowing the grass, but still 
 sheltered and comfortably hidden by a blackberry- 
 vine trailing over it. At first, four brown-speckled 
 eggs, then two little bare young ones, which, on the 
 slightest noise, lift their heads, and open wide mouths 
 for food, immediately dropping their heads, after a 
 broad gape. The action looks as if they were making 
 a most earnest, agonized petition. In another egg, as 
 in a coffin, I could discern the quiet, death-like form 
 of the little bird. The whole thing had something 
 awful and mysterious in it. 
 
 A coroner s inquest on a murdered man, the 
 gathering of the jury to be described, and the charac 
 ters of the members, some with secret guilt upon 
 their souls. 
 
1840.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 275 
 
 To represent a man as spending life and the 
 intensest labour in the accomplishment of some me 
 chanical trifle, as in making a miniature coach to 
 be drawn by fleas, or a dinner-service to be put into 
 a cherry-stone. 
 
 A bonfire to be made of the gallows and of all 
 symbols of evil. 
 
 The love of posterity is a consequence of the 
 necessity of death. If a man were sure of living for 
 ever here, he would not care about his offspring. 
 
 The device of a sun-dial for a monument over a 
 grave, with some suitable motto. 
 
 A man with the right perception of things,- 
 feeling within him of what is true and what is false. 
 It might be symbolized by the talisman with which, 
 in fairy tales, an adventurer was enabled to distinguish 
 enchantments from realities. 
 
 A phantom of the old royal governors, or some 
 such shadowy pageant, on the night of the evacuation 
 of Boston by the British. 
 
276 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1839. 
 
 taking my likeness, I said that such changes 
 
 would come over my face that she would not know 
 me when we met again in heaven. "See if I do 
 not ! " said she, smiling. There was the most peculiar 
 and beautiful humour in the point itself, and in her 
 manner, that can be imagined. 
 
 Little F. H - used to look into E s mouth 
 
 to see where her smiles came from. 
 
 " There is no Measure for Measure to my affec 
 tions. If the earth fails me, I can die, and go to 
 God," said - . 
 
 Selfishness is one of the qualities apt to inspire 
 love. This might be thought out at great length. 
 
 [EXTRACTS FROM HIS PRIVATE LETTERS.] 
 
 Boston, July yd, 1839. I do not mean to imply 
 that I am unhappy or discontented, for this is not 
 the case. My life only is a burden in the same way 
 that it is to every toilsome man ; and mine is a 
 healthy weariness, such as needs only a night s sleep 
 to remove it. But from henceforth for ever I shall be 
 
1839- j AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 277 
 
 entitled to call the sons of toil my brethren, and shall 
 know how to sympathize with them, seeing that I 
 likewise have risen at the dawn, and borne the fervour 
 of the midday sun, nor turned my heavy footsteps 
 homeward till eventide. Years hence, perhaps, the 
 experience that my heart is acquiring now will flow 
 out in truth and wisdom. 
 
 August 2jth. I have been stationed all day at 
 the end of Long Wharf, and I rather think that I had 
 the most eligible situation of anybody in Boston. I 
 was aware that it must be intensely hot in the midst 
 of the city ; but there was only a short space of 
 uncomfortable heat in my region, half-way towards 
 the centre of the harbour ; and almost all the time 
 there was a pure and delightful breeze, fluttering and 
 palpitating, sometimes shyly kissing my brow, then 
 dying away, and then rushing upon me in livelier 
 sport, so that I was fain to settle my straw hat more 
 tightly upon my head. Late in the afternoon there 
 was a sunny shower, which came down so like a bene 
 diction that it seemed ungrateful to take shelter in 
 the cabin or to put up an umbrella. Then there was 
 a rainbow, or a large segment of one, so exceedingly 
 brilliant and of such long endurance that I almost 
 
2/8 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1840. 
 
 fancied it was stained into the sky, and would con 
 tinue there permanently. And there were clouds 
 floating all about, great clouds and small, of all 
 glorious and lovely hues (save that imperial crimson 
 which was revealed to our united gaze), so glorious, 
 indeed, and so lovely, that I had a fantasy of heaven s 
 being broken into fleecy fragments, and dispersed 
 through space, with its blest inhabitants dwelling 
 blissfully upon those scattered islands. 
 
 February jt/i, 1840. What beautiful weather this 
 is ! beautiful, at least, so far as sun, sky, and atmo 
 sphere are concerned, though a poor wingless biped 
 is sometimes constrained to wish that he could raise 
 himself a little above the earth. How much mud and 
 mire, how many pools of unclean water, how many 
 slippery footsteps, and perchance heavy tumbles, 
 might be avoided, if we could tread but six inches 
 above the crust of this world. Physically we cannot 
 do this ; our bodies cannot ; but it seems to me that 
 our hearts and minds may keqp themselves above 
 moral mud-puddles and other discomforts of the soul s 
 pathway. 
 
 February \\tJi, I have been measuring coal all 
 
1840.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 2/9 
 
 day, on board of a black little British schooner, in a 
 dismal dock at the north end of the city. Most of 
 the time I paced the deck to keep myself warm ; for 
 the wind (north-east, I believe) blew up through the 
 dock, as if it had been the pipe of a pair of bellows 
 The vessel lying deep between two wharfs, there was 
 no more delightful prospect, on the right hand and on 
 the left, than the posts and timbers, half immersed in 
 the water, and covered with ice, which the rising and 
 falling of successive tides had left upon them, so that 
 they looked like immense icicles. Across the water, 
 however, not more than half a mile off, appeared the 
 Bunker Hill Monument ; and what interested me con 
 siderably more, a church-steeple, with the dial of a 
 clock upon it, whereby I was enabled to measure the 
 march of the weary hours. Sometimes I descended 
 into the dirty little cabin of the schooner, and warmed 
 myself by a red-hot stove, among biscuit barrels, 
 pots and kettles, sea-chests, and innumerable lumber 
 of all sorts, my olfactories, meanwhile, being greatly 
 refreshed by the odour of a pipe, which the captain, 
 or some one of his crew, was smoking. But at last 
 came the sunset, with delicate clouds, and a purple 
 light upon the islands ; and I blessed it, because 
 it was the signal of my release. 
 
28O AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1840. 
 
 February \2th. All day long again have I been 
 engaged in a very black business, as black as a coal ; 
 and, though my face and hands have undergone a 
 thorough purification, I feel not altogether fit to hold 
 communion with doves. Methinks my profession is 
 somewhat akin to that of a chimney-sweeper ; but 
 the latter has the advantage over me, because, after 
 climbing up through the darksome flue of the chimney, 
 he emerges into the midst of the golden air, and sings 
 out his melodies far over the heads of the whole tribe 
 of weary earth-plodders. My toil to-day has been 
 cold and dull enough ; nevertheless, I was neither 
 cold nor dull. 
 
 March \^th. I pray that in one year more I may 
 find some way of escaping from this unblest Custom 
 House ; for it is a very grievous thraldom. I do detest 
 all offices, all, at least, that are held on a political 
 tenure. And I want nothing to do with politicians. 
 Their hearts wither away, and die out of their bodies. 
 Their consciences are turned to india-rubber, or to 
 some substance as black as that, and which will 
 stretch as much. One thing, if no more, I have gained 
 by my custom-house experience, to know a politician. 
 It is a knowledge which no previous thought or power 
 
1840.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 28 1 
 
 of sympathy could have taught me, because the 
 animal, or the machine rather, is not in nature. 
 
 March 2^rd. I do think that it is the doom laid 
 upon me, of murdering so many of the brightest hours 
 of the day at the Custom House, that makes such 
 havoc with my wits, for here I am again trying to 
 write worthily, . . . yet with a sense as if all the 
 noblest part of man had been left out of my compo 
 sition, or had decayed out of it since my nature was 
 given to my own keeping. . . . Never comes any bird 
 of Paradise into that dismal region. A salt or even 
 a coal ship is ten million times preferable ; for there 
 the sky is above me, and the fresh breeze around me, 
 and my thoughts, having hardly anything to do with 
 my occupation, are as free as air. 
 
 Nevertheless, you are not to fancy that the above 
 paragraph gives a correct idea of my mental and 
 spiritual state. ... It is only once in a while that 
 the image and desire of a better and happier life makes 
 me feel the iron of my chain ; for, after all, a human 
 spirit may find no insufficiency of food fit for it, even 
 in the Custom House. And, with such materials as 
 these, I do think and feel and learn things that are 
 worth knowing, and which I should not know unless 
 
282 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1840. 
 
 I had learned them there, so that the present portion 
 of my life shall not be quite left out of the sum of 
 my real existence. ... It is good for me, on many 
 accounts, that my life has had this passage in it. I 
 know much more than I did a year ago. I have 
 a stronger sense of power to act as a man among 
 men. I have gained worldly wisdom, and wisdom 
 also that is not altogether of this world. And, when 
 I quit this earthly cavern where I am now buried, 
 nothing will cling to me that ought to be left behind. 
 Men will not perceive, I trust, by my look, or the 
 tenor of my thoughts and feelings, that I have been 
 a custom-house officer. 
 
 April ////. It appears to me to have been the 
 most uncomfortable day that ever was inflicted on 
 poor mortals. . . . Besides the bleak, unkindly air, 
 I have been plagued by two sets of coal-shovellers 
 at the same time, and have been obliged to keep two 
 separate tallies simultaneously. But I was conscious 
 that all this was merely a vision and a phantasy, and 
 that, in reality, I was not half frozen by the bitter 
 blast, nor tormented by those grimy coalheavers, but 
 that I was basking quietly in the sunshine of eter 
 nity. . . . Any sort of bodily and earthly torment 
 
1840.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 283 
 
 may serve to make us sensible that we have a soul 
 that is not within the jurisdiction of such shadowy 
 demons, it separates the immortal within us from 
 the mortal. But the wind has blown my brains into 
 such confusion that I cannot philosophize now. 
 
 April igt/t. . . . What a beautiful day was 
 yesterday ! My spirit rebelled against being confined 
 in my darksome dungeon at the Custom House. It 
 seemed a sin, a murder of the joyful young day, 
 a quenching of the sunshine. Nevertheless, there I 
 was kept a prisoner till it was too late to fling myself 
 on a gentle wind, and be blown away into the 
 country. . . . When I shall be again free, I will 
 enjoy all things with the fresh simplicity of a child of 
 five years old. I shall grow young again, made all 
 over anew. I will go forth and stand in a summer 
 shower, and all the worldly dust that has collected on 
 me shall be washed away at once, and my heart will 
 be like a bank of fresh flowers for the weary to rest 
 upon. . . . 
 
 6 P.M. I went out to walk about an hour ago, 
 and found it very pleasant, though there was a some 
 what cool wind. I went round and across the 
 Common, and stood on the highest point of it, where 
 
284 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1840. 
 
 I could see miles and miles into the country. Blessed 
 be God for this green tract, and the view which it 
 affords, whereby we poor citizens may be put in 
 mind, sometimes, that all his earth is not composed 
 of blocks of brick houses, and of stone or w r ooden 
 pavements. Blessed be God for the sky too, though 
 the smoke of the city may somewhat change its 
 aspect, but still it is better than if each street were 
 covered over with a roof. There were a good many 
 people walking on the mall, mechanics apparently, 
 and shopkeepers clerks, with their wives ; and boys 
 were rolling on the grass, and I would have liked to 
 lie down and roll too. 
 
 April 3O///. ... I arose this morning feeling 
 more elastic than I have throughout the winter ; for 
 the breathing of the ocean air has wrought a very 
 beneficial effect. . . What a beautiful, most beau 
 tiful afternoon this has been ! It was a real happi 
 ness to live. If I had been merely a vegetable, a 
 hawthorn-bush, for instance, I must have been 
 happy in such an air and sunshine ; but, having a 
 mind and a soul, ... I enjoyed somewhat more 
 than mere vegetable happiness. . . . The footsteps 
 of May can be traced upon the islands in the harbour, 
 
1840.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 285 
 
 and I have been watching the tints of green upon 
 them gradually deepening, till now they are almost 
 as beautiful as they ever can be. 
 
 May IQ///. . . . Lights and shadows are con 
 tinually flitting across my inward sky, and I know 
 neither whence they come nor whither they go ; nor do 
 I inquire too closely into them. It is dangerous to 
 look too minutely into such phenomena. It is apt to 
 create a substance where at first there was a mere 
 
 shadow If at any time there should seem to be 
 
 an expression unintelligible from one soul to another, 
 it is best not to strive to interpret it in earthly language, 
 but wait for the soul to make itself understood ; and, 
 were we to wait a thousand years, we need deem it no 
 more time than we can spare. ... It is not that I 
 have any love of mystery, but because I abhor it, and 
 because I have often felt that words may be a thick 
 and darksome veil of mystery between the soul and 
 the truth which it seeks. Wretched were we, indeed, 
 if we had no better means of communicating ourselves, 
 no fairer garb in which to array our essential being, 
 than these poor rags and tatters of Babel. Yet words 
 are not without their use even for purposes of expla 
 nation, but merely for explaining outward acts and 
 
286 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1840. 
 
 all sorts of external things, leaving the soul s life and 
 action to explain itself in its own way. 
 
 What a misty disquisition I have scribbled ! I 
 would not read it over for sixpence. 
 
 May 2()t/L Rejoice with me, for I am free from a 
 load of coal which has been pressing upon my shoul 
 ders throughout all the hot weather. I am convinced 
 that Christian s burden consisted of coal ; and no won 
 der he felt so much relieved, when it fell off and rolled 
 into the sepulchre. His load, however, at the utmost, 
 could not have been more than a few bushels, whereas 
 mine was exactly one hundred and thirty-five chaldrons 
 and seven tubs. 
 
 May 30 f /i . . . . On board my salt-vessels and 
 colliers there are many things happening, many pictures 
 which, in future years when I am again busy at the 
 loom of fiction, I could weave in ; but my fancy is 
 rendered so torpid by my ungenial way of life that I 
 cannot sketch off the scenes and portraits that interest 
 me, and I am forced to trust them to my memory, with 
 the hope of recalling them at some more favourable 
 period. For these three or four days I have been 
 observing a little Mediterranean boy from Malaga, not 
 
1840.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 287 
 
 more than ten or eleven years old, but who is already 
 a citizen of the world, and seems to be just as gay and 
 contented on the deck of a Yankee coal-vessel as he 
 could] be while playing beside his mother s door. It 
 is really touching to see how free and happy he 
 is, how the little fellow takes the whole wide world 
 for his home, and all mankind for his family. He 
 talks Spanish, at least that is his native tongue ; 
 but he is also very intelligible in English, and perhaps 
 he likewise has smatterings of the speech of other 
 countries, whither the winds may have wafted this 
 little sea-bird. He is a Catholic ; and yesterday 
 being Friday he caught some fish and fried them for 
 his dinner in sweet oil, and really they looked so 
 delicate that I almost wished he would invite me to 
 partake. Every once in a while he undresses him 
 self and leaps overboard, plunging down beneath the 
 waves as if the sea were as native to him as the 
 earth. Then he runs up the rigging of the vessel as 
 if he meant to fly away through the air. I must 
 remember this little boy, and perhaps I may make 
 something more beautiful of him than these rough 
 and imperfect touches would promise. 
 
 June nth. ... I could wish that the east 
 
288 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1840. 
 
 wind would blow every day from ten o clock till five ; 
 for there is great refreshment in it to us poor mortals 
 that toil beneath the sun. We must not think too 
 unkindly even of the east wind. It is not, perhaps, a 
 wind to be loved, even in its benignest moods ; but 
 there are seasons when I delight to feel its breath 
 upon my cheek, though it be never advisable to throw 
 open my bosom and take it into my heart, as I would 
 its gentle sisters of the south and \vest. To-day, if I 
 had been on the wharves, the slight chill of an east 
 wind would have been a blessing, like the chill of 
 death to a world-w^eary man. 
 
 .... But this has been one of the idlest days 
 that I ever spent in Boston. ... In the morning, 
 soon after breakfast, I went to the Athenaeum Gallery, 
 and, during the hour or two that I stayed, not a single 
 visitor came in. Some people were putting up paint 
 ings in one division of the room ; but I had the other 
 all to myself. There are two pictures there by our 
 friend Sarah Clarke, scenes in Kentucky. 
 
 From the picture-gallery I went to the reading- 
 rooms of the Athenaeum, and there read the magazines 
 till nearly twelve ; thence to the Custom House, and 
 soon afterwards to dinner with Colonel Hall ; then 
 back to the Custom House, but only for a little while. 
 
1840.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 289 
 
 There was nothing in the world to do, and so at two 
 o clock I came home and lay down, with the Faerie 
 Quecne in my hand. 
 
 August 21. Last night I slept like a child of five 
 years old, and had no dreams at all, unless just 
 before it was time to rise, and I have forgotten what 
 those dreams were. After I was fairly awake this 
 morning, I felt very bright and airy, and was glad 
 that I had been compelled to snatch two additional 
 hours of existence from annihilation. The sun s disc 
 was but half above the ocean s verge when I ascended 
 the ship s side. These early morning hours are very 
 lightsome and quiet. Almost the whole day I have 
 been in the shade, reclining on a pile of sails, so that 
 the life and spirit are not entirely worn out of me. 
 .... The wind has been east this afternoon, per 
 haps in the forenoon, too, and I could not help 
 feeling refreshed, when the gentle chill of its breath 
 stole over my cheek. I would fain abominate the 
 east wind, .... but it persists in doing me kindly 
 offices now and then. What a perverse wind it is ! 
 Its refreshment is but another mode of torment. 
 
 Salem, Oct. ^th. Union Street [Family Mansion]. 
 VOL. I. 19 
 
2QO AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1840. 
 
 . . . . Here I sit in my old accustomed chamber, 
 
 where I used to sit in days gone by Here I 
 
 have written may tales, many that have been burned 
 to ashes, many that doubtless deserved the same fate. 
 This claims to be called a haunted chamber, for 
 thousands upon thousands of visions have appeared 
 to me in it ; and some few of them have become 
 visible to the world. If ever I should have a bio 
 grapher, he ought to make great mention of this 
 chamber in my memoirs, because so much of my 
 lonely youth was wasted here, and here my mind and 
 character were formed ; and here I have been glad 
 and hopeful, and here I have been despondent. And 
 here I sat a long, long time, waiting patiently for 
 the world to know me, and sometimes wondering why 
 it did not know me sooner, or whether it would ever 
 know me at all, at least, till I were in my grave. 
 And sometimes it seemed as if I were already in 
 the grave, with only life enough to be chilled and 
 benumbed. But oftener I was happy, at least, as 
 happy as I then knew how to be, or was aware of the 
 possibility of being. By and by, the world found me 
 out in my lonely chamber, and called me forth, not, 
 indeed, with a loud roar of acclamation, but rather 
 with a still, small voice, and forth I went, but found 
 
1840.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 29 1 
 
 nothing in the world that I thought preferable to my 
 solitude till now And now I begin to under 
 stand why I was imprisoned so many years in this 
 lonely chamber, and why I could never break through 
 the viewless bolts and bars ; for if I had sooner made 
 my escape into the w^orld, I should have grown hard 
 and rough, and been covered with earthly dust, and 
 my heart might have become callous by rude en 
 counters with the multitude But living in 
 
 solitude till the fulness of time was come, I still kept 
 the dew of my youth and the freshness of my heart. 
 .... I used to think I could imagine all passions, 
 all feelings, and states of the heart and mind ; but 
 how little did I know ! . . . . Indeed, we are but 
 shadows ; we are not endowed with real life, and all 
 that seems most real about us is but the thinnest 
 substance of a dream, till the heart be touched. 
 That touch creates us, then we begin to be, thereby 
 we are beings of reality and inheritors of eternity. . . 
 
 When we shall be endowed with our spiritual 
 bodies, I think that they will be so constituted that 
 we may send thoughts and feelings any distance in no 
 time at all, and transfuse them warm and fresh into 
 the consciousness of those whom we love But 
 
2Q2 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1840. 
 
 after all perhaps it is not wise to intermix fantastic 
 ideas with the reality of affection. Let us content 
 ourselves to be earthly creatures, and hold com 
 munion of spirit in such modes as are ordained 
 to us 
 
 I was not at the end of Long Wharf to-day, but 
 in a distant region, my authority having been put in 
 requisition to quell a rebellion of the captain and 
 "gang" of shovellers aboard a coal-vessel. I would 
 you could have beheld the awful sternness of my 
 visage and demeanour in the execution of this 
 momentous duty. Well, I have conquered the 
 rebels, and proclaimed an amnesty ; so to-morrow I 
 shall return to that paradise of measures, the end of 
 Long Wharf, not to my former salt-ship, she being 
 now discharged, but to another, which will probably 
 employ me well-nigh a fortnight longer .... Salt is 
 white and pure, there is something holy in salt. . . . 
 
 I have observed that butterflies very broad- 
 winged and magnificent butterflies frequently come 
 on board of the salt-ship, where I am at work. What 
 have these bright strangers to do on Long Wharf, 
 where there are no flowers nor any green thing, 
 
1840. j AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 293 
 
 nothing but brick storehouses, stone piers, black ships, 
 and the bustle of toilsome men, who neither look up 
 to the blue sky, nor take note of these wandering 
 gems of the air ? I cannot account for them, unless 
 they are the lovely fantasies of the mind. 
 
 November. . . . . How delightfully long the 
 evenings are now ! I do not get intolerably tired any 
 longer, and my thoughts sometimes wander back to 
 literature, and I have momentary impulses to write 
 stories. But this will not be at present. The utmost 
 that I can hope to do will be to portray some of the 
 characteristics of the life which I am now living, and 
 of the people with whom I am brought into contact, 
 for future use. . . . The days are cold now, the air 
 eager and nipping, yet it suits my health amazingly. 
 I feel as if I could run a hundred miles at a stretch, 
 and jump over all the houses that happen to be in my 
 way. . . . 
 
 I have never had the good luck to profit much, 
 or indeed any, by attending lectures, so that I think 
 the ticket had better be bestowed on somebody who 
 can listen to Mr. - - more worthily. My evenings 
 are very precious to me, and some of them are 
 
294 AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. [1841. 
 
 unavoidably thrown away in paying or receiving 
 visits, or in writing letters of business, and therefore 
 I prize the rest as if the sands of the hour-glass were 
 gold or diamond dust. 
 
 I was invited to dine at Mr. Bancroft s yesterday 
 with Miss Margaret Fuller ; but Providence had given 
 me some business to do, for which I was very 
 thankful. 
 
 Is not this a beautiful morning ? The sun shines 
 into my soul. 
 
 April, 1841. . . . . I have been busy all day, 
 from early breakfast-time till late in the afternoon ; 
 and old Father Time has gone onward somewhat less 
 heavily than is his wont when I am imprisoned within 
 the walls of the Custom House. It has been a brisk, 
 breezy day, an effervescent atmosphere, and I have 
 enjoyed it in all its freshness, breathing air which 
 had not been breathed in advance by the hundred 
 thousand pairs of lungs which have common and indi 
 visible property in the atmosphere of this great city. 
 My breath had never belonged to anybody but me. 
 It came fresh from the wilderness of ocean. ... It 
 was exhilarating to see the vessels, how they bounded 
 over the waves, while a sheet of foam broke out 
 
1841.] AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS. 295 
 
 around them. I found a good deal of enjoyment, 
 too, in the busy scene around me ; for several vessels 
 were disgorging themselves (what an unseemly figure 
 is this, " disgorge " quotha, as if the vessels were 
 sick) on the wharf, and everybody seemed to be work 
 ing with might and main. It pleased me to think that 
 I also had a part to act in the material and tangible 
 business of this life, and that a portion of all this 
 industry could not have gone on without my presence. 
 Nevertheless, I must not pride myself too much on 
 my activity and utilitarianism. I shall, doubtless, 
 soon bewail myself at being compelled to earn my 
 bread by taking some little share in the toils of 
 mortal men. . . . 
 
 Articulate words are a harsh clamour and disso 
 nance. When man arrives at his highest perfection, 
 he will again be dumb ! for I suppose he was dumb 
 at the Creation, and must go round an entire circle 
 in order to return to that blessed state. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
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