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1 March 1855. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  10 A.M.—To Derby’s Bridge and return by Sam Barrett’s, to see ice cakes and meadow crust.

  The last day for skating. It is a very pleasant and warm day, the finest yet, with considerable coolness in the air, however,—winter still. The air is beautifully clear, and through [it] I love to trace at a distance the roofs and outlines of sober-colored farmhouses amid the woods.

(Journal, 7:220-224)
1 March 1856. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  9 A.M.—To Flint’s Pond via Walden, by railroad and the crust . . .

  Goodwin says that somewhere where he lived they called cherry-birds “port-royals.”

  Haynes of Sudbury brought some axe-helves which he had been making to Smith’s shop to sell to-day . . .

  It is remarkable, that though I have not been able to find any open place in the river almost all winter except under the further stone bridge and at Loring’s Brook,—this winter so remarkable for ice and snow . . .

(Journal, 8:196-198)
1 March 1858. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  We have just had a winter with absolutely no sleighing, which I do not find that any one distinctly remembers the like of. It may have been as warm before, but with more snow . . . (Journal, 10:288).
1 March 1859. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau is chosen as executor of his father’s estate (The Transcendentalists and Minerva, 2:80).

1 March 1860. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  Rain all day . . .

  I have thoughts, as I walk, on some subject that is running in my head, but all their pertinence seems gone before I can get home to set them down . . . (Journal, 13:170).

1 March 1861. Concord, Mass.

A. Bronson Alcott writes in his journal:

  Blake [H. G. O. Blake] and Brown [Theophilus Brown] are here. They come to see Thoreau, who has walked out with Channing [William Ellery Channing] once or twice in the last days, and seems a little better. These men have something of the disciple’s faith in their master’s thought, and come sometimes on pilgrimage to Concord for an interview with him. This confidence in persons, this love of the mind, enthusiasm for a great man’s thoughts, is a promising trait in anyone, a disposition always graceful to witness, and is far too rarely seen in our times of personal indifference, if not of confessed unbelief in Persons and Ideas. I know of nothing more creditable to Thoreau than this thoughtful regard and constancy by which he had held for years some of the best persons of his time. They are not many, to be sure, but do credit alike to him and themselves.
(The Journals of Bronson Alcott, 337)
1 March 1862. Concord, Mass.

In a letter dictated by his sister Sophia, Thoreau writes to Ticknor & Fields:

Messrs Ticknor & Fields,

  This Scarlet Oak leaf is the smallest one in my collection, yet it must lose a bristle or two to gain admittance to your page.

  I wish simply for a faithful outline engraving of the leaf bristles & all. In the middle of page 57 or of a neighboring page, is a note in pencil—The leaf should be opposite to this page & this note to be altered into a note for the bottom of the page like this—viz “The original of the leaf on the opposite page was picked from such a pile”

Yours truly
Henry D Thoreau
by S. E. Thoreau

(The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, 639)
1 May 1837. Cambridge, Mass.

Thoreau checks out a book by Robert Burns from the library of the Institute of 1770, though the title is unidentified. At the time, the library held Works in 3 volumes, The life of Robert Burns, and Poems (The Transcendentalists and Minerva, 1:86).

1 May 1838. Concord, Mass.

Ezra Ripley writes a letter of recommendation for Thoreau for possible teaching positions in Maine:

  TO THE FRIENDS OF EDUCATION,—The undersigned very cheerfully hereby introduces to public notice the bearer, Mr David Henry Thoreau, as a teacher in the higher branches of useful literature. He is a native of this town and a graduate of Harvard University. He is well disposed and well qualified to instruct the rising generation. His scholarship and moral character will bear the strictest scrutiny. He is modest and mild in his disposition and government, but not wanting in energy of character and fidelity in the duties of his profession. It is presumed his character and usefulness will be appreciated more highly as an acquaintance with him shall be cultivated. Cordial wishes for his success, reputation, and usefulness attend him, as an instructor and gentleman.

Ezra Ripley,
Senior Pastor of the First Church in Concord, Mass.

(Henry D. Thoreau (1882), 57-58)
1 May 1841. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  Life in gardens and parlors in unpalatable to me. It wants rudeness and necessity to give it relish (Journal, 1:256).

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