Log Search Results

17 September 1860. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  6.30 A.M.—River thirty-four and an eighth above summer level, or fallen about four inches since evening of 15th . . .

  P.M.—Up river . . . (Journal, 14:88).

Thoreau also drafts a letter to the publishers of The World (MS, Henry David Thoreau papers (Series III). Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, New York Public Library).

17 September 1861. New Bedford, Mass.

Daniel Ricketson writes to Thoreau:

Dear Friend,—

  I am desirous to hear how you are getting along, although I have an impression that you are improving. I would not put you to the trouble to write me, could I fairly call upon any one else.

  I look back with pleasure upon my late visit to Concord. The particularly bright spots are my walks with you to Farmer Hosmer’s and to Walden Pond, as well as our visit to friend Alcott.

  I should like to have you make us a good long visit before cold weather sets in, and should this meet your approval please inform me when you answer this.

  I expect to be absent from home for a few days the last of this month, but after that time I shall be at home for some time.

  Our Indian Summer weather is very charming, and probably the air softer than more inland if a season so delightful has any difference in this section of New England.

  I suppose you have hardly needed a fresh doctor since the bountiful supply I brought you. I was much pleased at the unceremonious way in which you described him. I hope the dread of another holocaust of the same kind will keep you in good heart for some time, for, assuredly, as soon as you begin to complain, which is hardly possible, after so great a feast as you have had of late, a bigger victim will be forthcoming upon whom the eagle-eye of some friend of yours is already fixed.

  You will pardon my seeming levity, and attribute it to the fresh morning air and increasing health and spirits. I have tasted no sugar-plums of any kind since I left you. I thank you for the friendly caution. I need more. Come then, and be my kind Mentor still further.

  With kind regards to all your family and to Mr. Alcott, Channing, Hosmer, &c.

Yours truly,
D. Ricketson

  P.S. Mrs Ricketson and our daughters join in regards and invitation to visit us soon. You will be welcome at any time. This is a good time to ride out to the ponds, &c. We are having beautiful weather here, calm and mild.

  Please ask Channing if he received a book I sent him in care of Dr. W. Channing, Boston.

(The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, 627-628)

Thoreau replies on 14 October.

17, 18, 21 June 1851. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau surveys farmland on Sandy Pond Road for Edmund Hosmer (A Catalog of Thoreau’s Survey at the Concord Free Public Library, 8; Henry David Thoreau papers. Special Collections, Concord (Mass.) Free Public Library).

18 and 19 February 1853. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau continues to survey land on Lexington Road for John B. Moore (A Catalog of Thoreau’s Surveys in the Concord Free Public Library, 10; Henry David Thoreau papers. Special Collections, Concord (Mass.) Free Public Library).

18 April 1840. Concord, Mass.

Edmund Quincy Sewall Jr. writes in his journal:

  At noon Mr John and I went to the post office. He bought some oranges and gave me one. We got weighed in at Mr Shattuck’s store he weighed 117 lbs. He invited Alexander and Andrew Beath (from Cuba) to go to sail with him. He also invited me. In the afternoon we went accordingly. Alexander came up and said that Andrew had gone to eat his dinner and would wait for us on a bridge. Accordingly we got in and sometimes rowed, sometimes sailed down the stream. We found the wind was not exactly fair to go to Bedford as we intended. Once when we were rounding a point we were right broadside to the wind and waves and Mr T and Alex could hardly keep the boat from driving right on shore. The waves beat in and splattered us all over. At last we got round. We went with very great speed sometimes when we were sailing. When we got to the bridge we hauled up the boat and tipped the water out of her. Andrew was there. We stayed there a little while. The boat soon dried. We got into her again and went under the bridge. The river being now high a great deal of meadow was overflowed. We got aground several times and sometimes took down the sail and Mr. T & A rowed. We could see the cranberries at the bottom. So we went on till we got below Ball’s hill in Bedford. There we fastened hauled up the boat and got out. We looked round in a field for arrowheads but none were found except one which was broken and the point of another. Mr Thoreau found a young turtle no bigger than a cent. We determined to go to the top of a hill to see the prospect. Andrew went back to the boat. Mr Thoreau gave him the turtle to put in the water. We went in towards the hill. We passed near the house of [Benjamin W.] Lee one of the scholars and saw him and his father [Eliab Lee] at work in a field. He was rolling in grass seed with a heavy roller drawn by oxen. He said that he had found a piece of an Indian implement that morning. Mr T. stood and talked so long with Mr L. that I became tired and went back to the boat where I found Andrew and cut me a stick and picked cranberries but the latter were a combinations of bad tastes and I threw them into the river. I tied my hand kerchief to a big pine stick and set it up occasionally for a flag. After a good while Mr T. and Alexander came back. They had not been to the hill after all. They had the piece of an Indian tool which Lee had given to Mr Thoreau and which Mr T has given to me. It seems to have been used for digging at least Mr John thinks. He says he has a whole one with a hole to put the thumb through and marks for the fingers. Mr Henry thinks it is not probable that the Indians would have used it and that they would be much more likely to use a piece of slate or some other flat stone. I do not know whether I shall preserve it or not. At length we set out to come back having eaten a small luncheon which Mr John produced from one of the cuddies of his boat. I sat in the cow to be pilot and Andrew in the stern the other two rowed. We got aground once or twice but had not much trouble in getting off again. We fastened the boat again near Mr [?] Barrett’s house and hid the oars. We then walked home. We found some housatonias a little flower which Aunt [Prudence Ward] has looked for unsuccessfully several times. We got home about 7 oclock and had some supper. Aunt had an attack of the colic. I washed me of course and then went to bed.
(MS, “E. Q. Sewall Diary,” Sewall Family papers. American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.)
18 April 1841. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  My necessities of late have compelled me to study nature as she is related to the farmer,—as she simply satisfies a want of the body. Some interests have got a footing on the earth which I have not made sufficient allowance for. That which built these barns and cleared the land thus had some valor.
(Journal, 1:250)
18 April 1850. Concord, Mass.

Ralph Waldo Emerson pays Thoreau $7 for surveying “Samuel Heywood’s Pasture” and 50¢ for a plan of the “Sawmill woodlot” (Ralph Waldo Emerson’s account books. Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.).

18 April 1852. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  The ground is now generally bare of snow, though it lies along walls and on the north sides of valleys in the woods pretty deep. We have had a great deal of foul weather this season, scarcely two fair days together.

  Gray refers the cone-like excrescences on the ends of willow twigs to the punctures of insects. I think that both these and the galls of the oak, etc., are to be regarded as something more normal than this implies. Though it is impossible to draw the line between disease and health at last . . .

  2 P.M.—To river.

  A driving rain, i.e. a rain with easterly wind and driving mists. River higher than before this season, about eighteen inches of the highest arch of the stone bridge above water.

  Going through Dennis’s field with C., saw a flock of geese on east side of river near willows. Twelve great birds on the troubled surface of the meadow, delayed by the storm. We lay on the ground behind an oak and our umbrella, eighty rods off, and watched them . . .

(Journal, 3:432-438)
18 April 1854. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  P.M.—To stone-heaps by boat . . . (Journal, 6:201-202).

Thoreau also writes to Thaddeus W. Harris:

Dear Sir,

  I return by Mr. Gerrish three vols. viz Agassiz sur les Glaciers Shepard’s Clear Sunshine and New England in 1652

  Yrs

  Henry D. Thoreau

(The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, 326)

18 April 1855. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  6 A.M.—See and hear tree sparrows, and hear hyemalis still. Rained last evening and was very dark. Fair this morning and warm. White-bellied swallow’s and martin’s twitter now at 9 A.M.

  P.M.—To Cliffs and Walden and Hubbard’s Close.

  The hillside and especially low bank-sides are now conspicuously green. Almost did without a fire this morning. Coming out, I find it very warm, warmer than yesterday or any day vet. It is a reminiscence of past summers. It is perfectly still and almost sultry, with wet-looking clouds hanging about, and from time to time hiding the sun. First weather of this kind. And as I sit on Fair Haven Hill-side, the sun actually burns my cheek; yet I left some fire in the house, not knowing behind a window how warm it was . . .

(Journal, 7:320-322)

Return to the Log Index

Donation

$