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  Your long delayed, but very acceptable acknowledgment of the 1st inst. came duly to hand. It requires no answer, and I trust you will not esteem this as such. I simply wish to say, that it will afford me pleasure to show you the Middleborough ponds, as well as the other Indian water spoken of by you, which I conclude to be what is called “Wakeebe Pond,” at Mashpee near Sandwich.

  Since I first wrote you my rough board shanty, which I then inhabited and from which I now write, has been partially forsaken, thro’ the house of which I spoke to you as being built, having been completed and my family moved into it; so the shanty is somewhat shorn of its means to the public or vulgar eye at least, but none is less pried by me. Here I spend considerable part of my time in study and mediation, ahd here I also entertained my best and most welcome friends. Now, friend Walden, if it should be agreeable to you to leave home at this pleasant season, I shall be happy to receive you as my guest. Making my farm, which lies about three miles north of New Bedford, headquarters, we can sally for into the adjoining country—to the fine ponds in question and visit other objects of interest hitherward. I am just now quite busily engaged in the improvement of the grounds near my house, but expect to conclude them by the end of the next week, when should it meet your pleasure, I shall be very happy to see you here.

  I am quite a tramper as well as yourself, but have horse—flesh and carriages at hand if preferable, which certainly for long distances, with all my antediluvian taste, I deem it to be.

  Perhaps your young English friend and author, Mr. Cholmondeley, would like to accompany you, should you conclude to come. If so, please extend the invitation to him should you deem it proper.

  I do not wish to push matters at all, but am of the opinion, if you are not too learned, we shall affiliate nicely in our rustic feelings—at any rate it will do no harm to try.

  Your short and hastily written note embarrasses me, and I hardly know whether it best or not to send what I have now written, and so conclude, whether this shall reach you or not,

Your friend and fellow-worshipper at Nature’s great shrine
Daniel Ricketson

  I fear that you had a lonely and disagreeable ride back to New Bedford, through the Carver woods & so on,—perhaps in the rain too, and I am in part answerable for it. I feel very much in debt to you & your for the pleasant days I spent at Brooklawn. Tell Arthur & Walter [Waon; perhaps a slip of Thoreau’s pen] that the shells which they gave me are spread out, and make quite a show to inland eyes. Methinks I still hear the strains of the piano and violin & the flageolet blend together. Excuse me for the noise which I believe drove you to take refuge in the shanty. That shanty is indeed a favorable place to expand in, which I fear I did not enough improve.

  On my way through Boston I inquired for Gilpin’s work at Little Brown & Co’s, Monroes, Ticknor’s & Burnham’s. They have not got them. They told me at Little Brown & Co’s that his work (not complete in 12 vols 8vo, were imported & sold in this country 5 or 6 years ago for about 15 dollars. Their terms for importing at 10 per cent on the cost. I copied from “The London Catalogue of Books, 1816-51” at their shop, the following list of Gilpin’s books—

  I still see an image of those Middleborough Ponds in my mind’s eye—board shallow lakes with an iron mine at their bottom—comparatively unvexed by sails—only by Tom Smith & his squaw Sepit’s “sharper.” I find my map of the state to be the best I have seen of that district. It is a question whether the island of Long Pond or Great Quitteus offer the most attractions to a Lord of the Isles. That plant which I found on the Shore of Long Pond chances to be a rare & beautiful flower—the Sabbatia chlorides—referred to Plymouth.

  In a Description of Middleborough in the Hist. Coll vol 3d 1810—signed Nehemiah Bennet Middleborough 1793—it is said “There is on the easterly shore of Assawampsitt Pond on the shore of Bett’s Neck, two rocks which have curiously marks thereon (supposed to be done by the Indians) which appear like the stepping of a person with naked feet which settled into the ricks, likewise the prints of a land on several places, with a number of other marks; also there is a rock on a high hill a little to the eastward of the old stone fishing wear, where there is the print of a person’s hand in said rock.”
It would be well to look at those rocks again more carefully—also a the rock on the hill.

  I should think that you would like to explore Shipatuct Pond in Rochester [it] is so large & near. It is an interesting fact that the alewives used to ascend to it—if they so not still both from Mattapoisett & through Great Quitticus.

  There will be no trouble about the chamber in the old house, though, as I told you, Hosmer counts his coppers and may expect some compensation for it. He says “Give my respects to Mr R. & tell him that I cannot be at a large expense to preserve an antiquity or curiosity. Nature must do its work. “But” say I, [“] R asks you only not to assist Nature.”

  I find that Channing is gone to his wife at Dorchester—perhaps for the winter—& both may return to Concord in the Spring

  yrs
  Henry D.Thoreau

  Most exposed button-bushes and black willows are two thirds bare, and the leaves which remain on the former are for the most part brown and shrivelled . . .

  This town has made a law recently against cattle going at large, and assigned a penalty of five dollars. I am troubled by an Irish neighbor’s cow and horse, and have threatened to have them put in the pound. But a lawyer tells me that these town laws are hard to put through, there are so many quibbles . . .

  Know all Men by these Presents, That I, John Thoreau of Concord in the County of Middlesex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Yeoman, in consideration of five hundred dollars paid by Augustus Tuttle of Concord aforesaid, Yeoman, the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge, do hereby give, grant, sell and convey unto the said Tuttle, a certain tract of land lying in said Concord as follows, commencing at the southeasterly corner on a street and by land of Nathan W. Brooks, running northerly on said Brooks land one hundred and seventy feet to a stake & stones, thence westerly on land of David Loring one hundred & eighty feet to a stake & stones, thence southerly on land of said Loring two hundred and five feet to said street, thence easterly on said street one hundred & seventy five feet to the bound first mentioned containing about three fourths of an acre with a dwelling house on the same.

  To Have and to Hold the aforegranted premises to the said Augustus Tuttle, his heirs and assigns to his and their use and behoof forever. And I do covenant with the said Tuttle his heirs and assigns, that I am lawfully seized in fee of the aforegranted premises: that they are free of all incumbrances, that I have good right to sell and convey the same to the said Tuttle and that I will warrant and defend the same premises to the said Tuttle, his heirs & assigns forever, against the lawful claims and demands of all person. Provided nevertheless, That if the said John Thoreau, his heirs, executors or administrators pay to the said Tuttle, his heirs, executors, administrators or assigns the sum of five hundred dollars in five years with interest semi-annually, then this deed as also a certain note of hand bearing even date wills these presents given by the said Thoreau to the said Tuttle to pay the same sum of five hundred dollars & interest at the time aforesaid shall both be void; otherwise shall remain in full force. In witness whereof, I the said John Thoreau with Cynthia wife of said John who hereby releases her right of Dower in the premises, have hereunto set our hands and seals this first day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty four. Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of Helen L. Thoreau, Henry D. Thoreau – John Thoreau, (seal), Cynthia D. Thoreau (seal) Middlesex ss. September 12th 1844. Then the above named John Thoreau acknowledged the above Instrument to be his free act and deed – before me, Nathan Brooks, Justice of Peace. Middlesex ss. Sept. 14, 1844, Rec’d & Recorded by Henry Stone (?) Reg.