[Boston—Sunday, 7 April 1867]
April 7th Sunday at home after 8 days in New York. The weather changed at length from winters cold to the warmer winds of March and the softness of April. We were very gay and happy, saw many kind friends and among our pleasures stands out in relief a delightful afternoon at Staten Island where we three (for Lissie went with us) lunched at dear Laura’s & found George Curtis there.
The birds were singing and the birds were busy in silence swelling in the quiet sunshine while we talked sitting in the piazza or strolling about the little garden. Jamie and Curtis had a warm contest over “The Nation” and that paper’s calling Longfellow “a pleasing poet”—Curtis rather stood up for the Nation and the Editor. Mr Fields did not choose to accord it a high place, and cannot forgive the careless slurs thrown at our dear poet.
An afternoon of warm sunshine at Fort Washington too with the old friends of Mother & father, the Havens, sad, but very sweet—a dinner which lovely Mrs Rutherford made for us when her husband showed us the rays of light through the Spectroscope and she showed us her wonderful album of autographs illuminated by original pictures—an elegant dinner at Mrs Blodgett’s among her superb gallery of pictures and the living pictures at the opera afterward—the wonderful collections of fine paintings belonging to Mr Johnston, Mr Belmont & Mr Aspinwall, visits to the studios, a glimpse of hospitable Bottina—a lunch at Delmonico’s which the Ripleys made for us, brilliant in talk and beautiful in appointment where Mr & Mrs Frothingham were among the guests near to me and Mr Ripley at whose right hand I sat—all these delightful enjoyments crowd up when I attempt to write of our eight days in New York. Glimpses to [sic] of interesting persons whose words I did not intend to let slip—James Parton, & others—they all move past me now with little power of recalling them.
