[Gorham—Monday, 8 July 1867]
Monday morning warm. Left for Portland and North Hampton. How glad we were to jump out of the cars at 1/2 past 5. It is certainly a painful purgatorial experience this car-riding. It confuses the brain, fatigues the body without exercising it, prevents proper refreshment, soils the clothes, and fills the same man or woman who might have stayed at home and employed the day profitably with disgust. Fortunately however travelling is a necessary part of education. The bravest imagination can never conceive the creations of the Almighty. We must go to see.
Mrs Gilbert Jenners took us into her clean cottage. We were the “first boarders” although the summer is so far advanced. Nothing could seem sweeter to us than the rose-encircled little place. We heard the sea sounding in the distance and felt the breezes giving new life to our weariness. After refreshing ourselves therefore we went immediately to the beach and watched the exquisite rose-bloom die off the sea and the moon come up. We walked three or four miles before we slept—over the sands. It did not seem like walking rather like flying the exhileration was so great—the happiness of our return to the sea.
