Diary of Annie Adams Fields

Monday Mrs Hawthorne passed the night.

Wednesday. Gail Hamilton passed the night here & part of Thursday. She is the same affectionate sparkling lover as ever. It is good to see her. She talked somewhat of J.T.F. and Whittier & thinks them alike in a certain womanliness.

Thursday. Lucy Larcom passed the night.

Sep 30. Jamie went to dine with the Saturday Club. Prof. Nichol was his guest. Sam. Ward (Julia’s sister [sic, for brother]) was Longfellow’s—Lowell, Holmes, Hoar, Emerson and a few others only were present. Judge Hoar related an amusing anecdote of having sent a beautiful basket of pears...

Saturday Oct 7. Tuesday 3 Edith Emerson was married to William Forbes. The old house threw wide its hospitable doors and the stairway & rooms were covered with leaves and flowers and the whole place was as beautiful as earthly radiance and joy can make a home. Poor Mrs Hawthorne laden with her...

Tuesday Oct. 10. Prof. Nichol of Edinburgh dined with us also Longfellow, C.T. Brooks, Prof. Rogers of Glasgow and Charles Sumner. George Thompson and the Marquis of Chambrun came in the evening also Miss Foley from Rome & Mr Ordway our Boston artist and Wm. Neill from London.

Saturday. Oct 14. Went to Princeton. Woods radiant with color. The leaves shone like true jewels of the most translucent “water.”

Stormed & blew on Sunday.

Oct. 17. Jamie dined with Mr Bartol to meet Forceythe Willson, Dr Hedge & Whipple. Lissie presided—dinner simple but too simple in that it was too short for the gathering, that is people come together to talk and when all the dinner is put on the table at once they are at first busied in...

Friday Octer 20th. Passed the day with Lissie Winthrop at Dr Lewis’s in Lexington. The day was chrystalline yet stained with color. A beautiful girl rode before us in the car who attracted our admiring attention. She proved to be a daughter of Mrs Tudor of Boston and cousin of one of Dr L.’s...

Lissie Winthrop & Bessie Johnson passing Saturday & Sunday—Oct. 21 & 22. seeing studio’s & Maggie Mitchell. Sat. church Mr Bartol Sunday—(a true good discourse) and company in the evening.

Oct 28. 1865. Meeting of Jamie’s Club where he was much amused by a story of Lowell’s about a parrot in Cambridge who had become highly educated and was heard to go and deliver political addresses to the ducks. When he first came to the ladies who have given him this fine education he could...

Walked to Roxbury Sunday and heard a noble discourse from Dr Putnam.

Thursday Nov. 2. Miss Dodge, Miss Palfrey, Mr Quincy, & Mr & Mrs James dined with us. It was agreeable for the company was well assorted. Afterward in speaking of Miss Palfrey, Mr James said “What a perfect Art her conversation is. I never heard anything like it! I hated her at first but I...

Sunday Nov. 5. A day of rare beauty after rain—soft wind and full, high clouds. We walked in the country all the morning watching the perfect brown of the leaves against the exquisite blue of the sky & white clouds. The draw was up in the old wooden bridge between Longwood & Cambridge and we...

Nov. 7th Election Day. Our republican candidate Elected Bullock, Governor. The business passed off more quietly than ever. There was a large crowd of blacks around the polls when Mr Fields went to throw his vote, presently one of them cried out “make room for Governor Andrew” and as the...

Wed. Nov. 8. Henry Ward Beecher and Governor Parsons of Alabama lunched here, also Miss Charlotte Dana, who dropped in accidentally. The Governor has sad stories to tell us of the suffering and destitution of the South and especially of his state. He has seen cities laid waste and burned to the...

Nov 9. Soft clouded weather. Day somewhat broken. Wrote a little to complete Asphodel a trifle—this morning went to see Charlotte Forten to try to help her to a boarding-place. Went round the Common with J. that he might have some air. He says George W. Green has again come to make poor...

Friday. Lucy Larcom came to pass the night. Jamie went out in the evening to a reception for Dr Gannett at Mr Little’s the rich merchant. So Lucy and I were left at home. She told me something of the Western experience which was not unlike that Mrs Kirkland records in “A New Home” so only...

Saturday. Heard Blind Tom. Wonderful & pathetic. After I saw him I understood the position of Dr Johnson’s hands in Sir J. Reynolds picture. Tom played queer pranks with his hands as the doctor did. Tom is no idiot—we were told that with a piano & plenty of sunshine Tom was always happy and...

Monday. Mrs Hawthorne came in the afternoon to dine and pass the night. We went to William Hunt’s studio together in the evening. Brilliant assemblage and pictures highly interesting—his picture of the President unfinished like many of the rest and, as it seemed to me, lacking in force. Hunt...

November fifteenth. Our Wedding Day! Jamie was filled with happiness by the gift of “Cant[i]cles.” He sent me flowers beautiful enough for Eden. Early in the morning before the soft mist had been filled with sunbeams, a flash of pigeons alighting on the roof of the large building by the...

Nov. 16. Saxe (J.G.) has been in town lately bothering Jamie who feels too busy for such a mixture of story-telling wit and tobacco juice. He is very clever but so coarse and dirty as to be half unbearable personally. But his good-nature is perfect. He has been very ill for the last year and...

Saturday. Nov. 18. Last night Miss Kate Field and Charles Sumner dined with us. Before we went to dinner Charlotte Forten, the young colored girl whom Elizabeth Whittier was so fond of and who is now secretary of the Freedmen’s bureau, came in to call. She is very pretty and good. It is...

Sunday. Heard Mr Bartol. Good about attending to one’s own business.