Diary of Annie Adams Fields

We were up at 4 this morning. Already the boat was approaching Quebec. The silver spires in the distance glimmered star-like, then the grim fortress came in view, then the whole city minareted with silver shone in the glory of the superb morning. We leaped ashore at five oclock and walked about...

Thursday morning at 7. we came into Quebec. It was raining fast as the boat drew near the wharf—all the magic splendour and glow of that other city we had called Quebec as we came down had vanished. How true there is but one moment in our lives for each experience—we can repeat nothing.

Friday slipt away in resting & walking to the farm of Mr Hitchcock. The sunset was weird and grand.

Saturday. Rain pouring. Alas! for the poor people who went up Mt. Washington yesterday. I saw some of the women were fatigued before they started. The housekeeper went with them. She however has returned at an early hour today. The report is of terrible winds there last night. I dread to see the...

Sunday in Gorham was delightful overhead and on the earth from dawn to after sunset. A strong west wind was blowing so fiercely that it was as much as I could do to get to the little church with hat and raincoat. We thought it was as well to give our first testimony of interest by going to the...

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...

Tuesday the joy continues, we walked until nearly 12.—& in the afternoon went over [to] the old house of Gov. Wentworth near Portsmouth—(Little Harbor). Patty Wentworth’s Spirit stood in the wainscotted reception room and the whole place wore an aspect of strange antiquity for New England....

Wednesday. I forgot to put down yesterday a strange encounter we had with an old woman in our walk. We had seated ourselves in the shadow of a clump of willows on the outskirt of a lovely upland field of clover where the mowers had been busily at work for several hours and had clipped the grass...

Thursday. We have remained to welcome the children who all came “in good order.”

Friday. We breakfast and dine in the upper kitchen but as we are all that much nearer the water we like it immensely. Aldrich came to share our dinner.

Saturday Lovely weather, cooler than yesterday, went with Lissie yesterday and talked over her prospects in her studio. How difficult it has been for her and for us this business of her artist-life. I fear her success can never be pre-eminent from a natural lack of insight, yet I cannot say...

Sunday. Went to Mr Hale’s church, found a glorious congregation, enough to inspire any man. Dr Putnam preached that noble discourse of his about the cloud of witnesses. Curiously I had told Mr Hale how much I liked that very sermon. We seemed to have been divinely led today.

Monday—Perfect weather, walked into the streets in the afternoon. The Common was so fine and the air so fresh that I felt as if the people who stayed at home were really blessed. The trees threw their great green arms healthily up into the blue air like country trees and gave the same...

Tuesday. Quiet lovely days chiefly at home.

Thursday. Arose at 5 and worked in my garden until breakfast then it was time to dress for Phi Beta at Cambridge. We drove out leaving home at nine o clock. We expected Professor Andrew D. White to go with us but he called still earlier to say he had been summoned to a business meeting by Prest...

Friday came Laura & Mr Johnson to pass the day. She sprightly sweet, a devoted wife, mother, gardener, housekeeper, he heavy and with little I can see to recommend him but his good principles. But!!! Ought I not to be satisfied? Not quite perhaps and I shall be glad when the good man is born...

Today Saturday we had intended to go to Marblehead but a fierce easterly storm has set in so have determined to enjoy these few days longer at home with our books.

Sunday. Raining again with delightful persistence, heavily all day. Dr Holmes dropped in just before church to inquire after Jamie’s hand (because he writes for himself very little now) and Mrs Holmes stopped on her way to church. They are delighted with the little improvements we are making...

Tuesday July 24th [sic] 1867. It was excessively warm today as the heat of the sun came back to earth after a delicious easterly storm of 4 days which has wet the grass and cool[e]d heated mortality. I could not get up any desire to leave home and partly for that reason I suppose and partly...

Came to M. Monday July 30th [sic]

July 31st There I was interrupted and what a loss was there!!! And where should I find myself taking up the pen again but in dear old Manchester. We were wretchedly homesick at Marblehead. It was the living house of “Break, break break on the cold gray stones O Sea” only the fire which...

August 1st Today we pass the day at Nahant with Mr Longfellow and his children. The two sisters who keep this house, are daughters of a sea-captain but they are also women of education and kind feeling who do everything in their power to serve us.

August 2d We heard the rain about 3 o’clock this morning begin to patter among the leaves of our tulip tree and it poured when J. went to the train. Nevertheless I was able to walk on the beach in the dim mist. The tide came up and caught me where I sat listening to the distant whistle of the...

August 3d Somewhat water-soaked. The skies are not yet clear. Letter from Lissie Bartol—they are soon to follow us.

August 4th I have been struck by Mrs Hawthorne’s saying that the poorest peasant in Italy understands manners—indeed, indeed something of this is true and strikes us painfully as contrasted with the lack of the same in our own country. Poor Lissie last winter was continually annoyed by...