Diary of Annie Adams Fields

Sunday August 27. A warm dry day. Last night Imogen Willis Eddy and her little child of not quite 3 years of age came down to pass a week with us. Nelly the baby has won all hearts—the whole household has fallen in love with her and we all troop after her feet as if she were the Pied Piper and...

Saturday Sep. 2d 1871. A whole week has slid away and no word written here. Nelly and Imogen have just gone. We have had a week of excursions to pleasant places for them. Sunday morning in Essex woods, to the Dana woods in the afternoon where the poor little mamma had a sick-headache and threw...

Sunday. We have been reading the new poet Joaquin Miller on the powder house hill this morning where the sun came down with midsummer warmth. The silent birds hopped about among the pine branches and we read and an occasional cicada was heard in the tree-top. We glowed with the fervor of the new...

Monday. We expected Charlotte Cushman & her friends from Swampscott to pass the day but after making every preparation for them, Jamie buying delicious grapes before breakfast, sending for Miss North and other arrangements, we received a telegram saying Miss Stebbins who was to come with them...

Tuesday Sep 5. J. went to Boston. I wrote in the pasture and walked all the morning. Coming home, after dinner, came a telegram for me to meet J. and Bret Harte at Beverly station with the pony-carriage. I drove hard to catch the train but arrived in season glad to take up the two good boys and...

Wednesday Sepr 6. Dined with Mr. Longfellow at Nahant. The day was warm with a soft south wind blowing and as we crossed the beach white waves were curling up the sands. We passed Louisa’s house and went in to see her and the family for a few moments. They gave us flowers and set us most...

Thursday 7. Exquisite weather—saw for the first time today the beautiful terrace made by Greeley Curtis and his fine house overlooking the sea. Saw also old Mr. Dana and his sister. His daughter Charlotte is very ill and a shadow rests over the old house.

Friday 8. Mrs Agassiz and Miss North came to pass the day with us—carried them to the umbrella tree and afterward Mrs Towne received us to dine with her in the woods. It was a sylvan scene of the loveliest description when we came upon the feast spread under the pine trees and the weather was...

Tuesday, Sepr 12. The earth is terribly dry, the wells begin to show bottom, water is sent for as far as Boston for certain houses (by rail), but in the meantime one beautiful day succeeds another, the apples hang ripe and odorous upon the heavy weighted trees, the air has a breath of the cool...

Friday. Sepr 15. Yesterday morning went to Boston—found everything going well except with Patrick who had been drinking. Went to Mr. Schlesinger’s wedding in the evening & reception at Mr. Agassiz’s house. Sat with Professor Peirce in the church who told me he had lately been at Penobscot...

Saturday 16. Finished “Macbeth” aloud. The scene where the physician comments on her madness, as she speaks, took hold of me with a strong horror which I had not felt before. It was hardly like even a reflection of truth in a mirror—it was gazing upon it through an open window.

September 20th Miss Crowells house is empty and we—the last leaves on the tree[—]are sitting ready to go to Mrs J. Cabot in Beverly to stay two days and then return from there to Dame’s cottage at Smith Farm, where we intend to remain one week—then home to Boston. Yesterday we bade Mrs...

Saturday Evening. Sepr 23. Here we are in Dame’s cottage again. It was 1866 when we left the place last, strong in our determination to return but Dr. Bartol and Lissie preferred to try something else and brought up at last in the Village. The moon is shining outside and the breeze comes in...

Sunday 24. Dear J. and I rambled over the wide pasture of Smith’s farm and sat under the umbrella tree and by our ravine until dinner—read “The Artist’s wife” aloud to him and he some scraps of Wordsworth to me.

Monday Evening. The moon is in the sky almost full and the sound of the sea comes through my open window as I sit here silently this evening. Jamie is very tired after a glorious day in the open air which is rather an intoxication to me and holds my eyes wide open and he has gone fast asleep for...

Tuesday. Dear J. took Mr. Towne and went to the Cattle show at Ipswich. He was infinitely amused at the people with their country talk and petty authority.

We remained in Manchester until Saturday Sepr 30th the weather fine all the time and the foliage ripening into a strange beauty, finer than anything I had ever known before. Never had I seen in my life such a changing glory as had fallen upon the world as Wednesday afternoon when after a day...

Sunday. We went to hear M. Athanase Coquerel preach. The text was from the epistles to the effect If one of the members suffer, all the members shall suffer with it. I could only think of one of the Apostles going among the Gentiles, he was so brave & earnest and simple. There was no thought of...

Monday Oct. 2. Went busily to work making curtains for the sitting room and putting everything into order in the house—getting a new maid and the like. It is no slight job but a little determination carries the whole quickly through. Mr Beal came to dine and pass the night.

Tuesday was much the same—indeed I do not at the present date of writing (a few days later) remember much worthy of record.

Friday came and with it a short grateful rain—much, much needed. I went out in it to see Miss Sever, who is at Clewer, the Protestant nunnery in England and visiting her sisters for a few weeks. Later we left for a long promised three days visit at Mrs. N. Silsbee’s, where the atmosphere of...

Sunday Bret Harte came, or I should say Saturday to pass Sunday with us. The day was perfect, the foliage exquisite beyond description, as indeed it has been everywhere this year. We walked and talked a long time together. His keen perception of fun, his reverence and the clearness of his...

How glad we were to get home Monday and find all well. All day I worked to prepare my guests chambers for the evening, when Mr. & Mrs Towne & their two daughters were to come up and go to hear Nilsson on her opening night in Faust. Finally the rooms were decked, the hour arrived, our friends...

Oct. 26. nearly a month gone since I came from the shore and not an hour of reading, hardly of note-writing.

Sunday. Nov. 5. At last I hope my household is settled for the winter—a quiet seems to have fallen and as I have many other interests asking for time I am naturally glad. This week we had a supper-party Thursday evening. Mr. Daniel Dougherty of Pa. & Col. Forney of Washington, Dr. Holmes, Mr....