Diary of Annie Adams Fields

Monday 21. Took little Boylston & left for home. Found all well, thank heaven! And three as good women as a housekeeper was ever blessed withall.

Tuesday 22. J. went to Manchester—found the cottage cellar not quite done—moving slowly, workmen still confident they shall get through before the frost.

Wednesday 23. Montpensier Pictures. The great men of the East visiting the Christ by Zurbarán is indeed worthy of all that man can say of it. Saw poor Aunt Willard—dear lonely little bird without her mate. Nelly is a devoted little creature and a great comfort however.

Thursday 24. Went to Framingham to see my brother and his wife. He kindly drove us to Southboro to see Mrs Edward Burnett. The day was exquisite—the richness of autumn, the warmth of summer lay upon all things. Saw wonderful purple asters, deep in color, new to me, places where gentians grow...

Friday 25. Shopping, arranging house, etc.

Saturday. Visit from Miss Sanborn. Jamie went to Saturday Club—brought home brother Robert Collyer.

Sunday. General Mac Clurg at breakfast & dear brother Robert Collyer. Little Boylston came down dressed in his Sunday best looking fresh as the day. What a sermon our dear friend preached! Beautiful, inspiring. It was at Mr. J.F. Clarke’s.

Monday. Went to the Dentist’s early. Helen Hunt and Aldrich lunched here. Alden of the Harper with his dear little girl my namesake passed the afternoon with a pretty little woman Mrs Cragin, a writer and a Boston woman.

Tuesday 29—pouring rain. At home, read Philip van Artevelde—“J” found in the preface a new incitement for his Wordsworth lecture which he wrote upon during the day till it was quite finished.

Friday October 9. The busy season of the year is again opening. Mr Fields will have lectured three times this week—twice to very large audiences. The weather is still glowing and beautiful. Seldom cold but with lovely mists and cloud.

Monday. The weather is truly gorgeous. Mrs Diaz and her griefs weigh—I mean her griefs weigh upon our hearts. What a strange sad fate—a woman with two sons to find one of them bad and one good and yet both open to the same influences.

Saturday P.M. Went to see the Vokes’s.

Sunday. Jamie was ill at home. Charlotte Cushman dropped in at breakfast time. Anxious J. should try the N.Y. water-cure. Miss Doria, Mr. J. Wheeler called. Walked with the children in the P.M. Carried them to the Bellevue to see Aunt Willard.

Sunday November 1st It would require a better memory than I have, really to set down our doings of the past month. Louisa’s children have been here with their nurse until Friday and last evening was the first time we have dined alone, I believe, since we returned home on the 21st of September.

January 3. 1875. Three busy months have flown—months full of happiness and vigor, full of love, full of life. I have been utterly unable to put pen to paper—after the time for doing and talking and living was over, rest seemed the next best thing and far more important than recording the...

June. 16. 1875. This is a fitting time to begin again the old diary. The first overtures to a real reconciliation between the north and the south have been made by the latter. Today three Southern regiments have arrived in Boston to help us keep the Centennial Celebration of the battle of...

Monday noon arrived Bayard Taylor from N.Y as reporter for the Tribune. He dined with us and went to hear Dr. Holmes & Dr Ellis at the opening of the Exhibition of relics. It was a touching scene—there was hardly a dry eye when O.W.H. had finished reading. Taylor ate enormously and called our...

July 5. Manchester. I was interrupted in the full tide of reporting Hunt’s delightful talk which flows as the talk of a man of genius should do. Now I am writing in my own little book-room at Manchester for the first time at my own desk. We cannot recover from the wonder of it, and the beauty...

July 9th A heavy shower on the 5th cut off the fireworks which we enjoyed night before last with a radiant moon. We have been to town and engaged Mrs Webster to be our housekeeper—which promises well for future comfort. I shall send Mrs Pitt away tomorrow. Mrs Bowers and her daughter and Mr. &...

July 13. Last evening young Mr. Burlingame, son of our envoy to China who acquired an early fame in public life and died just as he reached the top of the ladder, came with his wife and daughter and sister to take tea with us. He is a man who knows how to work. He is but 27 years old but already...

July 15. Wonderful weather and a marvellous look at the skies by day and by night. Yesterday there was a squally look in the sky in the afternoon which kept us from Mr. Dana’s where we wished to go to pay our respects to the old man, so we went to see our neighbours the actors, instead. Mr....

July 16. Thick fog but bird-y, squirrel-y, smell-y. It is a sincere pleasure and comfort to have Laura here.

July 17. After a glorious rain yesterday we read Browning’s “last adventure” aloud and amused ourselves on the veranda all day with the water quietly falling upon the thirsty earth. Mr & Mrs Stevens, our neighbors, called in the evening. Have begun the re-reading of Chaucer, also “for...

Sunday July 18. A wondrous morning: full of Sunday rest and sweetness.