Diary of Annie Adams Fields

Sunday. Breezy beautiful morning.

Monday. Miss Howard and Mrs Thompson interested us more and more every moment of their stay. They were so tired with the entire care of the college during the winter that they were more induced to listen to what the sea could say to them, than to talk, but it was beautiful to watch their really...

Tuesday. Hot, but I never find it too hot in the open fields. They were never a greater luxury of loveliness to me. The trees fanned their great green leaves in the air as if no thought of dryness ever could touch them and the sky was blue and glowing to the zenith. But St. John’s Wort is in...

Wednesday July 12. Warm still. The whole country is in trial over this heated term. I pity the cook who is in a blaze. But the loveliness abroad is the same, yet different every day. We never tire of it, we only do not have enough time in our solitudes.

Thursday afternoon came Mrs Guild, with her beautiful head and lovely figure and delight in every exquisite thing of nature and art.

Saturday Mrs Claflin came to pass the day. What a strange thing that these rich and generous people seem likely to lose their fortune! Saddest of all through the fault of their son in law. She gave us a beautiful picture of the MacDonalds and also of the Howitts. The former will probably come to...

Sunday. Quiet, cloudless, lovely. At half past three or perhaps before, I heard “the earliest pipe of half awakened bird.”

Monday. Came Robert Collyer at 12 M. Jamie went to town and to Nahant where he found mother and Sarah utterly exhausted by the intense heat. I went to a lecture at night given to the women of the village by Mrs Keller of the Women’s Hospital Boston, by the goodness of Mrs Towne.

Tuesday. Dry heat; until the afternoon, when O beneficent rain! at last it fell.

Wednesday. Hotter than ever but damp this morning. How beautiful it must be in my favorite haunts, but I am not allowed to go to them, business and company must keep me here.

Thursday 20. Yesterday one of those delicious breezes from the sea fell upon us and revived our drooping souls.

Friday. Beautiful morning and yet the mornings are half lost on me when I am shut up. We went to Norman’s Woe in the afternoon with the Collyers. On my return I stopped at Mrs Townes but was called for at once by Miss Loring who had brought Mr. & Mrs Brace to see us. Miss Perkins also called.

Monday July 24. We were all up early to see Hattie Collyer away in the ½ past 6 train for Boston.

Tuesday. The weather is now cool and gorgeous. Such beauty would seem impossible if we did not really behold it with these common eyes. Colonel Ettinge of Pa. came to dinner. Dr. Slade came to call—we drove up Beverly Shore in the afternoon to see Mrs Schlesinger, Mr & Mrs Brace (who had...

Wednesday. Anna keeps house delightfully thus far. Sarah and Judith to dine. Calls from Miss Alger, Miss Neill, Mrs Bartol, Mary, Lizzy, Mrs Ringe & niece.

Thursday. Fair, damp, and cool. Mrs Alger gave me a piece of fine embroidery yesterday. She is to be at Rye with the Blaines, Robeson etc. Mary Lodge is to go there also. I believe I should fly to the other side of the earth. Mrs Howe was very piquant in her speech about it—said Mary was going...

Friday—Beautiful day again. Stayed out of doors writing and planning to write until near noon. In the afternoon came Miss Phelps, Dr. & Mrs Hedge and Mrs Bartol. Miss Phelps is somewhat better. Happy evening together.

Saturday. Drove to Gloucester to carry E.S.P. home. She is to speak to the Sailors and reformed inebriates tomorrow and is most anxious I should remain with her over Sunday. This I should surely do if dear J. did not so seriously object, for the sick and lonely condition of the poor dear soul...

Sunday July 29 [sic]. A soft veil of cloud during the day deepened toward sunset and it began to rain. Heavier as night went on and heavier yet after midnight fell the rain until it seemed as if the flood-gates were opened. Our avenue is almost impossible washed as J. says “to the bone.”

Monday. The cellar is afloat and the rain still falls more and more heavily. I have never see either such rain or such heat as we have had. The drought has been fearful for nearly two months and now the rain is to match. Jamie has gone to town. Anna and Imogen & Nelly are amusing themselves as...

Tuesday. The morning is as serene and perfect in its beauty as only the day after a storm can ever be. Jamie came back saying yesterday was dogdayish and uncomfortable in town. Here we sat over a wood fire and rejoiced. I finished Goethe’s Egmont and continued Frothingham’s book.

August 2d Wednesday. Finished Frothingham’s book. It is beautiful and inspiring. It gives me a fresh sense of Frothingham’s own wide intellectual power and integrity.

August 3d Glorious moonlight—glorious morning. Took tea with the George Howes. Mary Lodge was there. Anne Whitney came in the afternoon and we drove her in the moonlight to Mr. Bartols where Miss Harper is, at present, to pass the evening. She returned with us, grateful as we all were for the...

August 4th Fresh, glorious, morning. Imogen leaves us after being here one month save one day. Nelly is a strange child and but small joy to her mother who cannot make her obey and surely small joy to anybody else except her husband of 8 years old who accompanied her in his blue stockings...

August 5th 1876. Miss Whitney was in town during mid-day where hot weather reigned. Here all was beautiful as ever, moonlight and all.