CONCORD, June 27, 1855.
MR. BLAKE,--I have been sick and good for nothing but to lie on my
back and wait for something to turn up, for two or three months. This
has _compelled me_ to postpone several things, among them writing to
you, to whom I am so deeply in debt, and inviting you and Brown to
Concord,--not having brains adequate to such an exertion. I should
feel a little less ashamed if I could give any name to my
disorder,--but I cannot, and our doctor cannot help me to it,--and I
will not take the name of any disease in vain. However, there is one
consolation in being sick; and that is the possibility that you may
recover to a better state than you were ever in before. I expected in
the winter to be deep in the woods of Maine in my canoe, long before
this; but I am so far from this that I can only take a languid walk in
Concord streets.
I do not know how the mistake arose about the Cape Cod excursion. The
nearest I have come to that with anybody is this: About a month ago
Channing proposed to me to go to Truro on Cape Cod with him, and board
there a while,--but I declined. For a week past, however, I have been
a little inclined to go there and sit on the seashore a week or more;
but I do not venture to propose myself as the companion of him or of
any peripatetic man. Not that I should not rejoice to have you and
Brown or C. sitting there also. I am not sure that C. really wishes to
go now; and as I go simply for the medicine of it, I should not think
it worth the while to notify him when I am about to take my bitters.
Since I began this, or within five minutes, I have begun to think that
I will start for Truro next Saturday morning, the 30th. I do not know
at what hour the packet leaves Boston, nor exactly what kind of
accommodation I shall find at Truro.
I should be singularly favored if you and Brown were there at the same
time; and though you speak of the 20th of July, I will be so bold as
to suggest your coming to Concord Friday night (when, by the way,
Garrison and Phillips hold forth here), and going to the Cape with me.
Though we take short walks together there, we can have _long_ talks,
and you and Brown will have time enough for your own excursions
besides.
I received a letter from Cholmondeley last winter, which I should like
to show you, as well as his book.[59] He said that he had "accepted
the offer of a captaincy in the Salop Militia," and was hoping to take
an active part in the war before long.
I thank you again and again for the encouragement your letters are to
me. But I must stop this writing, or I shall have to pay for it.
NORTH TRURO, July 8, 1855.
There being no packet, I did not leave Boston till last Thursday,
though I came down on Wednesday, and Channing with me. There is no
public house here; but we are boarding in a little house attached to
the Highland Lighthouse with Mr. James Small, the keeper. It is true
the table is not so clean as could be desired, but I have found it
much superior in that respect to a Provincetown hotel. They are what
are called "good livers." Our host has another larger and very good
house, within a quarter of a mile, unoccupied, where he says he can
accommodate several more. He is a very good man to deal with,--has
often been the representative of the town, and is perhaps the most
intelligent man in it. I shall probably stay here as much as ten days
longer. Board $3.50 per week. So you and Brown had better come down
forthwith. You will find either the schooner Melrose or another, or
both, leaving Commerce Street, or else T Wharf, at 9 A. M. (it
commonly means 10), Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays,--if not other
days. We left about 10 A. M., and reached Provincetown at 5 P. M.,--a
very good run. A stage runs up the Cape every morning but Sunday,
starting at 4½ A. M., and reaches the post-office in North Truro,
seven miles from Provincetown, and one from the lighthouse, about 6
o'clock. If you arrive at P. before night, you can walk over, and
leave your baggage to be sent. You can also come by cars from Boston
to Yarmouth, and thence by stage forty miles more,--through every day,
but it costs much more, and is not so pleasant. Come by all means, for
it is the best place to see the ocean in the States.... I _hope_ I
shall be worth meeting.
July 14.
You say that you hope I will excuse your frequent writing. I trust you
will excuse my infrequent and curt writing until I am able to resume
my old habits, which for three months I have been compelled to
abandon. Methinks I am beginning to be better. I think to leave the
Cape next Wednesday, and so shall not see you here; but I shall be
glad to meet you in Concord, though I may not be able to go _before
the mast_, in a boating excursion. This is an admirable place for
coolness and sea-bathing and retirement. You must come prepared for
cool weather and fogs.
P. S.--There is no mail up till Monday morning.
* * * * *
During the spring and early summer of 1855, Thoreau was much occupied
with his home duties, or was ill,--the earlier approaches of that
disease of which he languished, taking medical advice in 1860-61. This
must have prevented an earlier visit to Concord by his friend
Ricketson than September, 1855, and I find no letters intervening,
although there must have been one or two, to arrange the visit. He
reached Concord about September 20, and found me living in the lower
stories of Channing's house, while the owner chiefly occupied the
attic, where, no doubt, as in the old Hunt house, Ricketson smoked
with him. They went together to call on Edmund Hosmer, and it was at
the sight of this old house that Ricketson formed the plan of
occupying a chamber there. It stood a half-mile down the river, a
little below where the Assabet runs into the main channel. Writing to
Thoreau, Sunday, September 23, Ricketson said:--
"How charmingly you, Channing, and I dovetailed together! Few men
smoke such pipes as we did,--the real Calumet; the tobacco that we
smoked was free labor produce. I haven't lost sight of Solon Hosmer,
the wisest-looking man in Concord, and a real _feelosofer_. I want you
to see him, and tell him not to take down the old house where the
_feelosofers_ met. I think I should like to have the large chamber
for an occasional sojourn in Concord. It can be easily tinkered up so
as to be a comfortable roost for a _feelosofer_,--a few old chairs, a
table, bed, etc., would be all-sufficient; then you and Channing could
come over in your punt and rusticate."
The "punt" was Thoreau's boat, in which he sometimes set up a small
mast and sail, and which he kept at the foot of Channing's garden,
where, that summer, my heavy four-oared boat also lay, when my pupils
were not rowing in it. In his letter to Blake of September 26, Thoreau
described Ricketson, and the next day he answered Ricketson's letter.
Cholmondeley in the meantime, the war being not yet over, was making
his way to the Crimea through southern Europe.