CONCORD, October 12, 1855.
MR. RICKETSON,--I fear that you had a lonely and disagreeable ride
back to New Bedford through the Carver woods and so on,--perhaps in
the rain, too, and I am in part answerable for it. I feel very much in
debt to you and your family for the pleasant days I spent at
Brooklawn. Tell Arthur and Walton[61] that the shells which they gave
me are spread out, and make quite a show to inland eyes. Methinks I
still hear the strains of the piano, the violin, and the flageolet
blended together. Excuse _me_ for the noise which I believe drove you
to take refuge in the shanty. That shanty is indeed a favorable place
to expand in, which I fear I did not enough improve.
On my way through Boston I inquired for Gilpin's works at Little,
Brown & Co.'s, Munroe's, Ticknor's, and Burnham's. They have not got
them. They told me at Little, Brown & Co.'s that his works (not
complete), in twelve vols., 8vo, were imported and sold in this
country five or six years ago for about fifteen dollars. Their terms
for importing are ten per cent on the cost. I copied from the "London
Catalogue of Books, 1846-51," at their shop, the following list of
Gilpin's Works:--
Gilpin (Wm.), Dialogues on Various Subjects. 8vo. 9_s._ Cadell.
---- Essays on Picturesque Subjects. 8vo. 15_s._ Cadell.
---- Exposition of the New Testament. 2 vols. 8vo. 16_s._ Longman.
---- Forest Scenery, by Sir T. D. Lauder. 2 vols. 8vo. 18_s._
Smith & E.
---- Lectures on the Catechism. 12mo. 3_s._ 6_d._ Longman.
---- Lives of the Reformers. 2 vols. 12mo. 8_s._ Rivington.
---- Sermons Illustrative and Practical. 8vo. 12_s._ Hatchard.
---- Sermons to Country Congregations. 4 vols. 8vo. £1 16_s._
Longman.
---- Tour in Cambridge, Norfolk, etc. 8vo. 18_s._ Cadell.
---- Tour of the River Wye. 12mo. 4s. With plates. 8vo. 17_s._
Cadell.
Gilpin (W. S. (?)), Hints on Landscape Gardening. Royal 8vo. £1.
Cadell.
Beside these, I remember to have read one volume on "Prints;" his
"Southern Tour" (1775); "Lakes of Cumberland," two vols.; "Highlands
of Scotland and West of England," two vols.--_N. B._ There _must_ be
plates in every volume.
I still see an image of those Middleborough ponds in my mind's eye, broad
shallow lakes, with an iron mine at the bottom,--comparatively unvexed
by sails,--only by Tom Smith and his squaw Sepit's "sharper." I find
my map of the State to be the best I have seen of that district. It is
a question whether the islands of Long Pond or Great Quitticus offer
the greatest attractions to a Lord of the Isles. That plant which I
found on the shore of Long Pond chances to be a rare and beautiful
flower,--the _Sabbatia chloroides_,--referred to Plymouth.
In a Description of Middleborough in the Hist. Coll., vol. iii, 1810,
signed Nehemiah Bennet, Middleborough, 1793, it is said: "There is on
the easterly shore of Assawampsitt Pond, on the shore of Betty's Neck,
two rocks which have curious marks thereon (supposed to be done by the
Indians), which appear like the steppings of a person with naked feet
which settled into the rocks; likewise the prints of a hand on several
places, with a number of other marks; also there is a rock on a high
hill a little to the eastward of the old stone fishing wear, where
there is the print of a person's hand in said rock."
It would be well to look at those rocks again more carefully; also at
the rock on the hill.
I should think that you would like to explore Snipatuit Pond in
Rochester,--it is so large and near. It is an interesting fact that
the alewives used to ascend to it,--if they do not still,--both from
Mattapoisett and through Great Quitticus.
There will be no trouble about the chamber in the old house, though,
as I told you, Mr. Hosmer _may_ expect some compensation for it. He
says, "Give my respects to Mr. Ricketson, and tell him that I cannot
be at a large expense to preserve an antiquity or curiosity. Nature
must do its work." "But," says I, "he asks you only not to assist
nature."
* * * * *
It was on October 1 that Thoreau made this visit to New Bedford,
spending the best part of a week with his friends there. They sailed
about the bay and visited the ponds in Middleborough, and on Saturday,
October 6, he parted with Ricketson at Plymouth, and returned home. At
that time Ricketson proposed to return Thoreau's visit before October
20, but, in a note now lost, Thoreau sent him word that Channing had
left Concord, "perhaps for the winter." The visit was then given
up,--which accounts for the tone of Thoreau's next letter, of October
16.