A
letter, probably written in 1830, which I do not feel at liberty to
quote entire, tells something of a trip that he took with Samuel Manning
through a part of Connecticut and the Connecticut valley. The extracts
that follow give a glimpse of the fresh and alert interest he felt about
everything; and I regard them as very important in showing the obverse
of that impression of unhealthy solitude which has been so generally
received from accounts of Hawthorne hitherto published.
"We did not leave New Haven till last Saturday ... and we were forced to
halt for the night at Cheshire, a village about fifteen miles from New
Haven. The next day being Sunday, we made a Sabbath day's journey of
seventeen miles, and put up at Farmington. As we were wearied with rapid
travelling, we found it impossible to attend divine service, which was
(of course) very grievous to us both. In the evening, however, I went to
a Bible class with a very polite and agreeable gentleman, whom I
afterward discovered to be a strolling tailor of very questionable
habits.... We are now at Deerfield (though I believe my letter is dated
Greenfield) ... with our faces northward; nor shall I marvel much if
your Uncle Sam pushes on to Canada, unless we should meet with two or
three bad taverns in succession....
"I meet with many marvellous adventures. At New Haven I observed a
gentleman staring at me with great earnestness, after which he went into
the bar-room, I suppose to inquire who I might be.
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