Hawthorne had generous admirers and sincere
friends in Salem, and his feeling was, I suppose, in great measure the
culmination of that smouldering disagreement which had harassed him in
earlier years, and had lurked in his heart in spite of the constant mild
affection which he maintained toward the town.
But the connection between Hawthorne and Salem was now to be finally
broken off. He longed for change, for the country, and for the
recreation that the Old Manse garden had given him. "I should not long
stand such a life of bodily inactivity and mental exertion as I have led
for the last few months," he wrote to Bridge. "Here I hardly go out once
a week." On this account, and because of his difficulty in writing while
in office, he did not so much regret losing his place. One of the plans
proposed at this time was that he should rent or buy the Sparhawk house,
a famous old colonial mansion on Goose Creek, at Kittery, in Maine,
which was then to be disposed of in some way. Hawthorne, I think, would
have found much that was suggestive and agreeable in the neighborhood.
After his return from abroad, he made a visit to the quaint and stately
little city of Portsmouth, and dined at one of the most beautiful old
houses in New England, the ancient residence of Governor Langdon, then
occupied by the Rev. Dr. Burroughs. A memorial of that visit remains, in
this bright note from his host:--
PORTSMOUTH, September, 1860.
MR. HAWTHORNE.
MY DEAR SIR:--There are no Mosses on our "Old Manse," there is no
Romance at our Blithedale; and this is no "Scarlet Letter.
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