BOSTON, Wednesday.
July 1882.
[DEAR FAMILY: — ]
I left Newport last night or rather this morning. I
stopped at Beverly and called on Dr. Holmes. He talked a
great deal about mama and about a great many other things
equally lovely in a very easy, charming way. All I had to do
was to listen and I was only too willing to do that. We got
along splendidly. He asked me to stay to dinner but I refused
with thanks, as I had only come to pay my respects and put off
to Dr. Bartol's. Dr. Holmes accompanied me to the depot and
saw me safely off. Of all the lovely men I ever saw Dr.
Bartol is the one. He lives in a great, many roomed with as
many gables, house. Elizabethan, of course, with immense
fireplaces, brass and dark woods, etchings and engravings,
with the sea and rocks immediately under the window and the
ocean stretching out for miles, lighthouses and more
Elizabethan houses half hid on the bank, and ships and small
boats pushing by within a hundred rods of the windows. I stayed
to dinner there and we had a very jolly time. There were two
other young men and another maiden besides Miss Bartol. They
talked principally about the stage; that is, the Boston Stock
Company, which is their sole thought and knowledge of the
drama. The Dr. would strike off now and then to
philosophizing and moralizing but his daughter
would immediately sit upon him, much to my disgust but to the
evident relief of the rest. His wife is as lovely as he is
but I can't give it to you all now. Wait until I get home.
The young lady, the youths and myself came up to Boston
together and had as pleasant a ride, as the heat would allow.
I left them at the depot and went up to the Parker House and
then to the Art Museum. The statuary is plaster, the coins
are copies, and by the way, I found one exactly like mine,
which, if it is genuine is worth, "well considerable", as the
personage in charge remarked. The pictures were simply vile,
only two or three that I recognized and principally Millet and
some charcoal sketches of Hunt's, who is the Apostle of Art
here. The china was very fine but they had a collection of
old furniture and armor which was better than anything else.
Fresh from or rather musty from these antiques, who should I
meet but the cheerful Dixey and Powers. We had a very jolly
talk and I enjoyed it immensely, not only myself but all the
surrounding populace, as Dixey would persist in showing the
youthful some new "gag," and would break into a clog or
dialect much to the delectation of the admiring Bostonians. I
am stranded here for to night and will push on to Newport
to-morrow. I'll go see the "babes" to night, as there is
nothing else in the city that is worth seeing that I haven't
investigated. I left the Newburyportians in grief with
regret. I met lots of nice people and every one was so very
kind to me, from the authoresses to the serving maids.
Good-bye.
DICK.
