thusiastic I was hurt.
Several years later when I found the entire edition in our attic, I
understood their reluctance. The reason the book did not sell is, I
think, because some one must have read it."

In the summer of 1882 Richard went to Boston, and in the following
letter unhesitatingly expressed his opinion of that city and its people.

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 h