5/20/08 May 22, 1938 Subject: Country home at Canton. The old Nichols hc se at Canton where my grand- mother lived was a pleasant 6x$ house of the old Salem type fronting sunnily to the south over the meadowland below and with a cool veranda on the north which in the Nichols' time opened directly onto the level garden where the old cl mos of perennial flowers I have spoken of came up through the grass to which the garden had been sowed down when a new and larger one was made for my grandmother at the head of the. meadow and the foot of 8 bank some twenty five or thirty feet in heighth which sloned southward from the level on which the house was placed. The eastern side of the house, fronting toward Pleasant Street had at its center a trellis porch covered with fragrant honeyauekle which was the true entrance to the house opening onto a wide, straw-matted hallway with the dining and sitting room opening onto it and a broad, easy stairway to the floor above. It was really delightfully planned but It needed the lost garden to give full meaning to the plan and a larger living than my grandmothers was Note: G.B.D may have visited Canton on May 7, 1933 when the diary of Louis aT Endicott notes a visit to Canton- mention of C.BD. Endicott Family Papers. 2. Canton at the time I knew her with my grandfather and the children gone. Desids Basides the honeysuckled porch which bloomed - throughout the summer, frequented by bumble bees and bees, and the flowers that came un in the grass where the old garden had been on the north, mowed only for hap at the end of June 30 that the plants bad plenty of time to meture there seasonal growth, alconside there was $9.16 the path that led from the driveway to the porch a fine eld spruce tree around which, half hidden by its drooping branches a fine bed, checkering the trunk, of lilies of the valley, old as the Nichol's garden doubtless and never, so for as I know, dug up or disturbed, The shade of the tree kept the grass away, the spills annually dropping, keotthe rich soil that had been given it and the tree when both were planted much in summer and it was a cool delight to me always when it bloomed in early June. Ly grandmother, with a passion for gardening which her life in the city gave no opportunity for gratifying, had a green house and a grapehouse, the latter unheated beyond what WES necessary to keep the vines from frost and they produced the most delicious grapes I have ever known, ripening seasonally at the 3. summer's end. There were large full- Hambur & grapes and delic ous Muscrats, full of flavor. No grace3 or other fruit ripen in greenhouses under arti- ficial heat can e compare with those thus grown under natural conditions. My grandmother had peaches, too, grown in great. tubs that gave the trees abundant soil and room for root-growth, which were wintered and kent under cover in a separate cool greenhouse, unheated, till warm weather came in spring and the danger from frosts was over, then wheeled out and the peaches left to ripen in the warmeth of the sunney, wind sheltered garden. They too were the most delicious I have ever esten, none greehouse-grown comparing with them. Large, juicy and ripe when they were gethered, the skin peeled off of them while juicy drops fell down. It is many years since I have tasted such -- never, perhaps, since those days. But my father told me that such ceaches grew in peach orchards around Boston, as fine as my grandmother's and finer there could not be, which he also know. by they should have seased to grow since then in our hassachusetts region is a mystery: my father thought it might be the desease they call 'the yellow' which drove it south. But even from the south we cannot get fine peaches now, sold in the market, nor 4. do I believe such peaches grow anywhere to such flavor and perfection. J grandmother's garden, surrounded by an eight foot railing to keep boys and other derrotators out, had no beauty whatever for background and setting but it grew beautiful flowers and magnificent. great straw- berries which her gardener, Josech Clark, did his best to keep the finest of for the Horticulural Shows, where my grandmother, indeed, took many prizes, and which I did my best to plunder./A/t/ In the autumn when we came back from our summer's outing to the sesside or from Lenox there would be execellent pears, gathered before the frests came on and stored to riven in certain drawers in. the house which I Imew well, Bartletts and Bickles and juicy Beurres Bosques which my Dorr relations used to grow, and ecually well, at Lerox but which cannot be grown successfully in the XO climate of Northern Maine -- ripening fair on the outstite they rot at the center. But Maine grows the finest apples in the world, so far as quality and flavor are concerned though Oregon and eastern Washington may ripen them to finer color. Each section here and abroad has its own fruit which it grows to a perfection not to be equalled elsewhere. 5. There was much rivallry in those days among a group of amateur horticulurists who exhibited in the Boston Flower. BROW. They were, for the most part, men of wealth spending largely on their gardens and greenhouses, but my grandmother and her gardener, H&Y/ who coming ALEX as an untrained boy, she had grained through the 'nterest in her garden till he became one of the best gardeners in the country, took Many prizes though it was in or care, not greater cost, that won them. That was a great period for horticulture in Boston, the country around which within driving distance was full of country seats. The development of the seacoast for country homes came later, when railroads made it possible and easy. (Those springs 11/11/16 at Canton with their long afternoons, half-holidays on Saturdays and the whole of Sunday, for there was no Church out there which we attended, were a great education, teaching us to love the country and the wilderness about us without need of company.) A source of greatest interest during several years collection at this time Was making a correction, GS did a number of my friendsya school, of birds' eggs. We did nct despoil the nest but took only one, or two at the most 6. perhaps, if the batch was large, acting on the theory that the birds could not count and would know the difference 11 we did not take too many. This I think is doubtless time; it is the investon of their privacy, their secrecy, rather than the loss of an egg or two which the birds resent. They would come back quickly to the neat in general if we did not come too often But one unfortun to experience I had which left an solding regret. Teen we first care out to occupy date? our new home at Carton, it had been vacant for some years, my uncle who occupied it before us no longer doing 90, and the birds had grown accustomed to regard- ing it as wild, free from the threat of man and a Scarlet Tanger; the male of sclendid hue, had build in the branch of an oak tree near the house and I climbed un and took un ess, one only, out of three or four, but the bird abandoned the eggs and never returned. I never ceased to regret it. They are as rare as they are beautiful and I have never seen but few in all my life, once only at Bar Herbor. The most beautiful songster we had at Canton, and that abundantly, W88 the brown thrush who nested freely in our woods. Another bird not uncommon there, whose eggs I never collected, for the nests 7. were hard to reach, wether for boys or scuirrels, was the Baltimore oriole, who hung pendant nests from the tip of PLEASE slender things, on elm trees generally. Sometimes I got old nests the birds had left to see how wonderfully they were constructed and suspended. Swaying in the wind, they were Peen and almost arching over to keep the esss from falling 2.8 the bows the nests were attached to tossed in the wind. And they had to be well woven, strong and light marvels of construction which millions of years and countless mishaps have taught the birds to make. The intelligence they show in the selection of material to build with -- horsehairs if they C an a find them fevorite choice is as remarkable es their skill in using them, with their beaks alone as tools. Other birds that ga e me frequent thrill nested, like the humming bird, in tufted hummocks on the meadows, their nests completely till they flew away, if I came toc dangerously near, exposing them. These, ar €68 or two once collected, I never disturbed, taking a look and passing quickly on; then stopping to watch the bird$ return. Except for some marauding serpent or some clumsy footed man, these neats were admirably placed. 8. There was a book ver popular among the boys at school, those who had homes as ourselves in the country, called 'The Boys of Chequasett' which tells of a family moving out into the country to live and the friendliness of their nei habors, among whome is SIG boy who tesches the city boys the ways of the country, but especially how to collect bird's e without alarming the birds or wronging them. It was en admirable book, exactly suited to our age and needs and it must have saved many a bird's nest from wholesele plundering. Not far from our home near where Pleasant Street branched off at/right angles from the road to Boston there was an oldtime country church and alongside it a groveyard with the graver names of early settlers upon the stone. Just beyondt to the north the plain broke deeply down a hundred feet or more to the base level of the marghes and there, at the of the high banks E spring, the only one in the neighborhood, issued with = constant flow, nct large but never failing, and & bes in had been built below it and a water ramp installed which pumped the water ur not used for power, to fill a (rinking trbth in our pasture and supply some neighboring house. It was a spot that had great fascination for me with the broad Neponsett Mountains beyond and never a house to ses. The graveyard on the level plain above and the upper portion of the banks were clothed with primeval pines, pines that had grown there for the first settlers came, and they gave great character to the spot. Then one unfortunate day the governing board of the church, plain farming people, made as trip to Count Aubrun, Boston's great burial ground on the Charles, and returned with their heads full of enthusiaam for marble monuments and bare hillocks. So -- wood being profitable and labor cheap -- they ordered the old pines cut down and the whole character of the beautiful old graveyard vanished; I-1 never cared to visit it again. Anot or source of great eom unionship and pleasure to me there were dogs. 30 favorable were the conditions for birdlife in wide 77 variety in the regions west of Boston that bred up in 3 ilar freedom to my own in similar country at least two of the boys of Old Coston and colonial families, William Brewster, and II. D. Zinoi, became dist Aguished onthologists and much of the - support given than to the birdlife conservation 'n the east came from those who 10. learnet 30 know and love the birds as boys and girls in the pleasant sprintime of our region. Their return conineiding with the coming of the leaves and wildflowers; their song 30 various and musical, poured forthas though in pure delight at the new wave of life when sering was springing; their beauty In any forms, and the artfulness of their nest building, the wonder of their eggs providing such beautiful and varied shelter for the life during the critical embryomic period and the ha by springtime hours spent in search and observation were & greater influence than any chooling in the development of our minds and characters. Another delight of the stringtine and our home at Centon were the wildflowers, less humarous in variety and s decies than at Mount esert cr Lenox, more veried in typography and soil, but abundant and a joy to eather and bring home. Violets and columbines and the white flowering were the chief of these, the violets and car etting upland and meadowland where grassés did not grow too thick; the columbines, with their red and yellow flower3, growing in half shaded rocky places -- a treasure to find -- yet seeding themselves and springing up afresh, and @ 2,500 words Re: Mr. Dorr Again Page 1 of 2 Epp, Ronald C.2 From: Nini Gilder [cbg@gilder.com] Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2003 3:53 PM To: Epp, Ronald Subject: Re: Mr. Dorr Again My reply yesterday was hurried as I was preparing to give a lecture, by now I have had a chance to reread your e-mail and digest it more carefully. The house in Canton, Massachusetts may have been called by Samuel Gray Ward "Bywood". In the early 1850s he writes his tenant at the house in Lenox seeking items in the attic - archery equipment etc - which he says will be useful at Bywood. Mr. William Curtis established the brick hotel in the center of the village which grew throughout the nineteenth century as the resort prospered. He was a great promoter of Lenox, helped newcomers with real estate deals, knew everyone's name and was a born innkeeper. Fanny Kemble was a noted English actress who became one of Lenox's great characters. She began visiting Lenox in the 1830s as a guest of the Sedgwicks and generally stayed at the Curtis Hotel, until she bought her own house in 1849. She gave brilliant one-woman Shakesperean readings in NY, London and in Lenox drawing rooms and the Lenox Library, she was a daredevil on a horse, and a writer of note in her day. The two references you mention are very interesting and I would love to have them in full. Did I give you my address? Cornelia B. Gilder, P.O.Box 430, Tyringham, MA 01264. Many, many thanks !! From: "Epp, Ronald" Note: Charles Pickaring Buwdited Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 12:11:58 -0400 lived as a child near the shores To: Cc: "Epp, Ronald" of Portapoag. Evidence see Subject: Mr. Dorr Again Moorhead storey's memoir of C.P.B. in Haroachusetts Historical Dear Cornelia, Society Proceedings 3rd Series, V.26 (1923) : 306 f. Yesterday I was reading for the first time documents copied from the Dorr Papers, microfilms at the Jesup Library in Bar Harbor. These few undated pages were likely written in the late 19301s and discuss his pre-college school years. I came across two statements that I thought would interest you (and l'll photocopy the full text if you like and mail it to you). 1. In referring to a summer home outside Boston where his maternal grandmother lived, he says that his grandfather had built himself a country home 3alongside the Nichols homestead, which first my uncle, Samuel Gray Ward, on coming from Lenox, bought and occupied, then we, when business took him to New York to live. 2 12/1/2003 Re: Mr. Dorr Again Page 2 of 2 2. In another essay he refers to this home above in Canton where his grandfather Ward had bought an old farm to spend the summers. Superscript(3)But it was hot in summer and, school closed, my mother and father would presently pack up and go off to the seashore, or to Lenox, real county [sic 3country2 then, where my mother [Mary Gray Ward] had stayed with my uncle and, as a girl, ridden over the whole region