442 ME5IOIR OF DANIEL TREADWELL. 



After Mr. Treadwell had ceased to expect the adoption of his cannon by the 

 Government, his principal business was the management of the afiairs of the Spinning 

 Company. The worlv at the Mill-dam was to him no pressing labor; it was a pleasure. 

 As he wrote when in Europe to Mrs. Treadwell : '• I like to hear of it, for at the sight 

 of the name of the Gypsey I hear the humming of the wheels." It might well give 

 him pleasure, for its products were at once his pride and his profit. 



His health required of him during the most active period of his life rest and 

 recreation at short intervals, and these he found in frequent journeyings. Mrs. 

 Treadwell says of him : — 



" Whether during his lectui'es at the College, or when at his machine-shop, 

 country drives were among his greatest pleasures and benefits; he used to say, 

 'I must ride for my life.' Some of these excursions with friends were of several 

 days; setting out in our 'carryall' without a fixed plan, we would just go along 

 pleasant roads that led to pleasant places. He always wanted a book when upon 

 the road, and I very often, while he drove, read to him all day long ; of course it 

 was always some light reading. The beautiful valley of the Connecticut had such 

 charms for him, that he even thought to fix his summer residence there, if he could 

 persuade Dr. Ware to become his neighbor. It was when returning from one of 

 these excursions, in 1843, that we fell by chance upon Howe's tavern in Old Sudbury. 

 The quiet look of the place, shadowed by its grand old elms, caught our fancy, and, 

 stopping for the night, we found the comfort of the interior as attractive as its outside 

 beauty. It was so quiet, so utterly secluded, away from railroads and travel, and so 

 free from other guests, that it gave him just the change and rest he needed. From 

 that time till he went abroad, in 1847, he passed his Sundays here. Leaving Cam- 

 bridge in his carriage on Saturday afternoon, he enjoyed his drive of fifteen miles 

 along the old Worcester Turnpike, and returned on Monday morning. He would 

 also often go for another day during the week. In this way for more than twenty 

 yeai's we spent more or less of every summer. We went early in the spring, and 

 continued our visits till the cool autumn weather. Dr. Parsons was almost always 

 with us. Sometimes we were accompanied by a party of friends; Mr. Longfellow has 

 idealized them in his ' Wayside Inn.' * But often we would spend the whole summer's 



* Mr. Longfellow in one of his letters says : " ' The Wayside Inn' has more foundation in fact than you may 

 suppose. The town of Sudbury is about twenty miles from Cambridge. Some two hundred years ago an English 

 f;imily by the name of Howe built tliere a country-house, which has remained in the family down to the present time, 

 the last of the race dying but two years ago. Losing their fortune, they became inn-keepers; and for a century the 

 Red-Horse Inn has flourished, going down from father to son. The place is just as I have described it, though no 

 longer an inn. All this will account for the landlord's coat-of-arras and his being a justice of the peace, and his 

 being known as ' the Squire,' — things that must sound strange in English ears. All the characters are real." But 



