186 MEMOIR OF DB. HARVEY. 



are little bays, and little rocky nooks with trees to the waterside ; 

 and the wide extent of Boston Bay in front, with the islands at 

 its mouth and the ships passing up and down. It is a charming 

 spot to spend a summer. 



November 10. 

 Dr. Gray and I walked over a few days ago to Mount 

 Auburn, the principal cemetery here. It is very extensive, 

 naturally wooded, full of hill and dale, with streams in the valleys. 

 It is laid out in walks and avenues, and thickly peopled with 

 tombs in a great variety of patterns. On the whole, it is a very 

 picturesque " City of the Dead," and it must be beautiful in 

 spring and summer : at those seasons it is one of the most 

 favourite resorts of the Bostonians, who come out in crowded 

 omnibuses at all hours of the day to walk about among the 

 tombs. I am told that formerly they had pic-nics there, crack- 

 ing their nuts and jokes on the gravestones, but this is discon- 

 tinued. At this season it looks somewhat dreary, the ground 

 being thickly strewed with dry leaves. 



Professor Longfellow honoured me with a visit a few days 

 ago. He lives about a mile off, in a large old house formerly a 

 manor-house, and Washington's head-quarters when in these 

 parts. His second wife is the heroine of Hyperion. Last even- 

 ing we had a social party at Professor Pierce's. The Cambridge 

 professors are a sociable set of people, and have the pleasant 

 custom of meeting on Saturday evenings at each other's houses, 

 with their wives, &c, and the evening ends with a supper. I 

 got talking to the Greek Professor (but not about Greek). He 

 has arranged to go with me to see Laura Bridgeman. She is 

 intimate with his sister, who lives near the Asylum, and often 

 drops in to pay her a visit. She continues to advance in ac- 

 quirements, but latterly, in reading history, is much distressed 

 at the wickedness of the world. She wonders at it as something 

 monstrous, and it becomes more and more difficult to explain 

 to her the motives for political movements — wars and so forth. 

 To her, the whole history appears a tissue of unmeaning cruelty 

 and crime. 



