THOREAU AND THE WALDEN WOODS.
as Was Reported.
  To the Editor of the Herald:
  The notice in your widely-circulated
journal concerning the recent fire in the
Walden woods will convey a wrong im-
pression to many readers, the facts about
that fire having naturally been exagger-
ated while it was going on, and before
any one could say where it would stop.
I examined the localities yesterday, and
can qualify to some extent your remarks.
  The term "Walden woods" covers a 
great tract, on both sides of the Fitch-
burg railroad, and on all sides of the
pond, which it is now the fashion to call
a "lake". This tract might be so meas-
ured as to be two miles long by half a
mile, or even a mile in width, and of this
area, probably less than half a square
mile was burnt over in the last fire,
which did not reach the fine large pines
around Thoreau's cove and cairn, nor
indeed, any of the woods immediately en-
circling the water. It did run through a
large plantation of white pines, made by
Thoreau some 20 rods from his hut, east-
ward, on land belonging to his friend,
Emerson; and it burned through a large
tract on the east side of the Lincoln road,
between the shallow lake called Goose
pond, and the hillsides covered with great
oaks, chestnuts and pines, once called
"Hubbard's wood," and named by Emer-
son, "The Park." Fortunately, this park,
now the property of Emerson's daughter,
Mrs. W.H. Forbes, was hardly touched
at all, so that the regions more especial-
ly associated with the two friends, Emer-
son and Thoreau, were not greatly in-
jured by the fire.
  Through this park ran the path by
which Alcott, while Thoreau was liv-
ing in Walden (1845-'47) used to visit his
young friend - walking across from the
Edmund Hosmer farm, or from what
soon became Hawthorne's "Wayside,"
then owned and occupied by the Alcotts.
Emerson's own way to Walden was only
for a few rods through the fields; he then
followed the wide Lincoln road, over
"Brister's hill," or diverged to the right,
at the hill's foot, into a woodpath. Both
sides of this woodpath have been de-
vastated, either by the axe or by fire; but
nature is quick to repair such ravages
in our woods, and before 10 years, if the
railroad engines set no more fires, no-
body could see where the late fire has
run in this part of the tract. Probably
the pines planted by Thoreau's hand are
mostly killed, and this is a serious loss.
But the woodland associations of Thoreau
and Walden are only slightly injured,
otherwise, by what seemed so disastrous
a combustion. F.B. SANBORN.
 Concord, May 25
1896
(Fire occurred May 5)