186
at my irruption. Conductor came along, wanted
ticket. My not having procured one at the dep t would
cost me $ 3 more unless I could dart out and procure
one at a way-side office where the locomotive was hitched
on. This I did. All right, now! A hot day. Break-
fasted on my sandwiches and a bottle of Bass . The
Hudson river and rail, pretty familiar glimpses of the
latter. Some brief pauses at stations, as Po keepsie
&c. Cars very full. N.Y. papers : got Tribune. View
of the old Catskills little Athens, Hudson. Albany.
Across the river by ferryboat, through avenue of hack-drivers
into cars again; off, after some delay. Sunny afternoon.
Apple-buying where the train stopped for refreshment. By
7 we reach Rochester. No Heylyn consulted address, and
to his lodgings, near by. He ill, in bed. Friendly welcome
from Mrs H. Saw Heylyn looks plump and burly des-
ondent and floored thinks he s going to die (so Mrs H told
me) only a bit of a bilious attack, severe in its way but
not dangerous. Talked with Mrs H., after supping, and
to bed with a young country fellow, a boarder in the house.
He came from near Byron, knew the Halls and told me
some news of them. The old man ( Screw Hall he called him
he is generally known by it, from his invention) has the reputation
of being litigious and ingenuous: Homer is as wont, and
Captain Hall the elder son of the family, who got married at
Dobs is said to be in Australia. More news of former
acquaintance. Heylyn says that my respectable cousin has left
Rochester and is butchering in Batavia, a place some dozen
or more miles from it. Dick Gunn s wife died, previous to
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Nine: page two hundred and nine |
| Description: | Describes his journey to and arrival at Rochester to visit Heylyn. |
| Date: | 1858-09-27 |
| Subject: | Dobson, Mrs.; Gunn, Dick; Gunn, Dick, Mrs.; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Hall; Hall, Homer; Heylyn, Edward; Heylyn, Liz; Travel |
| Coverage (City/State): | Rochester, [New York] |
| Scan Date: | 2011-02-02 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Nine |
| Description: | Includes descriptions of boardinghouse living, a picnic at Hoboken with other New York artists and journalists, his drawing and writing work in New York, attending a lecture by Lola Montez, visits to James Parton and Fanny Fern and the Edwards family, a controversy over Fitz James O'Brien's story ''The Diamond Lens,'' artist Sol Eytinge's relationship with writer Allie Vernon, the suicide of writer Henry William Herbert, antics of the New York Bohemians, the interest of people living in his boarding house in spiritualism, a visit to his friend George Bolton's farm in Canada, a visit to Niagara Falls, and a scandal involving Harbormaster Willis Patten, who lives in his boarding house. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Farms; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Publishers and publishing; Suicide; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Rochester, New York; Elmira, New York; Paris, Ontario, Canada |
| Note: | Thomas Butler Gunn was born February 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came to New York in 1849. During the Civil War he worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. He returned to England in 1863, and died in Birmingham in April 1903. The collection includes twenty-one volumes of his diaries, including newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, sketches, and various other items inserted by Gunn. Diary entries date from July 7, 1849, to April 7, 1863, and include his experiences with the New York publishing and literary world, his descriptions of boarding houses, his travels throughout the United States, and his experiences traveling with the Federal army as a Civil War correspondent. |
| Publisher: | Missouri History Museum |
| Rights: | Copyright 2011 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
