(some 7 miles in length I m sure) we made divers assays for the purpose
of the smiting and annexing at least a chicken. But as yet in vain.
Some 12 miles having been left behind us, we enter a hotel known as Liberty-
pole, kept by a Vanderbeek, and there inquiring for provant are shewn into
a rear kitchen, and partake of dinner, en famille. A lounge on the stoop
looking out on the dusty road and quiet landscape, unceasing fumigation, lavation,
and then off again, and on through the sunny afternoon. More essays at
fowl-slaying and petty larceny, and finally a successful one. A maternal
turkey with two young ones were by a fence side, and
A sudden blow from Mason s stick
The neck wrung round on a stone
Had dispossess d one bird of life
Right quick the deed was done
And in my pocket straightway lay
Warm, lifeless flesh and bone.
The owners house was close by, and on another were men at work, who as with
exultant grinning we passed on, chaffed us, unthinking mortals! On and on,
from the winding roads to a thicket margined one, the steep acclivity of which de-
noted our approach to the tall rock Palisades bordering the Hudson. Here
halting for a glass of water at a roadside cottage, little girls gave us peaches,
(the only act of civility by the way we encountered in our travel.) Pursuing our
road, at length we wound down the rocks, and came upon a spot yclept
Haylers landing place, nearly opposite to little Yonkers. A grocery-store, two
or three barns or houses, the broad, rippleless Hudson, with the sheen of
the setting sun flaming on it, and falling on the fresh deep verdure &
autumnal tints of the foliage on the banks. Making a few inquiries from
a surly aboriginal boy at the grocery store, we then purchased crackers and
assended the road, struck off mid the rocks and trees and prepared
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Two: page one hundred and seventy-two |
| Description: | Describes a walking trip taken with Mason, including turkey-stealing. |
| Date: | 1851-09-03 |
| Subject: | Food; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Leisure; Mason; Native Americans; Turkeys; Vanderbeek |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New Jersey]; Yonkers, [New York] |
| Scan Date: | 2011-02-07 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Two |
| Description: | Includes descriptions of Gunn's attempts to find drawing work among New York publishers, brief employment in an architectural office, visits to his soldier friend William Barth on Governors Island, boarding house living, drawing at actor Edwin Forrest's home at Fonthill Castle, and sailing and walking trips taken with friends. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Books and reading; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Military; Publishers and publishing; Religion; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York |
| 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. |
