92
A Visit to Baker s.
scandal.
4. Sunday. A hot, idle day, in which we are
all fearfully taciturn, insomuch that scarcely a
single word is spoken, either at meals or between
them; in which George dozes; William arrays him-
self in his best and goes to church at Paris; Bella
is, according to her want, much too pious to cook
anything hot for dinner (though she doesn t think it wick-
ed to doze afterwards) and in which I, finally
find it so slow that after scribbling all the morning
and idling afterwards, I ask for the pony and meditate
a journey to John Conworth s; when George reminds
me that we are engaged to go to Baker s. In an-
other hour or so we accomplish this and are very
hospitably entreated in consequence. We find our
host in his shirt-sleeves in the sparely-furnished room
(much of his portable property having been consumed
in two fires, at a former habitation), with four
healthy, little bare-legged children; with one of
whom I soon became great friends. In time
we sup heartily and plentifully down-stairs, with
Mrs. B. and the family. Afterwards we sit on the
stoop under the piazza, smoking, talking, and wat-
ching the gathering of a heavy storm of thunder, light-
ning and rain, which presently bursts and obliges
us to remain all night which I and I think George
am not sorry for. Baker is English-born,
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Seventeen: page one hundred and two |
| Description: | Describes a visit to Baker's house with George Bolton. |
| Date: | 1861-08-03 |
| Subject: | Baker, Jemmy; Baker, Jemmy, Mrs.; Bella; Bolton, George; Children; Conworth, John; Conworth, William; Gunn, Thomas Butler |
| Coverage (City/State): | Paris, [Ontario, Canada] |
| Scan Date: | 2010-06-09 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Seventeen |
| Description: | Includes Gunn's descriptions of the scene in New York at the commencement of the Civil War; his visits to military camps in and around New York City as a reporter for ""The New York Evening Post;"" boarding house living; a bridal reception at the Edwards family's residence in honor of the marriage of Sally Edwards and Thomas Nast; a visit to the Heylyn and Rogers families in Rochester; and his trip to Paris, Ontario, to visit George Bolton and the Conworths. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Civil War; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Marriage; Military; Publishers and publishing; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Paris, Ontario, Canada ; Rochester, 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 2010 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
