CHAPTER II

EARLY PLEASURE TOURS

In connection with the tours for the enjoyment of scenery which young Frederick Olmsted made, generally with his parents, it is perhaps interesting to record in detail one taken in 1838, when he was sixteen. His father, Mr. John Olmsted, kept an accurate diary, and in this we find noted: “Journey to White Mountains,” “in our double carriage,” “self, wife, Fredk. and John,” Aug. 8-25, 1838. The itinerary reads:

“Springfield, Mt. Holyoke, Northampton, Whateley, Deerfield (old houses), Bloody Brook, Greenfield, Bernardstown, Brattleboro, Putney Hills, Walpole, Bellows Falls, Charleston, Claremont, Windsor, Hanover (view of river from hill), Orford, Haverhill (N. H.), Newbury (Vt.), Oxbow Narrows, Bath, Franconia Notch, Mt. Lafayette, Littleton, Fabyan, Crawford Notch, Conway, Center Harbor, Lake Winnipesaukee, Red Mt., Wolfboro, Rochester, Great Falls, Dover, Portsmouth, Newburyport, Haverhill, Andover, Lynn, Nahant, Boston.”

In Boston there is a note: “Navy Yard, Bunker Hill, Mt. Auburn, Athenæum,” Aug. 22 “F. to Andover.”

Frederick’s voyage to China before the mast in 1843 gave little opportunity for pleasure sightseeing, and while lying in the ports of Canton and Hongkong,--if we may judge from the few notes he has left about this experience,--he was naturally most interested in the people and their strange customs and their attitude towards “heathen” visitors.

There are two of Frederick’s letters relating to trips in the summer of 1845.

GLEN FALLS (N. Y.), Aug. 3, 1845.

DEAR FATHER: or whoever is at home, if Father has gone to Saratoga:

I believe the only description of the country between here and Burlington I have given you was in a pencil letter written at Charlotte. The afternoon’s ride of that day was through a very poor country, clay and stones. What land had been cleared seemed to be principally devoted to the raising of burnt stumps and mullen; some little grass, to be sure did now and then make its appearance, but I should think the poor sheep would find it hard work enough to live, without troubling themselves with growing wool. A little ways out of Charlotte, though, I recollect I was met by one of the finest views I had ever seen. It was on a hill which overlooked the country and the lake towards the southwest. Between me and the Lake lay some pretty village or other on the ground sloping towards it, the land looking really very rich,--and by the way the soil just by the lake all along is fine. Beyond lay the Lake itself,--bays, islands, etc.,--looking beautifully; but the chief charm was the background, a heap of mountains over in Essex Co. I never saw mountains rise more beautifully one above another, the larger ones seeming to cluster round and protect the smaller, nor did the summer veil of haze ever sit on them more sweetly. Back of all rose some magnificent thunder-heads and they rose fast too, compelling me at five o’clock to take refuge and toast and eggs in a little road-side inn.

“HARTFORD, Sept. 1, 1845.

“MY DEAR FRED [KINGSBURY][5]:

Charley and I had a fine cruise ’round. Charley wanted to get home before Emma left, and we drove, with all night sleeping in a boat or on the ground, and one night on a sloop’s transom. Sunday night we camped out at Haddam, below. Made a sq. sail of our tent, and turned in on a blanket under it. It was a most beautiful place, a green grassy dell glen sloping gently up, lofty and picturesque trees opening a way for it back to a most lovely vista. A most charming prospect of our Rhine in front and on either side. Lots of wild pigeons, meteors, owls, sturgeons, mosquitoes, wipporwills, methodists, and hydrophious quadrupeds to lull us to grassy sleep. We struck our tent and broke up camp at an hour or two before day break, and were till noon working up to the landing a few miles above. I believe you will think we didn’t do much at Mineralogizing. We went with John and Rev. Mr. Gilbert to the mines--a rocky hillside, and in an hour or two got a pocket full of tourmalines, garnites and something else (?) and appetites and a glass of brandy for my cholic, because we were too lazy to kindle a fire Sunday morning and eat green apples to kill-hunger....

Both Frederick Olmsted and his brother were fond of boating, and, in their small sail-boat, had many trips on the Connecticut River and in the Sound, especially during the family’s summer visits to Sachem’s Head. In spite of the harshness of his experiences on the Chinese voyage, Mr. Olmsted retained his fondness for ships and was wont to hold up the clipper ship as the ideal of beauty in perfect organization for use.

There is also a reminiscence jotted down in Mr. Olmsted’s later days of a trip to Canada in 1846.

[Illustration: The Five Friends in New Haven Days

Charles Trask Frederick J. Kingsbury John Hull Olmsted

Charles Loring Brace Frederick Law Olmsted]

Once on a time my father took me with him on a journey which carried us into Canada. While there we had for several days as a traveling companion an Englishman, animated, amiable, frank and engaging. As I think of our intercourse now, I can see plainly that he looked upon me as a new specimen and was drawing me out and turning me over with the interest of a naturalist. It is clear also that he got some new ideas from me and often when our conversation was interrupted, he took notes. My experience with men in America, though I was a youngster, had been various, and I was then fresh from association with a large number of youngsters,--youngsters merely, but gathered from all parts of the Union. With these I had been made intimate at foot ball and boat club, in long walks, trouting excursions, duck shooting, long winter night talks over the stove and more formal debates of our “Society.” My experience of mankind and my views of men were crude and bigoted, but they were obviously sincere and simple convictions and they were as strange to the Englishman as average English country-gentlemen’s convictions would surely be to me.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] This letter, written to one of his chums, refers to a sailboat trip from New Haven to Hartford, with Charles Loring Brace, another of the group of five young men formed during the New Haven days (John Hull and F. L. Olmsted, Charles Trask, and the two just mentioned). In a reminiscent letter Frederick Olmsted says of Charles Brace: “We had many long tramps together; I remember once being with him for a week or two on a walk which took us through Litchfield, Stockbridge and Lenox. I remember also vividly a fine run of fourteen miles on skates, ending in a cold bath. He entered college with my brother and they were room-mates; and, as for four years afterwards I lived in or near New Haven, and was, a part of the time, attending the same lectures with them, we continued to be in close intimacy.”

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