Recently, a friend vacationing in the Sebago Lakes Region found a Hawthorne treasure in his AirBnB- a cottage on Quaker Ridge Road in South Casco on the banks of Thomas Pond. It is a framed and famous Hawthorne quotation. I wonder if there are other treasures that are around and about? Do you have Hawthorne treasures that you want to share?
This is a letter that is included in “Hawthorne’s First Diary.”
Have you seen the quote before?
I have visited many places called beautiful in Europe and the United States, but have never seen the place that enchanted me like the flat rock at the outlet of Thomas Pond, from which we used to fish. In an October afternoon, just when the oak trees put on their red coats, the view from that spot, looking to the slopes of Rattlesnake Mountain, through the haze of Indian summer, was to me more enchanting than anything I have since seen.
The full text of Hawthorne’s First Diary can be found at :
https://archive.org/stream/cu31924022247930/cu31924022247930_djvu.txt
[From webmaster} After this was posted, our new friend from England, Norma, wrote: Also, in a book I purchased during our tour of The Old Manse, entitled, ‘Hawthorne in His Own Time,’ the same quote has been lifted from a letter dated December 12 1870, from Nathaniel’s sister Elizabeth to James T Fields following his request to her for some reminiscences of Nathaniel’s boyhood for the biography he was writing on him, so it shows it’s authenticity.