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140
McEntees to bid Miss Lee goodbye who goes tomorrow by Wallkill Valley railway.

Friday Aug. 28. 1874. I spent an hour or two this morning clearing out the road in front of the house after which I wrote a letter to Whittredge asking him to come down and join me on an exploring expedition along the Roelif Jansen Kill.

Saturday 29. Went out to Shandakers by morning train after blackberries. A blind man named Hinkley got me 12 quarts. but failed to get all I wanted. I left two pails which he is to fill and send to me. There seems to be a great many summer workers through the valley but they are leaving for the city. A few trees on the mountain sides just begin to fade a little and in the Beaverkill swamp the cardinal flower was in full bloom. The weeds and growth along the streams are very pretty now. I noticed on the brook above Laments how the values of the greens were enhanced by the red & yellow flowers and the brown ripe weeds. My father & mother and Downing came home last night and very glad we were to see them.

Monday 31. Downing and I worked on his boat repairing it and we gathered the Bartlett pears. Received a friendly letter from Boughton inclosing his photograph. He begins to look old and is thinner than when I saw him last. He had hired a nice old house in Surrey where he was spending the summer at Haselmere. Tennyson lives near there and Briket Forbes has a fine place six miles from there, and a number of artists are settled near him. He says the house is a picture from any point and I dare say he will paint many pictures from it and its surroundings. His letter made me feel afresh that I should like to live where I could get suggestions from an older civilization. The older I grow the more I incline to the human element in the landscape; and it is rare to find here what abounds in England.

Saturday, Sept. 5th. Downing and I drive up to the "Blue Store" on the Roelif Jansen Kill on Wednesday arriving there about 1 o'clock. We spent the afternoon along the stream which is very pretty near there and the next day came home by