Concord, Mass. Ralph Waldo Emerson writes to Margaret Fuller:
On their way to Mount Wachusett, Thoreau and Richard Fuller hike from Concord, Mass. through Acton and Stow, stop on a hilltop in Lancaster for lunch and to read Virgil aloud to each other, and stop for the night at an inn in Sterling (“A Walk to Wachusett”).
Richard Fuller recalls in his notebook:
It may be well to premise that no incidents worthy of note occurred during this pilgrimage to the Wachusett. Other adventures than Nature offered we avoided; and we listen[ed], as we went along, to her harmony, thinking that perchance some note of novel sweetness might be struck, which should charm our heart, and awaken within us some new sentiment . . .
But while meditation’s flow was not impeded, we had got onward, and soon came to a wood that lies between Concord and Stow. Here we cut us each a cane; and I thought on farmers, as I passed out of the wood, and their green fields smiled upon us . . .
Soon we arrived at Stow. This town was once my habitation . . .
