[Author’s note: This series, on Mrs. Gray’s reading habits, began here.]
245 South Eighteenth Street, Wednesday, 9 May 1860: Shopping with [her sisters] Sue & Liz [Shober][2] all the morning – a call from my old school mate Sallie Newbold[3] p.m. – and quite a pleasant party … in the evening, 12 or 15 ladies to 2 gentlemen – a lack of beaux which gave much merriment. [Her younger sons] Reginald & Morris [Gray][4] grow too independent here – trotted off after breakfast to Aunt Annie [Shober]’s[5] to play with Baby John – and Uncle John [Shober][6] keeps them too abundantly supplied with cash. [They] buy the most abominable trash – I must keep possession of their purses myself.
Thursday, 10 May 1860: Another dull day – which gave us a long quiet morning for reading about [Eliot's] “The Mill on the Floss.”[7] Poor little Mary [Gray][8] suffering with tooth ache, and could not screw herself up to going to the dentist, notwithstanding I offered the brightest gold dollar if she would – but she scorned being bribed into it!
61 Bowdoin Street, Boston, Tuesday, 12 June 1860: Not very well to-day, but occupied all the morning and out p.m. for shopping. Am reading the cruise of the Fox[9] [by] Capt. Mc Clintock in search of relics of Sir John Franklin[10] with much interest…
Thursday, 14 June 1860: Dressmaking all day. Went with Dr. [Gray] to look at a splendid French dinner set, deep crimson and gold, for sale at auction – but saw at once it would go far beyond our means – each piece was marked with a G. I believe Dr. Gordon[11] bought it – they could afford the $168 much better than we… Frank [Gray]’s[12] school composition on the “Steam Engine” was read aloud to the school – the only [essay] in his class which was; I thought it a very good paper for a boy of his age.
Friday, 15 June 1860: Took Morris out with me this morning for a round of errands – a hat for him & socks for Rege &c. Called at Mrs. Shober’s[13] to leave “Julian Horne”[14] for Aunt Sarah[15] – it will interest, spite of her anxieties about her brother Sam[16] just now. I fear the old gentleman will never be much better.
Monday, 18 June 1860: I have had a busy day – and wound up by slipping down the stairs and bruising myself considerably – so lounged after tea reading “Mademoiselle Mori”[17] with much interest; a capital picture of recent Roman life, manners, & politics, in the early and liberal part of Pio Nono’s career.[18] A sad book, however, the sadder too for its truth.
Thursday, 28 June 1860: Wrote to [her siblings in] Philad[elphia] – then to Burnham’s[19] to inquire for C.G.[20] about a set of books for the class to present to Mr. Gibbens.[21] He has been a faithful teacher at the Latin School, and now he is about to take charge of a school out of town they wish him to carry away some remembrance of his class here. I think they will decide for a set of Parker’s “Waverly Novels”[22] in half-calf at $25.
Stopped at Mrs. Shober – she is dull and little wonder. Mr. S. Bradlee is however quite contented at the [Somerville] Asylum, but it has given Aunt Sarah a painful shock.
Brookline, Saturday, 30 June 1860: Made a parting call after breakfast on Ellen & Annie [Gray].[23] Inquired at Burnham’s about Colton’s Atlas[24] for F.C.G. – 2 folios, richly bound for $18. Arrived here (Pine Bank) at 11½ o’clock. Found every one busy and interested in the various preparations great & small for Isa [Gray]’s[25] European trip…
Tuesday, 3 July 1860: A splendid day. Isa went off this morning quite bravely, though evidently a little sober – all bore the parting well. An hour or two after she left, we all assembled in Sallie [Gray]’s[26] room to read “Rutledge,”[27] which certainly commences well…
Friday, 6 July 1860: A cold, clear day; wrote to Philad. after breakfast – then walked with Fanny [Gray].[28] [She] loosed [her brother] Will’s dog “Guy” to-day; he has been tied up a week or more, and it was almost terrifying to witness his wild delight at recovering his freedom – and to her delight, he did run off to his old home. The wolfish instinct of Esquimaux dog must be strong in him, however, as he killed to-day a valuable cat. We read to day the “Semi-detached House”[29] – a sprightly little novel…
61 Bowdoin Street, Wednesday, 11 July 1860: Home again after a very nice visit. We yester’y managed to scramble through [Trollope’s] “The Three Clerks”[30] by dint of much skipping…
Continued here.
[1] Hedwiga Regina Shober (1818–1885) was married to Dr. Francis Henry Gray 1844–80. Entries from the Hedwiga Regina Shober Gray diary, R. Stanton Avery Special Collections.
[2] Susanna Budd Shober (1823–1898?), who was married to Dr. John Davies of Fayal 1867–81, and Elizabeth Kearney Shober (1821–1865).
[3] Sally Robeson Logan (1819-1890) married James Simpson Newbold in 1842.
[4] Reginald Gray (1853–1904) and Morris Gray (1856–1931).
[5] Ann Bond Cochran married Mrs. Gray’s younger brother Samuel Lieberkuhn Shober in 1858; their son John Bedford Shober was born in August 1859. The Sam Shobers lived at 249 South Sixteenth Street in 1860.
[6] The diarist’s older brother John Bedford Shober (1814–1864).
[7] The Mill on the Floss (1860) by George Eliot (1819-1880).
[8] Mrs. Gray’s daughter Mary Clay Gray (1848–1923).
[9] The Voyage of the 'Fox' in the Arctic Seas: A Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and His Companions (1859) by Captain [(later Rear Admiral Sir) Frederick Leopold] McClintock (1819-1907).
[10] Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin (1786-1847), the Arctic explorer.
[11] Dr. Charles Gordon (1809–1872), who married Dr. Gray’s connection Mary Avery Upham in 1845.
[12] The diarist’s eldest son Francis Calley Gray (1846–1904).
[13] Mrs. Gray’s stepmother, Lucy Hall Bradlee (1806–1902), who was married to Samuel Lieberkuhn Shober 1830–47.
[14] Julian Horne. A tale (1860) by Frederic(k) William Farrar (1831-1903).
[15] Mrs. Shober’s aunt Sarah Fletcher Bradlee (1789–1866).
[16] Mrs. Shober’s uncle Samuel Stillman Bradlee (1785-1861).
[17] Mademoiselle Mori: A Tale of Modern Rome (1860) by Margaret Roberts (1833-1919).
[18] Pope Pius IX [Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti] (1792-1878).
[19] Lafayette Burnham, “antique and modern books,” at 107 Boylston Street.
[20] Presumably F.C.G., i.e. Frank Gray.
[21] Of the Boston Latin School.
[22] Samuel H. Parker’s edition of the Waverley Novels (1814-32) by Sir Walter Scott, 1st Bt. (1771-1832).
[23] Dr. Gray’s sisters Ellen Gray (1830–1921) and Anne Eliza Gray (1819–1884), who lived with their mother at 22 Mount Vernon Street.
[24] Colton’s Atlas of the World… (1856) by George Woolworth Colton (1827-1901).
[25] Dr. Gray’s niece, Isa Elizabeth Gray (1841–1923).
[26] Isa’s mother, and Mrs. Gray’s closest friend in the Gray family: Sarah Frances Loring (1811–1892), who married William Gray in 1834.
[27] Rutledge, published anonymously in 1860 by Miriam Coles (1834-1925), who married Sidney Smith Harris in 1864.
[28] Sallie Gray’s daughter, Frances Loring Gray (1843–1919), who married William Adams Walker Stewart in 1874.
[29] The Semi-Detached House (1859) by Emily Eden (1797-1869).
[30] The Three Clerks (1857) by Anthony Trollope (1815-1882).