61 Bowdoin Street, Boston, Sunday, 18 December 1870: Cold weather at last – Morris [Gray] had a good day’s skating on the little pond at Uncle John [Gray]’s[2] in Cambridge yesterday – and is tired out to day par consequent. Cora Weld & F.G. Peabody[3] have really enjoyed her visit here this week – she is much more accessible here, from Cambridge, where his duties [at Harvard Divinity School] confine him steadily, than at Jamaica Plain – and he can see her every day instead of only 2 or 3 times a week. I am not a very fierce duenna, having been young and in love once myself; so we leave them to themselves a great deal…
The girls got home [from a dance] at about 2 a.m., which gave us a chance to see the glorious “Aurora” – broad bright flames of blood red & orange light streaming up from a low double arch of white light. It was the most vivid piece of colour I have ever seen, in that way.
There has been a serious commotion at Harvard College; a wicked piece of hazing, blowing up a freshman’s room, with gunpowder or nitro glycerine shattering furniture windows &c in 4 or 5 rooms – lifting joists, displacing doors so that inmates could not get out of their rooms – throwing one man to the ceiling and nearly suffocating several – and alarming the whole town – is a matter wh: goes a little beyond the limits of a joke. Strenuous efforts are to be made to bring the offender to justice – as amenable to civil law.
Monday, 26 December 1870: A hurried week of Xmas shopping &c. a family Xmas dinner on Saturday; it was more convenient to us to keep that, than Monday. The family from 22 [Mount Vernon Street][4] and Uncle J.C.G. & Aunt E. were the guests. It was my 52d birth-day! how old that sounds.
Sam [Gray] gave me a beautiful book, Birket Foster’s Eng. Landscapes[5] – Mary [Gray] a thermometer & Regie [Gray] a Holmes Stereoscope & Yo Semite views – splendid ones. R.P.W.[6] sent me a portemonnaie,[7] much needed, and Sallie Gray,[8] two magnificent books royal folio, “Doré’s Illus. of La Fontaine,”[9] wh. for sumptuous binding, paper, & type are a luxury to look upon; and the designs are wonderful, as is everything Gustave Doré does. Mary Shober[10] sent me $500! of wh. I was to give $25 to each of the young people – $45 is reserved to pay for Mary’s gray porcelain miniature, [and] Am Mai [Mary Shober]’s present to Dr. Gray; … with the rest I have bought a new parlor sofa, a couch for M.C.G.’s room, a piano stool, and several minor matters I could hardly otherwise have afforded.
Frank [Gray] gave me a Swiss carved bread plate & knife; & Morris [Gray] “Aspendale”[11]; & Lucy B[owditch][12] a warm knit sontag.[13] Sallie Lewis[14] sent a fan to M.C.G., gloves to the boys – and to me a luxury of a satin hood – wadded & trimmed with fur, with deep cape – & Mrs. Shober[15] sent me a lovely 15 or 18 in. high marble Apollo, which got cruelly broken coming on – alas! – and to M.C.G.1 doz. kids[16] – F.C.G. a beautiful Russia leather papeterie & portefeuille[17]; to Sam, an exquisite gilt bronze bill holder, opening like leaves of a book, on a sawhorse stand; to Rege a very “nobby” wallet in gray duck[18] with Russian leather trimmings; to Morris a silvered bronze owl on a gilt stand, with which he is delighted. Indeed we are all delighted with all our gifts.
Lucy had something for everyone – a grand ivory paperknife for Sam, with his monogram on it. Jet earrings for Mary, & Emily Curtis[19] gave her a jet necklace which matches them nicely. Lucy gave Morris a minimum thermom; Rege an oxydz’d silver watch chain & Frank a hanging watch case – of leather, very ornate; and I gave them all, books & ha[nd]k[erchie]fs - &c; also to Mary a sofa cushion wh. I filled up – and I had the mate one wh: Lucy B. filled made up for myself. When Mary’s new couch comes home her old one is to be restuffed & covered for Sam & Rege.
Emily Curtis called for me last evg. to go with them to the Messiah. How we enjoyed the old familiar music I have not heard for years, nor had she. It was finely rendered in every respect.
[1] Hedwiga Regina Shober (1818–1885) was married to Dr. Francis Henry Gray 1844–80. Their children were Francis Calley Gray (1846–1904; Frank, F.C.G.), Mary Clay Gray (1848–1923; M.C.G.), Samuel Shober Gray (1849–1926), Reginald Gray (1853–1904), and Morris Gray (1856–1931). Entries from the Hedwiga Regina Shober Gray diary, R. Stanton Avery Special Collections.
[2] Dr. Gray’s uncle, John Chipman Gray (1793–1881), who married Elizabeth Pickering Gardner in 1820. See also the entry for 26 December.
[3] Cora Weld (1848–1914) and Francis Greenwood Peabody (1847–1936) were married in June 1872.
[4] The household of Dr. Gray’s unmarried siblings Frederic Gray (1815–1877), Anne Eliza Gray (1819–1884), and Ellen Gray (1830–1921).
[5] Myles Birket Foster (1825–1899), the illustrator of Beauties of English Landscape (1862).
[6] The diarist’s best friend, Rebecca Parker Wainwright (1820–1901).
[7] A wallet.
[8] Sarah Frances Loring (1811–1892) married Dr. Gray’s brother William in 1834.
[9] Perhaps Fables de La Fontaine, published in Paris in 1867.
[10] The diarist’s elder sister Mary Morris Shober (1816–1873).
[11] Aspendale (1870) by Harriet Waters Preston (1836–1911).
[12] Mary Gray’s close friend Lucy Bowditch (1850–1918), who married Richard Stone in 1875.
[13] A type of shawl.
[14] The diarist’s younger sister Sarah Morris Shober (1825–1917), who married the Rev. William Phillips Lewis in 1868.
[15] Mrs. Gray’s stepmother Lucy Hall Bradlee (1806–1902) was married to Samuel Lieberkuhn Shober 1830–47.
[16] Gloves.
[17] A box for holding writing paper and a wallet.
[18] A type of canvas.
[19] Another intimate friend: Emeline Matilda Adams (1823–1883), who married Caleb Agry Curtis in 1864.