. American lands and letters. ehad been upon my shelves, and in sending it(1890) to the autlior for consecration at his hands,I ventured to tell him (with the same hardihoodwith which others are now told) that the bookhad been bought in early college days (1837), andhad been read over and over with great glee andliking — that twenty-three years later it had beenread to children at Edgewood, who had shown akindred glee and liking — and that again, thirtyyears later, the same favorite work had been readto grandchildren of the house, who had listenedwith the same old love and relish. Whereupon th
. American lands and letters. ehad been upon my shelves, and in sending it(1890) to the autlior for consecration at his hands,I ventured to tell him (with the same hardihoodwith which others are now told) that the bookhad been bought in early college days (1837), andhad been read over and over with great glee andliking — that twenty-three years later it had beenread to children at Edgewood, who had shown akindred glee and liking — and that again, thirtyyears later, the same favorite work had been readto grandchildren of the house, who had listenedwith the same old love and relish. Whereupon the genial master of verse returnedthe book, with the authentication of his kindlyhand upon it, and one of the charming notelets ANCESTRY OF HOLMES. 335 which slipped so easily from his pen. I ventureto excerpt a line or two — . Laudare a laudato is always pleasing, and this request of yours is the most delicate piece of flattery — ifI may use the -word in its innocent sense — that I have re-ceived for a long The Gambrel-roofed House in Cambridge in which was Born. Our good friend, Dr. Holmes (and all the read-ing world has a right to speak of him thus), wasthe son of an old style Connecticut clergyman,who had been bred among the rough pastures ofWindham County, and had been educated at Yale, 336 AMERICAN LANDS &^ LETTERS. but was afterward translated to Cambridge, wherehe had a church, and a gambrel-roof ed house—nowgone—but perpetuated by such particular and ten-der mention on the part of the distinguished son,who was born under its shelter, that we have planteda good picture of it on these pages. This sonwhen he printed his first book of poems wastwenty-seven; he had graduated at Harvard withexcellent scholarly stand in the class of ^29—thesame year on which that sturdy Federalist,* JosiahQuincy, succeeded to President Kirkland, andgave a sagacious government to the college—as hehad already given good municipal order, and agood Market-house
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