July 25 Friday – By this date Sam’s entourage had arrived in Edinburgh. They stayed at Veitch’s Hotel [MTL 5: 420n1]. Livy wrote to Alice Hooker Day who evidently had asked if Sam would lecture solely for Hartford, and allow her to handle the performance. Livy kindly explained it was a “great labor” to prepare a lecture and that she didn’t know if Sam would lecture at all next season. Livy added that it was quieter in Edinburgh than in London, and that Susy was healthy:

“My baby can walk all about the room by taking hold of my finger; she has been perfectly well all the time” [ALS, Stowe-Day Library, Hartford].

During their stay in Edinburgh, Sam purchased a twelve-foot carved oak mantelpiece, which came from a castle belonging to the Mitchell-Innes family. The elaborate and enormous piece was crated and shipped back to Hartford to be used in the library of the new house [Salsbury 22].

Also on or about this day, Sam wrote from Edinburgh to John Menzies, possibly a distribution agent:

“My Dear Mr. Menzies, / Robert Routledge sent me this, but in the hurry of leaving London I thrust it into my pocket with the other unread letters & never opened it till now. It is rather late, but still I will leave to drop it in the post or leave it myself tomorrow” [MTP, drop-in letters].