November 10 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Francis D. Finlay, of Belfast, Ireland. Sam and Livy had dined with Finlay on their last trip.

“Now one of these days you must come over here. Never mind the sea. Come over in winter, on skates. We are in our new house—& so are the carpenters—but we shall get the latter out, by & by, even if we have to import an epidemic to do it.”

Sam had read an article in the Nov. 2 Hartford Times about the cremation of Lady Katherine Dilke. Cremation was a rather new and controversial procedure, and the narration included gross details, which weren’t even possible for observers to note. Sam was taken back by the process and noted, “I wouldn’t have obeyed her dying injunctions” [MTL 6: 276].

Sam also wrote to Emma Parish, purportedly a cousin. Sam mentioned Henry Watterson, who’d written to say his mother was a Lampton. Sam’s mother was a Kentucky Lampton.

“And to think that only six short months ago I hadn’t a relative in the world to borrow money from. Truly the goodness of God is beyond understanding” [MTL 6: 277].