August 16 to 19 Tuesday – James Ahern worked on the plumbing at the Clemens home in Hartford, billing them $11.16 for work done [MTP].

August 15 Friday – Livy wrote her mother of travel plans, which were changed in another letter written this day to Jane Clemens and Pamela Moffett. Livy then wrote they would stay in Edinburgh until “next week when we shall go to Glasgow for a day or two and then sail for Ireland where we shall be for about two weeks and then back to London.” No letters from Sam between Aug. 4 and Sept.

August 11 Monday – From Livy’s diary:

“It is real hard to have the exchange so heavy—think of taking $3000 and only having $2500 when you get here—If I was sure our house would not exceed $20 or $25,000 I would spend more here, because we shall want the things when we get into our new house” [Salsbury 23].

August 8 and 9 Saturday – Sam and Livy visited Abbotsford and Melrose with Alexander Russel (1814-1876), a friend of Dr. John Brown’s, and an editor for the Edinburgh Scotsman, a paper with a circulation of 40,000.

August 6 Wednesday – From Livy’s diary:

“This afternoon at three o’clock Dr. Brown is coming to take us for a drive; he is the most charming old gentleman and I believe grows more and more so all the time” [Salsbury 23].

August 5 Tuesday – Reginald Cholmondeley wrote to Sam: “I shall be happy to see you & Mrs Clemens at the end of August or beginning of September with your little girl & I will ask Tom Hughes & his wife to meet you” [MTP]. Note: This labeled Aug. 6 but date is written over; could be either.

August 4 Monday – Sam wrote from Edinburgh to Edmund H. Yates of the New York Herald objecting to an offensive insertion made into Sam’s Shah letter published July 1. Yates had been at Ostend; was in London on Aug. 2, and then went to Vienna [MTL 5: 430].

August 2 Saturday – Sam telegraphed and then wrote from Edinburgh to Elisha Bliss, telling him to stop the publication of the pamphlet containing the Herald letters. Paragraphs had been added at the paper causing Sam grief and a desire not to have them reprinted by Bliss, something he feared might harm the sale of The Gilded Age [MTL 5: 425].