October 12 Saturday – Sam wrote from London to Livy.

I have been thinking and thinking, Livy darling, & I have decided that one of 2 or 3 things must be done: either you must come right over here for 6 months; or I must go right back home 3 or 4 weeks hence & both of us come here April 1 & stay all summer. But I am not going abroad any more without you. It is too dreary when the lights are out & the company gone [MTL 5: 196].

October 10 Thursday – The Hartford Evening Post printed a summary of Sam’s grievance letter about John Camden Hotten (see Sept. 25 entry) [MTL 5: 179].

October 7 Monday – Bill paid to E.D. Roberts, stoves, ranges and furnaces; for “2nd hand cylinder stove,” and parts $16.48 [MTP]. Livy was often frugal with the money when Sam was away. Purchasing a used stove reflects this. Hatch & Tyler delivered coal to the Clemens home [MTP].

October 6 Sunday – Sam wrote from London to Moncure D. Conway, declining an invitation to Stratford to enjoy the hospitality of Charles Edward Flower (1805-1883), wealthy retired brewery owner and four-time mayor of Stratford-on-Avon. Sam and Livy would accept another invitation in 1873 [MTL 5: 195-6].

October 5 Saturday – Sam wrote from London To Charles Dudley Warner, all about the toast he’d given at the Sheriff’s Dinner. Sam was surprised at the reception received when his name was announced. He claimed to be “No. 75 in a list of 250 guests,” and the only name to receive a “spontaneous welcome,” that “completely knocked” him out. “I didn’t know I was a lion,” he wrote [MTL 5: 191-2].

October 4 Friday – In the evening Sam telegraphed from London to Henry Lee that 1 PM the next day would be acceptable to meet. “The best way will be not to get up till one. If you don’t find me at breakfast, skip right up in the lift” [MTL 5: 191].

October 3 Thursday – Sam wrote from London to Livy. Sam had received word that “poor old faithful Riley” had died. Isabella Beecher Hooker had supposedly retired from public life (she hadn’t), and Sam expressed how lovely Oxford struck him during a visit there [MTL 5: 188].

October 1 Tuesday – Bill paid for The Farmington Creamery Co., $9.50 for milk & cream deliveries made Sept. 6, 13, 20, 27 [MTP].

September 29–October 3 Thursday – Sam visited Magdalen College in Oxford sometime between these dates. The college was founded in 1458 and was remarkable for its 145-foot tower [MTL 5: 614n64]. (See Oct. 17, 1874 entry for article, “Magdalen Tower” that Sam wrote for The Shotover Papers, Or Echoes from Oxford.)