To Manahatta Whitman

6.22-26 [1878]
Esopus on the Hudson, 80 miles north | of New York
– Saturday June 22

Dear Hattie (& all the rest)
    I came up here last Thursday afternoon in the steamboat from N Y – a fine day, & had a delightful journey – every thing to interest me – the constantly changing but ever beautiful panorama on both sides of the river all the way for nearly 100 miles here – the magnificent north river bay part of the shores of N Y – the high straight walls of the rocky Palisades – the never-ending hills – beautiful Yonkers – the rapid succession of handsome villages & cities – the prevailing green – the great mountain sides of brown & blue rocks – the river itself – the innumerable elegant mansions in spits peeping all along through the woods and shubbery – with the sloops & yachts, with their white sails, singly or in fleets, some near us always, some far off – &c &c &c –
& here I am, this is now the third day having a good time – Mr Burroughs & his wife are both kind as they can be – we have plenty of strawberries, cream &c & something I specially like, namely plenty of sugared raspberries & currants – (I go out & pick the currants myself, great red things, bushels of them going to waste) –