city amidst noisy surroundings; in the summer he went the rounds
of country hotels and boarding-houses. Even the comparative
independence of his own house never gave him the quiet and
isolation that he craved at times, for there is no household
whose wheels can be instantly adjusted to the needs of one
member. For years MacDowell tried one makeshift after another
until at last in the Log Cabin he found exactly what he needed.

During the last year of MacDowell's life a society was
incorporated under the name of the Edward MacDowell Memorial
Association. The purpose of the society was to establish in
America a fitting memorial to the work and life of the American
composer along lines of MacDowell's own suggestion. A sum of
about thirty thousand dollars had been raised for MacDowell's
benefit. This amount was entrusted to the Association. Mrs.
MacDowell deeded to the Association the farm at Peterborough and
the contents of MacDowell's home. The Association at once
undertook the development of what has since become known as the
"Peterborough idea" and before MacDowell's death had actually
established, in a modest way, a Colony for Creative Artists.



LIFE IN THE COLONY


In an article in the North American Review, Edwin Arlington
Robinson writes: "It is practically impossible for me to say,
even to myself, just what there is about this place that compels
a man to work out the best that there is in him and to be