Channing, the poet, whose wife was a sister of Margaret Fuller. They are
frequently mentioned in Hawthorne's and his wife's letters from the Old
Manse. Pratt's cottage was in a quiet, delightful location; and in the
family George Curtis found himself quite at home.

Curtis made a very pleasant impression in Concord, for he was social in
his ways, paid much deference to others, and always exemplified a fine
etiquette. The brothers are remembered by one person who then knew them as
having no mannerisms, and as being perfect gentlemen. His article on
Emerson, in the "Homes of American Authors," gave much offence in the
town, and by Mrs. Alcott, as well as others, was warmly resented. He was
exact enough as to facts, but he drew from them wrong inferences. He
afterwards said that there was nothing romantic in his paper, and that
every incident mentioned was an actual occurrence. He had letters from
Emerson and Hawthorne before he wrote his papers on those two authors, to
enable him to verify certain details.

The relations of Curtis and Hawthorne were cordial if not intimate. In a
letter to Hawthorne, written from Europe, Curtis said: "Does Mrs.
Hawthorne yet remember that she sent me a golden key to the studio of
Crawford, in Rome? I shall never forget that, nor any smallest token of
her frequent courtesy in the Concord days." In another letter to Hawthorne
he speaks of Concord as "our old home, which is very placid and beautiful
in my memory." In his paper on Hawthorne, in the "Homes of American
Authors," Curtis gave an interesting account of his acquaintance with that
reticent genius during these Concord days:

"There glimmer in my memory a few hazy days, of a tranquil and
half-pensive character, which I am conscious were passed in and around the
house, and their pensiveness I know to be only that touch of twilight