Three O'Clock Tour

When you have guests, you get to do some of those things that you always meant to do but never get round to. So today we went to the Longfellow House in Cambridge, the former home of the nineteenth century poet and giant of the American literary landscape. Longfellow's wealthy father-in-law bought the house as a wedding present; Longfellow had rented rooms here while a professor of languages at Harvard and must have fallen in love with it. He was particularly proud of the fact that George Washington used the house as his campaign headquarters during the siege of Boston (1775/6).

Mindful of his place in the nation's history, Longfellow's children and grandchildren meticulously preserved most of the house and it's furnishings for posterity. Now it's run by the National Parks Service who give a fabulous hour long tour and it's absolutely free.

I don't know anything about the provenance of the sundial in the garden, but it's a good subject and the time was spot on.

Longfellow House, Cambridge, Massachusetts