CHAPTER XXII
LIFE AT PLEASANT VIEW—MRS. EDDY PRODUCES MORE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE LITERATURE—FOSTER EDDY IS MADE PUBLISHER OF THE TEXT-BOOK—THE STORY OF HIS FALL FROM FAVOUR—RULE OF SERVICE
When Mrs. Eddy retired to Concord, N. H., in the latter part of 1889, her coming there was little noticed by the townsfolk. Her name, which was well enough known in Boston, Chicago, and Denver, as yet meant almost nothing in the capital of her native state, though her birthplace was scarcely six miles from Concord. Mrs. Eddy lived quietly at 62 State Street for nearly three years. She kept no horses then; she occasionally went about the town on foot, but did not mingle with the townspeople. There was a general impression in the neighbourhood that she was a broken-down Boston spiritualist who had "lost her power." Because, when the chill autumn weather came on, she had her front piazza inclosed in heavy sail-cloth and took her exercise there, it was supposed that she was an invalid. Not until after the dedication of the Mother Church, in Boston, 1895, did Concord people begin to feel an interest in Mrs. Eddy and to speak of her as a public personage.
It was while Mrs. Eddy was living in State Street that she bought the property now known as Pleasant View, and had the modest farmhouse which stood there remodelled into the cheerful, jaunty structure which it is to-day. She added bow-windows and verandas, built a porte-cochère at the front of the house and a tower at the southeast corner. Pleasant View is in Pleasant Street, about a mile and a half west of the centre of the city.
The traditions of mystery and seclusion which of late years have grown up about the place are hard to reconcile with its cheerful aspect. The house stands upon a little knoll, very near the road; the drives and gateway are wide; there are no high fences or shaded walks; the trees are kept closely trimmed, the turf neatly shaven, and the flower-beds are tidy and gay. There is a fountain, and a boat-house, and a fish-pond with a fine clump of willows. The tower rooms, which were occupied by Mrs. Eddy, have large windows looking southward down a narrow valley, at the end of which rise gentle green hills, one above another, their sides covered with fields and woodland which admirably distribute light and shadow. These hills, besides being peaceful and pleasant to the eye, must have had many associations for Mrs. Eddy, for among them lies the farm upon which she was born and where she spent her childhood. Every day for seventeen years Mrs. Eddy could look off toward Bow and measure the distance she had travelled. Whatever an architect or gardener might find to quarrel with at Pleasant View, it was certainly a cheerful place for an old lady to live in, and looked out over the gentlest and friendliest of landscapes.
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PLEASANT VIEW, MRS. EDDY'S HOME IN CONCORD, N. H.
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