Europe

Sarah and Annie traveled to Europe together in 1882, 1892, 1898, and 1900. Annie had visited with her late husband James in prior years.

Voyages included stays in England, France, and Italy. Sarah and Annie experienced both the thrills and the inconveniences of travel

In 1882, on a visit to London, they were late for their rooms and so were recommended to another hotel; that establishment too was full and sent them to a third. On the same visit, they dined with a famous Scottish author and assisted in a rehearsal for his family’s production of Twelfth Night.

On their 1892 tour of Europe, first sailing to Italy, they had a rough sea voyage. Sarah wrote to her friend Loulie Dresel about having been pitched out of the bed the first night and winding up with black eyes, and about Annie looking pale. On the same trip, Sarah got tonsillitis. Then, news came that Sarah’s brother-in-law, Edwin Eastman (sister Carrie’s husband) had died unexpectedly. But they enjoyed Genoa and Rome. Sarah loved Venice, where they were called on by Mark Twain, before traveling to France and then England.

This painting Landscape at Cortina by close friend Sarah Wyman Whitman, hangs in Sarah’s bedroom in South Berwick and was likely a reminder of those (mostly) pleasurable trips.