The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-01-05

one of the poor witches and hang her by the
neck till she be dead and buried ~ and if
recollect Alright, the deputy sheriff Eubjoined
his testimony that he had executed the orders
Of his superior.
And there too, in the upper part Of the CITY,
sharply defined against the sky, rises bleak
and barren, the Gallows Hill In my school
days, | have often wandered over it, and lain
down on the turf where imagined that OR
ancestors executed their viotims-imGgined, |
say; for no one knows the exact spot on the
hill where any of them were put to death As
If by some fit dispensation of fatality, no houses
have till lately been erected on this Gsllows
Hill; but it has ever stood solitary and unin,
habited since the crimes which it witnessed
almost two hundred years ago. But of late
years, superstition has proved no barrier to
profit, and little cottages are gradually being
planted along the hillside, and will before long
cover even the summit.
What qusinter subjects, then could have
employed Hawthorne's pen, than he found in
ancient Salem city Tho witch-iudges char
bers where the courts were held, the legal rec
oTds of the trials, the place of the executions,
the bleak bill whore the almost sanity George
Burroughs suffered, while grim Cotton Mather
rode around the scsfOld, haranguing the people,
and proclaiming to them that the heroic bear
often transformed himself into an angel of
light. All the scenery of the witch tragedy is
in Salem still. Only the actors are wanting.
aad their grave-stones have hardly yet moul-
dered away.
And in the old town there arc a thousand
other relics of the Puritan age of New Eng
land; the tangled knot OF narrow crooked
streets, laid out, they say, according to the cow
paths; the quaint many-gabled houses, stock
ed with stlh-backed, acknowledgements
chairs the low rooms crossed and recrOssed byI
the heavy oaken beams of the frame-w work and
any quantity of furniture which not only pur.
ports to have been drought over in the Nav
flower" but which attests, by It's venerable asl
pect that it did indeed come from England ir.
some nearly as ancient conveyance as that fa+
nous vessel. And there, beneath where nov
stands gray stone church, tradition says th9
the gentle Lady Arabella lies the daughter I
an Earl of Lincoln, who forsook her all in til
Old WOrld-family, friends wealth, high soct
pOsitlon-and came among the frat settler
to New England, with her husband, Riehar
Johnson, foS the sake of religious freedom, an
soon died, her tender frame unable to endur
the cruel hardships of the rough settlers life
tho same gentle Lady Arabella whose stoI
Hawthorne has told in his Grandfather's Chai
times still hnger. Mr.. Upham, in his well
known Lectures on Witchcraft, speaking Ct
the existence of Evolutionary tales concerning
the experiments of our ancestors in didbleris
says:
1t is not probable that larger number Of
traditions Of the kind are to be found, within
similar limits in any part of the world than iDI
the county Of Essex"
And he remarks, still further that this is es.
peciaDy the case in the SEA laring towns whcl
line the coast of The county. But not aloul
legends Of feats in witchcraft. O.hor aacioal
| tales are still told there. | remember o1c.
which may prove not unintereetiug 20 the re..t
ers Of the House Of the Seven Gables
Near the corner Of Essex AM Blckfrd
streets in Salem, stood, until lately, IL &c
square house, built scores Of years ago, III winch
it is said that PyncheOn family once lived,
I the ,s0sd % wh.cB was l,.li51 SfoTI td,5. .,
Godfrey. He had an only daughter Alicc-
very young, and very beautiful, WITH Vhou
young physician Of the town had fallerin lo7o
The physician was poor and tae fatler val
proud and the lady was forbidden to entertain
any thoughts of her lover, and was inbriso ,edI
in her chamber, until at last she pinbd awsyl
and died. On the day of the funeral her fathe1
passing hurriedly down the paved Main str5es
met the lover, and tauntingly asked him, DO
fore the crowd, to become one Of her pall-bcgr
ers; but the answer returned by the physician
was, That he could not bear upCn bis shouiI
dcrs that which lay so near his hearth
It cannot be difficult to trace here, in n 4
flther, the daughter, and tho lover, Hawthorn 1
Geryayse and Alice PyncheOn and Mattho
MauIe. Even the name of the lady has beodI
preserved but over the old story his beauti j
fancy has thrown wierd charm, and has wJ
ven from it most romantic tale.
The curse Of oil Mathew Maule | recogui |
as suggested by the account Of one Of nuul
Der of women who were brought to trial iCI
witehcraft, on Juno 3O.h, 1892 Hatchinsoj
in his History of the Province of Massachuseti
Bay says:
"One of these women being tod at be. ex II
cutiOn, by the minister, MIR. Noyes, tas II
knew she was a witch and therefore advis II
her to confess, she replied, that he lied and h
she tUdS no more tJltcb than he tCGs a trizar8
and If he took array her lJe God gould giJ
him blood to drink" II
And, in a note, he adds: II
"They have tradition among the people I
Salem, that peculiar circumstance attended,
the death Of this gentleman, he having baoi
choked with blood, which makes them suppos
her, if not witch, q Pythouissa st least il
this instance"
Mr. Upham, in his Lectures from which
have once already quoted, tolls substantially
the same story, and attributes the saying Il
Sarah Good The Mr. N0yas referred to wah
junior pastor of the First church at Salem--s
position subsequently occupied by Mr. Uphani
himseIf-and was particularly lrominent in
the delusion Ii is said of him, that ne was
very active to prevent revulsi0n Of tho PUBLIC
mind or even the least diminution Of the popu-
lar violence against the supposed witches"
AT later period, when the excitement was
dispelled, and the people began to. see clearly
their guilt and folly, il IS recorded that he biz
terly repented, and DR.. Bentley speaks of him
thus:
Mr.. Noyea came out and PUBLICLY confessed
his error never excused himself; visited loved,
blessed the survivors whom he had injured |
asked forgiveness always, and consecrated the
residue Of his life to bless mankind"
Although Hawthorne, in bis preface to the
House of the Seven Gables sayB that il was
built "of materials long in use for constructing
castles in the air." stiil, | trust that DO not
commit an objectionable offence If suggest |
what think may probably have been the frame. /
york of this aerial edifce Uncle VenDer's |
farm house, which would in common parlance,
suppose, be called the poor-house, was, il viii /
perhaps be remembered, definitely visible from 4
tne windows OF the Pyncheon mansion and
when first read the House of the Seven Ga
bles, and noticed this fact, | could not but
think that the author must have had in his
mind the thought of most singular Old house
which, until lately, stood cornering on q cross
street at the lower end of the city, directly
overlooking the Salem poor-house and iis farm
q bend of the harbor flowing between. 1t
was spacious mansion, with g many. gabled
root bedecked with all kinds of peaks and pin
nacles, and was very curious specimen of the
architectural ideas of our ancestors remem-