The Portland daily press., 1881-08-15
"Grass Grown" Concord!
Some Of the Noted Sights in the famous
old Town Described anew.

CoOperS novels and finish them at Lake
George. But at Concord one has to read Ii
brary of books to gather up all the associations
with the varied points OF interest. To these
are added every attractiveness which the pride
| OF Concord can give them. A sort of Sunday
clothes air invests the whole village, as if COM
pany might be expected at any moment and
every house must be ready in clean pinafore
The carefully shorn grounds lie open, the flow
| er beds have appropriate bloom, the rustic
seats and hauimocks are artistically grouped,
| and knots of ladies sit under the trees reading
| and darning stockings Everything is so swept
and garnished that in opening letter on the
| street without thought one puts the scraps of
paper in the pocket instead of throwing them
| by the roadside. No whir of machinery is
heard as in most New England towns, and
business hides itself as much as possible
The dressmaker puts modest sign behind the
most remote window, and the only sign of the
milliner's calling is solitary bonnet half hid
den behind the vines. The necessity seems to
be laid on every to be aesthetic, as if life in
Concord was spent altogether in "culling the
flowers of culture to make use of phrase
heard.
If one might venture it, the overtowering
presence of a few men has always a dwarfing
influence on the people about them, and the
strained efforts to be in keeping with them is
after all accompanied by a depressing and
hopeless sense Of insignifcance. 1t must be
said, however, that this does rot appear in
Concord in its intercourse with the stranger.
For the pride of Concord in its greatness the
stranger cannot be too grateful. In every
direction are charming walks aud drives, each
answering to the most romantic expectations.
One of the most suggestive of these walks is
under the beautiful elms of Main street. Hav-
ing passed rows of pretty houses and well kept
grounds, at the remote end stands the old
manse, brown and venerable behind its ave-
nue. of lofty elms. On the other side lies a
broad, sunny lawn, an unbroken expanse of
grass to the stone wall where the road turns
Here one enters an avenue of pines through
which no ray of sun penetrates In a short
walk from this spot one enters among the
most varied associations, and the ima gination
kindles into life. There is but one 9th er place
in all this broad country by which it can be
paralleled. That, too, is in Concord. At the end
of this avenue stands the granite monument
which marks the first shot of the Revolution.
the battle of April 10, ITO, which Mrs. E IRA
Ripley watched from the windows of the old
manse. Two sunken stones by the old wall,
carefully enclosed by chains, indicate the
graves of the British soldiers who fell that
day, and granite slab set in the wall records
the fact. Across the rustic bridge which spans
the Concord stands the monument which cele-
brates the day.
Curtis says there are few towns that could
furnish the action, the sculptor and the poet
The statue is by French, Concord man, son
of one Of the several branches connected with
the treasury at Washington. 1t is the figure
in bronze of the "Minute-Man." One hand
rests on the plough, the other grasps his gun
and the figure is as alert as if the ear had Just
caught the sound of the opening gun. The
face is a noble, manly type, not belonging par
England, nor does the figure correspond to the
Yankee structure. But as a whole the concep-
tion satisfies thoroughly the men whose valor
it commentaries. Below are inscribed Emer-
sons noble lines
'By the rude bridge that arched the food,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fred the shot heard round the world.'
Here the road encircling the statue ends,
and one returns to the pretty rustic bridge
For the lotererS' comfort she bridge curves in
to spaces for rustic seats. On these one watches
the dark flowing waters of the "grass-grown'
Concord creeping through the meadows Be-
hind the hemlocks of the old manse are an
chored gay pleasure boats. Here among the
grasses Hawthorne used to lie with a chosen
friend, hiding to escape the eyes of an unwel-
come wanderer. Up and down he, with Curtis,
in boat searched for the body Of the young
girl who threw herself into the river to escape
the WEAKNESS of life, and whose death was
trasmuted into the tragic end of Zenobia
CHANGING beyond the trees to the vine-clad
gables of the old manse are the windows
through which Emerson paused from his work
to look at the smiling view about him. Here
the essay ON Nature" was written, and the
essays gathered under the heading of "Society
and Solitude" From the same pleasant out.
look Hawthorne wrote the "Mosses from an
Old Manse," and here through several years
grew and ripened into perfection in his mind
the romance of 'The Scarlet Letter. In one
of the rooms the learned Mrs. Margaret Ripley
is said to have kneaded bread, rocked the era
die and talked Greek all at once, and under;its
roof thousands of sermons were brought forth
by Revs. Ezra Ripley and William Emerson
Hawthorne is gone, and Emerson lives in a
dreamy world apart; the wise Mrs. Margaret
and the prolific divines are long ago crumbled
into dust, but the old manse is yet hale and
picturesque, opens wide its hospitable doors,
and entertains the present generation at es-
thetic teas and with fitting philosophio gave
ties. ttsn
Not only the mind is filled, but up and down
wherever the eye fingers it is enchanted with
the beauty of the scene. Hawthorne himself
writes of these meadows, "The heart reposes
on them with feeling that few things else
can give-a meadow stretches out like a small
infnity, yet with a secure homeliness which
we do not find either in expanse of water or
air."
Under the arch below he and Thoreau float
ed among the pond lilies in the Musketaquid,
which is the Indian name of the Concord that
Thoreau gave to his boat, and here Thoreau
started on his journey Of exploration down the
Concord and up. the Merrimac, making the
acquaintance of the birds, insects, fish and
reedy plants which told him all their secrets
The village is full of strangers, and this spot
is the Mecca to which every head is turned.
Retracing the steps, one passes through the
village along the Lexington road through
which the British marched and retreated, fol-
lowed by the victorious Americans following the
brow of the hill with remorseless fire.
The Hillside Chapel overhangs this road at
the other end Of the town. Below stands the
old brown house known as Orchard House,
which is the old home of the Alcotts, now oc-
cupied by Professor Harris, but under the great
elms Alcott still loves to linger. Against one
of these is deep, round, rustic seat, and above
little bracket where every day friendly
squirrel comes to feed. On the hill above he
points with pride to the groves of noble trees
which his own hands planted, and over the
grounds are the rustic seats contrived through
his skill. The younger people find their inter-
est in the upper southeast room, for there 'sLit-
house is the steep hill where with burdens on
their backs they played at "Pilgrims Progress
Every step here is filled with association Rose
Garfield lived just below, in the old Alcott
house dwelt Robert Hagburn, and above lived
Septimius FELTON,. In the opening paragraphs
of this, Hawthornes last book, there are no at
tempts to disguise the locality. The Way
side House was Hawthorne's own home. Writ
ing under its roof one feels like hiding under
the bed for very shame.
The house was bought from Mr. Alcott and
enlarged. 1t is gabled house, with low cell
lngs and unsuspected rooms, filled with quaint
furniture and evidences of artistic tastes. Ey-
erywhere are books Not that they are numer-
GUS, but they are always at hand. In the little
library below one puts forth an idle hand and
takes up a book and finds the name "Nath.
Hawthorne" as it is always written in the fad
ed ink One of the later additions to the house
is the tower room known as "The Study"
Here are collected a few pieces of furniture,
an old wooden rocking-chair, and the desk at
which Hawthorne used to write. 1t is simply
a lid with two shelves above, and at which he
stood and wrote, with a window at his back.
Every day brings reverential pilgrims. 1t is
beautiful to see the loving regard in which
Hawthorne is held. That shy personality
which escaped the stranger in life is held the
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