The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-06-06
The Portland of Longfellow's Boynood

The Portland Of Longfellow's Boyhood.
The following passage from Underwood's BIZ
ography OF Longfellow, referring to Portland,
is charming piece of description, preserving
the rich tone, the quaintness and the high-bred
formality of the times that it SO well describes;
At the time of Longfellow's boyhood the
fashions of the revolutionary period were just
passing away. The speech of the people was
homely and infected with the old Yankee ac-
cent. Cows were pastured on MuDjoy hill.
There were few private carriages. A stage con-
veyed passengers to Boston, but much of the
intercourse with other sea coast towns was by
sailing vessels. When, afterward, the young
Longfellows went to college, they made the
journey by coasters through Casco Bay to
Harpswell. The two newspapers were pub
lished weekly. There was no theatre or other
place of amusement but West India rum was
plentiful and in daily use. There were learned
lawyers and clergymen, but it is not probable
that there was much in the intellectual life of
the town to favor the development of poet.
In the towns near the sea-coast, from New
port to Portland, there was great similarity
in domestic architecture. A large number of
the better class of old houses have been torn
down or rebuilt. In Boston and vicinity very
few remain; although in Charlestown, Cam
bridge, Salem, Newburyport, Portsmouth, Ex-
eter, Dover and towns farther east we still be-
hold the typical New England mansion. 1t is
ample in size and stately in form. 1t is associ-
ated with "reminiscences OF ruf1es, shoe buck
les, silver-topped canes, courtly manners and
hospitality. 1t is the house of the judge, the
Continental general, the squire, the prosperous
doctor of divinity or of medicine. or of the
merchant whose ships have brought him spices,
ivory and gold dust from over sea. 1t is gem
orally of three stories, the third being some
what abridged; and the form is quadrangular,
fifty feet on a side. Various extensions and
out-buildings are in the rear, and sometimes on
the sides. The front door opens into wide
hall, from which grand stairway leads to the
upper stories. The hall is wainscoted, and
hung with rather stiff portraits. The stairway
is broad and the steps are wide, giving an easy
ascent to the landings. Twisted and carved
balusters support the handraii, each one
wrought separately in some quaint device.
There are four large square rooms on the
ground floor each with its open fireplace and
deliberately carved mantelpiece. The walls are
thick, like those of fortalice, and the WIN
dows are recessed like embrasures. Those who
are accustomed to the cardboard structures of
our time, whether in the form OF Italian villas,
Swiss chalets, or white pine Gothic, have
strange sensation in visiting these solid dwell
ings There is an air of repose in them, an
idea of amplitude and permanence. One feels
that the builders must have been large-minded
serene men. A fashionable dwelling of fifteen
feet front on the new land of the Back Bay in
Boston furnishes perfect antithesis. The an
Gent houses were well placed, in grounds of
some extent, on the crest of broad natural ell
ovation, or near a grove, with broad grassy
lawns, bordered by elms and oaks, and dotted
with frs and spruces, and with clumps of flow
ering shrubs. The distinguishing features of
the old towns Of New England are still these
superb mansions. They are generally painted
buff or cream-white, having green blinds and
high and heavy chimneys; and in their pictu-
rescue situations and surroundings they give
an almost poetical charm to the landscape.