Morning journal and courier., 1889-09-14
OLD NEW ENGLAND INNS.

To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 I have often wondered why the many old inns of New England have not received the same attention from American novelists that were given those of old England by Scott, Dickens and Thaokery. Some of the tender est memories cling about them. They are rich in that sweet and unctuous life of the remote stage-coaching days, so rapidly being forgotten. The grand and sturdy half-Pur tan aristocracy of yore still gives their crouching forms certain stately air and flavor. And much American history is written beneath the oobwebs of their faded ceilings and erumbling walls. One visits them to-day and longs for some great brained American to copae and throw aside the creak- ing shutters that the sun of genius may flood fin upon their dingy rooms until it shall revive and preserve for Americans a tithe of the real romance every one possesses.
 But one of all these old New England inns has been truly and properly preserved in lit- erature. That one least of all deserved it for its inherent value to the writer, or proper place as relic of A American social antiqui- ty. That the true and tender measure of the master-sinRer, Longfellow, gave this one old roadside tavern such universal American recognition is best proof how half an hundred of its hale, rugged fellows could be given literary restoration which would end in preserving them as loved shrinss fin tray ell, and still richer Meccas in mind and heart. For who, though he has never seen it, does not know old Sudbury Inn, the Red Horse "Wayside Inn" of Longfellow's most color ful and tuneful oreations But week ago it stood there in the first autumn days, just as in years agone.
 kind of old Hobgobln Hall
 Now somewhat fallen to decay,
 With weather stains upon the wall,
 And creaking and uneven floors,
 And chimneys huge and tiled and tall;
 Deep silence reigned, save where gust
 Went rushing down the country road.
 And skeletons of leaves, and dust
 shuddered and danced their dance of death, And through the ancient oaks o'erhead
 Mysterious voices moaned and fled.
 Get down your ''Longfellow," and read l over all that sweet prelude to 'Tales of a l Wayside Inn. Then close your eyes and you
 will see in thought old Sudbury tavern just
 as you would find it, if you came thousand | LUlleS LO S6o It, Wull0 you Lubuk uchNca buoS
 that one American man who had both the patriotism and genius to paint American pictures for endless keeping.
 Two famous old New England inns, re-
 gently destroyed by fire and worthy to be re- called, were the Hyde Tavern, of Revolu-
 tionary fame, near Norwich, Connecticut. l and the historic inn known as the Oxford
 House, at Fryeburg, Maine. The former
 was burned in March of last year, and the latter just month earlier. Hyde Tavern ] was one of the most ancient and famous re-
 sorts in New England, situated on the old postroad to Hartford, the road over which l Lafayette and his army passed and in this
 old hostelry Lafayette and his officers dined
 during the Revolutionary war. It was a
 typical old fashioned New England tavern,
 with a large green in front, surrounded by gigantic elms, many of which were one
 hundred feet high. The struggling, one
 story structure had a low, sway back, moss
 covered roof with huge caves covering and
 projecting over wide versnda extending
 the whole length of the inn. Washington
 and his officers, recognizing It's antiquity and
 fame, shortly after the Revolution visited 1 the noble old tavern and ate, drank, danced
 and held high carnival within it. But the
 greatest fame enjoyed by the ancient hostel- ry was for it's wonderful cider "hips." Eve " good fellow of olden and modern times from Boston to Albany, and from New York '
 was able to boast of having partaken of
 these. An iron rod nearly three feet long was heated to a white heat in the glowing | coals of the fireplace, the latter so large that
 Il whole bullock could have been "barDe
 cued" within it, and then plunged in fagons
 of cider and drank off while still sputtering ! and sizzling from the heat The old Oxford ) House at Fryeburg, Maine, was huge ram
 bling affair, big as 0 church, covered with dormer windows, fronted with huge tive
 story verandas surrounded by mammoth
 trees, and provided with numberless hooks crannies, cupboards and delightful corners
 in fact a labyrinth of quaintness and repose ! It was the ancient great stage coach resor between Portland and the White Mountains
 and it's wondrous good cheer and bounteous'
 ness, as well as its remarkable housekeeper
 Molly Brewster, a direct descendant of Elder Brewster of the Mayfower, were the prid' , and boast of all northern New England Fryeburg folk, however, set the greates
 store by the fact that the old Oxford Hous was once the home of Daniel Webster. Jus eighty -seve years ago Webster became prin cipal of the little Fryeburg academy, his sti pend permitting him to board, and in som
 degree of state for those times, at the thel , ancient Oxford House. History is silent ol the subject, bat Webster's room at the taverl r was so frequently pervaded with the fascina
 ting odor of New England rum that man, | attracted thither; and village legends have r that many saturnalia was held within 1t barred windows and doors. An old, ol ! Fryeburger with whom l conversed, an @ whose elder brother had been a pupil uude - | Webster, recalled the fact that when tn :God like Daniel' appeared on Monda ' mornings "with about three inches CT rul ], as a brscsr," his voice was like 8 clap C @ thunder: and the orations on moral rect .- tude, with which under these circumstance he always prefaced his weekly duties, wei l. something so stentorian and awful that th a horn of the stage announcing the mid da s arrival was "clean beat out" by the pedi o ! gopue's tremendous roarings.
 In Springfield, Massachusetts, are sti IS standing some very ancient New Englan e inns, and, if mistake not, one of these
 the oldest American building now extan
 originally built for a public house. Th ;- old relic, at the corner of Dwight and Sar .s ford streets, is now in the neighborhood ( ,- structures nearly as woebegone as itself, br }, Just two hundred and twenty-four years az # the court licensed Nathaniel Ely to keep a f. "ordinary," or Ca house for common entel ,f taynment, also for selling wines and stron "A liouors," and at the same time released hil 's from "trayning in ye Town so long as | a continues to keep ye ordinary" No gres IF deeds seem to have come of record in th h peaked roof, dilapidated old structur' u neither Washington or Lafayette ever lodge J. in it; but it's great age of nearly quarter ( d @ thousand years entitle 1t to luminoI IF place among old New England inns. Gene ral Washington, however, while on his tor D of inspection through New England, di ., tarry in another old tavern of Springfield y which is still one of the prized antiquities ia that beautiful city. This once famous hoi ', telry known as the Parsons Tavern-its lsn' l. lord, old Zenas Parsons, being famo' re character in New England one hundred yea r. ago-though now in disgrace and dilapid ", tion, is still picturesque example of col 'A nial architecture. It once stood in pride ar o. glory over against Court Square; and Jam
 Monroe early in his presidency honored it guest. In those days, and for half eel of tury before, the famous attractions of Pa Id sons Tavern werein that it stood in full vie o. of Springield's whipping post, and that
 "fip" irons were nearly as long and hug he and it's "cider fips" quite as enthralling, of those of the noted Hyde Tavern at.Norwic cd There are two very old New England in