The Republican journal., 1896-09-03

ticle over the fireplace in which the
uncle
"having ceased his pipe to smoke,
Knocked from It's bowl the refuse gray
And laid it tenderly away"
set of old fashioned foot stoves, and
even the
"bull's eye watch that hung in view"
these help to bring the beautiful poem
home to the visitor with peculiar, al
most sacred vividness. At the back of
the house is the we'll with its long sweep.
This when covered with snow
In its slant splendor seemed to tell
of Fisa's leaning miracle"
A few rods away is the brook often
spoken of in the poems. In corner of
the back field are the graves of Whittier
ancestors. His father and mother rest
here with him in the churchyard at Ames-
bury. At the front of the house is a
stone wall. 1t was in front Of this that
a row of bee hives stood. The exquisite
little piece Telling the Bees tells how
Whittier came down the hill and saw the
chore girl
"draping each hive with shred of black.
For | knew she was telling the bees of one
Gone on the journey we all must 60"
Some quarter of mile above the house is
a magnificent elm, where the poet used
frequently to sit musing or writing. 1t is
appropriately called ''Whittier's Elm
Not far from this is the site of the school
house, which stood like
"a ragged beggar summing
by the roadside.
In and around the city are many places
mentioned in his poems A small pond
about half a mile from the homestead is
known as "Suicde Pond" II 1919 a
Miss Hannah Chase drowned herself there.
one of Whittier's poems deals with this
incident. Lake kenoza, from which comes
part of the city water supply, was named
| by the poet. The title signifies ''lake of
the pickerel'' and was given this pretty
piece of water in place of the less poetic
| "Great Pond" A row Of enormous Old
| buttonwood trees fronting the river are
| the ones spoken of in The Sycamores. ="
| Near the old Garrison house above men
/ toned is small cemetery. Here is buried
/ the Countess and Dr. Elliott the early
lover OF Harriet Livermore.
| A few days since | visited the old Rocky
| Hill church, about two miles from Ames-
| bury 1t was built in 1855 and stands I'M
changed. The interior is just as it was
over century ago. High backed pews;
seats on hinges for the convenience of the
congregation which stood during the long
prayer; pulpit elevated far above the floor,
level and covered with a huge sounding
board. No drop of paint has ever touch
ed the wood and the faded brown boards
add much to the quaintness OF it all.
On the return drank at wayside well,
which had been arranged for the comfort
of travellers. This | am told is the ''Cap-
tain's Well, "whose romantic origin is tod
i by Whittier in poem of the same name.
''The River Path" ''June by the Merri
| mack and other of his poems have glori-
| fed the hills and streams of this section
and give to them that charm which it is
the office of art to add to nature.
The principal square Of the city is
named for the Father Of his Country. A
hundred years ago Washington stood at
the junction of Little river with the Mer-
rimac in the freshness of an autumn
morning; the hills now covered with
HOY brnWn the SOa1lar
stream mingling with the greater and
both fastening to the sea, the whole
backed by the primeval forest; no fairer
prospect had met his eye in ''this goodly
and the place where he lodged, now the
site of City Hall, the porch on which he
rested waiting for the ferry, as well as the
locii of his embarkation on this and dis
embarkation on that side the river, are
religiously pointed out to the stranger
who comes within our gates.
Washington square with its new Gov
eminent building, its park, its solid
blocks of stores and its pavements worn
with the ceaseless tread of traffic, was
prior to 1910 the camping ground of the
Pautucket Indians. The original deed
from these Indians bounded the grant OF
land eight miles westward, six miles east
ward and six miles northward from this
place.
BENZ. Greenleaf, the mathematician and
author of the Greenleaf arithmetics, was
born in Haverhill in 1886. Harriet At
wood Newell, the young missionary to
India, was born on the spot now covered
by the High school building. In this city
also Gen. VIM. F. Bartlett first saw the
! light.
} have written enough, perhaps, to show
; that this city is not wanting in objects Of
historic and poetic interest. Nor are we