The Project Gutenberg eBook ofWhittier-land

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofWhittier-landThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Whittier-landAuthor: Samuel T. PickardRelease date: August 22, 2009 [eBook #29754]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by K. Nordquist, Diane Monico, and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHITTIER-LAND ***

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Whittier-landAuthor: Samuel T. PickardRelease date: August 22, 2009 [eBook #29754]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by K. Nordquist, Diane Monico, and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

Title: Whittier-land

Author: Samuel T. Pickard

Release date: August 22, 2009 [eBook #29754]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by K. Nordquist, Diane Monico, and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHITTIER-LAND ***

(cover)

SAMUEL T. PICKARD

By Samuel T. PickardWHITTIER-LAND. Illustrated. 12mo, $1.00net. Postage 9 cents.LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. With Portraits and other Illustrations. 2 vols. crown 8vo, gilt top, $4.00.One-Volume Edition. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, $2.50.HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANYBoston and New York

By Samuel T. Pickard

WHITTIER-LAND. Illustrated. 12mo, $1.00net. Postage 9 cents.

LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. With Portraits and other Illustrations. 2 vols. crown 8vo, gilt top, $4.00.

One-Volume Edition. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, $2.50.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANYBoston and New York

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER From an ambrotype taken about 1857JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIERFrom an ambrotype taken about 1857

A Handbook of North Essex

CONTAINING MANY ANECDOTES OF AND POEMSBY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIERNEVER BEFORE COLLECTED

BYSAMUEL T. PICKARDAuthor of "Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier"ILLUSTRATED WITH MAP AND ENGRAVINGS

The Riverside Press

BOSTON AND NEW YORKHOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANYThe Riverside Press Cambridge

This volume is designed to meet a call from tourists who are visiting the Whittier shrines at Haverhill and Amesbury in numbers that are increasing year by year. Besides describing the ancestral homestead and its surroundings, and the home at Amesbury, an attempt is made to answer such questions as naturally arise in regard to the localities mentioned by Whittier in his ballads of the region. Many anecdotes of the poet and several poems by him are now first published. It is with some hesitancy that I have ventured to add a chapter upon a phase of his character that has never been adequately presented: I refer to his keen sense of humor. It will be understood that none of the impromptu verses I have given to illustrate his playful moods were intended by him to be seen outside a small circle of friends and neighbors. This playfulness, however, was so much a part of his character from boyhood to old age that I think it deserves some record such as is here given.

For those who are interested to inquire to whom refer passages in such poems as "Memories," "My Playmate," and "A Sea Dream," I now feel at liberty to give such information as could not properly be given at the time when I undertook the biography of the poet.

If any profit shall be derived from the sale of this book, it will be devoted to the preservation and care of the homes here described, which will ever be open to such visitors as love the memory of Whittier.

S. T. P.

Whittier Home, Amesbury, Mass.,March, 1904.

MAP OF WHITTIER-LAND KEY:— 1. The Whittier Birthplace. 2. Joshua Coffin's School, in house now occupied by Thomas Guild. Scene of poem "To My Old Schoolmaster." 3. Site of District School. Scene of "In School Days." 4. Job's Hill. 5. East Haverhill Church. 6. Cemetery referred to in "The Old Burying Ground." 7. The Sycamores. 8. Ramoth Hill. 9. Hunting Hill. 10. Grave of the Countess. 11. Country Bridge. 12. Site of Thomas Whittier's Log House. 13. Birchy Meadow, where Whittier taught school. 14. Home of Sarah Greenleaf. 15. Home of Dr. Elias Weld and of the Countess, Rocks Village. 16. "Old Garrison," the Peaslee House. 17. Rocks Bridge. 18. Curson's Mill, Artichoke River. 19. Pleasant Valley. 20. The Laurels. 21. Site of "Goody" Martin's House. 22. Whittier Burial Lot, Union Cemetery. 23. Macy House. 24. The Captain's Well. 25. Friends' Meeting-House, Amesbury. 26. Whittier Home, Amesbury. 27. Hawkswood. 28. Deer Island, Chain Bridge, home of Mrs. Spofford. 29. Rocky Hill Church. 30. The Fountain, Mundy Hill. 31. House at Hampton Falls, where Whittier died. 32. Scene of "The Wreck of Rivermouth." 33. Boar's Head.MAP OF WHITTIER-LANDKEY:—

1. The Whittier Birthplace.2. Joshua Coffin's School, in house now occupied by Thomas Guild.Scene of poem "To My Old Schoolmaster."3. Site of District School. Scene of "In School Days."4. Job's Hill.5. East Haverhill Church.6. Cemetery referred to in "The Old Burying Ground."7. The Sycamores.8. Ramoth Hill.9. Hunting Hill.10. Grave of the Countess.11. Country Bridge.12. Site of Thomas Whittier's Log House.13. Birchy Meadow, where Whittier taught school.14. Home of Sarah Greenleaf.15. Home of Dr. Elias Weld and of the Countess, Rocks Village.16. "Old Garrison," the Peaslee House.17. Rocks Bridge.18. Curson's Mill, Artichoke River.19. Pleasant Valley.20. The Laurels.21. Site of "Goody" Martin's House.22. Whittier Burial Lot, Union Cemetery.23. Macy House.24. The Captain's Well.25. Friends' Meeting-House, Amesbury.26. Whittier Home, Amesbury.27. Hawkswood.28. Deer Island, Chain Bridge, home of Mrs. Spofford.29. Rocky Hill Church.30. The Fountain, Mundy Hill.31. House at Hampton Falls, where Whittier died.32. Scene of "The Wreck of Rivermouth."33. Boar's Head.

WHITTIER'S BIRTHPLACE Copyright, 1891, by A. A. OrdwayWHITTIER'S BIRTHPLACECopyright, 1891, by A. A. Ordway

The whole valley of the Merrimac, from its source among the New Hampshire hills to where it meets the ocean at Newburyport, has been celebrated in Whittier's verse, and might well be called "Whittier-Land." But the object of these pages is to describe only that part of the valley included in Essex County, the northeastern section of Massachusetts. The border line separating New Hampshire from the Bay State is three miles north of the river, and follows all its turnings in this part of its course. For this reason each town on the north of the Merrimac is but three miles in width. It was on this three-mile strip that Whittier made his home for his whole life. His birthplace in Haverhill was his home for the first twenty-nine years of his life. He lived in Amesbury the remaining fifty-six years. The birthplace is in the East Parish of Haverhill, three miles from the City Hall, and three miles from what was formerly the Amesbury line. It is nearly midway between the New Hampshire line and the Merrimac River. In 1876 the township of Merrimac was formed out of the western part of Amesbury, and this new town is interposed between the two homes, which are nine miles apart.

Haverhill, Merrimac, Amesbury, and Salisbury are each on the three-mile-wide ribbon of land stretching to the sea, on the left bank of the river. On the opposite bank are Bradford, Groveland, Newbury, and Newburyport.The whole region on both sides of the river abounds in beautifully rounded hills formed of glacial deposits of clay and gravel, and they are fertile to their tops. At many points they press close to the river, which has worn its channel down to the sea-level, and feels the influence of the tides beyond Haverhill. This gives picturesque effects at many points. The highest of the hills have summits about three hundred and sixty feet above the surface of the river, and there are many little lakes and ponds nestling in the hollows in every direction. In the early days these hills were crowned with lordly growths of oak and pine, and some of them still retain these adornments. But most of the summits are now open pastures or cultivated fields. The roofs and spires of prosperous cities and villages are seen here and there among their shade trees, and give a human interest to the lovely landscape. It is not surprising that Whittier found inspiration for the beautiful descriptive passages which occur in every poem which has this river for theme or illustration:—

"Stream of my fathers! sweetly stillThe sunset rays thy valley fill;Poured slantwise down the long defile,Wave, wood, and spire beneath them smile."

RIVER PATHRIVER PATH

Here is a description of the scenery of the Merrimac valley by Mr. Whittier himself, in a review of Rev. P. S. Boyd's "Up and Down the Merrimac," written for a journal with which I was connected, and never reprinted until now:—

"The scenery of the lower valley of the Merrimac is not bold or remarkably picturesque, but there is a great charm in the panorama of its soft green intervales: its white steeples rising over thick clusters of elms and maples, its neat villages on the slopes of gracefully rounded hills, dark belts of woodland, and blossoming or fruited orchards, which would almost justify the words of one whoformerly sojourned on its banks, that the Merrimac is the fairest river this side of Paradise. Thoreau has immortalized it in his 'Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.' The late Caleb Cushing, who was not by nature inclined to sentiment and enthusiasm, used to grow eloquent and poetical when he spoke of his native river. Brissot, the leader of the Girondists in the French Revolution, and Louis Philippe, who were familiar with its scenery, remembered it with pleasure. Anne Bradstreet, the wife of Governor Bradstreet, one of the earliest writers of verse in New England, sang of it at her home on its banks at Andover; and the lovely mistress of Deer Island, who sees on one hand the rising moon lean above the low seahorizon of the east, and on the other the sunset reddening the track of the winding river, has made it the theme and scene of her prose and verse."

HAVERHILL ACADEMYHAVERHILL ACADEMY

The visitor who approaches Whittier-Land by the way of Haverhill will find in that city many places of interest in connection with the poet's early life, and referred to in his poems. The Academy for which he wrote the ode sung at its dedication in 1827, when he was a lad of nineteen, and before he had other than district school training, is now the manual training school of the city, and may be found, little changed except by accretion, on Winter Street, near the city hall. As this ode does not appear in any of his collected works, and is certainly creditable as a juvenile production, it is given here. It was sung to the air of "Pillar of Glory:"—

Hail, Star of Science! Come forth in thy splendor,Illumine these walls—let them evermore beA shrine where thy votaries offerings may tender,Hallowed by genius, and sacred to thee.Warmed by thy genial glow,Here let thy laurels growGreenly for those who rejoice at thy name.Here let thy spirit rest,Thrilling the ardent breast,Rousing the soul with thy promise of fame.Companion of Freedom! The light of her story,Wherever her voice at thine altar is knownThere shall no cloud of oppression come o'er thee,No envious tyrant thy splendor disown.Sons of the proud and freeJoyous shall cherish thee,Long as their banners in triumph shall wave;And from its peerless heightNe'er shall thy orb of lightSink, but to set upon Liberty's grave.Smile then upon us; on hearts that have neverBowed down 'neath oppression's unhallowed control.Spirit of Science! O, crown our endeavor;Here shed thy beams on the night of the soul;Then shall thy sons entwine,Here for thy sacred shrine,Wreaths that shall flourish through ages to come,Bright in thy temple seen,Robed in immortal green,Fadeless memorials of genius shall bloom.

Companion of Freedom! The light of her story,Wherever her voice at thine altar is knownThere shall no cloud of oppression come o'er thee,No envious tyrant thy splendor disown.Sons of the proud and freeJoyous shall cherish thee,Long as their banners in triumph shall wave;And from its peerless heightNe'er shall thy orb of lightSink, but to set upon Liberty's grave.

Smile then upon us; on hearts that have neverBowed down 'neath oppression's unhallowed control.Spirit of Science! O, crown our endeavor;Here shed thy beams on the night of the soul;Then shall thy sons entwine,Here for thy sacred shrine,Wreaths that shall flourish through ages to come,Bright in thy temple seen,Robed in immortal green,Fadeless memorials of genius shall bloom.

Haverhill, although but three miles wide, is ten miles long, and includes many a fertile farm out of sight of city spires, and out of sound of city streets. As Whittier says in the poem "Haverhill:"—

"And far and wide it stretches still,Along its southward sloping hill,And overlooks on either handA rich and many-watered land.. . . . .And Nature holds with narrowing space,From mart and crowd, her old-time grace,And guards with fondly jealous armsThe wild growths of outlying farms.Her sunsets on Kenoza fall,Her autumn leaves by SaltonstallNo lavished gold can richer makeHer opulence of hill and lake."

"And far and wide it stretches still,Along its southward sloping hill,And overlooks on either handA rich and many-watered land.

. . . . .

And Nature holds with narrowing space,From mart and crowd, her old-time grace,And guards with fondly jealous armsThe wild growths of outlying farms.

Her sunsets on Kenoza fall,Her autumn leaves by SaltonstallNo lavished gold can richer makeHer opulence of hill and lake."

MAIN STREET, HAVERHILL City Hall at the right; Haverhill Bridge in middle distanceMAIN STREET, HAVERHILLCity Hall at the right; Haverhill Bridge in middle distance

This "opulence of hill and lake" is the especial charm of Haverhill. The two symmetrical hills, named Gold and Silver, near the river, one above and one below the city proper, are those referred to in "The Sycamores" as viewed by Washington with admiring comment, standing in his stirrups and

"Looking up and looking downOn the hills of Gold and SilverRimming round the little town."

BIRTHPLACE IN WINTER From hemlocks above brook Copyright, 1891, by A. A. Ordway.BIRTHPLACE IN WINTERFrom hemlocks above brookCopyright, 1891, by A. A. Ordway.

Silver Hill is the one with the tower on it. As one takes at the railway station the electric car for the three-mile trip to the Whittier birthplace, two lakes are soon passed on the right. The larger one, overlooked by the stone castle on top of a great hill embowered in trees, is Kenoza—a name signifying pickerel. It was christened by Whittier with the poem which has permanently fixed its name. The whole lake and the beautiful wooded hills surrounding it, with the picturesque castle crowning one of them, are now included in a public park of which any city might be proud. Our car passes close at hand, on the left, another lake not visible because it is so much above us. This is a singular freak of nature—a deep lake fed by springs on top of a hill. The surface of this lake is far above the tops of most of the houses of Haverhill, and it is but a few rods from Kenoza, which lies almost a hundred feet below. Our road is at middle height between the two, and only a stone's throw from either.

KENOZAKENOZA

FERNSIDE BROOK, THE STEPPING-STONESFERNSIDE BROOK, THE STEPPING-STONES

As we approach the birthplace, it is over the northern shoulder of Job's Hill, the summit of which is high above us at the right. This hill was named for an Indian chief of the olden time. We look down at the left into an idyllic valley, and through the trees that skirt a lovely brook catch sight of the ancient farmhouse on a gentle slope which seems designed by nature for its reception. To the west and south high hills crowd closely upon this valley, but to the east are green meadows through which winds, at last at leisure, the brook just released from its tumble among the rocks of old Job's left shoulder. The road by which we have come is comparatively new, and was not in existence when the Whittiers lived here. The old road crosses it close by the brook, which is here bridged. The house faces the brook, and not the road, presenting to the highway the little eastern porch that gives entrance to the kitchen,—the famous kitchen of "Snow-Bound."

The barn is across the road directly opposite this porch. It is now much longer than it was in Whittier's youth, but two thirds of it towards the road is the old part to which the boys tunneled through the snowdrift—

... "With merry din,And roused the prisoned brutes within.The old horse thrust his long head out,And grave with wonder gazed about;The cock his lusty greeting said,And forth his speckled harem ledThe oxen lashed their tails, and hooked,And mild reproach of hunger looked;The hornéd patriarch of the sheep,Like Egypt's Amun roused from sleep,Shook his sage head with gesture mute,And emphasized with stamp of foot."

This is not the original barn of the pioneers, but was built by Whittier's father and uncle Moses in 1821. The ancient barn was not torn down till some years later. It was in what is now the orchard back of the house. Thereused to be, close to the cattle-yard of the comparatively new barn, a shop containing a blacksmith's outfit. This was removed more than fifty years ago, being in a ruinous condition from extreme old age. It had not been so tenderly cared for as was its contemporary of the Stuart times across the road.

THE BIRTHPLACE, FROM THE ROAD Showing eastern porch, gate, bridle-post, and large boulder used as horse-blockTHE BIRTHPLACE, FROM THE ROADShowing eastern porch, gate, bridle-post, and large boulder used as horse-block

Thomas Whittier, the pioneer, did not happen upon this valley upon his first arrival from England, in 1638. Indeed, at that time the settlements had not reached into this then primeval wilderness. He settled first in that part of Salisbury which is now named Amesbury, and while a very young man represented that town in the General Court. The Whittier Hill which overlooks the poet's Amesbury home was named for the pioneer, and not for his great-great-grandson. It is to this day called by Amesbury people Whitcher Hill—as that appears to have been the pronunciation of the name in the olden time. For some reason he removed across the river to Newbury. As a town official of Salisbury, he had occasion to lay out a highway towards Haverhill—a road still in use. He came upon a location that pleased his fancy, and in 1647, at the age of twenty-seven, he returned to the northern side of the river and built a log house on the left bank of Country Brook, about a mile from the location he selected in 1688 for his permanent residence. He lived forty-one years in this log house, and here raised a family of ten children, five of them stalwart boys, each over six feet in height. He was sixty-eight years old when he undertook to build the house now the shrine visited yearly by thousands. In raising its massive oaken frame he needed little help outside his own family. As to the location of the log house, the writer of these pages visited the spot with Mr. Whittier in search of it in 1882. He said that when a boy he used to see traces of its foundation, and hoped to find them again; but more than half a century had passed in the mean time, and our search was unsuccessful. It was on the ridge to the left of the road, quite near the old Country Bridge.

THE HAUNTED BRIDGE OF COUNTRY BROOKTHE HAUNTED BRIDGE OF COUNTRY BROOK

Country Bridge had the reputation of being haunted, when Whittier was a boy, and several of his early uncollected poems refer to this fact. No one who could avoid it ventured over it after dark. He told me that once he determined to swallow his fears and brave the danger. He approached whistling to keep his courage up, but a panic seized him, and he turned and ran home without daring to look behind. It was in this vicinity that Thomas Whittier built his first house in Haverhill. Further down the stream was Millvale, where were three mills, one a gristmill. This mill and the evil reputation of the bridge are both referred to in these lines from "The Home-Coming of the Bride," a fragment first printed in "Life and Letters:"—

"They passed the dam and the gray gristmill,Whose walls with the jar of grinding shook,And crossed, for the moment awed and still,The haunted bridge of the Country Brook."

It was the custom of the pioneers, when they had the choice, to select the sites of their homes near the small water powers of the brooks; the large rivers they had not then the power to harness. There were good mill sites on Country Brook below the log house, but probably some other settler had secured them, and Thomas Whittier found in the smaller stream on his own estate a fairly good water power. Fernside Brook is a tributary of Country Brook. Probably this decided the selection of the site for a house which was to be a home for generation after generation of his descendants. The dam recently restored is at the same spot where stood the Whittier mill, and in making repairs some of the timbers of the ancient mill were found. Parts of the original walls of the dam are now to be seen on each side of the brook, but the mill had disappeared long before Whittier was born. Further up the brook were two other dams, used as reservoirs. The lower dam when perfect was high enough to enable the family to bring water to house and barn in pipes.

When entering the grounds, notice the "bridle-post" at the left of the gate, and a massive boulder in which rude steps are cut for mounting a horse led up to its side:—

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