A Handbook of North Essex

CONTAINING MANY ANECDOTES OF AND POEMS
BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
NEVER BEFORE COLLECTED

BY
SAMUEL T. PICKARD
Author of "Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier"
ILLUSTRATED WITH MAP AND ENGRAVINGS

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge

PREFACE

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.

PAGE

Haverhill [1]
Amesbury [53]
Whittier's Sense of Humor [105]
Whittier's Uncollected Poems [127]
Footnotes [154]
Index [155]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

John Greenleaf Whittier [Frontispiece]
From an Ambrotype taken about 1857.
Map of Whittier-Land [xii]
Whittier's Birthplace [2]
From a photograph by Alfred A. Ordway.
River Path, near Haverhill [5]
From a photograph by Ordway.
Haverhill Academy [6]
From a photograph by G. W. W. Bartlett.
Main Street, Haverhill [8]
From a photograph by Ordway.
Birthplace in Winter [9]
From a photograph by Ordway.
Kenoza Lake [10]
From a photograph by Ordway.
Fernside Brook, the Stepping-Stones [11]
From a photograph by Ordway.
The Birthplace, from the Road [13]
From a photograph by Ordway.
"The Haunted Bridge of Country Brook" [15]
From a photograph by W. L. Bickum.
Garden at Birthplace [18]
From a photograph by W. L. Bickum.
Snow-Bound Kitchen, Eastern End [21]
From a photograph by Ordway.
Snow-Bound Kitchen, Western End [23]
From a photograph by Ordway.
The Whittier Elm [29]
Joshua Coffin, Whittier's First Schoolmaster [31]
Scene of "In School Days" [33]
From a pencil sketch by W. L. Bickum.
Harriet Livermore, "Half-welcome Guest" [41]

Scene on Country Brook [43]
From a photograph by Ordway.
The Sycamores [45]
From a photograph by Ordway.
Old Garrison House (Peaslee House) [47]
Rocks Village and Bridge [48]
From a photograph by Ordway.
River Valley, near Grave of Countess [49]
From a photograph by Ordway.
Dr. Elias Weld, the "Wise Old Physician" of Snow-Bound, at the Age of Ninety [50]
Curson's Mill, Artichoke River [57]
From a photograph by Ordway.
Deer Island and Chain Bridge, Home of Mrs. Spofford [59]
The Whittier Home, Amesbury [61]
From a photograph by Mrs. P. A. Perry.
Joseph Sturge, Whittier's English Benefactor [63]
"Garden Room" Amesbury Home [65]
From a photograph by C. W. Briggs.
Mrs. Thomas, to whom "Memories" was Addressed [67]
Evelina Bray, at the Age of Seventeen [68]
From a miniature by J. S. Porter.
Whittier, at the Age of Twenty-two. His earliest portrait [69]
From a miniature by J. S. Porter.
Evelina Bray Downey, at the Age of Eighty [71]
Elizabeth Whittier Pickard [75]
From a portrait by Kittell.
Scene in Garden, at Whittier's Funeral [76]
The Ferry, Salisbury Point, Mouth of Powow [77]
From a photograph by Miss Woodman.
Powow River and Po Hill [79]
From a photograph by Miss Woodman.
Friends' Meeting-House at Amesbury [80]
From a photograph by Mrs. P. A. Perry.
Interior of Friends' Meeting-House [81]
From a photograph by G. W. W. Bartlett.

Captain's Well [83]
From a photograph by G. W. W. Bartlett.
Whittier Lot, Union Cemetery, Amesbury [85]
From a photograph by W. R. Merryman.
The Fountain on Mundy Hill [87]
Rocky Hill Church [88]
From a photograph by Miss Woodman.
Interior of Rocky Hill Church [89]
From a photograph by Miss Woodman.
Scene of "The Wreck of Rivermouth" [90]
Scene of "The Tent on the Beach" [91]
Hampton River Marshes, as seen from Whittier's Chamber [92]
From a photograph by Greenleaf Whittier Pickard.
House of Miss Gove, Hampton Falls, Whittier on the Balcony [93]
From a photograph taken a few days before the poet's death, by Greenleaf Whittier Pickard.
Chamber in which Whittier Died [94]
Amesbury Public Library [95]
From a photograph by Gilman P. Smith.
Whittier, at the Age of Forty-nine [97]
From a daguerreotype by Thomas E. Boutelle.
The Wood Giant, at Sturtevant's, Centre Harbor [99]
The Cartland House, Newburyport [101]
Whitefield Church and Birthplace of Garrison [103]
Bearcamp House, West Ossipee, N. H. [110]
Group of Friends at Sturtevant's, Centre Harbor, with Whittier [113]
Josiah Bartlett Statue, Huntington Square, Amesbury [123]
From a photograph by Charles W. Briggs.

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.

HAVERHILL