Historic Shrines of America / Being the Story of One Hundred and Twenty Historic Buildings and the Pioneers Who Made Them Notable

by John T. Faris

Within, unwonted splendors met the eye,

Panels, and floors of oak, and tapestry;

Carved chimney-pieces, where on brazen dogs

Revelled and roared the Christmas fire of logs;

Doors opening into darkness unawares,

Mysterious passages, and flights of stairs,

And on the walls, in heavy gilded frames,

The ancestral Wentworths with Old-Scripture names."

While Governor Wentworth was an important figure during the days preceding the Revolution, the mansion is celebrated not so much because of his political service as because of the romance of his second marriage.