The Romance of Old New England Rooftrees — John Shaqi
The Romance of Old New England RooftreesCrawford, Mary Caroline
History
The Romance of Old New England Rooftrees
Crawford, Mary Caroline
Historic buildings -- New England; New England -- Biography
Of the traces he left at Newport, there still remain, beside the house,
a chair in which he was wont to write, a few books and papers, the organ
presented by him to Trinity Church, the big family portrait, by
Smibert--and the little grave in Trinity churchyard, where, on the south
side of the Kay monument, sleeps "Lucia Berkeley, obiit., the fifth of
September, 1731." Moreover the memory of the man's beautiful, unselfish
life pervades this section of Rhode Island, and the story of his
sweetness and patience under a keen and unexpected disappointment
furnishes one of the most satisfying pages in our early history.
The life of Berkeley is indeed greater than anything that he did, and
one wonders not as one explores the young preacher's noble and endearing
character that the distraught Vanessa fastened upon him, though she
knew him only by reputation, as one who would make it his sacred duty to
do all in his power to set her memory right in a censorious world.
THE MAID OF MARBLEHEAD
Of all the romantic narratives which enliven the pages of early colonial
history, none appeals more directly to the interest and imagination of
the lover of what is picturesque than the story of Agnes Surriage, the
Maid of Marblehead. The tale is so improbable, according to every-day
standards, so in form with the truest sentiment, and so calculated to
satisfy every exaction of literary art, that even the most credulous
might be forgiven for ascribing it to the fancy of the romancer rather
than to the research of the historian.
Yet when one remembers that the scene of the first act of Agnes
Surriage's life drama is laid in quaint old Marblehead, the tale itself
instantly gains in credibility. For nothing would be too romantic to fit
Marblehead. This town is fantastic in the extreme, builded, to quote
Miss Alice Brown, who has written delightfully of Agnes and her life,
"as if by a generation of autocratic landowners, each with a wilful bee
in his bonnet."[1] For Marblehead is no misnomer, and the early settlers
had to plant their houses and make their streets as best they could. As
a matter of stern fact, every house in Marblehead had to be like the
wise man's in the Bible: "built upon a rock." The dwellings themselves
were founded upon solid ledges, while the principal streets followed the
natural valleys between. The smaller dividing paths led each and
every one of them to the impressive old Town House, and to that other
comfortable centre of social interests, the Fountain Inn, with its
near-by pump. This pump, by the bye, has a very real connection with the
story of Agnes Surriage, for it was here, according to one legend, that
Charles Henry Frankland first saw the maid who is the heroine of our
story.
[Illustration: AGNES SURRIAGE PUMP, MARBLEHEAD, MASS.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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