ROCKY HILL CHURCH 88 From a photograph by Miss Woodman.
INTERIOR OF ROCKY HILL CHURCH 89 From a photograph by Miss Woodman.
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.
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
WHITEFIELD CHURCH AND BIRTHPLACE OF GARRISON 103
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.]
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.