distant memory, but the voyager down that sapphire stream, the St. Lawrence, to that hill-shadowed sanctuary, keeps for a life-time the impression of what he has seen and heard.

THE WADSWORTH-LONGFELLOW HOUSE,

PORTLAND

NATHAN GOOLD

HE Wadsworth-Longfellow house was built in 1785

THE

1786, by General Peleg Wadsworth, the grandfather of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He was a native of Duxbury, a graduate of Harvard College, and a majorgeneral in the army of the Revolution.

According to the account of his daughter, Zilpah, General Wadworth's appearance, at this time, was as follows:"Imagine to yourself a man of middle age, well proportioned, with a military air, and who carried himself so truly that many thought him tall. His dress, a bright scarlet coat, buff small clothes and vest, full ruffled bosom, ruffles over the hands, white stockings, shoes with silver buckles, white cravat bow in front, hair well powdered and tied behind in a club, so-called."

At first, the house was of two stories with a pitched roof and was the first house in Portland to have brick walls. The bricks came from Philadelphia to build these walls which are sixteen inches thick. The third story was not added until 1815.

The poet's mother was about eight years old when her father built this house. In 1804, she was married to Stephen Longfellow, in the house which had been her home from childhood. Longfellow was born in another

house in Portland, but at the early age of eight months he was brought by his parents to the Wadsworth House.

Henry W. Longfellow lived here during his childhood, boyhood and young manhood, and here he came, to his old home, to the end of his life. Here were the scenes of his bringing up and here he profited by the examples and precepts of his honoured parents. Here he wrote his first poem and others, together with portions of his prose works. It was really his home until the purchase of the Craigie House,' at Cambridge, in 1843, a period of thirty-five years. The home remained with the old furnishings undisturbed until the death of Mrs. Pierce. Longfellow's last visit here was in July, 1881, when he wrote to a friend in Rhode Island :—

"Portland has lost none of its charms. The weather is superb and the air equal to that of Newport or East Greenwich or any other Rhode Island seashore. I shall remain here a week or two longer, and think of running up to North Conway and to Sebago, to see the winding Songo once more. It is very pleasant sitting here and dictating letters. It is like thinking what one will say without taking the trouble of writing it. I have discovered a new pleasure."

The poems now known to have been written in this house are:

The Battle of Lovell's Pond, 1820; Musings, 1825; The Spirit of Poetry, 1825; Burial of Minnisink, 1825; Song: When from the eye of day, 1826; Song of the Birds, 1826; The Lighthouse; The Rainy Day, 1841;