135 



tempting style, while many of the younger portion con- 

 stituted themselves fair waiting maids, and dispensed the 

 viands with a grace and dexterity that added charm to 

 the feast. 



The afternoon session was held in the Town Hall, and 

 was attended by a large audience, including Judge E. R. 

 Hoar, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the venerable A. Bronson 

 Alcott, Wm. W. Wheildon, and many others, including 

 Concord's wisest and best and fairest citizens. 



The President of the Institute called to order, and in 

 his introductory remarks stated that this was the fourth 

 field meeting held beyond the limits of Essex county ; of 

 these, one was at Wakefield, and another at Reading ; as 

 those towns were settled by Lynn people and were known 

 as Lynn village, they probably at one period may have 

 been considered as a part of Essex county, until the 

 lines between Essex and Middlesex were adjusted. The 

 third was at Kittery, Me., the residence of Sir William 

 Pepperell, who was connected by marriage with some 

 of our old Salem families. It was appropriate that 

 the Institute should visit Concord, for several reasons. 

 In the first place, to see the grave of a distinguished 

 son of Salem, which is marked by two small, white 

 marble stones, with the simple inscription "Hawthorne,'' 

 of whose ancestry and birthplace a brief sketch was 

 then given. ^ 



Secondly, it was fitting for the association to visit the 

 town to which the Legislature adjourned from Salem iu 

 October, 1774, after having resolved itself into a Provin- 

 cial Congress and assumed the powers of sovereignty, 

 which event was duly commemorated by the Essex Insti- 



^See Bulletin of Essex Institute, vol. 3, page 25, for a communication on "The 

 Ancestry and Birthplace of Hawthorne." 



