10 Mr. Worcester on Longevity. 
early in the morning, and before he reached Greenland, overtook 
Metlin, and inquired where he was bound: Metlin answered, to 
Boston. Atkinson asked if he ever expected to reach there ; and 
drove on. Atkinson stopped at Greenland, and Metlin passed 
him ; they alternately passed each other every stage on the road, 
and crossed Charlestown ferry. in the same boat, before sunset.’’ 
Samuel Welch, who died at Bow on the 5th of April, 1823, 
was born at Kingston, N. H. September 1,1710. His mother, 
and also a sister of his, lived each to the age of about 100 years, 
and a brother to the age of 90. He enjoyed hardly any advantages 
of education, Was in'very moderate circumstances, and followed the 
occupation of a farmer. For the last fifty years of his life he lived 
in Bow, in an obscure corner, and in an uncomfortable habitation, 
cultivating a little farm. He was a man of industry, temperance, 
and almost uninterrupted health. By a gentleman, who visited him 
the last year of his life, he was described as in person rather above 
the middle size, of Grecian features, with dark expressive eyes ; his 
locks of a clayey white, looking as if they had already mouldered 
in the grave ; his face fair, though wrinkled with the cares of a 
century and an eighth; his frame feeble, so that he was unable to 
walk.; his mental faculties, however, but little impaired ; his mem- 
ory retentive, and his judgment sound. ‘‘ His appearance,’’ says 
one describing him just after his decease, ‘‘ was truly venerable. 
Time had made deep inroads upon his frame ; his locks had been 
touched by the silvery wand; his eye, originally dark and bril- 
liant, gave evidence of decaying lustre; while his countenance, 
wrinkled with years, and his frame, tottering and feeble, could 
not but deeply impress the beholder. He spoke of life, as one 
weary of its burdens, and wishing ‘to be away.’ His death 
corresponded with his life ;—it was calm and tranquil.” 
