133 



was the fact of the presence of the author of the immor- 

 tal poem of which this verse forms a part. Here also at 

 the bridge, marked by a rude headstone, lie the remains 

 of British officers killed in action, and near by stands the 

 monumpnt erected some time since in honor of the Amer- 

 ican soldiers engaged in the Concord fight. 



Several of the visitors found delightful recreation on 

 Concord River in the neat and convenient pleasure boats 

 which were freely placed at the disposal of the party. 

 Messrs. Morse, Putnam and Bolles visited a shellheap 

 some two miles up the river, obtaining interesting speci- 

 mens of Indian relics. 



Among the places interesting to Salem people, because 

 of their connection wittutheir townsman, Hawthorne, was 

 the old Manse, which is in the near vicinity of the North 

 Bridge. Here Hawthorne resided for several years. 

 Now, as he described it long ago, between two tall gate- 

 posts of rough-hewn stone, we behold the gray front of 

 the old parsonage, terminating the vista of an avenue of 

 black ash trees. It was built by the grandfather of Ralph 

 Waldo Emerson, and its last inhabitant before Hawthorne 

 occupied it was the venerable Parson Ripley, who had 

 died about a twelvemonth before. It was from the study 

 window facing the river that the clergyman, who then 

 dwelt in the manse, stood watching the outbreak of a long 

 and deadly struggle between two nations ; he saw the ir- 

 regular array of his parishioners on the farther side of the 

 river, and the glittering line of the British on the hither 

 bank ; he awaited, in an agony of suspense, the rattling 

 of the musketry. It came ; and there needed but a gentle 

 wind to sweep the battle smoke around this quiet house. 

 Hawthorne says that the old manse had never been pro- 

 faned by a lay occupant, until that memorable summer 

 afternoon when he entered it as his home, in 1842. A 



