170 



This house appears to be more dilapidated than either of the others, 

 but only the outside of the premises was visible to the party on 

 Thursday. 



Upon returning from Kittery Point the company visited the man- 

 sion erected for the residence of Sir William's daughter Elizabeth, a 

 famous belle and heiress, highly accomplished, who was married to 

 Nathaniel Sparhawk in 1742. This house was apparently superior in 

 style to the old mansion. It is now undergoing repairs, the present 

 occupants having been only a few weeks in possession. Here, too, 

 the intruders were politely received and afforded every facility for 

 examining the premises. The spacious hall retains its original form 

 and the walls their ancient paper, which must have been of rare rich- 

 ness and costliness. One of the rooms is still, in general appearance, 

 very much the same as when occupied by the Sparhawks. The chim- 

 ney-piece, with its little, square, porcelain, pictured tiles, covered 

 with colored birds and quaint devices, is almost as perfect as ever. 

 In another room is one of the old-fashioned "buffets," or cup-boards, 

 curiously fashioned and well preserved, which, could it speak, would 

 doubtless reveal the secrets of many a banqueting scene where the 

 courtly ladies and gentlemen of the last century figured. A few years 

 ago there was a fine avenue of trees leading to this house, and a por- 

 tion of the tesselated pavement in front is still preserved. When in 

 its prime the large walls of the entrance hall were covered with por- 

 traits of the Pepperrell and Sparhawk families, and of the friends and 

 companions in arms of Sir William. Some of these are now in the 

 possession of Rev. Dr. Burroughs of Portsmouth. 



Sir William in his day must have frequently visited Salem and 

 Danvers. His sister Mary married for her third husband Rev. Benja- 

 min Prescott, of Dauvers, and in his journeys to and from Boston he 

 no doubt was accustomed to stop there. He certainly did in the 

 spring of 1759, the year of his death. Upon his return from Louis- 

 burg he was received in Boston with great pomp, and on the 4th of 

 July, 1746, attended by divers officers and gentlemen, set out for his 

 seat in Kittery. He was met at Lynn by a troop of horse and enter- 

 tained, and was there received by a company of gentlemen and con- 

 ducted to Salem, on entering which he was saluted with cannon and 

 ringing of bells, and conducted to the town hall to partake of a mag- 

 nificent entertainment. After dinner the royal healths were drank, 

 Gov. Shirley's, Sir William's, Admiral Warren's, Brigadier Waldo's, 

 and those of all the officers and men at the siege of Cape Breton ; at 

 each health the cannon were fired, and a treble discharge made by the 

 troop of horse. On leaving the Beverly ferry a cavalcade met him 

 from Ipswich and Newbury, and so he made a triumphal progress 

 home, being everywhere received with extraordinary honors. 



