THE TOWN OF PELHAM. 



91 



dark blue coat, with yellow vest, and cocked hat; also the portrait of 

 his wife, Sarah McClean, in high cap, stiff cambric handkerchief and 

 tight brown silk bodice. They are copies of the originals, by Walter 

 Robertson, in 1797 ; also the portraits of the late Rev. Robert Bolton, 

 and his wife, Anne Jay, daughter of the Rev. William Jay, of Bath, 

 England, with her two children, Robert and Anne, painted by the cele- 

 brated William Etty, of the Royal Academy of England ; also an original 

 portrait of Bunyan, formerly in the possession of the Rev. George White- 

 field. There is in the library a good collection of autographs, the oldest 

 of which is that of Henry VII., of England. The signatures of Queen 

 Mary and Queen Elizabeth, with her council, are worthy of notice; also 

 those of Oliver Cromwell and Richard Cromwell, presented by the late 

 Oliver Cromwell, of Chestnut Park, England, their last direct male 

 representative ; letters of Lord Fairfax, Pope, Cowper, Chatterton, Lord 

 Nelson ; signatures of Napoleon, Sir Christopher Wren, Percy, author 

 of the ballad, Bishop Burnet, Kosciusko, &c, &c. Among the American 

 autographs are those of William Penn and his sons, the proprietors of 

 Pennsylvania, Francis Lovelace, Governor of New York in 167 1, Jona- 

 than Edwards, Increase and Cotton Mather, Washington, La Fayette, 

 Franklin, Jefferson, Schuyler, Sterling, Arnold, the signers of the 

 Declaration of Independence, and various other eminent characters. 



The terrace in front of the house forms a fine promenade. A beautiful 

 flower garden on the west end of the house is laid out in geometrical 

 plots, in which the plants are well disposed for the display of the flowers. 

 The grounds are ornamented with natural walks leading to various ob- 

 jects of interest, among which deserves to be noticed the "rocking 

 stone."' 1 This natural curiosity is a rock supposed to weigh about twenty 



tons. 



"A rock, chance poised and balanced, lay 

 So that a stripling arm might sway 

 A mass no host could raise. 



" In Nature's rage at random thrown, 

 Yet trembling like the Druid's stone 

 On its precarious base." 



Rocking stones, used in ancient Druidical worship, are found both in 

 Great Britain and America. They were consulted in various ways by 

 the Druids; sometimes as an oracle through which Jehovah spoke, for 

 they believed one Supreme God although they adored lesser objects. It 

 seems that these stones originated in the time of Moses, as mentioned in 



a Rocking stones were called " rogan stones " by the Saxons, from the old Saxon principal of 

 the verb "rogtr.'' to shake, which is used by the poet Chaucer. "And him Bhe roggetu auJ 

 awaketh soft.'— Legend of Good Women. 



