Rambles about Portsmouth. Sketches of persons, localities, and incidents of two centuries: principally from tradition and unpublished documents. By Charles W. Brewster.

COURT 8CENE IN PORTSMOUTH. 125
direction! To discharge his gun would be regarded as a
signal of alarm to the fort-so rising slowly, he took off his
hat, brandished it round and then threw it at the wolf!
This frightened him off-and the moon being now up, he
was able to trace his way back to the fort, which was done
without delay, and the adventure made a family story.
Col. John Hart's son Henry (not Richard, as we stated)
settled in Newington, on the farm now belonging to Richl
ard Pickering, Esq. He had a blacksmith's shop standing
between the house and the road. He had a high reputaa
tion as a horse-shoer, and many sent their horses from
Portsmouth to him to be shod. He had a son, Richard D.
Hart. After he had passed middle-life, Henry removed to
Wells and there died.
When Edward Hart built the Pickering house in Vaughan
street, about eighty years ago, the thatch where the house
stands was as high as a man's head. One of our old citizens tells us that he has seen the tide from the North
mill-pond flowing near the spot where the house stands.
IWe will close this Ramble by a court scene in Portsmouth ninety-eight years ago, which contrasts with the
republican simplicity of the present day.
In 1771 the province of New Hampshire was divided
into counties, and on the 3d of March in the next year the
first sitting of Superior Court in Rockingham county was
held in Portsmouth. On that occasion, when the court
bell rang, a procession moved in royal dignity to the Court
House on Market Square, in which the honorable Judges
might be seen in their full bottomed wigs and official robes,
and all the members of the bar following in order with
their white bands hanging conspicuously beneath their
chins. Whether the Rev. Dr. Langdon, who was the
chaplain for the occasion, led or followed in the procession,
the record does not show.