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 Sketches of persons, localities, and incidents of two centuries: principally from tradition and unpublished documents.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

THE INCENDIARY. 207
a domestic at the house of Mrs. Woodward, and had taken
offence because Mrs. W. had taken from her some bottles
of wine which a gentleman boarder at the house had given
her. She left the house and procured a place in the kitchen
of Mr. John Gains, then occupying the house where Mayor
Simes now resides. She there told her story, and made an
avowal of revenge-" I'll burn her out." She was remonstrated with in vain. With a threat of vengeance upon
her lips she left Mr. G.'s house early in the evening of the
22d of December, and in the course of an hour there was
an alarm-"Woodward's barn is on fire!" She never again
returned to Mr. (G.'s but sent a messenger for her clothes
the next day. The fear of experiencing a like revengeful,
fiendish act, led the family to keep the matter to themselves,-and it was not until her death, many years after,
that the facts were made known. This Colbath led a dissolute life, and become an inmate of our almshouse,
It is lour intent in a number of Rambles, to reconstruct,
as well as the materials will permit, that portion of Portsmouth as it was before that fire, and introduce to the stage
of life some of the men who might have been seen in that
part of our city half a century ago.
RAMBLE CXXI.
Central Pow-tslmoufth previous to the Groeat Fi'Lre —Portsmiouth ]Pier-STew-I-Iampshire HI-otel-Jacob SheafesDaniel 7Webster's -- Nortlah side of B3nck St. - The
J-aunted.I House.
BEFORE the conflagration of 1813, the principal business
mart of Portsmouth was State (then Buck) street. At its
eastern termirationl was the Portsmouth Pier; near it was