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 Sketches of persons, localities, and incidents of two centuries: principally from tradition and unpublished documents.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

232 RAMBLES ABOUT PORTSMOUTH.
We will turn from this scene for a short ramble to Gates
street.
Prominent among the poets of the Revolution, whose
verses carried spirit into the camp, and stirred up the patriotic fires of those who performed the statesman's duties
at home, was that philanthropic man, JONATHAN MITCHELL
SEWELL, Esq., whose home was in Portsmouth, and whose
last place of abode was the house on Gates street nearly
opposite that of Capt. Joseph Grace.
An enquiry has been made who was the author of " The
Versification of Washington's Farewell Address, by a gentleman of Portsmouth, N. IH. printed in 1798."
This Versification we have before us. It was written by
Mr. Sewall and published, with the author's characteristic
modesty, without his name. The poem, if such it may be
called, occupies forty-four octavo pages, and is almost a
literal presentation of the original in rhyme-the author
endeavoring to shun any of the tinsel decorations of poetic
ornament, "not indulging to his own fancy on such momentous subjects, handled before with such masterly perfection."
Mr. Sewall was born in Salem, Mass., in 1748, and died
in Portsmouth in 1808. He studied law with Judge John
Pickering of Portsmouth, became a member of our bar,
and was of high standing as a lawyer, but no less eminent
as a statesman and poet. He was the writer of the stirring song of the Revolution entitled' War and Washington," beginning "Vain Britons, boast no longer," &c., which
was sung in every camp throughout the country.
One of our venerable citizens has recently given us a
pamphlet containing a Fourth of July Oration delivered at
Portsmouth in 1788, "By one the inhabitants." There is
no clue in the book to show who that inhabitant was. The
title page presents as a motto and apology for withholding
his name, the following expressive quotation from Pope:
" \bo builds a church to God, and not to fame,
Will never mark the marble with his name."