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 Sketches of persons, localities, and incidents of two centuries: principally from tradition and unpublished documents.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

362 RAMBLES ABOUT PORTSMOUTH.
impressive illustration of the adage-" Just as the twig is
bent, the tree is inclined."
Within sight of this tree have some of the most exciting
local scenes transpired. Here was the training field before
the Plains were laid out for the purpose. A few rods west
of this old tree was buried in the road the body of Eliphaz
Dow, who in 1755 was hung on a gallows in that neighborhood for the murder of Peter Clough. And thirteen years
after, a few rods from it was hung Ruth Blay, also for
murder. By the side of this tree Gov. Burnet passed in
1729, and Gov. Belcher many times in years after, when
" Boston was so distant from Portsmouth, and the roads so
bad, that he could only make one annual visit." This tree
Gov. Wentworth made his turning point when he came
from his Little Harbor seat into town, and when its shade
was larger, John Hancock, George Washington and a host
of eminent men passed near if not beneath its shadow,
And in later years, as the cemetery gates are opened to receive some new comer, the huge skeleton stands out to the
mournful procession in its full proportions, like the
apocalyptic angel, who proclaims that time shall be no
longer.
[NoTE.-Shortly after this Ramble was written, in 1862, by
the hand that; after the labors of a busy lifetime, is now at rest
in the cemetery just across the way, the old elm was felled
by the woodman's ax. But the Ramble remains, and we give
it an appropriate place at the close of this book.-Ed.]