Historic Houses of America: Putnam's Birthplace [pp. 321-322]

[o
U
KNAL0
No. 260.]
NEW YORK, MARCH 14, 1874.
[VOL. XI.
HOUSES OF
HISTORIC AMERICA.
CLXELAL rUTxAM's BiPTllrLA%~
Na bright October afternoon, the rail way-train set me down at the station in
Peabody, Massachusetts The air was crisp
and bracing, with here and there a blush in
the sky
"Like pa~e rose-chaplets, or like sapphire mist."
thing-if you drive, the horse is your master,
and I am persuaded it must have been some
such enforced contemplation of the animal
that drew from Dickens his ludicrous comparison between the body and legs of the horse.
If you are driven, ten to one your outlook is
tling of the vehicle did not prevent your distinctly hearing a word of it. In either of these
two cases you lose the exercise of walking,
which puts heart of grace into a man. Without giving, therefore, more than a passing
glance at the odd collection of vehicles drawn
___ -- _ _ ~y
__ Th-~ — - - -~ -M -~ __ - ---- ----- ------ __
~)` - __ - - - - -~ ~
tl~RTHPLACE OF GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM.
N\~iih a pair of good fcet, which seldom fail
mc, and a stout hickory stick for a companion
I could well afford to commiscrate the good
folk who drove, or were drivcn away, in their
carriages, to the four points of the compass.
Pcrh aps this statem cut requires explanation.
Supposing it to be your object to see every
bounded by the stone walls which inclose the
road on either hand, or your attention nervously fixed by the driver, who points out objec~s of interest you have come miles to sec
after you have passed them by, and imparts
information whlch, for aught you know, might
be both valuable and entertaining if the rat
up before the station, and of which no two
were alike, I contentedly set about my investigations.
The most populous part of the old town
of Danvers is united to Salem by a continu.
ously-built street, so that it is not easy to discover when you have left the one and entered
ff~~w~
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