An Old Town By the Sea | Page 7

the Athenaeum--we are supposed to
be on terra firma again--stands the Old North Church, a substantial
wooden building, handsomely set on what is called The Parade, a large
open space formed by the junction of Congress, Market, Daniel, and
Pleasant streets. Here in days innocent of water-works stood the town
pump, which on more than one occasion served as whipping-post.
The churches of Portsmouth are more remarkable for their number than
their architecture. With the exception of the Stone Church they are
constructed of wood or plain brick in the simplest style. St. John's
Church is the only one likely to attract the eye of a stranger. It is finely
situated on the crest of Church Hill, overlooking the ever-beautiful
river. The present edifice was built in 1808 on the site of what was
known as Queen's Chapel, erected in 1732, and destroyed by fire
December 24, 1806. The chapel was named in honor of Queen Caroline,
who furnished the books for the altar and pulpit, the plate, and two
solid mahogany chairs, which are still in use in St. John's. Within the
chancel rail is a curious font of porphyry, taken by Colonel John Tufton
Mason at the capture of Senegal from the French in 1758, and
presented to the Episcopal Society on 1761. The peculiarly sweet-toned
bell which calls the parishioners of St. John's together every Sabbath is,
I believe, the same that formerly hung in the belfry of the old Queen's
Chapel. If so, the bell has a history of its own. It was brought from
Louisburg at the time of the reduction of that place in 1745, and given

to the church by the officers of the New Hampshire troops.
The Old South Meeting-House is not to be passed without mention. It
is among the most aged survivals of pre-revolutionary days. Neither its
architecture not its age, however, is its chief warrant for our notice. The
absurd number of windows in this battered old structure is what strikes
the passer-by. The church was erected by subscription, and these
closely set large windows are due to Henry Sherburne, one of the
wealthiest citizens of the period, who agreed to pay for whatever glass
was used. If the building could have been composed entirely of glass it
would have been done by the thrifty parishioners.
Portsmouth is rich in graveyards--they seem to be a New England
specialty--ancient and modern. Among the old burial-places the one
attached to St. John's Church is perhaps the most interesting. It has not
been permitted to fall into ruin, like the old cemetery at the Point of
Graves. When a headstone here topples over it is kindly lifted up and
set on its pins again, and encouraged to do its duty. If it utterly refuses,
and is not shamming decrepitude, it has its face sponged, and is
allowed to rest and sun itself against the wall of the church with a row
of other exempts. The trees are kept pruned, the grass trimmed, and
here and there is a rosebush drooping with a weight of pensive pale
roses, as becomes a rosebush in a churchyard.
The place has about it an indescribable soothing atmosphere of
respectability and comfort. Here rest the remains of the principal and
loftiest in rank in their generation of the citizens of Portsmouth prior to
the Revolution--stanch, royalty-loving governors, counselors, and
secretaries of the Providence of New Hampshire, all snugly gathered
under the motherly wing of the Church of England. It is almost
impossible to walk anywhere without stepping on a governor. You
grow haughty in spirit after a while, and scorn to tread on anything less
than one of His Majesty's colonels or secretary under the Crown. Here
are the tombs of the Atkinsons, the Jaffreys, the Sherburnes, the
Sheafes, the Marshes, the Mannings, the Gardners, and others of the
quality. All around you underfoot are tumbled-in coffins, with here and
there a rusty sword atop, and faded escutcheons, and crumbling

armorial devices. You are moving in the very best society.
This, however, is not the earliest cemetery in Portsmouth. An hour's
walk from the Episcopal yard will bring you to the spot, already
mentioned, where the first house was built and the first grave made, at
Odiorne's Point. The exact site of the Manor is not known, but it is
supposed to be a few rods north of an old well of still-flowing water, at
which the Tomsons and the Hiltons and their comrades slaked their
thirst more than two hundred and sixty years ago. Oriorne's Point is
owned by Mr. Eben L. Odiorne, a lineal descendant of the worthy who
held the property in 1657. Not far from the old spring is the
resting-place of the earliest pioneers.
"This first cemetery of the white man in New Hampshire,"