July 11th, [1837] Tuesday.
A drive with B---- to Hallowell, yesterday, where we dined, and afterwards to Gardiner. The most curious object in this latter place was the elegant new mansion of. It stands on the site of his former dwelling, which was destroyed by fire. The new building was estimated to cost about thirty thousand dollars; but twice as much has already been expended, and a great deal more will be required to complete it. It is certainly a splendid structure; the material, granite from the vicinity. At the angles it has small, circular towers; the portal is lofty and imposing. Relatively to the general style of domestic architecture in our country, it well deserves the name of castle or palace. Its situation, too, is fine, far retired from the public road, and attainable by a winding carriage-drive; standing amid fertile fields, and with large trees in the vicinity. There is also a beautiful view from the mansion, adown the Kennebec.
Beneath some of the large trees we saw the remains of circular seats, whereupon the family used to sit before the former house was burned down. There was no one now in the vicinity of the place, save a man and a yoke of oxen; and what he was about, I did not ascertain. Mr. at present resides in a small dwelling, little more than a cottage, beside the main road, not far from the gateway which gives access to his palace.
At Gardiner, on the wharf, I witnessed the starting of the steamboat " New England " for Boston.
There was quite a collection of people, looking on or taking leave of passengers, the steam puffing, stages arriving, full-freighted with ladies and gentle men. A man was one moment too late; but running along the gunwale of a mud-scow, and jumping into a skiff, he was put on board by a black fellow. The dark cabin, wherein, descending from the sunshiny deck, it was difficult to discern the furniture, lookingglasses, and mahogany wainscoting. I met two old college acquaintances, O---- , who was going to Boston, and B---- , with whom we afterwards drank a glass of wine at the hotel.
B---- , Mons. S---- , and myself continue to live in the same style as heretofore. We appear mutually to be very well pleased with each other. Mons. S---- displays many comical qualities, and manages to insure us several hearty laughs every morning and evening, those being the seasons when we meet. I am going to take lessons from him in the pronunciation of French. Of female society I see nothing. The only petticoat that comes within our premises appertains to Nancy, the pretty, dark-eyed maid-servant of the man who lives in the other part of the house.
On the road from Hallowell to Augusta we saw little booths, in two places, erected on the roadside, where boys offered beer, apples, &c., for sale. We passed an Irishwoman with a child in her arms, and a heavy bundle, and afterwards an Irishman with a light bundle, sitting by the highway. They were husband and wife ; and B---- says that an Irishman and his wife, on their journeys, do not usually walk side by side, but that the man gives the woman the heaviest burden to carry, and walks on lightly ahead!
A thought comes into my mind: Which sort of house excites the most contemptuous feelings in the beholder, such a house as Mr. ----'s, all circumstances considered, or the board-built and turfbuttressed hovels of these wild Irish, scattered about as if they had sprung up like mushrooms, in the dells and gorges, and along the banks of the river? Mushrooms, by the way, spring up where the roots of an old tree are hidden under the ground.
A drive with B---- to Hallowell, yesterday, where we dined, and afterwards to Gardiner. The most curious object in this latter place was the elegant new mansion of. It stands on the site of his former dwelling, which was destroyed by fire. The new building was estimated to cost about thirty thousand dollars; but twice as much has already been expended, and a great deal more will be required to complete it. It is certainly a splendid structure; the material, granite from the vicinity. At the angles it has small, circular towers; the portal is lofty and imposing. Relatively to the general style of domestic architecture in our country, it well deserves the name of castle or palace. Its situation, too, is fine, far retired from the public road, and attainable by a winding carriage-drive; standing amid fertile fields, and with large trees in the vicinity. There is also a beautiful view from the mansion, adown the Kennebec.
Beneath some of the large trees we saw the remains of circular seats, whereupon the family used to sit before the former house was burned down. There was no one now in the vicinity of the place, save a man and a yoke of oxen; and what he was about, I did not ascertain. Mr. at present resides in a small dwelling, little more than a cottage, beside the main road, not far from the gateway which gives access to his palace.
At Gardiner, on the wharf, I witnessed the starting of the steamboat " New England " for Boston.
There was quite a collection of people, looking on or taking leave of passengers, the steam puffing, stages arriving, full-freighted with ladies and gentle men. A man was one moment too late; but running along the gunwale of a mud-scow, and jumping into a skiff, he was put on board by a black fellow. The dark cabin, wherein, descending from the sunshiny deck, it was difficult to discern the furniture, lookingglasses, and mahogany wainscoting. I met two old college acquaintances, O---- , who was going to Boston, and B---- , with whom we afterwards drank a glass of wine at the hotel.
B---- , Mons. S---- , and myself continue to live in the same style as heretofore. We appear mutually to be very well pleased with each other. Mons. S---- displays many comical qualities, and manages to insure us several hearty laughs every morning and evening, those being the seasons when we meet. I am going to take lessons from him in the pronunciation of French. Of female society I see nothing. The only petticoat that comes within our premises appertains to Nancy, the pretty, dark-eyed maid-servant of the man who lives in the other part of the house.
On the road from Hallowell to Augusta we saw little booths, in two places, erected on the roadside, where boys offered beer, apples, &c., for sale. We passed an Irishwoman with a child in her arms, and a heavy bundle, and afterwards an Irishman with a light bundle, sitting by the highway. They were husband and wife ; and B---- says that an Irishman and his wife, on their journeys, do not usually walk side by side, but that the man gives the woman the heaviest burden to carry, and walks on lightly ahead!
A thought comes into my mind: Which sort of house excites the most contemptuous feelings in the beholder, such a house as Mr. ----'s, all circumstances considered, or the board-built and turfbuttressed hovels of these wild Irish, scattered about as if they had sprung up like mushrooms, in the dells and gorges, and along the banks of the river? Mushrooms, by the way, spring up where the roots of an old tree are hidden under the ground.
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