that few trees probably ever grew there; and a bare, elevated platform
afforded a conspicuous site, and room for the purpose. These
conclusions, to which recent discoveries and explorations have led,
remarkably confirm Calef's statements. From Sheriff Corwin's _Return_,
we know that the first victim was buried "in the place" where she was
executed; and it may be supposed all the rest were. The soil is shallow,
near the brow of the precipice and between the clefts of the rock.

The Reviewer desires to know my authority for saying that the ground,
where Burroughs was buried, "was trampled down by the mob." I presume
that when, less than five weeks afterwards, eight more persons were
hanged there, belonging to respectable families in what are now Peabody,
Marblehead, Topsfield, Rowley and Andover, as well as Salem, and a
spectacle again presented to which crowds flocked from all quarters, and
to which many particularly interested must have been drawn, besides
those from the populous neighborhood, especially if men "on horseback"
mingled in the throng, the ground must have been considerably trampled
upon. Poor Burroughs had been suddenly torn from his family and home,
more than a hundred miles away; there were no immediate connections,
here, who would have been likely to recover his remains; and, it is
therefore probable, they had been left where they were thrown, near the
foot of the gallows.

There is one point upon which the Reviewer is certain he has
"demolished" Calef. The latter speaks of the victims as having been
hanged, one after another. The Reviewer says, the mode of execution was
to have them "swung off at once;" and further uses this argument: "Calef
himself furnishes us with evidence that such was the practice in Salem,
where eight persons were hanged thirty-six days later. He says, 'After
the execution, Mr. Noyes, turning him to the bodies, said--What a sad
thing it is to see eight firebrands of Hell hanging there.'"

The argument is, eight were hanging there together, after the execution;
therefore, they must have been swung off at the same moment!

This is a kind of reasoning with which--to adopt Mather's expression in
describing diabolical horrors, capital trials, and condemnations to
death--we are "entertained" throughout by the Reviewer. The truth is, we
have no particular knowledge of the machinery, or its operations, at
these executions. A "halter," a "ladder," a "gallows," a "hangman," are
spoken