school.
14. Home of Sarah Greenleaf.
15. Home of Dr. Elias Weld and of the Countess, Rocks Village.
16. "Old Garrison," the Peaslee House.
17. Rocks Bridge.
18. Curson's Mill, Artichoke River.
19. Pleasant Valley.
20. The Laurels.
21. Site of "Goody" Martin's House.
22. Whittier Burial Lot, Union Cemetery.
23. Macy House.
24. The Captain's Well.
25. Friends' Meeting-House, Amesbury.
26. Whittier Home, Amesbury.
27. Hawkswood.
28. Deer Island, Chain Bridge, home of Mrs. Spofford.
29. Rocky Hill Church.
30. The Fountain, Mundy Hill.
31. House at Hampton Falls, where Whittier died.
32. Scene of "The Wreck of Rivermouth."
33. Boar's Head.]

HAVERHILL

[Illustration: WHITTIER'S BIRTHPLACE

Copyright, 1891, by A. A. Ordway]

WHITTIER-LAND

I

HAVERHILL

The whole valley of the Merrimac, from its source among the New
Hampshire hills to where it meets the ocean at Newburyport, has been
celebrated in Whittier's verse, and might well be called
"Whittier-Land." But the object of these pages is to describe only that
part of the valley included in Essex County, the northeastern section
of Massachusetts. The border line separating New Hampshire from the Bay
State is three miles north of the river, and follows all its turnings
in this part of its course. For this reason each town on the north of
the Merrimac is but three miles in width. It was on this three-mile
strip that Whittier made his home for his whole life. His birthplace in
Haverhill was his home for the first twenty-nine years of his life. He
lived in Amesbury the remaining fifty-six years. The birthplace is in
the East Parish of Haverhill, three miles from the City Hall, and three
miles from what was formerly the Amesbury line. It is nearly midway
between the New Hampshire line and the Merrimac River. In 1876 the
township of Merrimac was formed out of the western part of Amesbury,
and this new town is interposed between the two homes, which are nine
miles apart.

Haverhill, Merrimac, Amesbury, and Salisbury are each on the
three-mile-wide ribbon of land stretching to the sea, on the left bank
of the river. On the opposite bank are Bradford, Groveland, Newbury,
and Newburyport. The whole region on both sides of the river abounds
in beautifully rounded hills formed of glacial deposits of clay and
gravel, and they are fertile to their tops. At many points they press
close to the river, which has worn its channel down to the sea-level,
an