ugh favorably disposed toward the sect.
His youngest son, Joseph, brought the young Quakeress into the family,
and their descendants for several generations, down to the time of the
poet, belonged to the sect founded by her father's friend, George Fox.
Joseph Peaslee built this house with bricks brought from England before
1675. As it was one of the largest and strongest houses in the town, in
the time of King Philip's war it was set apart by the town authorities
as a house of refuge for the families of the neighborhood, and as a
rallying point for the troops kept on the scout. There are many
port-holes through its thick walls.

[Illustration: OLD GARRISON HOUSE (PEASLEE HOUSE)]

A little farther on we come to Rocks Village, pictured so perfectly by
Whittier in his poem "The Countess," that it will be at once
recognized:--

"Over the wooded northern ridge,
Between its houses brown,
To the dark tunnel of the bridge
The street comes straggling down."

The bridge across the Merrimac at this point was a covered and gloomy
structure at the time this poem was written. It has since been
partially remodeled, and many of the houses of the "stranded village,"
then brown and paintless, have received modern improvements. But there
is enough of antiquity still clinging to the place to make it
recognizable from Whittier's lines. This was the market to which the
Whittiers brought much of the produce of their farm to barter for
household supplies. This was the home of Dr. Elias Weld, the "wise old
doctor" of "Snow-Bound," and it was to him "The Countess" was
inscribed--the poem which every year brings many visitors hither, for
the grave of the Countess is near.

[Illustration: ROCKS VILLAGE AND BRIDGE

Home of the Countess was at further end of the bridge, in house now
standing, afterward occupied by Whittier's benefactor, Dr. Weld.]

Whittier was still in his teens when this eccentric physician left
Rocks Village and removed to Hallowell, Maine, and almost half a
century had intervened before he wrote that remarkable tribute to the
friend and benefactor of his youth, which is found in the prelude to
"The Countess." The good old man died at Hudson, Ohio, a few months
after the publication of the lines that meant so much to his fame, and
it is pleasant to know that they consoled the last hours of his long
life. Whittier did not know whether or not the benefactor of his
boyhood was living in 1863, when he wr