One who desires to take this path can
enter upon it at the Union Cemetery, where the poet is buried. Follow
the "level tableland" he describes towards the Merrimac, looking down
at the left into the deep and picturesque valley of the Powow,--a
charming view of its placid, winding course after it has made its
plunge of eighty feet over a shoulder of Po Hill,--until you

... "see the dull plain fall
Sheer off, steep-slanted, ploughed by all
The seasons' rainfalls,"

and you look down upon the broad Merrimac seeking "the wave-sung
welcome of the sea." Find a path winding down the bluff facing the
river, half-way down to the hat factory which is close to the water,
and you are upon the location of Goody Martin's cottage. But no trace
is now to be seen of "the cellar, vine overrun" which the poet
describes.

[Illustration: CURSON'S MILL, ARTICHOKE RIVER]

I visited the spot with the poet on the October day before referred to,
and noted the felicity of his descriptions of the locality. It is near
the river, but high above it, and one looks _down_ upon the tops of
the willows on the bank:--

"And through the willow-boughs _below_
She saw the rippled waters shine."

Opposite Pleasant Valley, on the Newbury side of the river, are "The
Laurels," "Curson's Mill," and the mouth of the Artichoke, celebrated
in several poems. In June, when the laurels are in bloom, this shore is
well worth visiting for its natural beauties, as well as for the
association of Whittier's frequent allusion to it in prose as well as
verse. It was for the "Laurel Party," an annual excursion of his
friends to this shore, that he wrote the poems, "Our River,"
"Revisited," and "The Laurels." In "June on the Merrimac" he sings:--

"And here are pictured Artichoke,
And Curson's bowery mill;
And Pleasant Valley smiles between
The river and the hill."

In the stanza preceding this he takes a view down the Merrimac, past
Moulton's Hill in Newbury,--an eminence commanding one of the finest
views on the river, formerly crowned with a castle-like structure
occupied for several years as the summer residence of Sir Edward
Thornton,--to the great bend the river makes in passing its last rocky
barrier at Deer Island. The Hawkswood oaks are a magnificent feature of
the scene. This estate, on the Amesbury side of the river, was formerly
occupied by Rev. J. C. Fletcher, of Brazilian fame.

"The Hawkswood oaks, the st