THE BARTLETT MANSION. 265
tude and permanence. One feels that the builders must have been large-minded, serene men. A fashionable dwelling of fifteen feet front in our modern cities furnishes a perfect antithesis. The ancient houses were well placed, in grounds of some extent, on the crest of a natural elevation, or near a grove, with broad, grassy lawns, bordered by elms and oaks, and dotted with firs and spruces, and with clumps of flowering shrubs. The distinguishing features of old New England towns are still these superb mansions. They are generally painted buff or cream white, having green blinds and tall and massive chimneys; and in their picturesque situations and surroundings they add a poetical grace as well as historical grandeur to the landscape.
The Bartlett mansion, although remodeled and improved some fifteen years ago, still preserves a resemblance to the old-type colonial residence. It is a two-story-and-a-half structure, of a brown-stone color, with dark trimmings. The old house has a youngish, well-preserved look, as if it had been tenderly dealt with. It stands on the main road from Exeter to Haverhill, just at the outskirts of the village, facing the large and handsome common. With true patrician dignity it stands in from the street, with a fence of antique pattern surrounding a pretty front yard. The house is built of white oak; the frame-work being unusually large and solid.
Passing through the front yard we stand at the ancient portal and crave admittance. Our wish is not refused, and we are ushered into the spacious hall which extends through the square part, and is ten feet wide. At the left hand is the sitting-room, twenty-two by fourteen feet. It is furnished with elegant modern furniture. A costly cuckoo clock, brought from Paris in 1880, ticks on the table. On the walls are the portraits of Dr. Levi S. and Mrs. Bartlett, painted by Tenney, and said to be excellent likenesses.
Opening from the right of the hallway is the parlor, which is sixteen by twenty feet. In this room many relics of the governor and signer are preserved. Here are the heavy silver-bowed spectacles, which he used the latter years of his life; the scales with which he weighed his medicines; a silver watch that he at one time carried, and which hung in the clock in the old house at the time it was burned; also the gilt candelabra filled with wax tapers, a very ornamental article, which lighted the old governor's fetes and councils at a former time. Above the mantel is an oil portrait of the ancient master of the house, Gov. Bartlett himself, in all the glory of lace ruffles, colonial waist-coat and white necktie. Without being handsome, the face is one of much dignity, combining sagacity and gracious sweetness. The features are rather long-drawn and thoughtful, and his high Roman nose and intellectual brow proclaim the genius and patriotism which burned in the heart and brain of New Hampshire's great Revolutionary worthy. The eyes are a light blue, large, deep, soulful, and remind you of the eyes of Penn, of Howard, of Wilberforce. They are the eyes of a philanthropist. Gov. Bartlett was a tall man, six feet in height, erect and slimmish. His hair was of an auburn color, fine in texture, and not abundant, being, in fact, rather thin, which would seem to be a characteristic of all the Bartletts. There are other relics in the parlor, especially some fine Indian remains found by various members of the family on the Bartlett farm. These consist of stone gouges, hatchets, clubs, and other implements. A huge fungi, torn from a log, which is two and a half feet long and one and a half foot wide, is also on exhibition. In this room have sat, in conclave, Matthew Thornton, John Dudley, Langdon, Sullivan and Weare. Gen. John Stark once visited there, and many of the great men of a later period have stood within these walls.
The dining-room, in the south-west corner, is fourteen by twenty-two feet. The floor is painted in alternate stripes of green and straw color. The win-
