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The Wentworth House, Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Martha

Martha Hilton, the heroine of the romance, was "a careless, laughing, bare-footed girl." One day a neighbor saw her, in a short dress, carrying a pail of water in the street. "You, Pat! You, Pat! Why do you go looking so? You should be ashamed to be seen in the street!" was the shocked comment. But the answer was not what the neighbor expected. "No matter how I look, I shall ride in my chariot yet, Marm."

The story of what followed is told by Charles W.

Brewster, a historian of old Portsmouth: • • • There is a "Martha Hilton afterwards left home, and went to live in the Governor's mansion at Little Harbor, doing the work of the kitchen, and keeping the house in order, much to the Governor's satisfaction.. The Governor has invited a dinner party, and with many other guests, in his cocked hat comes the beloved Rev. Arthur Brown, of the Episcopal church. The dinner is served up in a style becoming the Governor's table. whisper from the Governor to a messenger, and at his summons Martha Hilton comes in from that door on the west of the parlor, and, with blushing countenance, stands in front of the fireplace. She seems heedless of the fire she does not appear to have brought anything in, nor does she seem to be looking for anything to carry out-there she stands! a damsel of twenty summersfor what, no visitor can tell. "The Governor, bleached by the frosts of sixty winters, rises. 'Mr. Brown, I wish you to marry me.' 1 To whom?' asks his pastor, in wondering surprise. 'To this lady,' was the reply. The rector stood confounded. The Governor became imperative. 'As the Governor of New Hampshire I command you to marry me!' The ceremony was then duly performed, and from that time Martha Hilton became Lady Wentworth." Longfellow's record of the incident is given in the poem, "Lady Wentworth": "The years came and... the years went, seven in all, And all these years had Martha Hilton served In the Great House, not wholly unobserved :

By day, by night, the silver crescent grew, Though hidden by clouds, the light still shining through; A maid of all work, whether coarse or fine, A servant who made service seem divine!

Through her each room was fair to look upon; The mirrors glistened, and the brasses shone, The very knocker at the outer door, If she but passed, was brighter than before."

Then came the strange marriage scene: "Can this be Martha Hilton? It must be!

Yes, Martha Hilton, and no other she!

Dowered with the beauty of her twenty years, How ladylike, how queenlike she appears; The pale, thin crescent of the days gone by Is Dian now in all her majesty!

Yet scarce a guest perceived that she was there Until the Governor, rising from his chair, Played slightly with his ruffles, then looked down And said unto the Reverend Arthur Brown: 'This is my birthday: it shall likewise be My wedding-day, and you shall marry me!'" ALL THE WAY BACK TO NEW ENGLAND 399 Governor Wentworth died in 1770, three years after the coming to America of Michael Wentworth, a retired colonel in the British Army. Mrs. Wentworth married him, and he became the second lord of the mansion.

During his residence there Washington was welcomed to the house, one day in 1789.

Martha Wentworth, the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Wentworth, married Sir John Wentworth, an Englishman, and they lived in the old house until 1816, when the property passed to a family of another name.