The street 1
is Pyncheon Street 89
; the house 6
is the old Pyncheon House 90
; and an elm-tree , of wide circumference , rooted before the door , is familiar to every town-born child 7
by the title of the Pyncheon Elm .
On my 8
occasional visits to the town aforesaid 2
, I 8
seldom failed to turn down Pyncheon Street 1
, for the sake of passing through the shadow of these two antiquities , -- the great elm-tree and the weather-beaten edifice 6
.
The aspect of the venerable mansion 6
has always affected me 8
like a human countenance , bearing the traces not merely of outward storm and sunshine , but expressive also , of the long lapse of mortal life , and accompanying vicissitudes that have passed within .
Were these to be worthily recounted , they would form a narrative of no small interest and instruction , and possessing , moreover , a certain remarkable unity , which might almost seem the result of artistic arrangement .
But the story would include a chain of events extending over the better part of two centuries , and , written out with reasonable amplitude , would fill a bigger folio volume , or a longer series of duodecimos , than could prudently be appropriated to the annals of all New England 9
during a similar period .
It consequently becomes imperative to make short work with most of the traditionary lore of which the old Pyncheon House 6
, otherwise known as the House of the Seven Gables 91
, has been the theme .
With a brief sketch , therefore , of the circumstances amid which the foundation of the house 6
was laid , and a rapid glimpse at , as it 10
grew black in the prevalent east wind , -- pointing , too , here and there , at some spot of more verdant mossiness on and walls , -- we 12
shall commence the real action of our 13
tale at an epoch not very remote from the present day .
Still , there will be a connection with the long past -- a reference to forgotten events and personages 14
, and to manners , feelings , and opinions , almost or wholly obsolete -- which , if adequately translated to the reader , would serve to illustrate how much of old material goes to make up the freshest novelty of human life .
Hence , too , might be drawn a weighty lesson from the little-regarded truth , that the act of the passing generation 15
is the germ which may and must produce good or evil fruit in a far-distant time ; that , together with the seed of the merely temporary crop , which mortals 16
term expediency , they 16
inevitably sow the acorns of a more enduring growth , which may darkly overshadow .
The House of the Seven Gables 6
, antique as it 6
now looks , was not the first habitation erected by
civilized man 18
on
precisely the same spot of ground 19
83 .
Pyncheon Street 1
formerly bore the humbler appellation of Maule 's Lane 20
, from the name of the original occupant of
the soil 19
21 , before whose cottage-door it 20
was a cow-path 92
.
A natural spring of soft and pleasant water 22
-- a rare treasure on
the sea-girt peninsula where
the Puritan settlement 24
was made
23 93 -- had early induced Matthew Maule 25
to build a hut , shaggy with thatch 26
, at this point , although somewhat too remote from what was then the centre of
the village 28
27 .
In the growth of the town 28
, however , after some thirty or forty years , the site covered by
this rude hovel 26
19 had become exceedingly desirable in the eyes of a prominent and powerful personage 29
, who asserted plausible claims to the proprietorship of this and a large adjacent tract of land 19
, on the strength of a grant from the legislature 30
.
Colonel Pyncheon 29
, the claimant 85
, as we 31
gather from whatever traits of him 29
are preserved , was characterized by an iron energy of purpose .
Matthew Maule 25
, on the other hand , though an obscure man 86
, was stubborn in the defence of what he 29
considered his 29
right ; and , for several years , he 29
succeeded in protecting the acre or two of earth 19
which , with his 29
own toil , he 29
had hewn out of the primeval forest 32
, to be his 29
garden ground and homestead
33 .
No written record of this dispute is known to be in existence .
Our 34
acquaintance with the whole subject is derived chiefly from tradition .
It would be bold , therefore , and possibly unjust , to venture a decisive opinion as to its merits ; although it appears to have been at least a matter of doubt , whether Colonel Pyncheon 29
's claim were not unduly stretched , in order to make it cover the small metes and bounds of
Matthew Maule 25
35 .
What greatly strengthens such a suspicion is the fact that this controversy between two ill-matched antagonists 36
-- at a period , moreover , laud it as we 37
may , when personal influence had far more weight than now -- remained for years undecided , and came to a close only with the death of the party occupying
the disputed soil 19
25 .
The mode of his 25
death , too , affects the mind differently , in our 38
day , from what it did a century and a half ago .
It was a death that blasted with strange horror the humble name of the dweller in
the cottage 26
25 , and made it seem almost a religious act to drive the plough over , and obliterate his 25
place and memory from among men 39
.
Old Matthew Maule 25
, in a word , was executed for the crime of witchcraft .
He 25
was one of the martyrs to that terrible delusion 94
, which should teach us 40
, among its other morals , that the influential classes 41
, and those who take upon
themselves 42
to be
leaders of
the people 44
43 42 , are fully liable to all the passionate error that has ever characterized the maddest mob 45
.
Clergymen 46
,
judges 47
,
statesmen 48
49 , -- the wisest , calmest , holiest persons of
their 49
day
95 stood in the inner circle round about the gallows 50
, loudest to applaud the work of blood , latest to confess themselves 49
miserably deceived .
If any one part of their 49
proceedings can be said to deserve less blame than another , it was the singular indiscrimination with which they 49
persecuted , not merely the poor and aged 51
, as in former judicial massacres , but people of all ranks 52
; their 49
own equals , brethren , and wives
53 .
Amid the disorder of such various ruin , it is not strange that a man of inconsiderable note 54
, like Maule 25
, should have trodden the martyr 55
's path to the hill of execution almost unremarked in the throng of
his 25
fellow sufferers
57 56 .
But , in after days , when the frenzy of that hideous epoch had subsided , it was remembered how loudly Colonel Pyncheon 29
had joined in the general cry , to purge the land 58
from witchcraft ; nor did it fail to be whispered , that there was an invidious acrimony in the zeal with which he 29
had sought the condemnation of Matthew Maule 25
.
It was well known that the victim 25
had recognized the bitterness of personal enmity in 's conduct towards him 25
, and that he 25
declared himself 25
hunted to death for his 25
spoil .
At the moment of execution -- with the halter about his 25
neck , and while Colonel Pyncheon 29
sat on horseback , grimly gazing at the scene Maule 25
had addressed him 29
from the scaffold , and uttered a prophecy , of which history , as well as fireside tradition , has preserved the very words .
" God , " said the dying man 25
, pointing his 25
finger , with a ghastly look , at the undismayed countenance of , -- " God will give him 29
blood to drink ! "
After the reputed wizard 25
's death , his 25
humble homestead
26 had fallen an easy spoil into Colonel Pyncheon 29
's grasp .
When it was understood , however , that the Colonel 29
intended to erect a family mansion-spacious , ponderously framed of oaken timber , and calculated to endure for
many generations of
his 29
posterity
59 over
the spot first covered by
the log-built hut of
Matthew Maule 25
26 60 6 , there was much shaking of the head among the village gossips 61
.
Without absolutely expressing a doubt whether the stalwart Puritan 29
had acted as a man of conscience and integrity 62
throughout the proceedings which have been sketched , they 61
, nevertheless , hinted that he 29
was about to build over an unquiet grave 63
.
would include the home of
the dead and buried wizard 25
26 , and would thus afford the ghost of the latter a kind of privilege to haunt its new apartments 64
, and the chambers into which
future bridegrooms 66
were to lead
, and where
children of the Pyncheon blood 68
were to be born
65 .
The terror and ugliness of Maule 25
's crime , and the wretchedness of his 25
punishment , would darken the freshly plastered walls , and infect them 68
early with the scent of an old and melancholy house 69
.
Why , then , -- while so much of the soil around
him 29
19 was bestrewn with the virgin forest leaves , -- why should Colonel Pyncheon 29
prefer a site that had already been accurst 19
?
But the Puritan soldier 29
and magistrate 29
was not a man to be turned aside from
his 29
well-considered scheme
84 , either by dread of the wizard 25
's ghost , or by flimsy sentimentalities of any kind , however specious .
Had he 29
been told of a bad air , it might have moved him 29
somewhat ; but he 29
was ready to encounter an evil spirit on .
Endowed with commonsense , as massive and hard as blocks of granite , fastened together by stern rigidity of purpose , as with iron clamps , he 29
followed out his 29
original design , probably without so much as imagining an objection to it .
On the score of delicacy , or any scrupulousness which a finer sensibility might have taught him 29
, the Colonel 87
, like most of his 29
breed and generation , was impenetrable .
He 29
therefore dug , and laid the deep foundations of , on the square of earth whence
Matthew Maule 25
, forty years before , had first swept away the fallen leaves
19 .
It was a curious , and , as some people 71
thought , an ominous fact , that , very soon after the workmen 72
began their 72
operations , the spring of water , above mentioned 22
, entirely lost the deliciousness of its 22
pristine quality .
Whether were disturbed by the depth of the new cellar 70
, or whatever subtler cause might lurk at the bottom , it is certain that the water of , as it 74
continued to be called , grew hard and brackish .
Even such we 75
find it now ; and any old woman of
the neighborhood 77
76 will certify that it is productive of intestinal mischief to those who quench
their 78
thirst
there 74
78 .
The reader 79
may deem it singular that the head carpenter of
the new edifice 6
80 was no other than the son of
the very man from whose dead gripe
the property of
the soil 19
82 had been wrested
25 81 .
Not improbably he 81
was the best workman of
his 81
time
96 ; or , perhaps , the Colonel 29
thought it expedient , or was impelled by some better feeling , thus openly to cast aside all animosity against the race of his 29
fallen antagonist
25 .
Nor was it out of keeping with the general coarseness and matter-of-fact character of the age , that the son 81
should be willing to earn an honest penny , or , rather , a weighty amount of sterling pounds , from the purse of .
At all events , Thomas Maule 81
became the architect of
the House of the Seven Gables 6
88 , and performed his 81
duty so faithfully that the timber framework fastened by his 81
hands still holds together .