PRIVATE LIFE OF DANIEL WEBSTER. 69

MARSHFIELD.

THE birth-place and mountain farm of Mr. Webster having already been described in this volume, the writer would now give an account of Marshfield, the home, preeminently, of the distinguished statesman. The place thus designated is in the town of Marshfield, county of Plymouth, and State of Massachusetts. It is more of a magnificent farm, with elegant appendages, than the mere elegant residence of a gentleman; a place, indeed, which, if in England, could hardly be described without frequent use of the word baronial. It lies some thirty miles from Boston, comprehends about two thousand acres of undulating and marshy land, and slopes down to the margin of the ocean. The original owners of the land, now combined into one estate, were Nathaniel Ray Thomas, a noted Loyalist, who was the hero of Trumbull's poem of M'Fingal, and the famous Winslow family, which has given to Massachusetts, as colony and state, a number of her early governors. It came into Mr. Webster's possession somewhere about twenty-five years ago, and is the domain where he chiefly gratified his taste for, and exhibited his knowledge of, the interesting science of agriculture. The great good that he here accomplished in that particular can hardly be estimated; but for all the pains and trouble which the place has cost him, the proprietor

was amply rewarded by the fact that he was the owner of one of the very best farms in the whole country.

In

Like Elms Farm, Marshfield has also its tenant or superintendent, whose name is Porter Wright, and who, in all particulars, is amply qualified for his responsible position. From him we gathered the information that when Mr. Webster came to Marshfield the farm yielded only some fifteen tons of English hay, while the product in this particular, during the year 1851, amounted to nearly four hundred tons, in addition to two hundred tons of salt hay; also, of corn eight hundred bushels, potatoes one thousand bushels, oats five hundred bushels, turnips five hundred bushels, and beets four hundred bushels. 1825, the inhabitants of Plymouth county knew nothing of kelp and sea-weed as articles that would enrich their lands; but Mr. Webster discovered their value, set the example of using them, profited thereby, and they are now considered so indispensable that some of the farmers in the country will team it a distance of thirty miles. Principally at his own expense, Mr. Webster laid out a road to the beach on which the kelp was thrown by the sea; and not a single ton of the article is known to have been drawn on land before he went to Marshfield. In October of last year, one hundred and fifty teams were employed after a storm in drawing this rich manure on to the estates adjoining Marshfield, exclusive of those engaged by Mr. Porter Wright. And some of Mr. Webster's neighbors allege that they could well afford to give him five tons of hay a year for having taught them the use of ocean manure. In olden times, too, it was but precious seldom that the trav

eler's eye fell upon any but a wood-colored house in the vicinity of Marshfield Farm, while now neatly-painted dwellings may be seen in every direction, and many of their occupants acknowledge that Mr. Webster not only helped them to make money by giving them employment, but also taught them how to make themselves comfortable. Some of them, indeed, go so far as to say, that if the town of Marshfield had made Mr. Webster a present of thirty thousand dollars, they would only have rendered an adequate return for his agricultural services. He not only taught them how to enrich their soils, but in stocking his own farm with the very best of blooded cattle, he also, with a liberal hand, scattered them upon the farms of his neighbors.

Indeed, the raising of fine cattle was Mr. Webster's agricultural hobby, and it was a rare treat to take a walk with him over his grazing fields, or through the spacious yards adjoining his overflowing barns, and to hear him descant upon the goodness and beauty of his Alderney cows, with their gazelle eyes, or the brilliant color of his Devon oxen, and contrasting their excellences with those which distinguish the breeds of Hertfordshire and Ayrshire. A better judge of cattle than he was not to be found any where; and though his stables were abundantly supplied with horses, for these he entertained no uncommon attachment; but then, again, for sheep and swine he had a partiality. Of the latter animal he once raised a single litter of twelve, which were all entirely white, and when killed averaged in weight no less than four hundred pounds. And those who have a passion for the oddities of the quad

ruped world, might, by taking a short walk into a particular field, have a sight of several South American lamas, which helped to give a romantic character to the farm. And when the reader comes to add to the foregoing three varieties of geese, ducks of all kinds, domesticated in this country, Guinea hens, peacocks, and Chinese poultry to an almost unlimited extent, he may well imagine that the living animals of Marshfield compose a "cattle show" of no common order.

The mind that had the good sense to enrich Marshfield Farm with so much of the useful and interesting also covered it with the results of the most refined taste. The flower-garden, for example, covers nearly an acre of ground, and contains the richest and most beautiful varieties of plants peculiar to the country. Of forest trees, too, there is a multitudinous array, of every size and every variety; and it has been estimated that at least one hundred thousand of them have grown to their present size from seeds planted by Mr. Webster's own hands; for, as he has often said, when he originally came to Marshfield, he was too poor a man to think of patronizing such establishments as nurseries, even if they had existed to any extent. Of fruittrees there is also an extensive collection; and while one orchard contains some three hundred trees, that remind one of the Pilgrim fathers, so weather-beaten and worn in their attire are they, another, of a thousand trees, presents the appearance of an army of youthful warriors; and then the farm is so appropriately intersected with roads and avenues, gravelly walks and shady pathways, that every thing which the visitor notices seems to be in exactly the