DEN.  One of the buildings formerly attached to Harvard College, which was taken down in the year 1846, was for more than a half-century known by the name of the Den.  It was occupied by students during the greater part of that period, although it was originally built for private use.  In later years, from its appearance, both externally and internally, it fully merited its cognomen; but this is supposed to have originated from the following incident, which occurred within its walls about the year 1770, the time when it was built.  The north portion of the house was occupied by Mr. Wiswal (to whom it belonged) and his family.  His wife, who was then ill, and, as it afterwards proved, fatally, was attended by a woman who did not bear a very good character, to whom Mr. Wiswal seemed to be more attentive than was consistent with the character of a true and loving husband.  About six weeks after Mrs. Wiswal’s death, Mr. Wiswal espoused the nurse, which, circumstance gave great offence to the good people of Cambridge, and was the cause of much scandal among the gossips.  One Sunday, not long after this second marriage, Mr. Wiswal having gone to church, his wife, who did not accompany him, began an examination of her predecessor’s wardrobe and possessions, with the intention, as was supposed, of appropriating to herself whatever had been left by the former Mrs. Wiswal to her children.  On his return from church, Mr. Wiswal, missing his wife, after searching for some time, found her at last in the kitchen, convulsively clutching the dresser, her eyes staring wildly, she herself being unable to speak.  In this state of insensibility she remained until her decease, which occurred shortly after.  Although it was evident that she had been seized with convulsions, and that these were the cause of her death, the old women were careful to promulgate, and their daughters to transmit the story, that the Devil had appeared to her in propria persona, and shaken her in pieces, as a punishment for her crimes.  The building was purchased by Harvard College in the year 1774.

In the Federal Orrery, March 26, 1795, is an article dated Wiswal-Den, Cambridge, which title it also bore, from the name of its former occupant.

In his address spoken at the Harvard Alumni Festival, July 22, 1852, Hon. Edward Everett, with reference to this mysterious building as it appeared in the year 1807, said:—­

“A little further to the north, and just at the corner of Church Street (which was not then opened), stood what was dignified in the annual College Catalogue—­(which was printed on one side of a sheet of paper, and was a novelty)—­as ‘the College House.’  The cellar is still visible.  By the students, this edifice was disrespectfully called ‘Wiswal’s Den,’ or, for brevity, ‘the Den.’  I lived in it in my Freshman year.  Whence the name of ’Wiswal’s Den’ I hardly dare say:  there was something worse than ‘old fogy’ about it.  There was a dismal tradition