many years an active member of the legislature.”—­“Hon. Robert Means, who died Jan. 24, 1823, at the age of 80, was for a long period a resident in Amherst.  He was a native of Ireland.  In 1764 he came to this country, where, by his industry and application to business, he acquired a large property, and great respect.”—­“William Stinson [one of the first settlers of Dunbarton], born in Ireland, came to Londonderry with his father.  He was much respected and was a useful man.  James Rogers was from Ireland, and father to Major Robert Rogers.  He was shot in the woods, being mistaken for a bear.”—­“Rev. Matthew Clark, second minister of Londonderry, was a native of Ireland, who had in early life been an officer in the army, and distinguished himself in the defence of the city of Londonderry, when besieged by the army of King James II.  A. D. 1688-9.  He afterwards relinquished a military life for the clerical profession.  He possessed a strong mind, marked by a considerable degree of eccentricity.  He died Jan. 25, 1735, and was borne to the grave, at his particular request, by his former companions in arms, of whom there were a considerable number among the early settlers of this town; several of them had been made free from taxes throughout the British dominions by King William, for their bravery in that memorable siege.”—­Col.  George Reid and Capt.  David M’Clary, also citizens of Londonderry, were “distinguished and brave” officers.—­“Major Andrew M’Clary, a native of this town [Epsom], fell at the battle of Breed’s Hill .”—­Many of these heroes, like the illustrious Roman, were ploughing when the news of the massacre at Lexington arrived, and straightway left their ploughs in the furrow, and repaired to the scene of action.  Some miles from where we now were, there once stood a guide-post on which were the words, “3 miles to Squire MacGaw’s.”

But generally speaking, the land is now, at any rate, very barren of men, and we doubt if there are as many hundreds as we read of.  It may be that we stood too near.

Uncannunuc Mountain in Goffstown was visible from Amoskeag, five or six miles westward.  It is the north-easternmost in the horizon, which we see from our native town, but seen from there is too ethereally blue to be the same which the like of us have ever climbed.  Its name is said to mean “The Two Breasts,” there being two eminences some distance apart.  The highest, which is about fourteen hundred feet above the sea, probably affords a more extensive view of the Merrimack valley and the adjacent country than any other hill, though it is somewhat obstructed by woods.  Only a few short reaches of the river are visible, but you can trace its course far down stream by the sandy tracts on its banks.

A little south of Uncannunuc, about sixty years ago, as the story goes, an old woman who went out to gather pennyroyal, tript her foot in the bail of a small brass kettle in the dead grass and bushes.  Some say that flints and charcoal and some traces of a camp were also found.  This kettle, holding about four quarts, is still preserved and used to dye thread in.  It is supposed to have belonged to some old French or Indian hunter, who was killed in one of his hunting or scouting excursions, and so never returned to look after his kettle.