Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/47

 INTRODUCTION. XXXIX

great mills of Lawrence in the distance, which last, more than any thing else, tell of the wonderful change wrought by two centuries of progress. Dr. Timothy Dwight, who had an opportunity (in 1810) to see this town before it lost so much of its native beauty, gives the following descrip- tion of it : —

" North Andover is a very beautiful piece of ground. Its surface is elegantly undulating, and its soil in an eminent de- gree fertile. The meadows are numerous, large, and of the first quality. The groves, charmingly interspersed, are tall and thrifty. The landscape, every where varied, neat, and cheerful, is also; everywhere rich.

" The Parish is a mere collection of plantations, without any thing like a village.

" Upon the whole, Andover is one of the best farming Towns in Eastern Massachusetts." *

Mr. John Woodbridge was ordained pastor of the church at Andover in October, 1645.! He was the husband of Mrs. Bradstreet's sister Mercy. He was born at Stanton, near Highworth, in Wiltshire, about 1613, of which parish his father was minister. He had been some time at Oxford, but was unable to complete the course there, owing to his own and his father's unwillingness that he should take the oath of conformity required of him. About the year 1634, he came to New England, with his uncle, Mr. Thomas Parker, and settled at Newbury. | From that place, as we have seen, he moved to Andover. In 1647 he sailed for the old country, probably taking with him

t Winthrop's New England, Vol. ii. pp. 252-3. I Mather's Magnalia, Bk. iii. p. 219.
 * Travels. New Haven: 1S21. Vol. i. p. 401.

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