ing account of this unfortunate lady we take from Hanson's
"History of Danvers:"--

"Elizabeth Whitman came from a very respectable family in
Connecticut, where her father was a clergyman. She was
possessed of an ardent poetical temperament, an inordinate
love of praise, and was gifted with the natural endowment of
beauty and perfect grace, while she was accomplished with
those refinements which education can bestow. She was lovely
beyond words. But her natural amiabilities were warped and
perverted by reading great numbers of romances, to the
exclusion of almost all other reading. She formed her idea
of men by the exaggerated standards she saw in the books to
which she resorted; and thus when she looked around her she
saw no one who realized her ideal. She subsequently became
intimate with a lawyer, said to be the Honourable (?) Judge
Pierpont Edwards."

We next hear of her in Danvers, "where the novelty of her situation,"
continues Hanson, "and her attractive beauty and manners during her
short sojourn, caused the entire village and many from the neighboring
towns to attend her funeral. A few weeks after her burial, an unknown
hand erected the gravestone with its eloquent inscription." The stone is
evidently Connecticut sandstone or freestone. Mr. Hanson says of the
volume "Eliza Wharton": "The catchpenny volume of letters which pretend
to give her history has but the figments of the imagination of its
authoress to recommend it."

* * * * *

Picture of the old Bell Tavern in Danvers. From the "Salem Gazette,"
January, 1781.

[Illustration]

_Danvers, Jan. 1781._

Just published,
And to be SOLD by
E. RUSSELL,
at his Printing-Office,
near the Bell-Tavern;

_The Second Edition of
Russell's_ American ALMANACK,

For the Year of our Redemption, 1781.

Being First after Leap Year; and Fifth Year of Independency.
Fitted for the Meridian of Boston, N. E. Lat. 42: 25 N.
Wherein may be found all Things necessary for this Work.

To which is added, a Declaration of the Rights of the
Inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, extracted
from the Frame of Government; and a List of the Chief
Officers of Government, which is thought necessary to be
possessed by every Freeman in this Commonwealth.

Calculated by that curious and accurate As