The enclosed area is about half a mile in diameter, and presents charming prospects in all directions. The house was, in the first years of Methodism, embosomed in orchards, under which the great men of the Church in that day preached sermons that made the amphitheatre echo. The Methodist society of the town was formed here, and Abraham Bemis and his family became its first members. Hundreds heard the gospel in its power on his premises, and doubtless many still look down from heaven with gladness upon the memorable spot. His hospitality seemed only to enhance his prosperity; his property increased, all his household and many of his other kindred became members of the Church, and the good old saint, who welcomed the pilgrims of the Lord in the day of their adversity, at last went to heaven, "triumphant in the faith and hope of the gospel," at the ripe age of eighty-seven years.

His daughter, Mary Bemis, was received into the Church when about seventeen years old, and in two years afterward became the wife of George Pickering, who at last inherited the consecrated homestead, and maintained to the end its old hospitality. We give a finely-engraved picture of this mansion. It is an historical monument of our

cause.

The marriage of Pickering was in all respects a happy one. Through his long life, most of it spent in absence as a travelling preacher, his home was an asylum to which, at his regular periodical times and at no others, he returned to find solace and repose from his labours and trials. The only detraction from its enjoyments was the thought that so many of his heroic fellow-labourers had no similar shelter for themselves or their families; with them, however, he ever wished to share his happiness. His doors were always