 heirs, or were supposed to relate to the business of the revenue. On the
transfer of the archives to Halifax, this package, proving to be of no public
concern, was left behind, and had remained ever since unopened.
    The ancient Surveyor - being little molested, I suppose, at that early day,
with business pertaining to his office - seems to have devoted some of his many
leisure hours to researches as a local antiquarian, and other inquisitions of a
similar nature. These supplied material for petty activity to a mind that would
otherwise have been eaten up with rust. A portion of his facts, by the by, did
me good service in the preparation of the article entitled »MAIN STREET,«
included in the present volume. The remainder may perhaps be applied to purposes
equally valuable, hereafter; or not impossibly may be worked up, so far as they
go, into a regular history of Salem, should my veneration for the natal soil
ever impel me to so pious a task. Meanwhile, they shall be at the command of any
gentleman, inclined, and competent, to take the unprofitable labor off my hands.
As a final disposition, I contemplate depositing them with the Essex Historical
Society.
    But the object that most drew my attention, in the mysterious package, was a
certain affair of fine red cloth, much worn and faded. There were traces about
it of gold embroidery, which, however, was greatly frayed and defaced; so that
none, or very little, of the glitter was left. It had been wrought, as was easy
to perceive, with wonderful skill of needlework; and the stitch (as I am assured
by ladies conversant with such mysteries) gives evidence of a now forgotten art,
not to be recovered even by the process of picking out the threads. This rag of
scarlet cloth, - for time, and wear, and a sacrilegious moth, had reduced it to
little other than a rag, - on careful examination, assumed the shape of a
letter. It was the capital letter A. By an accurate measurement, each limb
proved to be precisely three inches and a quarter in length. It had been
intended, there could be no doubt, as an ornamental article of dress; but how it
was to be worn, or what rank, honor, and dignity, in by-past times, were
signified by it, was a riddle which (so evanescent are the fashions of the world
in these particulars) I saw little hope of solving. And yet it strangely
interested me. My eyes fastened themselves upon the old
