Article February 8, 1900 Issue

Miscellany

Out at The Hermitage, the home of the late A. Swan Brown, hidden in a thicket within a stone's throw of the house, is a title carved with great care and not a little skill upon the face of a rock. At one time the rock had been a bowlder, sticking up some distance above the ground, but the genius whose work the title is, blasted the top of the rock off and planed the surface down to a smooth tablet. The work was done many years ago by an eccentric genius, a vegetarian and a recluse. So averse was he to flesh and killing that he would not have a leather harness for his horse, but drove about, his crazy old equine draped in a harness made of old bits of rope and chains.

It is through this odd specimen of humanity that the beautiful home, The Hermitage, gets its name. His name was William C. Hall, and his history is well known in Worcester. Why he should have undertaken so arduous and unprofitable a task is hard to explain, but he probably thought that such a title would last. He was evidently an illiterate old fellow, for his handiwork on the rock at The Hermitage still shows distinctly an indelible evidence of his poor spelling. This is the title on the rock:—

"Know all by these presents, that I, William C. Hall, of Worcester, and the commonwealth of Massachusetts, in consideration of 125 dols—paid by the hand of Solomon Parsons of the same Worcester, the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge, do hearby give, grant, sell, and convay unto God, through the laws of James Christ, which are made known to man, to be the reckord of the New Testament, recorded by Mathew, Mark, Luke, John the Evangelist, this land to be governd by the above-mentioned laws, and together with the spirit of God, the sad tract of land is situated in Worcester above-mentioned, the southwesterly part containing 10 acres, more or less, and bounded as follows, viz., beginning at the southwest corner of the lot at a stake and stones, by land of E. Daniels, thence easterly by land of S. Perry about 37½ rods to a corner of the fence, thence by land of L. Gates about 54 rods to a corner of the fence, thence westerly land of the hears of J. Fowler about 24 rods to a chestnut tree in the wall at the corner of the land of said Daniels and a heap of stones by the side of it, thence southerly to the bounds first mentioned."—Worcester Gazette.

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