Popham, who now occupies the homestead. The mansion was built in 1784 by William Popham, Sr., who made it his home, with the exception of a few years sjjent in the city of New York, until 1835, since which date his son and grandson have resided here. The mansion stands a few rods west of the post road, in a small valley surrounded by a grove of locusts, being a few hundred feet south of the Varian tavern. The edifice is one of the most picturesque in appearance and location of any in the town, and, although it has passed its century of existence, still stands almost unchanged, an excellent example of the thorough building of the hist century. Both within and without the old mansion is charming in its suggestions of the early days of our national life, and with its near neighbors, the Varian and the Morris homesteads, forms a picture vividly remindful of the past.

Adjacent to the Popham estate on the north, and extending north along the old psst road, as far as the southern line of the Tompkins farm, was, in former days, the property of the Varian family. The house, now known as the Wayside Cottage, is one of the oldest in the town, dating from a period jirior to the Revolution, and, although considerable additions have of late years been made to it, the old part has changed in no essential particular. It stands in the shade of several handsome trees, close to the road, at the very southeast corner of the property, and was built and owned by a farmer, Haddon by name, from whom it passed into the hands of the Varians. During the Revolution it was occupied by James and Michael