BOSTON SIGHTS; OR. f f t « HAND-BOOK VISITORS. R. L. MIDGLEY. ILLUSTRATED BT BILLINGS, HILL, BAMY, AND JOHN ANDREW. BOSTON: A. WILLIAMS AND COMPANY. 18 5. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by JOHN ANDREW, In the Clerk's Office of the District Covu-t of the District of Massachusetts. ELECTROTTPED AT THE tOSTON STEREOTTPE FOUNDRY. PREFACE The want of a Guide such as the one here presented to the Travelling Public, has been so long felt and so generally acknowledged, that an apology for the present work would be an impeachment of the judgment of the intelligent Tourist. This work, although more particularly designed for the use of travellers, will be found of great service to the public generally, for few of the inhabitants know where to see the sights in the city, nor how to see them. The materials for this publication have been collected Avith great care, and .here " the writer wishes it distinctly understood, that he has not hesitated to gather his materials wherever he could find them, availing himself in the freef^t 2 PREFACE. manner, not only of the researches of others, but even of their very language, whenever it happened to suit his purpose." He also takes occasion to express his ackllOTi.- edgments to- Mr. H. W. Fuller, of Boston, Mr. W. A. Crafts, of Roxbury, and Mr. Wm. F. Poole, the Librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, for copious materials furnished by them. This little volume is not intended as a history, nor as an index to the many public institutions, for which this city is so famous, but as a guide to those sights that are par- ticularly deserving the attention of citizens and strangers. We have adhered as rigidly as possible to a direct route, describing each object in order as it is reached, and classing them according to subjects in the index. Boston, August 22, 1856. INDEX TO SUBJECTS. Addenda, . Page 215 Ancient and Modern Boston, 6 liii-thplace of Franklin, 28 Poston Harbor . . .190 Boston Stone. ......... 6 Frog Pond, 79 CHURCHES. Brattle St. Church, 110 Old South Church, 21 Park Street Church, . ,53 Stone Chapel, 31 CEMETERIES. Copp'sHill, 117 Chapel Burying Ground, 31 Granary " 53 Forest Hill " 202 Mount Auburn *' 144 Woodlawn "........ 167 Daily Papers, . 20 Harvard University . . .133 Lowell Institute, 108 Massachusetts Historical Society, .39 Society of Natural History, 100 Mercantile, 10-3 Club House 44 Common, .68 Courts, 30 Court House, 29 United States Courts, Ill INDEX TO SUBJECTS. DEPOTS. Eastern, 114 Fitchburg, 116 Lowell, 113 Maine, 119 Old Colony and Fall River, 89 Providence, 81 Worcester, 86 FORTIFICATIONS. Cambridge, . 131 Dorchester, 176 Fort Independence, 195 Fort Warren, 191 Fort Winthrop, 197 Harbor, Boston, 190 HALLS. Chapman Hall, . 31 Cochituate " 46 Horticultural Hall, 31 Mercantile " 107 Faneuil " 10 ISLANDS, (in Boston Harbor.) Castle Island, Deer " George's *< Long " Lower Tiight '. Nix's Mate Rainsford Spectacle Thompson's Governor's « 193 191 191 191 191 191 191 191 197 197 LIBRARIES. "Mnce Library, 'crcantile Librarv, 28 lOG INDEX TO SUBJECTS. d Public Library, 83 Athenaeum ♦' • •. • 43 Harvard •' 133 Society of Natural History, 103 Massachusetts Historical Society, 40 Athenseum, 41 Masonic Temple 56 Time Lodges meet, 58 MONUMENTS. National Monument to the Forefathers, . . . ,92 Bunker Hill •« 154 Warren " 155 Nahant, 181 Nahant Beach, 183 Egg Rock, 184 Iron Mine, . 184 Spouting Horn, . . . . . . . . . 184 Saunders's Ledge • • 183 Castle Rock 184 Caldron CHff, 185 Roaring Cavern, . 185 Natm-al Bridge 185 Pulpit Rock, 185 Swallows' Cave, . 186 Irene's Grotto, ......... 187 Nahant House, 187 Old House, 3 Post Office, 18 Public Garden 81 PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. Public Library, 83 Massachusetts General Hospital, . . . . . . 121 McLean Asylum, 123 Medical College, 124 City Jail, 125 Eye and Ear Infinnarj', 127 Perkins Institute for the Blind, . . . ... .176 Quarantine, . . , . . . . . . 191 Almshouse, . . . . . . . . . . 193 Farm School . .191 States Prison, 161 INDEX TO SUBJECTS. PLACES OF AMUSEMENT. Music Hall, 54 Boston Theatre, 95 Melodeon, 101 Ordway'sHall 109 Howai'd Athenaium, Ill National Theatre, 112 Museum, 35 Tremont Temple, 47 PUBLIC BUILDINGS. U. S. Custom House, 14 Faneuil Hall Market, 11 FaneuilHall 9 Exchange, 16 Old State House, .19 State House, ......... 50 Post Office, 18 Court House, 29 City Hall, 28 PubHc Library, 83 U. S. Coiu-ts Ill SQUARES. Bowdoin Square, Ill Dock " 3 Haymarket «« 119 Franklin " 200 Blackstone " 199 SUBURBAN SIGHTS. Cambridge, 131 Concord, 134 Lexington, 175 Dorchester Heights, 176 Nahant, 181 Bishop's Palace, . . . 138 Washington's Residence, 14 1 Riedesel House, . .^ 141 INDEX TO SUBJECTS. RAILROADS. Providence, 81 Worcester, .......... 87 Old Colony and Fall River 89 Cambridge, (Horse,) Ill Lowell, 113 Eastern, .115 Fitchbiirg, 117 Maine, . .120 TREES. Great Elm, 71 Washington Elm, 142 BOSTON SIGHTS CHAPTER I. DOCK-SQUARE. OLD HOUSE. BOSTON STONE. You are a stranger in Boston, and desirous of visiting the principal objects of interest in the " City op Notions." This little book is in- tended to be a Guide, not a History ; therefore we shall not enter into any details respecting the rise and progress of Boston. If you know nothing of that, 2 BOSTON SIGHTS. but are desirous of such information, procure Drake's History, published by Stevens, Washington-street, and in it you will find all you require. We will, then, suppose you have arrived in Boston, and that, having located yourself at one of its many spacious hotels, you have commenced your tour of the city. It is always well to have some defined point to start from, and therefore we will select Dock-square as the scene of our first exploration. Dock-square. — It is not a square now, in the pleasant acceptation of the word, though probably " once upon a time " it was. Very long ago grass might have grown there, and trees flourished, and birds sung, and no dock ever have been dreamed of. Only a prowling Indian, in search of a squaw or a scalp, might have been seen in the vicinity, and all excitement have been confined to a palaver around the council -fire. But a truce to the past ; it is Dock-square, and nothing else, now. And, in lieu of groves or glades, we have a busy, open space, with labyrinthine thoroughfares leading into and out of it. Bustling, anxious-faced men are to be seen there at all hours of the day, rushing hither and thither, intent on dollars and dimes. House and hotel keepers pay flying visits to the market close by ; visitors from all parts of the States look curiously at the " Cradle of Liberty ; " omnibuses rush along, distracting perilled pedestrians ; DOCK-SQUARE. 9 market-carts, laden with country produce, stand sur- rounded by dealers, and everything is full of life and animation. Looking calmly down upon and over- ehadowing tliis scene of commercial activity, is a huge structure — Faneuil Hall. Of it we shall presently speak. At present let us direct our glance to — artis- tically speaking — a " bit " of Old Boston. Old House. — There it stands at the corner of North and Market streets, dingy, quaint, time-battered, many- gabled, but picturesque, for all that. They say it was built 4 BOSTON sumTS. in the year 1680, soon after the great fire of 1679. The peaks of the roof remain precisely as they were first erected, the frame and external appearance never having been altered. The timber used in the building was prin- cipally oak, and, where it has been kept dry, is perfectly sound, and intensely hard. The outside is covered with plastering, or what is commonly called rough-cast. But instead of pebbles, which are generally used at the present day to make a hard surface on the mortar, broken glass was used. This glass appears like that of common junk- bottles, broken into pieces of about half an inch diameter, the sharp corners of which penetrate the cement in such a manner that this great lapse of years has had no percep- tible effect upon them. The figures 1680 were impressed into the rough-cast to show the year of its erection, and are now perfectly legible. This surface was also variegated with ornamental squares, diamonds, and flowers- de-luce. The building is only two stories high, and is about thirty-two feet long and seventeen wide ; yet tra- dition informs us that it was once the residence of two respectable families, and the front part was at the same time occupied for two shops, or stores. Before long, perhaps, the giant Progress may, in his march of improvement, tread down this ancient dwelling and where the sunshine and the moonlight glimmered on its dim windows for years, great granite, unpicturesque OLD HOUSE. 5 warehouses may rise and throw grim commercial shadows over the thoroughfare. But we have an antiquarian's desire that it may remain, if only as a memorial of the early days of Boston. Its very dinginess is delightful. From the upper windows, just beneath those peaked roofs, some gentleman of the olden days might, " once upon a time," have looked upon his little ones sporting among the daisies of his garden; or some pretty maiden have watched its lozenge-shaped panes flashing back the moon- beams as she sauntered home with her lover from their evening walk in the mall on Boston Common; for as early as 1646 that now unrivalled promenade was so called. Few care about the old North-street house, now-a-days. In neglect and decay, it is eclipsed by its modern neigh- bors. Careless and careful fulk alike hurry by it; but occasionally children lift up their little, wondering eyes to the strange habitation. And to them it is indeed strange ; they are so used to newness and novelty, that they can scarcely comprehend antiquity. To many a youthful mind an old-fashioned house raises ideas of spectral ladies and gentlemen walking up and down impossible stairs, or gliding through dreary rooms, or of ghostly individuals loudly clanking invisible chains ; but in the case of this old dwelling of North-street such dismal ideas are rapidly put to flight by furs hanging out of the windows, and 6 BOSTON SIQETS. various articles for sale in the stores beneath. Super- stition flies before " Sales for Cash ! " Boston Stone, a sketch of which forms the vignette illustration of this chapter, was found in the cellar of a house in Marshall-street. A resident in the neighborhood says it was a paint-mill, the ball being what painters now call the muller. The paint was placed in the cavity of a flat stone, and there ground with oil by the ball. Other explanations as to the origin and uses of this Boston Stone are afloat, but it is needless to repeat them here. The stone itself, however, is worthy of inspection, and deserves, perhaps, an antiquarian immortality. Dr. J. V. C. Smith, in his " Ancient and Modern Boston," published in the Boston Almanac for 1853, says : * There are reminiscences connected with the growth of Boston that deserve to be kept in remembrance. For example, where the Maine Station House, in Haymarket- square, stands, there was an open canal but a few years ago, and the line of the track is over the course of it to the water. Where Causeway-street is, there was formerly a wall from Lowell-street, running north-easterly to rear of Charlestown old bridge, called the Causeway, making a pond of many acres, between Prince and Pitts streets. Many aged persons are in the habit of calling all that region between Merriraac and Prince streets, to this day, the Mill Pond. A remnant of the last tide-mill is still ANCIENT AND MODERN BOSTON. 7 believed to exist on the east side of Charlestown-street, in the form of a stable. All of that large tract of land known technically as the South Gove was actually a body of water, covering an area of seventy-two acres, within the recollection of those not far removed from childhood. The Neck may truly be said to be nearly all artificial. Where the wide street runs to Roxbury, was a mere ridge, scarcely removed from the reach of high tides, at the period of the llevolution. By building the Boston and Roxbury Mill-dam, the whole of the back bay, between Washington-street and the wall, was reclaimed from Charles river and the ocean. " Whole streets have been detached from the domain of Neptune, as India, Broad, Commercial, Brighton, nearly the whole of Charles, Fayette, and several more that are now at considerable distance from the water. At East Boston very large additions to the territory have been made within a few years. All the wharves, by which Boston is nearly surrounded, are certainly artificial works, of immense cost, but esteemed excellent and productive property. It is not improbable that men are now living who remember to have seen the bowsprit of vessels pro- jecting into Liberty-square." Boston is styled the Athens of America. It should have been the State. In Boston the princely merchant's warehouse presents the appearance of a palace, massive \^ BOSTON SIGHTS. and grand. His counting-room is a picture of opulence, spacious and beautiful ; his ware-rooms are crowded with the products of manufacture. Massive buildings of granite, all presenting the neatest and brightest appear- ance, everywhere meet the eye. Along the wharves immense ranges of warehouses extend the whole length, at which the finest ships are discharging their foreign cargoes. Again, encircling her " Common," rise in beau- teous outlines spacious mansions, having the appearance of -palaces, and presenting a scene of quiet beauty, unsurpassed by anything in the world ; they are the residences of her merchant princes. The whole scene is clothed in neatness, regularity, and good order ; there is a characteristic quietness about it which the people of Mas- sachusetts have made their own. Her public men are far- seeing, discreet, and dignified ; and when they move it is to some purpose. Her merchants are cautious, systematic in their business transactions, ready to advance in their proper time, and distinguished from that recklessness which marks the New Yorker. CHAPTER II. FANEUIL HALL. FANEUIL HALL MARKET. CUSTOM HOUSE. EXCHANGE. OLD STATE HOUSE. We must not leave this neighborhood yet, for the Old House we have just been describing is not the only object of interest hereabout. There is another noticeable build- ing — second, indeed, in interest to no other in Boston. (9) 10 BOSTON SIGHTS. It is Faneuil Hall, or, as it is patriotically and meta- phorically termed, " The Cradle of American Liberty.'' Not to Boston alone, but to the entire country does it seem to belong ; for in the annals of America it holds a foremost and most honorable position. Within its walls some of the finest specimens of American eloquence that have been heard from the days of Washington to those of Webster were delivered. When despotism threatened the colonies of George the Tliu'd, the first tones of defi- ance -were uttered in Faneuil Hall. Liberty held there her high court, and from thence issued decrees a thousand times more potent than a king's proclamation or a czar's ukase. What wonder, then, that from far and near come admiring visitors to it, or that Boston should be proud of its possession ? Years ago there Hved in Boston a merchant whose name was Peter Faneuil. He it was who immortalized his name by the gift of the building to the tov, n of Bos- ton, for a town hall and market place. It was the best monument to his memory that he could possibly have devised. Faneuil Hall is a large, many-windowed struc- ture, of no particular order of architecture, surmounted by a cupola. The great hall to which you ascend (for the lower story is not a market now, but is divided into stores) is seventy-six feet square, and twenty-eight high ; round three sides runs a gallery, and Doric pillars sun- FANEUIL HALL. 11 port the ceiling. At the west end are several paintings — one of Peter Faneuil in full length ; another of AYash- ington by Stuart ; and there has recently been added Healey's picture of Webster making his celebrated speech in reply to Hayne. Over the great hall is another, where military equip- ments ai'e kept; and there are also various offices for civic functionaries. Leaving Faneuil Hall at its eastern end, and crossing r%#;- Merchants' Row, we arrive at the entrance of Faneuil Hall Market. It is raised on a base of blue Quincy 12 BOSTON SIGHTS. granite, with arched windows and doors communicating with cellars. The length of the Market is five hundred and eighty-five feet nine inches, the width fifty feet, and built entirely of granite. In the centre is a building seventy-four and a half by fifty-five feet, with projecting north and south fronts. At each end of the building are porticos. Over the Market proper is a second story, in the centre of which is a hall seventy feet by fifty, crowned by a dome, and named Quincy Hall, after Josiah Quincy, former mayor of the city, and is but a fitting monument of his genius. This hall and Faneuil Hall are united by a bridge thrown across the street once in three years, and in them the Massachusetts Mechanics' Charitable Associa- tion holds its fair. The principal entrances to the corridor, where the mar- ket is held, are from the eastern and western porticos. The corridor itself is eight hundred and twelve feet long by twelve wide. This space is divided into stalls, where various articles of provisions are always on sale. There are fourteen departments for mutton, lamb, veal, and poultry ; two for poultry and venison ; nineteen for pork, lamb, mutton, and poultry ; forty-five for beef; four for butter and cheese; nineteen for vegetables; and twenty for fish. Besides these, the visitor will, as he strolls from stall to stall, perceive many varieties of creature comfort ; and in one place he will be charmed with the melody of CUSTOM HOUSE. 13 birds offered for sale in cages, and his olfactories may be regaled by odors from countless bouquets. Faneuil Hall Market was commenced on the 20th of August, 1824. Beneath the corner stone was deposited a plate bearing the following inscription : — "Faneuil Hall Market, established by the city of Boston. This stone was laid April 27, Anno Domini Mdcccxxv., in the forty-ninth year of American Inde- pendence, and in the third of the incorporation of the city. John Quincy Adams, President of the United States. Marcus Morton, Lt. Governor and Commander- in-Chief of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The population of the city estimated at 50,000 ; that of the United States, 11,000,000." The Market is situated between North and South Mar- ket Streets, in each of which business of various kinds, to immense amounts, is transacted. Leaving the Market, a few steps through Commercial Street bring us to the United States Custom House. It is an imposing edifice, standing at the head of the dock between Long and Central Wharves, at the foot of State Street. It is in the form of a Greek cross, the opposite sides and ends being alike. It is one hundred and forty feet long, north and south, seventy -live feet wide at the ends, and ninety -five feet through the centre. It is sur- mounted by a flat dome, which is ninety-five feet from u BOSTON SIGHTS. the floor, and is built in the pure Doric order of architec ture. Each front has a portico of six fluted Doric cc5- umns, thirty-two feet in height, and five feet four inches in diameter, and is approached by fourteen steps. The col- umns are in one piece of highly -wrought granite, and each weighs forty-two tons. The Custom House is built on three thousand piles, driven in the most thorough manner. Immediately on the top of these piles is a platform of granite, one foot six inches thick, laid in hydraulic cement, and upon it the foundations of the walls were commenced. CUSTOM HOUSE. 15 The roof of the building is covered with wrought gran- ite tile, and the intersection of the cross is surmounted by a dome terminating in a skyhght twenty-five feet in diam- eter. The dome is also covered with granite tile. The cellar, which is ten feet six inches high to the crown of the arches, is principally used for the storage of goods, which are conveyed to it through the basement story. The principal ingress to the entrance story is through the porticos. This story contains apartments and offices for the assistant treasurer, the weighers and gaugers, the measurers, inspectors, markers, superintendent of build- ing, &c. In the centre is a large vestibule, from which two broad flights of steps lead to the principal story, land- ing in two smaller vestibules therein, lighted by skylights in the roof ; and these vestibules communicate with all the apartments in this story. The several rooms are for the collector, assistant collector, naval officer, surveyor, public storekeeper, their deputies and clerks. The grand cross- shaped rotunda, for the general business of the collector's departmefit, in the centre of this story, is finished in the Grecian Corinthian order. It is sixty-three feet in its greatest length, fifty-nine feet wide, and sixty-two feet high to the skylight. The ceiling is supported by twelve columns of mar- ble, three feet in diameter and twenty-nine feet in height, 16 BOSTON SIGHTS with highly-wrought capitals; the ceiling is ornamented in a neat and chaste manner, and the skylight is filled with stained glass. The building was commenced in 1837, and entirely completed in 1849. It has cost about $1,076,000, mclud- ing the site, foundations, &c. 'Wli Passing up State Street, we soon reach The Exchange. It is a splendid building, fronting on State Street. The corner stone was laid August 2, 1841 ; the building com- pleted 1842, and cost, exclusive of land, $175,000. The width on State Street is seventy-six feet, the height seventy TTlE EXCHANGE. 17 feet, the depth two hundred and fifty feet, and it covers thirteen thousand feet of land. The front is of Quincy granite, and has six columns, each forty-five feet in height, and weighing fifty -five tons. The staircases are of iron and stone, and the entire build- ing is fire-proof. The front is occupied by banks, insur- ance and other offices, and the rear is a hotel, while at the top is a telegraph station. There are three entrances, one on State, one on Congress, and one on Lindall Street.- The Merchants' Exchange is up stairs, and is a magnificent hall, eighty feet by fifty-eight feet, having its 2* 18 BOSTON SIGHTS. ceiling supported by eighteen imitation Sienna marble columns, with Corinthian capitals. There is a grand dome overhead, filled with stained glass. Here news- papers from all parts of the world are received, read, and filed. A superintendent, registrar, news collector, boat- men, messengers, &c., are attached to the room, and are in attendance from seven o'clock in the morning until ten at night. Vessels arriving are immediately registered, as well as shipping news telegraphed from distant ports. Clearances, invoices per railroad, ships, &c., are all en- tered, with the name of the consignee, on books kept for the purpose. Sales of stocks, cotton, &c., are also regis- tered. Merchants, singly, are admitted to all the privi- leges of the room for eight dollars a year; firms of two persons, ten dollars, &c. These are called subscribers, and have the privilege of introducing strangers, whose names having been registered in a book kept for that pur- pose, are allowed to visit the room and read the papers during their stay in the city. The board of brokers have their rooms in the Exchange ; and other portions of it are used for banking offices, brokers* offices, railroad offices, &c. The architectural beauty of the building, and the chaste but elaborate workmanship of its rotunda, are alone worth a visit. The centre of the basement story is occupied by the Post Office, where there is a general delivery, a box THE OLD STATE HOUSE. 19 delivery, a ladies' delivery, and a newspaper delivery, besides telegraph and bank offices. On Change are anxious men, during banking hours, as ever met to buy stocks, sell shares, lend money, or nego- tiate loans. From the stone steps of the Post Office to the Old State House the crowd extends ; and even a strange eye may soon detect the shrewd curbstone broker, balancing himself with a tilting motion at the edge of the pavement, or the anxious borrower, as he eagerly claims friendship with those whose acquaintance he will want to disown a few moments later ; while in the centre a speckled cow, fatted pig, or evergreen tree invites the attention of those not otherwise engaged; while overlooking all, with a grave and knowing look, stands the Old State House, at the head of State Street, having one front on Washing- ton Street. It retains to the present day many of the architectural peculiarities of the period when it was built, especially that part looking towards the harbor. On its summit are signal staffs, where are displayed the flags of different merchants when their ships are approaching the city, and a modern clock decorates State Street end. The lower story is now converted into stores and lawyers' and editors' offices ; and where the General Court of the Province of Massachusetts used to be holden, gentlemen are suited with legal measures, or are measured for panta- 20 BOSTON SIGHTS. loons — lawyers and tailors pursuing their several voca- tions beneath the Old State House roof. Fanning the old house with their continuous fluttering, (but still depending on it for support,) float the beauteous flags of different daily papers ; and as they curl lazily up, seem plainly to say, " We show the condition of the world abroad and at home. Not a steamer arrives but we herald the news." And then, as the folds roll out with an indig- nant flap, they seem to flirt out that the last news from Kansas or Washington was not to their liking ; then they stop, and leave us to search in the papers they severally THE OLD STATE HOUSE. 21 represent for particulars ; and it is no easy job to make a selection, for there is the Journal, Atlas, Bee, Ledger, and Chronicle close at hand, and the Traveller, Transcript, Advertiser, Post, Herald, and I know not how many others, whose shadows do not fall on the hundred-year-old windows of the Old State House. CHAPTER III. OLD SOUTH CHUECH. BIRTHPLACE OF FRANKLIN. • CITY HALL. COURT HOUSE. STONE CHAPEL. CEMETERY. The Old South Church stands on Washington Street, not far from the Old State House. So much his- torical interest is attached to this time-honored building that we must be pardoned if we are rather minute in our notice of it, for which w^e are indebted to a sketch in Gleason's (now Ballou's) Pictorial. During the first of the seven years' war, a church of this then town of Boston of ten thousand inhabitants, that externally appeared much as it now does, internally pre- sented a strange scene. The sanctuary was profanely converted into a riding school for Burgoyne's cavalry. The pulpit and the pews, all hallowed by devotion, had been taken out to light the fires of our enemies, the library of the good pastor being used for kindlings. Hundreds of loads of dirt and gravel were carted into the church, tJiat it might better answer the strange use to which it was put. A box was suspended four feet from the floor, over (2.3) 24 BOSTON SIGHTS. which fierce horses, driven by furious riders, leaped. The galleries were occupied, not, as now, by those who freely heard the word of God, but by spectators of the games below, and by those who sold liquors and refreshments, not having a reverence for the sanctuary, nor the fear of the Maine Law before their eyes. The Old South Church, as every body knows, was the centre of this dissipation; a church that has been intimately connected with the history of Boston from an early period. At the time alluded to, Mr. Blackstone's farm was converted into the town of Boston, containing " about two thousand dwelling houses, mostly of wood, with scarce any. public buildings, but eight or nine churches, the Old State House, and Faneuil Hall." The Old South Church, like the First Church, and the first Baptist, was organized in Charlestown by seceders from the First Church, who were disaffected with a call extended to Rev. John Davenport. The first meet- ing house was erected on the spot where the present one stands, corner of Washington and Milk Streets. The site was the gift of Mrs. Norton, widow of Rev. John Norton, who was pastor of the First Church. The first house was erected soon after the church was gathered, in 1669. It was built of wood, with a spire and square pews. The first pastor was Rev. Thomas Thatcher, an eminent divine, a native of Salisbury, England. Besides being an emi- nent theologian he was a physician, and pubhshed the first OLD SOUTH CHURCH. 25 medical tract that ever was issued in Massachusetts. His successors were Willard, the eminent divine, Pemberton, the eloquent pulpit orator, Sewall, who was known as " good Dr. Sewall," who was pastor of the church for fifty years, and when his health failed, near the close of his life, was carried into the pulpit, and instructed the people from Sabbath to Sabbath ; Prince, the able divine and learned scholar. Gumming, Blair, Bacon, Hunt, Eckley, Huntington, the first sole pastor, the devoted "Wisner, the gifted and short-lived Stearns, and Blagden, who now ministers to this ancient church — fifteen in all. The present Old South Church is a substantial structure of brick, of a style of architecture that is chaste and be- coming, though not uncommon. It stands as it has stood for more than a century — it having been erected in the year 1730. The last sermon was preached in the old house March 2, 1729. The next day it was taken down, when it was found to be so much decayed that it was thought the congregation, the day before, had "a very gracious preservation." A curious plan of the lower floor of the present house is before us, under the head, " Pues on ye lower flore in ye Metting House," evidently di'awn soon after the building was finished and the pews sold. From this plan it appears that the house is eighty-eight feet by sixty-one, and that it is substantially now as it was at the beginning. Formerly there was a high elders' seat 3 26 BOSTON SIGHTS. directly in front of the pulpit, and a deacons' seat nearly as high. Several of the best pews in the house, accord- ing to the custom of the time, were devoted to the accom- modation of the aged — a custom that has become obso- lete. In this plan the names of the pew holders are given, embracing some of the noblest names of the time, such as Governor Belcher, Franklin, Bromfield, Brattle, Winslow, Cotton, EUot, &c. The following church record will assist the reader in understanding the disposition of the congregation in the new edifice. " At a meeting of the South Church, in their brick meeting house, August 5, 1730, Voted f That the deacons be desired to procure some suitable person to take the oversight of the children and servants in the galleries, and take care that good order be maintained in time of divine worship ; and that a suffi- cient reward be allowed for the encouragement of such a person." The Old South Church is a noble structure, situated now in the very heart of the city, though, as its name indi- cates, at the beginning at its southern extremity. It is sur- mounted by one of the loftiest spires in the city. Its bell is large and fine toned, and more eyes are upturned to its clock daily, we venture to say, than to any other timekeeper in New England. Indeed, it is to New England, as to the hours, what Boston is as to business. The house is very capacious, and, with its two galleries, will scat, perhaps, OLD SOUTH CHURCH. 27 more than any other church in the city. The pulpit is very high for these times, and is overshadowed by a sound- ing board that makes little children fear for the head of the minister. This pulpit is the second in the present house, the first one being what was styled a " tub " pulpit. The pews, though built not after the modern style, are all the more comfortable ; and it would seem that the owners never thought of the fact that the land beneath them was worth thirty dollars the square foot. Considerable interest clusters around the Old South Church, or " The Sanctuary of Freedom," as it has been termed, from the patriotic assemblages that were gathered within its walls just previous to the outbreak of the revo- lution. In this church Franklin worshipped and was bap- tized. Here that prince of preachers, Whitefield, lifted up his voice like a trumpet. In this temple " our enemies in war and our friends in peace " did that which for a mo- ment saddens our interest. Within these walls the elec- tion sermons have been delivered annually before " the powers that be," and multitudes have been educated for the church triumphant in heaven. To the Bostonian, the very name of the " Old South " brings back childish recol- lections and happy early associations. Before the city had so grown as to extend almost out of town, this was a sort of landmark in the designating of distances ; any given locality was about so far from the " Old South," this or 28 BOSTON SIGHTS. that side of the " Old South," &c. Indeed, the church is not only a sort of landmark as regards the bearings in our harbor, as considered by the pilots, but is also a point of departure, so to speak, on the land itself. There are few notable localities in the city of notions better known than is this venerable and revered pile, and the site it occupies — a silent remembrancer of scenes and events associated with all that is dear to Americans. There is a library connected with this church, that was bequeathed by Rev. Thomas Prince. It is a precious collection, containing many standard works in church his- tory, biblical literature, valuable pamphlets, and manu- scripts. For nearly one hundred years this has been the public library of that church, and accessible to any per- son desirous of using it for literary purposes. The Birthplace op Franklin was where the block of stores now stands that bear the inscription. On that spot, under the very shadow of the Old South's tall spire, the printer, the legislator, the philosopher, the immortal Franklin, was born. Passing from Washington to Tremont Street, the visitor will perceive on his right hand a large gray stone building, in front of which are grounds tastefully laid out wdth trees and beds of flowers, and enclosed by an iron fence. This is the City Hall, It stands between Court Square and School Street, fronting on the latter. Here meetings of NEW COURT HOLSP:. 29 tlie Council are held ; and here may be found the offices of the Chief-of-police and many of the civic functionaries. B I E I The Board of aldermen meet in the main room every Monday afternoon, and the sittings of the common council are held on Thursday evenings. Near the City Hall, and in its rear, is the New Court House. It stands in Court Square, and has a sedate, sober appearance, being destitute of ornament of any kind. Its form is that of a parallelogram, one hundred and seventy-six feet in length by fifty-four feet in breadth. It is fifty-seven feet in height, and consists of a basement and 3* 30 BOSTON SIGHTS. tliree stories. At each end is a fine portico of the Doric order, supported by four columns of fluted granite. There is not much to attract attention withm, it being merely plain and substantial. An entrance hall traverses the enthe length of the builduig, communicating with the por- ticos and side doors. Stone staii'cases, branchuig oif from this corridor, lead to the various court rooms. On the first floor are the Justices' Courts, Court of Insolvency, and the offices of the clerks of the different co.urts. The Supreme Judicial Court sits for the hearing of legal arguments on the fii^st Tuesday of March, and the term for the trial of jury causes commences on the seventh Tuesday next after the fourth Tuesday of September. The Common Pleas Court for the county of Suffolk is held in the court room in the third story on the first Tues- day of January, April, July, and October ; and the Mu- nicipal Court, of which the justices of the Common Pleas ai^e ex officio judges, is held in the room appropriated for that purpose on the first Monday of every month. The Police Court is busied every day in the trial of criminal offenders, and also sits every Wednesday and Saturday as a Justices' Court for determining civil causes under twenty dollars. The Social Law Library room, on the second floor, is a comfortable and well-lighted apartment, and contains a good selection of juridical text books, including CEMETERY. 31 writers in general law, and the English and American Reports. . . In the basement are cells for the temporary accommo- dation of prisoners ; and at the side door opposite the the Railroad Exchange may be seen every morning, about nine o'clock, the jail van discharging its load of prisoners for examination. To one fond of seemg human nature in all its phases, an hour in the PoUce Court any morning will not be thrown away. Nearly opposite the City Hall stands Horticultural Hall, a neat stone edifice ; up stairs is the hall, which is lofty, large, and beautiful. It is used for horticultural, panoramic, and other exhibitions. Chapman Hall is directly in the rear, with an en- trance on Chapman Place. These rooms also are light and airy. Stone Chapel stands at the corner of School and Tremont Streets. It was built in 1750, and is a plain, substantial structure. The corner stone was laid by Gov- ernor Shirley. The Cemetery adjoining (from the pre- cious dust it holds) should be forever revered by native and stranger. Johnson, the " Father of Boston," as he has been termed, according to his wish was buried here ; and the people evinced their affection for him by ordering their bodies to be buried near him ; and this w^as the origin of the first burying-place in Boston. The Lady Arabella, his wife, was the pride and love 32 BOSTON SIGHTS. of the colony; and historians tell us that though there were several other women of distinction who encountered the fatigues and dangers of those days with laudable reso- lution, the devotedness of this lady — lady in deed as well as name — was conspicuous above all. The sentiments of her heart to him are described in the following language : " IVTiithersoever your fatall destine shall dryve you, eyther by the furious waves of the great ocean, or by the many-folde and horrible dangers of the lande, I wyl surely not leave your company. There can no peryll chaunce to me so terrible, nor any kmde of death so cruell, that shall not be much easier for me to abyde than to live so farre separate from you." She came to the wilderness, illumined it by her love, her piety, her charities and faith, and died in the then mere village of Salem. Not one of those who had known her but wept bitterly at the event. It was as if all the flowers of the garden should hang their heads at the blast- ing of the rose. May her memory distil sweets upon the hearts of wives hke her ** And from her fair and unpolluted flesh May violets spring," forever. Many are the good and great whose remains repose CEMETERY. 33 here ; but no character of those days has come down to us with brighter memories than that of Governor John Win- throp, whose remains also repose in the Chapel Burial Ground, in the family tomb, on the north side. WlNSl.OW CHAIR, AT MASS. HISTORICAL SOCIETY. I 1 H 111 fi0^:}*^mM^ J If,' i ■^ ^i !• 'r ^ 1;UM|^lH^ llx:.:^-Jf CHAPTER IV. TilE BOSTON MUSEUM. HISTOKICAL SOCIETY, Perhaps of all the places of public amusement in the good city of Boston, not one is so generally popular as this. Nor is its great success undeserved ; for it has ever been ■HJk.!! ""''^ the aim of its enterprising proprietor, Hon. Moses Kim- ball, while providing every possible novelty for the gratifi- cation of the masses, to carefully exclude every thing that ' (-35) 36 BOSTON SIGHTS. could be in the slightest degree objectionable. Hence the Museum has become the great family resort, as well as the visitors' .choicest treat. First, for its locality. On Tremont Street, between Court and School Streets, it stands, a spacious and superb building, its front adorned by elegant balconies and rows of ground glass globes, hke enormous peai'ls, which at night are luminous with gas. Three tiers of elegantly arched windows admit light into the building, and we reach the interior by a bold flight of stairs. At the summit of these stairs is an elegant ticket and treasurer's office, and adjoining it the entrance to the Grand Hall of Cabinets, which is surrounded by a gallery, and whose ceiling is supported by noble Corin- thian pillars. Around the gallery fi^ont are arranged por- traits of celebrated Americans. On the floor of the hall are statuary and superb works of art, and, arranged in glass cases, curiosities from all parts of the kno^vn world. The galleries, reached by a grand staircase, are filled with the rich and rare products of many a clime ; not an inch of space is thrown away. Ascending still higher, we find a superb collection of wax figures, singly and in gi'oups ; and surmounting all is an observatory, whence splendid panoramic views of the city, the harbor, and its islands may be obtained. The Museum Theatre is one of the most beautifully BOSTON MUSEU3I. 37 < '-f^ fi^ m,:^i decorated, best constructed, and well managed theatres in the United States. The visitor there has no rowdyism to 4 38 BOSTON SIGHTS. fear, and nothing ever occurs, either in the audience por- tion or on the stage, to offend the most fastidious. As good order is maintained in Mr. KunbalFs theatre as in any drawing room in the land. The company, too, is always first rate. Some of our best actors have been trained on the Museum boards. But besides having a stock company which cannot be surpassed, " stars " of the first theatrical magnitude are often engaged ; and brilhant spectacles, with all the accessories of superb scenery, deli- cious music, gorgeous costumes, banners, and other appro- priate appointments, are produced several times in each season, in all the magnificence that money and skill can accomplish, and are a marked feature of the place, that cannot easily be surpassed. Few persons who visit Bos- ton ever think of quitting it without paying the Museum a visit, for it contains amusement and information for all. The Museum building alone cost nearly a quarter of a million of dollars, and covers twenty thousand feet of land, the whole of which, with its numerous cabinets, is crowded with every variety of birds, quadi'upeds, fish, reptiles, insects, shells, minerals, fossils, &c. Then there is the Feejee Mermaid, alluded to by Barnum, in his BOSTON MUSEUM. 39 Autobiography, together with more than one thousand costly paintings, among which is Sully's great picture of Washington crossing the Delaware, portraits by Copley, West, Stuart, &c. In short there are to be seen nearly five hundred thousand articles of every conceivable rare and curious thing of nature and art in the Museum, and all for the marvellously small sum of twenty-five cents. The theatre is open every evening, and on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. The rooms of the Massachusetts Historical So- ciKTY are next the Museum, in a granite building on 40 BOSTON SIGHTS. Tremont Street. Tlie library of tlie society contains about eight tliousand volumes, with maps, charts, and four hundred and fifty volumes of manuscripts. Among the treasures are manuscripts of the liistorian Hub- bard, of the first Governor Winthrop, eleven volumes of Governor Hutchinson, of Governor Jonathan Trum- bull, of Connecticut, twenty-three volumes, and the manu- script of Washington's address to the officers of the American army. There is also a copy of Eliot's Indian Bible. The portraits of persons, mostly New England worthies, adorn the room ; two of special value are, Rev. Increase Mather and Rev. John Wilson. These rooms contain many relics of the past ; among these are Philip's samp pan, an article of Indian antiquity that perhaps may have been used by Massasoit himself before it be- came the property of his youngest son, the renowned sachem of Pokanoket ; and here also is Captain Church's sword, with which the cliief was slain. The Carver sword, a worthy memento of a pilgrim, speaks louder than words of the dangers our forefathers incurred be- fore a city's smoke rose from the three hills of Shaw- mut ; and Winsloiv^s chair, that tradition says " was made in London in 1614, and brought over in the Mayflower by Edward Winslow," now, after many years of hard service, is treasured as a valuable heirloom. CHAPTER V. BOSTON ATHEN^UM. — CLUB HOUSE. — COCHITUATE HALL. The magnificent building for the use of the Boston Athen^um is situated on Beacon Street, near the State House. It is of Patterson freestone, and in the Palladian 4 * (41) 42 BOSTON SIGHTS. Style of arcliitectiire. It is one hundred and fourteen feet in length, of ii-regular breadth, sixty feet in height, and stands ten feet back from the street, the ground space in front being surrounded by a balustrade with stone coping. The main entrance opens into a pillared and panelled rotunda, from which fine iron staircases conduct above. The Sculpture Gallery is in the first story, and is eighty feet in length. Its entrance is immediately oppo- site the front door. Here is to be fomid a fine collection of works of art in mai^ble, and casts in plaster. Among them are, The Head of Satan, by Horatio Greenough; Little Nell, by Ball Hughes ; Orpheus, by T. G. Craw- ford; the ShipTSTCcked Mother and Child, by E. A. Brackett ; casts of Day and Night, by Michael An- gelo ; the original model of the statue of the Dying Indian, by P. Stephenson, and the First Whisper of Love, by W. C. Marshall, will not fail to attract the attention and win the admiration of all lovers of art. Five marble bass reliefs from Nineveh are deposited here. Apart from the value which attaches to these remains, considered simply as antiquities, they possess a far higher value on account of the remarkable confirmations which the inscriptions afford of the truth of Scripture history. These in the Sculpture Gallery are of the same kind as those deposited in the British Museum, and described in Layard's works. BOSTON ATHEN^UM. 43 The Reading Rooms are on the right of the vestibule. On the left is the Trustees' Room. Near the foot of the staircase stands Ball Hughes's statue of Bowditch, and a very fine one of Webster, by Powers. The Library occupies the second story, which is divided into three rooms, two in front, and one large hall (one hun- dred and nine feet by forty) in the rear. This hall is beautifully finished in the Italian style. The shelving is carried to the height of eighteen or twenty feet, and the upper shelves are made accessible by means of a light iron gallery reached by five spiral staircases. Besides sixty-seven thousand bound volumes, this library pos- sesses twenty thousand or more of unbound pamphlets, between four and five hundred volumes of engravings, and the most valuable collection of coins in this part of the country. It also contains part of the library of Wash- ington — in all about four hundred and fifty bound vol- umes. The library is hardly surpassed, either in size or in value, by any other in the country ; and its regulations are framed with the design that it shall answer the high- est purposes of a public library. Strangers not residing within twenty miles of Boston can easily obtain admittance. Picture Gallery. — The third story contains four rooms that are appropriated to the exhibition of paint- ings, and of these there is an admirable collection. A numbered catalogue may be obtained at the door. Many 44 BOSTON SIGHTS. of the paintings belong to private individuals, and are liable to removal ; so we shall avoid mention of them, and briefly touch on a few belonging to the Athenceum. Here are the portraits of Washington and of Lady Washing- ton, by Stuart; the Sortie of Gibraltar, by Trumbull; Judith with the Head of Holofernes ; Count of Wurtem- berg lamenting his Child, by Aiy Schceffer ; St. Michael chaining Satan, after Guide; Flaying of Marsayas, by Luca Giordano ; Priam receiving the Dead Body of Hec- tor, by Trumbull. In conclusion, we cannot help mention- ing Dante and Beatrice, by Ary Schceffer, and the Course of Empire, by Cole. The gallery is well worthy of fre- quent visits, and will doubtless do much to promote the progress of art in Boston. Admittance twenty-five cents, the Sculpture Gallery included. Returning towards Washington Street, a few steps bring us to the Club House, corner of Beacon and Park Streets, a mansion interesting from the fact that it was fitted up for the accommodation of General Lafayette and his suite, when the illustrious friend of Washington was the guest of the city. At the period of the revolu- tion the almshouse stood upon this site, extending on Beacon vStreet beyond the westerly boundary of the Athe- naeum estate. Next to it, on Park Street, was the work- house ; then came the town pound ; on the site of Park CLUB HOUSE. 45 Street Church stood the granary, whence the name of the adjacent burying ground. In the enclosure of the work- house yard, we beheve, the bodies of the British soldiers killed at Bunker Hill were laid out, in the order of tAeu' regiments and companies, previous to interment. The old almshouse was pulled down in the year 1800, and in the early part of the century the lai'ge building shown in the engraving was erected for and occupied by Jonathan Amory. Many a splendid ball and party have been given in that aristocratic mansion; many a belle there devastated the hearts of young Bostonians — many 46 BOSTON SIGHTS. of whom, victors and vanquished, have long since passed away from this eai'thly stage. For many yeai's the build- ing has been occupied as a club house. CocniTUATE Hall is not remarkable for its size, and, although well lighted, is difficult of access. CHAPTER VI. TREMONT TEMPLE. MEIONAON. PARK STREET CHURCH. GRANARY CEMETERY. NEW MUSIC HALL. MA- SONIC TEMPLE. This spacious edifice stands opposite the Tremont House, Tremont vStreet. Of a rich and warm brown tint, produced by a coating of mastic, it presents a peculiarly (17) 48 BOSTON SIGHTS. substantial and elegant frontage. It is seventy-five feet in height, and, with the exception of ten feet by sixty-eiglit, which is left open on the north side for hght, the building covers an area of thirteen thousand feet. Passing through the great central doorway, we find our- selves m the spacious entrance hall. On the first floor we observe on our right and left hand two ticket ofhces, and a broad flight of stairs also on either hand, each of which at their summit terminates in a landing, from whence to right and left diverge two flights of similar staircases, one landing you in the centre of the main hall, and the other to the rear part and the gallery. The Main Hall is a magnificent apartment. The utter absence of gilding and coloring on its walls renders it far more imposing and grand in appearance than if it had been elaborately ornamented with auriferous and chromatic splendors. It is one hundred and twenty-four feet long, seventy-two feet wide, and fifty feet high. Around the sides of it runs a gallery supported on trusses, so that no pillars intervene between the spectators and the platform, to obstruct the view. The front of this gallery is balustraded, and by this means a very neat and uniform effect is secured. The side galleries project over the seats below about seven feet. They are fitted with rows of nicely-cushioned and comfortable seats, and are not so higli as to render the ascent to them wearisome in the TllEMONT TEMPLE. 49 least degree. The front gallery, tliougli it projects into the hall only ten feet, extends back far enough to give it more than three times that depth. Directly opposite this gallery is the platform, with its gracefully-panelled, semicircular front. This platform, covered with a neat oil cloth, communicates with the side galleries by a few steps, for the convenience of large choirs. There are also several avenues of communication from the platform to the apartments, dressing rooms, &c., behind, which are exceedingly convenient, and are far superior to the places of exit and entrance from and -to any other place of the kind that we have ever seen. From the front of the platform the floor of the hall gradually rises so as to afford every person in the hall a full and unobstructed view of the speakers or vocalists, as the case may be. The seats in the galleries rise in like manner. The seats on the hall floor are admirably arranged in a semicircular form from the front of the platform, so that every face is directed towards the speaker or singer. They are each one numbered, have iron ends, are capped with mahogany, and are completely cushioned with a drab-colored material. Each slip is capable of containing ten or twelve persons, with an aisle at each extremity, and open from end to end. The side walls of the hall are very beautifully orna- mented in panels, arched and decorated with circular 5 50 BOSTON SIGHTS. ornaments, which would be difficult properly to describe without the aid of accompanying drawings ; but as views of the interior of the Temple will soon be common enough, the omission here will be of little consequence. As we intimated, there is no fancy coloring; it is a decorated and relieved surface of dead white, and the effect, lighted as it is from above by large panes of rough plate glass, is beautifully chaste. The only color observable in the hall is the purple screen behind the diamond open work at the back of the platform, and which forms a screen in fi'ont of the organ. The ceiling is very finely designed in squares, at the intersections of which are twenty-eight gas burners, with strong reflectors, and a chandelier over the orchestra, shedding a mellow but ample light over the hall. By this arrangement the air heated by innumerable jets of gas is got rid of, and the lights themselves act as most efficient ventilators. The eyes are likewise protected from glare ; and should an escape of gas take place, from its levity it passes up through shafts to the outside, and does not contaminate the atmosphere below. Under the galleries are common burners. There are for day illumi- nation twelve immense plates of glass, ten feet long by four feet wide, placed in the ceiling, in the spring of the arch, and open directly to the outer light, and by sixteen smaller ones under the galleries. TREMONT TEMPLE. 51 The whole of the flooring of the hall, in the galleries, the body of it, and of the platform, consists of two layers of boards, with the interstices between them filled by a thick bed of mortar. The advantages of this in an acous- tical point of view must be obvious to all. Another ad- vantage is, that the applause made by the audience in this gi-eat hall does not disturb the people who may at the same time be holding a meeting in the other hall below — a very important consideration. There are eight flights of stairs leading from the floors of the main hall, and four from the galleries, the aggre- gate w^dth of which is over fifty feet. The Boston Young Men's Christian Association occupy several beautiful rooms up one flight of stairs, which are admirably adapted for their present uses and occupants, and are rented by the Association for twelve hundred dol- lars per annum, though it is estimated that they are worth at least fifteen hundred dollars ; but the Temple is owned by a church who were very desirous that a rehgious asso- ciation should occupy them. The great organ, built by the Messrs. Hook, is one of the finest instruments ever constructed in this country. Its bellows is worked by steam. The Tremont Temple, besides the great hall, contains a ksser one, called The Meionaon, the main entrance to which is through tlie northerly passage way, opposite the 52 BOSTON SIGHTS. doors of the Tremont House ; this avenue is about seven feet wide. The southerly passage way serves as an outlet from this lesser temple. Perhaps the reader, who may not have been initiated into the mysteries of Greek literature, may thank us for a definition of this strange-looking word, " Meionaon." It is so called from two Greek words — melon, signifying less, S7naller, and naon, temple — Lesser Temple. It is pronounced Mi-o-na-on. This lesser temple is situated back from the street, and directly under the great hall. It is seventy-two feet long by fifty-two feet wide, and about twenty-five and a half feet high. Not so elaborately adorned as its neighbor overhead, this hall is remarkably chastely and beautiftdly fitted up, and within its walls the rehgious society of Tremont Street Baptist Church wor- ship. Its walls are relieved by pilasters supporting arches. The seats are similarly arranged to those in the hall above, and are equally comfortable and commodious in all respects. At one end is a platform, on which, on Sabbath days, stands a beautiful little pulpit, of dark walnut, and cushioned with crimson velvet. At the other extremity of the hall is a gallery for a choir ; back of it stands a neat little organ. The place is beautifully adapted for sound, and competent judges say from their own experience that it is a remarka- bly easy place to speak in. From the hall to the outer door tlie way is tlirough a broad passage way covered with PARK STREET CHURCH. 53 Manilla matting let into the floor, so that little dirt can be brought in from the street ; and as the doors swing on noiseless hinges, no interruption from scuffling of feet or slammings can ever occur. The Cupola. — In making our way thither we travel over the ceiling of the great hall, dropping our heads as we pass beneath roof and rafter, to save our hat and skull, and beholding beneath our feet a great network of gas- piping connected with the burners of the hall under us. In long rows are square ventilators, which discharge their streams of vitiated air on the outside. The cupola forms a spacious observatory, glazed all round, and from every window is obtained a charming view, the whole forming one of the most superb pano- ramas that we ever witnessed. From this elevated spot may be seen the adjacent villages and towns, the harbor and its islands, the city institutions, churches, houses, and shipping. In short, the whole city and vicinity lies at our feet. Park Street Church is situated at the comer of Tremont and Park Streets. The spire is remarkably beautiful, and the interior very spacious and striking. Close by hes Granary Burying Ground — a spot hal- lowed by the remains of many good, and brave, and beau- tiful as such can be. Here a mounument has been laid over the graves of Dr. Frankhn's parents. It is an obelisk 5* 54 BOSTON SIGHTS. twenty-five feet high, formed of seven blocks of Quincy granite, each weighing about six tons ; and the name of " FrankHn " can be easily read from the street. The stranger often stops to gaze at the squirrels racing among those gray old tombstones, or to read the time-worn inscrip- tions of the mourned ones' virtues — virtues perhaps not visible during life, but " known and read of all men " when they have passed away. Nearly across the street from here is The New Music Hall. — Until within the last few years, although a musical people, the city was sadly in NEW MUSIC HALL. 55 want of a fitting place for concerts, &c. Now, however, Ave have a Music Hall of the first class, which we can refer to with pride as an ornament to our metropohs, and an index of the taste and liberality of Boston. There has been no attempt at display on the exterior of the building, it being deemed important to reserve, as far as practicable, for the interior the means contributed for the enterprise. The hall is one hundred and thirty feet long, seventy- eight feet wide, and sixty-five feet high, the proportion of length to width being as five to three, and of length to height as two to one. Two balconies extend round three sides of the hall. The ceiling, which is forty feet above the floor of the upper balcony, is in general section flat, and connected with the wall by a large cove, in which are seventeen semicircular windows, that light the hall by day. A row of gas jets, projecting from the edge of the cornice, just below these windows, light the hall by night. The floor is arranged with seats which will accommo- date upwards of fifteen hundred persons, and there is sufii- cient room in the balconies for upwards of one thousand more. The orchestral platform is raised five feet above the floor of the hall, and rises by a few steps to the organ. From each side of the orchestra to the floor of the lower 56 BOSTON SIGHTS. balcony is a series of raised platforms for choristers, or for the audience, as may be requu-ed. The whole orches- tra will accommodate upwards of four hundred persons. The whole has been constructed with special reference to the science of acoustics — a consideration of the utmost importance in a building intended for a music hall. The architect, George Snell, Esq., has endeavored to combine in this structure the advantages which he has been able to discover by a careful personal examination of numerous music halls in Europe and America. This is of especial importance, as it is proposed to have one of the largest organs in the M^orld placed here. In the matter of ventilation, the architect has had the assistance of the large experience, in that department, of Dr. Morrill Wyman, of Cambridge. Mr. Alpheus C. Morse, a native of "Boston, (a partner of Mr. Snell,) has also assisted in the ai'rangement of the decorations of the interior. The entrances are from Winter Street, Bumstead Place, and Bromfield Street. Ample accommodations are afford' ed for drawing rooms, alcoves, offices, &c. Masonic Temple. — This building is situated in Tre- mont Street, on part of the land that was formerly Wash- ington Gardens. The corner stone was laid October 11, 1830, with appropriate Masonic ceremonies, by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. This Temple was dedicated May MASONIC TEMPLE. . 57 30, 1832. It is sixty feet wide, and eighty and a half feet long, and fronts westwardly on Tremont Street. The walls are fifty-two feet high, of stone, covered with a slated roof, twenty-four feet high, containing sixteen windows to light the attic story. The gutters are of cast iron, and the water trunks are of copper. The basement is of fine hammered granite, twelve feet high, with a belt of the same. The towers at the corners next Tremont Street are sixteen feet square, surmounted with granite battle- ments, and pinnacles rising ninety-five feet from the "•round. The door and window frames are of fine ham- 58 . BOSTON SIGHTS. mered granite, and the main walls, from the basement to the roof, are of Quincy granite, disposed in courses, in such a manner as to present a finished appearance to the eye. The blocks are triangular in shape, and there is probably no other such building in Massachusetts. From the street are two flights of winding stairs in the towers, sufficiently spacious to admit a free entrance to the five stories of the building. The first story is occupied for miscellaneous purposes; the second by the spacious salesrooms of Messrs. Chickering & Sons; and the third, fourth, and fifth stories for Masonic purposes. The different Lodges meet as follows : — • St. John's Lodge, first Monday ; St. Andrew's, second Thursday ; Massachusetts, third Monday ; Columbian, first Thursday; Mount Lebanon, second Monday; Winslow Lewis Lodge, second Friday ; Revere Lodge, first Tues- day; Germania Lodge, fourth Monday; St. Andrew's Chapter, first Wednesday ; St. Paul's Chapter, third Tues- day ; Boston Encampment, third Wednesday ; De Molay Encampment, fourth Wednesday; Council Royal and Select Masters, third Thursday; Grand Lodge, second Wednesday in December, March, Jmie, and September, 27th December, annually ; Grand Chapter, Tuesday pre- ceding second Wednesday of March, June, September, and December; Grand Encampment of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, annually ; Grand Lodge of Perfection, fourth Tuesday ; Board of Relief, first Tuesday in each month. TilE STATE HOUSE. — HANCOCK HOUSE. BOSTON WATER- WORKS. Long before the stranger reaches Boston, he must have seen, from the window of the railway-car, or the vessel's deck, an imposing dome, crowning the summit of the highest of the three hills on which the city is built. On a nearer approach, he will perceive that this dome surmounts a splendid and spacious edifice ; and this, he will learn, is The State House. — To this place it would be well to pay an early visit, as from the window of the lofty cupola he will be enabled to take such a bird's eye or panoramic view of the city, as will enable him, by fully comprehending its various localities, and their rela- tions to each other, to render his future investigations all the easier. In any city such a proceeding would prove advantageous, but especially is it so in Boston, where (59) 60 BOSTON SIGHTS. strangers, in consequence of the crooked streets, experience more difficulty in ascertaining their whereabouts than perhaps in any other large place in the Union ; and here we now are. It were scarcely possible to conceive a more appropriate situation for such a building than the one occupied by the State House. It is erected about the centre of the city, on elevated ground, at the corner of Beacon and Mount Vernon streets. The corner-stone was laid on the Fourth of July, 1795^ by Governor Samuel Adams, who made an address on the occasion, in which " he trusted that within its walls liberty and the rights of man would be forever advocated and supported." In 1798 the building was finished, and occupied by the Legislature. When the corner-stone of the New State House was to be laid, it was conveyed to the spot by fifteen white horses, there being, at that time, but fifteen States in the Union. Now they are more than doubled. The height of the capitol, to the summit of the dome, is one hundred and ten feet; the frontage is one hundred and seventy-three feet. " It consists externally of a base- ment story twenty feet high, and a principal story thirty feet high. This, in the centre of the front, is covered with an attic sixty feet wide, and twenty feet high, which is covered with a pediment. Immediately above arises the dome, fifty feet in diameter, and thirty in height ; the THE STATE HOUSE. 61 whole terminating with an elegant circular lantern, which supports a pine cone. The basement story is finished in a plain style on the wings, with square windows. The centre is ninety-four feet in length, and formed of arches which project fourteen feet, and make a covered walk below, and support a colonnade of Corinthian columns of the same extent above. " The largest room is in the centre, and in the second story (the large space below in the basement story is directly under this) is the Representatives' Chamber, that will accommodate five hundred members, and sometimes they have been more numerous. The Senate Chamber is also in the second story, at the east end of the building, and is sixty feet by fifty. At the west is a large room for the meetings of the Governor and the Executive Council, with a convenient ante-chamber." The view from the top of the State House is very extensive and variegated ; perhaps nothing in the country is superior to it. To the east appears the bay and harbor of Boston, interspersed with beautiful islands ; and in the distance beyond the wide-extended ocean. To the north the eye is met by Charlestown, with its interesting and memorable heights, and the Navy Yard of the United States ; the towns of Chelsea, Maiden, and Medford, and other villages, and the natural forests mingling in the distant horizon. To the west is a fine view of the Charles 6 62 BOSTON SIGUTS. river and a bay, the ancient town of Cambridge, rendered venerable for the university, now above two hundred years old ; of the flourishing villages of Cambridgeport and East Cambridge (in the latter of which is a large glass manufacturing establishment) ; of the highly-culti- vated towns of Brighton, Brookline, and Newton ; and to the south is Koxbury, which seems to be only a continu- ation of Boston, and which is rapidly increasing ; Dor- cliester, a fine, rich, agricultural town, with Milton and Quincy beyond, and still further south the Blue Hills, at the distance of eight or nine miles, which seem to bound the prospect. The Common, stretching in front of the capitol, with its numerous walks and flourishing trees, where " the rich and the poor meet together," and the humblest have the proud consciousness that they are free, and, in some respects (if virtuous), on a level with the learned and the opulent, adds greatly to the whole scene. Large sums have recently been expended in additions to the State House, both within and without. On the lawns in front are two beautiful fountains. The design of the enlargement was to obtain additional fire-proof room for the safety and security of the archives of the state ; a library-room sufficiently commodious to satisfy the wants of the present and future ; and additional accom- modations for the several departments of the government, including the agricultural bureau recently esta,blished. THE STATE HOUSE. 63 The plan adopted comprised ante or committee rooms for the use of the Senate and Council, and committee rooms for the general use of the Legislature. The dimensions of the library are as follows : Length, eighty-eight feet ; width, thirty-seven feet ; height, thirty-six and a half feet. It is fitted with galleries and alcoves, which will afford abun- dant space for the accumulations of many future years. The basement and fire-proof rooms beneath the library are of the same dimensions as the latter, with the exception of the height ; and they will be sufficient to accommodate the agricultural department, and to afford room and security for the public archives. All the designs of the plan, so far as providing accommodations is con- cerned, are fully carried out in the structure, which is completely fire-proof, and built in the most substantial and massive style. The wall of the basement story is of " rusticated dressed granite," and the others of brick. A large amount of iron is used in the structure, which gives it an air of grandeur and solidity. The best time to ascend the cupola is before eleven o'clock, on a bright, clear day. Visitors are required to inscribe their names on a register. There is no fee demanded. , One of the first objects that attract the attention of a stranger, on entering the State House, is the statue of Washington, by Sir F. Chantrey, which is placed in the 64 BOSTON SIGHTS. rotunda. This statue was purchased by private subscrip- tion, and was placed where it now stands in 1828. Like nearly all the works of the distinguished sculptor, in this production Chantrey has somewhat idealized his subject. Washington is represented in a military cloak, and so far all is correct enough, but the features are scarcely those of the Father of his Country. Nevertheless, as a work of art it is extremely fine, and reflects honor on the public spirit of those who procured it. The Hancock House. — Near the capitol, on the west, is the mansion-house of the eminent patriot, the late John Hancock, now exhibiting quite an ancient appearance ; and on the east, about the same distance, was, until recently, situated the dwelling of the late James Bow- HANCOCK HOUSE. 65 doin, another patriot of the Revolution, a distinguished scholar and philosopher, and who, by his firmness, in the critical period of 1786, contributed most efficiently to the preservation of order and tranquillity in the common- wealth. The Hancock House is one of the celebrities of Boston, and no stranger, who feels the patriotic impulse, fails to pay it a visit. It stands in Beacon-street, very near the State House, and fronts the south, presenting a quaint and picturesque appearance, embosomed, as it is, with shrubs, evergreens, trees, and flowers. It is built of hewn stone, and raised about thirteen feet above the street, the ascent being through a garden. There it stands, beside its modern neighbors, like a venerable grandsire surrounded by his children's children, commanding respectful attention, and even admiration. The front is fifty-six feet in breadth, and it terminates in two lofty stories. Formerly there was a delightful garden behind the house, ascending grad- ually to the high lands in the rear. In the governor's time we are told that in front of the edifice " an hundred cows daily fed " on the Common. A brave place for hospitality has that house been in old times, when " the east wing formed a spacious hall, and the west wing was appropriated to domestic purposes ; the whole embracing, with the stables, coach-houseS; and 6* 66 BOSTON SIGHTS. otlier offices, an extent of two hundred .inJ twenty feet." There was also a glacis, in the days when Thomas Han- cock, the governor's father, resided there ; but garden, glacis, stables, and coach-houses, have made way for streets and houses. The interior of the house is better preserved ; and beneath its ancient roof reside descendants of the governor. It is a pity that it should ever be razed to the ground ; but it is to be feared that, by and by, the place which now knows it will know it no more. The Boston Water-Works. — A short walk on Beacon Hill brings us to an enormous structure of massive granite masonry, which will, if the stranger knows not its uses, strike him with astonishment. It is not a jail, though it somewhat resembles one; nor is it a warehouse, nor a church. It is the great Beacon Hill Reservoir, into which flows, from Cochituate Lake, formerly called Long Pond, the water which supplies the city with the pure element. The dimensions of this huge cistern are, on Derne-street, one hundred and ninety-nine feet and three inches ; on Temple- street, one hundred and eighty-two feet and eleven inches ; on Hancock-street, one hundred and ninety-one feet seven inches ; and on the rear of Mount Vernon-street, two hundred and six feet and five inches. From the founda- tion to the summit, exclusive of railing, it is on Derne- street- sixty-six feet, and on the rear of Mount Yernon- street forty-three feet high. THE BOSTON WATER-WORKS. 67 This building is an immense basin, or reservoir. It rests on arches of immense strength, fourteen and three fourths feet span. The basin holds 2,678,961 wine gal- lons of water. Two granite tablets are placed on the north side of th Reservoir, with the following inscriptions : BOSTON WATER-WORKS. BEGUN AUGUST, 1846. WATER INTRODUCED OCTOBER, 1848. JOSIAH QUINCY, JR., Mayor. (NATHAN HALE, COMMISSIONERS, ^ JAMES F. BALDAVIN, /THOMAS B. CURTIS. BOSTON WATER- WORKS. THE RESERVOIR COMPLETED NOVEMBER, 1849. JOHN P. BIGELOW, Mayor. CW. S. WHITWELL, East Div. ENGINEERS, ■? E. S. CHESBROUGH, West Div. (.lOHN. B. JERVIS, Consulting. CHAPTER VIII. BOSTON COMMON. — OLD ELM. FROG POND. Were we to be asked, Wliat is the great feature of Boston city, we should assuredly reply, Boston Common, The parks of the British metropolis have not unaptly been termed the lungs of London. With equal appropri- ateness the Common of Boston may be styled the great (68) BOSTON COMMON. 69 breathing apparatus of Boston. In summer or in winter tho^ forty-eight acres of undulating ground, green with grass or white with snow, constitute a favorite place of resort. And when the noble trees that abound there are thick with foliage, no more delightful promenade than those broad avenues beneath their interlacing boughs could well be imagined. A glance at the early history of the Common may not be uninteresting. "In 1634, commissioners were chosen to dispose of un- occupied lands. They were directed to leave out portions for new comers and the further benefits of the town. The Common was among the reserved portions, and became public property, as a training field and pasture. In 1833 a city ordinance appeared, forbidding its use as a pasturage, and it has long since ceased to be a training field." The citizens of Boston have always been proud of their beautiful Common. Several times have attempts been made to encroach upon it, but public opinion in each case defeated the object, and it is not now probable that a single foot of it will be misappropriated. The American elm is celebrated abroad for its beauty, and our Common has extremely beautiful groves of these graceful trees, whose hanging boughs form arches on high, which, either in summer, autumn, or winter, attract gen- eral admiration for their fairv-like tracery — Nature's own 70 BOSTON SIGHTS. drapery, woven by her most fantastic hands. Time and storm have dealt hai-dly with some of them, and ^hey have been felled and supplanted by others, where repair was impossible. The extreme hardness of the malls has operated injmiously upon the roots of many of them, and canker worms have occasionally made too free among the branches ; but great and judicious care and expense have done much to remedy these evils ; and the full foliage of the Common, now shading the numerous paths with the magnificent garniture of their verdure, affords ample reward for years of intelligent husbandry. The richness of the soil on our Common has been one reason why the multitude of trees which decorate it have been so long preserved in vigor and beauty. In the sum- mer season the Common presents its most lovely aspect ; all the malls are crowned with rich green canopies, and the carpet spread by Nature at man's feet is of the amplest and freshest verdure. The birds and squirrels frolic un- harmed amid the broad, ancient boughs, and the malls, which intersect the undulating surface of the lawn, add vastly to its ornate appearance. The cathedral-like arches which overtop the elm-lined malls are ever charming to the artistic eye ; and indeed it is a question with some whether they do not look as beautiful in their xvinter robes, when the network of spray-like twigs is frosted over with the fleece of snow, or a crystalline coating of ice THE GREAT ELM. 71 glistens with prismatic splendors in the sunlight. Truly, the care which has been bestowed upon the Common has been amply repaid. Two of the walks in Boston were formerly designated by the names Great Mall and Little Mall. The Great Mall borders the eastern edge of the Common, and the Little Mall the eastern edge of the Granary or Park Street burying ground. The last named was planted with Enghsh elms by Colonel Adino Paddock, in 1770. They are therefore more than eighty years old. The trees in the Great Mall were planted, as appears from the plans, between 1722 and 1729. Those that remain are therefore about one hundred and thirty years old. The trees on the Little Mall were a mixture of elms and buttonwoods. Mr. Paddock was a loyalist, left Boston in 1776, and set- tled in Nova Scotia, where his descendants still live. The Great Elm is one of the Hons — perhaps the lion — of Boston Common. Still hale and strong, it stands about the centre of the green, and is supposed, from various data, to be upwai-ds of two hundred years old. In 1825 it was sixty-five feet high, the circumference at thirty inches from the ground being twenty-one feet eight inches, and the spread of branches eighty-six feet. In 1855 it was measured, and found to be seventy-two and a half feet in height ; height of first branch from the ground, 72 BOSTON SIGHTS. twenty-two and a half feet ; girth four feet from the ground, seventeen feet; average diameter of greatest spread of branches, one hundred and one feet. This shows that the elm has grown considerably within the last quarter of a century. But this colossal plant has more interesting features than its age or size, though they are great. ^^^-'^ -, SUMMER ELM. There was once a powder magazine near this tree, on the little hill at whose foot it stands. This hill, also, dur- ing the siege of Boston, was the site of a British fortifica- tion, bombarded by Washington. THE GREAT ELM. 73 In the war of 1812 its existence was endangered by the encampment around it of American troops, destined to protect the town. It has often been exposed to injury by tlie custom of hanging and burning effigies upon its giant branches ; and many turbulent occasions, on Election and Independence days, have exposed the tree to violence. ■mNTER ELM. Severe tempests have at times threatened to annihilate this tree; and in 1831 or 1832 a violent storm separated four of its large limbs, and so far detached them that they rested partially upon the ground. They were raised and bolted together ; tlie bolts are still visible, and the branche.-, 7 74 BOSTON SIGHTS. ^ at the end of twenty-five years, appear to be perfectly united. For many years the interior of the trunk was rotten, and much of it had disappeared, from neglect ; but finally the spirit of improvement, which came upon the Common, extended to the great tree, and the edges of the aperture were protected, and the exterior covered by canvas. The parts have thus been regenerated, and the opening filled and obliterated. Notwithstanding the years that have rolled over the veteran colossus, it still presents an aspect of grandeur which will ever be the admiration of the beholder. Dr. Warren remarks, in his book upon the Great Tree, — This tree, therefore, we must venerate as a visible relic of the Indian Shawmut, for all its other native trees and groves have been long since prostrated. The frail and transient memorials of the aborigines have vanished; even tlie hills of Trimountain cannot be distinguished; and this native noble elm remains to present a substantial association of the existinof with the former ao;es of Boston." A handsome iron fence now surrounds it, through wliich entrance is had by a gate. Flowers adorn the little circle enclosed at its foot, seeming to pay the homage of beauty to majesty ; and squirrels gambol among its branches, in which a shelter and food are provided for them. The fol- lowing inscription is on the fence : — THE GREAT ELM. 75 THE OLD ELM. This tree has been standing ^ here for an unkno^^-n period. It is believed to have existed be- fore the settlement of Boston, be- ing full grown in 1722. Exhibited marks of old age in 1792, and was nearly destroyed by a storm in 1832. Protected by an iron fence in 1854. J. V. C. Smith, Mayor. The following lines, dedicated to the old Elm Tree on Boston Common, by Geo. E. Rice, originally appeared in the Saturday Evening Gazette. TO THE GREAT ELM TREE ON BOSTON COMMON. "Wlien first from mother Earth you sprung, Ere Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare sung, Or Puritans had come among The savages to loose each tongue In psalms and prayers. These forty acres, more or less, Now gayly clothed in Nature's dress, "Where Yankees walk, and brag, and guess, "Was but a " howling wilderness " Of wolves and bears. Say, did you start with the presenti- ^ Ment tha1%ou'd e'er be the centre Of all that's known 76 BOSTON SIGHTS. About the sciences and arts ? For we are men of mighty parts, And strangers say that Boston hearts With pride are blown ; And fondly deem their little state To be "joar excellence " the great, And look with pity And sore contempt on those who say That Europe boasts a town to-day That's not surpassed in every way By Boston City. What wondrous changes you have seen Since you put forth your primal green And tender shoot ; Three hundred years your life has spanned. Yet calm, serene, erect you stand. Of great renown throughout the land, Braced up with many an iron band. And showing marks of Time's hard hand From crown to root. You, when a slender sapling, saw The persecuted reach this shore. And in their turn Treat others as themselves were treated. To mete the measure that's been meted. And cheat if he has e'er been cheated. How does man yearn ! Of tales perchance devoid of t^th, * With which they would, in early youth, My heart appall, THE GREAT ELM. Was one the gossips used to tell About a witch so grim and fell, That here was hung for raising —well, It wasn't Saul. Since you beheld the Ught of day, A race of men has passed away — A warlike nation, Who, oft with fire water plied, Lost all their bravery and pride, And yielded to the rapid stride Of annexation. Behold, a mightier race appears. And high a vast republic rears Her giant features, And westward steadily we drive The few poor Indians who survive, And barely keep the race alive — Degenerate creatures. For are we not the mighty lords And masters of all savage hordes. In our opinion ? And when we with inferiors deal, 'Tis well to use the iron heel. And make them wince, and writhe, and feel Their lords' dominion. You heard the first rebellious hiun Of voices, and the fife and drum Of revolution, 7* 77 78 BOSTON SIGHTS. And heard the bells and welkin ring, When they threw off great George, their king, And much improved by that same thing Their constitution. And you still thrive and live to see The country prosperous and free, In spite of all The very sage prognostications Of prophets in exalted stations, Who could foresee the fate of nations, And said she'd fall. You've seen both the tremendous spread Of commerce, and of those it made Rich and ambitious, Who flaunt with parvenu's true pride, And in their sho-sAy coaches ride. With arms emblazoned on the side. Which any herald who descried Would deem flagitious. Majestic tree ! You've seen much worth From little Boston issue forth, And know some men Who love their kind, and give their store To help the suiFering and the poor, Nor drive the beggar from their door. Heaven bless such hearts, and give them more, I pray again. And you shall see much more beside, Ere to your root, old Boston's pride, The axe is laid. THE FROG POND. 79 And long, I trust, the time will be, Ere mayor and comicil sit on thee, And find with unanimity That you're decayed ; For you are still quite hale and stanch, Though here and there perhaps a branch Is slightly rotten ; And you will stand and hold your sway When he who pens this rhyme to-day Shall mingle with the common clay, And be forgotten. The Frog Pond, now called " Cochituate Lake by super-genteel people, or, as it has been called, " Quincy 80 BOSTON SIGHTS. Lake," is situated near the Old Elm Tree, whose roots it has moistened for so many years. The original form has long been changed, and the natural pond in which the boys fished for minnows and horn-pout is now supplied from Cochituate Lake ; and in one portion a fountain sends up its sparkling waters to the height of over ninety feet. A variety of jets are connected with it at pleasure ; and nothing can be more charming than the effect produced on a summer's evening, when bands discourse sweet music, and the strains blend with the sound of falHng waters : the effect is inexpressibly beautiful. Then is the time to see Boston Common and its tiny silver lake. CHAPTER IX. PUBLIC GARDEN. — PROVIDENCE DEPOT. — PUBLIC LIBRARY. The Public Garden is situated at the foot of the Common, and contains about twenty acres. Like its neighboi", all walks and beauties are open to the inspec- tion and enjoyment of visitors. Menageries and circuses often pitch their tents here, and hold forth to the great delight of the curious. Close by, on Pleasant Street, is The Providence Railroad Depot, a fine brick structure, and rather striking in its architecture. The interior arrangements are good, and unusually convenient. This road is forty-three miles in length, and, joined with the " Stonington Line," which is properly a continuation of it, connects Boston with Long Island Sound. The branch roads uniting with this are the Dedham, Stough- ton, Taunton, and Attleboro' roads.^ Cars leave the depot in Boston for Providence daily, stopping at Roxbury, which is two miles from the city, Jamaica Plain, three and a half miles. Canton, fourteen miles from Boston, is a beautifully- (81) 82 BOSTON SIGHTS. diversified and picturesque town, watered by the Neponset River, which, with the numerous ponds in its vicinity, gives it an extensive water power. The raikoad bridge which crosses the river at Canton is one of the finest pieces of masonry in the country. It is of hewn granite, is six hundred and twelve feet long, and elevated sixty- three feet above the foundation, resting on six arches, with a succession of arches on top. Its cost exceeded ninety thousand dollars. vSharon, seventeen and a half miles from Boston, occu- pies the highest land between Boston and Providence. PUBLIC LIBRARY. 83 Its natural scenery is exceedingly fine. Mashapoag Pond, a beautiful sheet of water over a mile in length, rests upon a bed of iron ore. During the low stages of the water, the ore is extracted by machines made for the purpose. Fishing and pleasure parties frequent this pond in the summer season. Mansfield is twenty-four miles, Attleboro' thirty-one miles, Pawtucket thirty-nine miles, and Providence forty- three and a half miles from Boston. The Public Library building of the city of Boston is situated on Boylston Street, opposite the Common, 84 BOSTON SIGHTS (although the library itself temporarily reposes in Mason Street, until the new building is quite ready for its recep- tion.) The building was designed by Mr. Charles Kirby, and is eighty-two feet in front, one hundred and tw^enty- eight feet deep, and two stories in height, besides the base- ment. The lower or basement story is situated below the level of the sidewalk. The first story of the building contains the large hall of entrance, Avhich opens directly into the room for distri- bution, whicli occupies the central part of the story. It is intended to serve also as a conversation room. This room is connected with a large hall in the rear of the building, having a gallery and twenty alcoves, calculated to contain about forty thousand of the books most fre- quently demanded for use. On the front of the building, and entered only from the room of delivery, are two read- ing rooms, one on the east for ladies, and one on the west, amply supplied with the periodicals of the day, for gen- eral use. The second or principal story is one hall, approached by visitors only by the staircase in the entrance hall. Tliis hall, which by calculation will contain more than two hundred thousand volumes, has ten alcoves on each of its sides, and the same number in each of its galleries, mak- ing sixty alcoves in all. Each alcove contains ten ranges of shelves, and each range ten shelves. The object of PUBLIC LIBRARY. 85 this decimal arrangement of shelves is to simplify all the details connected with the library. Beneath the principal story, and immediately over the delivery room, is a half story, designed for workrooms and storerooms. At the corners on the rear of the build- ing are towers for stairs and other conveniences. The building is constructed of brick, and the ornamen- tal portions are of sandstone. The whole building is strictly fire-proof; even the floors are constructed of brick and iron, and no wood enters into their construction. The comer stone was laid with great ceremony on the 17th of September, 1855. The hbrary contains thirty-three thou- sand volumes, and is free to all of good reputation residing in the city. 8 CHAPTER X. WORCESTER DEPOT AND ROAD. OLD COLONY AND FALL RIVER DEPOT AND ROAD. Leaving the Public Library, a stroll through Boylston Street, (passing the spot where the Liberty Tree once grew,) down Beach Street, brings us to The Boston and Worcester Railroad Depot. It is a very plain (88) WORCESTER DEPOT AND ROAD. 87 brick building, but covering a large area of ground, facing on Kneeland Street, with entrances and exits on Kneeland, Albany, and Lincoln Streets. The accommodations are spacious, and the arrangements so well made that the stranger, on his arrival, is not in danger of being pulled in pieces by officious hackmen, for here each has his place and must keep it. The vicinity of this depot presents a busy scene on the arrival and departure of the New York and Albany trains, and it is well worth the walk to wit- ness' it. The branch roads uniting with this road are, the Brookline, Newton Lower Falls, and Saxonville ; the Mil- ford branch, from South Framingham depot to Milford ; the Millbury branch, from Grafton to Millbury ; and the Agricultural, from South Framingham to Marlboro'. Brighton, the first stopping place on this route, five miles from Boston, is a pleasant town on the south side of Charles River. It is noted for its cattle market, the largest in New England. Monday is the market day, when buyers and sellers congregate in large numbers to traffic in live stock. This town has become the residence of many persons of wealth and taste, who occupy beauti- ful country seats, with splendid gardens attached. Win- ship's Garden is famed for its nursery of fine fruit trees and shrubbery, and for its grand display of fruits and flowers of every variety. It is free to visitors. Newton is both an agricultural and a manufacturing 88 BOSTON SIGHTS. town. Its borders are washed by Charles Biver for sev- eral miles. There are two sets of falls on that river in this town, two miles apart, called the Upper and Lower Falls, on which are extensive paper mills, and other man- ufacturing estabhshments. There is a Theological Semi- nary here, estabhshed in 1825. Needham is now quite a manufacturing town, having several paper mills, a chocolate mill, a coach and car manufactory, and manufactories of shoes, hats, &c. It has also quarries of stone, which are becoming yearly more valuable. Natick, seventeen miles distant from the city, (called by the Indians " the place of hills,") is watered in part by Charles River ; it contains several delightful ponds, well stored with fish. The southern part of Long Pond is in this town, and is seen from the cars while passing. The first Indian church in New England was established here in 1660, under the direction of the apostle Eliot. Framingham, twenty-one miles from Boston, has the Sudbury River passhig through its centre. Its fishing, fowling, and other sports make it an agreeable place of resort. Hopkinton is twenty-four miles from Boston, and Graf- ton thirty-eight miles. The Western, Nashua, Norwich, and several other routes pass over this road, and through Worcester, to gain Boston. OLD COLONY DEPOT AND ROAD. 89 Not far from this depot stands The Old Colony AND Fall River Depot, at the corner of Kneeland and South Streets. It is a plain, substantial building of brick, and very convenient. This road was opened for travel on the 19th of November, 1845, and extends from Boston to Fall River, and from Braintree to Plymouth. The branch roads connecting with it are the South Shore, Cape Cod, Milton, IVIiddleboro*, and Taunton roads. South Boston, the first stopping place, was formerly a part of Dorchester, and is connected with Boston by two bridges, and also by the Old Colony and Fall River Rail- 8* 90 BOSTON SIGHTS. road. Dorchester, four miles from Boston, lies on Dor- chester Bay, in Boston harbor. It is under a high state of cultivation — fruits, vegetables, and flowers being raised here in great abundance ; and this town, in consequence of the facilities for reacliing Boston, has become a favorite place of residence for many of its citizens. Neponset Village, five miles from Boston, situated in the town of Dorchester, is on the Neponset River, near its mouth. It has considerable trade, and the population is rapidly increasing. Quincy, eight miles from Boston, is situated on Quincy Bay, in Boston harbor. The village, which is built on an elevated plain, is remarkable for its neatness and beauty. The ancestral estate of the Quincy family, one of the most beautiful residences in New England, is in this town. In a church in the village, erected in 1828 at a cost of forty thousand dollars, is a beautiful monument to the memory of John Adams and his wife. This town sup- plies the " Quincy granite," noted for its durability and beauty. Immense quantities are annually quarried and sent to various parts of the United States. The first railway constructed in this country was in Quincy, it being a short line of four miles, completed in 1827. It was built for the purpose of conveying granite quarried in the Granite Hills to vessels lying in the Ne- ponset River, and still remains in use. Of course horse power only was used. OLD COLONY DEPOT AND ROAD. 91 North Braintree is ten and a half miles from Boston, Braintree eleven and a half, South AVeymoulh fifteen, North Abington eighteen, Abington nineteen and a quar- ter. South Abington twenty-one. North Hanson twenty- three and a quarter, Hanson twenty-four and three quar- ters, Plympton thhty, Kingston thirty-three. Plymouth, the terminus of the Old Colony road, is thirt)^-seven miles from Boston, and is celebrated as being the landing place of the "Pilgrims," who disembarked here on the 22d of December, 1620. It is the oldest town in New England. Pilgrim Hall, the building most worthy of notice, contains a valuable painting represent- ing the landing of the Pilgrims from the " Mayflower." It is thirteen by sixteen feet, and is valued at three thousand dollars. The cabinet of the Pilgrim Society contains many valuable antiquities. From Burying Hill, in the rear of the town, which is elevated one hundred and sixty feet above the level of the sea, is a fine view of the vil- lage, the harbor, and shipping beyond, with the coast for some miles in extent. " Plymouth Rock," a deeply inter- esting spot to New Englanders, is near the termination of Leyden Street. The to^vn contains about two hundred ponds ; the largest, called Billington Sea, is about six miles in circumference. It is two miles south-west of the village, and, contains a good supply of pickerel and perch. 92 BOSTON SIGHTS. The National Monument to the Forefathers, a description of which we take from the Boston Almanac of 1856, is to be erected here. The design comprises an octagonal pedestal, eighty-three feet high, upon which stands a figure of Faith, rising to the height of seventy- feet above the platform of the pedestal, so that the whole monument will rise one hundred and fifty-three feet above the earth upon which it rests. Faith is represented as standing upon a rock, holding in her left hand an open Bible, while the other hand is uplifted towards heaven. OLD COLONY DEPOT AND ROAD. 93 From the four smaller faces of the main pedestal project wings or buttresses, upon which are seated figures em- blematic of the principles upon which the Pilgrim Fathers proposed to found their commonwealth. These are Moral- itjj Law, Education, and Freedom. The sides of the seats upon which they sit are decorated with niches, in which are statues appropriate to the figures above. Upon the larger faces of the main pedestal are panels, which are intended to contain records of the names of the Pilgrims of the Mayflower, the events of the voyage, the prominent events in the early history of the colony, and the events which occurred previous to their departure from Delft Haven. Upon smaller panels, placed below these, are to be inscribed events connected with the Pilgrim So- ciety and the erection of the monument, with an appro- priate dedication. Upon the faces of the wing pedestals are panels designed to contain alto-reliefs of the departure from Delft Haven, the signing of the social compact in the cabin of the Mayflower, the landing at Plymouth, and the first treaty with the Indians. In the main pedestal is a chamber twenty-four feet in diameter, and from the floor of tliis a stone staircase leads to the platform upon w^hich stands the principal figure. The pedestal is eighty feet in diameter at the base, and the sitting figures upon the wings are forty feet high in their position. The figures in the panels are eighteen feet 94 BOSTON SIGHTS. in height. In magnitude the monument will far exceed any monumental structure of modern times, and will equal those stupendous works of the Egyptians which for forty centuries have awed the world by their grandeur. The figure of Faith will be larger than any known statue excepting that of the great Ramses, now overthrown, and the Colossus of Rhodes ; and the sitting figures are nearly equal in size to the two statues of Ramses in the plain of Luxor. The architect of the monument is Mr. Hammatt Billings, and it is to be erected at Plymouth under the auspices of the Pilgrim Association. CHAPTER XI. BOSTON THEATRE. MELODEON. BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. Returning to Washington Street, a short walk brings us to the Boston Theatre, one of the finest places of amusement in the world, and by far the most beautiful in America. It is situated on Washington and Mason Streets. The entrance front on the former is a simple three story building, twenty-four feet in width, covered with mastic, and with no attempt at architectural display. On enter- ing, the visitor ascends the inclined plane of a spacious and elegant outer vestibule, the walls of which, hand- somely ornamented, support a finely-arched ceihng. Here we procure tickets, and enter the inner vestibule ; before us is a circular staircase, nine feet in width ; ascending, we find it conducts to the first and second circles. Enter- ing the auditorium, we find it to be about ninety feet in diameter, and circular in form, except that it slightly flat- tens in the direction of the stage; the depth from the curtain to the back of the parquet being eighty-four feet. The front of the stage projects into the auditorium eighteen (95) 96 BOSTON SIGHTS. feet, and the height of the auditorium is about fifty-four feet. There are proscenium boxes on either side of the stage, handsomely draped. A space of ten or twelve feet from the parquet wall, and nearly parallel with the front of the first tier, is separated and somewhat raised from the middle portion of the house, the whole parquet floor, BOSTON THEATRE. 97 however, being constructed in a dishing form, and varying several feet. Around the auditorium above are the first and second tiers, the gallery, and hanging in front, a little below the first tier or dress circle, is a light balcony con- taining two rows of seats. In the parquet and balcony there are iron-framed chairs, cushioned on the back, seat, and arms, and so con- trived that the seat rises when not in use ; and the first and second tiers are furnished with oaken-framed sofas, covered with crimson plush, and the amphitheatre with iron-framed and cushioned settees. The walls of the auditorium are of a rose tint ; the fronts of the balcony and the second circle are elaborately and tastefully or- namented, and the frescoed ceiling embraces in its de- sign allegorical representations of the twelve months. Adding to the effect of the painting, the ceiling is deco- rated with composition ornaments, many of them richly gilded. In front, over the stage, is a splendid clock, with a movable dial. Returning to the vestibule, we turn to the right, under the arches, and reach the parquet lobby. Passing through this apartment, we reach the saloon and dressing rooms of this story. The parquet corridor is gained by turning to the left, through the^arches, until we arrive at the foot of the grand oaken staircase, which is built of solid oak, and separates on a broad landing into two branches, nine 9 98 BOSTON SIGHTS. feet in width, which terminate in the dress circle lohhy. Opposite the staircase are open arches conununicating with the grand promenade saloon, which is fortj-six feet long, twenty-six feet wide, and twenty-six feet high, and tastefully finished with ornamented walls and ceiling, and is elegantly furnished. The corridors to the several stories extend entirely round the auditorium. The stage side of the theatre is on Mason Street, and the doors and arches, breaking the sameness of the brick wall, comprise a passage leading to the carpenter's shop BOSTON THEATRE. 99 and steam works, a set of double doors for the introduc- tion of horses, carriages, &c., should such ever be required for the purposes of the stage, a private door for the use of the actors, and an audience entrance at the corner of the buildmg nearest West Street. The stage is sixty-seven feet deep from the curtain, and, calculated from the extreme front, or foot lights, measures eighty-five feet. The curtain opening is about forty-eight feet in mdth by forty-one in height. There is a depth of some thirty feet below the stage, and the height from the stage to the fly floor is sixty-six feet. These dis- 100 BOSTON SIGHTS. tances allow the raising and lowering of scenes without hinges or joints, the use of which soon injures their ap- pearance. There are seven rows of side scenes, or wings, with considerable space beyond the most remote, for per- spective. The stage is provided with traps, bridges, and all imaginable contrivances for effect, and is believed to unite more improvements, and to be the best arranged of any structure of the kind in this country. The green- room, on the level of the stage, is a decidedly comfortable looking apartment, thirty-four by eighteen feet, neatly fin- ished and tinted, handsomely carpeted, and furnished around the sides with cushioned seats, covered with dark- green enamelled cloth. Adjoining it is a small "star" dressing room, appropriately fitted, and near by is an apartment for the manager, also a small property room. Above these are the actors' dressing rooms, furnished with water, heating apparatus, and all necessary conveniences ; and still higher is the stage wardrobe room. On the other side of the stage there are additional dressing rooms ; above these a spacious property store- room. Below the extreme front of the stage is located the usual apartment for the use of the orchestra, with side rooms for the storage of music, instruments, &c. Farther back is a large dressing room for the supernumeraries, and two or three stories of cellars arranged for the recep- tion of scenes from above, and for a variety of other pur- SOCIETY or NATURAL HISTORY. lOl poses. The walls separating the stage from the audito- rium are of brick, and considered fire-proof, while the cur- tain opening is provided with a safety screen of iron net- work, balanced by weights, and managed with machinery so arranged as to be operated from either side of the cur- tain wall. Should any portion of the stage or its sur- roundings ever take fire during a performance, this curtain can be immediately lowered, and afibrd complete protec- tion to an audience. Close to the entrance on Washington Street is the Melo- DEON, a small, comfortable hall, used for religious, pano- ramic, and other exhibitions. The rooms of the Boston Society of Natural History are in the brick building adjoining the Boston Theatre, in Mason Street. They are nine in number. One of them is occupied by the librarian, and each of the others by objects of interest in the different depart- ments of natural history. All who desire have free access to the cabinet every Wednesday ; and strangers in the city, who cannot conveniently visit it on that day, can obtain admission at any time by application to an ofiicer of the society. The main room, which is entered from the first floor, contains skeletons of different animals from all parts of the world, from that of the huge mastodon to the slender bones of the sprightly squirrel. In an ante- room are cases filled with rare specimens of geology and 9* 102 BOSTON SIGHTS. mineralogy. Around the main room is a light iron bal- cony, giving access to the glass cases, which are likewise filled with things strange and wonderful from all parts of the known world. Here are skulls and mummies, fishes and serpents, fossil remains and foot marks of those huge auimals that walked, or birds that flew, before Adam arose from kindred earth. Ascending to the next story, we enter a room nearly filled with every variety of birds, from the albatross to the minute humming bird, while in the centre are long cases filled with eggs of the different species, and many kinds of nests. One of the anterooms is filled with shells, seemingly in endless variety, while specimens of moss, sponges, corals, and aquatic plants enliven the collection with their singular beauty. Another anteroom is filled with fishes. In yet another room the various members of the serpent family are preserved. Here we may see the enormous boa, the fairy green snake, the agile black snake, the famed hooded snake of India, and the poisonous copper head of our own country. Here, also, is the fascinating rattlesnake, and such numbers of the creeping race that a crawling feeling comes over us, and we quit the room with a feeling of relief. Many strangers leave the city without seeing the splen- did cabinet of this society, and many residents are not even aware of its existence. But whether resident or stranger, the visitor will be well repaid for the expendi- ture of time. SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 103 The library belonging to the Massachusetts Society of Natural History contains several thousand volumes and a number of valuable manuscripts. The society hold monthly meetings, and several of their proceedings have been published. The institution now owns the building which was formerly occupied by the Massachusetts Medi- cal College; but the building has been remodelled, to adapt it to its present purposes. The whole estate cost about thirty thousand dollars, which was obtained by sub- scription from the hberal citizens of Boston. CHAPTER XII. MERCANTILE LIBRARY. LOWELL INSTITUTE. ORD- WAY HALL. BRATTLE STREET CHURCH. The Mercantile Library Association occupies the second floor in Mercantile Building, at the corner of Haw- ley and Summer Streets, the main entrance being from the latter. The Newspaper Room, which occupies the front of the building, facing on Summer Street, is about fifty feet square, and is furnished with twenty-two stands for papers, made in the most approved form, and handsomely finished. These stands are supplied with one hundred and sixty newspapers, comprising nearly all of the better class of daily papers throughout the country, and a well-selected list of foreign weeklies and dailies, offering the largest and best selection of any reading room in New England. Besides the facilities for gathering news, there are other attractions to interest visitors. Facing you, as you enter, hangs a fine copy of Stuart's Washington, a gift from the Hon. Edward Everett; and around the walls are sus- pended portraits of Webster, Hamilton, Vespucius, Colum- (105) 106 BOSTON SIGHTS. bus, and some of our much-honored citizens of Boston, viz. : Thomas H. Perkins, Peter C. Brooks, David Sears, William Gray, Thomas C. Amory, and Robert G. Shaw. Prominent among the attractions and ornaments of the room stands the marble statue of the " Wounded Indian," by Peter Stephenson. This truly American work, aside from its excellence as a work of art, is celebrated as being the first statue executed in the marble of this country, and also as being the only piece of sculpture on exhibition at the World's Fair at London that was designed and com- pleted in the United States. Passing from the Reading Room, you enter the periodi- cal room. This room is about one third as large as the other, and is furnished with ten reading tables and a con- venient table in the centre, on which are displayed the periodicals. There are also cases on one side of the room, filled with encyclopaedias, lexicons, and other works of reference. Adjoining the Newspaper Room is a small cabinet con- taining the curiosities belonging to the association, as well as those belonging to the Marine Society. The library room is seventy-five feet four inches long, by twenty feet six inches wide. The books are arranged on the walls and in twenty-two alcoves extending from the walls on both sides, leaving a clear passage through the MERCANTILE LIBRARY. 107 centre of six feet in width. The present shelving of the library will contain twenty-five thousand volumes. Its capacity may be doubled by means of a light gallery, accessible by an iron circular stairway. The number of volumes in the library at present is eighteen thousand, and is increasing at the rate of two thousand annually. By the terms of the constitution, any person engaged in mercantile pursuits, who is more than fourteen years of age, may become a member of the association by the pay- ment of two dollars annually. Persons not engaged in mercantile pursuits may become subscribers, and be enti- tled to all the privileges of members, except that of voting, by the payment of two dollars ; and ladies may become subscribers on the same terms. Mercantile Hall will accommodate about seven hundred persons, is centrally located, easy of access, and lighted from the ceiling. It is well ventilated, and furnished with two anterooms on each side of the rostrum. It is a pleas- ant, cheerful room, and remarkably well adapted by its construction for a lecture or concert room, and is in much, demand for these purposes. The main entrance to the hall is from Summer Street, by a broad and independent passage way from the top of the staircase, which renders it unnecessary for persons to pass through the other rooms in order to enter the hall. There is another entrance from Hawley Street ; and by 108 BOSTON SIGHTS. this passage ladies who come to the library for books, and do not wish to pass through the reading and period- ical rooms, can reach the Hbrarian's desk. A course of lectures is delivered before the association each winter by talented speakers. Tickets, admitting a gentleman and lady, are sold only to members. The pop- ularity of these lectures has been so great, that, although delivered in the largest hall in the city, it has been found necessary on several occasions, within a few years, to establish two courses in order to accommodate all the applicants for tickets. This institution is the oldest of all the Mercantile Li- brary Associations in the country, having been founded in March, 1820. Among the many institutions founded in this city for intellectual, moral, and social improvement, none are exerting a more beneficial influence, or are more firmly established in the confidence of the people. The Lowell L^stitute, with an entrance from Wash- ington Street, is the next object of interest. It was founded by John Lowell, Jr., Esq., for the support of regular courses of popular and scientific lectures. The sum bequeathed for this purpose amounts to about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. By his will he provides for the main- tenance and support of public lectures on natural and revealed religion, physics and chemistry, with their appli- cation to the arts, and on geology, botany, and other use- ORuWAT HALL. BRATTLE STREET CHURCH. 109 ful subjects. These lectures are all free. The season for delivering them is from October to April, during which period four or five courses (of twelve lectures each) are usually delivered. Mr. Lowell died at Bombay in March, 1836, in the thirty-seventh year of his age. Ordway Hall is situated in Province House Court. The building is very old ; and when Massachusetts was a province, the colonial governors resided here. The king's coat of arms, that once adorned this building, is still treasured in the rooms of the Massachusetts Histor- ical Society, and seems to have suffered more from the tooth of time than the stanch old building it once adorned. Perhaps the smoke from Lexington and Concord dimmed its bright colors, tarnished its gilding, and caused it to be laid aside forever. The walls of this old house, that once echoed with kings' decrees, eloquent speeches, and loyal toasts, now ring with the gay laugh, tender songs, and humorous jests of the negro minstrel. The hall, under the management of Mr. Ordway, has become de- servedly popular, as order is preserved, and all that may offend banished. Brattle Street Church stands in Brattle Square. The first house of worship, a wooden building, was taken down in May, 1772, to make room for the present one, which was built upon the same spot, and consecrated July 10 110 BOSTON SIGHTS. 25, 1773. In the front wall, near a window, may be seen the veritable cannon ball shot from Washington's camp in Cambridge, at the time Boston was in possession of the British. CHAPTER XIII HOWARD ATHEN^UM. BOWDOIN SQUARE. NATIONAL THEATRE. LOWELL DEPOT. EASTERN RAILROAD DEPOT. — FITCHBURG DEPOT. — COPP'S HILL. — MAINE DEPOT. The Howard Athen-EUM is centrally located, and fronts on Howard Street, occupying the spot where once stood the house in which Governor Eustis died. The the- atre, although not large, is one of the most comfortable places of amusement in the city, and is deservedly popular. Not far from here is Bowdoin Square, surrounded by some of the finest buildings in Boston. On one side rise the lofty walls of the " princely Revere ; " on another, " Coolidge Block," (a splendid building of stone,) the strong granite walls of Bowdoin Square Church, the " United States Courts" which occupy the " old Parkman mansion,^* and massive " Gore Block ; " while from the centre start the cars for Cambridge, Mount Auburn, &c. There are several objects of interest not properly in the route we have marked out, and perhaps it were as well to diverge here, although obliged to return. (Ill) 112 BOSTON SIGHTS. The National Theatre, fronting on Traverse Street, is one hundred and twenty feet long by seventy-five feet wide, exclusive of saloons, refreshment rooms, &c., which are spacious and convenient. The leading architectural features are Doric, presenting broad pilasters with slight projections on the front, which support an unbroken en- tablature and a pediment eighteen feet high at each end. The roof is covered with slate and zinc, and is surmounted by an octagonal lantern, twelve feet in diameter and eighteen feet high, having a window on each of its sides. The structure is covered on the exterior walls with cement. BOSTON AND LOWELL DEPOT. 113 in imitation of freestone, which gives a uniform and beau- ful appearance. The main ceiling of the interior is a single arch, of fifty-five feet span, rising within nine feet of the ridge. The gallery is entirely above the level cornice of the building, having an arched ceiling, which rises five feet higher than the main ceiling, and is ventilated by a large round window placed in the centre of the tympanum. The proscenium presents an opening forty feet wide and thirty-three feet high. The circle of boxes is so arranged that in every part of the house a full view is had of the stage. The pit is unusually large, and although removed for many years, has been reinstated, and now contains about five hundred seats. The National has been a very popular theatre, and in the hands of a good manager is always profitable. The Boston and Lowell Depot, at the foot of Lowell Street, is a plain brick building, with no preten- sions to architectural elegance. The length of the road proper is twenty-six miles. The branch road connecting is the Woburn Branch. The towns passed through on the road to Lowell are, — East Cambridge, a flourishing place, with maihy exten- sive manufactories, of which the glass works are the most important. Somerville, three miles distant. 10* 114 BOSTON SIGHTS. Medford, five miles from Boston, is at the head of navi- gation on the Mystic River, and noted for its ship building. Woburn, ten miles, has a varied and pleasing aspect, and contains some beautiful farms. Horn Pond, in this town, is a delightful sheet of water, surrounded by ever- greens, and is so remarkable for its rural beauties as to attract many visitors from a distance. Wilmington is fifteen miles, Billerica nineteen miles, Billerica Mills twenty-two miles, and Lowell twenty-six miles from Boston. The Eastern Railroad Depot, which is built of EASTERN RAILROAD DEPOT. 115 wood, Stands on Causeway Street, at the foot of Friend and Canal -Streets. The length of the road to Ports- mouth is fifty-six miles, or to Portland one hundred and seven miles. On the way to Portsmouth the following towns are passed through : — Lynn, nine miles distant, is noted for its shoe trade. Salem, sixteen miles, was formerly' engaged in the East India trade, but has declined in commercial importance, most of its shipping having been removed to Boston, although continuing to be owned in Salem. The Museum of the East India Marine Society is well worth a visit, for 116 BOSTON SIGHTS. which tickets of admission can be procured gratis, on ap- plication. It is remarkable for the variety and extent of its natural and artificial curiosities, collected from every part of the world. The road passes through a tunnel built under Essex and Washington Streets, and is thence carried over a bridge of considerable length to Beverly. Beverly, sixteen miles from Boston, is connected with Salem by a bridge across the North River fifteen hundred feet in length. Wenham is twenty-two miles, Ipswich twenty-seven miles, Rowley thirty-one miles, Newburyport thirty-six miles. The celebrated George Whitefield died in this town in September, 1770. Salisbury Beach is thirty- eight miles, Seabrook forty-two miles, Hampton forty-six miles, and Portsmouth fifty-six miles from Boston. The branch roads connecting with this road are the Saugus, Marblehead, South Reading, Gloucester, Essex, and Ames- bury branches. The FiTCHBURG Depot fronts on Causeway Street, at the corner of Haverhill Street. The building, which is three hundred and sixteen feet long, ninety-six feet wide, and two stories high, is of Fitchburg granite, and one of the handsomest depots in this country. Several roads unite with this road, and the Lexington and West Cam- bridge, Watertown and Marlboro', Peterboro* and Shirley branches; and the Worcester and Nashua, and Stony Brook Railroads connect at Groton Junction. COPP'S HILL. 117 Charlestown, the first place reached after crossing the viaduct over Charles River, is built on a peninsula formed by the Charles and Mystic Rivers, and is connected with Boston by two public bridges, by one with Chelsea and Maiden, over the Mystic, and with Cambridge by a bridge over Charles River. Somerville is three miles, Waltham ten miles. Concord twenty miles. Grot on thirty-five miles, and Fitchburg fifty miles from Boston. Copp's Hill, not far from the Fitchburg Depot, was formerly called Snow Hill. It came into the possession 118 BOSTON SIGHTS. of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company ; and when, in 1775, they were forbidden by General Gage to parade on the Common, they went to this, their own ground, and drilled in defiance of his tin-eats. The fort, or battery, that was built there by the British, just before the battle of Bunker Hill, stood near its south-east brow, adjoining the burying ground. The remains of many eminent men repose in this little cemetery. Close by the entrance is the vault of the Mather family, covered by a plain oblong structure of brick, three feet high and about six feet long, upon which is laid a heavy brown stone slab, with a tablet of slate, bearing the following inscrip- tion : — BOSTON AND MAINE RAILROAD DEPOT. 119 The Reverend Doctors Increase, Cotton, and Samuel Mather were interred in this vault. Increase died August 27, 1723, m. 84. Cotton " Feb. 13, 1727, " 65. Samuel " Jan. 27, 1785, " 79. The whole is surrounded by a neat iron railing. The Boston and Maine Railroad Depot fronts on Haymarket Square. It is a fine large brick building, two stories high, and is more centrally located than any other depot in the city. The lower part is used by the Company, but the large upper hall is occupied as a carpet wareroom by Tenny & Co. This road is seventy-four 120 BOSTON SIGHTS. miles long, and reaches to Portland. The cars pass through Charlestown, which is distant one mile, Maiden, four miles. South Reading, ten miles, Reading, twelve miles, Wilmington, eighteen miles, Andover, twenty-three miles, Lawrence, twenty-six miles, North Andover, twenty- eight miles, Bradford, thirty-two miles, Haverhill, thirty- three miles, Exeter, fifty miles, Dover, sixty-eight miles, and Portland, one hundred and eleven miles. Most of the towns passed through by this road are large manufacturing towns, Lawrence in particular being a second Lowell, and bearing the name of one of Massa- chusetts' noblest sons, through whose influence it gained its present thriving position. CHAPTER XIV. MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL. MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL COLLEGE. CITY JAIL. EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY. Returning to Bowdoin Square, and resuming our route, a short walk brings us to the Massachusetts Gen- eral Hospital. This building is located in Allen Street* 11 (121) 12- -- It had originally a front of one hundred and sixty-eight feet, with a depth of fifty-four feet, and a portico of eight Ionic columns ; but in the year 1846 it was enlarged, and now furnishes accommodations for above one hundred patients. It is built of Chelmsford granite, the columns of their capitals being of the same material. In the cen- tre of the two principal stories are the rooms of the officers of the institution. Above these is the operating theatre, which is lighted from the dome. The wings of the build- ing are divided into wards and sick rooms. The staircase and floorings of the ' entries are of stone. The whole house is supplied with heat by air flues from furnaces, and with water by pipes and a forcing pump. The premises have been improved by the planting of ornamental treee and shrubs, and the extension of the gravel walks for those patients whose health will admit of exercise in the open air, while a high fence gives retirement to a spot that should be always still. Applica- tions for admission of patients must be made at the Hos- pital in Allen Street between nine and ten A. M. on each day of the week except Sunday. In urgent cases, how- ever, application may be made at other times. Applica- tions from the country may be made in writing, addressed to the admitting physician; and when a free bed is de- sired, a statement of the pecuniary circumstances of the patient must be made. No visitors are admitted to the MCLEAN ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE. 123 hospital without a special permit from the officei-s or ti'ustees. The patients may be visited by their friends daily, between twelve and one o'clock. The McLean Asylum for the Insane is under the direction of the trustees of the Massachusetts General Hospital, it being a branch of that institution ; and although situated in Somerville, it may not be amiss to describe it here. It is about one mile from Boston, on a delightful eminence, and consists of an elegant house for the super- intendent, with a wing at each end, handsomely constructed of brick, for the accommodation of the inmates, and has a large hall fifty feet long by twenty-live feet wade and four- teen high. The institution is -supplied with billiard tables, &c., for the amusement of the inmates, who here receive not only the care, comforts, and attention, but the luxuries and retirement, which they had enjoyed at home. The male boarders and the female boarders have apart- ments m buildings entirely separated, and attended solely by persons of their own sex. No newspapers, pamphlets, or books are admitted without the assent of the attendant physician. Two practitioners in physic and two in surgery are annually appointed by the board of trustees, to act as a board of consultation. Two of the board of trustees fonn the visiting committee for the month, and each month are succeeded by two others. They meet at the asylum every 124 BOSTON SIGHTS. Tuesday, to act upon applications for admission and dis- charges. " They shall fix the rate of board so low as to make it as much a charitable institution as its funds will permit, always regarding the circumstances of the respec- tive boarders, and the accommodation they may receive." The lowest rate of board is three dollars per week. Near the hospital in Allen Street, and at the foot of of North Grove Street, stands the Massachusetts Med- ical College. This building will accommodate more than three hundred students, besides affording ample space for the cabinet which has been collected for medical and anatomical purposes, as well as for all the other objects of the institution. This institution is properly a branch of Harvard Col- lege ; and taking into view the amount of instruction given in this school, the extensive apparatus with which it is furnished, its connection with the numerous cases and operations of one of the best conducted hospitals in the United States, together with the generally thorough acqui- sitions and high respectability of its graduates, it may be doubted whether any seminary in the country offers the means of a more complete professional education than may be obtained in the medical school at Boston. The cabinet contains the " Warren anatomical cabinet," (consisting of the donations of Dr. Nichols, formerly of London, and others, with a large number of preparations NEW CITY JAIL. 125 by himself,) plaster models representing vai-ious surgical diseases, &c., an extensive collection of preparations in wax, showing various tumors and diseases of the skin, many beautiful magnified drawings of subjects in anatomy and surgery, specimens and colored engravings of medici- nal plants, &c. By the will of Dr. "Warren, his skeleton is to be pre- sented to this college, and the institution whose interests he for so many years strove to forward is to become the recipient of his remains. A large medical library is con- nected with the institution. The New City Jail is located on a street to be a continuation of Charles Street northerly, between it and Grove Street, on land reclaimed from the ocean, about one hundred feet north of Cambridge Street, between that street and the Medical College. The Jail consists of a centre octagonal building having four wings radiating from the centre. The main building is seventy feet square, and eighty-five feet in height. It is but two stories high, the lower one of which contains the great kitchen, scullery, bakery, and laundry. The upper story contains the great central guard and inspec- tion room. This room is seventy feet square, and con- tains the galleries and staircases connecting with the gal- leries outside of the cells in the three wings. The north, south, and east wings contain the cells, 11* 126 BOSTON SIGHTS. and are constructed upon the "Auburn plan," being a prison within a prison. The north and south wings each measure eighty feet six inches in length, fifty-five feet in width, and fifty-six feet in height. The east wing meas- ures one hundred and sixty-four feet six inches in length, fifty-five feet in width, and fifty-six feet in height above the surface of the ground. The west wing measures fifty- five feet in width, sixty-four feet in length, and of uniform height with the three other wings, four stories in height, the lower one of which contains the family kitchen and scullery of the jailer. EYE AND EAR INFIRilART. 127 The exterior of the structure is entirely of Quincj granite, formed with split ashlar in courses, with cornices and other projecting portions hammered or di-essed; the remaining portions of the entire building, both inside and outside, are of brick, iron, and stone, excepting the inte- rior of the west wing, which is finished with wood. The Eye and Ear Infirmary is situated on Charles Street, a short distance south of Cambridge Bridge. The building is of brick, and consists of a main building and two wings. The front of the principal building (which is sixty-seven feet in length and forty-four feet deep) is em- belHshed by stone dressings to all the windows, doors, cornices in the Italian style. The wings retire from the front eleven feet, and are perfectly plain. In the base- ment are the kitchen, wash room, laundry, refectory wards, baths, store rooms, &c. In the first story in the main building are rooms for the matron and committee, and receiving and reading rooms ; in the wings are the male wards, with operating, apothecary, and bath rooms. In the second story are accommodations for the matron, and private female wards. The building is provided with a thorough system of ventilation, and the whole surrounded by a spacious, airy ground, shut out from the street by a high brick wall. This institution is intended exclusively for the poor, and no fees are permitted to be taken. In the rear of the Infirmary, and extending from the 128 BOSTON SIGHTS. west end of Cambridge Street to the opposite shore in Cambridge, is Cambridge Bridge^ seeming (from a little distance) like a huge cable confining Boston to the main land. This bridge was the second built over Charles River, and the -first bridge over which a horse railroad left the citj. To the original proprietors a toU was granted for seventy years from the opening of the bridge, which, together with the causeway, was estimated to have cost twenty-three thousand pounds lawful money. The vicinity of Boston presents a succession of villages probably not to be paralleled for beauty in the United States. They are generally the residence of business men from the city ; and a suburban residence has become so attractive, and the villages so stocked with comforts and luxuries, that many wealthy families who used for- merly to pass the winter in the city and the summer in tlie country make the latter their permanent dwelling- place THE SUBURBAN SIGHTS. only, and the correct method of seeing them^ we propose to give, as it would be impossible, within our limits, and not to our purpose, to describe the suburban towns, which are all worthy of a visit. Therefore we shall merely de- scribe the suburban sights, and leave the visitor to dis- cover new beauties in each town he may visit. (129) CHAPTER XV. CAMBRIDGE SIGHTS. — 'OLD FORTIFICATIONS, HARVARD INSTITUTE, GORE HALL, WASHINGTON HOUSE, RIEDE- SEL HOUSE, WASHINGTON ELM. MOUNT AUBURN. Taking the cars from Bowdoin Square, it takes but a short time to be landed in Cambridge. At the comer of Inman Street stands a noble mansion, shaded by fine trees, and with a noble lawn in front. Previous to the revolu- tion it was owned and occupied by Ralph Inman, a wealthy tory, who was unceremoniously dispossessed, and his fine house assigned as head quarters to the redoubtable General Putnam. The street which leads up to the side entrance of the house perpetuates the name of its original owner. The ridge of land called Dana Hill, which is approached by an almost imperceptible ascent, forms the natural boundary between the "Port" and "Old Cambridge." On the summit of this ridge, on the right hand side of the road, was located one of the chain of redoubts erected by the Americans at the outset of the revolution. Traces of it have been visible within a very few years, but they ai'e now obliterated in the march of improvement — that (131) 132 SUBURBAN SIGHTS. Bame spirit of progress which made it necessary to cut a road through another old fort, a little beyond the one just mentioned, on the opposite side of the way. The land never having been required for building purposes, this redoubt continued in a fine state of preservation, and its embankment and fosse were plainly distinguishable. Still following the " Main Street," it is not long before the turrets of Gore Hall — the library building of the university — come in sight, and a side glimpse of the other college buildings is obtained through the trees. Gore Hall is of recent construction. The outer walls CAMBRIDGE. 133 of the building are of rough Quincy granite laid in regu- lar courses, with hammered stone buttresses, towers, pin- nacles, drip stones, &c. The inner walls, columns, and the main floor are of brick, covered with hard pine ; the partitions are strengthened by iron columns concealed within them, and the roof and galleries rest on iron rafters. It is in the form of a Latin cross, the extreme length of which externally is one hundred and forty feet, and through the transept eighty-one and a half feet. The interior contains a hall one hundred and twelve feet long and thirty-five feet high, with a vaulted ceiling supported by twenty ribbed columns. The spaces between the columns and side walls are divided by partitions into stalls or alcoves for books, above and below the gallery. The Hbrary is divided into four departments, viz. : Public, Law, Theological, and Medical. It contains ninety thou- sand volumes. Among its curiosities are seven Greek manuscripts, (one a fragment of an evangelistary, proba- bly of the ninth century,) and several Oriental manuscripts, in Arabic, Persian, Hindostanee, Japanese, &c. Of Roman coins the library has six hundred and seventy- one in copper, forty-three in silver, and one in gold ; of ancient coins other than Roman, eight. There are over five hundred modern coins of all sorts, and a large number of medals. In term time the Hbrary is open on the first four secu- 12 134 SUBURBAN SIGHTS. lar days of the week, from nine A. M. till one P. M., and from two till four P. M., and on Fridays from nine A. M. till one P. M. ; excepting the first Friday of each term, Chinstmas Day, the days of public Fast and Thanksgiv- ing, and the Fridays following them, the Fourth of July, and the days of public exhibitions and the Dudleian Lec- ture, during the exercises. In the vacations the library is open every Monday from nine A. M. till one P. M. All persons wdio wish to have access to the library, or to bring their friends to see it, are expected to make their visits on the days and within the hours above named. University Hall is a handsome granite edifice, and contains the chapel, lecture rooms, &c. Besides the large halls occupied by the under graduates, there are Divinity Hall, appropriated to theological students, and Holden Chapel, which contains the anatomical museum, &c. A large observatory is furnished with one of the largest and finest telescopes in the world. The Legislative Gov- ernment is vested in a corporation, which consists of the president and six fellows, and a board of overseers, com- posed of the president, the governor and lieutenant gov- ernor of the state, the members of the executive council and the Senate, and the speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives, ex ojfficiis, together wnth thirty others, fifteen clergymen and fifteen laymen, elected for the purpose. The faculty of instruction, embracing the professional and CAMBRIDGE. 135 scientific schools, consists of the president, twenty-eight professors, five tutors, and several teachers. The degree of Bachelor of Arts is conferred at the close of a course of four years' study. The term of study for the divinity school is three years ; that of the law school, three years for graduates of any college, and five for students who have not received a classical education. There are very liberal funds appropriated to the support of students who require assistance in the prosecution of theii' studies. The law school, which enjoys a high repute, was estab- lished in 1817. The lectures to the medical students are- delivered at the Massachusetts Medical College, in Boston. A degree of M. D. is conferred only upon those students who have attended the courses of lectures, and spent three years under the tuition of a regular physician. The foundation of Harvard University is one of the most honorable events in the history of Massachusetts. In 1630, six years only after the settlement of Boston, the General Court appropriated four hundred pounds for the establishment of a school or college at Cambridge, then called Newtown. When we consider the scantiness of the colonial resources, and the value of money at that time, the allowance appears no less than munificent. The colonial records mention this appropriation in the follow- ing terms : " The court agreed to give four hundred pounds towards a school or college, whereof two hundi'ed pounds 186 SUBURBAN SIGHTS. be paid the next year, and two hundred pounds when the work is finished, and the next court to appoint where and what building." The colonists were then involved in the Pequod war. Savage says the sum was " equal to a year's rate of the whole colony." But the college owes its exist- ence in fact — for it is doubtful whether the legislature would have carried their plans beyond the establishment of a grammar school — to the liberality of an Enghsh clergyman, the Rev. John Harvard, who died in Charles- town in 1638. Very little is known respecting this ►benefactor of learning. His birthplace, even, cannot be ascertained. He was, however, a nian of education, hav- ing graduated at Cambridge University, England; and he preached in Newtown, afterwards Cambridge, Massa- chusetts. Harvard left by will one half of his estate, about eight hundred pounds sterling, to the school which the legislature had established in Newtown. His bequest gave a vigorous impetus to the new estabHshment, and the General Court at once detei-mined to erect it into a col- lege, to be called Harvard, in commemoration of its bene- factor ; while in honor of the classic seat of learning in the mother country, where so many of the colonists had been educated, the name of Newtown was changed to »that of Cambridge. " It pleased God," says a contempo- f ary writer, " to stir up the heart of one Mr. Harvard (a godly gentleman and lover of learning then living among CAMBRIDGE. 137 us) to give one half of his estate towards the erection of a college, and all his library." " When," says Edward Everett, in his address delivered at the erection of a monument to John Harvard, in the graveyard at Charlestown, September 26, 1828, "we think of the mighty importance, in our community, of the sys- tem of public instruction, and regard the venerable man whom we commemorate as the first to set the example of contributing liberally for the endowment of places of edu- cation, (an example faithfully imitated in this region in almost every succeeding age,) we cannot, as patriots, admit that any honor which it is in our power to pay to his memory is beyond his desert." The impulse given by John Harvard's generosity placed the permanence of the college out of danger. Four yeai's after Harvard's death, a class graduated, whose finished education reflected the highest credit on their alma mater. The university became the pride of the colony. English youths were sent hither to receive their education. The legislature continued its guardianship and care, and aided it by timely donations, while private individuals, animated by the spirit and example of Harvard, poured their con- tributions and bequests into its treasury. It was richly endowed, and in resources, buildings, library, and profes- sorships it takes precedence of all other institutions oT learning in the country. 12* 138 SUBURBAN SIGHTS. The annual commencement still attracts crowds, and is regarded with interest ; and for two centuries it was to Cambridge, Boston, and its environs the great event of the year. It gathered together all the dignitaries, all the learning, and all the beauty and fashion of the land. The university comprises a department for under graduates and schools of theology, law, and medicine. A most im- portant addition to the educational advantages of Cam- bridge was the founding of the Scientific School, in 1848, by Hon. Abbott Lawrence, with a fund of fifty thousand dollars, which has since been largely increased. In this school, young men who have not received a classi- cal education can be fitted for various departments of business, as chemists, civil engineers, navigators, &c. On the left, opposite Gore Hall, is seen a large, square, old-fashioned house, at a little distance from the street, which was built by Mr. Apthorp, who was a native of Boston, but received his education at the university of Cambridge, in England, where he took orders, and received the appointment of missionary to the newly-established church in this place. He is said to have been a very am- bitious man, and to have had his eye upon a bishopric, which he fondly hoped would be established in New Eng- land, having Cambridge for its centre, and himself the metropolitan. It must be confessed that the stately man- sion which was erected for his use, still styled " the Bish- CAMBRIDGE. 139 op's Palace," far surpassing in pretensions the general- ity of houses at that day, gives some countenance to the traditionary report of his aristocratic predilections. But whatever may have been his expectations, they were doomed to disappointment, and his house — the same which, a few years after the departure of its original pro- prietor, received the haughty Burgoyne beneath its roof, not as a master, but as a discomfited prisoner of war — yet retains unmistakable traces of its former elegance. Let the stranger stroll along the old road to Watertown — the Brattle Street of the moderns. Leaving the ven- erable Brattle mansion on the left, — now cast into the shade by the " Brattle House," erected on a portion of its once elegant domain, — and passing beyond the more thickly settled part of the village, he will find, on each side of the way, spacious edifices, belonging to some for- mer day and generation ; extensive gardens, farms, and orchards, evidently of no modern date ; and trees whose giant forms were the growth of years gone by. Who built these stately mansions, so unHke the usual New Eng- land dwellings of ancient days, with their spacious lawns, shaded by noble elms, and adorned with shrubbery ? Who were the proprietors of these elegant seats, which arrest the attention and charm the eye of the passing traveller ? Who were the original occupants of these abodes of aris- tocratic pride and wealth, — for such they must have been, 140 SUBURBAN SIGHTS. ' — and whose Toices waked the echoes in these lofty halls ? A race of men which has passed away forever ! They are gone. Their tombs are in a distant land; even their names have passed from remembrance ; and nought re- mains to tell of their sojourn here save these stately piles, whose walls once echoed to the sound of pipe and harp, and whose courts reverberated with the notes of their national anthem. Prominent among these residences of the royalists of olden time is that of Colonel John Yassall, which became in July, 1775, the head quarters of General Washington; CAMBRIDGE. 141 an edifice even more elegant and spacious than its fellows, standing in the midst of shrubbery and stately elms, a little distance from the street, once the highway from Har- vard University to Waltham. At this mansion, and at Winter Hill, Washington passed most of his time after taking command of the continental army, until the evacu- ation of Boston in the following spring. Its present owner is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, widely known in the world of literature as one of the most gifted men of the age. It is a spot worthy of the residence of an American bard so endowed, for the associations which hallow it are linked with the noblest themes that ever awakened the inspiration of a child of song. This mansion stands upon the upper of two terraces, which are ascended each by five stone steps. At each front corner of the house is a lofty elm, mere saplings when Washington beheld them, but now stately and patri- archal in appearance. Other elms, with flowers and slu-ub- bery, beautify the grounds around it ; while within, icono- clastic innovation has not been allowed to enter with its mallet and trowel, to mar the work of the ancient builder, and to cover with the vulgar stucco of modern art the carved cornices and panelled wainscots that first enriched it. A few rods above the residence of Professor Longfel- low is the house in which the Brunswick general, the Baron Riedesel, and his family were quartered, during 142 SUBURBAN SIGHTS. the stay of the captive army of Burgoyne in the vicinity of Boston. Upon a window pane on the north side of the house may be seen the undoubted autograph of the accom- plished Baroness Riedesel. It is an interesting memento, and preserved with great care. Near the westerly corner of the Common, upon Wash- ington Street, stands the Washington Elm, one of the ancient anakim of the primeval forest, older, probably, by half a century or more, than the welcome of Samoset to the wliite settlers, and is distinguished by the circumstance that beneath its broad shadow General Washington first CAMBRIDGE. 143 drew his sword as commander-in-chief of the continental army, on the morning of July 3d, 1775. Not far from here was the spot where public town meetings were held, and also the tree under which the Indian council fires w%r -*t: this hill is not very extensive, but glimpses may be had of some of the most finished and beautiful portions of the cemetery. FOKEST HILLS CEMETERY. 209 From the dell which divides Mount Dearborn from Mount Warren an avenue leads, by a somewhat steep ascent, to the top of the latter, which is, in fact, rather table land than a hill. The prospect from Mount Warren is more limited than that from some of the other hills, owing to the growth of the trees which skirt its sides. But here and there, through the trees, a distant picture of rural scenery may be seen, or a nearer one of some beautiful spot in the cemetery, with the marble monuments gleaming among the foliage and flowers. The burial lot of the Warren family is on the summit of Mount Warren. The ashes of General Warren, with others of the family, have recently been taken from their original resting place, deposited in urns, and reinterred in this lot ; so that these grounds are in fact the shrine wliich contains his sacred remains. The EUot Hills, which take their name from the apostle Eliot, are four eminences in the south-western part of the cemetery ; or, more correctly, there is but one hill, having several small ridges or undulations near its summit. The summit of this hill is of solid rock. Here it is proposed to erect a monument to commemorate the virtues and labors of the devoted Eliot, who for nearly sixty years was the pastor of the First Church in Roxbury, who, with so much of self-sacrifice and untiring energy, sought 18* 210 SUBURBAN SIGHTS. to civilize and Christianize the savage, and who so truly earned the noble title of " Apostle to the Indians." On the south of Mount Dearborn is another elevation of about the same height, which is called Fountain Hill, from the spring at its base, before alluded to. On the side of the Fountain Dell this hill is very precipitous, and thickly covered with trees and underwood. The eastern and south-eastern slopes are quite steep, but much less rugged and precipitous. Down its sides paths lead to Fountain Dell and towards Lake Hibiscus, which can be seen gleaming through the foliage. Towards the south a path of more gentle descent, overlooking the lake, leads down to the grounds in the vicinity of the Field of Mach- pelah. For a portion of the distance, the outer side of this path is supported by a rough wall, through which arbor vitas and other trees have been made to grow, the roots being planted below the wall. These trees, when they shall attain a larger growth, will add much to the picturesque beauty of this hill side. Into this portion of the cemetery the southern entrance opens, and in the vicinity of the gateway the pine grove retains more of its original solemn beauty. Down the avenue which leads from this gateway to Walk Hill Street, with its thick evergreens, is a view through the long vista which is sure to attract the eye. Cypress Hill, which is the first elevation on the open FOREST HILLS CEMETERY. 211 portion of the cemetery, immediately overlooks tlie quiet plain of " Canterbury," and a portion of the neighboring cemetery of Mount Hope. On the opposite side there are views of different portions of the cemetery grounds. There are but few trees on this hill, except those recently planted ; but there is a quiet charm about the spot, even in its openness and want of shade, so favorable for the distant prospect, that makes it one of the attractive local- ities of the cemetery. East of Cypress Hill extend the open grounds, presenting an undulating surface — gentle swells of land, which gradually descend to the fertile plain near the eastern boundary. Lake Hibiscus, already an attractive feature, promises to be one of the chief beauties of Forest Hills. It lies a short distance east of Fountain Hill, and is approached by avenues from different parts of the cemetery. In it two islands have been formed, one of which contains a copious and never-failing spring of crystal water, Avhich gushes up through the pebbly bottom of a little basin. About the island birches are planted, and willows are trained across the rustic bridge by which it is reached. This island is a favorite resort for visitors, who gather here to watch the gi'aceful swans and the snowy ducks, as they sail about their domain. The beautiful swans, especially, are always objects of interest, and are quite ready to meet their vis- itors, and receive food from their hands. From them the 212 SUBURBAN SIGHTS. other island, which is larger than that containing the spring, takes its name, and to their use it is to be appropriated. The numerous boulders which are scattered over some parts of the cemetery have not only added to the pictu- resque character of its scenery, but have afforded an op- portunity for rustic ornament in laying out the grounds FOREST HILLS CEMETERY. 213 Some of the most striking and picturesque rocks have been suffered to remain in their natural state, the labor of art going only so far as more clearly to develop their beauty, and to adorn the grounds around. One of the most picturesque groups of these rocks is on the lot of General William H. Sumner, called Sumner Hill, on the western slope of Mount Warren. They have not suffered by the hand of art, and the lot is one of the most beauti- ful and appropriate in the whole cemetery. The number of monuments at Forest Hills, compared with the number of lots which have been taken, is small. In this respect it presents a contrast with Mount Auburn, when that cemetery was in the early period of its exist- ence. There, monuments were erected on a large propor- tion of the lots first taken ; in many cases before the lots were enclosed, and before interments had been made in them. At Forest Hills, from the first, the erection of monuments seems to have been the exception rather than the rule. A large number of the lots are enclosed, and the name of the proprietor is borne upon the gate, with- out any monumental structure or stone. Even where interments have been made, the grave is in many cases adorned with flowers, or is marked by a simple slab or scroll, but has no more ostentatious stone to bear the in- scriptions which sorrow sometimes places over the beloved and the good. It is a simpler custom, perhaps less attrac- 214 SUBURBAN SIGHTS. tive to the eye of some observers, but quite as impressive to the heart of him who wanders through these solitudes In mood contemplative." Such is a brief outline of some of the scenery and beauties of Forest Hills, designed to lead the reader to those places where the beauties may be seen, rather than to describe them. The eye of taste will find much to ob- serve that has not here been mentioned, and in nearly all parts of the cemetery objects and views which will attract and delight. Time, too, must create much that will add to the attractions of the place. But, even now, it needs only a visit to see and to feel that Forest Hills, in their natural and artificial beauty and fitness, are not surpassed by any other rural or garden cemetery. 92 3® LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 078 053 4 # mm