M • ^^' >^,.j.:if* 0" HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS AROUND BOSTON. OLD WAYSIDE MILL, SOJHKKVILLE. Historic Mansions and Highways AROUND BOSTON. BEING OF "OLD LANDMARKS AND HISTORIC FIELDS OF MIDDLESEX." BY SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE. Smitf) Blustrations. BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. i8qq. * ' » .^" 44241 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, By James R. Osgood and Company, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Copyright, 1899, By Little, Brown, and Company. Ail rights reserved. TWO COPIES RECEIVED. SECOND COPY, mnitersitg ^rrss : John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. A »^ (N-\ T(3 THE EEADEE. " I stand by the old thought, the old thing, the old place, and the old friend." — Lowell. I TAKE it that we, of this generation, can form little con- ception of the value which every visible token of our ancestors, however humble, will have for those who shall come after ns. And that simple statement carries its own moral. In the broadest and most enlightened sense, we, of to-day, are but the passing custodians of all those visible and authentic memorials which Time and Progress have yet spared to us. They belong not to us, but to History. We can tear down, but who shall build up again ? It was, in the main, this thought which first prompted the writing of this book. And it is true that, within compara- tively few years, something has been realized in that direction — thanks to the praiseworthy efforts of our patriotic societies ; but Old Eather Time is a relentless iconoclast, even of our most cherished idols, and much more remains to be done if we are to stand fully acquitted of our obligations, not only to ourselves, but to what may mean so much to posterity. I have long been convinced that nothing so healthfully stimulates the study of history, especially to young people, as a visit to scenes made memorable by the lives of great men or the march of great events. Seeing is believing, the world over. Unless one is wholly wanting in imagination, it is hardly possible to visit such places without feeling something of the living presence of the actors themselves, or fail to carry away far more vivid and lasting impressions than could be received from the most graphic descriptions alone. At all events, there is a vast deal of satisfaction in being able to ^'1 TO THE READER. say that we have stood on the very spot where our national life began. Since you and I, most kind reader, went over the ground together, covered in these pages, the changes, I had almost said the havoc, wrought on every side by the steady outreach- ing of a great and growing city have rendered a thorough revision of the whole work indispensable to a correct reading. To this end, every place mentioned therein has been revisited, in order that present conditions might be established. Atten- tion IS especially called to the illustrations, which do not appear in earlier editions, but which form so attractive a feature of this present volume. In having so many places of the highest interest, situated at our own doors, so to speak, we are indeed a favored community, since at almost every corner one may turn some page of history. Every old house we shall visit is a voice speaking to us from out of the Past. At parting, I shall hope you may have no reason to regret our companionship. Maj-, 1899 CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE GATEWAY OF OLD MIDDLESEX. Environs of Boston. — Charles River. — History of the Bridges. — Lemuel Cox. — Charlestown in tlie Olden Time. —John Harvard. — The Night Surprise at Doncaster. — William Rainsborrow. — Robert Sedgwick. — Nathaniel Gorham. — Washington and Hancock. — Jedediah Morse. — Anecdote of Dr. Gardiner. — Samuel F. B. Morse. —His first Telegraph. — Charlotte Cushman's Home. — Her debut in England . CHAPTER II. AN HOUR IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. Origin of Charlestown Navy- Yard. — Wapping. — Nicholson and the Constitution. — Commandants of the Yard. — Constitution and Java. - Commodore Hull. — George Claghorn. — The Park of Artillery. — Cannon in the Revolution. — Compared with Woolwich. — Naval Bat- tle in Boston Harbor. — Anecdotes of Lord Nelson. —Tribute to A.i„iers. — Hopkins. — Paul Jones. —Projectiles. — Invention of the Anchor. — The Dry-Dock. — Josiah Barker. — Captain Dewey and the Constitution's Figure-Head. — Famous Ships built here, — Launch of the Merrimac. — Masts, Sheathing, and Conductors. — Tlie Origin of «U. S." — Iron Clads. — Landing of Sir William Howe. —Area of the Yard. — The Naval Institute 26 CHAPTER III. BUNKER HILL AND THE MONUMENT. Coup d'oeil from the Hill. — British Regiments in the Battle. — Their Arms, Dress, and Colors. — Anecdotes of the Royal Welsh. — Losses and Incidents of the Battle. — Lords Rawdon and Harris. —John vm CONTENTS. Cofiiu. — Admiral Graves. — Generals Small, Burgoyne, and Pigot. — Trumbull's Painting. — The Command. — American Officers engaged. — Putnam's Exertions. — The Redoubt. — Other Intrencliments. — Vestiges of the Works. — Singular Powers of American Officers. — Fall of Warren. — The Slaughter. — History of the Monuments. — Bunker Hill Proper and Works. — Middlesex Canal . . . .52 CHAPTER IV. THE CONTINENTAL TRENCHES. Military Roads in 1775. — Momit Benedict. — General Lee at the Outpost. — Morgan's Rifles. — Burning of the Ursuliue Convent. — Governor Winthrop and Ten Hills. — Robert Temple. —Redoubts at Ten Hills. — General Sullivan. — Samuel Jaques. — Winter Hill fortihed. — View of Sullivan's Camp and Fort. — Scammcll, Wilkinson, Burr, and Arnold. — Anecdote of Vanderlyn, the Painter. — Dearborn at Monmouth. — Hessian Encampment. — Will Yankees light ? 83 CHAPTER V. THE OLD WAYSIDE MILL. Its History and Description. — A Colonial Blagazine. — Removal of the Powder by General Gage. — Washington and the Powder Scaixity. — Expedients to supply the Army. — A Legend of the Powder House . 110 CHAPTER VI. THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. Tlie Royall Mansion and Family. — Flight of Colonel Royall. — John Stark occupies the House. — Anecdotes of Stark. — Bennington and its Results. — Prisoners brought to Boston. — The Bennington Guns. — Lee and Sullivan at Colonel Royall's. — Hobgoblin Hall. — Taverns and Travel in former Times. — Old Medford and its Inns. —Shipbuild- ing. — John Brooks at Bemis's Heights. — Governor Cradock's Planta- tion-House. — Political Conj) d'etat by tlie Massachusetts Company. — Cradock's Agents. — Reflections 119 CHAPTER VII. lee's HE.^DQUARTERS AND VICINITY. Lee's Headquarters. — Was he a Traitor ? — Anecdotes of the General. — The Surprise at Baskingridge. — Meeting of Washington and Lee at Monmouth. — Lee's Will and Death. — Works on Prospect Hill de- CONTENTS. IX scribed. — General Greene'.s Comniaiid. — Wasliiugton's Opinion of Greene. — Retires from the Army embarrassed. — Eli Whitney. — How the Provincials mounted Artillery. — Their Resources in this Arm. — Massachusetts Regiment of Artillery. — Small- Arms. — Putnam's Flag- Raising. — Deacon Whitcomb. — Colonel Wesson. — Union Standard hoisted. — Quarters of Burgoyne's Troops. — Appearance of British and Hessians. — Mutinous Comluct of Prisoners. — They are transferred to Rutland. — They march to Virginia. — Horrible Domestic Tragedy. — Remains of the Old Defences . . . . . . . .141 CHAPTER VIII. OLD CHARLESTOWN ROAD, LECHMERE's POINT, AND PUTNAM'S HEADQUARTERS. Executions in Middlesex. — Site of the Gibbet. — Works on Cobble Hill. — Sketches of Colonel Knox. — He brings Battering Train from Crown Point. — Mrs. Knox. — Joseph Barrell. — His Mansion-House. — McLean Asylum. — Miller's River. — Lechmere's Point. — Access to in 1775. — Fortification of. — Bombardment of Boston. — The Evacua- tion. — Career and Fate of Mike Martin. — Cambridge Lines described. Ralph Inman's. — Captain John Linzee's Courtship. — Putnam at Inman's. — Anecdotes of Putnam. — Margaret Fuller. — Allston and his Works 169 CHAPTER IX. A DAT AT HARVARD. Old Cambridge. — An Episcopal See contemplated. — Dr. Apthorp. — BurgojTie's Quarters. — Dana Mansion. — David Phips. — General Gookin. — First Observatory at Harvard. — Gore Hall and the College Library. — Father Rale's Dictionary. — His cruel Fate. — The Presi- dent's House. — Distinguished Occupants. — Willard. — Kirkland. — Quincy. — Everett. — Increase Mather and Witchcraft. — Thomas Dud- ley. — Topography. — Bradish's Tavern. — First Church. — Old Court- House and Jail. — Laws and Usages of the Colonists. — Dane Hall. — Only two Attorneys in Massachusetts 195 CHAPTER X. A DAY AT HARVARD, CONTINUED. Founding and Account of First College Buildings. — College Press. — Stephen Daye. — Samuel Greene. — Portraits in Massachusetts Hall. — College Lotteries. — Governor Bernard. — The Quadrangle. — College ; CONTENTS. Customs. — The Clubs. — Coiunieucement. — Dress of Students. — Ox- ford Caps. — George Downing. — Class of 1763. — Outbreaks of the Students. — The American Lines 221 CHAPTER XI. CAMBRIDGE CAMP. Early Military Organization by the Colony. — Soldier of 1630. — A Troop in 1675. — The Bayonet invented. — Formation of a Provincial Army. — Cambridge Common. — The Continental Parades. — Arrange- ment of the Army. — Its Condition in July, 1775. — Want of Distin- guishing Colors. — Attempts to uniform. — Army Headquarters. — Jonathan Hastings. — Explanation of the word "Yankee." — Captain Benedict ArnoM. — Committee of Safety. — General Ward. — His In- trepidity in Shays's Rebellion. — Warren en route to Bunker Hill. — Professor Pearson. — Abiel Holmes. — 0. W. Holmes. — Lines to Old Ironsides 245 CHAPTEE XII. CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. Dr. Waterhouse. — Inoculation. — Siege Cannon. — Whitefield's Elm. — The Washington Elm. — The Haunted House. — Important Crises in Washington's Career. — Visits the Old South Church. — New England Church Architecture. — Christ Church. — Occupied by Troops. — The Ancient Burial-Place. — Judge Trowbridge. — Old Brattle House. — Thomas Brattle. —General Mifflin. —Judge Story. — W. W. Story.— The Winilmill. — Jonathan Belcher. — Benjamin Church's Treachery 264 CHAPTER XIII. HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMT. Visit to Mr. Longfellow.— Colonel John Vassall. —Colonel John Glover. — Washington takes Possession. — His personal Appearance, Habits, and Dress — Continental Uniform. — Peale's Portrait.— Order of March 17, 1776. —The General's Military Family. —His Pugnacity. — Chi- rography of his Generals. — Monmouth again. — Anecdotes. — " Lord " Stirling and Lady Kitty. — Lafayette" and his Family. — French Generals in our Service. —Washington's, Napoleon's, and Wellington's Orders. — Councils of War. — Arrival of Mrs. Washington. — The Household. — Formation of the Body-Guard. — Caleb Gibbs. — Na- thaniel Tracy. —Andrew Craigie. —Talleyrand and Prince Edward. — Jared Sparks and other Occupants. — Longfellow becomes an Inmate 289 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER XIV. OLD TORY KOW AND BEYOND. Sewall Mansion. — Jonathan and John. — General Riedesel. — Prisoners of War in 1777. — How the German Flags were saved. —Judge Lee. — Thomas Fayerweather. — Governor Gerry's. — Thomas Oliver. — Polit- ical Craft. — The Gerrymander. — Dr. Lowell. — James Russell Lowell. — Speculations. — Caroline Gilman 313 CHAPTER XV. MOUNT AUBURN TO NONANTUM BRIDGE. Thoughts. — The Tower. — Pere la Chaise. — Dr. Jacob Bigelow. — luditfereuce which old Cemeteries experience. — Funeral Rites. — Duration of Bones. — The Chapel and Statuary. — The Origin of Momit Auburn. — Fresh Pond. — A Refuge on the Day of Lexington. — Nat Wyeth's Expedition to the Paciftc. — The Ice-Traffic. — Fred- erick Tudor. — Richardson's Tavern. — Cock-Fighting. — Old Water- town Graveyard. — Rev. George Phillips. — Provincial Congress. — Rev. William Gordon. — Edes's Printiug-Office. — Sign of Mr. Wilkes. — John Cook's and the Colony Notes. — Thomas Prentice. — Joseph Ward. — Michael Jackson. — Nouautum Hill. — General Hull. — TJie Apostle Eliot 326 CHAPTER XVI. LECHMERE'S POINT TO LEXINGTON. Discovery of Gage's Plans. — American Preparations for War. — British Reconnoissance. — Colonel Smith lands at Lechmere's Point. — His March. — The Country alarmed. — Philip d'Auvergne. — Pitcaim ar- rives at Lexington Green. — Who is responsible ? — Tojtography. — Battle Monument. — Disposition of the Dead. — The Clark House. — Hancock and Adams. — Dorothy Q. — The Battle of Lexington in England 354 CHAPTER XVII. LEXINGTON TO CONCORD. The Approach to Concord. — The Wayside. — Hawthorne. — A. Bronson Alcott. — Louisa. — May. — R. W. Emerson. — Thoreau. — Concord on the Day of Invasion. — Ephraim Jones and John Pitcairn. — Colonel Archibald Campbell. — 71st Highlanders. — Anecdote of Simon Eraser. — Mill Pond. — Timothy Wheeler's Ruse-de-guerre. — The Hill Bury- ing-Groimd. — The Slave's Epitaph 371 Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVIII. THE RETREAT FROM CONCORD. The Battle Monument. — The two Graves. — Position of the Americans — The Old Mau.se. — Hawthorne's Study. — The Old House over the Way. — The Troops retreat. —John Brooks attacks them. —A Rout described. —A Percy to the Rescue. — The Royal Artillery. —Old Munroe Tavern. — Anxiety in Boston. — Warren and Heath take Part. — Action in Menotomy. — Eliphalet Downer's Duel. — His Escape from a British Prison. - The Slaughter at Jason Russell's. -Incidents. — Percy escapes. — Contemporary Accoimts of the Battle. —Monu- ments at Acton and Arlington 386 CHAPTER XIX. AT THE WAYSIDE INN. South Sudbury. -^ Outlireak of Philip's War. — Measures in the Colony. — Marlborough attacked. —Descent on Sudbury. — Defeat and Death of Captam Wadsworth. — Wadsworth Monument. — Relics of Philip. — The Wayside Inn. — Ancient Taverns xs. Modern Hotels. — The Interior of the Wayside. -Early Post-Routes in New England -Jour- ney of Madam Knight in 1704 410 CHAPTER XX. THE HOME OF RUMFORD. Birthplace of Count Rumford. — His Early Life. — The Old Shop near Boston Stone. — Rumford's Marriage, Arrest, and Flight. — Bequest to Harvard College. — Porti-ait of the Count. — Thomas Graves, the Admiral 425 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Old Wayside Mill, Somerville Frontispiece Map of Boston and Environs, 1775 Royall Mansion, Medford ^^^ Cradock's Plantation House, Medford 133 Tufts Mansion (Gen. Lee's Headquarters), Somerville 141 Inman House, Cambridge 1^' Apthorp Mansion, Cambridge 1^' President's House, Cambridge 206 Ancient College Buildings, Cambridge 224 Birthplace of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Cambridge 255 Christ Church, Cambridge -'^ Craigie-Longfellow Mansion, Cambridge 300 Elmwood (J. R. Lowell's), Cambridge 317 Lexington Green in 1775 (Drawing of the Time) 360 Buckman's Tavern, Lexington 361 Hancock-Clark Parsonage, Lexington 364 Parsonage Kitchen, Lexington Place of Revere's Capture, Lincoln 3/1 Old Manse, Concord ^^*^ Meriam's Corner, Concord . . ^ The Wayside Inn, South Sudbury ^^^ Birthplace of Count Rumford, Woburn 425 ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD. Page Belcher Arms 285 Belcher {Portrait) 285 Bunker Hill from the Xavy-Yard, about 1826 .... 26 Bunker Hill Monument 52 British Flag captured at Yorktown 54 Brattle Arms 281 Broken Gravestone 276 Cannon and Carriage used before Boston 153 Cannon dismantled 8-3 Charlestown Navy- Yard in 1873 36 " 1858 38 Chaunct Arms 208 Flag op Washington's Life-Guard 308 Flag of Morgan's Rifles 87 Fort on Cobble Hill 172 GooKiN Arms 200 Gore Hall, 1873 202 Great Harry 35 Harvard College Lottery Ticket {Facsimile of an Original) . 227 Harvard's Monument 11 Hessian Flag 106 King Philip {from an old Print) 414 Lexington Monument 362 Lowell Arms 322 Mount Auburn Gateway 326 Mount Auburn Chapel 335 xvi ILLUSTRATIONS. Nix's Mate 170 QU^UJRANGLE HaRVAKD COLLEGE 231 Sewall-Riedesel Mansion 313 Sign of the Wayside Inn 421 Smith, Capt^un John 3 Stanch and Strong 39 Trophies of Bennington 1 Ursuline Convent in Ruins 91 Washington Statue (Ball's) 295 Wendell Arjis 255 Washington Elm, 1873 267 Willard Arms 207 ^ i'*=l I- 1 T ■ '^i'^iy^ ''i- CHAPTER I. THE GATEWAY OP OLD MIDDLESEX. "A snii of New England's Aire is Ijetter than a wliole draiiglit of Old England's Ale." THE charming belt of country around Boston is full of in- terest to Americans. It is diversified Avith every feature that can make a landscape attractive. Town clasps hands with town until the girdle is complete where Kahant and Nantasket sit with their feet in the Atlantic. The whole region may be compared to one vast park, where nature has wrought in savage grandeur w^hat art has subdued into a series of delightful pictures. No one portion of the zone may claim precedence. There is the same shifting panorama visible from every ruo-ged height that never fails to delight soul and sense. We can liken these suburban abodes to nothing but a string of precious gems flung around the neck of Old Boston. JSTor is this all. Whoever cherishes the memory of brave deeds — and who does not ^— will find here the arena in Avhich the colonial stripling suddenly sprang erect, and planted a blow full in the front of the old insular gladiator, — a blow that made him reel with the shock to his very centre. It was liere the 1 A ^ ^y-*iM^ J^'- >>Af' m. -A--^'"^. V=2> v.. Hi ^^ a: ax- 7 ■^. r 2 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. people of the " Old Thirteen " first acted together as one nation, and here the sejiarate streams of their existence united in one mighty flood. The girdle is not the less interesting that it rests on the ramparts of the Revolution. It is in a great m(_';isiire true that what is nearest to us we know the least about, and that we ignorantly pass over scenes every day, not a whit less interesting than those by which we are attracted to countries beyond the seas. An invitation to a pilgrimage among the familiar objects whicli may be viewed from the city steeples, while it may not be comparable to a tour in tlie environs of London or of Paris, will not, our word for it, fail to supply us with materials for reflection and entertain- ment. Let us beguile the Avay with glances at the interior home- life of our English ancestors, while inspecting the memorials they have left behind. Their hahitations yet stand by the wayside, and if dumb to others, will not altogether refuse their secrets to such as seek them in the light of historic truth. We shall not fill these old halls with lamentations for a greatness that is departed never to return, but remember always that there is a living present into which our lives are framed, and by which the civilization of Avhat Ave may call the old regime may be tested. AVhere Ave haA^e advanced, Ave need not fear the ordeal ; Avhere Ave have not advanced, Ave need not fear to avoAv it. We suppose ourselves at the Avater-side, a Avayfarer by the old bridge leading to CharlestoAvn, Avith the tide rippling against the Avooden piers beneath our feet, and the blue sky above call- ing us afield. The shores are bristling Avith masts which gleam like so many polished conductors and cast their long wavy shadoAvs aslant the Avatery mirror. Behind these, houses rise, tier over tier, mass against mass, from which, as if dis- dainful of such company, the granite obelisk springs out, and higher yet, a landmark on the sea, a Pharos of liberty on the shore. The Charles, to which Longfellow has dedicated some charm- ing lines, though not actually seen by Smith, retained the name with which he christened it. It was a shrewd guess in the THE GATEAVAY OF OLD MIDDLESEX. bold navigator, that the numerous islands he saw in the hay indicated the estuary of a great riA^er penetrating the interior. It is a curious feature of the map which Smith made of the coast of ]^ew England in 1C14, that the names of Plymouth, Boston, Cambridge, and many other towns not settled until long afterwards, should be there laid down. Smith's map Avas the first on which the name of ^ew England appeared. In the pavement of St. Sepulchre, London, is Smith's tomb- stone. The inscription, except the three Turk's heads, is totally effaced, but the church authorities have promised to have it renewed as given bj^ Stow. The subject of bridging tlie river from the old ferry-way at Hudson's Point to the opposite shore — Avhich is here of about the same breadth as the Thames at ^"^ London Bridge — was agitated as early as 1712, or more than seventy years before its final accomplish- ment. In 1720 the attempt was renewed, but while the utility of a bridge was conceded, it was not considered a practicable under- taking. After the Revolution the project was again revived, and a man was found equal to the occasion. An ingenious shipAvright, named Lemuel Cox, was then living at Medford, Avho insisted that the enterprise was feasible. Some alleged that the channel of the riA^er was too deep, that the ice Avould destroy the structure, and that it would obstruct navigation ; Avhile by far the greater number CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 4 HISTOEIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. rejected the idea altogether as cliimerieal. But Cox persevered. He brought the influential and enterprising to his views ; a charter was olitained, anhew, Captain Hull, from his successful combat. Shubrick commanded the yard in 1825, Crane in 1826, and Morris from 1827 to 1833, when he was succeeded by Jesse D. Elliott. The park of naval artillery hears as little resemhlance to the cannon of a century ago as do the war-shi[)s of to-day to those commanded by Mauley, Jones, or Hopkins. No event will better illustrate the advance in gunnery than the battle Ix'- twecn Sampson and Cervcra off Santiago. The naval tactics of the first period were to lay a ship alongside her adversary, and tnen let courage and hard fighting win the day. l>ut nowadays close actions are avoided, or considered unneces- sary, and instances of individual gallantry become more rare. Ships toss their heavy shot at each other miles away, without the least knowledge of the damage they inflict, and Old Shy- lock is now only lialf right when he says, " Sliijjs are lint boards, sailors l)ut men," for iron succeeds oak, though no substitute is yet found fir bone and muscle. In the beginning of the Revolution cannon was the most essential thing wanted. Ships were built and manned with alacrity, but all kinds of shifts were tnade to stipply them with guns. A fleet of privateers was soon afloat in the Avaters of Massachusetts Bay, and public vessels were on the stocks, but how they were armed may he inferred from the following extract from a letter dated at Boston, September 1, 1776 : — 2* c 34 IIISTOrjC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. "There is so great a deiiuiud for guns liere l\>v littiiig out priva- teers that those old things that used to stick in the ground, particu- hirly at Bowes's Corner,* Admiral Vernon, etc., have been taken up, and sold at an immoderate jirice ; tliat at Mr. Bowes's was sold l)y Mr. Jones for fifty dollars. I imagine it will sp'it in the first attempt to fire it." The Hancock, wliicli was the second Continental frigate launched, and was commanded by Captain Manley, as well as the Old Boston frigate, Captain McNeill, were both armed with guns, chiefly nine-pounders, taken from the works in Boston harbor, and furnished by Massachusetts. The Hancock was built and launched at Newburyport, and not at Boston, as has been stated. Manley, the first sea officer to attack the enemy on that element, received in 1792 a compensation of £150, and a pension of £ 9 per month for life. Unlike the celebrated English dockyard and arsenal at Wool- wich, our dockyards are only utilized for naval purposes, wliile tile former is the depot for the royal horse and foot artillery and the royal sappers and miners, with vast magazines of great guns, mortars, bombs, powder, and other warlike stores. The Eoyal Military Academy was erected in the arsenal, but was not completely formed until 1745, in the reign of George II. It would seem that the same system might be advan- tageously carried out in this country, so far as the corps of engineers and artillery are concerned, with the benefit of com- bining practical with theoretical instruction iipon those points where there exists an identity of interest in the military and naval branches of the service. The area of the great British dockyard is about the same as that of the Charlestown yard, but in depth of water in front the latter has greatly the advantage, the Thames being so shal- low at Woolwich that large ships are now chiefly constructed at the other naval ports. We may here mention that Woolwich is the most ancient arsenal in Great Britain, men-of-war having been built there as early as the reign of Henry VIII. , when the Harry Grace de Dien was constructed in 1512. The Royal * South Corner of State ami Washington Streets. AN HOUK IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKVAKD. ■rful prno'vess of tli ;eai' HAia:\. George, iu which Kempenfelt went down at Spithead, and the ^I'elson, Trafalgar, and other first-rates, were also Lnilt at AVool- wich. When we look arouud updii the woik steam marine (.hiring the past (quarter of a cen- tury, and reticct upon its})ossilnl- ities, the predic- tion of the cele- brated Dr. Ijio- nysius Lardner, tliat steam could never be i)roht- aljly employed in ocean naviga- tion, seems incredilde. Sixty years ago this was demonstratetl by the Doctor with facts and tigurcs, models and diagrams. In the summer of 1781 the port of Boston was almost sealed by the constant presence of British cruisers in the l)ay, who took many valuable prizes and brought several mercantile houses to the verge of ruin. The merchants accordingly besought Ad- miral Le Compte de Barras to send some of his frigates from i^ewport round to Boston ; Init the Count re})lied that the efforts already made to induce his men to desert and engage on board privateers compelled him to refuse the request. The merchants then sent a committee composed of _ INIessrs. Sears, Broome, Breck, and others, to assure the Count that his men should not be taken under any circumstances. The Count's compliance resulted in tln' loss of one of his ships, the Magicienne, of thirty-two guns, which was taken by the Assurance, a British two-decker, in Boston harbor. The action was so plainly visible from the Avharves of the town, that the French colors were seen to be struck and the English hoisted in their stead. The French ships Sagittaire, hfty guns, Astrie, thii-ty-two, and Herminno, tliirty-two, Averc in the 36 IIISTOUIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. harbor when the battle (■.(iinmenced, and iiiniKMliatelygot un(h'r weigli to go t(.) the assistance of their consort ; l)iit tlie wind being liglit and tlie Bagittaire a dull sailer, the enemy escaped with his })rize. INIany l>ostoinan.s went on board tlie Fi'ench V. shiiis as volunteers i in the expected at-- Z. tion. ( 'olonel Da- 2 vid Seai'swasavnong 3 the number who ■^. joined tlie Astrie in « the expectation of S enjoying some di- 2 version of this sort. 1 'Jdie merchants of ^ Boston afterwards S gave a s])leiidiil din- ner to the iNIarquis de (iergeroux, the c(jnimauder of the French fleet, and his (itlicers, for the ser- vices rendered in keeping the liay clear of the enemy's cruisers. Nelson, who in 1782 was ordere(l to cruise in Ihc Albcm;irli' nii llic AN HOUR IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. 37 American station, fell in with a fishing schooner on our coast, which he captured, but the master, having piloted the cruiser into Boston Bay, was released with his vessel and the following certificate : — " This is to certify that I took the schooner Harmony, Nathaniel Carver, master, belonging to Plymouth, but on account of his good services have given him up his vessel again. " Dated on boai'd His Majesty's ship Albemarle, 17th August, 1782. " Horatio Nelson." The grateful man afterwards came off" to the Albemarle, at the hazard of liis life, bringing a present of sheej:), poultry, and other fresh provisions, — a most welcome supply, for the scurvy was raging on board. Nelson exliibited a similar trait of nobility in releasing two officers of Kochambeau's army, who were captureil in a boat in the West Indies while on some ex- ciu'sion. Count Deux-Ponts was one and Isidore Lynch the other captive. Nelson gave them a capital dinner, and the wine having got into their heads, the secret imprudently came out that Lyn Paul Jones had the honor not only of hoisting with his own hands the American flag on hoard the Alfred, an 1775, wliidi he says was then displayed for tlie first time, but of receiving in the Eanger the first salute to that flag by a foreign ])ower from M. de la INfotte Piipiet, who, with a French squadron, on board of which was Lafayette, was lying in the bay of Quiberon, ready to sail for America. This occurred February 1.3, 1778. Xext comes a half-acre of round-shot and shell arranged in pyramids, and waiting till the now torpid Dahlgreus or Parrotts shake off their lethargy and demand their indigest- ible food. Some of the globes are painted black, befitting their funereal purpose, wliile we observed that others had received a coat of white, and now looke(l like great sugar- coated pills, — a sharp medicine t(i carry off the national bile. 'I'o tlic iicld of deadly projectiles succeeds a field of anchors, tlic last resonrce of tlic scama]), the synd)ol of Hope in all the civilized Avorltl. AN HOUR IX THE GOVEliXMEXT DOCKYARD. 39 STAXCH AND STRONd. Tlie invent ioD of the anchor is ascribed hy Pliny to the l^yrrlienians, and by other writers to jNIidas, the son of Gor- dias, whose anchor Pansanias declares was preserved until his time in a temple dedicated to .Tn]ntpr. The most ancient an- chors Avere made of stone, and af- terwards of wood Avhich contained a great quantity of lead ; some- times baskets 'filled with stones, or shingle, and even sacks of sand were used. The Greeks used much the same anchor as is now in vogue, except the transverse piece called the stock. INIauy of the an- chors used by our hrst war- vessels came from the Old Forge at Hanover, Mass. If Ave might linger here, it would be to reflect on which of these ponderous masses of metal the fate of some good shi}) with her precious burden of lives had depended ; witli what agony of suspense the tension of the stout cable liad l)een watched from hour to hour as the greedy waves rushed by t(T throw themselves Avith a roar of battled rage upon the flinty shore. Pemember, craftsman, in your mighty Avorkshop yon- der, wherein you Avield forces old Vulcan might have envied, that life and death are in every stroke of your huge trip-ham- mer ; and that a batch of rotten iron may cost a thousand lives, therefore, " Let 's forge a goodly anchor, — a bower tliick and bi'oad; For a heart of oak is hanging on every blow, I liode; And I see the good ship riding all in a perilous road, — The low reef roaring on her lee ; the roll of ocean poured From stem to stern, sea after sea ; the mainmast by the board ; The bulwarks down ; the rudder gone ; the boat stove at the chains ; But courage still, brave mariners, — the bower yet remains ! And not an inch to flinch he deigns, save when ye pit<'li sky high ; 'J'lien moves liis head, as though lie saiil, ' Fear ncitliiii!;, hci'c am 11'" 40 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. We can compare the granite basin, fashioned to receive the great war- ships, to nothing else than a luige bath wherein some antique giant might disport himself. It seems a miracle of intelligence, skill, and perseverance. When Loammi Baldwin was applied to to undertake the building of this Dry Dock, he hesitated, and asked Mr. Southard, then Secretary of the Navy, " What if I should fail ] " " If you do," replied the Secretary, " we will hang you." It proved a great suc- cess, worthy to be classed among the other works of this dis- tinguished engineer. The foundation rests upon jiiles on which is laid a massive oaken floor. We cannot choose but admire the great blocks of hewn granite, and the exact and elegant masonry. Owing to some defect, when nearly completed, a rupture took place in the wall, and a thundering rush of water came in and tilled the excavation, but it was soon pumped out and etlectually repaired. After an examination oi tlu; records of the tides in Bos- ton harbor for the previous sixty years, Mr. Baldwin fixed the height of the capping of the dock several inches above the highest that had occurred within tiiat period. In the gale of April, 1851, however, the tide rose to such a height as to overflow the dock, falling in beautiful cascades along its whole length. The basin occupied six years in building ; Job Turner, of Boston, being the master mason, under Colonel Baldwin. It was decided tliat Old Ironsides should be the first vessel admitted ; and upon the opening of the structure, June 24, 1833, Commodore Hull appeared once more on the deck of his old ship and superintended her entrance with- in the dock. The gallant old sailor moved about the deck witli his head bare, and exhibited as much animation as he would have done in battle. The Vice-President, Mr. Van Buren, the Secretary of War, Mr. Cass, INIr. Southard, and other distinguished guests graced the occasion by their pres- ence, while the officers at the station were required to be pres- ent in full uniform. The Constitution was here rebuilt by Mr. Barker. He had AN HOUIl IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. 41 served in the Eevolution both in the army and navy. In the latter service he sailed with Captain Manley in the Hague, formerly the Deane, frigate, on a cruise among the West India Islands. His first ship-yard was within the limits of the pres- ent government yard, and here lie began t(i set up vessels as early as 1795. Later, he removed liis yard to a site near the state-prison. While naval constructor jNIr. Barker built the Independence, Virginia, and Vermont, seventy-fours, and the sloops-of-war Frolic, Marion, Cyane, and Bainbridge. Thatcher Magoun, the well-known shipbuilder of Medford, received his instruction in modelling from Josiah Barker. Before the Constitution was taken out of dock, a brand-new ship, a figure-head of President Jackson had been fixed to her prow by (Jommodore Elliott, who then commanded the yard. If it had been desired to test the President's i)opidarity in the New England States no act could have been more happily devised. A universal shout of indignation went uj) from press and people ; for the old ship was little less than adored by all classes, and to affix the bust of any living personage to her was deemed an indignity not to be borne in silence. In tliat innnense crowd, wliich had witnessed the re-baptism of Old Ironsides, stood a young Cape Cod seaman. His lather, a brave old captain in the 3d Artillery, had doubtless instilled some strong republican ideas into the youngster's head, for he had accompanied him to Fort Warren '^ during the War of 1812, and while there the lad had seen from the rampart the doomed Chesapeake lift her anchor, and go forth to meet the Shannon. He liad heard the cannonade off in the l^ay, had noted the hush of the combat, and had shared in tlic anguish with which all hearts were penetrated at the fatal result. ()ld Ironsides was moored with her head to tlie west, be- tween tlie seventy-fours Columbus and Independence. The former vessel had a large number of men on board, and a sen- tinel Avas placed where he could kee[) tlie figure-head in view ; another was posted on the wharf near at hand, and a third patrolled the forecastle of the Constitution ; from an open port * Now Fort Winthrop. 42 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. of the Columbus the light fell full upon the graven features all these precautions were designed to protect. On the night of the 2d of July occurred a thunder-storm (jf unusual violence. The lightning played around the masts of the shipping, and only by its lurid flash could any object be distinguished in the blackness. Young Dewey — he was only twenty-eight — unmoored his boat from Billy Gray's Wliaii' in Boston, and, with his oar muftled in an old woollen comforter, sculled out into the darkness. He had reconnoitred the position of the ships by day, and was prepared at all points. At length he found himself alongside the Independence, the outside shi]), and workeil his way along her big black side, which served to screen him from observation. Dewey climbed up the Constitution's side by the man-ro])es and ensconced himself in the 1)ow, protected by tlie licadlioards, only })laced on the ship the same day. He extendcil himself on his back, and in this position sawed off the head. AVliile here he saw the sentry on the wharf from time to time h Hiking earnestly toAvards the s})ot where he was at woil^, l)ut tlie lightning and the storm each time drove the guard liack to the shelter of his box. Having completed his midnight decapitation Dewey re- gained his boat, to find her full of water. She liad swung under the scupper of the ship and had received the torrent that poured from her deck. In this plight, but never forgetting the head he had risked his life to obtain, Dewey reached the shore. We can never think of this scene, with its attendant cnicum- stances, without rememliering Cooper's episode of the •\\ciiil lady of the lied liover. If this act proves Dewey to haA^e Ijeen a cool hand, the one Ave are to relate must cap the climax. After the excitement caused by the affair — and it Avas of no ordinary kind — had subsided, DcAvey packed up the grim and corrugated features he had decapitated and })Osted oft' to A\'asliington. At Phila- dclpliia his soevct leaked out. ami lie Avas nbligcd tn exhibit his prize to Jiihn Tylei- and A\'illie 1'. Manuuni, al'terwanls I'resi- (lent and acting Yice-]*resident, who w(_Te then inve'sligating AN HOUR IN THE G(:»YEUNMP]NT DOCKYARD. 43 tlie atiUirs of the United States Bank. These grave and rev- erend seigniors shook their sides as the}" regarded tlie colossal head, now brought so low, and parted with Captain Dewey with warm and pressing otters of service. The Captain's intention to present the head to Cknieral Jackson himself was frustrated by the dangerous illness of the President, to whom all access was denied. He however obtained an audience of Mr. A^an Buren, the Vice-President, who at once overwhelmed him with civilities after the manner in which that crafty old fox was wont to lay siege to the sus- ceptibilities of all who approached him. Upon Dewey's an- nouncing himself as the person who had taken oft' the Consti- tution's ftgure-head Mr. Van Buren gave a great start and was thrown oft' his usual balance. Eecovering himself, he demanded the particulars of the exploit, which seemed to aftbrd him no small satisfaction. Captain Dewey wished him to receiA^e the head. " Go to Mr. Dickerson," said the Vice-President, " it belongs to his department ; say you have come from me." To ]\Iahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy, our hero accord- ingly went. The venerable Secretary was busily engaged Avith a heap of papers, and requested his visitor to be brief This liint was not lost on the Captain. " Mr. Dickerson, I am the person who removed the figure- head from the Constitution, and I have brought it with me for the purpose of returning it to the Government." The Secretary threw himself back in his chair, pushed his gold-bowed spectacles with a sudden movement np on his fore- head, and regarded with genuine astonishment the man who, after evading the most diligent search for his discovery, noAV came forward and made this voluntary avowal. Between amaze- ment and choler the old gentleman could scarce sputter out, — " You, sir ! you ! What, sir, did you have the audacity to disfigure a ship of the United States NaA'y '? " " Sir, / took the 7'es2wiisibiliti/." " Well, sir, I '11 have you arrested immediately " ; and the Secretary took up the bell to summon a messenger. 44 HiSTOiaC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. "Stop, sir," said the Captain, " yi>u cannot inllict any pun- ishment; I can only be sued for a trespass, and in the county where the offence was committed. Say tlie word, and I will go back to Charlestown and await my trial; but if a Middle- sex jury don't give vu> damages, my name 's not Dewey." Tlie Captain had explored his ground: there was no statute at that time against defacing ships of war, and he knew it. INIr. Dickerson, an able lawyer, reflected a moment, and tlien put down his bell. "You are riglit, sir," said he; "and now tell me all about the affair." The Ca})tain remained some time closeted with the Secretary, of wh(xse treatment he had no reason to complain. All tliese incidents, modestly related by Captain Dewey to the writer, stamp him as a man of no connnon decision of character. He resolved, deliberated upon, planned, and exe- cuted his enterprise without the assistance of a single indi- vidual, — one person only receiving a hint from him at the moment he set out, as a precaution in case any accident might befall liim. His looks when narrating this adventure are thus recalled. "Captain Dewey shows little sign of decay. A man of middle stature, his sandy hair is lightly touched witli gray, his figure but little bent; his complexion is florid, perhaps from the effects of an early seafaring life; his mouth is expressive of determined resolution, and an eye of bluish gray lights up in moments of animation a physiognomy far from unpleasant. He is not the man to commit an act of mere bravado, but is devoted to his convictions of right with the zeal of a jNIussulman. AVe may safely add that he was never a Jackson Democrat. " The names of several of the vessels constructed by INIr. liarker liave become historical. Tlie Frolic Avas captured in 1814 by H. I>. ]M. frigate Orpheus and an armed schooner, after a chase of sixty miles, during which the Frolic threw her lee guns overboard. She was rated as a vessel of 18 guns, but Avas built to carry twenty 32-pounder carronades and two long 18- or 24-pounders. At the time of her capture she Avas commanded by Master-Commandant Bainbridge. AX HOUR IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. 45 Tlib Indepiiiidence was lauiiclu'd July 2U, 1814, during hos- tilities with Great Britain, and was the first seventy -four afloat in our navy, — if the America, launched in 1782, and given to the French, be excepted. Her first cruise was to the Mediterranean, where she carried the broad pennant of Commodore Bainbridge, and was the first of her class to display our Stars and Stripes abroad. Owing to a defect in her build she was afterwards converted into a serviceable double-banked 60-gun frigate. As such she has been much admired by naval critics, and Avas honored while lying at Cronstadt l)y a visit from the Czar Nicholas,''^ incognito. The A^ermont has never made a foreign cruise, though in- tended in 1853 for the flagship of Commodore Perry's expedi- tion to Japan. The Virginia, sleeping like another Eip Van "Winkle, in her big cradle for half a century, until she had lie- come as unsuited to service as the galley of Medina Sidonia would be, remains in one of the ship-houses, a specimen of ancient naval architecture, with her bluff bows and sides tum- bling inboard. It would, ^lerhaps, require a nautical eye such as we do not ])ossess to determine which was the stem and Avhich the stern of this ship. The Ciunberland went down at Hampton Roads in the unequal conflict with the Merrimac in March, 1862. The Cyane, named after the British ship caj)- tured by the Constitution, Avas broken up at Philadelphia in 1836. The launch of the Merrimac, in the summer of 1855, is a well-remembered scene. Such was the admiration of her beautiful proportions that it was generally said, if the other five frigates ordered to be built were like her, we should at leng-th have a steam navy worthy of the name. Her model was furnished by Mr. Lenthall, chief of the Bureau of Con- struction, and she was built by Mr. Delano, then Naval Con- structor at this station, under the supervision of Commodore Gregory. Melvin Simmons was the master-carpenter. A year after her keel was laid she glided without accident into the element in which she was destined to play so important a part. * Captain Preble's Notes on Ship-biulding iu Massachusetts. 46 IIISTOKIC MANSIONS AN1> IlKlinVAYS. 81i'' displayed at every available point the flai;' her batteries were turned against in her first and only l)attle. Many thousand s])ectators witnessed from the neighboring wharves, bridges, and shijjping her splendid rush into the waters. The Ohio and Vermont, then lying at their moorings in the stream, were thronged with people who welcomed the good ship, at her parting from the shore, with loud huzzas. As she rode on the surface of the river, majestic and beautiful, no conjecture, we will ventui'e to say, was made by any among that vast mul- titude of the poAvers of destruction she was destined to ex- hibit. At that time her size appeared remarkable, and so indeed it was when compared with the smaller craft among Avhich she floated. Her armament Avas fi'oni the celebrated foundry of Cyrus Alger, South Boston. Eeturning from a peaceful cruise in the I'acihc, she arrived at Norfolk early in February, 1860, and Avas lying at that station in ordinary Avhen the flag of rebellion Avas raised at Charleston. But for the prevalence of treason in high places, the Merrimac Avould liaA'^e been saved to our navy before the destruction of the dockyard at Norfolk, April 21, 1861. She became a rebel vessel, and, encased in iron, descended the river, appearing among our fleet in Hampton Eoads March 8, 1862, Avhere she pursued a course of havoc — her iron })row crashing into our Avooden ships — unparalleled in naval annals. Her conflict on the folloAving day Avith the little Monitor, commanded by the brave Worden, and of Avhich the Avorld may be said, in a manner, to have been spectators, is still fresh in the memories of the present generation. Napoleon, no mean judge, Avhile candidly admitting the superiority of the English OA^er the French sailors, asserted as his belief, that the Americans Avere better seamen than the English. It Avas the general belief in the British NaA'y, dur- ing the "War of 1812, that our discijiline Avas more severe than their own. If true, this Avould haA^e gone far to confute the assertion that our creAvs vcew largely composed of Britisli sailors. The truth is, that Ave ahA'ays had plenty of the best sailors in the Av<:)rld. AN IIUUI; IX TIIF, GOVKUNMKNT DOCKYAltl). 47 General IfysLip, wlio was dii tlio (juarti'i'-deck (if llic Jiiva (luring lier cdntest with the C( institution, stated it as his (-(ni- viction that the Anieriean sailors were lar more elastic and ac- tive in their habits than the British. He was astonished, also, at the superior gunnery of the crew of Old Ironsides, who were able to discharge three Ijroadsides to two from tlie Ja^a, ■ thus adding one third to the weight of their ftre. To this cir- cumstance he attributed the victory of Bainbridge. It is well known that the royal navy was long indebted to American forests for its masts, the Crown reserving for this pur- pose the trees of a certain girth, to which an officer affixed the broad-arrow. The owner of the soil might, if he chose, cut down and liaul the king's trees to the nearest seaport, receiv- ing a certain compensation for his labor ; and one of tlie most notable old-time sights the Maine woods witnessed was the removal of the giant pines by a long train of oxen to tlie sea. As was truly said of England, " E'en tlie tall must tli.at liears your flag on high Grew in our soil, and ripened in our sky." The mast-ship liad its regular time for sailing from Piscata- qua (Portsmouth) or Falmouth (Portland), convoyed, in time of war with France, by a frigate. In process of time the in- creasing scarcity of timber led to tlie construction of ship's masts in sections. The first vessel in our navy to carry one of these sticks was the Constitution, whose mainmast, in 1.803, when she sailed for Tripoli, was a made mast of twenty-eight pieces. Copper sheathing for vessels of war was first applied to the Alarm, British frigate, in 1758, but conductors, wliich Ave owe to the genius of Franklin, were first used on American sliips, and previous to 1790. The cipher which is used in the Ignited States to designate government property owes its (uigiu, according to Frost's Naval History, to a joke. When tlie so-called last war with England broke out there were two inspectors of proxisions at Troy, New York, named Ebenezer and Samuel Wilson. Tlie latter gentleman (universally known as "Uncle Sam ") gen- 48 HISTOUU; MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. erally superintende.l in person a lai-ov iiuinl..-v of Avorkuicii, wlio,' oil one occasion, were employed in ovevliauliug the pro- visions purcliased by tlie contractor, Elbert Anderson of New York. The casks were marked " E. A. — U. S." This work fell to the lot of a facetioTis f('llow, who, on being asked the meaning of the mark, said he did not know unless it meant Klhert ^Amlcrsoii and Uncle Sam, alluding to Uncle Sam Wil- son. The joke took and became very current. The Charlestown yard is further distinguished as having the only ropewalk under the control of the government, in which an endless twisting of the flexible material — from the slen. nothing else than so many huge alligators basking themselves in the sunshine to-day, but only waiting the signal to plunge their half submerged bodies into the sti;eam and depart on their errand of havoc. Uong may ye lie here powerless by the shore, ye harbingers of ruin ; and long may your iron entrails lack the food that, breathing life J^to those lungs of brass and steel, gives motion to your unwieldy bulk ! May ye lie here tied to the shore, until your iron crust drops off 'like the shell of any venerable crustacean, ere the tocsin ac^ain shall sound that lets slip such " dogs of war " ! °The lower ship-house marks the beach where the choice troops of Old Enoland left their boats and began their fatal march to Breed's Hill ; where the glittering and moving mass, AN HULK IN THE GOVERN.MENT UnrKVAKD. 4j extending itself like a painted wall, broke oil' into columns of attack. The light infantry and grenadiers keep tlie shore of tlie Mystic, and at length deploy in front of the stern old ranger, John Stark, and of the brave Knowlton, crouched behind their flimsy, simulated rampart of sweet-scented, new-mown hay. A flash, a rattling volley, and the line is enveloped in smoke, which, drifting slowly away before the breeze, reveals what was a Avail of living steel rent into fragments, little scattered groups, while the space between is covered with the dead and dying, lieader, do you know the battle-lield and its horrors, — an arm tossing here and there ; a limb stiffeiied after some grotesque fashion in the last act of the expiring will, the linger pressed against the trigger, the bayonet at the charge, Avhile the green turf is dotted iar and near with little fires fallen from the deadly muzzles'? Many of the slain in this battle were probably buried within the dockyard enclosure; and tliey once showed you at tlie Xaval Institute a heap of bones brought to liglit wliile digging dowji the hill, — relics of the fight which the earth has given up be- fore their time. AYe have little symi)atliy with tlie exhibition of dead men's bones. These poor memorials of the bra\'o de- serve Christian burial at our hands. Fallen far from the Welsh hills or Irish lakes, there is something uncanny and rei)roach- ful in their detention above ground ; a grave and a stone is due to the remains of those whose fate may one day be our own. Having thus circumnavigated the hundred acres of Uncle Sam's exclusive domain, we may congratulate that much-abused old gentleman upon the successful speculation he has made. The original estimates included only twenty-three acres, to be obtained from the following proprietors, namely : Seven acres of Harris, estimated worth $ 12,000 Three " Stearns, " " 500 Two " Breed " " 1.50 Nine " " '•' " 3,600 $16,250 Two acres additional were procured in order to alter the road so as to get more room where the ships were to l)e Iniilt, and for wliich was p:dd, 3.000. 50 niRTOUIC MANSIONS AND HlCllWA VS. SubstHiuent purolmscs, t(»j^\'tlier with the atti'iulaut expenses, swelled the th'st cost (if the site to $40,000, for about eighty acres of laud aud marsh ; liut the work of hlliu-', wliirh has con- stantly proceeiled, has consideral)ly extended the area. The governnient has expended about three and a half millions upon the yard, the value of the land alone being now estiniaterl at nearly six millions. Efforts have been made to induce the re- moval t(j some other locality, in order to si'cure the site for commerce, but thus far without success. The Naval Institute;, wdiich comprises a museum, a liljrary, and a reading-room, is vt^ry creditable to its founders and pro- moters. The walls of the museum are decorated with imple- ments of war, or of the chase, belonging to every nation between the poles, while the cabinets are well stocked with curiosities and relics to which every vessel arriving at the station Ijrings accessions. It will readily be seen, with such unlimited op- portunities for l:)ringing, free of cost, articles of value from the most remote climes, what collections might be made at the public dockyards were the government to give a little official stinnilus to the object. The sword which Preble wore before Tripoli, and that of Captain WTiynyates of H. M. ship Frolic, are here preserved, together with relics of the lloxer, the figure-head of the General Armstrong, privateer, and some memorials of the ill-f;rted Cum- berland. The library is valuable and well selected, but the Inioks appear but little used. A huge aquatic fowl, Avhich stands sentinel near the entrance to these rooms, seems to have been placed there for the convenience of cleaning ]^cii^, lii^^ downy breast being seamed Avith inky stains. There are few trophies witliiu the yard, some field-pieces used in the ]Mexican War, and one of the umbrellas with which Hull walked his ship away from Ih'oke's squadron, be- ing tlu; most noticeable. The latter is now st(U'ed in the In- stitute, a fitting inr^morial to the prowess of '•'A Yankee sliip and a Yankee crew I" The o-reat wall of T'artarv is not more formidable than is the AX IIOUi; IN THE GOVEKX.MENT DOCKYARD. 51 granite fence ^vllidl sIiouLlers out the neiyhborliood, and speaks of the possihilitiey of invasicjn of these precincts by tlie rabble. The appearance mthout is that of a prison, or a fortress; within, a vista of greensward stocked with cannon, with rows of poplars shading cold granite walls, confounds tlie vision Joyous children are warned away from the enclosures by some battered old guardian wli,, will' never more be fit for sea " Keep off ! " " Touch nothing ! " " Your pass ! " — So, we are free again. 52 IIISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. CHAPTER III. BUNKER HILL AND THE MONUMENT. " I'd better gone an' sair'd the King, At Bunker''s HilV^ Burns. IN June, 1875, was celebrated the ceuteunial of the Battle of Bunker Hill. Never before did the tall gray shaft look down upon such a pageant. Fifty years ]iad elapsed since the corner-stone of the monument was laid, in the presence of General Lafayette, Daniel Webster, and of many survivors of the battle. It is not idle sentimentality that has hallowed the spot. X hundred thou- sand brave men have fought the better be- cause its traditions yet j,. linger among us, and are still recounted ^ around our hresides. """^^ ^^"liy is' it that we ^^ can o'erleap the tre- iSt niendous conflicts that nee till g ^ feel an imdiminished '/J interest in that day? ^ It is not the battl(% for it M'as fought without ordtn" on the Americnn 11 the British ; it is not tln^. carnage, s''rn'',iiIit»|'teiKii=; have taken nlace sin W|r^p'£ v-'iMl iSuiikev Hill, and st BirNKER THLL MONUMENT, side, ;n!il without sl IVoni parts of fourteen regiments, then in Boston, besides the Royal Artillery and two battalions of Marines. Some of these corps were the very elite of the army. These were the 4th, or Hodg- son's ; 5th, Percy's; 10th, Sandford's ; 18th, or Royal Irish; 22d, Gage's; 23d, Howe's (Welsh Fusileers) ; 35th, F. H. Campbell's ; 38th, Bigot's ; 43d, Gary's ; 47th, Carleton's ; 52d, Clavering's ; 63d, Grant's ; 65th, ITrmstmi's. The marching regiments for tlie American service ('(insistod nf t'wclve cdiu- 54 IIISTOKIC MANSIONS AND IIKMIWAYS. panies, and eacli company mustered til'ty-six etiective rank and tile. Two com})anies of e,acli regiment Avere usually left at home on recruiting service. " And now they 're loniiing at tlie Point, and now the lines advance; We see beneath the sultry sun their jjolished bayonets glance; We hear anear the throbbing drum, the bugle challenge ring; Quick bursts and loud the flashing cloud, anil rolls from wing to wing ; But on the height our bulwark stands tremendous in its gloom, — As sullen as a tropic sky, and silent as a tomb." As these troops disend)arked and paraded at the Point be- low, the spectacle must have extorted the admiration even of the rude bands who, with compressed lips and bated breath, awaited tlicir connng. Let us review the king's regulars as they stand in liattle array. The scarlet uniforms, burrnslied arms, and jicrfect discii)line ai'c common to all the l)attalions. The -fth, or " King's Own," stands on the right in the place of honor. They have the king's cipher on a red ground, within the garter, with the crown above, in the centre of their colors. In the corners of the sec- ond color, which every regiment carried, is the Lion of England, their ancient badge. The gren- adiers have the king's crest and cipher on the front of their ca})s. Percy's Northum- berland Fusileers have St. George and the Dragon on their colors, and on the grenadiers' caps and arms. The Eoyal Irish display a harp in a blue field in the centre of their colors, with a crown above it; and in the three corners of the second colnr is l)lazonod the Lion of Xassau, the arms of King William III. The caps (if the grenadiers show the king's crest and llic ]iar]i BRITISH FLAG CAPTURED AT YORKTOWK. i;r.\KEi; hill ani> tiik moNlmlxt. 5o iuiil (n-owii. .Vii (itticer vi thi.^ regiuu'iit avus the iirst Briton to mount the I'edouht. The Ivoyal Welsh have the Prince of Wales anns, — three feathers issuing' out of a coronet. In tlu! corners of the second colcir are the badges of Edward the Black Prince, a rising sun, red dragon, and plumed cap, with the motto Ich dien. The ]narines are clothed and armed in the same manner as his jNIajesty's other corps of infantry, their uniform scarlet, turned up with white, white waistcoats and breeches. They also wear caps like those of the fusileer regiments, which caused them to be called by the French Les Petits Grenadiers. Our readers are probably aware that the Fusileers were so called, upon their tirst o]'ganization, from the circumstance that they carried their fusees with slings. There are three regiments bearing this designation in the British Army ; namely, 23d or Eoyal Welsh, raised in 1688 ; 21st or North British, raised in 1679 ; and 7th or Royal English, raised in 1685. The grena- diers were a comjtany armed with a pouch of liand grenades, and originated in France in 1667, but Avere not adopted in England until twenty years later. " Come, let us fill a bumper, and drink a liealth to those Who wear the caps and pouches and eke the looped clotlies." In 1774, when the Poyal Welsh left New York, Rivington the bookseller, to whose shop the officers resorted, Avrote to a brother bookseller in Boston as follows : — " My friends, the gallant Royals of Wales, are as respectable a corps of gentlemen as are to be found in the uniform of any crowned head upon earth. You may depend ujion their honor and integrity. They have not left the least unfavorable impression behind them, and their departure is more regretted than that of any otticers who ever garrisoned our city. Pray present my respects to Colonel Bar- nard, Major Blunt," etc., etc. This celebrated corps, wdiich had bled freely on the Old World battle helds, embarked, on the 27th of July, on board the transports for Boston. The officers l)ore the reputation of "gentlemen of tlie most ai)pn.ved integrity and of the nicest punctuality." Rivington, witli the cunning for which lie was 56 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. distinguished, made use of the gallant and unsuspecting Cap- tain Horsfall to smuggle four chests of tea into Boston as a part of the officers' private luggage. The package was consigned, under strict injunctions of secrecy, to Henry Knox ; but Kiving- ton, more than suspecting that his consignee would have nothing to do with the obnoxious herb, directed him to turn it over to some one else, in case he should decline the commission. Patriotism and tea were tlien incompatible, and Knox declined the bait to tempt his cupidity. The Welsh Fusileers had an ancient and privileged custom of passing in review preceded by a goat with gilded horns, and adorned with garlands of flowers. Every 1st of March, the anniversary of their tutelar saint, David, the officers gave a splendid entertainment to all their Welsh brethren \ and, after the removal of the cloth, a bumper was filled round to his Eoyal Highness, the Prince of Wales, whose health was always the first drank on that day. The goat, richly caparisoned for the occasion, was then brought in, and, a handsome drummer-boy being mounted on his back, the animal was led thrice around the table by the drum-major. It happened in 1775, at Boston, that the animal gave such a spring from the floor that he dropped his rider npon the table ; then, leaping over the heads of some officers, he ran to the barracks, with all his trappings, to the no small joy of the garrison and populace. This regiment, which was opposed to Stark's men at the rail- fence, on the left of the redoubt, lost vip wards of sixty killed and wounded, but was liy no means so cut np as has often been stated. Tlie greatest havoc was made in the ranks of Percy's Northumbrians, wlio luul eiglit commissioned officers, in- cluding two ensigns, and one hundred and forty-four non-com- missioned officers and soldiers /ior.s du combat. This carnage reminds us of that sustained by the Highlanders in the battle of New Orleans. The British color-bearers at Bunker Hill were specially marked, tlie 5th, 38th, and 5 2d having both their ensigns shot down. Lord (leorge Harris, captain of the grenadier company of the 5th, says of this terrible day : — BUNKEll HILL AND THE MONUMENT. o7 "We had made a breach in their fortifications, whicli I had twice mounted, encouraging the men to follow nie, and was ascending a third time, when a ball grazed the top of uiy head, and I fell, de- prived of sense and motion. My lieutenant, Lord Rawdon, caught me in his arms, and, believing me dead, endeavored to remove me from the spot, to save my body from being trampled on. The mo- tion, while it hurt me, restored my senses, and I articulated, ' For God's sake, let me die in peace.' " Lord Eawdon ordered four soldiers to carry Captain Harris to a place of safety. Of these three were wounded, one mortally, while endeavoring to comply with the order. Such was the terrible fusilade from the redoubt. Captain Harris's life was saved by trepanning, and he recovered to take part in the battle of Long Island and the subsequent operations in NeAV York and the Jerseys. He received another rebel bullet through the leg in 1777 ; was in the expedition to St. Lucie in 1778 as major of the 5th ; served in India wdth distinction, and was made lieutenant-general in 1801. Lexington was his first battle ; his lieutenant, Francis Iiawdon, and liimself are among the few British officers who fought at Bunker Hill whose repu- tations survived the American war. Captain Addison, a relative of the author of the Spectator, only arrived in Boston the day previous to the battle, and had then accepted an invitation to dine on the next day wdth Gen- eral Burgoyne ; but a far different experience awaited him, for he was luunbered among the slain. The agency of the young Bostonian, Jolin Coffin (afterwards a general in the British army), in this battle is said to have been purely accidental ; for, going down to Long Wharf to see the 5th and 38th embark, he became excited with the ardor dis- played by his acquaintances among the officers, of whom Cap- tain Harris "was one, jumped into a boat and went over to the hill. This w^as the relation of Dr. Watcrhouse. Captain Harris says he had fallen over head and ears in love with a Miss Coffin, — who was a relative of John and Sir Isaac, — or, as he jocosely phrased it, had found a coffin for his heart. The lady had a " remarkalJy soft hand and red }iouting lips." This 4* 58 IlISTOltlC MANSIONS xVNL) IIK illWAVS. celebrated family of Coffins also furnished another ul)le officer, Sir Thomas Aston Coffin, to the British cause. General Coffin is accredited with saying to his American friends after tlie war, in allusidn to Bunker Hill, "You could not have succeeded without it; for sonu'tliin;/ was indispensable, in the then state of parties, to hx men aometvhere, and to show the planters at the South that Xorthern peo])le were really in earnest, and could and would hght. That, f/iat did the lousi- ness for you." "" Thomas Graves, afterwards an admiral, commanded an armed sloo]) which assisted in covering the landing of the British troops at Bunker Hill, as diil Bouillon and Collingwood (Nel- son's famous lieutenant), who were in the boats. Thomas was the nephew of Admiral Samuel ( rraves, then commanding the fleet in the Avaters of Boston harljor. Lord Eawdon, who is represented in Trumbull's picture in the act of waving a Hag from the top of the intrenchment, developed, while afterwards commanding in the South, a san- guinary disposition. In view of the numerous desertions taking place in his command, he is reported to have offered, on one occasion, ten guineas for the /lead of any deserter of the Irish Volunteers, but only hve for the man if brought in alive. An American gentleman gives the following account of an interview with the Earl of iNIoira in 1S03, while sojourning on the Isle of Wight : — "I waitcil (111 his Lordship, and was iiitruduccd ; my rccqitiou was all that could ])e desired. The Eail then iui'onuL'd nie, tliat, learning from our host that I was from the United States, lie had sought my accpiaiutauee in the lio})e that I would give him some iu- formation of some of his old ac(piaintances of our Eevolutionary War. I was pleased to have it in my power to gratify his Lordship far beyond his expectations ; and, after an excellent supper of beef- steak and oysters, with a bottle of old ]>ort, we found the night had crept into the niorning before we parted. The Earl was a gentle- man uf most noble appearance." * Sal lino. nUNKKl; HILL AND TlIK MONUMENT. o'J CuluiU'l, ut'lcvwavds (Icncral Small, wIki appears in Tmiubull's pic'ture as anvsting the thrust (if a haymiet aimed at Warren's prostrate form, was greatly respected on ])oth sides, as the fol- lowino- anecdote will iUustrate. " Towards the conclusion of the war. Colonel Small ex[)ressinga wish to meet with General St. Clair of the American army, the friend and companion of his early years, a tlag of truce was immediately sent by Ceneral Greene, with an invitation to come within our lines, and remain at his option therein, free from every restriction. The invitation was accepted in the same spirit in which it was tenderetl." It is perhaps needless to say tliat the position in which Trumbull has placed Colonel Small is more for artistic effect than for historic accuracy. General Burgoyne, a spectator only of this battle, lived at one time in Samuel Quincy's house, in South Street, Boston. It was a handsome wooden dwelling of three stories, with a yard and garden, and was for many years the abode of Judge John Davis. The estate was the third from the corner of Summer Street, according to former lines of division, and on the east side of South Street. This was the house of which Mrs. Adams remarks, " A lady who lived opposite says she saw raAV meat cut and hacked upon her mahogany table, and her superb damask curtains exposed to the rain." General Pigot, who fought a duel with Major Bruce, Avith- out serious result to either combatant, resided in the Hancock House, on Beacon Hill, during the winter of 1775. To his credit be it said, he left the old family mansion of the pro- scribed patriot in a cleanly state, and the wines and stores remained as he found them. Affairs of honor were not un- common in Boston while the king's troops were stationed there. In September, 1775, a meeting took place between a captain and lieutenant of marines, in which the former was killed and the latter bacily wounded. Duelling was one of the pernicious customs which the Brit- ish officers left behind them. The Continental officers some- times settled their disputes in this wise, and, indeed, carried the fashion into private life ; as witness the affair of Burr and 60 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND IlKillWAYS. Hamilton. But that the practice nljtaincd a footlidlil among the gentry in staid Old Boston would seem incredilile, if we had not the evidence. Trumbull's great painting of the " Battle of Bunker Hill," except for the portraits it contains, some of which were ])ainted from life, must ever be an unsatisfactory work to Americans. The artist has depicted the uioment of defeat for the proviu- cials, with the head of the British column pouring into the redoubt. Warren is extended on the earth in tlie foreground. Fresco tt is located in the background, and in a garb that defies recognition. A figure purporting to be that of Lord Rawdon — it might as well be called that of any other officer, — presents its back to the spectator. But for the undoubted likenesses of Putnam, Clinton, Small, and others, the picture would be chiefly valued as commemorating a British victory. Would that the artist, Avliose skill as a historical painter we do not mean to depreciate, had seized the instant when Warren, entering the redoubt, his face aglow with the enthusiasm of the occasion, is met T)y Prescott with the ofter of the com- mand ; or that other moment, when that brave old soldier calmly paces the rampart, encouraging his weary and drooping men by his own invincil)le contempt for danger. Trumbull's picture was painted in AVest's studio, and when it was nearly completed the latter gave a dinner to some friends, Sir Joshua Reynolds among others being invited. When Sir Joshua entered the room, he immediately ran up to the " Bun- ker Hill," and exclaimed, " Why, West, what have you got here? this is better colored than your works are generally." " Sir Joshua, you mistake, that is not mine, it is the wtirk of this young gentleman, Mr. Trumbull," Trumbull relates that he was not sorry to turn the tables upon Sir Joshua, who, only a short time before, had snubbed him unmercifully. The question of command on the American side, at Bunker Hill, has been in former times one of bitter controversy. It has even mingled to some extent Avith party politics. The friends of Warren. Putnam, Prescott, Pomeroy, antl Stark, each contended manfully to lodge the glory with their par BUNKER HILL AND THE MONUMENT. 61 ticular hero. The opinion has too long prevailed that nobodj? commanded in chief, and that the battle, taken as a whole, fought itself, — or, in other words, was maintained by the individual leaders acting without a responsible head, or any particular concert. Any want of unity is to be ascribed to the chaotic state of the Provincial army, and in no small degree, also, to the jealousy between the officers and soldiers of the different Colonies. The reflection comes naturally, that if there was no general officer present authorized to command, there ought to have been one, and that if Putnam did not hold that authority, the conduct of General Ward cannot be understood. Prescott could not command the whole field when shut up within the redoubt. Warren and Pomeroy fought as volun- teers. Putnam endeavored to the last to carry out the original plan, which was to fortify IJunker Hill. Had he succeeded in forming a second line there, the sober judgment is that the enemy would have deferred an attack or lost the battle. Prescott receives the order and the command of the party to intrench on the hill. When the intention of the enemy is developed. Stark is ordered on and takes his position at the rail-fence, on the left of the redoubt. Putnam is in all parts of the field, and assumes and exercises command at all points, as if by virtue of his rank. Prescott commands within the redoubt he erected ; Stark at the rampart of new-mown hay ; while Putnam, taking his post on Hunker Hill, where he could observe everything, directs the reinforcements that ar- rive where to place themselves. As for AVarren and Pomeroy, the two other general officers present during the battle, they choose their stations within Prescott's redoubt, and fight like heroes in the ranks. Xeither Avere willing to deprive the vet- eran of the honor of defending his fort. At this distance of time Putnam's judgment appears to have been sound and well directed. The evidence goes to show that the lines were well manned. The redoubt could not fight more than five hundred men to advantage, supposing all the sides attacked at once, — that is, admitting the dimensions of the work have been correctly given. Putnam holds a re- G2 IIISTUUIC .MANSIONS AND IIICHV'AVS. serve, and attempts to intrencli liiinself on Bunker IIiU. He sends to Cambridge lor reinforcements, rallies the fugitives, and at last plants himself on Prospect Hill like a lion at bay. It cannot be gainsaid that he alone sustained the duty of com- manding the field, in its larger meaning, and was, therefore, in chief command. He was in the contest, at the rail-fence, and was himself there, that is to say, all fire and intrepidity. The poet thus depicts him at the retreat : — "There strides bold Putnam, and from all the plains Calls the third host, the tardy rear sustains, And, 'mid the whizzing deaths that fill the air. Waves back hi< sword, and dares the following war." The statement that Putnam did not give Prescott an order is irreconcilable with the fact that he rode to the redoubt and directed the iutrenching-tools there to be taken to Bunker Jlill. Prescott remonstrated, but obeyed the order, as Gen- eral Heath tells us. Gordon and Eliot, both contemporary historians, give Pres- cott the command within the redoubt ; the former attributes to Putnam the credit of aiding and encouraging on the held at large. General Lee, who had every means of knowing the truth, observes in his defence : — "Til begin with the affair of Bunker Hill, I may venture to pro- nounce that there never was a more dangerous, a more execrable situation, than those brave and unfortunate men (if those who die in the glorious cause of liberty can l>e ti-nned unfortunate) were placed in. They had to encounter with a body of troops, l)otli in point of spirit and discipline not to be surpassed in the whole world, headed by an officer of experience, intrejjidity, coolness, and deci- sion. The Americans were composed, in part, of raw lads and old men, half armed, with no practice or discipline, couniiauded without order, and Go(l knows by whom." The British army gained no little of its re[mtation from tlie admixture of the races of which it was composed. The emu- lation between Scotch, Irish, Welsli. and Saxon has been the means of conquering many a Held : fir, when placed side by side in action, neither nationality would give way bef >re the BINKEI! HILL AM) TIIK .MuNL'.MENT. 63 otlitT. Of these elements tlie Irisli and Scotcli are, of course, the more distinctive. It is said to be a fact, that in one of the Duke of Marlborough's battles, the Irisli brigade, on advancing to the charge, threw away their knapsacks and everything that A\'(iuld encund:)er them, all of Avhich were carefully picked up liy a Scotch regiment that followed to support them. The old Lord Tyrawley used to say, that, to constitute the bean ideal of an army, a general should take ten thousand fasting Scotch- men, ten thousand Englishmen after a hearty dinner, and the same number of Irishmen who haA'e just swallowed their second bottle. Sir William Howe so Avell understood these traits, that he gave his soldiers their dinner and plentifully supplied them with grog before advancing to attack the Americans. The first British regiments (14th and 29th) despatched to Bos- ton in 1768 had negro drummers who were used to whip such of the soldiers as Avere ordered for punishment. The bands on board derisively played " Yankee Doodle " as the fleet came to its anchorage before tlie town. A little display of force and a great deal of contempt were deemed sufficient by the minis- try and their instruments to overawe the disaffected colonists. Gage went home to England shorn of his military character, to explain Lexington and Bunker Hill to the king. A few days before he sailed he offered a reward of ten guineas for the thief or thieves who in September stole from the Council Chamber, in Boston, the Public Seal of the Province, his private seal, and the seal nf the Supreme Court of Prol)ate. Upon this announcement the wags suggested whether, as his Excellency carried his secretary, T. Elucker, with him, " 't is not as likely that lie might liave carried them ott' as any one else." On the whole, we feel inclined to call the Battle of Bunker Hill, like that of Inkermau, the soldiers' liattle. There were some who cowardly hung back from coming to the assistance of their brethren, but the Americans as a T)ody displayed great heroism. The day was one of the sultriest, and the loose earth, trampled by many feet, rose in clouds of suffocating dust within the redoubt. The men there had marclied and worked 64 IIISTORIO .MANSIONS AND HIGH WAYS. all night without relief, and could readily see the enemy's ships and floating batteries taking positions to prevent reinforcement or retreat. The thunder of the cannon to which they could not reply served to augment the terror of such as were inex- perienced in war, but still they faltered not. Most of the provincials fought in their shirt-sleeves. They found their outer garments insupportable, and threw them off as they would have done in a hay-field at home. More than a year after the action the General Court was still alloMdng claims for guns, coats, and other property lost on the field. The men were stripped for lighting, while the British at first came up to the attack in heavy marching order, and arrived in front of the Americans, breathless and overheated. But then those " peasants " in their shirt- sleeves, our ancestors, " Fought like brave, men, long and well." The British soldiers, too, deserve the same meed of praise. Tliey never displayed greater valor, or a more stubborn deter- mination to conquer or die. Without vanity we might apply to them the remark of Frederick the Great to Prince Ferdi- nand : " You are going to fight the French cousin ; it will be easy for you, perhaps, to beat the generals, but never the soldiers." General Howe said of the action on the historic hill, " You may talk of your Mindens and your Fontenoys, but for my part, T never saw such carnage in so short a time." An instance of sang-froid which recalls the celebrated reply of Junot occurred in the redoubt. Enoch Jewett of Dunsta- ble, a young soldier of Captain Ebenezer Bancroft's company, Bridges's regiment, was standing at one of the angles of the embankment beside his captain. Being quite short, he rested his gun against the breastwork, and arranged some cobble- stones so that he might be able to get a sight as well as the rest. While thus occupied, a cannon-ball from one of the enemy's frigates passed close above his head, brushing the dust of the rampart into his musket so that it was quite full. At this narrow escape Captain Bancroft turned, and said, BUNKER HILL AND THE MONU.MENT. 65 " See there, Enoch, they have hlled your gun full of dust ! " To this Jewett replied, "1 don't can', I'll give thoni dust and all !" and, suiting tlie action to the word, discliargcd Lis piece into the British ranks. The ever-famous redoubt was only eight rods square, with a salient in the southern face, wdiich looked towards Charles- town. The entrance was by the north side, in which an open- ing had been left. Inside the w^ork the men had raised a plat- form of earth on which to stand while they rested their guns upon the embankment. The monument stands in the middh^ of the space formerly enclosed by the redoubt, the whole area of which should have been included within an iron fence, composed of suitable eml)lenis. The eastern foce of the redoubt was prolonged by a wall of earth breast-high, for a hundred yards towards the ]\Iystic. Chastellux, who visited the spot a few years after the battle, said this breastwork had no ditch, but was ojily a slight in- trenchment. It was doubtless intended, had there been time, to have continued the defences across the intervening space to the river. Near the base of Bunker Hill, tAvo liundr(?d yards in rear of the redoubt, and ranging nearly }iarallel with its eastern foce, was a stone-wall behind which Knowlton, with the Connecticut troops and tAvo pieces of artillery, posted himself. In front of his stone-wall was another fence, the two enclosing a lane. Knowlton's men filled the space between with the loose hay recently cut and lying in cocks on the field. This fence extended to the river-bank, which Avas nine or ten feet aboA^e the beach beloAV. Stark's men heaped up the locise stones of the beach until they had made a formidable rani])art to the water's edge. This made a good defence CA^eryAvhere except in the space between the point where the breastAvork ended and Knowl- ton's fence began. Wilkinson says this space Avas occupied by a post and rail fence beginning at the northeast angle of the redoubt, and running back tAvo hundred yards in an oblique line until it intersected the fence previously descril)ed. Frothing- E 66 HISTORIC MANSIONS AXD JIKIUWAYS. ham says this line was sliglitly protected, a part of it, about one hundred yards in extent, being open to the enemy. Howe's engineer-officer calls it a hedge. On another British map (De Berniere's) it appears undefended by any kind of works. J>y all accounts it was the weak point of the defences, and the lire of the British artillery was concentrated upon it. After they obtained possession of the hill, the British (h^- stroyed the temporary works of the Americans only so far as they obstructed the free movements of their men and material. Dr. John Warren, who visited the spot a few days after the evacuation, probably refers to the removal of the fences when he says the works that had been cast up by our forces Avere completely levelled. AVilkinson at the same time })lainly saw vestiges of the post and rail fences, examined the redoubt, and rested on the rampart. Governor Brooks examined the ground in 1818, and entered the redou])t. A visitor in 1824 says the redoubt was nearly effaced ; scarcely a trace of it remain- ing, while the intrenchment running toAvards the marsh was still distinct. A portion of this breastwork remained visil)le as late as 1841. Stones suitably inscribed have been placed to mark the position of the breastwork, of which a little grassy mound, now remaining, is supjiosed to have formed a part. The most singular phase Avhich the battle of Bunker Hill presents is that in Avhicli we see the provincial officers fighting under the authority of commissions issued to them in the name of the reigning monarch of Great Britain. Yet such was the lact. Probably the greater numl)er of those officers exercised command in the name of that king whose soldiers they were endeavoring to destroy. The situation seems wholly anoma- lous, and we doubt if there were ever before rebels who car- ried on rebellion with such means. The officers who were made prisoners — and some of them were captured in this battle — could only prove their rank by the exhibition of the royal warrant, the same under which their captors acted. This state of things would, perhaps, only go to show that the colonists had not yet squarely come up to the point of throwing off their allegiance, were it not that the measure of BUNKER HILL AND THE MONUMENT. 67 continuing, or even issuing commissions to military and civil officers in the king's name, was prolonged by the legislative and executive authority of Massachusetts, long after the Dec- laration of Independence by the Thirteen United Colonies. The absurdity of their position seems to have been perfectly comprehended, as the General Court, May 1, 1776, passed an Act, to take effect on the first day of June in that year, by Avhich the style of commissions, civil and military, was there- after to be in the name of the government and people of Massachusetts Bay, in 'New England. These commissions were to be dated in the year of the Christian era, and not in that of the reigning sovereign of Great Britain. This renunciation of allegiance to the crown — for such in fact it Avas — was a bold act, and placed Massachusetts in the van of the movement to- wards independent sovereignty. It has, in reality, been called a Declaration of Independence by Massachusetts, two months earlier than that by the Congress at Philadelphia ; but as Mas- sachusetts, as a matter of expediency, virtually annulled her own action by subseijuent legislation, she cannot maintain her claim in this regard. By the Act referred to, the 19th Sep- tember, 1776, was hxed as the date when such commissions as had not been made to conform with the new laAv should be vacated. But, in consequence of the failure of many of the officers of the militia who were in actual service to have their commis- sions altered to the new style, and especially in view of the desperate circumstances in which our army found itself after the battle of Long Island, a resolve passed the Massachusetts House on the 16th September, 1776, as follows : — " It is therefore Ilegolvcc!, That all ^Military Commissions now in force, shall be and continue in full force and effect on the same nineteenth day oi SepUmher, and from thence to the 19th day of Jan- uary next after, such commissions not being made to conform as aforesaid notwithstanding." So that the men of jNIassachusetts continued to tight against George III., with his commissions in tlieir })()ck('ts, for more 68 HISTORIC MANSIONS AN'D HIGHWAYS. than six months after the Declaration of Independence by the Thirteen United Colonies. One of these commissions, dated in the reign of King George, and as late as the 10th of De- cember, 1776, is in the writer's possession. Commissions were issued by the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts before Bunker Hill, and these did not bear the king's name, but expressed the holders' appointment in the army raised for the defence of the colony. Some of tlie offi- cers engaged at Bunker Hill only received their commissions the day before the battle. The two Brewers were of these. Samuel Gerrish's regiment, which remained inactive on Bun- ker Hill during the engagement, Mr. Frothingham supposes was not commissioned ; but Gerrish had received his appoint- ment as colonel, and James Wesson was commissioned major on the 19th of May, 1775. After the battle of the 17tli of June the Provincial Congress recommended a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer to be observed, in which the Divine blessing is invoked "on our rightful sovereign, King George III." '' The army chaplains continued to pray for the king until long after the arrival of General Washington, as we learn from Dr. Jeremy Belknap's account of his visit to the camps before Boston, in October, 1775, when he oTiserved that the plan of independence was be- coming a favorite point in the army, and that it was offensive to pray for the king. Under the date of Octoljer 22d the good Doctor enters in his journal : — " Preached all day in the meotiug-house. After meeting I was again told by the (.haplaiu that it was disagreeable to tlie generals to pray for the king. I answered that the same authority which appointed the generals had ordered the king to be prayed for at the late Continental Fast ; and, till that was revoked, I should think it my duty to do it. Dr. Appleton i)rayi'd in the afternoon, and mentioned the king with much affection. It is too assuming in the generals to find fault with it." John Adams, in a letter to William Tudor, of April 24, 1776, says : — * Boston Gazette, July :!, 1775. BUNKER HILL AND THE MONUMENT. 69 " How is it possible for people to hear the crier of a court pro- nounce " God save the King ! " and for jurors to swear well and truly to try an issue between our Sovereign Lord the King and a prisoner, or to keep his Majesty's secrets, in these days, I can't con- ceive. Don't the clergy pray that he may overcome and vanquish all his enemies yet 'I What do they mean by his enemies ? Your army ? " Have people no consciences, or do they look upon all oaths to be custom-house oaths I " * We have presented the foregoing examples in order to show by what slow degrees the idea of separation germinated in the minds of the colonists. Hostilities were begun to regain their constitutional liberties, just as the war of the Great Rebellion of 1861 was first waged solely in the view of establishing the authority of the Constitution and the laws. If " all history is a romance, unless it is studied as an example," we do not seem to have developed in a hundred years a greater grasp of national questions than those hard-thinking and hard-hitting colonists possessed. The constitution of the Provincial army was modelled after that of the British. The general officers had regiments, as in the king's service. The regiments and companies were in number and strength similar to those of the regular troops. Thus we frequently meet with mention of the Honorable Gen- eral Ward's, Thomas's, or Heath's regiments. This custom lapsed upon the creation of a new army. In the British service the generals were addressed or spoken of as Mr. Howe or Mr. Clinton, except the general-in-chief, who was styled " His Ex- cellency." Our own army adopted this custom in so far as the commanding general was concerned ; but the subordinate gen- erals, many of whom had come from private life, were little in- clined to waive their military designation and continue plain Mister. It is still a rule of the English and American service to address a subaltern as Mr. To return to the battle, — which was first called b)^ our troops the " Battle of Charlestown," — it is worthy of remem- * Muss. Hist. Collections, II. viii. 70 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. brance that the orders t<> take possession of the hill ^\•ere issued on the same day that Washington was otticially notihed of his appointment to command the army. He had scarcely proceeded twenty miles on the way to Cambridge, Avhen he met the courier sparring in liot haste with the des})atches to Congress of the battle. The rider was stoiii)ed, and the (Jeueral ojiened and read the despatch, Avdiile Lee, Schuyler, and the other gen- tlemen Avho attended him eagerly questioned the messenger. Jt was on this occasion that Washington, upon hearing that the militia had withstood the fire of the regulars, exclaimed, " Then the liberties of the country are safe ! " A variety of conflicting accounts have been given of the battle by eyewitnesses ; the narrators, as is usual, seeing only what passed in their own immediate vicinity. On tlie day ol the evacuation of Boston by the British Major Wilkinson ac- companied Colonels IJeed and Stark over the battle-ground, and the latter pointed out to him the various positions and described the parts played by the diilerent actors. The vestiges of the post and rail fence on the left, and of the stone-wall Stark ordered " hi.s boys " to throw up on the beach of the Mystic, were still plainly visible. It was before this deadly stone-wall where the British light-infantry attacked that John Winslow counted ninety-six dead bodies the next day after the battle. Stark told Wilkinson that " the dead lay as thick as sheep in a fold," and that he had forbidden his men to fire until the enemy reached a point he had marked in the bank, eight or ten rods distant from his line. With such marksmen as Stark's men were, every man covering his adt^ersary, it is no wonder the head of the British column was shot in pieces, or that it drifted in mutilated fragments away from the horrible feit (Ttnfer. Before the action, when some one asked him if the rebels would stand fire, General Gage rejdied, ''Yes, if unc J was held in the Merchants' Exchange, in Boston, in ^lay, 1823, which resolved itself, under an act of incorporation jiassed June 7, 1823, into the Bunker Hill Monument Association. Governor John lirooks was the Iirst president. In 182-i Lafayette, tlien on his lrium})hal Idur through BUNKER HILL AND THE MONUMENT. 7o tlie United States, paid a visit to tlie scene of the battle, and accepted an invitation to assist at the laying of the corner- stone on . the ensuing anniversary. Meantime the directors Avere considering the plan for tlie monument. A committee for this object was formed of Messrs. Daniel Webster, Loammi Baldwin, George Ticknor, Gilbert Stuart, and Washington AUston, and some hfty plans appeared to compete for the offered premium. This committee, able as it was, did not make a decision ; but a new one, of which General H. A. S. Dearborn, Edward Everett, Seth Ivnowles, S. D. Harris, and Colonel T. H. Perkins Avere mendjers, eventually made choice of the obelisk as the simplest, and at the same time the grand- est, form in which their ideal could be expressed. It is stated that Horatio Greenough, then an undergraduate at Harvard, sent to the committee a design, with an essay, in which he advocated the obelisk with much power and feeling. The design finally adopted was Greenough's, modified by the taste and judgment of Colonel Baldwin. S to the work, as lie afterwards did to the rescue of Mount Vernon from the hazard of becoming a prey to private speculation. In taking our leave, of an oliject so familiar to the citizens of ^Massachusetts, and which bears itself proudly up without a single sculptured line upon its face to tell of its i)urpose, we yet rememljer that its stony linger pointing to the heavens has a moral wdiicli lips by which all hearts were swayed — when shall we hear tlieir like again '? — disclosed to us in these words. " To-day it speaks to us. Its future auditories will be the suc- cessive generations of men, as they rise u\) before it, and gather around it. Its speech will l)e of patriotism and courage, of civil and religious liberty, of free government, of the moral improvement and elevation of mankiml, and of the immortal memory of those who, with heroic devotion, have sacriliced their lives for their country." Bunker Hill, on which the British erected a A'ery strong for- tress, was named for (jreorge Bunker, an early settler. It is now crowned by the steeple of a Catholic church, which, thanks to its lofty elevation, can be seen for a considerable distance inland. The hill is already much encroached upon, and must soon follow some of its predecessors into the waters of the river. This eminence, ^fount Benedi('t, and ^Vinter Hill are situated in a range from east to west, each of them on or near Mystic River. ]\Iount Benedict (Ploughed Hill) is in the mid- dle, and is the lowest of the three ; its summit was only half a mile from the English citadel where we stand, and which Sir Henry Clinton commanded in 1775. As late as 1840 the summit and northern face of the hill retained the impress of the enemy's extensive works. The utmost labor and skill the British generals could command were expended to make the position impregnable. It could have been turned, and actually was turned, by a force crossing the mill-pond causeway to its rear ; but its tire commanded BUNKEIi HILL AND THE MONUMENT. 81 every point of ;;i[)pro;icli, and its strong ramparts eflectuall}' protected the garrison. Tliere is evidence that General Sulli- van intended making- a demonstration in f\)rce in this direction during the winter of 1775, Init some untowartl accident pre- vented the accomplishment of his design. It becomes our duty to refer to the almost obliterated ves- tiges of what was once the great artery of traffic between Boston and the falls of the Merrimack. It seems incredible that the Middlesex Canal, the great enterprise of its day, should have so quickly faded out of recollection. "We lun-e traced its scanty remains through the towns of Medford and Wolnmi, and have found its grass-grown basin and long-neglected tow-patli quite distinct at the foot of Winter Hill in tlie former town, and along the railway to Lowell in the latter. In many places houses occu])y its former channel. The steam caravan rushes by with a scream of derision at the ruin of its decayed predecessor, and easily accomplishes in an hour the distance the canal-boats achieved in twelve. In 1793 James Sullivan of Boston, Oliver I^-escott of Gro- ton, James Wintlirop of Cambridge, Loammi Baldwin of Woburn, Benjamin Hall, Jonathan Porter, and otliers of Med- ford, were incorporated, and begun the construction of the canal. It was at first contemplated to unite the JMerrimack at Chelms- ford with the Mystic at Medford, but subs(>quent legislation carried the canal to Charles liiver by a lock at Charlestown ^eck, admitting the boats into the mill-pond, and another by which they gained an entrance to the river. The boats were received into the canal across the town of Boston, and unloatled at the wharves of the harbor. The surveys for the canal were made by Weston, an English engineer, and Colonel Baldwin superintended the excavation, etc. In 1803 the sweet waters flowed through and mingled with the ocean. Superseded by the railway, the canal languished and at length became disused. While it existed it furnished the theme of many a pleasant fiction of perils encountered on its raging stream ; but now it has gone to rest with its fellow, the old stage-coach, and we are tlraggvd with resistless speed on imr j'onrney in the train of 4* F 82 HISTOiaO MANSIONS AND IIIGinVAYS. tlie iron monster. Peace to the relics oi' the canal, it was shnv but sure. There was not a reasonable (loul)t but that ynu would awake in the morning in the same worhl in which you went to sleep ; l)ut now you repose on a luxurious couch, to awake })erhaps in eternity. THE CONTINENTAL TltENGHES. CHAPTEE IV. THE CONTINENTAL TRENCHES. " From caniji to camj) thro' the foul womb of night, The lium of either army stilly sounds, Tliat the fix'd sentinels almost receive The secret whisjiei-s of each other's watch." Shakespeare. . THE military position between the Mystic and Charles will be better untlerstood by a reference to the roads that in 1775 gave communi- > cation to the town of Boston. From Eoxbury the main road passed through Brookline and Little Cambridge, now Brighton, crossing the causeway and bridge which leads directly to the Col- leges. This was the route by which Lord Percy marched to Lexington. From Charlestown, after passing the Xeck by an artilicial causeway, constructed in 1717, two roads diverged, as they now do, at what was then a common, now known as Sullivan Square. Near the point where these roads separated was Anna AVhittemore's tavern, at Avhich the Committee of Safety held s()m<" of its earliest sessions in 1774, and which had been an inn kept by her father as early as tlie femous year '45, and perhaps earlier. Maiden Bridge is located upon the site of the old Penny Ferry, over whicli travel to the eastward once passed. The first of these roads, now known as AVashington Street, in Somerville, skirts the l)ase of Prospect Hill, "^leaving the McLean Asylum on the south, and conducting straight on to 84 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. the Colleges. By this road the Americans marched to and retreated from Bunker Hill. Lord Percy entered it at what is now Union Square, in 8omerville, ami led his worn Ijattalions over it to Charlestown. The second road proceeded by Mount Benedict to the sum- mit of Winter Hill, where it divided, as at present ; one branch turning northward by General lioyall's to Medford, while the other i)ursued its way by the powder-magazine to what is iiow Arlington, then known as Menotomy. The road over "Winter Hill, by the magazine, which it lias been stated was not laid out in 1775, is denominated a country road as early as 1703, and appears on the map included in this volume. Besides these there were no other roads leading to the colonial capital. The shore between was yet a marsh, unim- jiroved, except for the hay it afforded, and reached oidy at a few points by unfrec^uented cartways. A causeway from the side of Prospect Hill, and a bridge across what is now Miller's Eiver, gave access to tlie form at Lechmere's Point. From the road first described a way is seen parting at what is now Union Sc^uare, crossing the river just named by a bridge, and leading by a circuitous route to Inman's house in Cambridgeport, and from thence to the Colleges. Tliis road, from the nature of tlie ground, could have been l)ut Httlc used. Mount Benedict is the hrst point where we encounter the ^Vmerican line of investment during the siege of Boston, after passing Charlestown Neck. In Eevolutionary times it was called Ploughed Hill, prol^ably from the circumstance of its being cultivated when the Americans took possession, while Winter and Prospect Hills were still untilled. The hill was witliin short cannon-range of the British post on Bunker Hill, and its occupation by the Americans on the 2Gth of ^Vugust, 1775, Avas expected to bring on an engagement ; in fact, Washington offered the enemy battle here, but the challenge was not accepted. Ploughed Hill was fortified by General Sullivan under a severe cannonade, the working party being covered by a detach- ment of riflemen, or rifiers, as they were commonly called. THE CONTINENTAL TKENCHES. 85 posted in can orchard and under the shelter of stone-walls. Finding they were not attacked, the Provincials contented themselves with stationing a strong picket-guard on the hill, usually consisting of about half a regiment. Poor's regiment performed a tour of duty there in November, 1775. A guard- house was built within the work for the accommodation of the picket, which was relieved every day. General Lee was much incensed because an officer commanding the guard allowed some boards to be pulled off the guard-house for fuel, and administered a sharp reprimand. The Continental advanced outpost was in an orchard in front of Ploughed Hill. In summer the poor fellows were not so badly off, but in the inclement winter they needed the great watch-coats every night issued to them before they went on duty, and which the poverty of the army required them to turn over to the relieving guard. Here, as at Boston ISTeck, the pickets were near enough to each other to converse freely, — a practice it was found necessary to prohibit in orders. The rehefs on both sides could be easily counted as they marched down from their respective camps. The rules of civilized war- fare which respect sentinels seem, at first, to have been little observed at the Continental outposts. We had some Indians posted on the lines who could not understand why an enemy should not be killed under any and all circumstances. The Southern riflemen, also, were very much of this opinion, each being, Corsican-like, intent on "making his skin." The British officers were soon inspired with such fear of these marksmen that they took excellent care to keep out of range of their dreaded rifles. It is time to relate an incident which occurred at this out- post, where the parleys and flags that were necessary on this side of the lines were exchanged. Yery soon after General Lee's arrival in camp he took occasion to despatch a character- istic letter to General Burgoyne, in which he argued the ques- tion of taxation, lamented while he censured the employment of his quondam friends, Gage, Burgoyne, and Howe, in the army of subjugation, and ridiculed the idea which prevailed in 86 IIISTUIUC MANSION'S AND IIK illWAYS. tlie Britisli army of the cnwardice of the Auierieans. Tliis h'L- ter Avas written in rhila(lcl[ihia hefore tlie battle of Bunker Hill, and the general was tlie Itearer of his own missive as far as Cambridge. It was probably not later than the morning after his arrival in camp that Lee went down to the British lines on Charles- town Neck, — then pushed about one hundred and hfty yards beyond the isthmus, — hailetl the sentinel, and desired him to tell his officers that (ieneral Lee was there, and to inform General Burgoyne that he had a letter for him. The letter was to have been sent into Boston by Dr. Church, but Avas taken by Samuel Webb (afterwards a general), aid to General Putnam, to the lines near Bunker Hill, Avhere Major Bruce of the 38tli — the same Avho fought a duel Avith General Pigot — came out to receive it. Webb adA-anced and said : '' Sir, here is a letter from General Lee to General Burgoyne. Will you be pleased to give it to him 1 As some part of it requires an immediate ansAver, I shall be glad you would do it directly; and, also, here is another letter to a sister of mine, Mrs. Simpson, to A\dioni I should be glad you Avould deliver it." The INIajor gave him every assurance that he Avould deliver the letter to ]Mrs. vSimp- son himself and also to General Burgoyne, but could not do it immediately, as the General Avas on the other lines, meaning ]>oston Xeck. " General Lee !" exclaimed Major Bruce, "(niod Ciod, sir ! is General Lee there J I served two years Avith him in Portugal. Tell him, sir, I am extremely sorry that my profes- sion obliges me to be his opposite in this unhappy ahair. Can't it be made up ? Let me beg of you to use your influence, and endeavor to heal this unnatural Ijreach." Upon hearing that General Lee had a letter for him, Bur- goyne had sent out a trumpeter, of his OAvn Light Horse, over Boston Neck to receive it, but then learned by a second letti'r from Lee Iioav his first had l)eeu fVn'wanled. Tu his se(»ond cnni- munication Lee endeaA'ored to obtain an exact list of the liritish losses at Bunker Hill, Avhich great pains had been taken to conceal. Major Bruce told Mr. Webl) that Colonel Aber- THE CONTIXEXTAL TliENCIIES. 87 cromhie of tlie 22(1 whs dead nf a fever, — suppmssing tlie fact tlaat the fever was caustMl by a fatal wound, — and it was not until this parley took place that the Aiuericans knew of Pit- cairn's death. Lee, on his part, enclosed an account of the American losses in that battle. As mention has been made of the ritle regiment, the nu(deus of Morgan's celebrated corps, and as wc are now upon the scene of their earliest ex- jiloits, a brief account v^r^^fe^^§itt*fei^^^^fc^ of the leader and his merry men may not be uninteresting. The riflemen were raised by a resolve of ^ Congress,passedJune ^ 14, 1775, which au- ^' thorized the employ- ment of eight hun- dred men of this arm, and on the 22d of the same month two companies additional from Pennsylvania were voted. The expresses despatched by Congress to the persons deputed to raise the companies had in many cases to ride from tlu-ee to four hundred miles, yet such was the enthusiasm with Avhich officers and men entered into the affair, that one company joined Washington at Cambridge on the 25th of July, and the whole body, numljering 1,430 men, arrived in camp on the 5 th and 7th of August, The whole business had been completed in less than two months, and without the advance of a farthing from the Continental treasury. All had marched from four to seven hundred miles, encountering the extreme heat of midsummer, yet they bore the fatigue of their long tramp remarkably Avell. They were chiefly the 1)ackwoodsmen of the Shenandoah Valley, and brought their own long rifles with wliich they kept the savages from their clearings or knocked over a fat buck in full career. FLAG OF MORGAN S REGIMENT. 88 HISTOIMO MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Michael Cresap, the same whom Logan, the Indian chief, charged with the cold-blooded murder of his women and children, com- manded one of these companies, and Otlio H. Williams, who afterwards became Greene's able assistant in the South, was lieutenant of another. It is not to be wondered at that men wlio in boyhood had lieen punished by their fathers for shooting their game any- where except in the head should soon become the terror of their foes, or that they should be spoken of in the British camp as " shirt-tail men, with their cursed twisted guns, the most fatal widow-and-orphan makers in the worlil." Their dress was a white or brown linen hunting-shirt, orna- mented with a fringe, and secured l)y a belt of wampum, in which a knife and tomahawk were stuck. Their leggings and moccasins were ornamented in the Indian fashion with beads and brilliantly dyed porcupine-quills. A round hat completed a costume which, it will be conceded, was simple, appropriate, and picturesque. Tall, athletic fellows, they seemed to despise fatigue as they welcomed danger. They marched in Indian tile, silent, stealthy, and flitting like shadows though the forests, to fall on the enemy at some unguarded point. These riflemen were the only purely distinctive body of men our lievolution produced. In costume, as in their mode of fighting, they Avere wholly American. In physique and martial bearing they were worthy to be compared with the Highlanders of Auld Scotland. The devotion of the men to their leader was that of clansmen to their chief. Indian fare in their pouches and a blanket on their backs found them ready for the march. We have only to piciture to ourselves a " Deer-slayer " or a " Hawk-eye " to see one of these bard-visaged, keen-eyed, weather-beaten woodsmen stand before us. For a skirmish or an ambush such men were unrivalled, but they could not Avith- stand the bayonet, as was shown in the battle of Long Island, where the rifle regiment, then commanded by Colonel Hand, was broken by a charge. Their weapon required too much deliberation to load ; for, after emptying their rifles, the enemy THE CONTINENTAL TRENCHES. 89 were upon them before they could force tlie patched ball to the bottom of the barrel. Colonel Ai'chibald Campbell, of the 71st Highlanders, who, with a battalion of his regiment, was taken prisoner in Boston harbor and detained at Eeading, admired the rifle-dress so much that it was reported he had one made for his own use, with which it was supposed he meant to disguise himself and effect his escape. The oflicer who made this discovery described the Highland colonel as " a damned knowing fellow," and adds, " If he should get away, I think he woidd make a formidable enemy ; for he is the most soldier-like, best-looking man I ever saw." Morgan was a plain, home-bred man. He was very familiar with his men, whom he always called his boys ; but this familiarity did not prevent his exacting and receiving implicit obedience to his orders. Sometimes, in case of a secret expedi- tion, the men ordered on duty were to be in readiness by three o'clock in the morning. They were then mounted behind horsemen provided for the purpose, and before daybreak would thus accomplish a day's march for foot-soldiers. Morgan told his men to shoot at those who wore epaulettes rather than -the poor fellows who fought for sixpence a day. He carried a conch-shell, which he was accustomed to sound, to let his men know he still kept tlie field. His corps was sent to Gates to counteract the fear inspired by Burgoyne's Indian allies, who were continually ambushing our outposts and stragglers. It did not take them long to accomplish this task. Burgoyne after- wards said, not an Indian could be brought within sound of a rifle-shot. The British general himself owed his life on one occasion to another officer being mistaken for him, who received the bullet destined for his general. Washington estimated the corps at its true value, and, altliough he lent it temporarily to Gates, he very soon applied for its return ; but Gates begged hard to be permitted to retain it, and liis victory at Saratoga was due in no .small degree to its presence. The first colonel of the rifle regiment was AVilliani Tliomp- son, by birth an Irishman. He had been captain of a troop of 90 IIISTORKJ MANSIONS ANJ) IIICIIWAYS. horse in the service of Pennsyh'ania in the French war of 1759-60, and before the IJevolution resided at Fort Pitt, since Pittsburg. He was made a brigather early in 1776, and, hav- ing joined General Sullivan in Canada, was made prisoner at Trois Biv'ieres. Thompson was succeeded, in March, 1776, by Edward Hand, liis lieutenant-colonel, who had accompanied the Eoyal Irish to America in 1774 as surgeon's niate, but who resigned on his arrival. He was afterwards a brigadier, and fought to the close of the Avar. Daniel Morgan, who, in less than a week after the intelli- gence of the battle of Lexington, enrolled one hundred and seven men, with whom he marched to Cambridge, had been a wagoner in Braddock's army in 175.5. For knocking down a British lieutenant he had received hve hundred lashes without flinching. He seems at one period to have fallen into the worst vices of the camp, but before the Pevo- lution had become a correct member of society. Washing- ton despatched him with Arnold to Quebec in September, 1775, where, after having forced his Avay through the hrst defences, he was made prisoner while paroling some captives that he himself had taken; so that a common fate befell both Morgan and Thompson, and on the same line of operations. Morgan, after his exchange, was appointed colonel of the 11th Virginia, a rifle-corps, Xovember 12, 177G. Of his subse- quent career Ave need not speak. Chastellux relates that whcm some of Pochambeau's troops Avere passing a river ])etween AVilliamsburg and Baltimore, Avhere they Averc croAvded in a narrow passage, they were met by General Morgan, Avho, seeing the Avagoners did not under- stand tlieir business, stopped and showed them hoAV to drive. Having put everything in order, he proceeded qxiietly on his Avay. The best account Ave have of Colonel Morgan's appearance describes him as "stout and active, six feet in height, not too much encuml)cn'd Avith flesh, and exactly fitted for the pomp and toils of war. The features of his lace Avere strong and manly, and his brow thouglitful. His manners plain and THH CONTINENTAL TRENCHES. 91 decorous, neither iusinuatiug mn- repulsive. His conversation grave, sententious, and considerate, unadorned and uncapti- vating. " Mount Benedict is associated witli an event whicli has no parallel, we believe, in the history of our country, namely, the destruction of a religious institution l)y a mob. The ruins of tlie Convent of St. Ursula long remained an evidence of what popular rage, directed by superstition and lawlessness, has been able to accomplish in a commujiity of high average civilization. For half a century, tlie.se ruins served to emphasize a condi- tion which has as completely disa])peared as have the ruins themselves, by the grading down of the hill-top, where they stood, to its present level. ''»t*"-ai^g»>sfe^^^^^^! TIIK I-Rsn.IXI l\Vl:XT IN' I!riN> It must be admitted that the Jesuit fathers who planted the missions of their order in every available spot in the New World possessed an unerring instinct for choosing fine situa- tions. Wherever their establishments have been reared civili- zation has followed, until towns and .nties have grown u]) an.l 92 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND IIIGtlWAYS. environed their ])riniitive cliajiels. Whatever may be said of the order, it lias left the iinest specimens of ancient architec- ture existing on the American continent. We need oidy cite Quebec, Mexico, and Panama to su|)})ort this assertion. The choice of Mount Benedict, therefore, for the site of a convent is only another instance of the good judgment of the Catholics. The situation, though bleak in winter, commands a superb view of the meadows through which the Mystic winds, and of the towns which extend themselves along the opposite shores. Beyond these are seen the gray, rocky ridges, resem- bling in their undulations some huge monster oi antiquity, which, coming from the JNIerrimack, form the most remarkable valley in Eastern Massachusetts, and through which, in the dim distance of bygone ages, the river may have found its outlet to the sea. Perched on their rugged sides ajipear the cottages and villas of a population half city, half rural, but altogether distinctive in tlie well-kept, thrifty appearance of their homes. On the night of the 11th of August, 183-1, the convent and outbuildings were destroyed by incendiary hands. The flames raged without any attempt to subdue them, until everything combustible was consumed, the bare walls only being left standing. The firemen from the neighboring towns were pres- ent with their engines, but remained either passive spectators or actors in the scenes that ensued. A feeble effort was made by the local authorities to disperse the molt, — an effort calculated only to excite contempt, unsupported as it was by any show of force to sustain it. The affair had been planned, and the coiicerted signal expected. For some time previous to the final catastrophe rumors had prevailed that Mary St. John Harrison, an inmate of the con- vent and a candidate for the veil, had either been abducted or secreted where she could not be found by her friends. As this belief obtained currency, an excitement, impossible now to imagine, pervaded the community. Threats were openly made to burn the convent, but passed unheeded. Printed placards Avere posted in Charlestown, announcing that on such a night the convent would be Inirncd, Imt even tliis did not arouse the THE CONTINENTAL TRENCHES. 93 authorities to action. At about ten o'clock on the night in question a mob, variously estimated at from lour to ten thou- sand persons, assembled within and around the convent grounds. A bonfire was lighted as a signal to those who were apprised of what was about to take place. The Superior of the convent, INIrs. Moffiitt, with the other inmates, were notified to depart from the doomed building. There were a dozen imns, and mo]-e than fifty scholars, some of whom were Protestants, and many of a tender age. The announcement filled all with alarm, and several swooned with terror. The unfortunate females Avere at length removed to a place of security, and the Avork of destruction l)egan and concluded without hindrance. The mol) did not even respect the tomb belonging to the con- vent, but entered and violated this sanctuary of the dead. A general burst of indignation followed this dastardly out- rage. Eeprisals from the Catholics were looked for, and it was many years before the bad blood created by the event subsiiled. The better feeling of the community was aroused ; and few meetings in Old Faneuil Hall have given more emphatic utter- ance to its voice than that called at this time by Mayor Lyman, and addressed by Harrison Gray Otis, Josiah Quincy, Jr., and others. Measures of security Avere adopted, and once more, in the language of the Avise old saAv, " the stable door Avas shut after the steed had escaped." The Catholics shoAved remarkable forbearance. On the day folloAving the conflagration their bishop, FenAvick, contributed by his judicious conduct to allay the exasperation of his flock ; and even Father Taylor, the old, earnest pastor of the seamen, Avas listened to Adth respectful attention by a large assemblage of Irish Catholics, Avho had gathered in the immediate neigh- borhood of their church, in Franklin Street, Boston, on the same occasion. In reA'erting to the conduct of the firemen, it should be re- membered that Colonel Thomas C. Araory, then chief engineer of the Boston Fire Department, repaired to the conA^ent at the first alarm, and did all in his poAver to bring the firemen to their duty. Finding this a hopeless task, he then A'isited the 94 IIISTOKIC M.VXSIOXri AND HIGHWAYS. bislidji, ami adviscij liim to take sncli iirerantions as the dangt'i'- ous teuqiiT (if the lunl) seeuH'il to ilrmaml. ^laiiy arrests were maile, and some of the rioters were con- victed and punished. Chief Justice Sliaw was then on th(^ ])eneh, and .lolin Davis governor of the State. Uoth exerted themselves to Ijring the oHen(k'rs to justice, and to vindicate the name of tlie old Commonwi-ahli from reproach. The form of the main huilding of the convent, which faced southeast, was a parallelogram of about thirty-three paces long hy ten in breadtli ; wliat ap[)ear to have been two wings joine(l it on the west side. Tlie Ijuildings Avere partly of lu'ick and partly of the l)lue stone found abundantly in tlie neighboring (quarries ; the priucijial cdihce being of tliree stories, witli a })it(;hed roof, and having entrances both in the east and west fronts. The grounds, which were very extensive, and em- Ijraced most of tlie hill, were terraced down to the highway and adorned with shrubbery. A fine orchard of several acres, in the midst of which the buildings stood, extended on the west ([uite to the limits of the enclosure, where, until recently, were visible the remains of the convent tomb. The hill is now being levelled with a rapidity that is fast obliterating every vestige of its original appearance, as nature left it. Mount Benedict already belongs to the past, whatev(>r regret we may feel at the disappearance of so beautiful an eminence. The convent was opened on the 17tli of 'fuly, 1826. It is but little known that there was a similar establishment in Boston, contiguous to the Cathedral in Franklin Street, though no incident drew tlie popular attention to it. The information upon which the mob acted in the sack of the !Mount Benedict institution proved wholly groundless. When we last visited the ruins the scene was one of utter loneliness. Year by year the walls had been crumbling away, until the elements were fast completing what the fire had spai'ed. The snow enshrouded the heaps of debris and the jagged out- lines of the walls with a robe as spotless as that of St. Ursula herself. For nearly forty years these blackened memorials of tlie little community of St. Angela had been visible to thousands THE CONTINENTAL TKENCIIES. 95 journeying to and from the neighboring city. The lesson has been shai'p, but etl'ectual. Whoever should now raise the torch against such an estabHshment would be deemed a madman. Our interest is awakened at tlie mention of Ten Hills Farm in connection with the plantation of Governor Winthrop, who gave it the name by which it is still known, from the ten little elevations Avhich crowned its uneven surface, but of wliich few traces remain visible to this day. The grant to Winthrop was made September (!, 1031, of six hundred acres of laud " near his house at Mistiek," from which it would appear that the governor already had a house built there which was probably occupied by his servants. We are now speaking of a time nearly coincident with the settlement of Boston, when no other craft tlian the Indian canoe had ever cleft the waters of the Mystic, and when wild beasts roamed the neighboring forests. Governor A\"inthrop tells his own story of what he, the original white inliabitant of Ten Hills, experienced there in 1631 : — " The governour, being at his farm house at Mistiek, walked out after supper, and took a piece in his hand, supjjosing he might see a wolf, (for they came daily about the house, and killed swine and calves, etc.;) and being al)Out half a mile off, it grew suddenly dark, so as, in coming home, he ndstook his ]iath, and went til he came to a little liouse of Sagamore John, which stood empty. There he stayed, and liaving a piece of match in his pocket, (for he always carried about him match and a compass, and in summer time snake- weed,) he made a good fire near the house, and lay down upon some old mats which he found there, and so spent the night, sometimes walking 1)y the fire, sometimes singing psalms, and sometimes getting wood, but could not sleep. It was (through God's mercy) a warm night ; but a little before day it began to rain, and having no cloak, he made shift by a long pole to climb up into the house. In the morning there came thither an Indian sipiaw, hut, perceiving lier before she had opened the door, lie bnrred her out; yet she stayed there a great while essaying to get in, and at last she went away, and he returned safe home, his servants having been much peri)lexed for him, and having walked a1)out, and shot off pieces, and hallooed in the niij,ht, l)ut he heard them not." 96 IIISTOKKJ MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Savage suppnsr^s tliat Ten JlilLs was tlie governor's summer residence for the fii'st two or three years; Boston being, after tlie removal of his house there, his constant liome. It has also been usually considered as the place where Winthrop built his little bark, the Blessing of the Bay, the first English keel launched in the jurisdiction of Massachusetts Colony. This event occurred on the 4th of July, 1631, and in October the Blessing spread her canvas and bore away on a voyage to the eastward. The farm of Ten Hills was owned at tlie time of the Eevolu- tion by Robert Temple, a royalist ; and the house he occujiied stood on the supposed site of Governor Winthrop's until de- molished a few years ago. The following description applies to its appearance when the writer last visited it. The mansion-house has a spacious hall, and a generous pro- vision of large square rooms. As you ascend the stairs, in front of you, at the first landing, is a glass door, opening into a snug little apartment which overlooks the river. This must have been a favorite resort of the family. The wainscoting and other wood-work is in good condition, if a general iiltliiness be excepted, inseparable from the occupancy of the house by numerous families of the laborers in the neighboring brick- yards. All is now changed by the levelling of tlie adjacent hills beyond the possibility of recognition. Robert Temple of Ten Hills was an elder brother of Sir John Temple, Bart., the first Consul-General from England to the United States. His eldest daughter became Lady Dufleriu. Mr. Temple sailed for England as early as May, 1775 ; but, the vessel being obliged to put into Plymouth, Massachusetts, he Avas detained and sent to Cambridge camp. Mr. Temple's fiimily continued to reside in the mansion at Ten Hills after his attempted departure, under the protection of General Ward. The Baronet married a daughter of Governor Bowdoin, while his brother's wife was a daughter of Governor Shirley. Previous to his coming to Ten Hills, Eobert Temple had resided on Xoddle's Island, in the elegant mansion there after- wards occupied l)y Henry Howell "Williams. Although himself THK CONTINENTAL TL'ENCHES. 97 H tenant, the TeiupU's had in times jiast owihmI tlie island. Sir Tliomas, who was propnctor in KiC.?. had been Inrmcily Gov- ernor of Nova Scotia. It is related of him, that oni'c, when on a visit to England, he was presented to Charles II., who com- plained to him that the colonists had usurped his prerogative of coining money. Sir Thomas replied, that they thought it no crime to coin money for their own use, and presented his Majesty some of Master Hull's pieces, on which was a tree. The king inquiring what tree that was, the courtier answered, "The royal oak which protected your ]Majesty's life," — a reply which charmed the king and caused liim to look witli more favor on the offending colony. If one of JMaster Hull's shillings 1)6 examined, we are not greatly surprised that his Majesty so readily believed the pine to be an oak. Ten Hills was the landing-place of Gage's night expedition to seize the powder in the province magazine, in September, 1774. The next day the uprising in Middlesex took place. And on Saturday, the :3d, the soldiers were harnessed to four field-pieces, which they dragged to Boston Xeck, and placed in battery there. The Lively frigate, of twenty guns, came to her moorings in the ferry-way between Boston and Charlestown, and the avenues to the doomed town were shut up as effectuallv by land as they had been by water. The vicinity of Ten Hills was that chosen by Mike Martin for the robbery of Major Bray. It was near where the old lane leading to the Temple farm-house, and now known as Temple Street, enters the turnpike, that the robber overtook the chaise of his victim. After his condensation, ]\Iartin related, with apparent gusto, that the pistol which he presented at the Major's head was neither loaded nor cocked, but that the latter was terribly frightened and trembled like a leaf. Mrs. Bray tried to conceal her watch, but was assured by the highwayman that he did not rob ladies. Even now the place seems lonesome, and is not the one we should select for an evening promenade. On a little promontory which overlooked the Mystic the Americans erected a battery during the siege. At this point 5 ^ G 9er, 1775, for positions, in reward for past ser- vices. Both accompanied Arnold to Quebec. Colonel Burr's eventful career is familiar. His eye was remarkably piercing and lirilliant. With talents equal to any position, he seems to lia\e been formed liy nature for a conspirator. The courtliness of his manner and address gave him a fatal ascendency over both sexes, of which he did not scruple to avail himself. The (h^ath of Hamilton and the ruin of Blennerhassett painfully illustrate the career of Aamn Burr. THE CONTINENTAL TRENCHES. 105 It is not a little curious that Arnold, Burr, and Silas Deane, who, it is believed, was more sinned against than sinning, were from the same State. It is also a coincidence that the two former in their young, chivalric days should have fallen in love with two young ladies of the New England capital, l)oth celebrated for their beauty. Arnold lost his heart to the " heavenly Miss Deblois," and laid at her feet the spoils of rich stuffs which he had ignobly plundered from the shops of Mon- treal. His suit was, however, unsuccessful ; for when did a Boston girl become the mother of traitors I Burr, on his part, improved a visit which Madam Hancock, the governor's aunt, was paying his uncle at Fairfield, to lay .'^iege to the heart of Dorothy Quincy, who was then under the protection of Madam Hancock. Aaron was then a handsome young fellow of very pretty fortune ; but tlie dowager, who was apprehensive that he might defeat her purpose of uniting Miss Quincy to her nephew, wuuld not leave them a moment together. If we are to believe report, the lady was not insensiljle to the insinuating manners of young Burr. John A^anderlyn, the })ainter, owed liis rescue from the ob- scurity of a village blacksmith's shop to the acuteness and patronage of Colonel Burr. The latter, while journeying in the interior of New York, was much struck by a little pen-and-ink di'awing that hung over the fireplace in the bar-room of a tavern. The lad was sent for, and, on parting. Colonel Burr said to him : " Put a shirt in your pocket, come to jSTew York, and inquire for Aaron Burr ; he will take care of you." The boy followed his patron, who sent him to Paris, where he achieved a reputation that justified the sagacity of the then Vice-President of tlie United States. Among the officers who served on Winter Hill, and who subsequently acquired fame, were Henry Dearborn, John Brooks, and Joseph Cilley. Dearborn was a captain in Stark's regi- me)it, Brooks major of Bridges', and ( "illey of Poor's regiment. Dearborn and Brooks became very distinguished in military and civil life : both testified their attection for Alexander Scammell by naming a son for that lamented officer ; botli fouglit with conspicuous valor at Saratoga. 106 HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS, During the battle of Monmouth a corps commanded by Colonel Dearborn acquitted tliemselves with such undaunted bravery that they attracted particular notice. A Southern officer of rank rode up to Dearborn and inquired " who they were, and to what portion of America that regiment belonged." The Colonel repHed in this laconic and soldierly manner : " Full-blooded Yankees, by G-d, sir, from the State of New Hampshire." * The same anecdote has been related of Colonel Cilley. The Germans of Ihirgoyne's army, to the number of about nineteen hundred, took up their quarters in the Ijarracks ami huts on Winter Hill which had lieen used by the Ameri- ( ans. General Riedesel, with his family, were ac- ( onimodated in a farm- house, where he was obliged to content him- self with a room and a garret, with nothing bet- ter than straw for a couch. The General's biographer continues the description: " Th(! landlord was A'ery kind, but his other half was a veritable dragon, doing every- thing to oftend and annoy her obnoxious guests. But, as it was impossiljle to liiid another jilacc, they were o1)liged to put uj) with everything rather than be driven from the house." After a sojourn here of three Aveek.s, the General and :Madame Riedesel were furnished with excellent (piarters at Cambridge. Several of the officers wen^, allowed to ri'side at that place and at Medf)rd, but none Avere allowed to pass into Boston without special ptirinission. The officers and soldiers had the privilege of going, first a mile, and eventually three miles, from their * Mrs. Warren. HK.S.SI.\N FLAi;, THE CONTINENTAL TRENCHES. 107 barracks. C\>loiiel AVilliam Kayinoiid Lee commanded on Winter Hill at the tinii? of the arrival ol' tlie Hessians. These mercenaries were employed, it is said, at the instiga- tion of Lord George Germaine. The British government stipu- lated with the Landgrave of Hesse to pay £ 30 sterling for every man that did not return, and £ 15 sterling for each one disabled, so that it was commonly said, after a ])attle in which the Hessians were engaged, that their loss was the Landgra^'e's gain. Similar treaties were made with the Duke of Brunswick and the Count of Hanau. We make the following extracts, which serve to convey an accurate idea of the condition of things on Winter Hill as they appeared to the German prisoners, from General Kiedcsel's memoirs : — " The camj) of the prisoners was encircled by a chain of outposts. The officers, who were penuitted to go somewhat beyond the camp, were obliged to promise in writing, on their woi'd of honor, to go no farther beyond it than a mile and a half. Within this space are the villages Cambridge, Mystic, or Medford, and a part of Charlestowni. In these places the generals and brigadiers could select lodgings, for which, of course, they had to pay dearly. After a while this per- mission was extended to other staff and subaltern officers. Only a few of the Brunswickers availed themselves of this permission, pre- ferring to remain in their miserable Ijarracks, and thus share all inconveniences with their men. " The camp was located on a height, which, to a distance of eight miles, was surrounded with woods, thus presenting a splendid view of Boston, the harbor, and the vast ocean. The barracks had been built in 1775, at the time that the Americans first took up arms, and upon these very heights took their first position against General Gage. These heights were fortified. " When the fatigued and worn-out troops arrived here on the 7th of November they found not the least thing for their support. A little sti'aw and some wood was eA'erything that was furnislied to the soldiers. The officers and privates were obliged to repair the bar- racks as w^ell as they could, although they had neither tools nor ma- terials with wdiich to do it. Necessity, however, which is the mother of invention, accomplished incredible things." The question, " Will Yankees fight 'I " had to be settled in 108 mSTOKIC MANSIONS AN]) JIIGHWAVS. he Kevolutinn. Jt naght be supposed tlu.t Lexington und Lunker Hill M-ouId have given a final answer to sneli oueries .ut they ,lul not. The :sew England troops, wlien they came to join tliose from the Soutliern Colonies, were mercilessly ridi- culed by the cliivalrous Southrons. It was Puritan and Cava- lier over again. Hear the avowal of a Pennsylvania officer who evidently spoke the feeling of his section : — "In so contemptible a light were the New England men reoar.led that It was scarcely held possible to conceive a case which co^ld bj construed mto a rei)rehensible disresj^ect of them." The officers came in Ibr a degree of ridicule second only to the rank and hie. " So far from aiming at a deportment which might raise them above their privates, and thence prompt them to due respect and ol3edience to their commands, the object was, bv humilitv, to i^re- serve the existing blessing of equality ; an illustrious instance of which was given by Colonel Putnam, the chief engineer of the army and no less a personage than the nephew of the major-general of' that name. ' What ! ' says a person, meeting- him one day with a piece ol meat in his hand, 'carrying home your rations 'yourself Colonel?' 'Yes,' says he, 'and I do it to set the officers a good example.' " Tliis feeling, which the Southerners were at no pains to con- ceal, was not lost on the objects of it, who, nevertheless, for the most part quietly endured the opprobrium, trusting to their deeds to set them right in good time. Sullivan, who was a little quick-tempered, was rather restive under such treatment. An officer of Smallwood's ^Maryland regiment, which " was distin- guished by the most foshionaldy cut coat, the most macaroni cocked-hat, and hottest Idood in the Union," had been guilty of some disrespect or disolx-dieiice to the General. He was arrested and tried, but, as the narrator ingeniously records, a majority of the officers being Southern men, the offender was acquitted with honor. Putnam and Greene Avere not exempt from the derision of these blue-blooded heroes. This was about the time of the disastrous campaign of Long THE CONTINENTAL TRENCHES. 109 Island. The battle of Trenton ilisplayt'd the quahties of the men of j^ew England in such a light that a moin (creditable feeling began to be discovered by the men of the South. The despised Yankees showed themselves true descendants of the men of Marston Moor, Dunbar, and Worcester ; they became to Washington what Cromwell's Ironsides were to the Protec- tor. The Southern cock crowed less loudly, and Northern courage, proved again and again, asserted, as it ever will assert, to its gainsayers : — " If you dare figlit to-day, come to the field ; If not, wlipii you liave stoniaclis." We may well jjardon oiu.' of our generals a little exultation Avhen he writes home, after the battles of Trenton and Prince- ton : — " I have been much pleased to see a day approaching to try the difference between Yankee cowardice and Southern valor. The day, or rather the days, have arrived, and all the general otficers allowed, and do allow, that Yankee cowardice assiunes the shape of true valor in the field, and that Southern valor appears to be a composi- tion of boastmg and conceit. General Washington made no scruple to say publicly that the remains of the Eastern regiments were the strength of his army, though their numbers were, comparatively speaking, but small. He calls them in front when the enemy are there. He sends them to the rear when the enemy threaten that way. All the general officers allow them to be the liest of troops. The Southern officers and soldiers allow it in time of danger, but not at all other times. Believe me, sir, the Yankees took Trenton before the other troops knew anything of the matter. More than that, there was an engagement, and, what will still surprise you more, the line that attacked the town consisted of Tuit eight hundred Yankees, and there were .sixteen hundred Hessians to oppose them. At Prince- ton, where the iTth regiment had thrown thirty-five hundred Southern militia into the utmost confusion, a regiment of Yankees restored the day. This General IMifllin confessed to me, though the Philadelphia papers tell us a different story. It seems to have been quite forgot that, while the L7th regiment was engaging these troops, six hundred Yankees had the town to take against the 40th and 55th regiments, which they did without loss, owing to the manner of attack." 110 lllSTOlilC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. CHAPTEE V. THE OLD WAYSIDE MILL. " There watching liigli tlie least alarms, Thy rough, rude fortress gleams afar, Like some bold vet'ran gray in arms, Aud marked with many a seamy scar." BY far the most remarkable object to be seen in the vicinity of Boston is the Okl Powder House, which stands on u httle eminence hard by the road leading from AVinter Hill to Arlington, — formerly the old stage-road to Keene, 2*s ew Hampshire. In the day of its erection it stood at the meeting of the roads from Cambridge, Mystic, and ]\Ienotomy, — a situ- ation excellently ada^ited to the wants of the settlements. It is the only really antique ruin we can boast of in Massa- chusetts; and for solitary picturesqueness, in all ^^ew Enc^land only its fellow, the Old Mill at Xewport, can rival it. Long before you reach the spot its veneral)k' aspect rivets the atten- tion. Its novel structure, its solid masonry, no less than the extraordinary contrast with everything around, stanq) it as the handiwork of a generation long since forgotten. AVe are not long in deciding it to be a windniill of the early settlers. The Old Mill, as we shall call it, l)clongs to the early {)art of the reign of good Queen Anne, and was doubtless erected by John Mallet, who came into possession of the .site in 1703-04. It remained for a considerable period in the Mallet family, de- scending at last, in 1747, to Michael, son of Andrew Mallet, by wdiom it was conveyed in the same year to the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in ^ew England, for the use of " y" Gover- nor, Council and Assembly of said jirovince," with the right of way to and from the high-road. It had, however, ceased to be THE OLD WAYSIDE MILL. Ill used as a windmill long Ijoforo, this transfer. 80 that before Sliirley's armada had set sail for Louisburg, its histy arms had ceased to beat the air. Strange that an edifice erected to sustain life should become the receptacle of such a death-dealing suIj- stance as })owder ! The walls of the mill are about two feet in thickness, with an inner structure of brick, the outside of which is encased in a shell of blue stone, quarried, probably, on the hillside. Within, it has, or had, three lofts supported by oaken beams of great thickness, and having, each, about six feet of clear space between. A respectable number of visitors have carved their names on these timbers. There were entrances on the northwest and southwest sides, but only the latter belonged to the original edifice, tlie small brick structure on the northwest having been constructed at a recent date. From this southwest door expands a most charming view. The structure is capped with a conical roof, and stands about thirty feet high, with a diameter of fifteen at tlie base. To find what was an isolated landmark, not so many years ago, now overlooking a populous neighbor- hood, is strange indeed. Better yet, it is no longer a neglected ruin. Mallet's Mill ground for many an ohl farmstead of IMiddle- sex or Essex. The old fiirm-house in which the miller dwelt stood by the roadside, where a newer habitation now is. Ten, thirty, sixty miles, and back, the farmers sent their sons to mill. The roads were few and bad. Oxen performed the labor of the fields. Those that came from a distance mounted their horses astride a sack of corn in lieu of saddle, and so performed their journe3^ As a historical monument, the mill is commemorative of one of the earliest hostile acts of (General Gage, one which led to the most important events. At the instance of William Brattle, at that time major-general of the Massachusetts militia, General Gage sent an expedition to seize the powder in this magazine belonging to the province. About four o'clock on the morning of September 1, 1774, two hundred and sixty soldiers embarked from Long Wharf, in Boston, in thirteen boats, and proceeded 112 HisTorac mansions and iiighways. up the Mystic Kiver, lauding at Ten Hills Farm, less than a mile from the Powder House. The magazine, which then con- tained two liundred and hfty half-barrels of powder, was speed- ily emptied, and the explosive mixture transported to the Castle, while a detachment of the expedition jaroceeded to Cambridge and brought off two field-pieces tliere. At the time of this occurrence William Gamage was keeper of tlie magazine. The news of the seizure circulated with amazing rapidity, and on the following morning several thousand of the inhabi- tants of the neighboring towns had assembled on Cambridge Common. This appears to have been the very first occasion on Avhich the provincials assembled in arms with the intention of opposing the forces of their king. Those men Avho repaired to the Common at Cambridge were the men of Middlesex ; when, therefore, we place Massachusetts in the front of the Revolu- tion, Ave must put Middlesex in the van. It was at this time that the lieutenant-governor (Oliver) and several of the coun- cillors were compelled to resign. The Revolution had fairly begun, and accident alone prevented the first blood being shed on Cambridge, instead of Lexington, Common. We will not leave the old mill until we consider for a moment what a centre of anxious solicitude it had become in 1775, when the word " powder" set the whole camp in a shiver. Putnam prayed for it ; Greene, Sullivan, and the rest begged it of their provincial committees. A terrible mistake had occurred through the inadvertence of the Massachusetts Com- mittee, which had returned four hundred and eighty-five quar- ter-casks as on hand, Avhen there were actually but thirty-eight barrels in the magazine. When Washington Avas apprised of this startling error, he sat for half an hour Avithout uttering a Avord. The generals present — the discovery was made at a general council — felt Avith him as if the army and the cause had received its death-blow. "The Avord 'PoAvder' in a letter," says Reed, " sets us all a-tiptoe." The heavy artillery Avas use- less ; they Avere obliged to bear Avitli the cannonade of the rascals on Bunker Hill in silence ; and, Avhat Avas Avorse than THE OLD WAYSIDE MILL. 113 all tlu' rest, there were only nine rounds for the small-arms in the hands of tlie men. In tli«i "whole contest there was not a more dangerous hour for America. We have had occasion elsewhere to mention this scarcity of ammunition. At no time was the army in possession of abun- dance. Before Boston the cartridges were taken from the men tliat left camp, and fourpence was charged for every one ex- pended without pro2)er account. The inhabitants were called upon to give up their window-weights to be moulded into bul- lets, and even the churchyai'ds were laid under contribution for the leaden coats-of-arms of the deceased. The metal pipes of the English Church of Cambridge were appropriated for a like purpose. On the lines the men plucked the fuses from the enemy's shells, or chased the spent sh(jt Avith boyish eagerness. In this way missiles were sometimes actually returned to the enemy before they had cooled. The old name of the eminence on which the Powder House stands was Quarry Hill, from the (quarries opened at its base more than a century and a half ago. The region round about was, from the earliest times, known as the Stinted Pasture, and the little rivnlet near at hand was called Two Penny Brook. When the province bought the Old Mill there was but a quar- ter of an acre of land belonging to it. After the Old War the Powder House continued to be used by the State until the erec- tion, more than forty years ago, of the magazine at Cambridge- port. It was then sold, and passed into the possession of jSTathan Tufts, from whom the place is nsually known as the " Tufts Farm," but it has never lost its designation as the "Old Powder-House Farm," up to the jjresent time. Except that the sides of the edifice are somewhat bulged out, which gives it a portly, aldermanic appearance, and that it shows a few fissures traversing its outward crust, the Powder House is good for another century if for a day. Fortunately the iconoclasts have not yet begiin to sap its foundations. Nothing is wanting but its long arms, for the Old Mill to have stepped bodily out of a canvas of Rembrandt or a cartoon of Albert Di'irer. It carries us in imagination beyond seas to the H 114 IIISTOKIC MANSIONS AND llli ;1I\V,VVS. hanks of the ,Scliftldt, — to tlie land of burgomasters, dikes, and guilders. There is not the smallest douht that Washington has often dismounted at the Old jNTill, or that Knox came here seeking daily fond for his Crown I'oint murtherers. Sullivan, in whose command it was, watched over it Avith anxious cai'e. It is pleasant to record the rescue of such a conspicuous and telling landmark as this from the rage of threatened demolition. This fury of progress, which has assailed Somervillc in its high places, was here arrested hy the joint action of the heirs of Xathan Tufts and of the city fathers, with the result that the permanence of tlie old huilding is now fully assured. These heirs, in 1890, proposed to execute a deed of gift to the city, under certain expressed conditions, of the Old Powder House and the surrounding grounds. This being accepted, the city acquired a much larger tract, contiguous to the first, by pur- chase, and tlie whole, under skilful and sympathetic treat- ment, is now converted into a beautiful park, — Nathan Tufts Park — alike a credit to those who gave and those whose taste has turned an unsiglitly stone quarry into a garden spot. Some necessary repairs were made in the old structure itself at this time without impairment of its general appearance to the most critical eye. Pollowing close upon these acts, permission was granted to the Massachusetts Society, Sons of the Eevolution, to place a bronze tablet upon the old building, reciting the leading events connected with it, as we know them. A smaller tablet, affixed to the grille closing the entrance, gives the names of the city officials luuler whose direction the good worJc pro- ceeded. Thus renovated, this ancient landmark tells its story with a new dignity. Sir A\'alter Scott has said, " Nothing is easier than to make a legend." We need not invent, but only repeat one of which the Old :\[ill is tlie subject. I THE OLD WAYSIDE MILL. 115 A Legend of the Powder House. In the day of Mallet, the miller, it was no unusual occurrence for a customer to dismount before the farm-house door after dark ; so that when, one sombre liovember evening, the good- man sat at his evening meal, he was not surprised to hear a horse neigh, and a faint halloo from the rider. Going to the door, the miller saw, by the light of the lan- tern he held aloft, a youth mounted (in a strong beast, whose steaming flanks gave evidence that he had been pushed at the top of his speed, and whose neck was already stretched wist- fully in the direction of the miller's crib. ]\[allet, — when was your miller aught else in .song or story but a downright jolly fellow, — in cheery tones, bade the lad dismount and enter, at the same time calling his son Andre to lead the stranger's horse to the stable, and have a care for the brace of well-hlled bags that were slung across the crupper. Once Avithin the house the new-comer seemed to shrink from the scrutin)^ of the miller's wife and daughters, and, notwith- standing his evident fatigue, could scarcely be prevailed upon to touch the relics of the evening repast, which the goodwife })laced before him. He swallowed a few mouthfuls, and then withdrew into the darkest corner of the cavernous fireplace, where a rousing tire blazed on the hearth, crackling, and dif- fusing a generous warmth through the apartment. The stranger was a mere stripling, with a face the natural pallor of which was heightened by a pair of large, restless black eyes, that seemed never to rest on any object at which they were directed, but glanced furtively from the glistening tire- irons to the spinning-wheel at which Goodwife Mallet was em- ployed, and from the rude pictures on the wall back to the queen's arm which himg l)y its heoks al)Ove the chimney-piece. " Certes," muttereags. Silence fell u|)on the old mill. THE OLD WAYSIDE MILL. 117 The slumbers of tlie lonely occupant were erelnly in name. The Royall Professorship of Law at Harvard Avas founded by THK I'LANTATION AT MYSTIC. 125 his bounty. He has a town (Royalston) in Massacliusetts named for him, and is remembered with aft'ection in the place of his former abode. After inspecting the kitchen, with its monstrous brick oven still in perfect repair, its iron chimney-back, with the Eoyall arms impressed upon it, we intpured of the lady who had kindly attended us if she had ever been disturbed by strange visions or frightful dreams. She looked somewhat perplexed at the question, but replied in the negative. " They were all good people, you know, who dwelt here in bygone times," she said. When the yeomen began pouring into the environs of Boston, encircling it with a belt of steel, the Xew Hampshire levies pitched their tents in Medford. They found the Eoyall man- sion in the occupancy of Madam Eoyall and her accomplished daughters, who willingly received Colonel John Stark into the house as a safeguard against insult or any invasion of the estate the soldiery might attempt. A few rooms were set apart for the use of the bluff old ranger, and he, on his part, treated the family with considerate respect. Stark's wife afterwards fol- lowed him to camp, and when Dorchester Heights were occu- pied was by him directed to mount on horseback and watch the passage of his detachment over to West Boston. If his landing was opposed, she was to ride into the country and spread the alarm. These were the men and women of 1776. John Stark was formed by nature for a leader. Though the reins of discipline chafed his impetuous spirit, few men pos- sessed in a greater degree the confidence of his soldiers. The very hairs of his head seem bristling for the fray. A counte- nance strongly marked, high cheek-bones, eyes keen and thought- ful, nose prominent, — in short, the aspect of an eagle of his own mountains, with a soul as void of fear. He was at times somewhat "splenetive and rash." While stationed here he one day sent a file of his men to arrest and bring to camp a civilian accused of some extortion towards his men. Such acts, with- out the knowledge of his general, were sure to bring reproof upon Stark, which he received with tolerable grace. But he was always ready to render ample satisfaction for a wrong. The 126 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. electiuii for cdluiK^ ni the ^«'c'W Ilamp^liii'L; regiment was held ill tlie public hall uf Jiilliiigs's tavern in Medford, afterwards called the }\e^Y Hampshire Hall. It was a hand vote, and some, they say, held up both hands for John Stark. In the fall of 177G a small party of the British came up the lake before Ticonderoga to take soundings of the depth of water. From the prospect of attack Gates summoned a council of war. There were no officers who had been in actual service except Gates and Stark. Gates took Stark aside, and the fol- lowing dialogue ensued : — Gait'n. What do you think of it, John 1 Stark. I think if they come we must fight them. Gates. Psho, John ! Tell me what your opinion is, seriously. Stark. My opinion is, that they will not fire a shot against this place this season, but whoever is here next must look out. Stark and Gates were very intimate ; they addressed each other familiarly by their given names. The events justihed Stark's sagacity. It is also related that at the memorable council of war where the movement to Trenton was decided upon, Stark, who came in late, said to Washington, " Your men have long been accus- tomed to place dependence upon spades, pickaxes, and hoes for safety, but if you ever mean to establish the independence of the United States, you must teach them to put couhdence in their fire-arms." Washington answered, " That is what we have agreed upon ; Ave are to march to-morrow to the attack of Trenton ; you are to take command of the right wing of the advanced guard, and General Greene the left." Stark observed he could not have been better suited. It is noticeable that several officers attached to the brigade on Winter Hill served in this action, namely, Sullivan, Stark, Scammell, and Wilkinson. Gne of Washington's most trusted officers thus wrote to a friend in Boston of the battle of Bennington : — " The news of the victory at the northward, under General Stark, must give you singular satisfaction; indeed, it was a most noble stroke for the oldest troops, but the achievement by militia douljly enhances the value of the action. America will ever be free if all her sons exert themselves onuallv." THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 127 This battle, like that of Trenton, was an act of inspiration. We cannot, at this distance of time, appreciate its electric effect upon the public mind, then sunk in despondency by the fall of Ticonderoga, and the rapid and unchecked advance of Burgoyne. It was generally believed that Boston was the British general's destination. Great alarm prevailed in conse- quence, and many families removed from the town. The news of Bennington, therefore, was received with great joy. At sundown about one hundred of the first gentlemen of the town, with all the strangers then in Boston, met at the Bunch of Grapes in State Street, where good liquors and a side table were provided. In the street were two brass field-pieces with a detachment of Colonel Craft's regiment. In the balcony of the Old State House all the musicians of Henry Jackson's regi- ment were assembled, with their fifes and drums. The ball was opened by the discharge of thirteen cannon, and at every toast three guns were fired, followed by a flight of rockets. About nine o'clock two barrels of grog were brought into the street for the people that had collected there. The whole aftair was conducted with the greatest propriety, and by ten o'clock every man was at his home. The effect on enlistments was equally happy. In the back parts of the State the militia turned out to a man. The best farmers went into the ranks, and Massachusetts soon enrolled the finest body of militia that had taken the field. The sea- ports were more backward. The towns that had not secured their quotas for the continental army were giving £ 1 00, lawful money, bounty for men. Some towns gave as much as five hundred dollars for each man enlisted. Captain Barns, who brought the news of the battle of Ben- nington to Boston, related that, " after the first action. General Stark ordered a hogshead of rum for the refreshment of the militia ; but so eager Avere they to attack the enemy, upon be- ing reinforced, that they tarried not to taste of it, but rushed on the enemy with an ardor perhaps unparalleled." Stark sent to Boston not long after the battle the trophies, presented to the State, now placed in the Senate Chamber. 128 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. The drum is one of several captured on the field, while the sword, carried by one of Riedesel's dragoons, required no pygmy to wield it ; in fact, the hat and sword of a German dragoon were as heavy as the whole equipment of a British soldier. There are other memorials of the battles of Bennington and of Saratoga preserved in Boston. The original orders of Bm-- goyne to Baum were deposited with the Massachusetts Histori- cal Society by General Lincoln, while the capitulation of Sara- toga is in the Public Library. It is ncjt a little remarkable, too, that tlie original draft of the surrender of Cornwallis was found among the papers of General Knox, now in the archives of the Historic Genealogical Society. AU these are memorials of great events, and are of inestimable value. What is really noticeable about tlie battle of Bennington is, that Baum, find- ing himself surrounded, had strongly intrenched himself. His works were attacked and carried by raw militia, of whom Baum took little note because they were in their shirtsleeves. He held his adversaries cheaply and paid dearly for his confi- dence. Of Stark he doubtless thought as one " That never set a squadron in tlie field, Nor the division of a battle knows More than a spinstei'." The Bennington prisoners arrived at Boston on Friday, Sep- tember 5, 1777, and were confined on board guard-ships in the harbor. Some of the officers were permitted to quarter in farm-houses along the route, where they soon had the melancholy i^leasure of welcoming their bretlu-en of the main army. Of the Hessians confined on board the guard-ships, ten made their escape on the night of the 26th of October, in a most daring manner. Having, tlu'ough the connivance of their friends outside, obtained a boat, in which arms were provided, they boarded the sloop Julia off the Hardings, took possession of her, and bore away for the southward, expecting, no doubt, to fall in with some of the enemy's vessels of war in Long Island Sound. Some of the guns captured at Bennington by Stark fell THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 129 again into British possession at the surrender of Detroit. The inscriptions were read with much curiosity by the captors, who observed that they woukl now a(kl a line to the history. The British officer of the day directed the evening sahites to be lired from them. When Stark heard of the loss of his gims he was much incensed. These pieces again became American at the capture of Fort George. Two of the lightest nietal were pre- sented by Congress to the State of Vermont. In 1819 Stark was still living, the last survivor of the American generals of the Kevolution. His recollections were then more distinct in relation to the events of the Old French War than of that for independence. Bunker Hill, Trenton, and Bennington should be inscribed upon his tomb. Not long after his arri^-al at the camp General Lee took up his quarters in the lioyall mansion, whose echoing corridors suggested to his fancy the name of Hobgoblin Hall. But Washington, as elsewhere related, caused him to remove to a point nearer his command. After Lee, Sullivan, attracted no doubt by the superior comforts of the old country-seat, unwa- rily fell into the same error. He, too, was remanded to his brigade by the chief, who knew the impulsive Sullivan would not readily forgive himself if anytliing befell the left wing of the army in his absence. In these two cases Washington exhibited his adhesion to the maxim that a general should sleep among his troops. The Royall inansion came, in 1810, into the possession of Jacob Tidd, in whose family it remained half a century, until its identity with the old royalist had become merged in the new proprietor. It has been subsequently owned by George L. Barr and by George C. Nichols, but is now unoccupied. The Tidd House is tlie name by which it is best known, and all old citizens have a presentiment tliat it will not much longer retain a foothold among its modern neighbors. The surveyor has appeared on the scene with compass and level. Not one of the granite gate-posts remains in tlie driveway, while the stumps of tlie once splendid elms, planted by Eoyall, lie scat- tered about. I 130 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. ISTotliiiig goes to owY heart more than to see one of these gigantic old trees, which it has cost a century to grow, struck down in an hour; hut when whole ranks of them are swe2)t away, how quickly the scene changes from picturesque beauty to insignificance ! At the forks of every road leading into their villages the old settlers were Avont to plant an elm, where weary travellers and footsore beasts might, in time, gather under its spreading branches, sheltered from the burning rays of the noonday sun. In the market-place, too, they dug their wells, but planted the tree beside. Many of these yet remain ; and if in any one thing our oSTew England towns may claim pre-emi- nence, it is in the beauty of these trees, — the admiration of every beholder, the gigantic fans that cool and purify the air around our habitations. Dickens, no mean observer, said our country- houses, in their spruce tidiness, their white paint, and green blinds, looked like houses built of cards, which a breath miglit blow away, so fragile and unsubstantial did they appear. Reader, if you could stand upon one of those blufis that rise out of our Western prairies, like headlands out of the ocean, and, after looking down upon the town at your feet, wellnigh treeless and blistering in the sun, could then descend into the brown and dusty streets, and 2aote the care bestowed upon the growth of a few puny poplars or maples, you would come back to your New England home, all glorious in its luxuriance and wealth of every form of forest beauty, prepared to make the destruction of one of these ancestral elms a penal offence. " God the first garden made, and the first city Cain ! " Medford possesses other elements of attraction to the anti- quary besides its old houses. Until Maiden Bridge was built the great tide of travel north and east passed through the town. The visitor now finds it a very staid, quiet sort of place. Travel has so changed both its mode and its channels that we can form little idea of a country highway even fifty years ago. Travellers of every condition then pursued their route by the public roads : the wealthy or well-to-do generally in chaises or phaetons ; the professional gentleman on horseback, — a cus- THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 131 toni so graceful and health-giving that we should not be sorry to see its revival in New England. Whole families — men, women, and even little children — passed and repassed on foot, carrying with them their scanty effects. Then there was the mail-coach, — a putty, groaning vehicle, bulging out at the top and sides, and hung on thoroughbraces. On a rough road it lurched like a Chinese junk in a heavy sea-way, and the pas- sengers not unfrequently provided themselves with brandy, lemons, and other palliatives against sea-sickness. Besides these well-marked constituents of the stream, a nondescript element of stragglers drifted along the edges of the current until caught iu some eddy which cast them up at the tavern door. The public inn then had a relative importance to the world of wayfarers that is not now represented by any brown-stone or marble front hotel. The distances from Boston in every direc- tion were reckoned to the taverns. The landlord was a man of note. He was the village newsmonger, oracle, and referee in all disputes. When he liad a full house his guests were dis- tributed about the floors, and the dining-table commanded a premium. The charge for meals or for baiting a horse was a quarter of a dollar. If the world moved then more slowly than it now does, it was not the less content. The tavern was also the political centre Avhere caucuses were held and the state of the country discussed. It was ofttimes there town-meetings were convened, and in war times it was the recruiting rendezvous. Proclamations, notices of that mul- tifarious character pertaining to the interior economy of the village, from the reward for the apprehension of a thief to the loss of a favorite brooch, were afiixed to the bar-room walls. The smell of old Santa Cruz or other strong w^aters saluted the nostrils of all who entered the public room, and yet there was call for neither fumigation nor exorcism. The mail-coach, which only stopped to change horses, occupied forty-eight hours in going over this route from Boston to Portland. Concord coaches succeeded the old English pattern, and still traverse here and there a few byways into which the railway disdains to turn aside. 132 IILSTOUIG .MANSIONS AND IIKIHWAYS. The mail-cuach, too, horc its fixed rcLitiou to the population along the line. It marked the time of day for the laborers in the fields^ who leaned on hoe or seythe until it was lost to view. The plough stopped in the furrow, the smith rested his sledge on liis anvil, while the faces of young and old were glued to the window-panes as this moving piece of the far-away metropolis rolled along. Entering the town, the driver cracked his whip, his leaders sprang out into a brisker gait, and the lumbering vehicle drew up with a flourish beside the tavern door. ' The first of the Medford ordinaries, so far as known, -goes back to about 1G90, Nathaniel Pierce being mine host. The (ieneral Court licensed him to sell not less than a gallon of licjuor at a time to one person, and prohibited the sale of smaller cpiantities by retail. The house was at one time owned by Colonel Royall, being known at different times by the name of the "Royal Oak" and "Admiral Vernon." In 1775 it became the Revolutionary headipiarters, kept by Roger liilliugs, and was long afterward the principal tavern in the town. Tlie house stood on the corner of Main and Union Streets, and was destroyed by fire in 1850. The old Fountain Tavern, so called from its sign representing a fountain pouring forth punch, is no more standing on the old Salem road, at the corner of Fountain Street. Brooks, in his History of Medford, says it was first called the " Two Palaverers." The two large trees in front had each a platform in its branches, connected Avith each other and with the house by wooden bridges. In summer these retreats were resorted to by the guests for tea-parties or punch-drinking. The house was built in 1725, and is extremely unique in ap})earance. The name of Medford is known in every seaport under the sun for its stanch and well-built ships. Of the thousands that float the ocean bearing any flag aloft, none sail more proudly than those of Curtis or jMagoun. This industry, which has dated from tlie time Avhen Englishmen first set foot on tlie shores of the INIystic, has of late years fallen into decay, but once more the familiar sound of the shipwright's beetle is THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 133 beginning to be heard on its banks. Cradock sent over skilled artisans, who at once laid down the keels that have increased so prodigiously. Although we are told his men had a vessel of a hundred tons on the stocks in 1632, the earlier craft were chiefly pinnaces, galleys, and snows, — the latter being rigged some- what after the fashion of our barks. No branch of mechani- cal skill appears to have developed with such rapidity in New England as shipbuilding. The timber, which is now brought hundreds of miles to the yards, then grew along the shores. Vie now hring the keel from Virginia, the frame from the Gidf States, and the masts from Canada. New England, which does not furnish a single product entering into the construction of the ship, forges the anchor which holds her to the bottom; twists the hemp into shrouds, rigging, and those spiders'-webs aloft whose intricacies confound the eye ; spins the cotton which hangs from the yards, and weaves the colors that float at the mast-head. In the public scpiare of Medford is an excellent specimen of the architecture of the last century, now occupied by offices, but originally a dwelling. A few rods distant in a westerly direction, where the Savings Bank now is, was the house which Governor Brooks inhabited, and at the corner was the stone where he was accustomed to mount bis horse. A plain granite shaft is erected over the remains of this distinguished soldier and civilian in the old burial-ground. Behind the Savings Bank, on a rising ground, is one of the early garrison-houses, built of brick, and looking none the worse for its long conflict with time, thanks to the owner, Gen. Samuel C. Lawrence, beside whose elegant mansion it stands conspicuous, a foil to the symmetry and gracefulness of modern art. As a soldier Governor Brooks appeared to his greatest ad- vantage in the battle of Bemis's Heights, where he was in com- mand of the old Eighth, Michael Jackson's regiment. His own relation of the incidents of that day to General Sumner is not, even now, devoid of interest. " On tlie 7tli of October, the day of the last battle with General Burgoyne, General Arnold and several officers dined with General 1.34 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Gates. I was among the company, and well rememljer that one of the dishes was an ox's heart. While at table we heard a firing from the advanced picket. The armies were about two miles from each other. The firing increasing, we all rose from table ; and General Arnold, addressing General Gates, said, ' Shall I go out and see what is the matter I' General Gates made no reply, but ujaon being pressed, said, ' I am afraid to trust you, Arnold.' To which Arnold answered, ' Pray let me go ; I will be careful ; and if our advance does not need support, I will promise not to commit you.' Gates then told him he might go and see what the firing meant." Colonel Brooks repaired to liis post, and under the impetuous Arnold, who seemed fully imbued on this day with the rage militaire, stormed Breyman's Fort, and thus mastered tlie key to the enemy's position. Arnold, once in action, forgot his promise to Gates, Avho vainly endeavored to recall him from the held. Had his life been laid down there, his name would have been as anucdi revered as it is now contemned by his countrymen. The object of paramount interest which Medford contains is the plantation house of Governor Cradock, or " Mathias Char- terparty," as the malcontent Morton styled him. This house is the monarch of all those now existing in North America. As we trace a family back generation after generation until we bring all collateral branches to one common source in the first colo- nist, so we go from one old house to another until we finally come to a pause before this patriarch by the sea. It is the handiwork of the first planters in the vicinity of Boston, and is one of the first, if not the very first, of the brick houses erected within the government of John "VVinthrop. Every man, woman, and child in Medford knows the " Old Fort," as the older inhabitants love to call it, and will point you to the site with visible pride that their pleasant town contains so interesting a relic. Turning your back upon the village, and your face to the east, a In-isk walk of ten minutes along the banks of the Mystic, and you are in presence of the object of your search. A very brief survey establishes tlie fact that this was one of THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 135 those houses of refuge scattered through the New England settlements, into which the inhabitants might ily for safety upon any sudden alarm of danger from the savages. The situation was well chosen for security. It has the river in front, marshes to the eastward, and a considerable extent of level meadow behind it. As it was from this latter c|uarter tliat an attack was most to be apprehended, greater precautions were taken to secure that side. The house itself is placed a little above the general level. Standing for a century and a half in the midst of an extensive and open held, enclosed by palisades, and guarded with gates, a foe could not approach un- seen by day, nor find a vantage-ground from which to assail the inmates. Here, then, the agents of Matthew Cradock, first Governor of the Massachusetts (yompany in England, built the house we are describing. In the ofiice of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, at Bos- ton, hangs the charter of " The Governor and Company of tlie Massachusetts Bay in New England," brought over by Win- throp in 1630. The great seal of England, a most ponderous and convincing symbol of authority, is appended to it. It is well known that the settlement at Salem, two years earlier, under the leadership of Endicott, was begun by a com- mercial company in England, of which Matthew Cradock was ( lovernor. In order to secure the emigration of such men as "Winthrop, Dudley, Sir E. Saltonstall, Johnson, and others, Cradock proposed, in July, 1629, to transfer the government from the company in England to the inhabitants here. As he was the wealthiest and most influential person in the associa- tion, his proposal was acceded to. We cannot enter, here, into the political aspects of this roup d'etat. It must ever arrest the attention and challenge tlie admiration of the student of American history. In defiance of the crown, which had merely organized them into a mer- cantile corporation, like the East India Company, with officers resident in England, they proceeded to nullify tlie clear intent of their charter by removing the government to America. The project was first mooted by Cradock, and secrecy enjoined upon 136 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HICJHWAYS. the members of the company. Tliat lie was the avowed author of it must be our apology for introducing the incident. This circumstance renders Matthew Cradock's name consj)icuous in the annals of Xew England. Cradock never came to America, but there is little doubt that he entertained the purpose of doing so. He sent over, how- ever, agents, or " servants," as they were styled, who estab- lished the ]dantation at Mystic Side. He also had houses at Ipswich and at Marblehead, for fishery and traffic. For a shrewd man of business Cradock seems to have been singularly unfortunate in some of his servants. One of these, Philip liatclilf, being convicted " ore tenus of most foul and slanderous invectives " against the churches and government, was sentenced to bo whipped, lose his ears, and be banished the plantation. Winthrop was complained of by Dudley because he stayed the execution of the sentence of banishment, but answered that it was on the score of humanity, as it was winter and the man must have perished. Eatcliff afterwards, in con- junction with Thomas Morton and Sir C'hristopher ( Jardiuer, procured a petition to the Lords of the Privy Council, before Avhom Cradock was summoned. Morton, who was sent away to England for his mad pranks and contem})t of Puritan authority, wrote as follows of this examination : — " My Lord Canterbury having with my Lord Privy Seal caused all Mr. Cradock's letters to be viewed, and his apology in particular for the brethren here, protested against him and Mr. Huuifry [another of the undertakers] tliat they were a couple of iuipostcrous knaves, so that for all their great friends they departed the council chaiubt-r in our view with a pair of cold shoulders. "As for Ratcliff, he was comforted by their lordsliips with the croppings of Mr. Winthrop's ears, which shows wliat opinion is held among them of King Winthrop with all his inventions and his Amsterdam fantastical ordinances, his preachings, man-iages, and other abusive ceremonies, which do exemplify his detestation of the Church of England aiid the contempt of his majesty's authority and wholesome laws which are and will be established here invitu Minerva." THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 137 In the letter to Wiiitlirop which follows, printed in the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections, the old merchant complains hitterly of the conduct of another of liis agents : — " London 21 Febr. 1636. " Jiiu. Joliff writes mee the manner of Mr Mayheues accounts is, that what is not sett down is spent ; most extremely I am abused. My seruants write they drinke nothing but water & I haue in an account lately sent me Red Wyne, Sack & Aipua Vitae in one yeere aboue 300 gallons, besides many otlier intollerable abuses, 10 l for tobacco etc. My papers are misselayd but if you call for the coppyes of the accounts sent me and exanune vppon what ground it is made you shall find I doubt all but forged stutfe. " Mathewe Cradock." Wood, one of tlie early chroniclers, tells us that Master Cradock had a park impaled at Mystic, where his cattle were kept until it could be stocked with deer ; and that lie also was engaged in shipbuilding, a vessel of a " hundred tunne " having been built the previous year (1G32). It may be, too, that Cradock's artisans built here for Winthrop the little " Blessing of the Bay," launched upon the Mystic tide July 4, 1631, — ^an event usually located at the governor's farm, at Ten Hills. This house, a unique specimen of the architecture of the early settlers, must he considered a gem of its kind. It is not disguised by modern alterations in any essential feature, but bears its credentials on its face. Two hundred and thirty odd New England winters have searched every cranny of the old fortress, wdiistled down the big chimney-stacks, rattled the win- dow-panes in impotent rage, and, departing, certified to us the stanch and trusty handiwork of Cradock's English craftsmen. Time has dealt gently with this venerable relic. Like a veteran of many campaigns, it shows a few honorable scars. The roof has swerved a little fr®m its true outline. It has been denuded of a chimney, and has parted reluctantly with a dormer- window. The loopholes, seen in the front, were long since closed ; the race they were to defend against has hardly an existence to-day. The windows have been enlarged, with an 138 HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. effect on the ensemhle, as Hawthorne says in a similar case, of rouging the cheeks of one's grandmother. Hoary with age, it is yet no ruin, but a comfortable habitation. How many generations of men — and our old house has sel- dom if ever been untenanted -— have lived and died within those walls ! When it was built Charles I. reigned in Old Eng- land, and Cromwell had not begun his great career. Peter the Great was not then born, and the house was waxing in years when Frederick the Great appeared on the stage. We seem td be speaking of recent events when Louis XVI. sufiPered by the axe of the guillotine, and Xapoleon's sun rose in splendor, tu set in obscurity. The Indian, wlio witnessed its slowly ascending Myalls witli wonder and misgiving ; the Englishman, whose axe Avakened new echoes in the primeval forest ; the colonist native to the soil, who battled and died within vieAV, to found a new nation, • — all have passed away. But here, in this old mansion, is the silent evidence of those great epochs of history. It is not clear at what time the house was erected, but it has usually been fixed in the year 1634, when a large grant of land was made to Cradock by the General Court. The bricks are said to have been burned near by. There was some attemj)t at ornament, the lower course of the belt being laid with moulded bricks so as to form a cornice. The loopholes were for defence. The walls were half a yard in thickness. Heavy iron bars secured the arched windows at the back, and the entrance-door was encased in iron. The fire-proof closets, huge chimney- stacks, and massive hewn timbers told of strength and dura- bility. A single pane of glass, set in iron, and placed in the back wall of the western chimney, overlooked the approach from the town. The builders were Englishmen, and, of course, followed their English types. They named their towns and villages after the sounding nomenclature of Old England ; wdmt more natural than that they should wish their homes to resemble those they had left behind'? 8uch a house might have served an inhabi- taiit of the Scottish border, with its loopholes, narrow windows, THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 139 and doors sheathed in ii'on. Against an Indian foray it was impregnable. Cradock was about the only man connected with the settle- ment in Massachusetts Bay Avhose means admitted of such a house. Both Wintlirop and Dudley built of wood, and the former rebuked the deputy for what he thought an unreason- able expense in finishing his own house. Many brick buildings were erected in Boston during the first decade of the settlement, but we have found none that can claim such an ancient pedi- gree as this of which we are Avriting. It is far from improljable that, having in view a future residence in New England, Cradock may have given directions for or prescribed the plan of this house, and that it may have been the counterpart of his own in St. Swithen's Lane, near London Stone. " Then went I forth by Lomloii Stoue Throughout all Cauwick Street." Tlie plantation, with its green meadows and its stately forest- trees, was a manor of which Cradock was lord and master. His grant extended a mile into the country from the river-side in all places. Though absent, he was considered nominally pres- ent, and is constantly aUuded to by name in the early records. Cradock was a member of the Long Parliament, dying in 1641. The euphonious name of Mystic has been supplanted by Med- ford, the Meadford of Dudley and the rest. It is not to be expected that a structure belonging to so re- mote a period, for ISTew England, should be without its legend- ary lore. It is related that the old fort was at one time beleaguered for several days by an Indian war-party, who at length retired baffled from the strong walls and death-shots of the garrison. As a veracious historian, we are compelled to add that we know of no authentic data of such an occurrence. Indians were plenty enough in the vicinity, and, though gen- erally peaceful, they were regarded ^vith more or less distrust. The settlers seldom stirred abroad without their trusty match- locks and well-filled bandoleer. "We cannot give a better pic- ture of the times than by invoking the aid of MacFingal : — 140 HISTOEIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. " For once, for fear of Indian beating, Our grandsires bore their guns to meeting; Each man equipped on Sunday morn With p.salm-l)ook, shot, and powder-horn ; And looked in form, as all must grant, Like the ancient, true church militant ; Or fierce, like modern deep divines. Who fight with quills, like porcupines." In all probability tliis iwost interesting landmark of tbe beginnings of oSTew England, so suggestive too of the many changes wrought by the passing centuries under its own shadow, as one might say, so knit with the fortunes of an infant com- monwealth, would have gone to irremediable ruin and decay but for the patriotic action of General Samuel C. Lawrence, who bought tlie Cradock House to save it from threatened demolition. lee's HEADCjUAKTEKS A^v'D VICIXITY. 141 CHAPTEE VII. lee's headquarters and vicinity. " Night closed aroiuid the conqueror's way, And lightumgs showed tlie distant hill, Where those who lost that dreadful day Stood few and faint, but fearless still." DESCENDING into the vaUey between Winter and Pros- pect HiUs, any search for traces of the works which existed here in 1775 - 76 would he fruitless ; every vestige had disap- peared fifty years ago. The site of the star fort laid down on the map was a little north of Medford Street and east of Walnut Street. The structure of the ground shows that there was once a considerable elevation here, which commanded the approach by the low land between Prospect, Winter, and Ploughed Hills. On the little byway now dignified with the name of Syca- more Street stands the old farm-house which was the headquar- ters for a time of General Charles Lee. Long ago, I found there Oliver Tufts, whose father, John Tufts, resided there in Revolutionary times, and planted with his own hands the beau- tiful elm that now stretches its protecting branches over the old homestead. When the house was occupied by the mercurial Lee it had one of those long pitched roofs descending to a single story at the back, and which are still occasionally met with in our in- terior New England towns. The elder Tufts altered the exterior to Avhat we now see it ; and although the date of the erection of the house, which once sheltered so notaljle an occupant, has not remained extant in the family, it evidently belongs to the earlier years of the eighteenth century. The name and career of Charles Lee are not the least inter- esting subjects in our Eevolutionary annals. A mystery, not 142 lIISTOrJC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. wholly cleared away, has enshrouded the concluding incidents of Lee's connection with the American army. Whether the name of traitor is to accompany his memory to posterity or not, there is no question that he was at the beginning of the con- test a zealous partisan of the American cause. It is in this light we prefer to consider him. When Lee came to join the forces assembled around Boston he was certainly regarded, in respect to mihtary skill, as the foremost man in the army. His experience had been acquired on the same fields with the men he was now to oppose, and it is evident that neither Gage, Howe, Clinton, nor Burgoyne underrated his ability. In a " separate and secret despatch " Lord Dartmouth wrote to General Gage to have a special eye on Lee, whose presence in Boston in the autumn of 1774 was known to his lordship. Lord Dartmouth's letter says : — " I am told that M'' Lee, a major upon half pay with the rank of Lieut Colonel, has lately appeared at Boston, that he associates only with the enemies of government, that he encourages the dis- content of the people by harangues and publications, and even advises to arms. This gentleman's general character cannot be un- known to you, and therefore it will be very proper that you should have attention to his conduct, and take every legal method to pre- vent his effecting any of those dangerous jiurposes he is said to have in view." General Lee was five feet eight, and of rather slender make, but with unlimited powers of endurance, as w^as fully proved in his rapid movements from Boston to I^ew York, and from !N'ew York to the defence of the Southern seaports. His capa- city to resist fatigue was thoroughly tested at Monmouth, the only instance recorded where he admitted that he was tired out. Lee had visited most of the courts of Europe, and was a good linguist. He wrote well, but rather diffusely ; and although his language is marred by a certain coarseness, it is not con- spicuously so when compared with that of his contemporaries in the profession of arms. " And more than that lie can speak French, and tlierefore he is a traitor." L1:e'S IIEADQUAUTEUS AND VICINITY. 143 Lee liad liveil for some time among the Mohawks, who made him a chief, and who, on account of his impetuous temper, named him, in their iigurative and highly expressive way, '• Boiling Water." He was more than half Indian in his ex- treme carelessness of his personal appearance, of what he ate or drank, or where he slept. He had lost two fingers in a duel in Italy, — one of many personal encounters in wliich he Avas en- gaged during his lifetime. Lee was cool, clear-headed in action, and possessed true military insight. The following is probably an accurate pen-portrait of this extraordinary man : — " A tall man, lank and thin, with a huge nose, a satirical mouth, and restlesa eyes, who sat his horse as if he had often ridden at fox- hunts in England, and wore his uniform with a cynical disregard of common opmion." There is a caricature of General Lee by Eushbrooke, which, if allowed to resemble the General, as it is claimed it does, would fairly establish his title to be regarded as the ugliest of men, both in form and feature. It shoidd, however, be con- sidered as a caricature and nothing else. j\Irs. John Adams, who first met General Lee at an evening party at Major Mifflin's house in Cambridge, describes him as looking like a " careless, hardy veteran," who brought to her mind his namesake, Charles XII. " The elegance of his pen flir exceeds that of his person " says this accomplished lady. Lee Avas very fond of dogs, and was constantly attended by one or more ; his favorite being a great shaggy Pomeranian, which Dr. Belknap says resembled a bear more than a harmless canine. Spada — that was the dog's name — was constantly at his master's heels, and accompanied him in whatever company he might happen to be. It appears from a letter of John Adams to James Warren, — ■ the then President of the Provincial Congress, — which was intercepted by the British, that Colonel Warren had no great opinion of General Lee, for Mr. Adams tells him he must bear with his whimsical manners and his dogs for the sake of his military talents. " Love me, love my dog," says Mr. Adams. 144 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. General Lee used to relate with great gusto an anecdote of one of his aides Avho showed a little trepidation under fire, and who expostulated with his general for exposing himself. The general told his officer that his Prussian majesty had twenty aides killed in one battle. The aide replied that he did not think Congress could spare so many. Lee's first aide-de-camp was Samuel Griffin, who was succeeded by Colonel William Palfrey, the same who afterwards served Washington in a simi- lar capacity. Lee's slovenliness Avas the occasion of a rather amusing con- tretemps. On one of Washington's journeys to reconnoitre the shores of the bay he was accompanied by Lee, who, on arriving at the house where they were to dine, went straight to the kitchen and demanded something to eat. The cook, taking him for a servant, told him she would give him some victuals di- rectly, but he must first help her oif with the pot, — a request w^ith which he readily complied. He was then requested to take a bucket and go to the well for water, and was actually engaged in drawing it Avhen found by an aide whom Washing- ton had despatched in quest of him. The poor girl then heard for the first time her assistant addressed by the title of " gen- eral." The mug fell from her hands, and, dropping on her knees, she began crying for pardon, when Lee, who was ever ready to see the impropriety of his own conduct, but never willing to change it, gave her a crown, and, turning to the aide-de-camp, observed : " You see, young man, the advantage of a fine coat ; the man of consequence is indebted to it for respect ; neither A^irtue nor abilities without it will make you look like a gentleman." It is somewhat remarkable that most of the officers of the Revolutionary army who had seen service in that of Great Britain, and of whom so much was expected, either left the army before the close of the war with damaged reputations or in disgrace. Lee and Gates, who stood first in the general estimation, suffered a complete loss of favor, while the fome of Schuyler and St. Clair endured a partial eclipse. IMontgomery bravely fell before Quebec. St. Clair married a Pxiston lady LEE".S IIEAIJQUARTEKS AND VICINITY. 145 (Phcebe Bayard), a relative of Governor Bowdoin, and during the war placed his daughter in that town to be educated. In the memorable retreat through the Jerseys Lee's conduct began to be distrusted. He was perhaps willing to see Wash- ington, whose life only intervened between himself and the supreme command, defeated ; but we need not go Ijack a cen- tury to find generals who have been unwilling to support their commanders, even when within sound of their cannon. Lee had a good private fortune. He was sanguine and lively, and a martyr to gout. He was fearless and outspoken, never concealing his sentiments from any man, and in every respect was the antipodes of a conspirator. Men, indeed, might say of him, — " Yond' Cassius lias a lean and hungry look ; He thinks too mucli ; such men are dangerous. " By his brother officers he was evidently considered a rival of the commander-in-cliief, but we lind no contemporary evidence that he was looked upon as a traitor until the day of Alon- mouth. The present generation, however, much wiser, has de- creed him faithless upon the evidence of a manuscript said to be m Lee's handwriting, and purporting to be a plan for sub- jugating the States. This precious document is without date or signature, but is indorsed by another hand, - Mr. Lee's plan — 29th March, 1777." At this time the General was a prisoner m :s ew York. The writing, which bears an extraordinary re- semblance to that of General Lee, is rehed upon mainly to convict him of treason. The so-called proofs of the treachery of Lee have been skil- fully put together by George H. Moore, but they contain other lata! objections besides the want of a signature to the " plan " Proof IS adduced to show that Lee was not a general, and at the same time he is accredited with having induced General Howe to adopt his " plan " and abandon one carefully matured by his brother and himself, as early as April 2, or four days after the date indorsed on the " plan." Moreover, a motive for Lee's defection is not supplied. He did not want money, nor sell himself, like Arnold, for a price. His fate, which at one time had 7 146 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. trembled in the balance, — the king had ordered liim sent home to be tried as a deserter, — was practically decided by Washing- ton's hvmness long before the date of the "plan." There is no evidence to show he ever received the least emolument from the British government. Lee rejoined his flag, and his conduct at Monmouth appears more like vacillation than treachery ; for it will liardly be doubted that, had he so intended, he might easily have betrayed his troops into the hands (jf Sir Henry Clinton. If opportunity was what he sought to give eflect to his treason, it must be looked for elsewhere than in this campaign, which lie had opposed with all his might, and executed, so far as in him lay, with languor and reluctance. AVe can conclude Lee erratic, wayward, ambitious beyond his abilities, devoured by egotism, but not a traitor ; or if one, he was the most disinter- ested that the pages of history have recorded. A British officer who knew Lee well gives this account of his copture : — " He was taken by a party of ours, luider Colonel Harcourt, who suiTOunded the house in which this arch-traitor was residing. Lee behaved as cowardly in this transaction as he has were quartered at Rutland from the state- ment of one of the prisoners : — " Here we were confined in a sort of pen or fence, which was con- structed in the I'ollowing manner : A great number of trees were ordered to be cut down in the woods. These were sharpened at each end and drove firmly into the earth, very close together, en- closing a space of about two or three acres. American sentinels wei'e planted on the outside of this fence, at cimvenient distances, in order to ]irevent our getting out. At one angle a gate was erected, and on the outside thereof stood the guard-house. Two sentinels were con- lee's headquakters and vicinity. 165 stantly posted at this gate, and no one could get out unless he had a pass from the officer of the guard ; l)Ut this was a privilege in which very few were indulged. Boards and nails were given the British, in order to make them temporary huts to secure them from the rain and the heat of the sun. The provisions were rice and salt pork, delivered with a scanty hand. The otiicers were allowed to lodge in the farm-houses which lay contiguous to the pen ; they were per- mitted likewise to come in amongst their men for the jjurpose of roll-call and other matters of regularity." On tlie 9th IS'ovember, 1778, the British and Germans, in accordance with a resolve of Congress, began their march for Virginia in six divisions, each of which was accompanied by an American escort. Each nationality formed a division. The first English division consisted of the artillery, grenadiers, and light infantry, and the 9th (Taylor's) regiment, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Hill. The second English division con- sisted of the 20th (Parr's) and 21st (Hamilton's) regiments, commanded by Major Forster; and the third, composed of the 24th (Eraser's), 47th (Nesbitt's), and 62d (Anstruther's) regiments, were under the command of Brigadier Hamilton. The first German division consisted of the dragoons, grenadiers, and the regiment Von Ehetz, under Major Von IMengen. In the second division were the regiments Von Eiedesel and Von Specht, led by General Specht ; the third was made up of the Earner Battalion, the regiment Hesse Hanau, and the artillery, under Brigadier Gall. The divisions marched respectively on the 9 th, 10th, and 11th, keeping one day in advance of each other on the route. Burgoyne having been permitted to return to England, General Phillips was in command of all the Con- vention troops. He had been placed in arrest by General Heath for using insulting expressions in connection with Lieutenant Brown's death, but Gates, who now succeeded to the command, relieved the fiery Briton from his disability. The story of the sojourn of the British army in the interior of Massachusetts closes with a domestic tragedy. Eathsheba Spooner was the daughter of that tough
peace between The effect and it ! " Buchanan, one of the criminals, is supposed to be the same who was a corporal in the 9th regiment. He had been a leader in the mutiny on Prospect Hill, and was in arrest at the time of the Henley trial. In taking leave for the present of the Convention troops, we recall the })ertinent inquiry : " Who would have thought that Mr. Burgoyne's declaration would ]iave been so soon verified wlien lie said in Parbanient that at lee's headquarters and vicinity. 167 tlie liead of live thousand troops lie would march through the continent of America 1 " The march of improvement has left no traces of the old works that once crowned the hrow of Prospect Hill so threateningly. A telling reminder of them, however, exists in an artificial hattery, terminating tlie little park, near the new High School, on Central Hill, where the old defences on this side formerly ended. A mere glance shows how im- portant the position was to the Americans, wdio considered it impregnable. From here the lines ran in a generally southwesterly direc- tion to the hanks of the Charles. I'Jefore the work of grading was undertaken the line of the ditch could easily be traced to "where it was crossed by Highland Avenue. The position on Central Hill is notable from the fact of its having been chosen by General Putnam as a rallying-point for the Americans, after the battle of P)unker Hill. Leaving this, the northerly of the two eminences of Prospect Hill, we pass on to the extreme summit, where an enchanting view bursts upon the sight. The homes of half a million of people are before you. The tall chimneys of East Cambridge, the distant steeples of the city and of its lesser satellites, wliose hands are grasped across the intervening river, form a Avon- drous and instructive exhibition of that prosperity which our fathers battled to secure. Corrld the sliades of those who by day and night kept watch and Avard on this embattled height once again revisit the scene of their trials and their triumphs, we could scarcely ex- pect them to recognize in the majestic, dome-crowned city the gray old town which they beheld tlirough the morning mists of a century gone by, or even to identify the winding river on whose bosom lay moored the hostile shipping, and from whose black sides, "Sullen and silent, ami like eonebant litms. Their cannon tlirougli the night, Holding their breath, had vvatclied in grim detiauce The sea-coast opposite." 168 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. A narrow strip of the liigh, northern summit, reached hy Monroe Street, is all that is now left of this once proud emi- nence, around which now cluster the homes of a more peaceful population. " Grim visaged war " has here indeed " smoothed his wrinkled front " to such purpose that the old tale seems more like a dream than like sober reality. OLD CHAIiLESTOWN IIOAD. 169 CHAPTEE VIII. OLD CHARLESTOWN UOAD, LECHMKHE's POINT, AND PUTNAM's HEADQUARTERS. " Poor Tommy Gage, within a cage Was kept at Boston ha', man, Till Willie Howe took o'er the knowe For Philaddphia, man." OF the many whose custom it is to pass over the high-road leading from Charlestown to Cambridge Common it is likely that few are aware that they follow the course over which condemned criminals were once transported for execution. Its antecedents may not be as prulihc of horrors as the way from Xewgate to Tyburn, which counts a life for every rod of the journey, but its consequence as one of the most frequented highways of colonial days caused its selection for an exhil)ition which chills the blood, and carries us back within view of the atrocious judicial punishments of the Dark Ages. To kiU was not enough. The law was by no means satisfied with the victim's life. The poor human shell must be hacked or mangled with all the savagery which Ijarljarous ingenuity could devise ; and at last Justice erected her revolting sign by the public highway, where the decaying corse of the victim creaked in a gibbet, as it mournfully obeyed the Ijehest of the night-wind. Gibbeting, burning, impaling, have all a precedent in New England, of which let us relate an incitlent or two. In the year 1 749 a fire broke out in Charlestown, destroying some sho})S and other buildings belonging to Captain John Codman, a respectable citizen and active military officer. It transpired that Captain Codman had been poisoned by his negro servants, Mark, Phillis, and Plioebe, who were fiivorite domestics, and tliat the arson was committed to destroy the 8 170 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. evaleuce of the crime. The man had procured arsenic and the women administered it. Mark was hanged, and Pliillis was burnt at the usual place of execution in Cambridge. Phoebe, who was said to have been the most culpable, became evidence against the others. She was transported to the "West Indies. The body of Mark was susjDended in irons on the northerly side of Cambridge road, now Washington Street, a little west of and very near the stone quarry now there. The gibbet remainetl until a short time before the Revolution, and is mentioned by Paul lievere as the place Avhere he was intercepted by a patrol of British officers on the night he carried the news of the march of the regulars to Lexington. A specimen of one of these bar- barous engines of cruelty was once kept in the Boston Museum. It ^^ \ias Inouglit from Quebec, and " -- loidced as though it might have ; I ,><'"" been put to horrid purpose. ,^ Tliis was, in all probability, the '^^^- V 1 • 1 occurrence oi burning and nix'-; M\Ti:. gibbeting in Massachusetts. Earlier it was not uncommon to condemn malefactors of the worst sort to ])e hung in chains. As long- ago as 172G the bodies of the pirates, William Fly, Samuel Cole, and Henry Creenville, were taken after execution to Nix's Mate, in Boston harbor, where the remains of Fly were sus- pended in chains ; the others Avere buried on the island, which then contained several acres. Hence the superstitious awe Avith Avhich the place is even now regarded by mariners, and Avhich the disa]>iK'arance of the island has served so firmly to estal)lish. We must confess that Avhile our humanity revolts at these barbarous usages of our ancestors, Ave cannot but admit that punishment folloAved crime iu their day Avith a certainty by no means paralleled in our own. The severity of the code, the infliction of death for petty crimes, Ave must abhor and con- demn ; but Ave may still contrast that state of things, in Avhich the criminal's life was held so cheaply, Avith the present time, OLD CHAKLESTOWX ROAD. 171 in which condemned malefactors repose on kixuriant couches, while the law jealously guards them from the penalty of crime, and justice, uncertain of itself, repeals its sentence and sets the guilty free. To something we must attribute the startling increase of crime. Can it be the laxity of the law ] Thomas Morton, the Merry Andrew of Mount Wollaston, I'elates, in his New English Canaan, an occurrence which, he says, happened to "Weston's colony, in what is now Weymouth ; and u|)on this slight foundation Hudibras built his humorous account of the hanging of a weaver for the crime of which a cobbler had been adjudged guilty : — " Our bretlireu of New England use Choice nial-factors to excuse, And liang the guiltless in their stead, Of whom the churches have less need ; As lately happened." Morton's story goes that, one of Weston's men having stolen corn from an Indian, a parliament of all the people was called to decide what punishment should be indicted. It was agreed that the crime was a felony under the laws of England, and that the culprit must suffer death. Upon this a person arose and harangued the assembly. He proposed that as the accused Avas young and strong, fit for resistance against an eneiny, they should take the young man's clothes and put them upon some old, bedridden person, near to the grave, and hang him in the stead of the other. Although Mort(_>n says the idea was well liked by the multitude, he admits that the substitution was not . made, and that the course of justice was allowed to take ett'ect upon the real offender. Branding was not an unusual punishment in former times. A marine belonging to one of his Majesty's ships lying in Bos- ton harbor, in 1770, being convicted of manslaughter, was immediately branded in the hand and dismissed. Mont- gomery and Killroy, convicted of the same crime for participa- tion in the 5th of March massacre, were also branded in the same manner. Directly in front of Mount Prospect, of which it is a lesser 172 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. satellite, is the hill on which once stood the Asylum for the Insane, named for noble John McLean. During the siege this elevation was indifferently called Miller's and Cobble Hill, and subsequently Barrell's Hill from Joseph Barrell of Boston, whose superb old mansion has been demolished. The work on Cobble Hill was laid out by General Putnam and Colonel Knox. It was begun on the night of November 22, 1775, and was considered, when completed, the best speci- men of military engineering the Americans could yet boast of, — receiving the name of Put- nam's impregna- ble fortress. To Washington's great surprise, lie was allowed to finish the work without the least interruption from the enemy. Cobble Hill was within point-blank range of the enemy's lines on Bunker Hill, and the post was designed to command the ferry between Boston and Charlestown, as well as to pre- vent the enemy's vessels of war from moving up the river at pleasure, — a result fully accomplished by arming the fort with 18 and 24 pounders. As Colonel Knox had a principal share in laying out the fort on Cobble Hill, the only one of the works around Boston he is certainly known to have designed, the eminence should retain some association with the name of this distinguished soldier of the Revolution. At the time he quitted Boston to repair to the American camp, Knox rented of Benjamin Ilarrod a store in old Cornhill (now the site of the "Globe" newspajier), who readily con- OLD CHAELESTOWN EOAD. 173 sented that Knox's goods iniglit remain there, i]i the behef that his tory connections — he had lately married the daughter of Secretary Flucker — would be a safeguard for both. The store, however, was rifled by the British, and the landlord put in a claim against Knox for the time it was shut up, which Knox indignantly refused to allow. After the evacuation, William Knox, brother of the general, continued the business of a Ijook- seller at the same stand. "When the Revolution began, Knox was a lieutenant of the Boston Grenadiers, commanded by Thomas Dawes, with the rank of major. Dawes was an officer of activity and address, and had exerted himself to bring the militia to a high standard of excellence. The presence of some of the best 'regiments in the British ser\dce offered both a model and incentive for these efforts. The company was composed of mechanics and profes- sional men, selected with regard to their height and martial bearing, no member being under five feet ten inches, and many six feet in height. Joseph Peirce was a lieutenant with Knox, and Lemuel Trescott (afterwards a distinguished officer in the IVIassachusetts line) was orderly-sergeant. The company made a splendid appearance on parade, and Knox Avas considered a re- markably fuie-looking officer. So at least thought one young lady, who, it is said, became captivated with her tall grenadier through those broad avenues to the female heart, admiration and pity, and by the following circumstance : — Harry Knox had been out gunning some time previous, when the piece he carried, bursting in his hands, occasioned the loss of several of his fingers. " He made his appearance in the company," says Captain Henry Burbeck, " with the wound handsomely bandaged with a scarf, which, of course, excited the sympathy of all the ladies. I recollect the circumstance as well as though it had only happened yesterday. I stood at the head of Bedford Street and saw them coming up," It is probable that Lucy Flucker was a frequent visitor to Knox's shop, for he reckoned the cream of the old Bostonians, as well as the debonair officers of his Majesty's army and fleet, among his customers. Longman was his London correspondent, 174 111ST01;1C MANSIONS AND lUcillWAYS. and that arch-knave, Rivington, his New York ally in trade ; be it known that New York relied on Boston chiefly for its advices from England before the Eevolution. There is evidence that the affair of Knox and Miss Flucker was a love-match not sanctioned by her family. Lucy Flucker, with a true woman's faith and self-devotion, espoused the cause and embraced tlie fortunes of her husband. She followed him to the camp and to the field. Knox's great r(;putation as an officer of artillery had its beginning here before Boston. He succeeded Gridley in the command of the Massachusetts regiment of artillery, a regiment of which Paddock's company formed the nucleus, and of which some twenty members became commissioned officers in the army of the Eevolution. That company nobly responded when Joseph \Yarren demanded of them how many could be counted on to serve in the Army of Constitutional Liberty Avhen it should take the field. And David Mason, Avho had raised the company, subsecpiently Paddock's, made no effort to obtain promotion lor himself, but declared his willingness to serve under Knox, if the latter could be appointed colonel of the artillery. Knox became very early a favorite Avith Washington. We know not whether the general-in-chief was of Cfesar's way of thinking, but it is certain Knox would have fultilled tlie Roman's desire wlien he exclaims from his heart : — " Let me liave men about me that are fat ; Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights." We have seen that Washington told Greene he meant to keep Knox near him. On the other hand, Knox loved and revered his commander as a son. At that memorable leaA'e- taking at Francis's tavern in New York, which no American can read without emotion, the General, after his few, touching words of farewell, invites his comrades to take him by the hand. " Knox, being nearest, turned to him. Incapable of utterance, Washington, in tears, grasped his hand, embraced, and kissed him. In the same aff'ectionate manner he took OLD CliARLESTOWN llOXD. 175 leave of each succeeding officer." History does not record such another scene as this. Wilkinson says Knox facilitated the passage of the Delaware before Trenton by his stentorian lungs and extraordinary exer- tions. He was in the front at Monmouth, placing his pieces at a critical moment where they stemmed the British onset and restored the battle. But Harry Knox " won his spurs " by his successful exertions in removing the artillery from Crown Point to the camp at Cambridge. At one time failure stared him in the face. The advanced season and contrary winds were near preventing the transportation of his ponderous treasures across the lake. The bateaux were rotten, and some, after being loaded with infinite difficulty, either sunk or let the cannon through their leaky bottoms. With joy at last Knox saw his efforts croAvned with success. He writes to Washington, " Three days ago it was very uncertain whether we could have gotten them until next spring, but now, please God, they must go." The cannon and mortars were loaded on forty-two strong sleds, and were dragged slowly along by eighty yoke of oxen, the route being from Fort George to Kinderhook, and from thence, via Great Barrington, to Springfield, where fresh cattle were provided. The roads were bad, and suitable carriages could not be had, so that the train could not proceed without snow. Fortunately the roads became passable, and the sin- gular procession wound its tedious way through the moun- tains of Western Massachusetts and down to the sea. " We shall cut no small figure in going through the country with our cannon, mortars, &c., draAvn l)y eighty yoke of oxen," says Knox. General Knox, notwithstanding his later pecuniary diffi- culties, in which some of his l)est friends were unfortunately involved, was the soul of honor. When the war broke out he was in debt to Longman and other London creditors to a con- siderable amount, but at the peace he paid the greater part of these debts in full. Well might Mrs. Knox, after her bereave- ment, speak of " his enlarged soul, his generous heart, his 17G HISTORIC MANSIONS AND IIIGIIWAYS. gentleness of demeanor, and liis ex])aiisive Ijouevolence." He deserved it all. When the General became a resident of Boston again, ten years after he had quitted it for the service, he was a tenant of Copley's house on Beacon Hill, lie was then very fat, and wore in summer a high-crowned Leghorn hat, a very full shirt- frill, and usually carried a green umbrella under his arm. His injured hand was always wrapped in a silk handiverchief, which he was in the habit of unwinding when he sto{)ped to speak with any one. Knox County and Knoxville in East Tennessee were named foi' the General while Secretary of War. Mrs. Knox was a fine horsewoman. She was aftable and gracious to her equals, but was unltciidiiig and unsocial with her inferiiu's, so that when her husband went to live in his elegant home at Thomaston, Maine, she found the society but little congenial. Her winters were chiefly passed in Boston, among her former friends, where she was often to be seen at the evening parties. When at home the ( Jeneral and lady re- ceived many notable guests, and many are the absurd stories still related of the General's prodigality. Mrs. Knox is said to have had a jienchaid for ])lay, which, it must be remembered, was the rule and not the exception of fashionable society in her day. To show to what extent this practice i)re vailed in the good old town of Boston in 1782, we give the tcstiuuuiy of the high-bred ]\Iarquis Chastellux, to whom sueh scenes were familiar : — "They made nie ]t]ay at wliist, for tlie first time since my arrival in America. The cards were Englisli, tliat is, much hand- somer and dearer than ours, and we niarkeil our points with Louis d'ors. When the party was Ihiished the loss was not diftiuult to settle ; for the company was still faithful to that voluntary law estab- lished in society from the commencement of the troubles, which pro- hibited playing for money during the war. This law, however, was not scrupulously observed in the clubs and parties made by the men themselves. The inhabitants of Boston arc fond of high play, and it is fortunate, perhaps, that the war li.ijqiened when it did to moderate this passion, which began to be attended with dangerous consequences." OLD CHARLESTOWX EOAD. 177 When General Knox was with the army under Washington, in the neighborhood of New York, his wife remained at a cer- tain town in Connecticut, awaiting an opportunity of rejoining her husband after tlie event of the campaign should be decided. Mrs. Knox liad for a conii)anii)n the wife of another ]Massa- chusetts officer. The person wlio let his liouse for a short time to the ladies asserted that, after their departure, twenty- five gallons of choice old rum whicli he had in Ids cellar, and of which Mrs. Knox had the key, were missing. It is not a little curious that while tlie splendid seat erected by Knox after the war, at Tliomaston, which lie named Mont- pelier, has been demolished, the old wooden house in Boston in which the General was born was, until quite recently, stand- ing on Federal Street, near East Street, — that part of Boston being formerly known as AVheeler's Point. General Heath says in his memoirs that, being well acquainted with Knox before the war, he urged liim to join the American army, but tliat Knox's removal out of Boston and tlie state of his do- mestic concerns required some arrangement, which he effected as soon as possible, and then joined his countrymen. Cobble Hill was, in December, 1777, the quarters of a por- tion of Burgoyne's troops, who were suspected of setting hre to tlie guard-house there at the same time a plot was discovered on board one of the guard-ships in the harbor for the release of the Bennington prisoners. Joseph Barrell was an eminent r>oston merchant, who, wliile a resident of that town, had inhabited one of the most elegant old places to be found there. The evidences of his taste were until lately seen in the house Avliich he built after the Revolu- tionary War, and in the grounds Avhich he laid out. Barrell's palace, as it was called, was reached b}^ passing through a noble avenue, shaded by elms planted by the old merchant. It was erected in 1792, and was furnished with glass of American manufacture from the first works erected in Boston. The liouse, wdiich was of In-ick, does not demand a particular de- scription here, but it was in all respects a noble old mansion, Avorthy a magnate of the Excliange. The interior arrangement 8* ^ I, 178 IIISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. of the gi'ouml-floor is thus described. Entering a vestibule opening into a spacious liall, across which springs the staii'case, supported by wooden Cdluniiis, you pass under this bridge into an oval reception-room in tlie rear (if the building, an apartment of eleoance even for our day, and commanding a view of the gardens and fish-pond so much alfected by the old pr(j[)rietoi', — a souvenir of the estate in Summer Street. In this room is hanyino- a ijortrait of ^IcLean, the beneficent founder of the asylum, by Alexander. Mr. Barrell spared no expense in the interior decoration of his house, as the rich woodwork abun- dantly testifies. He it was who first introduced the tautog into Boston Bay, a fish of such excellence that all true disciples of Izaak Walton should hold his name in grateful remembrance. Poplar Grove, as Mr. fJarrell's place was called, was pur- chased in ISlC), by the corp(jration of the Massachusetts General Hosj)ital, — of which the asylum is an appendage, — of Ben- jamin Joy, and the Barrell mansion became, and xmtil recently remained, the residence of the physician and superintendent. Rufus Wyman, M. D., was, from the first opening in 1818 until 1835, the physician here. But the topography of all this region is now strangely altered, not only by the demolition of the buildings, but also by the levelling of the hill itself, once such a beautiful and interesting feature in the otherwise dreary landscape. The demands of the railroads, entering the city at this point, for more room, have been imperative, and the dome-capped build- ings with their shady walks and extensive orchard have silently obeyed the relentless mandate. It is true that the noise caused by the frequent passing of hurrying trains, to and fro, was bad for the hospital patients. Here the poor patients whose wits are out may ramble in the pleasant paths and " babble o' green fields." Here we may see a Lear, there an Ophelia, — old and yonng, rich and poor, but with an equality of wretchedness lliat levels all worldly con- dition. Though dead in law as to the world, we know not that the lives of the inmates are a blank, or tbat some mysterious affinity may not exist among them. From the incurable maniac LECHMEKE'tt POI^T. 179 down to the victim of a single lialluciuatioii, who is only mad when the wind is north-northwest, the principles of an enlarged philanthropy have been found to be productive of the most happy results. Their former lives are studied, and, as far as practicable, grafted upon the new. Your madhouse, perhaps the most repulsive of all eartldy objects, becomes, under wise and kindly intiuences, the medium by wliich the insane are in very many instances returned into the world. Such have l)eeu for hfty years the fruits of ]Mc Lean's exalted charity. iS'one but the antiquary, who is ready to discard every sense but that of smell ne-ed explore tlie margin of Miller's River. If he expects to find a placid, inviting stream, with green banks and cluni[)s of willows, — a stream for poetry or medita- tion, — let lam beware. If he looks for a current in which to cast a line, or where he may float in his skiff and dream the day away, building his aerial chateaux, let him discard all such ideas and pass by on the other side. Miller's River in time became a pu])lic nuisance, and for sanitary reasons was filled up. Such draughts of air as are wafted to your nostrils from slaughter-houses, where whole hecatombs of squealing victims are daily sacrificed, are not of the chameleon's dish. Lechmere's Point, now East Cambridge, was so called from its ownership by the Lechmere family. Hon. Thomas Lech- mere, who died in 1765, was for many years Surveyor-General for the jS'orthern .District of America, and brother of the then Lord Lechmere. Richard Lechmere, a royalist refugee of 1776, married a daughter of Lieutenant-Governor Spencer Phips, and by her inherited that part of the Phips estate of Avhich we are noAv writing. Tliis Avill account to the reader for the name of " Phips's Farm," which was sometimes applied to the Point in Revolutionary times. About 1806 Andrew Craigie purchased the Point. The site of the old farm-house, Avhich was the only one existing there prior to the Revolution, was near where the Court House now stands. Tliis locality is celebrated as the Luiding-place of the British grenadiers and liglit infantry, under Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, on the night of April 18, 1775. It Avould not be unworthy 180 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. the public spirit of tlie citizens of East Cambridge to erect some memorial by wliicli this fact may be perpetuatt'd. At high tide the Point was an island, connected only with the mainland by a causeway or dike. Willis's Creek or Miller's JJiver, was on the north, and received the waters of a little rivulet which flowed through the marsh on the west. The access to the Point before the Eevolution was by a bridge across Willis's Creek, and a causeway now corresponding nearly with Gore Street. This causeway was probably little more than a footway slightly raised above the level of the marsh, and submerged at high water. The troops lying on and around Prospect Hill were therefore nearest the Point. Wash- ington, in December, 1775, built the causeway now coinciding with Cambridge Street when he had resolved to fortify Lech- mere's Point. By this means he was enabled to reinfoi'ce the garrison there from Cambridge as well as Charlestown side, and by a route less circuitous than that leading from the camps above and at Inman's, which, diverging at Inman's, passed througli his lane about as far as the present line of Cambridge Street, when it curved to the eastward, crossed the creek, and united with Charlestown road at the foot of Prospect Hill. The possession of a siege-train at last enabled Washington to plant batteries where they Avould seriously annoy the enemy in Boston. Among the most important of these were the forts on Cobble Hill and Lechmere's Point. Lechmere's Point was first fortified by the erection of a l)omb-battery on the night of November 29, 1775. The for- tunate capture by Captain Manly of a British ordnance brig in Boston Bay gave, among other valual)le stores, a 13-inch brass mortar to the besieging army. Colonel Stephen Moylau relates that the arrival of this trophy in camp was the occasion of great rejoicing. The mortar was placed in its bed in front of the laboratory on Cambridge Common for the occasion, and Old Put, mounted astride with a bottle of rum in his hand, stood parson, while Godfather Mifflin gave it the name of "Congress." The mortar was eventually placed in battery at the Point, where Washington had so far modified his original plan of a lechmeiie's point. 181 bomb-battery only as to cause the construction of two redoubts. The approach to the causeway and bridge leading to the Point from Charlestown side had previously been secured by a small work on the main shore. After constructing a covered way and improving the causeway, — a task which a heavy fall of snow much retarded, — Washington directed Putnam to throw up the redoubts. The enemy did not at hrst offer the least impedi- ment to the work, and the General could onh^ account for this silence by the supposition that Howe was meditating some grand stroke ; but as soon as the Americans had carried their covered way up to the brow of the hill and broke ground there, the British opened a heavy fire, w^hich continued for several days, without, however, interrupting the work. Owing to the frozen condition of the ground, Avliich made the labor one of infinite difficulty, it was not until the last days of February that the redoubts were completed. AVith proper ordnance the Americans were now able to render the west part of Boston, which was only half a mile dis- tant, untenable to the enemy, and to drive his ships and float- ing-batteries, from which they had experienced the greatest annoyance, out of the river. The arrival of Colonel Knox with the heavy artillery from Ticonderoga and Crown Point supplied the want that had all along been so keenly felt. On the 25th of February, 1776, Knox orders Burbeck, his lieutenant-colonel, to arm the batteries at Lechmere's Point with two 18 and two 24 pounders, to be removed from Prospect Hill ; and on the 26th Washington announces the mounting there of heavy ordnance and the preparation of two platforms for mortars, but laments the want of the thing essential to offensive operations. An ofticer writes in January of this poverty of ammunition : — " The bay is open, — everything thaws here except Old Put. He is still as hard as ever crying out for powder, powder ! ye gods, give us powder ! " From this point Boston was successfully bombarded on the 2d March, 1776. A number of houses in what is now the West End Avere struck, — Peter Chardon's, in Bowdoin St[uare, 182 lUSTuRIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. where the granite church now stands, being hit several" times. The ball which so long remained in Brattle Street Church, a visible memorial of the siege, was undoubtedly thrown from I.echmere's Point. The fort here, which we are justified in considering the most important of all the American works, commanded the town of Boston as fully as the hills in Dor- chester ditl on that side. It was to resist the works here and on Cobble Hill that the British erected batteries on Beacon Hill and at Barton's Point in Boston, — the point where Craigie's Bridge leaves the shore. The following extracts from the letter of a British officer of rank, begun on the 3d of March, 1776, and continued in the form of a journal until the embarkation, give an account of the bombardment and manner in which the American artil- lery was served by Colonel Knox : — " For the last six weeks, or near two months, we have been better amused than could possibly be expected in our situation. We had a theatre, we had balls, and- there is actually a subscription on foot for a masquerade. England seems to have forgot us, and we endeavored to forget ourselves. But we were roused to a sense of our situation last night in a manner unpleasant enough. The rebels have been erecting foi' some time a bomb battery, and last night they began to play upon us. Two shells fell not far from me. One fell upon Colonel Monckton's house and broke all the windows, but luckily did not burst until it had crossed the street. Many houses were damaged, but no lives lost. What makes this matter more provoking is, that their barracks are so scattered and at such a distance that we camiot disturb them, although from a battery near the water-side they can reach us easily. " 4th. The rebel army is not brave, I believe, liut it is conceded on all hands that their artillery officers are at least equal to our own. In the number of shells that they flung last night not above three failed. Tins morning we flung four, and three of them burst in the air. " r)th. We underwent last night a severe cannonade, which dam- aged a number of houses and killed some men." The Eoyal Artillery endeavored for fourteen days unsucces.s- fully to silence the American batteries on the east and west of LECiLMEKE's TOI^'T. 183 lio.stoii. On the Gtb orders were issued to em hark the artihery and stores. Colonel Cleavelantl writes as fullows of the dilii- culties he encountered : — " Tlie transports for the cannon, etc., which were ordered to the wharf were without a sailor on board and half stowed with lumljer. At the same time most of my heavy cannon and all the held artil- lery, with a great quantity of arms, was to be brought in from Charlestown and other distant posts. I was obliged to send iron ordnance to supply their places, to keep up a fire on the enemy and prevent their breaking ground on Forster Hill (South Boston). On the fifth day most of the stores were on board, with the exception of four iron mortars and their beds, weighing near six tons each. With great difficulty I brought three of them from the battery, but on getting them on board the transport the blocks gave way, and a mortar fell into the sea, where I afterwards threw the other two." Four companies of the 3d Battalion of Artillery had joined before the troops left Boston. Until their arrival there was not a relief for the men who were kept constantly on duty. One hundred and hfty vessels were employed in transporting the army and stores to Halifax. It was related by Colonel Burbeck that the battery contain- ing the " Congress " mortar was placed under the command of Colonel David Mason. With this m^u'tar Mason was ordered to set fire to Boston. His first shell was aimed at the Old South, and passed just above the steeple. The next shell was aimed more acctirately at the roof, which it woidd doubtless have entered liad not the mortar burst, grievously wounding the colonel and killing a number of his men. From this and similar accidents at the batteries, Boston escaped destruction. Tlu-ough the inexperience of those who served them, four other mortars were burst during the bombardment wliich preceded the occupation of Dorchester Heights. Early in March "Washington evidently expected an attack, as his dispositions were made with that view. That Lech- mere's Point was the object of Ids solicitude is clear from the precautions taken to guard that important post. Upon any alarm Patterson, whose regiment garrisoned No. 3, was ordered 184 IIISTOUIG MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. t) laarcli to the Point, leaving a strong guard in tlie work lead- ing to tlie bridge. Bond's was to garrison Cobble Hill, and Sargeant's the North, South, and Middle Redoubts. Heath's, Sullivan's, Greene's, and Frye's brigades were, in rotation, to march a regiment an hour before day into the works at Lechmere's Point and Cobble HiU, — five companies to the former and three to the latter post, where they were to remain until sunrise. The fort was situated on the summit of the hill, Avhich has lost considerable of its altitude, the southeast angle being about where the old Unitarian Church now stands, and the northern bastion on the spot now occupied by Thomas Hastings's house, on the corner of 4th and Otis Streets ; the latter street is laid out through the fort. A breastwork parallel with the creek and flanking it extended some distance down the hill. Lechmere's Point obtained an unenviable reputation as the place of execution for Middlesex. Many criminals were hung here ; among others the notorious Mike Martin, sometimes called "the last of the highwaymen." Michael Martin, alias Captain Lightfoot, after a checkered career as a highway robber in Ireland, his native country, and in Scotland, became a fugitive to America in 1819, landing at Salem, where he obtained employment as a farm laborer of Elias Hasket Derby. A life of honest toil not being congenial, Martiu, after passing through numerous vicissitudes, again took to the road, making Canada the theatre of his exploits. At length, after connnitting many robberies in Vermont and New Hampshire, Martin arrived at Boston, and at once com- menced his bold operations. His first and last victim here was Major John Bray of Boston, who was sto^jped and robl)ed Ijy Martin as he was returning to town in his chaise over the ^ledford turnpike. Martin had learned that there was to be a dinner-party at Covernor Brooks's house on that afternoon, and, with native shrewdness, had guessed that some of the guests might be Avorth plundering. Martin fled. He was pursued and arrested in beil at Spring- field. After being removed to East Cambridge jail, lie was leghmeke's PuiXT. 185 tried, convicted of highway robbery, and sentenced to be hanged. This was the tirst trial that had occurred under the statute for such an .offence, and naturally created great interest. The knight of the road was perfectly cool during his trial, and, after sentence was pronounced, observed : " Well, that is the worst you can do for nie." While awaiting his fate, Martin made a desperate effort to escape from prison. He had succeeded in hling off' the chains by which he was secured, so that he could remove them at pleasure ; and one morning when Mr. Coolidge, the turnkey, came to his cell, the prisoner struck him a savage blow with his irons, and, leaving him senseless on the floor, rushed into the prison yard. By throwing himself repeatedly and with great force against the strong oaken gate, Martin at last emerged into the street, but was, after a short flight, recaptured and returned to his cell. After this attempt he was guarded with greater vigilance, and suffered the penalty of his crimes. Of the two half-moon batteries which Washington caused to be thrown up in November, between Leclnnere's Point and the mouth of Charles River, the vestiges of one only are remaining. They were not designed for permanent occupation, but only for occasional use, to repel an attempt by the enemy to land. The good taste of the authorities of Cambridge has preserved the little semicircular battery situated on the farthest reach of firm ground on the Cambridge shore. It is protected by a hand- some iron fence, composed of military emljlems, and is called Fort Washington, — a name rather too pretending for a work of this class. Looking towards Boston, we see in front of us the southerly side of the Common, Avliere the enemy had erected works. The battery has three embrasures, and on a tall flagstaff is the inscription : — " 1775 Fort Washington 1S57 This battery thrown up by Washington Nov. 1775." Struck with the perfect condition of the earthwork, we found upon inquiry that the city of Cambridge had, about forty years ago, thoroughly restored the rampart, whicli was then in 1S6 lIISTuniG MANSIONS AND IIIUIIWAYS. good presei'vatiou. The guns now mounted tliere were, at tliat time, furniyhed by the United States government. The situ- ation is very bleak and exposed, and the cold north-wands must have pierced the poor fellows through and thi'ough as they delved in the frozen gravt^l of tlie Ijeach to construct this work. The other battery was probably on the little hill wliei'e the powder-magazine now stands. Having arrived at the limit of the exterior or olfensive lines between the Mystic and Charles, we may briefly sketch the re- maining positions on this side, constructed for defence only, in the earlier stages of the investment. These lines connected Prospect Hill with Charles Eiver by a series of detached forts and redoubts. Of the former there were three, numbered from right to left. jSTo. 1 was on the bank of Charles River, at the point where it makes a southerly bend. Next was a redoubt situated a short distance south of the main street leading to the Colleges, and in the angle formed by Putnam Street. The emi- nence is being levelled as rapidly as possible, and no marks of the work remain. Connected w'ith this redoubt were the Cam- bridge lines, called Xo. 2, a series of redans, six in number, joined together by curtains. These were carried across the road, and up the slope of what was then called Butler's, since known as Dana Hill, terminating at their northerly extremity in another redoubt, situated on the crest and in the angle of Broadway and Maple Avenue, on the Greenough estate. The soil being a hartl clay, the earth to build this work was carried from the lower ground on the Hovey estate to the top of the hill. To the north of Cambridge Street a breastwork was continued in a northeasterly direction through Mr. C. M. Hovey's nursery. Cannon-shot and other vestiges of military occujjation have been unearthed there by Mr. Hovey. A hundred yards behind this line, but of less extent, was another rampart of earth, hav- ing a tenaille, or inverted redan, in the centre. The right flank rested on the main road, which divided the more advanced work nearly at right angles. Kemains of these works have existed within iovij odd years. Continuing to trace the lines eastward, — their general direc- Putnam's headquarters. 187 tion being from east to west, — Ave iiud that two little lialf- moons Avere thrown up on each side of the Charlestown road at the point where it crossed the Avest branch of Willis's Creek. ISTo. 3 lay to the soutlnvest of Prospect Hill, a little south of the point Avhere the main road from Charlestown (Washington Street) Avas intersected by that from Medford and Menotomy, and Avhicli pass it Avas designed to defend. It Avas a strong, Avell-constructed Avork, and should be placed A^ery near Union Square, in Somerville. These defences Avere, for the most part, planned by Eichard Gridley, the veteran engineer, assisted by his son and by Captain Josiah Waters, of Boston, and Captain Jonathan Bakhvin, of Brookfield, afterwards colonel of engi- neers. Colonel Knox occasionally lent his aid Ijefore receiving his rank in the army. In coming from Charlestown or Lechmere's Point by the old county road hitherto described, and before the day of bridges had created Avhat is noAv Cambridgeport out of the marshes, the hrst object of interest Avas the farm of Ealph Innian, a Avell-to- do, retired merchant of the capital. His mansiondiouse and outbuildings formed a small hamlet, and stood in the angle of the road as it turned sharp to the right anel stretched away to the Colleges. The Avorld Avould not have cared to knoAV who Ealph Innian Avas had not his house become interAVOA^en Avith the history of the siege as the headquarters of that rough, hery genius, Israel I\itnam. It could not have l^een better situated, in a military \iew, for Old Put's residence. The General's OAvn regiment and most of the Connecticut troops lay encamped near at hand in Inman's green fields and fragrant pine Avoods. It Avas but a short gallop to the commander-in-chief's, or to the posts on the river. EemoA^e all the houses that noAv intervene between Inman Street and the Charles, and Ave see that the gallant old man had crouched as near the enemy as it Avas possible for him to do, and lay bke a Avatch-dog at the door of the American lines. Ealph Inman AA'as, of course, a royalist. Xature does not more certainly abhor a A'acuum tlian does your man of sul> 188 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. stance a revolution. Strong elomestic ties bound him to liis allegiance. He was of the Church of England too, and his associates were cast in the same toiy mould with liimself. ]le had been a merchant in lioston in 17G4, and the agent of Sir Charles Frankland when that gentleman Avent abroad. He kejit his coach and his liveried servants for state occasions, and the indispensable four-wheeled chaise universally affected b}' the gentry of his day for more ordinary use. If he was not a Scotsman by descent, we have not read aright the ineaning of the thistle, Avhich Inman loved to see around him. The house had a plain outside, unostentatious, but speak- ing eloquently of solid comfort and good cheer Avithin. It was of wood, of three stories, with a pitched roof. From his veranda Inman had an unobstructed outlook over the meail- ows, the salt marshes, and across the bay, to the town of Boston. What really claim our admiration about this estate were the trees by which it was giorihed, and of which a few noble elms have been spared. Approaching such a house, as it lay environed by shrubberj' and screened from tlie noonday sun by its giant guardians, Avith the tame pigeons perched upon the parapet and tlu; domestic fowls cackling a noisy re- frain in the barn-yard, you Avould have said, " Here is good old-fashioned thrift and hospitality ; let tis enter," and you would not have done ill to let instant execution follow the happy thought. Besides his tory neigldjors — and at the time of Avhich we Avrite Avhat Ave noAV call Old Cambridge Avas parcelled out among a dozen of these — Inman AA'as a good deal visited by the loyal faction of the town. The officers of his Majesty's army and navy liked to ride out to Inman's to dine or sup, and one of them lost his heart there. John Linzee, captain of H. M. ship Beaver, met with Sukey Inman (Ralph's eldest daughter) in some royalist coterie, — as like as not at the house of her bosom friend, Lucy Flucker, — and found his heart pierced through an lIlSTOIilO MANSIOXS AND lllc;il\VAY.S. LeiuiiiL^- the castellated granite Library, the fh-st attempt at architectural display these precincts knew, we pass on to the ancient dwelling-place of the governors of the College, known as the President's House. It is a venerable gambrel-roofed structure, of no mean con- sideration in its day, and certainly an object remarkable enough for its antiquated appearance, standing, as it does, solitary and alone, of all its companions that once stretched along the lane. A tall elm at its back, another at its side, droop over it lov- ingly and tenderly. These are all that remain of a nundjer planted by President Willard, the exigencies of im})rovement having cut off a portion of the grounds in front, now turned into the street. Tlie house is of two stories, with a chimney at either end, and a straggling collection of buildings at its back, which the necessities of various occupants have called into being. It was literally the habitation of the j^residents of the College for a hundred and tAventy years, beginning with Benjamin Wads- worth, minister of the First Church in Boston, and son of the old Indian fighter, for whom it was erected. The entry from the President's MS. book, in the College Library, which follows, hxes the date with precision : — " The President's House to dwell in was raised May 24, 1726. No life was lost nor person hurt in raising it ; thanks be to God for his preserving goodness. In y' evening those who raised y' House, had a supper in y« Hall ; after wch we sang y' first stave or staff in y° 127 Psalm. " 27 Oct. 1726. This night some of our family lodged at y' New House built for y" President; Nov. 4 at night was y" first time y' my wife and I lodg'd there. The house was not half finished within." Miss Eliza Susan Quincy, daughter of President Quincy, Avho resided in this house for sixteen years, has lately given the annexed description of the old mansion.* She says : — " My sketch represents the liouse as Washington saw it, except that there were only two windows on each side the porch in the * Cliarles Deane, in Mass. Hist. Society's Proceedings. A DAY AT IIAKVARD. 207 lowest story. The enhirgemeiit of the diniiio- and drawing rooms, which added a third, was subsequently made under the direction of Treasurer Storer, as his daughter informed me. The room in the rear of the drawing-room, on the right hand as you enter, was the President's study, until the presidency of Webber, when the end of the house was added, with a kitchen and chamber and dressing-room, very commodiously arranged, I was told, under the direction of' Mrs. Webber. The brick building was built at the same time for the President's study and Freshman's room beneath it, and for the preservation of the college manuscripts. I went over the house with my father and mother and President Kirkland, soon after his acces- sion. As there were no regular records kept during his presidency of eighteen years, he did not add much to the manuscripts. We then little imagined that we should be the ne.xt occupants of the mansion, should repair and arrange the house under Mrs. Quincy's direction, and reside in it sixteen very happy years. I regret its present dilapidated state, and rejoice, in view of 'the new departure,' as it is termed, that I sketched the antiquities and old mansions of Old Cambridw." The brick building alluded to, and which now joins the ex- treme rear additions, formerly sto(xl on the left-hand side of the mansion as the spectator faces it, and communicated with it. This part was built under the supervision of President Webber, and was, in 1871, removed to its present situation. It is now the office of the College Steward. Probably no private mansion in America has seen so many illustrious personages under its roof-tree as the President's House, P)esides its occu- pancy by Wadsworth, Holyoke, Locke, Langdon, Willard, Webber, Kirkland, Quincy, and Everett, the royal governors have assembled there on successive anniver- saries, and no distinguished traveller passed its door without paying his respects to the administration for the time being. Xo doubt the eccentric Dr. Witherspoon broke willard. bread at the table of Holyoke when he visited Boston in the memorable year 1768, 208 IIISTOIIIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. The office of president, though for a long time, either through poHcy or parsimony, a dependent one, was always an eminent mark of distinction, and its possessor was regarded — outside the College walls at least, if not always Avithin — Avith venera- tion and respect. The earlier incumbents were men who had ac([uired great influence for their piety and learning as teachers of the people, whose spiritual and temporal wants were in those primitive days ecpudly under guardianship. Chauncy, wlu.i is styled in the " Magnalia " the Cadmus Americana, and who rose at four iu the morning, summer and winter; In- crease Mather, whose dynasty embraced a period of great importance in the political history of the Colony ; AV;ulsworth, in whose time the Church of England made its ineffectual effort to obtain an entrance into the government; Holyoke, whose term is memorable as the longest of the series ; and Langdon, Avho left his office at the dictation of a cabal of students, — all are honored names, and part of the history of their times. Upon the coming of General Washington to Cambridge the Provincial Congress assigned the President's House for his use, not because it was the best by many the place could aiford, but probably because it was the only one then unoccupied by the provincial forces or their military adjuncts. The house not being in readiness when the General arrived, on tlie 2d of duly. 1775, he availed himself, temporarily, of another situation, and within a week indicated his preference for the Vassall House, which he had not passed down the old Watertown road with- out observing. There is no conclusive evidence that the Gen- eral ever occupied the President's House, and the aljsence of any tradition involves it in doubt. Washington ma/ bystander." Such Avere the humble beginnings of our coiirts of law. The following is extracted from the early laws of Massachu- setts : — 10 218 IIlSTOlilG iMANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. " Everie niarryed woeman shall Ije free i'ruiu bodilie correction or stripes by her husband, unlesse it be in his uwne defence uj)on her assalt. If there be any just cause of correciion complaint shall be made to Authoritie assembled in some court, from which onely she shall receive it." The common law of England authorized the infliction of chastisement on a wife with a reasonable instrument. It is related that Judge Buller, charging a jury in such a case, said, "Without undertaking to define exactly what a reasonable instrument is, I hold, gentlemen of the jury, that a stick no bigger than my thumb comes clearly within that description." It is further reported that a committee of ladies waited on him the next day, to beg that they might be favored with the exact dimensions of his lordship's thumb. Dane Hall, which bears the name of that eminent jurist and statesman through whose bounty it arose, was erected in 1832 and enlarged in 1845. The south foundation- wall of Dane is the same as the north wall of the old meeting-house, so that Law and Divinity rest here upon a common base. The first law-professorship was established through the be- quest of Isaac Eoyall, the Medford loyalist, who gave by his will more than two thousand acres of land in the towns of Granby and Eoyalston for this purpose. In 1815 Hon. Isaac Parker, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was appointed first professor, and in 1817, at his suggestion, a law school was established. Judge Parker's lectures were delivered in what was then known as the Philosophy Chamber, in Harvard Hall. Both the Law and Di^dnity Schools were established diu-ing Dr. Kirkland's presidency. It is worthy of mention that the first doctorate of laws was conferred on "Washington for his expulsion of the British from Boston. N^athan Dane, LL. D., a native of Ipswich and graduate of Harvard, is justly remembered as the framer, while in C'ongress, of the celebrated " Ordinance of 1787 " for the government of tlie territory northwest of the Ohio, by which slavery was excluded from that immense region. In 1829 the Law School was reorganized through the liberality of INIr. Dane, who had A DAY AT IIArtVAliD. 219 offered a competent sum for a professorship, with the right of nominating the hrst incumbent. The person who had been selected for the occupancy of the chair was Joseph Story, whose fame as a jurist had culminated on the Supreme Bench of the United States. Judge Story remained in the Dane Professorship until his death in 1845, a period of sixteen years. It is believed that his life was shortened by his prodigious intellectual labors and the demands made upon him for various kinds of literary work. As a writer he belonged to the intense school, if such a char- acterization be admissible, and this mental tension appeared in the quick changes of his countenance and in his nervous movements as well as in the rapidity of his pen. A great talker, he never lacked interested auditors ; for his was a mind of colossal stamp, and he never wanted language to give utter- ance to his thoughts. The first settlers in Massachusetts Bay did not recognize the law of England any further than it suited their interests. The common law does not appear, says Sullivan, to liave been re- garded under the old patent, nor for many years after tlie Charter of 1692. In 1G47 the first importation of law books was made ; it comprised, — 2 copies of Sir Edward Coke on Littleton, 2 " of the Book of Entries, 2 " of Sir Edward Coke on Magna Charta, 2 " of the New Terms of the Law, 2 •'' of Dalton's Justice of the Peace, 2 " of Sir Edward Coke's Eeports. This was four years after the division of the Colony of Massa- chusetts Bay into four shires. Norfolk included that part of the present county of Essex north of the Merrimac, and also the settled part of N"ew Hampshire. There were attorneys here about ten years after the settle- ment. Lechford, who came over in 1631, and returned to England in 1641, where he published a pamphlet called " Plain Dealing," says that " every church member was a bishop, and, 220 lllSTUUIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. not inclining to become one himself, he could not be admitted a freeman among them ; that the General Court and Quaiter Sessions exercised all the powers of King's Bench, Common Pleas, Chancery, High Commission, Star Chamber, and of all the other courts of England." For some offence Lechfor^l, de- Imrred from pleading and deprived of practice, returned to England, to bear witness against the colonial magistrates, lint from other autliority than Lechford's, we know that the dis- tinction between freeman and non-freeman, members and ntni- members, appeared as striking to new-comers as that between Cavalier and Roundliead in Old England. In 1687, almost sixty years from the first settlement of this country, there were but two attorneys in Massachusetts. The noted crown agent, Randolph, wrote to a friend in England, in that year, as follows : — " I liave wrote you the want we have of two or three honest at- torneys, if there be any such thing in Nature. We have but two ; one is Mr. West's creature, — came with him from New York, and drives all before him. He takes extravagant fees, and for want cif more, the country cannot avoid coming to him." The other appears to have been George Farewell, who said in open court in Charlestown that all causes must be brought to Boston, liecause there were not honest men enough in Middlesex to make a jury to serve their turns. Our two oldest Universities have never displayed a political bias like Oxford and Cambridge in Old England, Avliere the dis- tinction between "Whig and Tory was so marked that when (Jeorge T. gave liis library to Cambridge, the following ejjigram appeared : — " King Geoi'ge observing with judicious ej'es The state of both his Universities, To Oxford sent a troop of horse ; for wliy ? Tliat learned body wanted loyalty. To Cambridge books he sent, as well discerning How much that loval bodv wanted learning." A DAY AT IIARVAHD, CONTINUED. 221 CHAPTEE X. A DAY AT HARVARD, CONTINUED. " It will be proved to thy face that thou hast men aljoiit thee that usually talk of a noun and a verb, and such abominable words." — Jack. Cade. THE Marquis of Wellesley is accredited with having said to an American, " Establishing a seminary in New Eng- land at so early a period of time hastened your revolution half a century." This was a shrewd observation, and aptly supplements the forecast of the commissioners of Charles II., who said, in their report, made about 1GG6 : — " It may be feared this collidg may afford as many pcismaticks to the Church, and the Corporation as many rebells to the King, as for- merly they have done if not timely prevented." The earliest contemporary account of the founding of the College is found in a tract entitled " Xew England's First Fruits," dated at " Boston in jS^ew England, September 26, 1642," and piddished in London in 1643. This is, in point of time, nearly coeval Avith the University, and is as Ibllows : — " After God had carried us safe to New England, and wee had budded our houses, provided necessaries for our liveli-hood, rear'd convenient places for God's worship, and settled the civill govern- ment ; One of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity ; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust. And as wee were thinking and consulting how to effect this great work ; it pleased God to stir up the heart of one Mr. Harvard (a godly gentleman and a lover of learning, tlien liv- ing amongst us) to give the one half of his estate (it being in all about 1700 ^.) towards the erecting of aColledge and all his Library; After hini another gave 300 I. others after them cast in more, and the publique hand of the State added the rest : The Colledge was T)y 222 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. common consent, appointed to be at Cambridge, (a place very pleas- ant and accommodate) and is called (according to the name of its first founder) Harvard Colledge." The account, with its quaint and pertinent title, gives also the first description of the College itself : — " The edifice is very faire and comely withm and without, having in it a spacious hall ; where they daily meet at commons, lectures and Exercises ; and a large library with some bookes to it, the gifts of diverse of our friends, their chambers and studies also fitted for, and possessed by the students, and all other roomes of office neces- sary and convenient with all needful offices thereto belonging : And by the side of the Colledge a faire Grammar Schoole for the train- ing up of young scholars and fitting them for Academical learning, that still as they are judged ripe, they may be received into the Colledge of this schoole : Master Corlet is the Mr. who hath very well approved himself for his al)ilities, dexterity, and painfulnesse in teaching and education of the youths under him." Edward Johnson's account of New England, wliich appeared in 1654, mentions the single College building, which was of wood, as the commissioners before (pujted say : — " At Cambridge, they have a wooden Collidg, and in the yard a brick pile of two Cages for the Indians, where the Commissioners saw l)ut one. They said they had three or more at scool." The Indian seminary w^as built by the corporation in Eng- land, and in 166.5 contained eight pupils, one of whom had been admitted into the College. It was torn down in IGOS, and its bricks were probably used in Stoughtan, as the old building was bought by Willis, the builder. There existed formerly, in lieu of the low railing at present dividing the College grounds from the highway, a close fence, with an entrance opening upon the old College yard between Harvard and Massachusetts. This was superseded in time by a more ornamental structure, with as many as four entrances, flanked by tall gateposts. The present streets, then but lanes, were enlarged at the expense of the College territory, thus re- ducing its area very materially. A DAY AT HAKVAIID, CONTINUED. 22:5 Tlie tirst building, ur Uld Harvartl, Avas rcljuilt of brick in 1672 by the contributions of the Colony. Of the £1890 raised for this purpose, Boston gave £ 800. The old structures ranging along the street which separates the College enclosure from the Common are, with the exception of Stoughton, on their original sites, and were, when erected, fronting the principal highway through the town. Harvard, which is upon its old ground, was the nucleus around which the newer halls ranged themselves. Stoughton, second in the order of time, was built in 1G98, and Massachusetts in 1720. These are the three edifices shown in an illustration, of which the original was published by William Price at the " King's Head and Looking Glass," in Cornhill (Boston), and is dedi- cated to Lieutenant-Governor Spencer Phips. It is entitled " A Prospect of the Colledges in Cambridge in ISTew England." The first Stoughton was placed a little in the rear of, and at right angles with. Harvard and Massachusetts, fronting the open space between, so as to form three sides of a quadrangle. It stood nearly on a line with Hollis, was of brick, and had the name of Governor Stougliton, the founder, inscribed upon it. The foundation-stone was laid May 9, 1G98, but, after standing nearly a century, having gone to irremediable decay, it was taken down in 1781. A facsimile of this edifice appears in the background of Governor Stoughton's portrait, in the gallery in Massachusetts Hall. As has been remarked, there is a probaljility that the College press was kept in either Harvard or Stoughton as early as 1720, and the fact that the types belonging to the College were destroyed by the fire which consumed Harvard in 1764 gives color to the conjecture that the press was there. In May, 1775, the Provincial Congress, having taken possession of the CoUege, assigned a chamber in Stoughton to Samuel and Ebenezer Hall, who printed the " ISTew England Chronicle and Essex Gazette " ther(> until the removal of the army from Cam- bridge. From this i)ress, says a contemporary, " issued streams of intelligence, and those patriotic songs and tracts which so pre-eminently animated the defenders of American liberty." 224 HISTORIC MANSION'S AND HIGHWAYS. John Fox, Avlio was born at Boston, in England, in 1517, thus speaks of tlie art of printing : — " What man soever was the instrument [wherehy this invention was made] without all doubt, God himself was the ordainer and dis- poser tliereof, no otherwise than he was of the gift of tongues, and tliat for a similar purpose." In 1G39 the first printing-press erected in Xew England "was set up at Cambridge by Stephen Daye, at the charge of Eev. Joseph (clover, who not only brought over the printer, but everything necessary to the typograjihic art. " The first thing printed was ' The Freeman's Oath,' the next an Almanac made for New England by Mr. Pierce, mariner ; the next was the Psalms newly turned into metre." * John Day, who lived in Elizabeth's time at Aldersgate, London, was a famous printer, who is understood to have introduced the italic characters and the first font of Saxon types into our typography. Samuel Green, into whose possession the press very early came, and who is usually considered the first printer in America, was an inhabitant of Cambridge in 1G39, and pursued his call- ing here for more than forty years, when he removed to Boston. Green printed the "Cambridge Platform" in 1649 ; the Laws in 1660; and the "Psalter," "Eliot's Catechism," "Baxter's Call," and the Bible in the Indian language in 168.5. Daye's press, or some relics of it, are said to have been in existence as late as 1809 at Windsor, Vt. All these early publications are of great rarity. Massachusetts, which is the first of the old halls reached in coming from the Square, is the oldest building now standing. It is but one remove from, and is the oldest existing specimen in Massachusetts of, our earliest types of architecture as applied to public edifices. Like Harvard, it presents its end to the street, and faces upon what was the College green a century and a half gone by, — perhaps the very place where Robert Calef 's wicked book was, by an edict Avhich smacks strongly of the Inquisition, burnt by order of Increase Mather. * WintLrop's Jourual, A DAY AT HARVAED, L■0^■TI^T■EL). 225 The building, vvitli its high gaiubrel roof, dormer winiUiWS, and wooden balustrade surmounting all, has a (j^uaint and de- cidedly picturesque appearance. Though nominally of three stories, it shows hve tiers of windows as we look at it, above which the parapet terminates in two tall chimneys. Between each range of windows is a belt giving an appearance of strength to the structure. On the summit of the western gable was a clock affixed to an ornamental wooden tablet, which is still in its place, although the clock has long since disappeared. j\Ias- sachusetts contained thirty-two rooms and sixty-four studies, until its dilapidated condition compelled the removal of all the interior woodwork, when it was converted into a gallery for the reception of the portraits since removed to Memorial Hall. Many of these portraits are originals of Smibert, Copley, and Stuart, which makes the collection one of rare value and ex- cellence. Of these, tAvo of the most characteristic are of old Thomas Hancock, the merchant prince, and founder of the pro- fessorship of that name, and of Nicholas Boylston, another eminent benefactor, — both Copleys. Hancock, who was the governor's uncle, and who became very rich through his con- tracts for supplying Loudon's and Amherst's armies, kept a bookseller's shop at the " Bible and Three Crowns " in Ann Street, Boston, as early as 172G. Copley has delineated him in a suit of black velvet, white silk stockings, and shoes with gold buckles. One of the hands is gloved, while the other, uncovered, shows the beautiful mem- ber which plays so important a part in all of that painter's works. The old gentleman's clothes fit as if he had been melt- ed down and poured into them, and his ruffles, big-wig, cocked hat, and gold-headed cane supply materials for completing an attire suited to the dignity of a nabob of 1756. The artist gives his subject a dou})le chin, shrewd, smallish eyes, and a general expression of complacency and good-nature. What we remark about Copley is his ability to paint a close-shaven face on which the beard may still be traced, with wonderful faith- fulness to nature ; every one of his portraits has a character of its own. 10 *i^ o 226 lUSTOUIG MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Boylston is repivsented in a ne;jJioc coatuiuc, with a dresaing- r to leave the A DAY AT HARVARD, CONTIXUED. 229 room as one unwortliy to mix with gentlemen, but olfered to give him the satisfaction of following liim to the door had he anything to reply. The Governor, according to the account, left the house like a guilty coward. Harvard, the building of Avhieh Thomas Dawes superintended, stands on a foundation of Braintree stone, above which is a course of dressed red sandstone with a belt of the same material between the stories. It is composed of a central building with a pediment at either front, to which are joined two wings of equal height and length, each having a pediment at the end. There are but two stories, the lower tier of windows being arched, and the whole structure surmounted by a cupola. It was in the Philosophy Eoom of Harvard that Washington was received in 1789, and after breakfasting inspected the library, museum, &c. The three buildings which we have described are those seen by Captain Goelet in 1750.''' He says : — " After dinner Mr. Jacob Wendell, Abraham Wendell, and self took horse and went to see Cambridge, Avhich is a neat, pleasant village, and consists of about an hundred houses and three Col- leges, which are a plain old fabrick of no manner of architect, and the present much out of repair, is situated on one side of the Towne and forms a large Square ; its apartments are pretty large. Drank a glass wine with the collegians, returned and stopt at Richardson's where bought some fowles and came home in the evening which we spent at Wetherhead'.^ with sundry gentlemen." Hollis and the second Stoughton Hall, both standing to the north of Harvard, are in the same style of architecture. The first, named for Thomas Hollis, was begun in 1762 and com- pleted in 1763. It was set on fire when Old Harvard was consumed, and was struck by lightning in 1768. Thomas Dawes was the architect. Stoughton was built during the years 1804, 180-5. They have each four stories, and are exceed- ingly plain " old fabrics " of red brick. Standing in front of the interval between these is Holden Chapel, built in 1745 at * N. E. Hist, and Gen. Rec;i.ster. 230 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. the cost of the widow and daughters of Samuel Holden, one of the directors of the Bank of England. It was lirst used for the College devoti(His, subsequently for the American courts-martial, and afterwards for anatomical lectures and dissections. It be- came in 1800 devoted to lecture and recitation rooms for the professors and tutors. Holworthy Hall, which stands at right angles with Stoughton, was erected in 1812. Besides the five brick edifices standing in 1800, was also what was then called the College House, a three-story Avooden building, standing without the College yard, containing twelve rooms with studies. It was originally built in 1770 for a private dwelling, and pur- chased soon after by the College corporation. University Hall, built in 1812-13 of Chelmsford granite, is placed upon the site of the old Bog Bond and within the limits of the Wiggles- worth Ox Pasture. This liTiilding had once a narrow escape from being blown up by the students, the explosion being heard at a great distance. A little southeast of Hollis is the supposed site of the Indian college. It does not fall within our purpose to recite the history of the more modern buildings grouped around the interior t|uad- rangle, with its magnificent elms and shady walks ; its elegant and lofty dormitories, and its classic lore. (3ur business is with the old fabrics, the ancient pastimes and anti(piated cus- toms of former generations of Senior and Junior, Sophomore and Freshman. It was a warm spring afterncion when we stood within the quadrangle and slaked our thirst at the wooden pump. A longing to throw one's self upon the grass under one of those inviting trees was rudely repelled by the jiainted admonition, met at every turn, to " Keep oft' the Grass." The government does not waste words ; it orders, and its regulations assimilate to those of the Medes and Persians, Avhich altereth not. Never- theless, a few benches would not seem out of place here, when we recall how tlu- sages of Greece iiistructed their disciples as they walked or while seated under some shady bdugh, as Soc- rates is des ribed l)y Plato. Looking up at the open wiiidows of the dormitories, we saw 232 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. that not a few avcto garnished witli hooted or slippered feet. This seemed the favorite attitude for study, by whicli knowl- edge, absorbed at the pedal extremities, is conducted by the inclined plane of the legs to the body, hnally mounting as high as its source, siphondike, to the brain. Any movement by Avhich the feet might be lowered during this process would, we are persuaded, cause the hardly gained learning to floAV back again to the feet. Others of the students were squatted in Indian fashion, their elbows on their knees, their chins resting in their palms, with knitted broAvs and eyes fixed on vacancy, in which, did we possess the conjurer's art, the coming University boat- race or the last base-ball tournament Avould, we fixncy, appear instead of Latin classics. Perhaps Ave have not rightly inter- preted the expressions of others, which seemed to say, in the language of one A\diose brain Avas stretched upon the same rack a century and a (]uarter ago : — '"' Now algebi'a, geometry, Arithnietic'k, astronomy, Opticks, chronology and staticks, All tii'esonie parts of mathematics, With twenty haixler names than these. Disturb my brains and break my peace." It Avas formerly the practice of the Sophomores to notify the Freshmen to assemble in the Chapel, Avhere they Avere indoc- trinated in the ancient customs of the College, the latter being required " to keep their places in their seats, and attend Avith decency to the reading." Among these customs, descended from remote times, Avas one Avhich forbade a Freshman "to Avear his hat in the College yard, unless it rains, hails, or snoAvs, provided he be on foot, and have not both hands fuU." The same prohibition extended to all undergraduates Avhen any of the governors of the College Avere in the yard. These absurd "relics of barbarism " had become entirely obsolete before 1800. The degrading custom Avhich made a Freshman subservient to all other classes, and obliged him to go of errands like a pot- boy in an alehouse, the Senior having the prior claim to his service, died a natural death, Avithout the interposition of A DAY AT HARVARD, CONTINUED. 233 authority. It became the practice under this state of things for a Freshman to choose a vSenior as a patron, to whom he acknowledged service, and who, on his part, rendered due pro- tection to his servitor from the demands of others. These petty offices, when not unreasonably required, could be enforced by an appeal to a tutor. The President and immediate govern- ment had also their Freshmen. It is noteworthy that the abolition of this menial custom was recommended by the Over- seers as early as 1772; but the Corporation, which, doubtless, de- rived too many advantages from a continuance of the practice, rejected the proposal. Another custom obliged tlie Freshman to measure his strength with the Sophomore in a wrestling-match, which xisually took place during the second week in the term on the College play- ground, which formerly bounded on Charlestown road, now Kirkland Street, and included about an acre and a half. This playground was enclosed by a close board fence, which began about fifty feet north of Hollis and extended back about three hunilred feet, separating the playground from the College Ijuildings. The playground had a front on the Common of about sixty-five feet, and was entered on the side of Hollis. " This enclosure, an irregular square, contained two thirds or more of the ground on which Stoughton stands, the greater part of the land on which Hohvorthy stands, together with about the same quantity of land in front of the same, the land back of Holworthy, including part of a road since laid out, and perhaps a very small portion of the western extremity of the Delta, so called." This was the College gymnasia, where the students, after evening prayers, ran, leaped, wrestled, played at quoits or cricket, and at good, old-fashioned, obsolete bat and ball, — not the dangerous pastime of to-day, but where you stood up, man- fashion, with nothing worse resulting than an occasional eye in mourning. In tlie early days offending students were punished by tlie imposition of fines or whipping. Tliere is a record of an order to this effect in the Massachusetts archives. 234 HISTORIC MA^^sIONs and highways. Any account of Harvard which ignored the cluhs would be incomplete. Besides the Phi Beta Kappa was the Porceliiau, founded by the Seniors about 1793. It was originally called the Pig Club, but, for some unknown reason, this homely but ex- pressive derivation was translated into a more euphonious title. A writer remarks that learned pigs have sometimes been on ex- hibition, but, to our mind, to have been educated among them would be but an ill passport into good society. There was also the Hasty Pudding Club, — a name signihcant of that savory, farinaceous substance, the dish of many generations of I*few- Euglanders. Whether this society owed its origin to sumptuary regulations we are unable to saj ; but a kettle of the article, steaming hot, susj)ended to a pole, and borne by a brace of students across the College yard, were wi_)rth a visit to Old Harvard to have witnessed. Commencement, Neal says, Avas formerly a festival second only to the day of the election of the magistrates, usually termed "Election Day." The account in ''i^ew England's First Fruits " gives the manner of conducting the academical exercises in 1642 : — "The students of the first classis that have beene these foure yeeres* trained up in University learning (for their ripening in the knowl- edge of tongues and arts) and are approved for their manners, as they have kejit their public Acts in former yeares, ourselves being present at them ; so have they lately kept two solemn Acts for their Commencement, when Governoui', ]Vhigistrates and the IVIinisters from all parts, with all sorts of schollars, and others iir great num- bers were present and did heare their exercises ; Avhich were Latiiic and Greeke (3rations, and Declamations, and Hebrew Analasis, (rrammaticall, Logicall and Rhetoricall of the Psalms ; And theii- answers and disputations in Logicall, Ethicall, Physicall, and Meta- physicall questions ; and so were found worthy of the first degree (commonly called Bachelour pro more Academiantm in Anglia) ; Being first presented by the President to the Magistrates and Minis- ters, and by him upon their approbation, solemnly admitted untf) the same degree, and a booke of arts delivered into each of their hands, and the power given them to read Lectures in the hall uj)on * Fixiiit; tlie I'oundina' in 1638. A DAY AT HARVARD, CONTINUED. 235 any of the arts, when they shall be thereunto called, and a liberty of studying in the library." Commencement continued to be celebrated as a red-letter day, second only to the republican anniversary of the Fourth of July. The merry-makings iinder the tents and awnings erected within the College grounds, for the entertainment of the guests, who had assembled to do honor to the literary triumphs of their friends or relatives, were completely eclipsed by the saturnalia going on without on the neighboring Common. This space was covered with booths, within wliich. the hungry and thirsty might find refreshment, or the unwary be initiated into the mysteries of sAveat-cloth, dice, or roulette. Side-shows, Avith performing monkeys, dogs, or perhaps a tame bear, less savage than his human tormentors, drew their gaping multi- tudes, ever in movement, from point to point. Gaming was freely indulged in, and the Maine Law was not. As the day waxed, the liquor began to produce its legitimate results, swearing and fighting taking the place of the less exciting ex- hibitions. The crowd surged around the scene of each pugilistic encounter, upsetting the booths, and vociferating encouragement to the combatants. The best man emerged with battered nose, eyes swelled and inflamed, his clothes in tatters, to receive the plaudits of the mob and tire pledge of victory in another bowl of grog, while the vanquished sneaked away amid the jeers and derision of the men and the hootings of the boys. These orgies, somewhat less violent at the beginning of the present century, Avere by degrees brought Avithin the limits of decency, and finally disappeared altogether. This Avas one of those " good old time " customs AAdiich Ave have sometimes knoAvn recalled AA'ith long-draAvn sigh and Avoful shake of the head over our OAvn days of State police, lemonade, and degeneracy. During the early years of the Ee volution, and as late as 1778, there Avas no public Commencement at Harvard. Dress Avas a matter to which students gave little heed at the beginning of the century. The College laAvs required them to wear coats of blue-gray, with goAvns as a substitute, in warm Aveafher, — except on public occasions, Avhen black goAvns were 236 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. permitted. Little does your spruce young undergraduate of to-day resemble, in this respect, his predecessor, who went about the College grounds, and even the village, attired in summer in a loose, long gown of calico or gingham, varied in winter by a similar garment of woollen stuff, called lambskin. With a cocked hat on his head, and peaked-toed shoes on his feet, your collegian was not a bad counterpart of Dominie Sampson in dishabille, if not in learning. Knee-breeches began to be dis- carded about 1800 by the young men, but were retained by a few of the elders until about 1825, Avhen pantaloons had so far established themselves that it was unusual to see small-clothes except upon the limbs of some aged relic of the old regime. Top-boots, with the yellow lining falling over, and cordovans, or half-boots, made of elastic leather, fitting itself to the shape of the leg, belonged to the time of which we are A\Titing. The tendency, it must be admitted, has been towards improvement, and the present generation fully comprehends how " Braid claith lends fouk an unca lieeze ; Maks mony kail-worms buttertlees ; Gies mony a doctor his degrees, For little skaith ; In short you may be what you please, Wi guid braid claith." An example of the merits of dress was somewhat ludicrously presented by a colloipiy between two Harvard men who arrived at eminence, and Avho were as wide apart as the poles in their attention to personal appearance. Theophilus Parsons was a man very negligent of his outward seeming, while Harrison Gray Otis was noted for his fine linen and regard for his apparel. The elegant Otis, having to cross-examine a "witness in court whose appearance was slovenly in the extreme, commented upon the man's filthy exterior with severity, and spoke of him as a " dirty fellow," because he had on a dirty shirt. Parsons, whose witness it was, objected to the badgering of Otis. "Why," said Otis, turning to Parsons, with ill-concealed irony, " how many shirts a week do you wear, Brother Par- sons 1 " A DAY AT HAHVAliD, C0XTIXUP:D. 237 " I wear one shirt a week," was the reply. " How many do jon wear ? " " I change my shirt every (kiy, and sometimes oftener," said Otis. " Well," retorted Parsons, " you must be a ' dirty fellow ' to soil seven shirts a week when I do but one." There was a sensation in the court-room, and Mr. Otis sat down with his plumage a little ruffled. " For though you had as wise a snout on, As Shakespeare or Sir Isaac Newton, Your judgment fouk would liae a doubt on, I '11 tak my aith, Till they would see ye wi' a suit on O' guid braid claith." The silken " Oxford Caps," formerly worn in public by the collegians, are well remembered. These were abandoned, in public places, through the force of circumstances alone, as they drew attentions of no agreeable nature upon the wearer when he wandered from the protecting a?gis of his Alma Mater. In the neighboring city, should his steps unfortunately tend thither, the sight of his headpiece at once aroused the war-cries of the clans of Cambridge Street and the West End. " An Oxford Cap ! an Oxford Cap ! " reverberated through the dirty lanes, and was answered by the instant muster of an ill-omened rabble oi sans-culoites. Stones, mud, and unsavory eggs were showered upon the wretched " Soph," whose conduct on these occasions justified the derivation of his College title. Sometimes he stood his ground to be pummelled until within an inch of taking his degree in another Avorld, and finally to see his silken helmet borne off in triumph at the end of a broomstick ; generally, however, he obeyed the dictates of discretion and took incon- tinently to his heels. At sight of these ugly black bonnets, worthy a familiar of the Inquisition, the whole neighborhood seemed stirred to its centre with a frenzy only to be assuaged when the student doflfed his obnoxious casque or fled across the hostile border. The collegians, with a commendable esprit die corj)s, and a 238 IIISTOEIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS, valor worthy a better cause, clung to their caps with a chixalric devotion born alone of persecution. They learned to visit the city in bands instead of singly, but this only brought into action the reserves of " Nigger Hill," and eialarged the war. The North made common cause with the West, and South End with both. The Harvard boys armed themselves, and some dangerous night-affrays took place in the streets, for which the actors were cited before the authorities. Common-sense at length put an end to the disturbing cause, in Avhich the stu- dents were obliged to confess the game was not worth the candle. The Oxford Caps were hung on the dormitory pegs, and order reigned in Warsaw. It is not designed to enumerate the many distinguished sons of Old Harvard whose names illuminate history. This has lieen done in a series of biographies from an able pen.* One of the first class of graduates was George Downing, who went to England and became Chai)lain to Colonel Okey's reginient, in Cromwell's army, — the same whom he afterwards betrayed in order to ingratiate himself in the favor of Charles II. He was a brother-in-law of Governor Bradstreet and a good friend to New England. Doctor Johnson characterized him as the " dog Downing." He was ambassador to the states of Hol- land, and notwithstanding his reputation, soiled by the betrayal of some of his republican friends to the block, was a man of genius and address. No other evidence is needed to show that he Avas a scoundrel than the record of his treatment of his mother, in her old age, as related by herself : — " But I am now att ten pounde ayear for my chamber and 3 ]iouii(l for my seruants wages, and hauu to extend the other tene pound a year to accomadat for om" meat and drinck ; and for my clothing and all other necessaries I am much to seeke, and more your brother Georg will not hear of for me ; and that it is onely conetousness that maks me aske more. He last sumer bought an- other town, near Hatly, called Clappum, cost him 13 or 14 thou- sand pound, and I really beleeue one of us 2 are couetous." Downing Street, London, was named for Sir George when * Jolin L. Sililey, Lilirarian. A DAY AT HARVAliO, CONTINUED. 239 the office of Lord Treasurer was put in commission (May, 1667), and Downing College, Cambridge, England, was founded by a grandson of the baronet, in 1717. The class of 1763 was in many respects a remarkable one, fruitful in loyalists to the mother country. Three refugee judges of the Supreme Court, of which number Sampson Salter Blowers lived to be a hundred, and, with tlie exception of Dr. Holyoke, the oldest of the Harvard alumni ; Bliss of Spring- held and Upham of Brooktield, afterwards judges of the high- est court in Xew Brunswick ; Dr. John Jeffries, the celebrated surgeon of Boston, and others of less note. On the Whig side were Colonel Timothy Pickering, General Jedediah Hunting- ton, who pronounced the first English oration ever delivered at Commencement, and Hon. Nathan Cushing. Benjamin Pratt, afterwards Chief Justice of Xew York under the crown, was a graduate of 1737. He had been bred a me- chanic, but, having met with a serious injury that disabled him from pursuing his trade, turned his attention to study. Gov- ernors Belcher, Hutchinson, Dummer, Spencer Phips, Bowdoin, Strong, Gerry, Eustis, Everett, T. L. Winthrop, tlie two Presi- dents Adams and the Governor of that name, are of those who have been distinguished in higli political positions. The names of those who have become eminent in laAV, medicine, and divin- ity would make too formidable a catalogue for our limits. The Marquis Chastellux, writing in 1782, says : — " I nnxst here repeat, what I have observed elsewhere, that in comparing our universities and our studies in general with those of the Americans, it would not be to our interest to call for a decision of the question, which of the two nations should be considered an infant people." A University education, upon which, perhaps, too great stress is laid by a few narrow minds who would found an aristocracy of learning in the republic of letters, is unquestion- ably of great advantage, though not absolutely essential to a successful public career. It is a })assport which smooths the way, if it does not guarantee su[)eriority. Perhaps it has a 240 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. tendency to a elannisliness which has hut Httle sympathy with those whose acquirements lia\-t? been gained while stei'nly lighting the battle of lil'c in the pursuit of a livelihood. Through its means many Ikivc achieved honor and distinction, while not a few have arrived at the goal without it. Franklin, Rumford, Rittenhouse, and William Wirt are examples of so- called self-made men Avhich it would lie needless to multiply. Even in England the proportion of collegians in public life is small. Twenty-live years ago Lord Lyndliurst said in a speech that, when he began his political career a majority of the House of Commons had received a University education, while at the time of which he was speaking not more than one fifth had been so educated. The practice which prevails in our country, especially at the West, of distinguishing every country semi- nary with the name of college, is deserving of untjualified reprobation. It would be curious to trace the antecedents of the posses- sors of some of the great names in history. Columbus was a weaver ; Sixtus V. kept swine ; Ferguson and Burns were shepherds ; Defoe was a hosier's apprentice ; Hogarth, an en- graver of j)ewter pots ; Ben Jonson was a brick-layer ; Cer- vantes was a common soldier ; Halley was the son of a soap- boiler ; Ark Wright was a barber, and Belzoni the son of a bar- ber ; Canova was the son of a stone-cutter, and Shakespeare commenced life as a menial. The historic associations of Harvard are many and interest- ing. The buildings have frequently been used by the legislative branches of the provincial government. In 1729 the General Court sat here, having been adjourned from Salem by Governor Burnet, in August. Again in the stormy times of 1770 the Court was prorogued by Hutchinson to meet here instead of at its ancient seat in Boston. Wagers were laid at great odds that the Assembly would not proceed to do business, considering themselves as under restraint. They, however, opened their session under protest, by a vote of 59 yeas to 29 nays. Urgent public business gave the Governor a triumph, which was ren- dered as empty as possible by every annoyance the members in A DAY AT HARVARD, CONTINUED. 241 their ingenuity could invent. The preceding May the election of councillors had been held in Cambridge, conformably to Governor Hutchinson's orders, but contrary to the charter and the sense of the whole province. This was done to preA^ent any popular demonstration in Boston, l)ut the patriotic party celebrated the day there, and their friends flocked into town from the country as usual. An ox was roasted whole on the Common and given to the populace. The tragic events of the 5th of March, 1770, had occasioned great indignation and uneasiness, Avliicli the acquittal of Cap- tain Preston and his soldiers contributed to keep alive. The following is a copy of the paper posted upon the door of Boston Town House (Old State House), December 13, 1770, and for which Governor Hutchinson oftered a reward of a hundred pounds lawful money, to be paid out of the public treasury. Otway's " Venice Preserved " seems to have; furnished the text to the writer : — " To see the suflferings of my ieWow-towitsmen And own myself a man ; To see the Court Cheat the injured people with a shew Of justice, which we ne'er can taste of ; Drive ns like wrecks down the rough tide of power, Wliile no hold is left to save ns from destruction, All that bear this are slaves, and we as stick. Not to rouse up at the great call of Nature And free the vjorld from such domestic tyrants." Harvard has not been free from those insurrectionary ebulli- tions common to universities. In most instances they have originated in Commons Hall ; the grievances of the stomach, if not promptly redressed, leading to direful residts. Sydney Smith once remarked, that " old friendships are destroyed by toasted cheese, and hard salted meat has led to suicide." The stomachs of the students seem, on sundry occasions, to have been no less sensitive. In 1674 all the scholars, except three or four whose friends lived in Cambridge, left the College. In the State archives exists a curious document relative to a difficulty about com- mons at an early period in the history of the College. It is the 11 V 242 lITSTOlilC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. confession of Natbanipl Eaton and wife, wlio were cited before the General Court for misdemeanors in providing diet for the students. In INIrs. Eaton's confession tlie fVdlowing passage occurs : — " And for bad fish, that they had it brought to table, I am sorry there was that cause of otfence given them. I acknowledge my sin in it. And for their mackerel, brouglit to them with their guts in them, and goat's dung in their hasty pi;dding, its utterly unknown to me ; but I am much ashamed it should be in the ftmiily and not prevented Ijv myself or servants and I humbly acknowledge my negligence in it." The affair of the resignation of Dr. Langdon has been men- tioned. In 1807 there was a general revolt of all the classes against their commons, which brought the affairs of the College nearly to a stand for about a niontli. The classes, having en masse refused to attend commons, were considered in the light of outlaws by the government, and -were obliged to subscribe to a form of apology dictated hj it to obtain readmission. Many refused to sign a confession a little humiliating, and left the College ; but the greater number of the prodigals accepted tlie alternative, though we do not learn that any fatted calf Avas killed to celebrate the return of harmony. This was during Dr. Webber's presidency. The students have ever been imbued with strong patriotic feelings. In 1768 the Seniors unanimously agreed to take their degrees at Commencement dressed in black cloth of the manu- facture of the country. In 1812 they proceeded in a body to work on the forts in Boston harbor. In the great Eebellion the names of Harvard's sons are inscribed among the heroic, living or dead for their country. The seal of Harvard was " ado])ted at tlie hrst meeting of the governors of the College after the first charter was obtained. On the 27th of December, 1643, a College seal was adopted, having, as at present, three open books on the field of an heraldic shield, with the motto Veritas inscribed." This, says Mr. Quincy, is the only seal which has the sanction of any record. Tire first seal actually use^l liad tlie motto "In ('hri.^ti A DAY AT HARVARD, CONTINUED. 243 Gloriam," which conveys the idea of a school of theoh:)gy, and is indirectly sanctioned by the later motto, Christo et Ecdesioi. The Americans threw up works on the College green in 1775, which were j^robably among the earliest erected by the Colony forces. They Avere begun in May, and extended towards the river. An aged resident of Cambridge informed the writer that a fort had existed in what is now Holyoke Place, leading from INIount Auburn Street, — a point which may be assumed to indicate the right flank of the lirst position. The lines in the vicinity of the College were carefully effaced, some few traces being remarked in 1824. They were, in all probability, hastily planned, and soon abandoned for the Dana Hill posi- tion, by which they were commanded. The first official action upon fortifications which appears on record is the recommendation of a joint committee of the Com- mittee of Safety and the council of war — • a body composed of the general officers — to throw i^p works on Charlestown road, a redoubt on what is supposed to have been Prospect Hill to be armed with 9-pounders, and a strong redoubt on Bunker Hill to be mounted Avith cannon. These works were proposed on the 1 2th of May. The reader knows that the execution of the last-named Avork brought on the battle on that ground. EA^er since Lexington the Americans looked for another sally of the royal forces. They expected it Avould be by Avay of CharlestoAvn, and have the camps at Cambridge for its object. By landing a force on CharlestoAvn JN'eck, which the command of the water ahvays enabled them to do, the enemy Avere Avithin a little more than two miles of headquarters, Avhile a force coming from Poxl)ury side must first beat Thomas's troops sta- tioned there, and then have a long detour of several miles be- fore they could reach the river, Avhere the passage might be expected to be blocked by the destruction of the bridge, and Avould at any rate cost a severe action, under great disadvantage, to have forced. A landing along the Cambridge shore Avas im- practicable. It Avas a continuous marsh, intersected here and there by a feAv firm-roads, impassable for artillery, without Avhich tlie king's troops Avould not have moved. The Lexing- 244 HISTOUIC .MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. ton expedition forced its way tln'ough these marshes with infinite diiticulty. The Enghsh commander might hind liis troops at Ten Hills, as had already been done ; but to prevent this was the object of the possession of Bunker Hill. He was therefore reduced to the choice of the two great highways lead- ing into Boston, with the advantages greatly in favor of that which passed on the side of Charlestown. The advanced post of the Americans on old Charlestown road, which was meant to secure the camp on this side, was near the point where it is now intersected by Beacon Street. It was distant about hve eighths of a mile from Cam- bridge Common. The road, which has here been straightened, formerly curved towards the north, crossing tlie head of the west fork of Willis Creek (Miller's River), by what Avas called Pillon Bridge. The road also passed over the east branch of the same stream near the present crossing of the Fitchburg Ituilway, wliere nothing now appears to indicate its vicinity. The works at Ir'illon Bridge were on each side of the road; that on the north running up the declivity of the hill now crossed by Park Street, and occupying a commanding site. The ex- istence of a watercourse here might long be traced in the vener- able willows which once skirted its banks, and even by the dry bed of tlie stream itself. Tlie bridge, according to appearances, was situated seventy-five or a hundred yards north of tlie pres- ent point of junction of the two roads, now known as Wasli- ington and Beacon Streets. At tlie Cambridge line tlie former takes the name of Kirkland Street. Quite near this point, at Dane Street, a memorial tabh't marks the spot where Jolin Woolrich, the first settler in what is now Somerville, lived. CAMBMDGE CAMP. 245 CHAPTER XI. CAMBRIDGE CAMP, " Father and I went down to camp Along with Caiiitaiu Gooding, And there we see the men and boys As thick as hasty pudding." THERE is a certain historical coincidence in the fact that the armies of the Parliament in England and of the Congress in America were each mustered in Cambridge. Old Cambridge, in 1642-43, was generally for the king, and the University tried unsuccessfully to send its plate out of Oliver's reach. In 1775 the wealth and influence of American Cam- bridge were also for the king, but the University was stanch for the Revolution. We confess we should like to see, on a spot so historic as Cambridge Common, an equestrian statue to George Washing- ton, " Pater, Liberator, Defensor Patria\" Besides being the muster-field where the American army of the Revolution had its being, it is consecrated by other memories. It was the place of arms of the settlers of 1631, who selected it for their strong fortress and intrenched camp. Within this field the flag of thirteen stripes was first unfolded to the air. We have already had occasion to refer to the uprising of Middlesex in 1774, when the crown servitors resident in Cambridge had their judicial connnissions revoked in the name of the people. It was also the place where George the Third's speech, sent out by the " Boston gentry," was committed to the flames. Before reviewing the Continental camp, a brief retrospect of the military organization of the early colonists will not be deemed inappropriate. In the year 1644 the militia was or- ganized, and the old soldier, Dudley, appointed major-general. Endicott was the next incumbent of this new office ; Gibbons, 246 HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. tlie tliinl, had lirst coniiiianded the Suffolk regiments ; Sedg- wick, the fourth, the Middlesex regiment. After Sedgwick came Atherton, Denison, Leverett, and Gookin, who was the last major-general under the old charter. These officers were also styled sergeants major-general, a title borrowed from Old England. They were chosen annually hy the freemen, at the same time as the governor and assistants, while the other mili- taiy officers held for lite. Old Edward Johnson, describing the train-bands in Gibbons's time, says his forts Avere in good rei)air, his artillery well mounted and cleanly kept, half-cannon, culverius, and sakers, as also fielclpieces of brass, vei-y ready for service. A soldier in 1630-40 wore a steel cap or head-piece, breast and back piece, buff coat, bandoleer, containing his powder, and carried a matchlock. He was also armed with a long sword suspended by a belt from the shoulder. In the time of Philip's War the Colony forces were provided with blunderbusses and also with hand-grenadoes, which were found efi'ectual in driving the Indians from an ambush. A troop at this time numbered sixty horse, besides the officers', all well mounted and completely armed with back, breast, head-piece, butf coat, sword, carbine, and pistols. Each of the twelve troops in the Colony were distinguished by their coats. In time of war the pay of a cap- tain of horse was £ 6 per month ; of a captain of foot, £ 4 ; of a private soldier, one shilling a day. Military punishments were severe ; the strapado, or riding the wooden horse so as to bring the blood, being commonly infficted for offences one grade be- low the death-penalty. The governor had the chief command, but the major-generals did not take the field, their offices being more for profit than for fighting. AVith improved fire-arms, when battles were no more to be dccidetl l)y hand-to-hand encounters, armor gradually went out of fashion, " Farewell, then, ancient men of might ! Crusader, errant-sqnire, and knight ! Our coats and customs soften ; To rise would only make you weep ; Sleep on, in rusty iron sleep, As in a safety coffin." CAMBRIDGE CAMP. 247 Bayonets as lirst used in England (about 168U) had a wooden haft, which was inserted in the mouth of the piece, answering thus the purpose of a partisan. The French, with whom the weapon originated, anticipated tlie English in fixing it with a socket. A French and British regiment in one of the wars of William III. encountered in Flanders, where this dif- ference in the manner of using the bayonet Avas near deciding the day in lavor of the French battalion. This weapon, once so important that the British infantry made it their peculiar boast, is now seldom used, except perhaps as a defence against cavalry. Some confidence it still gives to the soldier, but its most important function in these days of long-range small- arms is the splendor with which it invests the array of a bat- talion as it stands on parade. We do not know of a com- mander who would now order a bayonet-charge, although in the early battles of the Bevolution it often turned the scale against us. After the battle of Lexington the Committee of Safety re- solved to enlist eight thousand men for seven months. A com- pany was to consist of one captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, four sergeants, a drummer and fifer, and seventy privates. Nine companies formed a regiment, of which the field-officers were a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and major. Each of the field-officers had a company Avhich was called his own, as each of the general officers, beginning with Ward himself, had his regiment. The aggregate of the rank and file was, two days afterward, reduced to fifty. This must be considered as the first organization of the army of the Thirteen Colo- nies, — as they afterwards adopted it as their own, — the army which fought at Bunker Hill, and opened the trenches around Boston. This Common was the grand parade of the army. Here were formed every morning, under supervision of the Brigadier of the Day, the guards for Lechmere's Point, Cobble Hill, White House, North, South, and Middle Redoubts, Lechmere's Point tete du pont, and the main guards for Winter Hill, Prospect Hill, and Cambridge. Hither Avere marched the de- 248 HISTOIUC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. tachmeiits which assembled on their regimental parades at eight o'clock. Arms, accoutrements, and clothing underwent the scrutiny of Greene, Sullivan, or Heath. This finished, the grand guard broke off into small bodies, which marched to their designated stations to the music of the fife and drum. We may here mention that the " ear-piercing fife " was in- troduced into the British army after the campaign of Flanders in 1748. This instrument was first adopted by the Royal Regiment of Artillery, the musicians receiving their instruction from John Ulrich, a Hanoverian fifer, brought from Flanders by Colonel Belford when the allied army separated. Nothing puts life into the soldier like this noisy little reed. You shall see a band of weary, footsore men, after a long march, fall into step, close up their ranks, and move on, a serried phalanx, at the scream of the fife. Fortunate indeed was he who witnessed this old-fashioned guard-mount, where the first efi'orts to range in order the non- descript battalia must have filled the few old soldiers present with despair. There was no uniformity in weapons, dress, or equipment, and until the arrival of Washington not an epau- lette in camp. The officers could not have been picked out of the line for any insignia of rank or superiority of attire over the common soldiers. Some, perhaps, had been fortunate enough to secure a gorget, a sword, or espontoon, but all car- ried their trusty fusees. All that went to make up the outward pomp of the soldier was wanting. Compared with the scarlet uniforms, burnished arms, and compact files of the troops to whom they were opposed, our own poor fellows were the veriest ragamuffins ; but the contrast in this was not more striking than were the different motives with which each combated : the Briton fought the battle of his king, the American soldier his own. The curse of the American army was in the short enlistments. Men were taken for two, three, and six months, and scarcely arrived in camp before they infected it with that dangerous dis- ease, homesickness. The same experience awaited the nation in CAMBRIDGE CAilP. 249 the great civil war. In truth, if history is philosophy teaching by exam[)le, we make little progress in forming armies out of the crude material. If the Americans were so contemptible in infantry, they were even more so in artillery, — as for cavalry, it was a thing as yet unknown in an army in which many tield-ofticers could not obtain a mount. The enemy was well supplied with field and siege pieces, abundant supplies of which had been sent out, while the reserves of the Castle and fleet were drawn upon as circumstances demanded. The unenterprising spirit of the British commander rendered all this disparity much less alarm- ing than it woidd have been with a Carleton or Coruwallis, instead of a Gage or Howe. Aii eyewitness relates that " The British appeared so inoffensive that the Americans enjoyed at Cambridge the conviviality of the season. The ladies of the prin- cipal American officers repaired to the camp. Civility and mutual forbearance appeared between the officers of the royal and conti- nental armies, and a frequent interchange of flags was indulged for the gratification of the ditt'erent partisans." The earliest arrangement of this chrysalis of an army was about as follows. The regiments were encamped in tents as fast as possible, but as this supply soon gave out, old sails, con- tributed by the seaport towns, were issued as a substitute. Patterson's, Whitcomb's, Doolittle's, and Gridley's pitched their tents, and were soon joined under canvas by Glover. Nixon's lay on Charlestown road ; a part of the regiment in Mr. Fox- croft's barn. The houses were at first used chiefly as hospitals for the sick. Patterson's hospital was in Andrew Boardman's house, near his encampment ; Gridley's, in IVlr. Robshaw's. kSheriif Phip's house was hospital J^o. 2, over which Dr. Duns- more presided. Drs. John Warren, Isaac Eand, William Eustis, James Thacher, Isaac Foster, and others officiated in the hospi- tals, under the chief direction of Dr. Church. Jolm Pigeon was commissary-general to the forces. We are able to give an exact return of all the regiments in Cambridge on the 10th of July, 1775, with the number of men in each : — 11* 250 HISTOUIC .^lAXSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Jonathan Ward, 505. James Scammon, 529 William Piescott, 487. Thomas Gardner, 334 Asa Wbitfonilj, 571. Jonathan Brewer, 373 Epliraim Doolittle, 351. B. Ruggles Woodbridge, 343 James Fry, 473. Paul Dudley Sargeant, 192 Richard Gridley, 445. Samuel Gerrish, 258 John Nixon, 482. Juiin Mansfield, 507. John Glover, 519. Edmund Phinney, 163. John Patterson, 492. Moses Little, 543 Ebenezer Bridoe, 509. Tavo compauie-s of Bond's and two of Gerrish's were at Med- ford, Maiden, and Chelsea. Phiuney had only three companies in camp. This seems to have been before the troops were arranged in grand divisions and newdy brigaded by "Washing- ton. The aggregate of the troops in Cambridge presented by the above return was 8,076, of which j^robably not many in excess of six thousand were for duty. Under the new arrange- ment of forces Scammon's was ordered to No. 1 and the redoubt on the flank of No. 2, Heath's to No. 2, Patterson to No. 3, and Prescott to Sewall's Point. On the 10th of January, 1776, when the returns of the whole army only amounted to 8,212 men, but 5,582 were returned fit for duty. Gridley calls for fascines, gabions, pickets, etc., for the bat- teries, and makes requisitions for the service of a siege-train. The artillery, such as it was, but lately dragged from places of concealment, was without carriages, horses, or harness. There were no intrenching tools except such as could be obtained of private persons, no furnaces for casting shot, — no anything but pluck and resolution, and of that there was enough and to spare. Armorers were set to work repairing the men's hrelocks. Knox, Burbeck, Crane, Mason, and Crafts mounted the artil- lery. Sailmakers were employed making tents, carpenters to build barracks, and shoemakers and tailors as fast as they could be obtained, — the former in making shoes, cartouch- boxes, etc., the latter in clothing the soldiers. Shipwrights were biiildin"' bateaux on the river. In this condition of ac- CAMBRIDGE CAMP. 251 tivity aud chaos Washington found liis army, and reaUzed, per- haps for the first time, the magnitude of the work before him. From the Mystic to the Charles aud from the Charles to the sea the air echoed to the sound of the hammer or the blows of the axe, the crash of falling trees or the word of commajid. Another Carthage might have been rebuilding by another Ca-sar, and the ground tremliled beneath the tread of armed men. Imagine such an army, Avithout artillery or effective small- arms, without magazines or discipline, and unable to execute the smallest tactical manoeuvre should their lines be forced at any point, laying siege to a town containing ten thousand troops, the first in the world. It was, moreover, without a flag or a commander having absolute authority until "Washington came. Picture to yourself a grimy figure behind a rank of gabions, liis head wrapped in an old bandanna, a short pipe between his teeth, stripped of his upper garments, his lower limbs encased in leatlier breeclies, yarn stockings, and hob-nailed shoes, indus- triously plying mattock or spade, and your provincial soldier of '75 stands before you. ^lultiply him by ten thousand, and you have the provincial army. It is certain that no common flag had been adopted by any autliority up to February, 1776, though the flag of thirteen stripes had been displayed in January. The following extract from a regimental order book wiU answer the oft-repeated in- quiry as to whether the contingents from the difierent Colonies fought under the same flag in 1775 : "Head Quarters 20tli February 1776. " Parole Manchester : Countersign Boyle. " As it is necessary that every regiment should be furnished with colours and that those colours bear some kind of similitude to the regiment to which they belong, the colonels with' their respective Brigadiers and with the Q. M. G. may fix upon any such as are proper and can be procured. There must be for each regiment the standard for regimental colours and colours for each grand division, the whole to be small and light. The number of the regiment is tu 252 HISTORIC mansions and highways. be marked on the colom's and such a motto as the colonels may choose, ill fixing upon which the general advises a consultation among them. The colonels are to delay no time in getting the mat- ter fix'd that the Q. M. Cienei'al may provide the colours for them as soon as possible. G? Washington." Washington's first requisition on arriving in camp was for one liundred axes and bunting for colors. At the battle of Long Island, fought August, 1776, a regimental color of red damask, having only the word " Liberty " on the field, was captured by the British. As late as Monmouth there were no distinctive colors. The whipping-post, where minor offences against military law were expiated, was to be met Avith in every camp. Tlie prison- ers received the sentence of the court-martial on their naked backs; from twenty to forty lashes (the limit of the Jewish law) with a cat-o'-nine-tails being the usual punishment. This barbarous custom, inherited from the English service, was long retained in the American army. Its disuse in the navy is too recent to need special mention. Incorrigible ottenders were drummed out of camp ; but though there are instances of the death-penalty having been adjudged by courts-martial, there is not a recorded case of military execution in the American army during the whole siege. The men in general were healtliy, — much more so in Eox- bury than in Cambridge, and Thomas had the credit of keep- ing his camps in excellent order. In July, 1776, a company of ship carpenters was raised and sent to General Schuyler at Albany for service on the lakes. A company of bread-bakers was another feature of our camp. The troops did not pile or stack their arms. They had few bayonets. The custom Avas to rest the guns upon wooden horses made for the purpose. In wet weather they were taken into the tents or quarters. We have dwelt upon details that may appear trivial, unless the reconstruction of the Continental camps, with fidelity in all things, and dedicated in all honor to the patriot army, be our sufficient Avarrant. Pojje Day, the anniversary of Guy FaAvkes's abortive plot CAMBRIDGE CAMK 253 (Xovember 5, 1605), had Ioiil;- been uLserved iu the ('olonies. It was proposed to celebrate it in the American camp on the return of the day in 1775, luit General Washington character- ized it as a ridiculous and childish custom, and expressed his surprise that there should be officers and men in the army so void of common-sense as not to see its impropriety at a time when the Colonies were endeavoring to bring Canada into an alliance with themselves against the common enemy. The General argued tliat the Canadians, who were largely Catholic, would feel their religion insulted. The British, on the con- trary, celebrated the day Avith salvos of artillery. As the crisis of the siege approached, Washington sternly forbade all games of chance. The glorious evening in June came, when the dark clusters of men gathered on the greensward for Breed's Hill. Silently they stood wliile Dr. Langdon knelt on the threshold of yonder house and prayed for their good speed. The men tighten their belts and feel if their flints are firmly fixed. Their faces we cannot see, but we warrant their teeth are shut hard, and a strange light, the gleam of battle, is in their eyes. A nocturnal march, with conflict at tlie end of it, ^nU try the nerves of the stoutest soldier. What will it then do for men who have yet to fire a shot in anger? They whisper together, and we know what they say, — "To-morrow, comrade, we On the battle plain must be, There to conquer or both lie low ! " Some one who has fairly judged of the raw recruit in general doubts if the Americans reserved their fire at Bunker Hill. The answer is conclusive. As the enemy marched to the attack a few scattering shots were fired at them, soon checked by the leaders. This is the testimony of both sides, and is, in this case, perhaps, exceptional. But the best answer is in the enemy's frightful list of casualties, — a • thousand and more men are not placed hors du combat in less than two hours by indiscriminate popping. The first attempts at uniforming the Continentals were any- 254 HisTorjc mansions and highways. tliiuy but successful, the absence of cloth, except the homespun of the country, rendering it impracticable. Chester's company, whicli was clothed in bhie turned up with red, is the oidy one in uniform at the battle of Bunker Hill of which we have any account. In Edmund Phinney's regiment, stationed in Boston after the departure of the English, the men were suppHed wath coats and double-breasted jackets of undyed cloth, just as it came from the looms, turned up with bulf facings. They had also blue breeches, felt hats with narrow brims and white bind- ing. Another regiment, being raised in the same town, wore black faced Avith red. The motto on the button was, " Inimica Tyrannis," above a hand with a naked sword. During this year (1776) liomespun or other coats, brown or any other color, made large and fuU-lapelled, with fiicings of the same or of white, cloth jackets without sleeves, cloth or leather breeches, large felt hats, and yarn stockings of all colors, were purchased by the Continental agents. Smallwood's Maryland regiment was clothed in red, but Washington eventually prohibited this color, for obvious reasons. In November, 1776, Paul Jones captured an armed vessel, whicih had on board ten thousand complete sets of uniform, destined for the troops in Canada under Carleton and Burgoyne. The American levies in the British service were first attired in green, which they finally and with heavy hearts exchanged for red, as a prelude to their being drafted into British regiments. The term "Continent" was applied to the thirteen Colonies early in 1776, to distinguisli their government from that of the Provinces, and hence the name Continental, as applied to the army of their adoption. Tlie surroundings of Cambridge Common invite our attention, and of tlicse the old gambrel-roof house, formerly standing on what is now Holmes Place, naturally claims precedence. To the present generation it was known as the birthplace of our Autocrat of the Breakfast-tal)le, our songster in many keys, ever welcome in any guise, whether humorous, pathetic, or even a little satirical withal. It was a good house to be born in, and does honor to tlic poet's choice, as his bouquet of ■j.?-^. -'1 CAMBKIDGE CAMP. ^n.*^ WENDELL. fragrant memories, culled for tlie readers of the " Atlantic," does honor to the poet's self. It is certaiidy no disadvantage to have first drawn breath in a house which was the original headquarters of the Ameri- can army of the Eevolution, and in which the battle of Bunker Hill was planned and ordered. The old house was pleasant to look at, tliough built originally for nothing more pretending than a farm-house. It had a thoroughly sturdy and honest look, like its old neighbor, the President's house, and in nothing except its yellow and white paint did it seem to counterfeit the royalist man- sions of Tory How. The Professor tells us it once had a row of Lombardy poplars on tlie west, but now not a single speci- men of the tree can be found of tlie many that once stood stiffly up at intervals around the Common. The building fronted the south, with the College edifices of its own time drawn up in ugly array before it. Beyond, in unobstructed view, are the Square, the church with its lofty steeple, and its Anglican neighbor of the loAvlier tower, where, — "Like sentinel and nun they keep Their vigil on the green ; One seems to guard and one to weep Tlie dead tliat lie between." The west windows overlooked the Common, with its beautiful monument in its midst, and bordered by other houses with walls as familiar to the scenes of a hundred years ago as are those of our present subject. "Were we to indulge our fancy, we might as easily invest these old houses with the gift of vision through tlieir many glassy eyes, as to give ears to their walls ; we might imagine their looks of recognition, doubtful of their own identity, amid the changes Avhich time has wrought in their vicinage. It is at least a singular chance that fixed the homes of Long- fellow, Holmes, Lowell, Hawthorne, and Everett in houses of greater or less historic celebrity ; but it is not merely a coinci- 256 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. dence tliat has given tliese authors a decided preference for his- torical sulijects. All are students of history ; all either are or have heen valucil nienihers of our liistorical societies. Evan- g(dine, The Scarlet Letter, and Old Ironsides are pledges that the more striking subjects have not escaped them. In !he roll of proprietors of tlie old gambrel-roof house, which Dr. Hnlmes supposed to he about one hundred and fifty years old, but which, we believe, was even more ancient, the first to appear is Jabez Fox, ilescribed as a tailor, of Boston, to whom the estate was allotted in 1707, and whose heirs sold it to Farmer Jonathan Hastings thirty years later, with the four acres of land pertaining to the messuage. The lirst Jonathan Hastings is the same to whom Gordon attributes the origin of the word '"yankee." He says : — " It was a cant, favorite word with Farmer Jonathan Hastings of Cambridge about 1713. Two aged ministers who were at the College in that town have told me they remembered it to have been then in use among the students, but had no recollection of it before that period. The inventor used it to express excellency. A Yankee good horse, or Yankee good cider, and the like, were an excellent good horse and excellent cider. The students used to hire horses of him, and the use of the term upon all occasions led them to adopt it, and they gave him the name of Yankee Jon." Gordon supposes that the students, upon leaving College, circulated the name through the country, as the phrase " Hob- son's choice " was established by the students at Cambridge, in Old England, though the latter derivation is disputed by Mr. Ker, who calls it " a Cambridge hoax." The second Jonathan Hastings, long the College Steward, was born in 1708, graduated at Harvard in 1730, and died in 1783, aged seventy-live. It was during his occupancy that the house acquired its paramount importance. He was appointed postmaster of Cambridge in July, 1775, as the successor of James Winthrop ; and his son Jonathan, who graduated at Harvard in 1768, was afterwards postmaster of Boston. Walter Hastings, also of this family, was a surgeon of the 27th regi- ment of foot (American), from Chelmsford, at the battle of CAMBRIDGE CAMP. 257 Bunker Hill, and rendered efficient service there. Walter Hastings, of Boston, had a pair of gold sleeve-buttons worn by his grandsire on that day. His father, Walter Hastings, com- manded Fort Warren, now Fort Winthrop, in 1812. As early as April 24, 1775, and perhaps immediately after the battle of Lexington, the Committee of Safety established tliemselves in this house, and here were concerted all those measures for the organization of the army created by the Provin- cial Congress. It was here Captain Benedict Arnold reported on the 29th of April with a company from Connecticut, and made the proposal for the attempt on Ticonderoga, prom^jted by his daring disposition. It was, without doubt, in the right- hand room, on the lower floor, that Arnold received his first commission as colonel from the Committee, May 3, 1775, and his orders to raise a force and seize the strong places on the lakes. Thus Massachusetts has the dubious honor of having first commissioned this eminent traitor, whose authority was signed by another traitor, Benjamin Church, but whose treason was not then developed. " 'T is here but yet confused : Knavery's plain face is never seen till used." Arnold was the first to give information in relation to the number and calibre of the armament at Ticonderoga. As all that relates to this somewhat too celebrated personage has a certain interest, we give the substance of a private letter from a gentleman who was in Europe when General Arnold arrived there, and whose acquaintance in diplomatic circles placed him in a position to be well informed. The revolution in England respecting the change of ministry was very sudden, and supposed to have been influenced by the honest representations of Lord Cornwallis relative to the im- practicability of reducing America, which rendered that gen- tleman not so welcome in England to the late Ministry as his brother-passenger, General Arnold, Avho, from encouraging in- formation in favor of the conquest of America, was received with open arms by the king, caressed by the ministers, and 258 HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. all imaginable attention sliowed hiin by all people on that side of the question. He was introduced to the king in town, with whom he had the honor of many private conferences ; and was seen walking with the Prince of Wales and the king's brother in the public gardens. The queen was so interested in favor of Mrs. Arnold as to desire the ladies of the court to pay much attention to her. On the other hand, tlie papers daily con- tained such severe strokes at Arnold as would liave made any other man despise himself; and the then opposition, after- wards in power, had so little regard for him, that one day, he being in the lobby of the House of Commons, a motion was about to be made to have it cleared in order to get liim out of it, but upon the meml)er (the Earl of Surrey) being assured that he would not a})pear there again, the motion Avas not made. The name of the corporal who Avitli eight privates constituted the crew of the barge in Avhich Arnold made his escape froin West Point to the Vulture, was James Lurvey, of Colonel Rufus Putnam's regiment. He is believed to have come from Worcester County. Arnold meanly endeavored to seduce the corporal from his flag by the offer of a commission in the Brit- ish service, but the honest fellow replied, " JS^o, sir ; one coat is enough for me to wear at a time." This mansion was probably occupied by General Ward at a time not far from coincident with its possession by the Commit- tee of Safety, but of this there is no other evidence than that his frequent consultations with that body would seem to render it necessary. He received his commission as commander-in- chief of the Massachusetts forces on the 20th of May, 1775, at which time headquarters were unqiiestionably established here. It must be borne in mind, however, that the committee exer- cised the supreme authority of directing all military movements, and that General Ward was a su])ordinate. The fact that this was the Provincial headquarters has been doubtfully stated from time to time, but is settled by the fol- lowing extract from the Provincial records, dated June 21, 1775: — CAMBRIDGE CAMP. 259 " Whereas, a great number of horses have Leeii, from time toi time, put into the stables and yard of Mr. Hastings, at headquarters, not belonging to the Colony, the Committee of Safety, or the gen- eral officers, their aids-de-camp, or post-riders, to the great expense of the public and inconvenience of the committee, generals, &c." General Ward's principal motive for quitting the army was a painful disease, which prevented his mounting his horse. His personal intrepidity and resolution are well illustrated by the following incident of Shays's Eebellion. Tlie General was then chief justice of the court to be held in Worcester, September, 1786. On the morning the court was to open, the Eegulators, under Adam Wheeler, were in possession of the Court House. The judges had assembled at the house of Hon. Joseph Allen. At the usual hour they, together with the justices of the sessions and members of the bar, moved in procession to the Court House. A sentinel challenged the advance of the procession, bringing his musket to the charge. General Ward sternly ordered him to recover his piece. The man, an old soldier of Ward's own regiment, awed by his manner, obeyed. Passing through the multitude, which gave way in sullen silence, the cortege reached the Court House steps, where were stationed a file of men with fixed bayonets, Wheeler, with a drawn sword, being in front. • The crier was allowed to open the doors, which, being done, displayed another party of infantry with loaded muskets, as if ready to fire. Judge Ward then advanced alone, and the bayo- nets were presented at Ids breast. He demanded, repeatedly, who commanded the people there, and the object of these hos- tile acts. Wheeler at length replied that they had met to prevent the sitting of the courts until they could obtain redress of grievances. The judge then desired to address the people, but the leaders, who feared the effect upon their followers, re- fused to permit him to be heard. The drums beat and the guard were ordered to charge. " The soldiers advanced until the points of their bayonets pressed hard upon the breast of the chief justice, who stood immovable as a statue, without stirring a limb or yielding an inch, although the steel, in the hands of 260 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. desperate men, penetrated his dress. Struck with admiration by his intrepidity, the guns were removed, and Judge Ward, ascending the steps, addressed the assembly." " Says sober Will, well Shays has fled, And jjeace returned to bless our days. Indeed, cries Ned, I always said, He 'd prove at last a.fcdl hack Shays." When the army tirst assembled under Ward, officers were frequently stopped by sentinels for want of any distinguishing badge of rank. This led to an order that they should wear ribbons across the breast, — red for the highest grade, blue for colonels, and other colors according to rank. It is well known that Washington spoke of the resignation of General Ward, after the evacuation of Boston, in a manner approaching contempt. His observations, then contidentially made, about some of the other generals, were not calculated to flatter their amour propre or that of their descendants. It is said that General Ward, learning long afterwards the remark that had been applied to him, accompanied by a friend, waited on his old chief at jSTew York, and asked him if it was true that he had used such language. The President replied that he did not know, but that he kept copies of all his letters, and would take an early opportunity of examining them. Accordingly, at the next session of Congress (of which General Ward was^ a member), he again called with his friend, and was informed by the President that he had really written as alleged. Ward then said, " Sir, yon are no gentleman" and turning on his heel quitted the room. It is certain that the seizure of Dorchester Heights was re- solved upon early in May, 1775, or nearly a year before it was finally done by Washington. Information conveyed to the besiegers from Boston made it evident that the enemy were meditating a movement, which we now know from General Burgoyne was to have been first directed upon the heights of Dorchester, and secondly upon Charlestown. On the 9th of May, at a council of war at headquarters, the question proposed whether such part of the militia should be CAMBRIDGE CAMP. 261 called in to join the forces at Eoxbury as would be sufficient to enable them to take possession of and defend Dorchester Hill, as well as to maintain the camp at Eoxbury, was passed unani- mously in the affirmative. Samuel Osgood, Ward's major of brigade, signed the record of the vote. On the 10th of May an order was sent to all the colonels of the army to repair to the town of Cambridge, — "as we are meditating a blow at our restless enemies,"- — the general officers were directed to call in all the enlisted men, and none were allowed to depart the camps till the further orders of Congress. For some reason the enterprise was abandoned, but it shows that both belligerents were fully conscious from the first that the heights of Dorchester and Charlestown were the keys to Boston. Burgoyne says the descent on Dorchester was finally to have been executed on the 18th of June, and gives the par- ticulars of the plan of operations, — a scheme which the in- trenchment on the heights of Charlestown rendered abortive. The next whose personality is involved with the old house is Joseph Warren. The account preserved in the Hastings family is, that the patriot President-general was much pleased with Eebecca Hastings, who was then residing with her father, the College steward. The previous day the General had pre- sided at the deliberations of the Congress at Watertown, where he passed the night, coming down to Cambridge in the morning. His steps tended most naturally to the old house where were his associates of the Committee, and the commanding general. There was perhaps a fair face at the window welcoming him with a smile as he, for the last time, drew up before the gate and alighted from his chaise. Warren, risen from a sick-bed, to which overwork and mental anxiety had consigned him, dressed himself with more than ordinary care, and, silencing the remonstrances of his more cautious colleague, Elbridge Gerry, proceeded to the scene of action at Bunker Hill on foot. The old farm-house is not yet to lose its claim as a worthy memorial of the varying destinies through which our country passed, Washington made it his headquarters upon his arrival 2G2 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. at camp, remaining in it tliree days, or until arrangements for liis permanent residence could be made. He first dined at Cambridge with General Ward and liis officers, — an occasion when all restraint appears to have been cast aside in the sponta- neous welcome which was extended liim. After dinner Adjutant Gibbs, of Glover's, was hoisted (English fashion), cliair and all, upon the table, and gave the company a rollicking bachelor's song, calculated to make the immobile features of the chief relax. It was a generous, hearty greeting of comrades in arms. Glasses clinked, stories were told, and the wine circulated. Washington was a man ; we do not question that he laughed, talked, and toasted with the rest. The headquarters being here already, it was natural for the General to choose to remain for the present where the archives, staff", and auxiliary machinery enabled him to examine the condition and resources of the army he came to command. Consultations with General Ward were necessarily frequent. It was no doubt in this house Washington penned his first official despatches. Eliphalet Pearson, Professor of Hebrew and Oriental lan- guages, became the next inhabitant after Avhat may be called the Restoration, when tlie sway of warlike men gave place on classic ground to the old reign of letters. Professor Pearson was noted for the sternness of his orthodoxy, as ex- hibited in his resistance to the entrance of Rev. Henry Ware into the Hollis professorship, and for his opposition to Andrew Craigie's efforts to secure a charter for his bridge, — efforts exerted in both instances for the behoof of the College, though in widely different spheres of action. Following him came Rev. Abiel Holmes, pastor of the First Church, early historian of Cambridge, whose ministry was suspended by a revolution in his parish, which resulted in the overthrow of the old and the elevation of the new. Dr. Holmes's widow, the daughter of Judge Oliver Wendell, con- tinued to live in the house some time after the decease of her husband in 1837. Oliver Wendell Holmes, their son, did not Ijermanently reside in the old house after he left college. CAMBRIDGE CAMP. 263 The lines to Old Ironsides, to which allusion has been made, were composed in this old house when the poet was twenty years old. They were written in pencil, and hrst printed in the " Boston Daily Advertiser." Genuine wrath at tlie pro- posed breaking up of the old frigate impelled the young poet's burning lines : — " Aud one who listened to the tale of shame, Whose heart still answered to that sacred name, Whose eye still followed o'er his country's tides Thy glorious Hag, our brave Old Ironsides ! From yon lone attic on a summer's morn, Thus mocked the spoilers with his school-boy scorn." 264 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. CHAPTER XII. CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. " The country of our fathers ! May its spirit keep it safe and its JTistice keep it free ! " PURSUIl^G our circuit of the Common, " on hospitable thoughts intent," we ought briefly to pause before the whilom abode of Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse. This house may justly claim to be one of the most ancient now remaining in Cambridge, having about it the marks of great age. The strong family resemblance which the dwellings of the period to which this belongs bear to each other renders a minute description of an mdividual specimen applicable to the greater number. Here are still some relics of the " American Jenner," and some that belonged to an even older inhabitant than he. In one apartment is a clock surmounted by the symbolic cow. At the head of the staircase, in an upper hall, is another clock, with an inscription which shows it to have been presented, in 1 790, to Dr. Waterhouse, by Peter Oliver, former chief justice of the province. The old timekeeper requests its possessor to wind it on Christmas and on the 4th of July. There is also a crayon portrait of the Doctor's mother, done by Allston when an undergraduate at Harvard. The features of Henry Ware, another inhabitant of the house, look benignly down from a canvas on the wall. Some other articles may have belonged to William Vassall, who owned and occupied the house, probably as a summer residence, before the war. Still another occupant was the Rev. Winwood Sfrjeant, rector of Christ Church. Dr. Waterhouse is best remembered through his labors to introduce in this country vaccination, the discovery of Jenner, which encountered as large a share of ridicule and opposition as inoculation Ijad formerly experienced. Several persons are renu'iiilHTi'd who were vaccinated by Dr. Waterhouse. CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. 265 At one time the old barracks at Sewall's Point (Brookline) were used as a small-pox hospital. This was in the day of inoculation, when it was the fashion to send to a friend such missives as the following : — " I wish Lucy was here to have the small-pox. I wish you would persuade her to coiue here and have it. You can't think how light they have it." The visitor will find some relics formerly kept at the State Arsenal on Garden Street, in several pieces of artillery mounted on sea-coast carriages and arranged within the Common. Tliese guns were left in Boston by Sir William Howe, and, thanks to the care of General Stone, when that gentleman was adjutant- general of the State, were jii'eserved from the sale of a number of similar trophies as old iron. As tlie disappearance of the arsenal left them unprotected it is to be hoped that tlie State of Massachusetts can afford to keep these old war-dogs which bear the crest and cipher of Queen Anne and the Second George. Tlie largest of the cannon is a 32-pounder. All have the broad arrow, but rust and weather have nearly obliterated the inscriptions impressed at the royal foundry. The oldest legible date is 1G87. Besides these, were two di- minutive mortars or cohorns. Within one of the houses were two beautiful brass field-pieces, bearing the crown and lilies of France. Each has its name on the muzzle, — one being the Venus and the other Le Faucon, — and on the breech the imprint of the royal arsenal of Strasburg, with the dates respectively of 1760 and 1761. A further search revealed, hidden away in an obscure corner and covered with lumber, a Sjianish piece, which, when brought to light by the aid of some workmen, was found literally covered with engraving, beautifully executed, delineating the Spanish Grown and the monogram of Carlos III. It is inscribed, — "El Uenado. Barcelona J8DE Deceimbre De J767." Inquiry of the proper officials having failed to enlighten us 266 HlSTOllIG MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. as to the possession of these caunon by the State, we conclude theiu to be a remnant of the tiehl artillery sent us by France during the Eevolution. The Spaniard, when struck with a piece of metal, gave out a beautifully clear, melodious ring, as if it contained an alloy of silver, and brought to our mind those old slumberers on the ramparts of Panama, into whose yet molten mass the common people flung their silver reals, and the old dons their pieces of Eight, while the priest blessed the union with the baser metal and consecrated the whole to victory. Whitefield's Elm, under which that remarkable man preached in 1744, formerly stood on a line with its illustrious fellow the Washington Ehn, and not far from the turn as we pass from the northerly side of the Common into Garden Street. It ob- structed the way, and the axe of the spoiler was laid at its root two years ago. Dr. Chauncy and Whiteheld were not the best friends imaginable. They had mutually Avritten at and preaclied against each other, and reciprocally soured naturally amiable tempers. The twain accidentally met. " How do you do. Brother Chauncy," says the itinerant laborer. " I am sorry to see you," replies Dr. C. " And so is the devil," retorted Whitefield. In the early [)art of his life this gentleman happened to be preaching in the open fields, when a drummer was present, who Avas determined to interrupt tlie services, and beat his drum in a violent manner in order to drcjwn tlie preacher's voice. Mr. Whitefield spoke very loud, but the din of the instrument overpowered his voice. He therefore called out to the drummer in these words : — " Friend, you and I serve the two greatest masters existing, but in different callings. You may beat up volunteers for King George, I for the Lord Jesus Christ. In God's name, then, don't let us in- terrupt each other ; the world is wide enough for us both, and we may get recruits in abundance." This speech had sucli eft'ect that the drummer went away in great good-humor, and left the preacher in full ])ossession of the field. CAMBRIDGE COxMMON AND LANDMARKS. 267 THE WASHINGTON ELlt. Many a pilgrim daily wends his way to the spot where Washington placed himself at the head of the army. Above him towers " A goodly elm, of noble girth, That, thrice the hTiman span — While on their variegated course The constant seasons ran — Through gale, and hail, and fiery bolt. Had stood erect as man." He surveys its crippled branches, swathed in bandages ; marks the scars, where, after holding aloft for a century their out- stretched arms, limb after limb has fallen nerveless and de- cayed ; he pauses to read the inscription lodged at the base of the august fabric, and departs the place in meditative mood, as he would leave a churchyard or an altar. Apart from its association with a great event, there is some- thing impressive about this elm. It is a king among trees ; a 268 HISTORIC mansions and highways. monarch, native to the soil, whose subjects, once scattered abroad upon the plain before us, have all vanished and left it alone in solitary state. The masses of foliage which hide in a measure its mutilated members, droop gracefully athwart the old highway, and still beckon the traveller, as of old, to halt and breathe awhile beneath their shade. It is not pleasant to view the decay of one of these Titans of primeval growth. It is too suggestive of the waning forces of man, and of that "Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history." As a shrine of the Revolution, a temple not made with hands, we trust the old elm wiU long survive, a sacred memorial to generations yet to come. We need such monitors in our public places to arrest oui- headlong race, and bid us calmly count the cost of the empire we possess. We shall not feel the worse for such introspection, nor coidd we have a more impressive coun- sellor. The memory of the great is Avith it and around it; it is indeed on consecrated ground. When the camp was here Washington caused a platform to be built among the branches of this tree, where he was accus- tomed to sit and survey Avitli his glass the country round. On the granite tablet we read that Under this tree Washington First took command OF the American Army, July 3i>, 1775. On the spot where the stone church is erected once stood an old gambrel-roofed house, long the habitat of the Moore family. It was a dwelling of two stories, with a single chimney stand- ing in the midst, like a tower, to support the weaker fabric. In front were three of those shapely Lombard poplars, erect and prim, like trees on parade. A flower-garden railed it in from the road ; a porch in front, and another at the northerly end, gave ingress according as the condition of the visitor might warrant. CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. 269 The Moores occupied the house in the memorable year '75, and saw from the windows the cavalcade conducting Washing- ton to his quarters, — this being, as before stated, the high-road from Watertown to Cambridge Common. On the following day the family might have witnessed the ceremonial of formal assumption of command by the chief, on whom all eyes were tixed and in whom all hopes were centred. Deacon Moore — does he at length rest in peace 1 — was, while in the flesh, much given to patching and repairing his fences, outbuildings, and the wooden belongings of his domain in general. He bore the character of an upright, downright, conscientious deacon, walking in the odor of sanctity, and was regarded with childish awe by the urchins of the grammar- school whenever he chose to appear abroad. The deacon's house had its inevitable best room, into which heaven's sunshine was never allowed to penetrate, and which was rarely opened except to admit a stranger or hold a funeral service. There are yet such rooms in New England, Avith their stiff, black hair-cloth furniture, their ghostly pictures, and dank, mouldy odors. The carefully varnished maliogany has a smell of the undertaker ; every sense is oppressed, and the soul pleads for release from the funereal chamber. We repeat, there are still such " best rooms " in ISTew England. Upon the decease of Deacon Moore it was discovered that some peculations had been made from the treasury of Dr. Holmes's church. These were laid at the door of the departed deacon. Now comes the startling revelation. Night after night the ghost of Deacon Moore revisited his earthly abode, and made night hideous with audible pounding, as if in the act of mending the fence, as was the deacon's wont in life. The affrighted neighbors, suddenly roused from slumber, fearfully drew their curtains aside, and peered forth into the night in quest of the spectre ; but still invisible the wraith pursued its midnight labors. The Jennisons succeeded the ]\Ioores, and at length the shade came no more. Not many years ago the old house was demol- ished. A vault was discovered underneath the kitchen, walled 270 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. up with rough stone, and in this receptacle were two human skeletons. What tale of horror was here concealed, Avhat deed of blood had caused the disappearance of two human beings from the face of the earth, was never revealed. For an unknown time they had remained sealed up in the manner related, and the later dwellers in the house were totally unconscious of their horrid tenants. A family servant had long slept immediately above these bones, and we marked, even after years had passed away, a strange glitter in his eye as he recalled his couch upon a tomb. The remains were of adult persons, one a female. What motive had consigned them to this mysterious hiding-place is left to conjecture. AVas it domestic vengeance, too deadly for the public ear 1 We answer that two individuals could not have been suddenly taken out of the little community without question. Were they some unwary, tired wayfarers who had sought hospitable entertainment, and found graves instead 1 " But Echo never mocked tlie human tongue ; Some weighty crime that Heaven could not pardon, A secret curse on that old building hung, And its deserted garden." We have lived to have grave doubts whether, as the old adage says, " Murder will out." Inspect, if you have the stomach for it, our calendar of crime, and mark the array of names which belonged to those whose flite is unknown, and who are there set down like the missing of an army after the battle. The record is startling ; only at the final muster will the victims answer to the fetal list, and speak "Of graves, perchance, untimelj' scooped At midnight dark and dank." In Spain an ancient custom constrains each passer-by to cast a stone upon the heap raised on the scene of wayside murder, until at length a monument arises to warn against assassination. The peasant always pauses to repeat an ave to the souls of the slain. On this spot a church has reared its huge bulk, piling i CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. 271 stone upon stone until its steeple, overtopping the Old Elm, stands a mightier monument to the manes of the unknown dead. The events in the life of Washington which have most im- pressed ns are, the day when he unsheathed his sword beneatli the Old Elm ; the morn of the battle of Trenton ; the address to his despairing, mutinous officers at Newburg ; and the fare- well to his generals at New York. As he was mounting his horse before Trenton, an officer presented him with a despatch. His remark, " What a time to bring me a letter ! " is the sequel of his thoughts, — all had been staked on the issue. When he rose from his bed early in the morning of the meeting at New- burg, he told Colonel Humphreys that anxiety had prevented him from sleeping one moment the preceding night. Unwill- ing to trust to his powers of extempore speaking, Washington reduced what he meant to say to writing, and commenced read- ing it without spectacles, which at that time he used only occa- sionally. He found, however, that he could not proceed with- out them. He stopped, took them out, and as he prepared to place them, exclaimed, " I have grown blind as well as gray in the service of my country." In these instances we see the patriot ; in the adieu to his lieutenants, we see the man. When Washington rode into town after the evacuation of Boston, he was accompanied by Mrs. Washington, who, in accordance with our old-time elegant manners, was styled " Lady " Wasliington. Upon reaching the Old South, the General wished to enter the building. Shnbael Hewes, who at this time kept the keys, lived opposite, and the General there- fore drew up at his door. With his usual courtesy the General inquired after the health of the family, and was told that Mrs. H. had, the day before, been delivered of a fine child. At this INIrs. Washington in- sisted upon seeing the infant, born on an occasion so auspicious as the repossession of Boston by our troops, and it was accord- ingly brought out to the carriage and placed in her lap. The General, alighting, went into the meeting-house, and, ascending to the gallery, Avhere he could fully observe the havoc made by Burgoyne's Light Horse, remarked to the per- 272 HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. son who accompanied liim that he was surprised that the Eng- lish, who so reverenced their own places of worship, should have shown such a vandal disposition here. Washington died at sixty-seven ; Knox, by an accident, at fifty-six ; Sullivan, at fifty-five ; Gates, at seventy-eight ; Greene, at forty-four ; Heath, at seventy-seven ; Arnold, at sixty ; and Lee, at fifty-one. Putnam lived to be seventy-two, and Stark to be ninety-three, so that it was commonly said of him, that he was first in the field and last out of it. But other scenes await us, and though we feel that it is good for us to be here, we must reverently bid adieu to the Old Elm. It could perchance tell, were it, like the Dryads of old, loquacious, of the settlers' cabins, when it was a sapling, of the building of the old wooden seminary, and of the multitudes that have passed and repassed under its verdant arch. The smoke from a hundred rebel camp-fires drifted through its branches and wreathed around its royal dome in the day of maturity, while the drum-beat at the waking of the camp frighted the feathered songsters from their leafy retreats and silenced their matin lays. The huzzas that went up when our great leader bared the weapon he at length sheathed with all honor made every leaf tremulous with joy, and every brown and sturdy limb to wave their green banners in triumph on high. We salute thy patriarchal trunk, thy withered branches, and thy scanty tresses, venerable and yet lordly Elm ! Vale ! It is mucli more a matter of regret than surprise that we have not in all New England a specimen of antique church architecture worthy of the name. Eigid economy dictated the barn-like structures which were the first Puritan houses of wor- ship. Quaint they certainly were, and not destitute of a cer- tain sombre picturesqueness, with their queer little towers and wonderful weather-vanes ; and even their blackening rafters of prodigious thickness, their long aisles, and carved balustrades, gave modest glimpses of a Rembrandt-like interior. P)ut the beautiful forms of Jones and of Wren were left behind Avhen the ]\Iayflower sailed, and not a single type of Old England's pride of architecture stands on American soil. Simplicity in CAMBRIDGE COMxMON AND LANDMARKS. 273 building, in manners, and in dress, as well as in religion, were the base on whicli our Puritan fathers builded. Had the means not been wanting, it may be doubted whetlier they would have been apphed to the erection of splendid public edi- fices. The motives which enforced the adherence of the first settlers to the gaunt and unajsthetic structures of their time ceased, in a great measure, to exist a hundred years later, but no revival of taste appeared, and even the Episcopalians, witli the memories of their glorious Old World temples, fell in witli the prevailing lethargy which characterized the reign of ugliness. Christ Church stands confronting the Common much as it looked in colonial times. The subscription was originally formed in Boston, the subscribers being either resident or en- gaged in business there. The lot included part of the Common and part of the estate of James Eeed. The building was at first only sixty-five feet in length by forty-five in width, exclu- sive of chancel and tower, but has been much enlarged, to accommodate an increasing parish, — a work which its original plan, and the material of which it is constructed, rendered easy. Peter Harrison, the architect of King's Chapel in Bos- ton, was also the designer of this edifice, and seems to have foUowed the same plan as for that now venerable structure. Service was first held here on October 15, 1761, the Ptev. East Apthorp, whom we have already visited, officiating. Of Dr. Apthori^'s father it is written that he studied to mind his own business, — a circumstance so rare as to wellnigh deserve canonization. In the alterations which have been called for the primitive appearance of the building has been, in a great measure, pre- served. The exterior is exceedingly simple, but harmonious, the tower, placed in the centre of the front, giving en- trances on three of its sides. The old bell-tower app^'eared rather smaller than its successor, and had a pointed roof, sur- mounted, as at present, by a gilded ball. The symbolic cross, which the Puritans hated with superstitious antipathy, did not appear on the pinnacle, out of deference perhaps to the feeling 12< ^ 274 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Avliieh abominated a painted window, a (iothic arch, ur clianc^l rail, as the concomitants of that Episcopacy against wliich the Cromwellian iconoclasts had Avaged unrelenting Avar in CA^ery cathedral from Chester to Canterbnry. Ujjon the Declaration of Independence l)y the Colonies, all the taA^erns and shops AA^ere despoiled of their kingly emblems. A Boston letter of that date says : — " In consequence of Independence being declared here, all the signs which had croAvns on them eA'en the Mitre and CroAvn in the organ loft of the chajipell Avere taken doAvn, and Mr. Parker, (avIio is the Episcopal minister in town) left off praying for the king." The interior of Christ Church is quiet and tasteful, AA'ith "Storied wimlows richly dight, Casting a dim religious light." The Corinthian pillars of solid AA'ood and the original choir are still remaining. And, A'ery like, the stiff, straight-backed peAvs are a relic of ancient discomfort. The tablets bearing the Ten Commandments are mementos of Old Trinity in Boston Avhen the Avooden edifice was taken doAvn, and have by this means survived their mother church, Avhich the great fire of 1872 left a magnificent ruin. A silver flagon and cup, noAV in use to celebrate the Holy Communion, Avere presented by Governor Hutchinson in 1772. These vessels Avere the property of King's Chapel, Boston. AAdiich then received a neAV service in exchange for the old. They are inscribed as The Gift of K. William and Q Mary To y° Rev* Sanill. Myles For y' xise of Theire Majesties' Chappell in N. England. MDCXCIV. Dr. Apthorp Avas succeeded by Eev. WinAvood Serjeant, in whose time, the Bevolution having conA^erted his Avealthy and influential parishioners into refugees and driven him to seek an asylum elscAvhere, the church became a barrack, in Avhich Cap- tain Chester's company, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, Avas quar- CHRIST CHURCH. CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. 275 tered at the time of Bunker Hill, and after them one of the companies of Southern riflemen. It appears also to have been some time occupied as a guard-house by our forces, rivalhng in this respect the wanton usage of the Boston churches by the king's troops. But was not Westminster Abbey occupied by soldiery in 1643^ General Washington, himself a churchman, attended a service here, held at the request of Mrs. Washing- ton, on Sunday, the last day of 1775. The religious rite was performed by Colonel William Palfrey, one of the General's aids. Mrs. Gates and Mrs. Custis were also present. There is a tradition that Washington continued to attend service here, but the (General was probably too politic to have adopted a course so little in accord with the views of the army in gen- eral. He attended Dr. Appleton's church at times, and always showed himself possessed of true Christian liberality. On at least one occasion he partook of the Sacrament at the Presby- terian table. His generals were, in this respect, mindful of his example. At the baptism of a son of General Knox, in Boston, Lafayette, a Catholic, and Greene, a Quaker, stood godfathers to the child, Knox himself being a Presbyterian. From 1775 until 1790 Christ Church remained in the con- dition in which the war had involved it. During that time it had neither parish nor rector, but in the latter year it was re- opened, the Eev. Dr. Parker of Trinity, Boston, officiating for the occasion. A chime of thirteen bells was placed in the belfry in 18G0. For many interesting particulars of the history of this church the reader is referred to the historical discourse of Eev. Nicholas Hoppin, a former rector. The remains of the unfortunate Richard Brown, a lieutenant of the Convention troops, were deposited under this church. We have briefly referred to the shooting of this officer on Prospect Hill, as he was riding out Avith two women. It gave rise to a paper war between General Phillips and General Heath, in which, every advantage being on the side of the latter, he may be said to have come off victorious. An inquest pronounced the shooting justifiable, but the British officers, exasperated to the highest degree by this melancholy affair, 276 IIISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. affected to believe themselves the objects of indiseriinmate slaughter. It was at the time the church was opened for the interment of Lieutenant Browji, according to the rite of the Church of England, that the damage to the interior took place. Ensign Anbury asserts that the Americans then seized the opportunity " to plunder, ransack, and deface everything they could lay their hands on, destroying the pulpit, reading-desk, and com- munion table, and, ascending the organ-loft, destroyed the bel- lows and broke all the pipes of a very handsome instrument." This organ was made by Snetzler. The burial-place which lies between the churches has re- ceived from the earliest times of our history the ashes of freeman andslave, s([uire and rustic. In its repose mingle the dust of college jjresidents, soldiers of forgotten wars, and ministers of wellnigh for- gotten doctrines. The ear- liest inscription is in 1653, but the interments antecedent to this date Avere made, in many cases doubtless, without any graven tablet or other stone than some heavy mass selected at hazard, to protect the remains from beasts of prey. In still other instances the lines traced on the stones have been eflPaced by natural causes, and even the rude monuments themselves have disappeared beneath the mould. "The shimberer's mound grows fresh and green, Then slowly disappears ; The mosses creep, tlie gray stones lean, Earth hides his date and years." Among the earlier tenants of God's Acre, as Longfellow has reverently distinguished it, are Andrew Belcher, the innkeeper, Stephen Day, the printer, and Samuel Green, his successor, Elijah Corlet, master of the " faire Grammar Schoole," Dunster, first President of the College, and Thomas Shepard, minister CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. 277 of the cliurcli in Cambridge, who succeeded Hooker when he departed to plant the Colony of Connecticut. In their various callings, these were the forefathers of the hamlet ; Old Cam- bridge is really concentrated within this narrow space. The consideration which attached to the position of governor of the College is indicated by the long, pompous Latin inscrip- tions, to be deciphered only by the scholar. Classic lore, as dead to the world in general as is the subject of its eulogium, followed them to their tombs, — '• But for mine own part it was all Greek to me," — and is there stretched out at full length in many a line of sounding imj)nrt. Dunster, Chauncy, Leverett, Wadsworth, Holyoke, AVillard, and Webber lie here awaiting the great Commencement, where Freshman may at once attain the high- est degree, and where College parchment availeth nothing. The disappearance of many of the leaden family-escutcheons has already been accounted for by their conversion into deadly missiles. Necessity, which knows no law, led to these acts of sacrilege, and yet we should as soon think of fashioning the bones of the dead themselves into weapons as rob their tablets of their blazonry. The cavities in which were placed the heraldic emblems are now so many little basins to catch the dews of heaven, — our precious and only Holy Water. The Yassall tomb, a horizontal sandstone slab resting on five upright columns, is one of the most conspicuous objects in the cemetery. On the face of the slab are sculptured the chalice and sun, which may have been borne upon the banner of some gallant French crusader ; for the Vassalls were lords and barons in ancient Guienne. Hospitality and unsullied reputation are in the heraldic conjunction reduced to knightly or kingly sub- jection in the name. Whether amid the sands of Hol}^ Land, the soil of sunny France, or the clay of Cambridge churchyard, the slumberers calmly await the summons of the great King-of- Arms. Near Christ Church is a handsome monument of Scotch gran- ite, erected by the city in 1870 to the memory of John Hicks, 278 lllSTOrjG MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. William Marcy, and jNloses Richardson, buried here, and of Jabez Wyman and Jason Russell, of Menotomy, who fell on the day of Lexington battle. Here is the form of an invitation to a funeral of the olden time. Rev. Mr. Nowell died in London in 1G88. " ifor the Reuerend Mr. Mather. These — Reuerexd S**, — You are desired to accompany the Corps of Mr Samuell Nowell, minister of the Gospell, of Eminent Note in New- England, deceased, from MF Quicks ineating place in Bartholemew Close, on Thui-sday next at two of the clock in the afternoon p'cisely, to the new burying place by the Artillery ground." An epitaph has been described as giving a good character to persons on their going to a new place, who sometimes enjoyed a very bad character in the place they had just left. There is something touching about an unknown grave. Even the igno- rant crave some memento when they are gone, and the dread of being wholly forgotten on earth is depicted in Gray's incom- parable lines : — " Yet even these bones from insult to protect, Some frail memorial still erected nigh, With uncouth rhymes and shai^eless sculjiture decked, Implores the passing tribute of a sigh." Occasionally we see a stone splintered or wantonly defaced. Sometimes an old heraldic device is obliterated by a modern chisel, to give place to some new-comer who has thus, through the agency of a soulless grave-digger, possessed himself of the last heritage of the former proprietor. "I think I see them at their work those sapient trouble tombs." "While we are beautifying our newer cemeteries, and making them to " blossom as the rose," our ancient burial-places remain neglected. Cambridge churchyard was long a common thor- oughfare and playground, from which the stranger augured but ill of our reverence for the ashes of our ancestors. The place is much better kept than formerly, but we marked the absence of all attempt at beautifying the spot. There are CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. 279 neither shady walks nor blooming shrubs in a place so public as to meet the eye of every wayfarer. The older stones, half hidden in the tangled grass, threaten total disappearance at no distant day. Pray Heaven all that is left of ancient Xewtown does not return to a state of nature. Governor Belcher, one of Harvard's best friends, and the patron of Princeton College, died at his government in Xew Jersey in 1757. He was much attached to Cambridge, his Alma Mater, and the friends of his youth. In his will he de- sired to be buried in the midst of those he had loved, and accordingly his remains were deposited in this burying-ground in a tomb constructed a short time previous. It appears that the governor and his bosom friend Judge Kemington had ex- pressed the desire to be buried in one grave, so that when Bel- cher was laid in the tomb the body of his friend, who had preceded him, was disinterred and laid by his side. The mon- ument which the governor had directed to be raised over his resting-place was never erected, and in time the memory of the place of his interment itself passed away with the generation to which he belonged. The tomb became the family vault of the Jennisons. On the decease of Dr. Jennison, it was found to be completely filled with tenants. The old sexton, Brackett, upon being questioned, recollected to have seen at the bottom of the vault the fragments of an old-fashioned coffin, covered with velvet and studded with gilt nails. This was believed to be that of Governor Belcher, whose granddaughter was the wife of Dr. Jennison. The tomb of Belcher and that of Judge Trowbridge (since knoAvn as the Dana tomb) are near the gate- w^ay. In the latter were placed the remains of Washington Allston. There have been funerals in Xew England with some attempt at feudal pomp. When Governor Leverett died, in 1679, the pageant was rendered as imposing as possible. Though the governor had carefully concealed the fact of his knighthood by Charles II. during his lifetime, the customs of knightly burial were brought into requisition at his interment in Boston. There were bearers, carrying each a banner roll, at the four 2S0 IIISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. corners of the hearse. After these came the principal gentle- men of the town with the armor of the deceased, the tirst hear- ing the helmet, the last tlie spur. The procession closed with the led horse of the governor followed by banners. The home of Judge Trowbridge was on the ground on which the First Church now stands. Trowbridge, who had been attorney-general, and who was, at the breaking out of the Eevo- lution, judge of the Su})reme Court, resigned soon after the battle of Lexington, and retired to Byfield, where he enjoyed for a time the companionship of his pupil, Theophilus Parsons, whose character he no doubt impressed with his o^\^l stamp. Judge Trowbridge presided at the trial of Captain Preston with a fairness and ability that commanded respect. He was well in years when the Eevolution burst forth in fidl vigor, and al- though offered a safe conduct, declined to leave the country, saying, " I have nothing to fear from my countrymen." He returned to Cambridge, and died here in 1793. A little time after the battle of Lexington Judge Trowbridge stated to Rev. John Eliot that, " it was a most unliappy thing that Hutchinson was ever chief justice of our court. What Otis said, 'that he would set the province in flames, if he perished by the fire,' has come to pass." At the last court held under the charter, Peter Oliver was chief justice, and Ed- mund Trowbridge, Foster Hutchinson, William Cushing, and William Brown were the judges. Of these, Cushing was the only one who afterwards appeared on the bench. " Tlie scene is changed ! No green arcade, No trees all ranged arow." The old Brattle house, on the street of that name, is the first you meet with after passing the spot wliere formerly stood a hotel under the familiar designation of the Brattle House, but more recently occupied as a printing house. The buildings, now entirely demolished, occupied a part of the Brattle estate, Avhicli was once the most noted in Cambridge for tlie elegance of its grounds and the walk laid out by the proprietor, known in its day as Brattle's Mall. Miss Euth Stiles, afterwards the CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. 281 mother of Dr, Gauuett of Boston, penned some beautiful lines to tliis promenade : — " Say, noble artist, by what power inspired Thy skillul hands such varied scenes compose ? At wliose coniniand the sluggish soil retir'd. And from the marsh this beauteous mall arose ? " The walk, which once conducted to tlie river's side, was the favorite promenade for the nymjohs and swains of Old Cam- bridge, as on a moonlit eve they wandered forth to whisper their vows, chant a love-ditty under the shadows of the listening trees, or idly cast a pebble into the current of the shimmering stream. Besides the mall, was a marble grotto in which gurgled forth a spring, where love- draughts of singular potency were (piatfed, en- chaining, so 't was said, the wayward fancies of the coquette, or giving heart of grace to bashful wooer. Reader, the spring has coyly with- brattle. drawn beneath the turf, though its refreshing pool is indicated by a ruined arch nigh the wall of the enclosure ; the mall, too, is gone, but still, perchance, " Light-footed fairies guard the verdant side And watch the tui'f by Cynthia's lucid beam." The elder Thomas Brattle was an eminent merchant of Bos- ton, and a principal founder of Brattle Street Church. From him, also, that street took its name. He was the brother of William, the respected minister of Cambridge. William Brattle, the tory brigadier, went into exile in the royalist hegira, de- serting his house and all his worldly possessions. The soldiery were not long in scenting out and making spoil of the good liquors contained in the fugitive's cellars, until this house, with others, was placed under guard, and the effects of every sort taken in charge for the use of the Colonial forces. Thomas Brattle, the son of the brigadier, was the author of the improvements which made his grounds the most celebrated in New England. He left the country in 1775 for England, 282 HISTORIC .MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. hut returned before the close of the war, and had the good for- tune to obtain the removal of his jwlitical disabilities. His character was amiable, and his pursuits prompted by an en- lightened benevolence and hospitality. One of the last acts of his life was to erect a bath at what was called Brick Wharf, for the benefit of the students of the University, many of whom had lost their lives while batliing in the river. Brattle was an enthusiastic lover of horticulture, and devoted much of his time to the embellishment of his grounds. General Miftiin occupied the Brattle mansion while acting as quartermaster-general to our forces. Miftiin and Dr. Jonathan Potts, the distinguished army-surgeon of the Eevolution, married sisters. The former was small in stature, very active and alert, — qualities which he displayed in the Lechmere's Point affair, — but withal somewhat bustling, and fond of telling the sol- diers he would get them into a scrape. His manners were popular, and he appeared every inch a soldier when on duty. Despite the cloud which gathered about Mifflin's connection with the conspiracy to depose Washington, he nobly exerted himself to reinforce the wreck of the grand army at the close of the campaign of 1776. Mrs. John Adams paid a visit to jMajor Mifflin's in Decem- ber, 1775, to meet Mrs. Morgan, the wife of Dr. Church's suc- cessor as direct(jr-general of the hospital. In the company were Generals Gates and Lee. Tea was drank without restraint. " General Lee," says Mrs. Adams, " was very urgent for me to tarry in town and dine with him and the ladies present at Hobgob- lin Hall, but I excused mj^self. The General was determined that I should not only be acquainted with him, but with his companions too, and therefore placed a chair before me, into which he ordered Mr. Spada to mount and present his paw to me for better acquaint- ance. I could not do otherwise than accept it. ' That, Madam,' says he, ' is the dog which Mr. has made famous.' " Mrs. Adams further says : — "You hear nothing from the ladies but about Major Mifflin's easy address, politeness, complaisance, etc. 'T is well he has so agreeable CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. 283 a lady at Philadelphia. They know nothing about forts, intrench- nients, etc., Avhen they return ; or if they do, they are all forgotten and swallowed up in his accomplishments." It is evident that the Major was a gallant cavalier, and would have been called in our day a first-rate ladies' man. INIargaret Fuller and Motley the historian both lived in. tliis house, now the property of the Cambridge Social Union. To understand what was this old Colonial highway in which we are now saiintering, contract its breadth, expanded at the cost of the contiguous estates ; rear again the magnifi- cent trees sacrificed to the improvement, save here and there a noble specimen spared at the earnest intercession of the near proprietors, or where protected, like the " spreading chestnut- tree," by the poet's art, — would that he might dedicate his muse to every one of these mighty forest guardians ! — some relics of the dispersed sylvan host yet clings to the soil ; carry the boundaries of Thomas Brattle to those of the Vassalls ; obliterate the modern villas, with their neutral tints and chateau roofs ; restore the orchards, the garden glacis, the fra- grant lindens, and cool groves; and you have an inkling of the state of the magnificos of " forty-five " and of the most impor- tant artery of old Massachusetts Bay. Xear where stood the horse-chestnut, by whose stem Long- fellow has located the village smithy, we ought to pause a moment before the long-time dwelling of Judge Story, — a plain, three-story brick house, with small, square upper win- dows, and veranda along its eastern front. This house was built about 1800, and in it Story died, and from it he was buried. The old Judge was wont, they say, when weighty matters occupied him, to take his hat into his study, where he remained secure from intrusion ; while the servant, not seeing his head- covering in its accustomed place in the hall, would say to comers of every degree that he was not at home. " In tlie summer afternoons he left his library towards twilight, and might always be seen by the passer-by sitting with his family 284 HISTORIC MANSION'S AND HIGHWAYS. under the portico, talking, or reading some light pamphlet or newsi- paper ; oftener surrounded by friends, and making the air ring with his gay laugh. This, with the interval occupied by tea, would last until nine o'clock. Generally, also, the summer afternoon was varied, three or four times a week in fine weather, by a drive with my mother of about an hour through the surrounding country in an open chaise. At about ten or half past ten he retired for the night, never varying a half-hour from this time." * William W. Story, the son of Judge Story, passed liis college life in this house, was married in it, and here also made his first essays in art. The beautiful statue of the jurist in the chapel of Mount Auburn is the work of his son's hands. Judge Story's widow remained but a little time in the house after her husband's decease. Edward Tuckerman, professor of botany at Amherst, lived here some time, a bachelor ; and Judge William Kent, son of the celebrated chancellor, resided here while pro- fessor in the Law School. In his time gayety prevailed in the old halls, often filled with the elite of the town, and sometimes distinguished by the presence of the eminent commentator him- self. In this house, could we but make its walls voluble, we might write the annals of bench and bar. It stands amid the frailer structures stanch as the Constitution, while its old-time, learned inhabitant has long since obeyed the summons of the Supreme Court of last resort, where there is no more conflict of laws. Ash Street is the name now given to the old highway lead- ing to the river's side, where formerly existed an eminence known as Windmill Hill, later the site of Brattle's bathing- house, from which the way was known as Bath Lane. The mill is mentioned as standing in 1719, and, in all probability, occupied the same ground as the earlier mill of the first plant- ers, removed in 1632 to Boston, "because it would not grind but with a westerly wind." The firm ground extends here quite to the river, so that boats freighted with corn could unload at the mill. Down this lane of yore trudged many a weary rustic with his grist for the mill. * Jiulge Story's Memoir, by liis son. CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. 285 The house, lately the residence of Samuel Batchekler, Esq., was built about 1700, and may claim the respect due to a hale, hearty old age. It was originally of ro\;gh-cast, filled in with brick. The east front, unfortunately injured by fire, was re- stored to its ancient aspect, except that the dormer windows if that part have not been replaced. The brown old mansion in, pluses three sides of a square, and oifers a much more picturesque view from the gardens than from the street. On the west was the court- yard and carriage entrance, paved with beach pebbles, now a street; the east front opened upon the i(^'4" spacious grounds, now somewhat ^ shrunken on the side of the high- way by its enlargement. During this improvement the low brick ^i- ^^ •^^*o; wall on Brattle Street, as it now appears on Ash Street, was taken belcher. down, and replaced by one more elegant. The recessed area at the back has a cool, monastic look, with shade and climbing vines, — a place for meditative fancies. The garden is thickly studded with trees, shrubbery, and flowers, as also was the dreary waste once Thomas Brattle's, dur- ing the time of that right worthy horticulturist. At the extremity of Mr. Batchelder's garden re- mains of what were believed to have belonged to the early forti- fications were discovered. The situation coincides with the loca- tion as fixed by Rev. Dr. Holmes. The estate came, in 1717, into the possession of JonathanBelcher while he was yet a merchant and had not donned the cares of GOVERNOR BELCHER. 286 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. office. He was one of the nio.st elegant gentlemen of liis time in manners and appearance, — a fact for which his portrait will voucla. While governor he once made a state entry into Hampton Falls, where the Assemblies of Massachusetts Lay and IS^ew Hampshire were in session on the vexatious question of the dividing line between the governments. "\Ve append a contemporary pasquinade on the event : — " Dear Paddy, you ne'er did behold such a sight As yesterday morning was seen before night. You in all your born days saw, nor I did n't neither. So many tine horses and men ride together. At the head the lower house trotted two in a row, Then all the higher house pranc'd after the low; Then the Governor's coach gallop'd on like the wind. And the last that came foremost were troopers behind ; But I fear it means no good to your neck nor mine, For they say 't is to fix a right place for the line." The mansion afterwards became the property of Colonel John Vassall, the elder, whose sculptured tondistone we have seen in the old churchyard. This gentleman conveys the estate (of seven acres) to his brother, Major Henry, an officer in the militia, who died in this house in 17G9. The wife of jNIajor Vassall, nee Penelope lioyall, left her home, at the breaking out of hostilities, in such haste, it is said, that she carried along with her a young companion, wlioni she had not time to re- store to her friends. Such of her property as was serviceable to the Colony forces was given in charge of Colonel Stark, while the rest was allowed to pass into Boston. The barns and outbuildings were used for the storage of the Colony forage, cut with whig scythes in tory pastures. It is every way likely that the AYidow A^assall's house at once became the American hospital, as Thacher tells us it was near headquarters, and no other house was so near as this. There is little doubt that it was the residence, as it certainly was the prison, of that inexplicable character, Dr. Benjamin Church, whose defection was the first that the cause of America had experienced. Suspicion fell itpon Church before the middle of September. He was summoned to headquarters on the eA-ening CAMBRIDGE COMMru repuhlica." Ho took an active jtart against the whigs in the struggles prelimi- nary to active hostilities, and early in 1775 became a fugitive under the protection of the royal standard. In Boston he occu- pied the time-honored mansion of the Faneuils, where he, no doubt, often saw his fellow-tories assembled around his board. His Cambridge and Boston estates were both confiscated, and not tlie least curious of the freaks whicli f irtune ]>layed in those troublous times was the occupation of the hrst-named house by "NYashington, while that of William Yassall, in Boston, after- wards the residence of Oardiner Crccne, was for some time tlie lodgings of Sir William Howe, ami also of Earl Percy. Col- onel Yassall retired to England, wliere he died in 1797, after eating a hearty dinner. Having witnessed the hurried exit of the first proprietor, it becomes our duty to throw wide the portal and admit a bat- talion of Colonel John Glover's amphibious Marblehead regi- ment. As the royalist went out the republicans came in, and llif halls of the haus-ditv toi'V resounded with merriment or HEADQUAKTEKti OF THE ARMY. 293 echoed tu the tread of many feet. Colonel John the first gave place to Colonel John the second. Truth compels us to add that the man of Marblehead has left a more enduring record than the marble of the A^assall. The little colonel, though small in stature, was as brave as Ctesar. His patriotism was full proof. Besides his service at the siege of Boston, his regiment brought oft" the army in safety after the disastrous affair of Long Island, where they showed that they could handle ashen as well as steel blades. He was a great favorite with Lee, with whom he served two campaigns. It was Glover who, after the ever-memorable passage of the Delaware, made the discovery that the thickly falling sleet had rendered the fire-arms useless. Meaning glances were exchanged among the little group who heard the ill-omened announce- ment. " What is to be done 1 " exclaimed Sullivan. " Nothing is left you but to push on and charge," replied St. Clair. Sul- livan, still doubtful, sent Colonel William Smith, one of his aids, to inform General Washington of the state of his troops, and that he could depend upon nothing but the bayonet. General Washington replied to Colonel Smith in a voice of thunder, " Go back, sir, immediately, and tell General Sidlivan to go 0)1 ! " Colonel Smith said he never saw a face so awfully sublime as Washington's Avlien he spoke these words. Knox, whose superhuman efforts on that night to get his ar- tillery across the l")elaware entitle him to lasting praise, pays this tribute to the brave men of Glover's command : — " I could wish that they [he was speaking to the Massachusetts Legislature] had stood on the banks of the Delaware River in 1776, un that bitter night when the commander-in-chief had drawn up his little army to cross it, and had seen the powerful current bearing onward the floating masses of ice which threatened destruction to whosoever should venture upon its bosom. I wish that, when this occurrence threatened to defeat the enterprise, they could have heard that distinguished warrior demand, ' JFho will lead us on?' and seen the men of Marblehead, and ]\larblehead alone, stand for- ward to lead the army along its perilous path to unfading glories and honors in the achievements of Trenton." 204 iriSTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Glo\er was liiiu.si.4t' a tisliermaii aud wore a .sliuit luund- jacket like his men. 'rw(i i>f lii.s captains, John Selman ami Nicholson Broughton, cngayud in the hrst naval expedition of the Kevolution. A thiril, William liaymund Lee, finally became (dover's successor in the command of the regiment. ( dovei- had been out Avith the Marblehead militia when Leslie attempted to force his way into Salem. The regiment reported to General Ward on the 22d of June, 1775. (iraydon, Avhose illiberal and sweeping abuse of the New I'^ngiand troops renders his praise the more remarkable, makes an exception in favor of Glover's regiment, Mdiich he saw in Xew York in 177G. He says : — "The only exception I recollect to have seen to tliese miserably constituted bands from New EngLiud was the regiment of Glover from Marblehead. There was an appearance of discipline in this corps ; the officers seemed to have mixed with the world, and to un- derstand what belonged to their station. But even in this regiment tliere were a number of negroes, which, to persons unaccustomed t(j such associations, had a disagreeable, degrading effect." (dover served in the Northern army in the campaign against Burgoyne. He commanded the troo[)S drawn up to receive the surrender, and, with Whipple, escorted the forces of the Con- vention to Cambridge. An excellent disciplinarian, his regi- ment was one of the 1)est in the army. But the Provincial Congress has ordered the house cleared for a more illustrious tenant, and our sturdy men of Essex must seek another loca- tion. On the 7th of July they received orders to encamp. In February, 1776, the regimental headquarters were at Brown's tavern, while the reghnent itself lay encamped in an enclosed })asture to the north of the Colleges. From the records of the ]-'rovincial Congress M'e h-arn that Joseph Smith was the custodian of the Vassall farm, whic^h fur- nished considerable supplies of forage for our army. It was at tlie time when the haymakers were busy in the royalist's mead- ows that Washington, entering Cambridge with his retinue, first had his attention hxed by the luansion which for more than ei''ht months became his residence. HEADcjUARTEKS OF THE AUMY. 295 ■ Once, ah I ouce, within these walls, One whom memory oft recalls. The father of his country dwelt ; And yonder meadows broad and damp, The fires of the besieging cam]j Encircled with a burning belt." ^^'^asllington probal;)ly tuuk possession of this house before the middle of July, as he himself records, under date of July 15, that he })aid for cleansing the premises assigned him, whicli had been occupied by the Marblehead regiment. The Com- mittee of Safety had ordered it vacated early in May for their own use, but there is no evidence that they ever sat there. Whatever re- lates to the per- sonality of Wash- ington will re- main a matter of interest to the latest times. The pencils of the a Peales, of Trum- bull, Stuart, ol Wertmiiller, an< 1 others have dt ])icted him in eai ly manhood, in mature age, and the decline of life , while the chisel of a Canova, a Houdon, and a Cliantrey have familiarized Ameri- cans A^th his commanding figure and noble cast of features : — BALL b WASHINGTON STATIJE. ■ A combination and a form indeed, Where every god did seem to set his si'mI To give the world assurance of a man," 296 IlLSTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. One of Ixucliaiuljeau's generals has left by far the most satis- factory account of Washington's outward man : — "His stature is noble and lofty, he is well made and exactly proportioned ; his physiognomy mild and agreeable, but such as to render it impossil)le to S2)eak particularly of any of his features, so that in quitting him you have only the recollection of a iine face. He has neither a grave nor a familiar air, bis brow is sometimes marked with thought, but never with inquietude ; in inspiring re- spect he inspires confidence, and his smile is always the smile of benevolence." Says another : ■ — " With a person six feet two inches in stature, expanded, muscular, of elegant proportions and unusually graceful in all its movements, — his head moulded somewhat on the model of the Grecian an- tique ; features sufficiently prominent for strength or comeliness, — a Roman nose and large blue eyes deeply thoughtful rather than livel}', — with these attributes the appearance of Washington was striking and august. Of a fine complexion, he was accounted when young one of the handsomest of men." Tliat Washington wore his famous l)lue and Iniff uniform on his arrival at Cambridge there can be as litth; doubt as that he a})peared in his seat in Congress in this garb ; and, as these became the colors of the famed Continental army, their origin becomes a subject of inquiry. The portrait of the elder Peale, painted in 1772, represents Washington in the uniform of the provincial troops, Avhich, for good cause, was varied from that of the British line. In the former corps the coat was blue faced with crimson, in the lat- ter scarlet faced with Idue, — colors which had been worn since their ado[)tion in the reign of Qtieen Anne. To continue Peale's delineation of Colonel Washington's uniform, the coat and waist- coat, out of which is seen protrtiding the " order of march," are both edged with silver lace, with buttons of white metal. An embroidered lilac-colored scarf falls from the left shoulder across the breast and is knotted at the right hip, while sus- pended Ijy a blue ril)bon from his neck is the gorget bearing the arms oi' Virginia, then and afterwards a distinctive emblem. HEADQUAKTERS OF THE ARMY. 297 as the fusee he carries by a sliug was the companion of every officer. This was the very dress he Avore on the day of Brad- dock's signal defeat. Blue - — than which no color can be more soldierly — had its precedent, not only in the British Horse Ciuards, but in the French and other armies of Continental Europe. It is to Sweden, however, that we must look for the origin of the cele- brated blue and buff, as we find the Royal Swedes wearing it as early as 1715. In 1789 they were attired in the very cos- tume of the Continentals. The General wore rich epaulettes and an elegant small sword. He also carried habitually a pair of screw-barrelled, silver- mounted pistols, with a dog's head carved on the handle. It also appears that he sometimes wore the light-blue ribbon across his breast, between coat and waistcoat, which is seen in Peale's portrait painted for Louis XVI. This badge, which gave rise to the mistaken idea that Washington was a Marshal of France, was worn in consequence of an order issued in July, 1775, to make the persons of the generals known to the army. By the same order the major and brigadier generals were to wear pink ribbons, and the aides-de-camp green. An old print of General Putnam exhibits this peculiarit}-. Cockades of different colors were assigned by orders in 1776 as distinguishing badges for officers. Peale's portrait of Colonel Washington, together with other valuable paintings at Arlington House, were removed by Mrs. Lee when she left her residence in May, 1861. Although con- siderably injured by the rough usage of war times, every lover of art will be glad to know that they have been preserved. The gorget which has been mentioned as having been worn by Washington Avhen he sat to the elder Peale is now preserved as a precious relic in the Quincy family, of Boston. A pair of epaulettes worn by the General at Yorktown, together with some other mementos, are in the cabinets of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The commander-in-cliief, upon taking possession of his head- ([uarters, selected tlie soutlieast chamber for his sleeping-apart- 13* 298 HISTORIC .MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. meiit. What viyils he kept here in the silent watches of the night, what invocations were made for Providential aid and i^uidance, when, escaping from the sight of men, he unbosomed himself and bowed dowji beneath the weight of his responsi- bilities, the walls alone might tell. '■ Yes, witliiu this very room, Sat he in those hours of gloom, Weary both in heart and head." Washington was very exact in his habits. It is said he always shaved, dressed himself, summer and winter, and. an- swered his letters liy candle-light. Nine o'clock Avas his hour for retiring. The front room underneath the chamVier, already mentioned as the poet's study, was approjn'iated by the General for a simi- lar pur})ose. This opens at the rear into the library, an apart- ment occupied in the day of the great Virginian by his military family. In the study the ample autograph was appeirded to letters and orders that have formed the framework for contem- porary history ; the march of Arnold to Quebec, the new or- ganization of the Continental army, the occupation of Dorches- ter Heights, and the simple but graphic ex})ression of the final triumph of ])atient enduran(;e in the following order of the day : — '■■' Head QrAiiTi;ns, 17th Maivli 1776. " Parole Boston. Countersign »SV. Patrick." " The regiments uniler luarcliiiig orders to iiiarrli to-UKnTow morning. Brigadier of the Day, Cjeneral Sullivan. " By His E.xcellency's Cunanand." Here, too, our (xeneral rose to his full stature when, in his famous letter to General Gage, he gave utterance to the feelings of hone-st resentment called fnrth by the supercilious declara- tions of that officer in language Avhirh must havi^ stung the Briton to the quick : — "You atl'oct, sir, to despise all rank not deri\('d from the same source with your own. I cannot conceive one more honorable than that which flows from the uuLorrupted choice ui" a brave and free jieople, — the purest source and (iri^iiiiil iVmntaiii nl'all power." I HKADC^tUAKTEKS OF THE AliMY. 20'.) Xajioleon, wlion in exile at St. Helena, remarked to an Englislunan A\diile arguing against the foolish attempt to make him relin(inish the title of Emperor, " Your nation called Wash- ington a leader of rebels for a long time, and refused to acknowl- edge either him or the constitution of his country ; but his successes obliged them to change and acknowledge both." The phrase of " military family," in which was included the entire staff of the General, originated in the British army. The custom of embracing the suite of a general in his household, and of constituting them in effect members of his family, was not practised in the armies of Continental Europe. Washing- ton was fortunately able to support the charge of this practice, as well as to control the incongruous elements somethnes grouped about his person. Of his first staft', Gates, the head, became soured, and, fancying his position far beneath his merits, a restraint soon appeared in his demeanor. Mifflin, the first aid, afterwards governor of Pennsylvania, became involved in the Conway cabal ; and Eeed, the General's secretary and most trusted friend, became at one time so doubtful of the success of the American arms, that he is said to have received a British pro- tection. But Keed's patriotism was proof against a most artful attempt to bribe him through the agency of a beautiful woman. When assured of her piu'pose, he addressed her in these words : " I am not worth purchasing, but such as I am, the king of ( heat Britain is not rich enough to do it." Trumbull, the painter, who was made an aid in the early days of the siege, confesses his inability to sustain the exigencies of his position. He relates that the scene at headquarters was altogether new and strange to him. " I now," he says, " found myself in the family of one of the most distinguished men of the age, surrounded at his table by the princi- pal officers of the army, and in constant intercourse with them ; it was further my duty to receive company and do the honors of tlic house to many of the first people of the country of both sexes. I soon found myself unequal to the elegant duties of my situation, and was gratified when Mr. Edmund Randolph (afterwards Secretary of State) and Mr. Baylor arrived from Virginia, and were named aids- du-camp, to succeed Mr. Mifflin and myself." 300 HIBTOKKJ MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Geoi'ge Baylor, who AVasliington said was no penman, hav- ing expi-pssed a desire to go into the artillery with Knox, the General appointed Moylan and Palfrey to fill the places of the former and of Eandolph, who Avas obliged to leave Cambridge snddenly on his own affairs. Baylor is the same officer who, as colonel of dragoons, was surprised and luade prisoner by General Grey at Tappan, with the loss of the greater part of liis men inhumanly butcheretl while demanding quarter. Moy- lan, a gay, rollicking Irishman, was appointed commissary-gen- eral, — a place he soon left for the line. Harrison, who succeeded Keed as secretary, lacked grasp for his multifarious duties, though he continued in the staff until 1781. David Hum- phreys, the soldier-poet, was, for his gallantry at Yorktown, selected to carry the captured standards to Congress, as Baylor had carried the news of ^dctory at Trenton, — Humphreys had first been aid to Putnam. Alexander Hamilton, Avho served Washington as a member of his military family with singular ability, left the General in anger on account of a scolding he had received from him for some delay in sending off despatches at Yorktown. Tench Tilghman was a dashing cavalier and an excelleiit scribe. He served AVashington nearly five years, during which he was in every action in which the main army was engaged. General Lloyd Tilghman, a descendant, Avho fought on the Confederate side in the late war, was cap- tured at Fort Henry, and confined for some time at Fort War- ren, in Boston harbor. At the festival of the Society of the Cincinnati in 1872, a representative of the Patriot officer was present. While loitering in the apartments devoted to official business, it may not be uninteresting to refer to the chirography of the leaders of the Continental army, most of whom handled the sword and pen equally well. Washington's characters were large, round, and never appear to have been penned in haste. Knox wrote indifferently when he entered the army, but his hand soon became straggling and difficult to decipher, his mind being so much more active than his pen that his MS. is filled with interlineations. Greene wrote a fair, clear, running-hand ; HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY. 301 tiis language couched in good, terse plu-ase. Wayne, far from being the boor that Andre's epic makes him, not only held a fluent, biTt a graphic pen, as mtness his despatch : — '• Stoxey Point, 16th. July, 1779, — 2 o'clock, a. m. " Dear General, — The fort and garrison, with Colonel Johnston, are ours. Our officers and men behaved like men who are deter- mined to be free. Yours most sincerely, '• Ant^ Wayne." Gates wrote a handsome, round hand ; so did Schuyler, St. Clair, Sullivan, and Stirling. Lee took rather more care of his handwriting than of his dress ; his characters are bold and legible. Lafayette wrote like a Frenchman. Steuben's and Chastellux's were rather an improvement on Lafayette's diminu- tive strokes. Whatever may be said of Washington's Fabian policy, it is certain the pugnacious element was not wanting in his cliarac- ter. He wished to carry Boston by assaidt, but was overruled })y his council ; he Avished to hght at Germantown, with an army just beaten ; and again at Monmouth against the advice of a council of war, Avith Lee at its head. In the latter battle, where he was more than half defeatad, disaster became victory under his eye and voice. Here he is said to have been fear- fully aroused, appearing in an unwonted and terrible aspect. ^\.n eyewitness of one of those rare but aA\d'ul phenomena, a burst of ungovernable -WTath from Washington, related that on seeing the misconduct of General Lee, he lost all control of himself, and, casting his hat to the ground, stamped upon it in his rage. " In every heart Are so nil the sparks tliat kiudle fiery war ; Occasion needs but fan tlieni ami they blaze." This battle has always reminded us of Marengo, where De- saix, arriving on the field to find the French army beaten and retreating, calmly replied to the question of the First Consul, " The battle is lost ; but it is only two o'clock, we have time to gain another." But Lee was not Desaix, and the chief, not tlie lieutenant, saved the day. Lafayette always said Washing- ton Avas superb at Monmouth. 302 IIISTOIUC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Another inciJent, perfectly authentic, exhihits Wasliington's personal magnetism and prowess. It is related that one morn- ing Colonel Glover came in haste to headquarters to announce that his men were in a state of mutiny. On the instant tlu; ( Jeneral arose, and, mounting his horse, wliit^h was always kept ready saddled, rode at full gallop to tlie mutineers' camp, ac- companied by Glover and Hon. James Sullivan. Washington, arrived on the spot, found himself in presejice of a riot of seri- ous proportions between the Marblehead fishermen and Mor- gan's Iiiflemen. The Yankees ridiculed the strange attire and liizarre appearance of the Virginians. A^^ords were followed hy blows, until an indescriliable uproar, produced hy a tliousand combatants, greeted the appearance of the (Tcneral. He had ordered his servant, Pompey, to dismount and let down the l)ars wliich closed the entrance to the camp ; this the negro was in the act of doing, when the General, spurring his horse, leaped over Pompey's head, cleared the bars, and dashed among the rioters. " The General threw the bridle of his horse into his servant's hands, and, rushing into the thickest of the fight, seized two tall, brawny ritlemen by the throat, keeping them at arm's length, talking to iind shaking them." His command- ing presence and gestures, together with the great physical strength he displayed, — for he lield tlie men he had seized as incapable of resistance as babes, — - caixsed the angry soldiers to fall back to the right and left, ('ailing the officers around liim, with their aid the riot was quickly suppressed. The General, after giving orders appropriate to pre^^ent the recurrence of such an aftair, cantered away from the field, leaving officers and men alike astonished and charmed with what they had wit- nessed. " You have both a Howe and a Clinton in your army," said a British officer to a fair rebel. "Even so: but you have no Washington in yours," was tlie reply. On the occasion when Colonel Patterson, Howe's adjutant- general, brought to AVashington at Xcav York the letter ad- dressed to " (xeorge Washington. Esq., &c., etc.," an officer who was present at the interview says his Excellency was very handsomely dressed and made a most elegant appearance. HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY. oOo Patterson ap[)eave(l awe-stnu;k, and every other word with hiui was " may it please your Excellency," or " if your Excellency please." After considerable talk on the subject of the letter, the Colonel asked, " Has your Excellency no particular com- mands with which you would please to honor me to Lord and General Howe?" "Nothing but my particiilar compli- ments to both," replied the (xeneral, and the conference closed. Of his generals, Washington's relations with Knox were the most intimate and confidential, l^afayette fully shared in the feelings of love and veneration with which Knox regarded his hero. The ap})ointment of jNIad Anthony to command the army against the Xorthwestern Indians showed that the Presi- dent had great confidence in his courage and ability. Greene was thought to have possessed greater influence in the councils of the general-in-chief than any other of his captains. N^one other of the superior officers appear to have stood on as familiar a footing as these. St. Clair was a Scotsman, Montgomery an Irishman, as was also General Conway, while Lee and (rates were Englishmen by birth. It is not a little surprising that in our republican army there should have been an officer born on our soil who not only claimed the title to an earldom, but also to be addressed as " My Lord " by his brother officers. He signed himself sim- ply " Stirling." A hon vivanf, he was accused of liking the bottle fully as inucli as became a lord, and more than became a general. On I'onA'i^^'ial occasions he was fond of fighting his l)attles over. (Jne of Stirling's daughters, Lady Kitty, made a private mar- riage Avith Colonel William Duer, who acted so noble a part during the memorable cabal in Congress to elevate Gates to the chief command. Lady Kitty kept her secret so well that even her father's most intimate friends were not informed of it, and Avhen Colonel Duer stated that he was married he was supposed to be jesting, until it was announced that the pair liad passed the night together at the house of a friend. Lafayette alwaj's kept a huge boAvl of grog on his table for all comers. Despite his deep red hair, he Avas one of the finest- 304 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. kx)king men in the army. His forehead was good, thougli re- ceding ; his eyes hazel ; his mouth and chin delicately formed, exliibiting beauty rather than strength. His carriage was noble, his manner frank and winning. He never ^vore powder, but in later years became quite bald and wore a wig. The Marchioness was not critically handsome, but had an agreeable face and figure, and was a most amiable woman. Mademoiselle and Master George were considered in their youth line children, and the friends of the Marquis thought he made a great sacrifice of domestic happiness in espousing the cause of our country as warmly as he did. His son, George Wash- ington Lafayette, who was confided to a Bostonian's care dur- ing one of the stormy periods of his father's career after his return to France, accompanied the ]\lar([ui8 to America in 1824, and died at La Grange in 1849. Count Rochambeau could not speak a word of English, nor could tlie brothers. Baron and Viscount Viomenil, the Mar- quis Laval, or Count Saint Maime. The two Counts Deux Fonts, on the other hand, spoke pretty well, while General Chastellux had fully mastered the language. During the stay of the French at Newport, an invitation to the petites soupers of the latter officer was eagerly welcomed by intelligent Ameri- cans. It has been said there is not a proclamation of Xapoleon to his soldiers in which glory is not mentioned and duty forgot- ten ; there is not an order of Wellington to his troops in which duty is not inculcated, nor one in which glory is even alluded to. Washington's orders contain appeals to the patriotism, love of country, and nol)ler impulses of his soldier.s. He re- buked profligac}^ immorality, and kindred vices in scathing terms ; he seldom addressed his army that he did not confess his dependence on that Supreme guidance which the two pre- ceding illustrious examples ignored. In this study probably assembled the councils of war, at which we may imagine the General standing with his back to the cavernous fireplace, his brow thoughtful, his lips compressed beyond their wont, while the glowing embers paint fantastic I HEADQUARTERS OF THK ARMY. 305 pictures on the wainscot, or cast weird shadows of the tall tigure along the floor. Around the board are Ward, Lee, and Put- nam in the places of lienor, with Thomas, Heath, Greene, Sul- livan, Spencer, and Knox in the order of rank. If the subject was momentous, or not Anally disposed of to his satisfaction in the council, it was Washington's custom to require a written opinion from each of the generals. Opposite the study, on your left as you enter, is the recep- tion-room, in which Mrs. Washington, who arrived in Cam- bridge at about the same time as the news of the capture of Montreal, — twin events which gladdened the General's heart, — received her guests. These, we may assume, included all the families of distinction, either resident or who came to visit their relations in camp. On the day of the battle of Bunker Hill the untoward and afflicting scenes so affected one delicate, sen- sitive organization that the lady became deranged, and died in a few months. This was the wife of Colonel, afterwards Gen- eral, Huntington. But the gloomy aspect was not always uppermost, and gayety perhaps prevailed on one side of the hall, while matters of grave moment were being despatched on the other. It w^ould not be too great a flight of fancy to imagine the lady of the household looking over the list of her dinner invitations while her lord was signing the sentence of a court-martial or the order to open fire on the beleaguered town. Mrs. Washington entered this house on the 11th December, 1775, having for the companions of her journey from Virginia Mrs. Gates, John Custis and lady, and George Lewis. The General's wife had very fine dark hair. A portion of her wedding dress is highly prized by a lady resident in Boston, while a shoe possessed by another gives assurance of a small, delicate foot. We pass into the dining-room, in which have assembled many of the most distinguished military, civil, and hterary characters of our country. Washington's house steward was Ebenezer Aus- tin, who had been recommended to him by the Provincial Com- mittee. Mrs. Goodwin of Charlestown, the mother of Ozias Goodwin, a well-known merchant of Boston, Avas his house- 306 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHAVAYS. keeper ; she had been rendered hoineless by the destructiun of Charlestown. The General had a French cook and black servants, — then as common in Massachusetts as in the Old Dominion. The ( General breakfosted at seven o'clock in the summer and at eight in the winter. He dined at two, and drank tea early in the evening ; supper lie eschewed altogether. His breakfast was very frugal, and at this meal he drank tea, of which he was extremely fond. He dined well, but was not difficult to please in the choice of his viands. There were usually eight or ten large dishes of meat and pastry, with vegetables, followed l)y a second course of pastry. After the removal of tlie cloth the ladies retired, and tlie gentlemen, as Avas then the ftishion, par- took of wine. ^Madeira, of which he drank a couple of glasses oiit of silver camp cups, was the General's flivorite wine. AYashington sat long at table. An officer who dined with him says the rej)ast occupied two hours, during Avhich the Gen- eral was toasting and conversing all the time. One of his aides w^as seated every day at the bottom of the table, near the Gen- eral, to serve the company and distribute the bottles. Wasli- ington's mess-chest, camp e(p;ipage, and horse equipments were complete and elegant ; he broke all liis own horses. Apropos of the Geneval's stud, he had two favorite horses, — one a large, elegant chestnut, high-spirited and of gallant carriage, which had belonged to the British army ; the other a sorrel, and smaller. This was the horse lie always rude in battle, so that whenever the General was seen to mount him the word ran through the ranks, " AVe have business on hand." AVashington came to Cambridge in a liglit phaeton and pair, but in his frequent excursions and reconnoitring expeditions he preferred the saddle, for he Avas an admirable horseman. l>illy, the General's black groom and favorite body-servant, has lie- come an historical character. In order that nothing may be wanting to complete the in-door life in this old mansion in 1775 and 1776, we append a dinner invitation, such as was issued daily, merely cautioning the reader that it is not the jiroduetion of the General, but of one of his fUniilv : — HEADQUARTEKS OF THE ARMY. 307 '' The General & Mrs W,isliiii,i;tou present their compliments to C^ol? Knox & Lady, begs the favor of their company at dinner on Friday half after 2 o'clock '• Thiirsday Evening Feby 1st." Among other notables who sat at the General's board in this room was Franklin, when he came to settle with his fellow- commissioners, Hon. Thomas Lynch of Carolina, and Benjamin Harrison of Virginia, the new establishment of the Continental army. General ( rreene, who was presented to the philosopher on the evening of his arrival, says : — " I had the honor to he introduced to that very great man. Doctor Franklin, whom 1 viewed with silent admiration dm'ing the whole evening. Attention watched his lips, and conviction closed his periods." We do not know whether grace was habitually said at the General's table or not, but the great printer would have will- ingly dispensed with it. It is related, as illustrative of the eminently practical tiu-n of his mind, that he one day aston- ished that devout old gentleman, his father, by asking, "Father, why don't you say grace at once over the Avhole barrel of flour or pork, instead of doing so three times a day 1 " Neither liis- tory nor tradition has preserved the respectable tallow-chan- dler's reply. The first ste])s taken by Washington t<_i iurm a Iwdy-guard Avere in orders of the 11th of March, 177<), by which the com- manding officers of the regiments of the established army were directed to furnisli four men each, selected for their honesty, sobriety, and good behavior. Tlie men were to be from five feet eight to hve feet ten inches in height, hand- somely and well made, and, as the General laid great stress upon cleanliness in the soldier, he requested that partic- ular attention might be paid to the choice of such as were "neat and spruce." The General stipulated that the can- didates for his guard should be drilled men, and perfectly wilHng to enter ujjou this new duty. They were not re- quired til bring either arms or uniform, Avhich indicates the 308 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. FLAG OF THE BODY-GUAKD. General's intention to newly arm and clothe his guard. This was the origin of the celebrated corps d' elite. Caleb Gibbs of Rhode Island was the first commander of the Life Guard. He had been adjutant of Glover's regiment, and must have rec- ommended himself to the commander-in- cliief After the war he resided in Boston, and was made naval store-keeper, with an office in Battery- march Street. Washington took his departure from the Vassall house be- tween the 4th and 10th of April, 1776, for ISTew York. On the 4tli he wrote from Cambridge to the president of Congress, and on the lltli he was at New Haven en route to Kew York. On the occasion of his third visit to Boston, in 1789, he again passed through Cambridge and stopped about an hour at his ( )ld headquarters. He then received a military salute from the Middlesex militia, who were drawn up on Cambridge Common with General Brooks at their head. The next person to claim our attention is Nathaniel Tracy, who became the proprietor after the war. He kept up the tra- ditions of the mansion for hospitality, though we doubt whether his servants ever drank choice wines from pitchers, as has been stated. Tracy was from Newburyport, where, with his brother, he had carried on, under the firm name of Tracy, Jackson, and Tracy, an immense business in privateering. Martin Brimmer was their agent in Boston. He fitted out the first private armed vessel that sailed from an American port, and during the war was the principal owner of mo:"e than a score of cruisers. which inflicted great loss upon the enemy's marine. Tlie follow- HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY. 309 ing extract will enable the reader to form a correct estimate of the hazard with which this business was conducted : — "At the end of 1777 his brother and he had lost one and forty ships, and with regard to himself he had not a ray of hope but in a single letter of marque of eight guns, of which he had received no news. As he was walking one day with his brother, discussing with him how they should procure the means of subsistence for their ffimilies, they perceived a sail making for the harbor, which fortu- nately proved a prize worth £ 20,000 sterlmg. " In 1781 he lent the State of Massachusetts five thousand pounds to clothe their troops, with no other security than the receipt of the State Treasurer." Mr. Tracy was generous and patriotic. Benedict Arnoki was his guest while preparing to embark his troops for the Kenne- bec in 1775. He had entertained in 1782, at his mansion at Xewburyport, M. de Chastellux and his aides, Isidore Lynch, De Montesquieu, and Talleyrand the younger. The Frenchmen could manage his good old Madeira and Xeres, but the home- brewed puirch, which was always at hand in a huge punch- bowl, proved too much for De Montesquieu and Talleyrand, who succumbed and were carried drunk to bed. Tracy went to France in 1784, where he met with due re- turn for his former civilities from Viscount Noailles and some of his old guests. In 1 789, when again a resident of ^N'ewbury- port, he received Washington, then on his triumphal tour ; and in 1824 Lafayette, following in the footsteps of his illustrious commander, slept in the same apartment he had occupied. Xext comes Thomas Russell, a Boston merchant-prince, ac- credited by the vulgar with having once eaten for his breakfast a sandwich made of a hundred-dollar note and two slices of bread. Following Thomas Russell came, in March, 1791, Dr. An- drew Craigie, late apothecary-general to the Continental army, in which service it is reported he amassed a very large fortune. For the estate, then estimated to contain one hundred and fifty acres, and including the house of Harry Vassall, — designated as that of Mr. Batclielder. but then occupied by Frederick H-eyer, 310 HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. — Mr. Craiyie gave i; .^jToO lawful niuuey, — a .sum so .small iu comparison with its value that our I'eader will i>aitliiu us tor mentioning it. Craigie wa.s at Bunker Mill, and assisted iu the i;are of the wounded there. He was at ( 'aml)ridge during the siege of Boston, and doubtless dispensed his nostrums liberally, for })hysic was the only tiling of whieh the army had enough, if we may credit concurrent testimony. He was with the Xorth- ern army, under General (iates, in 1777 and 1778, and was the conhdant of Wilkinson, ( iates's adjutant-general, in his eorre- s[»ondence with Lord Stirling, growing out of the Conway im- In'oglio. Craigie was a director and large pro})rietor in the company which built the bridge connecting East Cambridge with Boston, to which his name was given. "After his decease his widow continued to reside here. ( 'raigie entertained two very notable guests in this house. ( )ne of them was Talleyrand, the evil genius of Napoleon, who said of him that lie always treated his enemies as if tlu>.y were one day to become his friends, and his friends as if they were one day to become his enemies. " A man of talent, but venal in everything." The world lias hmg expected the private me- moirs of this remarkable personage, but the thirty years which the prince stipulated in his will should first elap.se proved too sliort for his executors. Without doubt, the private corre- s})ondence of Talleyrand would make a rectu'd of the most startling character, and give an insiglit into the lives of his contemporaries that might reverse the views of the world in general in regard to some of them. Few dared to fence with the caustic minister. " Have you read my book 1 " said JMadame de Stael to the prince, whom she had there made to play a })art as well as herself. " No," replied Talleyrand; " but 1 under- stand we both figure in it as women." In December, 1794, the Duke of Kent, or Prince Edward as he was styled, wms in Boston, and was received during hi.s sojourn with marked attention. He was then in command of the forces in Canada, but afterwards joined the expetlition, under vSir Charles Crey, to the French AVest Indies, where he HEADQUAKTEKS OF THE AK.MY. 311 SO greatly distinguished liimself by liis reckless bravery at the storming of Martinique and Guadaloupe that the Hank division which he commanded became the standing toast at the admiral's and commander-in-chief's table. The Duke was a perfect mar- tinet, and was so unpopular with the regiment he commanded under O'Hara, at Gibraltar, that it repeatedly mutinied. He was the father of Queen Mctoria. The prince was accompanied to Boston by his suite. He was very devoted to the ladies, especially so to j\Irs. Thomas Rus- sell, whom he attended to the Assembly at (Concert Hall. He danced four country-dances with his fair companion, but she fainted Ijefore hnishing the last, and he danced with no one else, at which every one of the other eighty ladies present was much em'aged. At the British Consul's, where the prince held a levee, he was introduced to the widow of a British officer. Her he saluted, while he only Ixiwed to the other ladies pres- ent, which gave rise to feelings of no pleasant nature in gentle breasts. It was well said by one who knew the circumstance, that had his Highness settled a pension on the young widow and her children it would indeed liave been a princely salute. The prince visited Andrew Craigie. He drove a handsome pair of bays with clipped ears, then an unusual sight in the vicinity of Old Boston. In October, 1832, Mr. Sparks married Miss Frances Anne Allen, of Xew York, and in April, 1^ historic edifice that it was long better known as Lowell's than by its ancient designation. Dr. Lowell succeeded Rev. Simeon Howard, in whose time the dismantled appearance of the West Church gave occasion to a scene not LOU ELL. usually fo!'ming a part of the services. As a couple of Jack Tars were passing by the meeting-house on a Sunday, observing the remains of the steeple, which was cut down by the British troops in the year 1775, " Stop, Jack," says one of them, " d — n my eyes, but this ship is in distress ; she has struck her topmast. Let 's go on board and lend her a hand." Upon which they went in, but, finding no assistance was required of them, they sat down until service was ended. On their going out they Avere heard to say, " Faith, the ship which we thought was in distress has the ablest pilot on board that we 've seen for many a day." Elmwood comprised about thirteen acres, and is separated only by the road from Mount Auburn, where the mould en- closes the remains of two of the poet's children. " I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn, Where a little headstone stood, How the flakes were folding it gently, As did robins the babes in the wood.' OLD TORY ROW AND BEYOND. 323 James Russell Lowell, after leaving college, became, in 1840, a member of the Suffolk bar, and opened an office in Boston. In this he was true to the traditions of his famil3^ His grandsire filled the office of United States District Judge by the appointment of Washington ; his father studied law first and divinity afterwards ; while his uncle, the " Boston Rebel" of 1812, was also bred to the bar. From another uncle, Francis Cabot, the city of Lowell takes its name ; and those delightful intellectual feasts, the Lowell lectures, arose from the bounty of another member of this family. Mr. Lowell soon relinquished the law, and his arguments are better known to the world through the medium of his essays and verse than by the laAv reports. In 1843 Lowell joined with Robert Carter in the publication of the " Pioneer," a magazine of brief existence. The broad humor and keen satire of the " Biglow Papers," which appeared during the Mexican War, are still relished by every class of readers, — the Yankee dialect, now so seldom heard in its native richness, giving a piquancy to the language and force to the poet's ideas. We have the assertion of a popular modern humorist * that his productions made no im- pression on the public until clothed in the Yankee vernacular, so much is the character associated with the idea of original mother-wit and shrewd common-sense. '•' Agin' the dumbly crooknecks hung, An' in amongst 'em rusted The old queen's arm tliet gran'ther Young Fetched back from Concord busted." The inquiry seems pertinent whether we are not on the eve of passing into a period of mediocrity in literature as well as of statesmanship. Prescott, Cooper, Irving, Everett, and Haw- tliorne, Longfellow, Bryant, Lowell, Holmes, and Taylor, Emerson, Bancroft, and Motley are no more numbered among the living, and the names of those who are to take their places are not yet Avritten. The coming generation will perhaps look back upon ours as the Golden Age of American Letters, com- * Henry W. Shaw (Josh Billings). 324 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. parable only tu tliu Golden Age of Statesmen in the day of Webster, Clay, Calhoun, and their contemporary intellectual giants. As respects our catalogue of native authors, few, if any, have ever had their ])ens sharpened by .necessity or dipped in the ink of privation. Most of them have been endowed with sufficient fortunes, gravitating naturally into literature, Avhich they ha\-ei enriched, to the great fame of American culture at home and abroad. Longfellow, it is said, is more read in England than any native poet, Tennyson not excepted ; Lowell is also a favorite there ; and the works of Irving, Cooper, and Haw- thorne are to be found, in and out of the author's mother tongue, in the stalls of London, on the Paris quays, and in tlie shops of Leipsic and Berlin. Perhaps in the multitude of young authors now earning their daily bread in intellectual labor, some may yet rise on the crest of the wave worthy to receive the golden stylus from these honored hands, for in no one re- spect is the growth of our country more remarkable than in the enlarged and still increasing area of the literary field by the multiplication of vehicles of information. Nearly opjjosite the Lowell mansion once stood the white cottage of Sweet Auburn, some time the home of Caroline Howard, Avho became the wife of Eev. Samuel Oilman, of Charleston, in 1819, and is widely known as an authoress of repute. At the age of sixteen she commenced a literary career with her first composition in poetry, " Jepthah's Eash Vow," which was followed by other efforts in prose and verse. Per- haps her best-known work is the "Pecollections of a Southern Matron." Miss Howard was the daughter of Samuel Howard, a shi})- wright of North Square, Boston. Her father dying in her in- fancy, Caroline came to live with her mother at Sweet Auburn, whose wild beauty impressed her young mind "with wdiatever of jDoetic fire she may have possessed. Indeed, it is her own admission that her childliood days, passed in wandering amid the tangled groves, making rustic thrones and couches of moss, stamped her highly imaginative temperament with its subtle OLD TOKY HOW AND BEYOND. 325 influences. In girlhood she was fairy-like ; lier long oval face, from which the clustering curls were parted, having a deeply peacefully contemplative expression. She was a frequent vis- itor at Governor Gerry's, wliere she found books to feed, if not to satisfy, her cravings. Owing to changes of residence, her education was indifferent ; but her mind tended most naturally to the beautiful, music and drawing superseding the multipli- cation-table. When she was about fifteen she walked, every week, four miles to Boston, to take lessons in. French. "We close our chapter, a little out of the order of chronology, with a fragment of revolutionary history, which subtracts noth- ing from the interest of Elmwood. When, on the twenty- first of April, about noon, intelligence reached New Haven of the Battle of Lexington, the local militia company was immediately called out by its captain, Benedict Arnold, and forty of its members assented to his proposal to march at once to join the American army as volunteers. They left New Haven the next day. On the way they passed through Pom- fret, and were joined by General Israel Putnam. Arriving at Cambridge, they were quartered in the " splendid mansion of Lieutenant-Governor Oliver." This was the only company on the ground completely uniformed and equipped ; and, owing to its soldier-like appearance, it was selected to deliver the body of a British officer who had died of wounds received at Lexington. The company remained three weeks in Cambridge, when, with the excejjtion of twelve of its number, who accom- panied Arnold on his adventurous expedition to Canada, it returned to New Haven. 326 insTOKIC MANSIONS A^■D HIGHAVAYS. CHAPTER XV. MOUNT AUBURN TO NONANTUM BRIDGE. " Crown jue witli Howers, intoxicate me with perfumes, let nie die to the sounds of delicious niusir." — Dying vjords of Mirabeau. IT would be curious to analyze the feelings with which a dozen dili'erent individuals approach a rural cemetery. I )oubtless repulsion is u^jpermost in the minds of the greater number, for deatli and the grave are but sombre subjects at the best, and few are willingly brought in contact with the outward symbols of the Kino- of Terrors. '^ l\ ^"^ ENTRANCE TO MOl NT AUBURN. Much, of the aversion to graveyaivls M-hidi is felt by our country people may be attribtited to the hideous and fantastic <'iiil)U-ius which are sculptured on our ancestors' headstones. MOUNT AUBUKN TO NOXANTUM BKIUGE. 327 The death'.s-head, eross-boueci, ami liour-glass are but little em- ployed by modern art. We are making our (jemeteries attrac- tive, and — shall we confess it I — that rivalry displayed along the splendid avenues of the living city finds expression in the habitations of the dead. The city of the dead has much in common with its bustling neighbor. It has its streets, lanes, and alleys, its aristocratic quarter, and its sequestered nooks where the lowlier sleep as well as they tliat bear the burden of some splendid mausoleum. It has its ordinances, but they are for the living. Here we may end the comparison. Statesmen who in life were at enmity lie as tpnetly liere as do those giants Avho are entombed in Westminster Abbey with only a slight wall of earth between. Pitt and Fox are separated by eighteen inches. '■ But where are they — the rivals ! a few feet Of sullen earth divide eaeh windiug-sheet." Authors, learned professors, men of science, ministers, soldiers, and magistrates people the silent streets. Every trade is repre- sented. The rich man, whose wealth has been the envy of thousands, takes up his residence here as naked as he came into the world. Sin and suffering are unknown. There is no money. Night and day are alike to the inhabitants. The dis- tant clock strikes the hour, unheeded. Time has ended and Eternity begun. Perhaps Franklin expressed the idea of death as beautifully as has been done by human lips, to IMiss Hubbard on the death of his brother. He says : — " Our friend and we are invited abroad on a ]>arty of pleasure that is to last forever. His chair is first reaily, and he is gone before us, — we could not all conveniently start together, and why should you and I be grieved at this, since we are soon to follow, and we know where to find him ? " jNIount Auburn is a miniature Switzerland, though no loftier summits than the Milton Hills are visible from its greatest ele- vation. It has its ranges of rugged hills, its cool valleys, its lakes, and its natural terraces. The Chailes miglit l)e the 328 HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Rhine, and Fresh Pozid — could no litter name be found iur so lovely a sheet of water 1 — would serve our purpose for Lake Constance. A thick growth of superb forest-trees of singular variety covered its broken, romantic surface ; deep ravines, shady dells, and bold, rocky eminences were its natural attri- butes. You advance from surprise to surprise. Art has softened a little of the savage aspect without impau*- ing its picturesqueness ; has hung a mantle of green tresses around the brow of some gray rock, or draped with willows and climbing vines each sylvan retreat. The green lawns are aglow with rich colors, — purple and crimson and gold set in emerald. Every clime has been challenged for its contribution, and the palm stands beside the pine. " How beautiful ! " is the thought which even the heavy-hearted must experience as they pass underneath the massive granite portal into this paradise. Mature here offers her consolation to the mourner, and man is, after all, only one of the wonderful forms sprung from her bosom. " Lay her i' the earth ; And from her fair and luipolluted flesh May violets spring ! " As you thread the avenues, the place grows wonderfully upon you. The repugnance you may have felt on entering gives Avay to admiration, until it seems as if the troubles of this life were like to fall from you, with your grosser nature, leaving in tlieir stead nothing but peace and calm. Turn into this path which sometimes skirts the hillside, and then descends into a secluded glade environed with tlie houses of the dead. Here the work- men are enlarging the interior of a tomb, and the click of chisel and hammer vibrates with strange dissonance upon the stillness which otherwise enfolds the place. And one fellow, with no feeling of his office, is singing as he plies his task ! Who shall write the annals of this silent city 1 A sarcoph- agus on which is sculptured a plumed liat and sword ; a broken column or inverted torch ; a dove alighting on the apex of yonder tall shaft, or is it not just unfolding its wliite wings for fliglit ? ilie sacred volume, open and speaking ; a face trans- MOUNT AUBURN TO NONANTUM BRIDGE. 329 figured, with holy angels flitting about in marble vesture. Here in a -corner is one little grave, with the myrtle lovingly cluster- ing above ; and here is no more room, for all the members of the family are at home and sleeping. Each little ridge has its story, but let no human ghoul disturb the slumberer's repose. Pass we on to the tower and up to the battlement. Our simile holds good, for here in gray granite is a counterfeit of some old feudal castle by the Ehine. Here we stand, as it were, in an amphitheatre, hedged in by walls whose green slowly changes into blue ere they lose themselves where the ocean lies glistening in the distance. The river, making its way through the hills, is at our feet. The rural towns which the city, like some huge serpent, ever uncoiling and extending its folds, is gradually enveloping and strangling, nestle among the hillsides. Seaward, the smoke from scores of tall chimneys seams and disfigures the delicate background of the sky, while they tell of life and activity witliin the vast workshop beneath. Let the great city expand as it will, here in its midst is a city of graves, its circle ever extending. It needs no sootlisayer to tell us which will yet enroll the greater number. A view of Mount Auburn by moonlight and from this tower we should not commend to the timid. The white monuments would seem so many apparitions risen from their sepulcln-al habitations. The swaying and murmuring branches woidd send forth strange whisperings above, if they did not give illusive movement to the spectral forms beneath. But none keep vigil on the watch-tower, unless some spirit of the host below stands guard upon the narrow platform waiting the final trumpet sound. Mount Auburn has always been compared with the great cemetery of Paris, originally called Mont Louis, but now every- where known by the name of old Francois Delachaise, the con- fessor of Louis Quatorze, and of whom jVIadame de Maintenon said some spiteful things. The celebrated French cemetery was laid out on the grounds of the Jesuit establishment, and first used for sepulture in 1 AND HIGHWAYS. founded on a talse estimate, of the eliaracter of the .streams and of the mountain roads they were sure to meet with. Wyeth and his followers pursued their route via Baltimore and the railway, which then letf. them at the base (if the Alle- ghanies, onward to Pittsburg, at which point they took steam- boat to 8t. Louis, arriving tliere on the 18th of Ajuil. Hith- erto they had met -with oidy a few disagreeable adventures. They were now to face the real difficulties of their undertaking. They soon discovered that their complicated wagons were use- less, and they ^were forced to part \\ith tliem. The warlike tribes, whose hunting-grounds they were to traverse, began to give them uneasiness ; and, to crown their misfortunes, they now ascertained how ign^irantly they had calculated upon the trade with the savages. St. Louis was then the great depot of the Lidian traders, who made their annual ex])editions across the Plains, prepared to hght or barter, as the temper of the Indians might dictate. The old trappers who made their abode in the mountain region met the traders at a given rendezvous, receiving powder, lead, tobacco, and a few necessaries in exchange for their furs. To one of these })arties Wj'eth attached himself, and it was well that he did so. Before reaching the Platte live of Wyeth's men deserted their companions, either from dissatisfaction with their leader, or because they had just begun to realize the hazard of the enter- prise. Nat Wyeth, however, Avas of that stuff we so expressively name clear grit. There was no liincliing about him ; the Pacitic was his objective, and he determined to arrive at his destination even if he marched alone. William Sublette's party, which Wyeth had joined, encountered the vicissitudes common to a trip across the plains in that day ; the only diiference being that the New England men now faced these difficulties for the first time, whereas Sublette's party was largely composed of experi- enced plainsmen. They followed the course of the Platte, seeing great herds of buffalo roaming at large^ whUe tliey cxperi(3nced the gnawings of hunger for want of fuel to cook tlie delicious humps, sirloins, and joints, constantly paraded like the finiit nf MOUNT AUBURN TO NONANTU-M BKIDGE. 343 Tantalus before their greedy eyerf. Tliey i'ouiiJ the streamts turbulent and swift ; the Black Hills, which the iron-horse now so easily ascends, were infested with beai's and rattlesnakes. Many of the party fell ill from the effects of drinking the brackish water of the Platte, l)r. Jacob Wyeth, brother of the captain and surgeon of the party, being unluckily of this number. Sublette, a French creole, and one of those pioneers that hnw preceded pony-express, telegraph, stage-coach, and locomotive, in their onward march, had no fears of the rivalry of the Xew England men, and readily took them under his protection. Be- sides, they swelled his numbers by the addition of a score of good rifles, no inconsiderable accpiisition when his valuable caravan entered the country of the treacherous Elackfeet, the thieving Crows, or warlike jS'ez-Perces. The united bands arrived at Pierre's Hole, the trading rendezvous, in July, where they embraced the first opportunity for repose since leaving the white settlements. At this place tliere was a further secession from Wyeth's company, by which he was left with only eleven men, the re- mainder preferring to return homeward with Sublette. Petty grievances, a somewhat too arrogant demeanor on the part of the leader, and the conviction that the trip would prove a failure, caused these men to desert their companions Avhen only a few hundred miles distant from the mouth of the Columbia. Before a final separation occurred, a severe battle took place between the whites and their Indian allies and the Blackfeet, by Avhich Sublette lost seven of his own men killed and thirteen wounded. None of Wyeth's men were injured in this fight, but a little later one of those who had separated from him was ambushed and killed by Blackfeet. Wyeth now joined Milton Sublette, the brother of William, under whose guidance he proceeded towards Salmon Eiver. The Bostons, as the northwest coast Indians foriueiiy styled all white men, arrived at Vancouver on the 29th of October, hav- ing occupied seven months in a journey which may now he made in as many days. The expedition Avas a failure, indeed, 344 HISTOKIG MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. so far us gain was concerned., and Wyeth's men all left him at the Hudson's Bay Company's post. The captain, nothing daunted, and determined to make use of his dearly bought experience, returned to the States the ensuing season. His adventures may he followed by the curious in the pleasant pages of Irving's Captain Btjnneville. Arriving at the head- Avaters of the Missouri, he built what is known as a bull-boat, made of buffalo-skins stitidied together and stretched over a slight frame, in wliicli, with two or three half-lireeds, he con- signed himself to the treacherous currents and (Quicksands of the Bighorn. Down this stream he floated to its confluence with the Yellowstone. At Fort Union he exchanged his leather bark for a dug-out, with Avhich he sailed, floated, or paddled down the turbid Missouri to Camp (now Fort) Leavenworth. He returned to Boston, and, having secured the means, again repaired to St. Louis, where he enUsted a second company of sixty men, with which he once more sought the old Oregon trail. This was sixty years ago. Since then the Great American Desert, as it was called, has undergone a magical transforma- tion. Cities of twenty thousand inhabitants exist to-day where Wyeth found only a dreary wilderness ; from the Big Muddy to the Pacific you are scarcely ever out of sight of the smoke of a settler's cabin. In looking at the dangers and trials to which Wyeth found liimself opposed, it must be admitted that he exhibited rare traits of courage and perseverance, allied with the natural capacity of a leader. His misfortunes arose through ignorance, and perhaps, to no small extent also, from that vanity which inclines your full-blooded Yankee to believe him- self capable of everything, because the word " impossible " is expunged from his vocabulary. Fresh Pond has a present significance due wholly to its limpid waters. In Havana, in San Francisco, and even in Calcutta, you may have read the legend " Fresh Pond Ice. What, ice afloat on the Ganges ! New Fngiand winter transported in crystals to the bosom of the sacred stream ! How wondrous the first transparent cubes nuist have looked to the gaping Hindoo, and MOUNT AUBURN TO NONANTUM BRIDGE. 345 how old Gunga would have shivered had one of the solid blocks fallen into his fiery tide ! Little did John Winthrop and his associates dream that the ice and granite which' they saw with such foreboding would prove mines of wealth to their descendants. The traffic in ice was originated by Frederick Tudor in 1805, by shipping a single cargo in a brig to Martinique. It was characterized hj the sagacious merchants of Boston as a mad project, and the adventurer was laughed at by the whole town. The cargo arrived in perfect condition. The business prospered. Mr. Tudor found other markets open to him, but want of means prevented his extending his trade to the East Indies for nearly thirty years after he had shipped his first cargo. He leased or purchased rights at Fresh Pond, Spot Pond, Walden Pond, and Smith's Pond, — a railway being built to the former, solely for the transportation of ice. In 183-5 Mr. Tudor was unable to meet his indebtedness, but by favor of his creditors was enabled to go on and pursue with energy the business he had inaugurated. He discharged every obligation in full. His house owned property in Nahant, Charlestown, New Orleans, Jamaica, Calcutta, Madras, and 'Bombay, so that it was almost possible for him who at twenty- two had founded a traffic so extraordinary to repeat the proud boast of England, " that the sun never set on his possessions." Let us once more take the route of the old Watertown road. And first we greet the ancient hostelry standing in the angle formed by the intersection of Belmont Street. This was known in Revolutionary times as Edward Ricliardson's tavern, though, as we have seen, it dated much farther back. The house has been removed a short distance from its original location, and has experienced changes in its exterior ; but within are still in- tact bar-room, kitchen, and dining-room, with the spacious fire- place, beside which hung the loggerhead. This was one of the places where the Colony cannon and intrenching tools were concealed. It was also a famous place of resort for Burgoyne's officers, on account of the cock-pit kept on the other side of the road. Some nf tliese gentlemen, from thi- West df England. 15* 346 HISTOKIC MAXSIO:SS AND HIGHWAYS. Were very partial to this cruel sport. We relate the answer of a poor woman to whom they ajDplied to purchase a pair of fine birds. " I swear now you shall have neither of them; I swear now I never saw anything so bloodthirsty as you Britonians be; if you can't be fighting and cutting other people's throats, you must be setting two liarmless creatures to kill one another. Go along, go. I have heard of your cruel doings at AVatertowu, cutting off the feathers, and the poor creatures' combs and gills, and putting on iron things upon their legs. Go along, I say." Suiting the action to the word, the old woman raised her crutch, and threatened to execute summary justice on the offi- cers, who did not consider it indiscreet to beat a hasty retreat. This tavern — subsequently Bird's, and also kept by Bellows — also was the residence of Joseph Bird, known through his efforts to discover a remedy for the prevention of couflagations. It is not known where Rev. George Phillips, first pastor of the church of Watertown, lies buried, but tradition having assigned the little knoll a short distance beyond the tavern and near the highway as his resting-place, Mr. Bird caused excava- tion to be carefully made there, without finding evidence of any remains. A short walk brings us to the ancient burial-place of Water- town. It is not a garden but a field of graves. Many stones are scarcely visible above the clover-tops and daisies. The red brick and blue slate contrast somewhat sharply with the marble and granite of the neighboring cemetery. If anything, the place wears an even more sombre appearance than its contemporar}^ of Old Cambridge. The very cedars seem dying. The mossy old stone-wall which forms one side of the enclosure is half concealed by climbing vines. Though reputed one of the oldest grounds in New England, no stone is found of an earlier date than that of Sarah Hammond, in 1674. There also is a monument erected to the memory of Joseph Coolidge, M'ho fell at Lexington, April 19, 1775. This graveyard is thought to have been used as early as 1642, although the situation before mentioned on the Bird ^[OUNT AUBURN TO XONANTUM BRIDGE. o47 estate was conjectured to have preceded it, — a supposition which the examinations of Mr. Bird may be considered to have settled. Opposite, and well M'itlidi-awn from the highway, is the house which tradition, that ignis fatuus of history, alleges to have been the home of Eev. Mr. Phillips, — perhaps that built for him by Sir Richard Saltonstall. This would place it in the front rank of old houses, where it clearly belongs, though it has for fifty years lost the distinctive English character it once possessed. The second graveyard in the town, according to its present limits, is at the junction of Mount Auburn and Common Streets. It was established about 1 754, the year the meeting- hoixse afterwards used for the sessions of the Provincial Con- gress was built on the same ground. The neighborhood of the first cemetery is the supposed site of the first or second meeting-house, it being usually placed beside Mr. Phillips's house. The almost invariable custom of that day would seem to indicate its location within the limits of the old burial-place. The church, to which the sittings of Congress gave political consequence, had a lofty steeple with square tower and open belfry. The entrance was on the east side. It had galleries, and was furnished with the old-fashioned box pews, having those movable seats which every one at the conclusion of the service felt obliged to turn back with a concussion repeated throughout the house like an irregular volley of small-arms. Rev. William Gordon, author of the History of our Revolution, officiated here as the chaplain of Congress. The vane which })elonged to this house now adorns the pinnacle of the Metho- dist church. Before you came to tlie bridge in WatertoAvn, first built in 1660, tliere was still standing, within the foundry-yard of Miles Pratt & Co., an old dwelling-house notable for its dilapidation. It seemed scarcely able to bear its own weight, and, as it encumbered the ground, was pulled down. During the work of demolition the workmen found a number of old copper coins, which had remained concealed in chinks or crev- ices a century or more. This is said to have been the old 348 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. printing-office of Benjamin Edes, who removed liis type and press from Boston in the spring of 1775. He printed for the Provincial Congress, and many of the old broadsides of the time bear his imprint. dossing the bridge, the first old house on the east side of the way — once tlie residence of Mr. Brigham — - is the Coolidge tavern of Eevolutionary times, kept by Nathaniel Coolidge from 1764 to 1770, and afterwards by " the Widow Coolidge." Con- temporary with this was Learned's tavern, on the site of the Spring Hotel. Nathaniel Coolidge's was known in 1770 as the " Sign of Mr. Wilkes near Xonantum Bridge." The house was appointed as a rendezvous for the Committee of Safety in May, 1775, in case of an alarm. President Washington lodged here in 1789, and styled the Widow Coolidge's house a very indif- ferent one indeed. Opposite Mr. Brigham's, and near the river-bank, is another old house, which is situated on ground belonging from the earli- est settlement to the Cook family. Jolin Cook lived here during the Revolution, and some of the officers of our army boarded with him at the time of the siege, of whom Colonel Knox and HaiTy Jackson, bosom friends, enjoyed each other's companion- ship during ])rief intervals of rest. It was probably to this place Knox afterwards brought his wife. In a chamber of this house Paul Pevere engraved his plates, and, assisted by John Cook, struck off' the (Jolony notes emitted by order of the Provincial Congress. Lying contiguous to this estate along the river were the old fishing-Avier lands of the town. Our rambles extend no farther in the direction we have pur- sued than the vicinity of the " Great Bridge," so called in the day of small things. Xewton, it is true, abounds in pleasant walks, while not a few of its worthies have made a figure in history. Of these Captain Thomas Prentice, the famous Indian fighter in Philip's time, may, in the order of chronology, justly claim precedence. Reputed to have been one of Old Noll's sol- diers, he was a sort of second Myles Standish, tough as hickory, seasoned in war, and of approved conduct. He is said to liave killed with an axe, on his farm in this town, a bear wliicli MOUNT AUBURN TO NONAXTU.M BKIDUE. 349 attacked oiae of his servants. This u\d trooper livt-d in the saddle all his life, and died at eighty-nine of a fall from las horse. His place was at the corner of the road leading to Brookline, occupied of later years by the Harbacks. Joseph "Ward, who built in 1792 the old mansion opposite the Skinner place, was appointed by General Heath his aide-de- camp the day after the battle of Lexington, and was the first to hold such a position in the American army. He was, in ]\'Iay following, witli Samuel Osgood of Andover, appointed to a similar position by General Ward, subsequently holding the office of Commissary of Musters in the Continental Army. Michael Jackson, colonel of the 8th Massachusetts, has been met with in our pages. Joining his company at the Lexington alarm, in the absence of commissioned officers, he was chosen to command for the day. He immediately stepped from his place in the ranks as a private, and gave the order. Shoulder arms, platoons rigJit wheel, quick time, forward march ! When he got to Watertown meeting-house the officers of the regiment were holding a consultation. Finding they were likely to con- sume valuable time in speeches, he led all that would follow him where they could strike the British. He fell in with Percy's column, and that gallant gentleman received him with all the honors of a hot discharge of musketry. Jackson's men were at first demoralized, but rallied and gave shot for shot. In the old Newton burying-gTOund the seeker will find the tomb in which were placed the remains of General William Hull and of his wife, Sarah (Fidler) Hull. A plain marble slab is inscribed, "Genl. William Hull An officer of the Revolution died Nov. 29th 1825 aged 72 years. Mrs Sarah Hull died August 2d 1826 aged 67 years." However he may read the history of the campaign which ci;lminated in the surrender of Detroit, the student may not in this place withhold his sympathy for the misfortunes of a brave but ill-fated soldier. That he was not deficient in courage his 350 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. conchict on some of tlie liardest-fonglit tidds of tlie IJevolutiou — Trenton, Monmouth, and Stony Point — sufficiently attest ; that he sliould suddenly have become a coward is as incredible as the charge of his being a traitor is absurd. Yet a military tribunal pronounced him guilty of cowardice, and but for the interjiosition of President Madison he would have been shot. Public sentiment was about equally divided in opinion as to whether Hidl was the more coward or traitor, and current re- port had it that wagon-loads of British gold had been seen after the surrender going to his house at Newton. This case has al^^'ays presented to our mind a parallel witli that of Admiral Byng, an officer of distinguished bravery, wlio, in obedience to popular clamor, was shot for cowardice on the quarter-deck of his own ship, meeting death like a hero. For- tunately General Hull was not called upon to refute a slander with his life. It is needless to recite instances of the fallibility of courts-martial, or of the power of a ministry or a cabinet to disgrace an officer for what is not unfrequently its own culpa- bility. 'No one need be reminded that the conqueror of A^cks- burg, of Chattanooga, and of Eichmond Avas once on the eve of being permanently as he was temporarily superseded. The victor of Nashville and the present general of the armies of the United States were near meeting this destiny which others of lesser note are even now fulfilling. After General Hull's return to Newton at the close of the Revolutionary War, he resided first at Angler's Corner in a wooden house formerly standing on the west side of the road from "Watertowii. Here he lived ten or twelve years, until, after his return from Europe in 1799, he built the large briidv house on the opposite side of the street, in which he resided until he went, in 1805, to Detroit, when he sold it to John Richardson. This was the house subsequently enlarged into a hotel, and known as the Nonantum House, At the peace, in 1783, General Hull had embarked in large land speculations, being one of the owners of the "Connecticut Reserve, " on which the city of Cleveland now stands, besides havinw interests in Georgia and elsewhere of a similar charac- MOUNT AUBniN I'O NOXANTTM F.HIDGF:. 351 ter. But Ids pultlic lite liad always interfered with these spec- ulations. When he went tu 1 Detroit as governor, he invested most of his funds in real estate in the then frontier village, and was obliged U> build a house for a residence. After lie left Detroit all his property there was sacrificed. He had advanced large sums for the defence of the Territory, which, together with his salary as governor, mostly remained unpaid until his death, and were only obtained by his faniily after repeated petitions t(i Congress for relief. The farm in Xewton of nearly three hundred acres, owned and occupied Ijy (General Hull up to the time of his death, was Hrst occupied by Joseph Fuller, born in 1652. He was the son of John Fuller, who came over in 1035 with John Win- throp, Jr., and settled in Cambridge Village (New' Town) in 1644. In 1658 he bought a tract of one thousand acres in the northwest part of the town, long known as the Fuller Farm. His son Joseph, when he married Lydia, daughter of Edward Jackson, in 1680, received twenty acres of land from his father- in-law. This was part of a tract of five hundred acres which had belonged to Governor Bradstreet in 1646, and Avhich the governor had biiught of Thomas ^FayheAv of Watertown in 1638 for six cows. Here Joseph Fuller built his house in 1680, and together with about two hundred acres inherited from his father, it formed the farm which descended to his son Joseph, his grandson Abraham Avho added to it, and his grand- daughter Sarah Fuller, who married Colonel William Hull in 1781. After the death of Mrs. Hull the place was sold and divided, a part coming into the possession of William Clafl in, who has improved and embellished it with much taste. It nught be called the "(Governors' F'arm," having been owned by 8imon Bradstreet, William Hull, and William ( 'laflin. About 1767 Abi-aham Fuller removed a part of the old ho)ise built in 1680, and replaced it with one more modern. The portion of the original structure retained by him remained until 1814, when General Hidl removed it, ])utting in its place the one he occupied till the time of hi> ileeease. The mansion, composed of the two structures built by Judge Fuller and his 352 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. son-ill-law, ^-as long to be seen at Newtonville, near the rail- way station, in turn occupitMl as a residence and a clul>honse, until torn down to make room for a brick block. While this house was Imilding the General resided in Bos- ton, leaving to his son-in-law. Dr. Samuel Clarke, the care of its constru(;tion. Dr. Clarke was the father of James Freeman Clarke, who wrote an able vindication of the General, and of Samuel C. Clarke. Upon taking possession of the farm in 1814 the General devoted himself to agriculture, and was one of the first in Xuw England to practice what is known as " high farming." He had little society except the members of his own family circle and a few friends and neighbors. Among these latter were Lucius M. Sargent, William Sullivan, AVillianr Little, George A. Otis, David Henshaw, and Nathaniel Greene, i)f Boston ; Madam Swan, of Dorchester ; Barney Smith, of Milton ; Gorham Parsons and S. AV. Pomeroy, of Brighton ; Dr. Morse and Marshall Spring, of Watertown. He had nu- merous corres})ondents among his old comrades in arms. Gov- erno." Eustis and General Dearborn were of the luimber of his enemies. General Hull was al)out five feet eight, of florid complexion, and had blue eyes. He sat to Stuart, in 1821, who obtained an excellent likeness. At this time he was of portly figure, weighing perhaps one hundred and eighty pounds. Of active habits, he might be seen early and late walking ov riding about lis farm. At se\enty he still crossed his saddle with military grace. His manners were courtly and pleasing. At a dinner given him in 1825 by citizens of Boston, those guests belong- ing to a newer generation were surprised to remark in him tlu^ fine old manner now quite gone out of fashion. The General received a visit from Lafayette in 1825. A pilgrimage to Nonantum Hill might revive shadowy glimpses of a scene w^orthy the pencil of Angelo, Guido, or Raphael, — the Apostle Eliot preaching to the Indians in 1G46. The reverend man of God, offering the Evangel with one hand, friendship and peace with the other, would be the central figure. The grave, attentive .savages should be grouped in MOUNT AUBUILX TO XONANTUM BRIDGE. 853 jiictiu-esque attitudes about him. Eliot's was an example wo can always contemplate with- satisfaction as compensatinii; largely for the malevolent persecution so often meted out to the red-man in tlie name of the Master. Having traversed the utmost limits of the Continental lines in Middlesex, from the Mystic to the Charles, and so iar as in us lies set the camps in order, rebuilt and garrisoned the works anew, sought out the captains, and fitted together the parts of the rude machinery of government, we now entreat the reader to bear us company in our resume of the first and last attempt of an enemy to penetrate into the interior of Massachusetts. 364 HISTUKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. CHAPTER XVI. LEOHMERe'^; POIXT TO LKXLNOTOX. "Asjiiijle (Ij-dp iif lilooil .iiiMV I)f coiisiitertMl a.s the ^i;fllal ol' (•i\-il war" lu)\VAi:i) CiHi'.o.N. IF the British grenadier had not gone into a .shop with his accoutrements on, or if the Province House groom had not been indiscreet, perhaps Gage Avoiild liave succeeded in his plan of sui'prising the Americans, destroying the stores at Concord, and returning his troops with the prestige of a successful expe- dition. This would have made a capital despatch for the Min- istry, had the event not fallen out otherwise. North would have chuckled and Barre sulked, while (Jago would have re- mained master of the situation. John Ballard was the hostler at tlie stables on the corner of Milk and old ]\[arlborough Streets, to whom the groom imparted the intelligence that " there would be hell to pay to-morrow" ; but even he little thought how prophetic his language would become. Ballard was a liberty boy, but his informant did not suspect it. His hand trembled so much Avith excitement that he could hardly hold his curry-comb. Begging his friend to finish the horse he was cleaning, and feigning some forgotten errand, Ballard left the stable in haste. Not daring to go di- rectly to Revere's house, he went to that of a well known fricMid of liberty in Ann Street, who carried the news to Revere. Revere had concerted his signals ; Robert Xewman hung them in Christ Church steeple. The former crossed the river in his boat, mounted his horse, and the first part of Gage's plan dissolved with the morning mists. " And yet, tbroxigh the gloom and the llglit. The fate of a nation was riding that night. And the spark struck out by tliat steed in his flight Kindled tlii- land into flame with its heat." LECH.MEKE's point to LEXINGTON. 355 It is time the idea sliuiild be buried out of .sight that the ex- pedition to Lexinytou was a mere marauding foray upon a col- lection of unarmed, inoffensive peasants. It was not the fault of the British general that he was not met and resisted at every step from Lechmere's Point to Lexington Green, if, indeed, his troops had ever succeeded in reaching that place. It was not the fault of the Americans that they did not oppose his march Avith the greater part of the twelve thousand minute- men they were engaged in equipping for the field. They kiiew they were levying war, they knew the regidars were preparing to strike ; they were surprised, — that is all. Before the battle of Lexington, the Americans had twehe light tield-pieces, with proper ammunition, for which they were organizing six companies of artillery, and had accumulated as many as eleven hundred tents, fifteen thousand canteens, with other camp equipage in proportion. We say nothing of the magazines of small-arms, brimstone, saltpetre, bullets, pro- visions, auf the house. Towards the road, this retreat over- looked a broad reach of sloping meadow in the highest state of tillage. Hill and dale, stream and pool, with all those concom- itants of New England landscape which the artist so well knew how to weave into liis })en-pictures, are here in the charming prospect. From the back window appeared the dark masses of evergreens with their needles glistening in the sun. As we looked out of the little study, we could not believe pagan ever worshipped tire more than Hawthorne loved nature. We are told that the astrologers of old always pursued their studies of the heavens from some lofty castle-turret, whither the woidd-be questioner ui Fate was conducted, bewildered by long, winding staircases, to hnd himself at last in the wizard's cabinet, confronted by all his unearthly and startling parapher- nalia. .\ corner of the arras is lifted, and the man of destiny appears. Ascending to Hawthorne's watch-tower of genius, the eye was first arrested by two cupboards of stained wood, standing on either side of the single window M'ith which the rear wall is furnished. Tliese closets were each decorated with a motto in white paint, as follows: " All care abandon ye that enter here" : " There is no joy but calm." Above the window was tlie one word, " Olympus." Tliis, then, tliought we, is the abode of the gods, — the summit sung by Homer and the poets. En- closing the stairs was a pine box with such a movable slielf as is sometimes seen in a country school-house, ajipropriated to the village pedagogue. This was Hawthorne's desk, at which he is said to have written " Septimius Felton," the last of his works. Perched upon a high stool, with his back to the lantlscape, and his face resolutely turned towards his Ijlank wall of stained deal, we may picture the sorcerer, \vith massive, careworn brow and features of the true Puritan stamp, tracing the horoscope of his fleshless creati(uis. The house had since become a boarding- school for young ladies, kejit by Miss Pratt, the study appro- LEXINGTON To COXCuUD. 37o jiriated. as a sleepiug-apurtinciit fur scliuol-girls wliuse dreams \vere not vexed by its former celestial occujiants. Franklin Pierce, the college clium of Hawthorne at Bowdoin, came here to visit his old friend, whom he had given a highly lucrative appointment abroad. The "'Scarlet Letter'' was pro- duced while Hawthorne was surveyor of the port of Salem under General Miller, the okl hero of Luudy's Lane. With his intimates, in the days of his custom-house experience, — anil they were conlined to a chosen few, — he was less taciturn than he afterwards became. But even among these he often appealed absent, gloomy, and misanthropical, as if some ilisap- pointment weiglied upon him and liad despoiled him uf bis young manliui.id. Our author is one of those figures best contemplated from a distant stand-point, as some tall peak, lifting itself above its lesser companions from afar, sinks into the general mass at a nearer approach, giving no token of tlie subterranean tires tliat glow Avitliin its foundations. AVe kno^v him lietter by his works than by actual contact with himself, but we have, not had in America a mind of so antitjue a stamp as his, even if his imaginings are something weird, and his characters partake largely of the attributes of sjjectres wlio walk the earth because the master wills it. Some of Hawthorne's productions, when a lad of fourteen, and thought to be autlieutic, have lately come to light. It ap- pears that his literary tastes were first stimulated by an uncle, the brother of his mother, who resided at Raymond, Maine, whither Mrs. Hawthorne had removed after her husband's death, at Havana, of yellow-fe\'er." These early effusions, Avliich are descriptive of some of the events of his life in Maine, do not exhibit any of those flashes of genius for which the man was famous, although excellent pieces of composition for a youth in his teens. Hawthorne there speaks of the spur Avhich his Uncle Richard's praises gave him. Hawthorne's intellect was too hue for the multitude. His plane did not conduct to the popular heart. His writings teem with sombre tints, and oftenest leail to a tragic terminatiun ; 37b msruKic maksioxs and hk;h\vays. but his fancies are always striking and his descriptions often niarvenons. He seemed to walk apart, in an atmosphere of his uwn, seldom, if ev.-r, giving note of what was witliin. Burns was an exciseman, and Hawthorne a ganger. Both were given to convivial indulgence, but the Scotsman's mood was in general less "loomy than the American's. Adjoining Hawthorne's is the house wliich Alcott formerly lived in. Curtis has indulged in some quiet pleasantry at the expense of the practical cast of the philosopher's mind as applied to rural architecture, but for our own part, after havuig trampled half New England under foot, we can commend the taste wliich Alcott had applied to the restoration of his dwell- ing. Not so, however, with the rustic fence which separated his domain from the road. It appeared to have been com- posed of the relics of sylvan surgery, the pieces being selected with references to knobs, fungi, and excrescences. This is not what we should call putting one's best foot foremost by uny means. Who likes to think of a Dryad with a wart on her nose or a woodland nymph with a hump? Apropos of trees, they bear their ills as well as poor human- ity. Go into the forest and see how many are erect and r.ibust and lu.w many bent and sickly. One in a hundred, perhaps, is a perfect specimen, the remaining ninety and nine are subject to' some blemish. Nevertheless we do not advo- cate the collection of the diseased members by the wayside. Alcott was by all accounts a pattern of industry. He i-s one of the few men who have kept a daily journal of passing events, in itself a work of no small labor and value. A walking ency- clopc^dia, he is frequently consulted for a date or an incident. " I wish," said AYebster, " I had kept a record of my life." ^Vnd who does not echo the wish ? When Alcott was keeping school at Cheshire, in Connecticut, the fame of his original plan of instruction came to the knowl- edge of the late Samuel J. May, who invited him to visit him, in°order to know more of the man whom he felt assured must be a genius. The result of this visit was an attachment be- tween :Mr. Alcott and Mr. May's sister, Abigail, which led to their marriage in 1830. Says Mr. May : — I LEXINGTON TO CONCOUD. 3< , " I have never, but in one other instance, been so completely taken jiossession of by any man I have ever met in life. He seemed to me like a born sage and saint. He was radical in all matters of reform ; went to the root of all things, especially the subjects of education, mental and moral culture. If his biography shall ever be written by one who can appreciate him, and especially if his voluminous writings shall be projjerly published, it will be known how unique he was in wisdom and piu-ity." It is well known that Alcott was among the little band of autislavery reformers, or agitators, as they were called twenty odd years ago. So deeply was he impressed with the wicked- ness of supporting a government which recognized slavery, that he refused to pay his poll-tax. As a consequence, one day an officer came with a warrant and arrested the philosopher. His loving wife soon packed a little tin pail of provisions, adapted to the wants of a vegetarian in seclusion, with which Alcott contentedly trudged off to jail. Arrived here, the officer de- livered his prisoner u}), but the person in charge, astonished to see Alcott there, invited him to sit down in the waiting-room until his cell could be made ready. Word was tlien sent to one of Alcott's friends, said to be Samuel Hoar, who came forward and paid the tax. Whereat Alcott Avaxed indignant, for he was as anxious to get into jail as most men Avould be to get out of it. He stood on high moral, if not financial grountls, and had no idea of rendering unto Caesar the sinews of evil. So the example was lost, the wheels of government moved on un- clogged, and Alcott mournfully returned to his home. At the time of this episode the idea of communities was a fa- vorite project with the transcendentalists. Brook Farm did not go far enough for philosophers of the ultra school, like Emerson and Alcott. They carried individualism to the point Avhich per- mits the citizen to choose, absolutely, the form of govermuent under which he shall live. Tliey refused animal food, agreed by tacit league and covenant not to make use of the products of slavery or pay taxes, and believed they could get along Avithout money. The experiment at HarA-ard resulted, and was in less than n year abandoned by its projectors, Avho may, ncA'^ertheless, 378 HISTOKKJ MAi\:SlUXri AND llKaiWAYS. claim the merit of liaviiig put their design into actual execu- tion ^vhile others have only dreamed and talked. Alcott, with the other reformers, soon realized that society is not to he improved l)y seceding from it. lie then sets himself to work within the hive, talking, writing, printing, and mak- ing use of the appliances they were once so ready to surrender. Alcott was above six feet, and but little bent, even when he had exceeded his threescore and ten. His silver hairs and dignified appearance rendered him an object of respectful curi- osity, whom few passed without turning for a second glance at his tall figure. He spoke with earnestness and simplicity, conveying the idea of a man tlu)roughlj' honest in liis convic- tions, pure in his motives, and faithful in his friendships. Alcott lived in an old house, which he had made very com- fortable without destroying its distinctive antique character. The grounds reach back into the hillside, which here seems in- dented on purpose for a romantic little dell. The authoress of " Little Women" has, we are told, christened the place " Apple Slump," wherefore, O reader, demand of the sibyl, not of us. Two patriarchal elms, with rustic seats at the foot, are the guardians of Alcott's home, — just such a one in which you Avould look for an honest, hearty welcome, and lind it. (Jne of ]\rr. Alcott's daughters, Louisa jNlay, has made a broad and strong mark with her pen. The world knows from her that there are old-fashioned girls with hearts and brains, and little women with great souls. It may interest ambitious ycning writers to know that when Alcott brought to a certain publisher the MS. of some stories for boys, it was declined with the happy suggestion of " Get your daughter to write a story for girls." " She can do it if she has a mind to ! " ex- claimed Alcott, bringing his hand down on the desk, at which he stood, liy way of emphasis. " Little Women " was the result. At the intersection of the Lexington with the old Boston road is Ralph Waldo Emerson's dwelling, built in 181*8 by Charles Coolidge, grandson of Joseph Coolidge, one of the mag- nates of the West End of Old Boston, where he had a fine LEXIXfiTOX TO CONCORD. ,^79 •■state. It is a cuiiicick'ncc wlucli hd Samuel I'arkman, anotliL-r ukl-tinie resident of Bowdoiu Square in tliat town, to inhabit the ancient rougli-cast liouse which stands somewhat farther on by the burying ground. Tlie Coolidge house passed into Mr Emerson's possession in 1835. It is a plai),, square building, painted a liglit ol.ir, wliich you would pass witbout notice un- unless apprised of its former ownersbip. 15y some accident tlie house was badly injured l)y fire, during :\Ir. Emerson's lifetime, but was skilfully restored to its former ai.pearanee, to the great delight of liis townsmen. In the grove of pines which stands at the extremity of Mr. Emerson's grounds, Alcott erected with his own hands the summer-house wliich Curtis says was not technically based and pointed, but which he still speaks ui with evident 'pride. As no vestiges of it now remain, w hdn 11, at it fulfilled the adverse destiny predicted for it. ^ There is amusement and instruction in the story of how, at Emerson's suggestion, Hawthorne, Alcott, Thoreau, and Curtis met at his house for mutual interchange of ideas. The plan was excellent, the failure complete. The elements for spark- ling wit or brilliant thought were there, but the combination would not take place. In vain Emerson, with his keen and polished lance, struck the shield of each with its point. Only a dull thud resulted, instead of the expected coruscation. HaM-- thorne was mute, while the rest struggled manfully but in vain to produce the ethereal spark. Three Mondays finished the clul). Some of Mr. Emerson's pupils, Avhen he kept school in the old house at Cambridge, are now white-haired men, who recall with a smile how, for discipline's sake, they were sometimes sent into the Widow Emerson's room to study. As a teacher he was mild and gentle, leaving agreeable impressions on the minds of his scholars. The school was in Tirattle Street, oppo- site the Brattle House. Thoreau, the hermit-naturalist, lived in a house built by him- self in 184:1 on tlie shore of Walden Pond, his literary friends helping him one afternoon to raise it. It is said he never went to church, never voted, and never paid a tax in tlie State ; for oyO llISTUKLiJ MANSIONS AXl) IIKIIIWAYS. wliicL coat (Mil pt of till' tax-gatherer he passed at least one night in jail. It is evident from his writings that Thoreau gloried in Nature, and that his soul expanded while he communed with lier. She was his meat and drink. He craved no other society, putting to flight in liis dwii person the crystallized idea that man is a gregarious animal. Ht; calls upon hill and stream as if they would reply, and in truth the Book of Nature was never sliut to him. A revi\al of interest in the character of Thoreau is manifest, an interest which no man is better able to satisfy than his friend Channing. (leorge William Curtis was for a time a resident of Concord, and Lieutenant Derby, better remembered as "John Phtenix," beyond comparison the keenest of our American humorists, it is said some time tended a shop here. Frederick Hudson, author of " Journalism in America," was also an inhabitant of this town. Concord, on the day of inva.sion in 1775, although a place of considerable importance, contained but few houses scattered (tver a wide area. The old meeting-house, similar in aj)pear- ance to the one at Lexington, stood in its present position. A s(]uare building at the corner of ]\Iain Street and the Com- mon, was then known as Wright's Tavern, and was the alarm- post (if the provincials. This house alone, of thosc^ standing along this side of the S(|uare at that time, is still remaining. On the opposite corner of Main Street, where is now the Mid- dlesex Hotel, was Di'. Minott's residence. Between this and the engine-house, on ground now lying between the latter and the priest's house (formerly known as the county house), was the old court-house, built in 1719, a square building with little old-fishioned belfry, steeple, and weather-vane, bearing the date of 1673. The northerly end of the public square was occupied liy the residence of Colonel Shattuck, which, with some altera- tion, is still on the same spot. This brings us to the point of the hill, previously described, around which the road wound to the river, which it passed by the North Bridge. At this point, where the road diverges from the Square, Mr. Keyes's house formerly stood. Since 1794 the court-house has occupied thi^ side of the Square ojtposite its old location. whil(> the jail was LEXINGTON TO CONCORD. 381 removed from its sitiiatinu nn Islaiu. Street to its late site in tln^ rear of and between tlie Middlesex Hotel and the priest's. The house described as Minott's became, after the war, a taveru kept by John Richardson of Newton. At no great distances from the soldiers' monument stands a magnificent elm, which once served as the whipping-post to which culprits were tied up. Main Street, which we now propose to follow a c(n'tain dis- tance, conducted toAvards the South Bridge which crossed the river by Hosmer's. In 177-") it was merely a causeway leading to the grist-mill Avhich then stood on tlie spot now occujiied ])y stores, next the old Bank and opposite Walden Street. A few steps farther and you reach the second of the burial- I»laces in tlie town, in wliich lie the remains of gallant John Hosmer, who, "although in arms at the battle of Concord and a soldier of the Continental Army, was in all liis life after a man of peace." Beyond the burying-groiind was the second situation of the jail built here in 1770. It was a wooden build- ing with gambrel roof, standing on the estate of the late Reuben Rice. On the same estate was tlie old tavern formerly known as Hartwell Bigelow's. Prior to the erection of the tirst jail in 1754, prisoners were confined in Cambridge and Charlestown. Concord, having ceased to be one of the shire towns of Middle- sex, now contains neither j;nl nor malefactors. In 1775 the tavern mentioned as Bigelow's was kept by Captain Ephraim Jones, who had also charge of the jail, (xen- eral Gage wrote home to England that the people of Concord were "sulky" while his troops were breaking open their houses, flinging their property into the mill-pond, and killing their friends and neighbors ! Of what stuff the inhabitants of (Jon- cord were made in the estimation of the king's officer we are unable to conjecture, but we have bis word for it that Hiey were "sulky, and one of them even struck Major Pi tcairii." Ephraim Jones was the man. He should have a monument lur the blow. Pitcairn went straight to .Jones's tavern, where he had often lodged, sometimes in disguise. This time he found the door shut and fastened. As Jones refused to open, Pitcairn ordered o82 IIISTUUIC MANSIONS AND HKaiWAYS. his grciiMiliiTs 111 lireuk duwu the docir, and, being the lirsl ti. enter, rushed against J^mes with sucli A'itilenee as to overtlimw the unhicky innkeeper, who was put under guard in his own bar, while Piteairn, with a pistol at his breast, commanded him to divulge the places where the stores were concealed. The crestfallen Boniface led the way to the prison, Avhere the liritish were surprised to tiiid three i-l-pounders in the yard, completely furnished with everything necessary for mounting. The Major destroyed the carriages, knocked off the trunnions of the guns ; and then, feeling his usual good-humor return with certain gnawings of his stomach, retraced his steps to the tavern and demanded breakfast, of which he ate heartily and for wliich he ])aitl exactly. Jones resumed his rule nf innkeeper, and found his revenge in the transfer of manj^ silver shillings bearing King George's effigy from the breeches pockets of the king's men to his own greasy till. The jail is also connected with another incident of intercut. A battalion of the 71st Highlanders, which had sailed tVoiii (xlasgow in the George and Annaliella transports, entered Bos- ton Bay. after a passage of seven weeks, during which they hud not s[)oken a single ves.sel to apprise them of the evacuation. Tliey were attacked in tlie bay by privateers, wdiich tliey beat ofl" after being engaged from morning until evening. I'lie trans- ports then boldly entered Xantasket Road, where one of inir batteries gave them the first intimation that the port was in possession of tlie Americans. After a gallant resistance the ves- sels were forced to strike their colors. The Highlamh^-rs, under the orders of their lieutenant-colonel, Archibald Gampbell, tVmght with iidrepidity, losing their major, Menzies. and seven ])rivates killed, besides seventeen wounded. IMenzies was buried in Boston with the honors of war, and Campbell sent a prisoner to Beading, while the men were distributed among the interior towns for safety. This regiment, raised at the commencement of the American war, was one of the most famous levied among the Highland clans. It was composed of two battalions, each twelve hundred strong, and was commanded liy Simon Fraser. the son of that LEXINGTON TO CONCORD. 383 Lord Lovat who had Leen beheaded in 1747 for supporting tlio Pretender's cause. Each battalion was completely officered, and commanded by a colonel. Another Simon Fraser was colonel of the second battalion, — the same of which the larger numl)er were captured in Boston Bay. There was a great desire to enlist in tliis new regiment, more men offering than could be accepted. One company of one hundred and twenty men had been raised on the forfeited estate of Cameron of Lochiel, which he was to command. Lochiel was ill in London, and unable to join. His men refused to embark without him, but after being addressed with persuasive eloquence, in Gaelic, by General Fraser, they returned to their duty. While their commander was speaking, an old Higli- lander, who had accompanied his son to Glasgow, was leaning on his staff, gazing at the General with great earnestness. When he had finished the old man walked up to him and said, famil- iarly, " Simon, you are a good fellow, and speak like a man. As long as you live Simon of Lovat will never die." When Sir William Howe refused to exchange General Lee, — and it was reported he had been placed in close confinement, — Congress ordered a retaliation in kind. Campbell, one of the victims, was brought to Concord, and lodged in the jail of which we are Avriting. His treatment was unnecessarily severe, the authorities placing the most literal construction upon the orders they received. He complained in a dignified and manly letter to Sir William, with a description of his loathsome prison. By Washington's order liis condition was mitigated, and he Avas afterwards exchanged for Ethan Allen. In the Soutliern cam- paign he fouglit us with great bravery, and lived to be a British major-general. But to resume our topography. IMain Street was also for- merly the old Boston and Harvard road, which left the Com- mon by the cross-way entering Walden Street, opposite the old Heywood tavern, since the property of Cyrus Stow. Within the space between this cross-way and Main Street and Walden Street and the Connnon was the mid-pond which played so important a part in the transactions of the lOtli of April, but 384 HISTORIC MANSlUiS'S AND HIGHWAYS. the existence of wliich would not be suspected by the stranger. The mill-pond has, in fact, disappeared along with the dam, — the little brook to which it owed its existence now finding its way underground, and flowing onward unvexed to Concord Kiver. We ask the reader to circumnavigate with us the old mill-pond. Pursuing our way along the south side of Walden Street, we soon come to what is called the " Hubbard Improvement," a large tract through which a broad avenue has been opened. Upon this land, where the cellar and well were still to be seen, was once a very ancient dwelling, known as the Hubbard House. It had a long pitched roof, which stopped but little short of the ground, and from which projected two chimneys, both stanch and strong. The old well-sweep, now an unaccustomed object in our larger towns, had done unwilling service for the king's men in '75, creaking and groaning as it drew the crystal draughts from the cool depths. The house had been visited by these same redcoats, and its larder laid under severe contribution. A little farther on was the dwelling and corn-house of Cap- tain Timothy Wheeler, the miller, whose successfid ruse-de-guerre saved a large portion of the Colony flour, stored along with his own. The story has often been told, but will bear repetition. When the troo^js appeared at his door, he received them in a friendly manner, inviting them in, and telling them he was glad to see them. He then asked them to sit down, and eat some bread and cheese, and drink some cider, which they did not hesitate to do. After satisfying themselves, the soldiers went out and were about to break open the corn-house. AVheeler called to them not to trouble themselves to split the door, as, if they would wait a miinite, he would fetch the keys, and open himself ; which he did. " Gentlemen," said the crafty Yankee, " I am a miller. I improve those mills yonder by which I get my living, and every gill of this flour " — at the same time putting his hand on a bag of flour that was really his own — " I raised and manufactured on my own farm, and it is all my own. This is my store-house. I keep my flour here until such time as I can make a market for it." Upon this the officer in LEXINGTON TO CONCORD. 385 command said, " Well, I believe you are a pretty honest old chap ; you don't look as if you would hurt anybody, and we won't meddle with you." He then ordered his men to march. Heywood's tavern was vigorously searched by the troops for a fugitive who had brought the alarm from Lexington. He, however, eluded their pursuit by getting up the chimney, where he remained until the search was given over. If the reader is surprised at finding so many houses of entertainment in Old Concord, he must remember it was the ancient seat of justice for Middlesex, and on the high-road from the capital to the New Hampshire. Grants. The hill burying-ground is now thickly covered with a growth of young locust-trees, which somewhat obstruct the view, al- though they impart fragrance to the air and shade to the close-set graves. The oldest inscription here is dated in 1G77. It is credible that the settlers who first made their homes in this hillside should have carried their dead to its summit. We observed here what we considered to be the rude sepul- chral stones seen in Dorchester and other ancient graveyards. One inscription usually attributed to the pen of Daniel Bliss, has been much admired. " God wills us free ; — man wills lis slaves. I will as God wills ; God's will be done. Here lies the body of John Jack A native of Africa who died March, 1773, aged about sixty years. Though born in a land of slavery, He was born free. Though he lived in a land of liberty, He lived a slave ; Till by his honest though stolen labours, He acquired the source of slavery, Which gave him his freedom ; Though not long before Death, the grand tyrant, Gave him his final emancipation. And jjut him on a footing with kings, Though a slave to vice, He practised those virtues. Without which kings are but slaves." 17 Y 386 HISTOIilG MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. CHAPTER XVIII. THE RETREAT FROM CONCORD. " That same man that runnith awaie, Male again figlit an other daie." Erasmus. THE area which we have been thus circumstantial in de- scribing was, on the morning of the battle, a scene of mingled activity, disorder, and consternation. The troops were occupied in searching the houses of the suspected, and in de- stroying or damaging such stores as they could find. Reserve companies stood in the principal avenue ready to move on any point, for Smith was too good a soldier to disperse his ■whole command. The court-house was set on fire by the soldiers, but they extinguished the flames at the intercession of INIrs. IMoul- ton, an aged woman of over eighty. The garret contained a quantity of j^owder, which would, in exploding, have destroyed the houses in the vicinity. Colonel Shattuck's was also a hiding-place for public property. The inhabitants, tliough " sulky," certainly behaved with address and self-possession in the emergency in Avhich they found themselves. All this time the storm without was gathering head. The troops had entered the town at seven. It was now nearly ten o'clock. So far the P>ritish liad little reason to complain of their success, but in reality the provincial magazines had met with trifling injury. A magnetism easily accounted for conducted our footsteps along the half-mile of well-beaten road that leads to the site of the battle-ground, as it is called. A shady avenue, bordered with odoriferous pines and firs, parts from the road at the westward side and leads you in a few rods to the spot. Briefly, this was the old road to Carlisle, which here spanned the river THE KETREAT FROM CONCORD. 387 by a simple Avooden bridge resting upon piles. The passage of the bridge was secured by »S]uitli's orders, who did not omit to possess himself of all the avenues leading into the town. A detachment under Captain Parsons, of the 10th, crossed the bridge and proceeded to the house of Colonel Barrett, a leader among the patriots, and custodian of the Colony stores. Cap- tain Laurie of tlie 43d had the honor to command the troops left to protect the bridge. The monument is built of Carlisle granite, the corner-stone having been laid in 1825 in the presence of sixty survivors of the battle, who listened to an eloquent word-painting of their deeds from the lips of Everett. The Bunker Hill Monument Association aided greatly in advancing its erection. The pil- grim, as in duty bound, reads the inscription on the marble tab- let of the eastern face : — Here On the 19tli of April, 1775, was made the first forcible resistance to British Aggression. On the oi^posite bank stood the American militia, and on this sf)ot the first of the enemy fell in the War of the Revolntion, which gave Independence to these United States. In gratitude to God, and in the love of Freedom, This monument was erected, A. D. 1836. What need to amplify the history after tliis simple conden- sation ! We seated ourselves on a boulder invitingly placed at the root of an elm that droops gracefully over the placid stream, and which stands close to the old roadway. Beyond, where you might easily toss a pebble, were the remains of the farther abutment of the old bridge, for the mastery of which deadly strife took place between the yeomen of Middlesex and the trained soldiers from the isles. For our own part we have never fallen upon so delightful a nook for scholar's revery or lovers' tryst. The beauty, harmony, and peacefulness of the landscape drove the pictures of war, which we came to retouch, clean away from our mental vision. Not a leaf trembled. The 388 HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. river in its almost imjjerceptible flow glided ou without ripple or eddy. The trees, which had become embedded in the mould accumidated above the farther embankment, cast their black shadows across its quiet surface. A vagrant cow grazed quietly at the base of the monument, where the tablet tells us the newly springing sod was fertilized by the life-blood of the first slain foeman. " By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired tlie shot heard round the world." The ground upon whicli the monument stands was given to the town by Dr. Ripley in 1834, for tlie purpose, and formed originally a part of the parsonage demesne. We cannot choose but challenge the anachronism of the inscription as Avell as the fitness of the site. The first declares that " here was made the first forcible resistance to British aggression." By substituting the word " American " for " British " we shoidd adhere to his- toric truth ; for, to the eternal honor of those Middlesex farmers, they were the aggressors, while " here " stood the enemy. The British fired the first volley, but the Americans were moving upon them with arms in their hands. When Thomas Hughes, Esq., better known as " Tom Brown," was here, he is said to have exclaimed, "British aggression ! I thought America was a colony of Great Britain, and that her soldiers had a right to march where they pleased ! " This Xonument, therefore, marks the spot where the Britisli soldiers fought and fell, while the place where the gallant yeo- men gave up their lives is commemorated by a statue. A wealthy citizen of Concord bequeathed by his will a sum to be applied to the restoration of the old bridge, taken down in 1793, and for the erection of a monument on the farther shore. A committee of intelligent and patriotic gentlemen have ful- filled the conditions of Mr. Hubbard's legacy, thus permanently fixing the positions of the combatants when the collision took place. A spirited figure in bronze, by French, presents to us the minute-man of 1775 hasteninsr to the conflict. The THE RETREAT FROM CONCORD. 389 artist has succeeded in investing his subject with a good deal of martial fire. Eagerness and determination are well ex- pressed in the attitude of the youtliful soldier. The rebuild- ing of the bridge, too, brings the warlike scene all the more vividly before us. A few paces from tlie monument, beside a stone-wall, are the graves of the two British soldiers who were killed here, their place of sepulture marked by two rough stones. One of these has so nearly disappeared by acts of vandalism as to be scarcely visible above the sod. A stone from the North Bridge is placed under the corner of the soldiers' monument in the pidjlic square, thus uniting two historic eras in the town's annals. At this place tlie river, which before flowed easterly, bends a little to the north. The old road, after passing the stream, ran parallel with it along the wet ground for some distance be- fore ascending the heights beyond. The muster-tield of the provincials is now owned by Mr. George Keyes, who has found flints such as Avere then used where the Americans stood in battle-array. Were they dropped there by some wavering spirit who feared to stain his soul with bloodshed, or were they dis- carded by some of sterner cast 1- — ^ a Hay ward, perhaps, w^ho drew up his gun at the same moment the Briton levelled his own, and gave and received the death-shot. Mr. Keyes has also ploughed up a number of arrow-heads, axes, pestles, and other of the rude stone implements of the original owners of the soil, Avho kept faith with the white man as he had kept faith with them. Hardships fell to the settlers' lot, but peace and concord endured, in token of the name which Peter Bulkley, their first minister, gave the plantation. The Old Manse has received immortality through the genius of Hawthorne. It w-as built in 1765, the year of the Stamp Act, for Eev. William Emerson, the fighting parson, the same who vehemently opposed retreating from before the British in the morning at Concord ; the same who died a chaplain in the army. The same reverend gentleman likewise officiated as chaplain to the Provincial Congress when it sat in Concord. Standing back from the road, a walk bordered by black ash- 390 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. trees, now somewhat in the clechne of hfe, leads to the front door. The house looks as if it had never received the coat of paint, the prospect of which so alarmed Hawthorne's sensibili- ties. It is of two stories with gambrel roof and a chimney peeping above at either end. The front faces tlie road, the back is towards the river ; one end looks up the street by which you have come from the town, while the other com- mands a view of the old abandoned road to the bridge, — the boundary of the demesne in that direction. A considerable tract of open land extends upon all sides. The Manse is among modern structures what a Gray Fiiar in cowl and cassock might be in an assemblage of fixshionably dressed individuals. The single dormer window in the garret looks as if it might have made a quaint setting for the head of the old clergyman, with his silver hairs escaping from beneath his nightcap. If he looked forth of a summer's twilight to scan the heavens, fireflies flitted sparkling across the fields, as if some invisible hand had traced an evanescent flash in the air. Behind the house, among the rushes of the river meadows, the frogs sang jubilee in every key from the deep diapason of the patriarchal croaker to the shrill piping of juvenile amphibian. Discord unspeakable foUoAved the shores of the Concord along its windings even to its confluence Avith the Assabeth. The din of these night-disturbers seemed to us, as Ave stood on tlie riv- er's bank, like the gibings of many demons let loose to murder sleep. And one felloAV — doubt it if you avlII, reader — actu- ally brayed Avith the lungs of a donkey. " As the worn war-horse, at the trumpet's sounrl, Erects his mane and neighs and paws the ground." Walking around to the rear of the Manse, avc see a section of the roof continued doAvn into a leanto, — a thing so unusual that Ave make a note thereon, the gambrel being the successor of the leanto in our architecture. The back entrance is completely emboAvered in syringas, Avhose beautiful Avaxen floAvers form a striking contrast Avith the gray Avails. Yines climb and cling to the house as if ineftectually seeking an entrance, imparting THE RETEEAT FKOM CONCORD. 391 to it a picturesqueness answerable to and harmonizing with the general etl'ect of the mansion. We give a glance at the garden wliere Hawthorne grew his summer squashes, of which he- talks so poetically. What, Hawthorne delving among pota- toes, cabbages, and squaslies ! We can scarce bend our imagina- tion to meet such an exigency. It is oidy a little way down to the river where he moored his boat, in which he floated and dreamed with Ellery Channing. We enter the house. A hall divides it in tlie middle, giving comfortable apartments at either hand. Some mementos of the old residents serve to carry us back to their day and gener- ation. A portrait of the liev. Dr. Eipley, the successor of Mr. Emerson, and inhabitant of the house many years, hangs upon the. wall. His descendants long possessed the Manse. On tlie mantel I noticed an invitation to General Wasliington's table, addressed, perhaps, to Dr. Emerson. The ink is faded and the grammar might be improved; but the dinner, we doubt not, was none the less unexceptionable. Hawthorne's study was in an upper room, but let none but himself describe it. " There was in the rear of the house the most delightful little nook of a .study that ever afforded its simg seclusion to the scholar. It was here tLat Emerson wrote ' Nature ' ; for he was then an in- habitant of the Manse. " There Avas the sweet and lovely head of one of Raphael's j\Iadon- nas and two j^leasant little pictures of the Lake of Como. The only other decorations were a vase of flowers, always fresh, and a bronze one containing ferns. My books (few, and by no means choice ; for they were chiefly such waifs as chance had thrown in my way) stood in order about the room, seldom to be disturbed. "The study had three windows, set with little old-fashioned panes of glass, each with a crack across it. The two on the western side looked, or rather peeped, between the willow branches down into the orchard, with glimpses of the river through the trees. The third, facing northward, commanded a broader view of the river, at a spot where its hitherto obscure watei's gleam forth into the light of his- tory. It was at this window that the clergyman who then dwelt in the Manse stood watching the outbreak of a long and deadly struggle 392 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. between two nations : lie saw the irregular array of his parishioners on the farther side of the river and the glittering line of the British on the hither bank. He awaited in an agony of suspense the rattle of the musketry. It came ; and there needed but a gentle wind to sweep the battle smoke around this quiet house." In 1843 Ilawtliorne — wliom many here name //«»>tliorne as they Avould say " Ilaw-hwck " to their oxen — came to dwell at the Manse. The place would not have suited him now. The railway coming from Lexington passes at no great distance, and the scream of the steam-whistle would have rudely interrupted his meditative flmcies. He lived here the life of a recluse, re- ceiving the visits of only a few chosen friends, such as Whit- tier, Lowell, Emerson, Channing, Thoreau, and perhaps a few others. Here he passed the first years of his married life, and here his first child was born. The toAvnspeople knew him only by sight as a reserved, absorbed, and thoughtful man. The house opposite the Manse, now the residence of Mr. J. S. Keyes, is another witness of the events of that April day. The then resident was named Jones, who, from being a spec- tator of the scenes at the bridge, maddened at the sight, wished to fire upon the redcoats. It is said that he levelled his gun from the window, but his wife, more prudent, prevented him from pulling the trigger. He at last stationed himself at the open door of the shed as the regulars passed by, when he was fired at, and Avith evil intent, as you may see by the bullet- hole near the door. Farther our informant did not proceed ; but in the angry swarm that clung to and stung the Britons' column all that day, we doul)t not Jones at last emptied the contents of his miisket. In Mr. Keyes's house -we saw a marble mantel beautifully sculptured in relief It is a relic from the old Chamber of Eepresentatives at "Washington. On tlie fender the feet of Adams, Clay, Webster, Calhoun, and the master spirits of that old hall have often rested. Before the emblematic fasces the great Carolinian brooded how to loose the bands. The cau cuses, bickerings, and party tactics that fireplace could tell of would make a ciirious volume. AscenrN. 420 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. mimic conflagration roars on the hearth. A bo^yl of punch is brewed, smoking hot. The guest, nothing loath, swallows the mixture, heaves a deep sigh, and declares himself better for a thousand pounds. Soon there comes a summons to table, where good wholesome roast-beef, done to that perfection of which the turnspit only was capable, roasted potatoes with their russet jackets brown and crisp, and a loaf as white as the landlady's Sunday cap send up an appetizing odor. Our guest falls to. Hunger is a good trencherman, and he would have scorned your modern tidbits, — jellies, truffles, and pates afois gras. For drink, the well was deep, the water pure and spark- ling, but home-brewed ale or cider was at the guest's elbow, and a cup of chocolate finished his repast. He begins to be drowsy, and is lighted to an upper chamber by some pretty maid- of- all-work, who, finding lier po\iting lips in danger, is perhaps compelled to stand on the defensive with the warm- ing-pan she has but now so dexterously passed between the frigid sheets. At parting, Boniface holds his guest's stirrup, warns him of the ford or the morass, and bids him good speed. Our modern landlord is a person whose existence we take upon trust. He is never seen by the casual guest, and if he Avere, is far too great a man for common mortals to expect speech of him. He sits in a parlor, Avith messengers, perhaps the telegraph, at his beck and call. His feet rest on velvet, his body reclines on air-cushions. You must at least be an English milord, a Eussian prince, or an American Senator, to receive the notice of such a magnate. It is a grave question whether he knows what his guests are eating, or if, in case of fire, their safety is secured. His bank-book occupies his undi- vided attention. " Like master, like man." Your existence is aU but ignored by the lesser gentry. You fee the boot-black, tip the waiter, drop a douceur into the chambermaid's palm, and, at your departure, receive a vacant stare from the curled, rnustached personage who hands you your bill. At entering one of these huge caravansaries you feel your individuality lost, your identity gone, in the living throng. Neglected, heavy- hearted, but lighter, far lighter in purse than when you came, AT THE WAYSIDE INN. 421 you pass out under a marble portico and drift away with the stream. Give, publican, the stranger a Avelcome, a shake of the hand, a nod at parting, and put it in the bill. Coming from the direction of Marlborough, at a little dis- tance, the gambrel roof of the Wayside Inn peeps above a dense mass of foliage. A sharp turn of the road, which once passed under a triumphal arch composed of two lordly elms, and you are before the house itself. Formerly the capacious barns and tall sign-posts stood across the old, grass-bordered, country road, which leads straight up to the tavern door. The general appearance of things, however, has been much altered by the building of a new macadam road past the spot, by the State. But let us go in. The interior of the inn is spacious and cool, as was suited to a haven of rest. A dozen apartments of one of our modern hotels could be set up within the space allotted to his patrons by mine host of the "Wayside. Escaping from a cramped stage- coach, or the heat of a Jidy day, our visitor's lungs would here begin to expand "like chanticleer," as, flinging his flaxen wig into a corner, and hanging his broad-flapped coat on a peg, he sits unbraced, with a bowl of the jolly landlord's extra-brewed in one hand, and a long clay pipe in the other, master of the situation. Everything remains as of old. There is the bar in one corner of the common room, with its wooden portcullis, made to be hoisted or let down at pleasure, but over which never appeared that ominous announcement, " I^o liquors sold over this bar." The little desk where the tipplers' score was set down, and the old escritoire, looking as if it might have come from some hos- pital for decayed and battered furniture, are there now. The bare floor, which once received its regular morning sprinkling of clean white sea-sand, the bare beams and timbers overhead, from which the whitewash has fallen in flakes, and the very oak of which is seasoned with the spicy vapors steaming from pe-vvter flagons, all remind us of the good old days before the flood of new ideas. Governors, magistrates, generals, "vvith scores of others Avhose names ai-e remembered with honor, have been here to quaff a health or indulge in a drinking-bout. 422 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. In the guests' room, on the left of the entrance, the window- pane bears the following recommendation, cut with a gem that sparkled on the finger of that young roysterer, William Moli- neux, Jr., whose father was the man that walked beside the king's troops in Boston, to save them from the insults of the townspeople, — the friend of Otis and of John Adams : — '• What do you thiuk Here is good drink Perhaps you may not know it ; If not in haste do stop and taste You meny folks will shew it. Wm. Molixeux Jr. Esq. 24th June 1774 Boston." The writer's hand became unsteady at the last line, and it looks as though his rhyme had halted while he turned to some companion for a hint, or, what is perhaps more likely, here gave manual evidence of the potency of his draughts. A ramble through the house awakens many memories. You are shown the travellers' room, which they of lesser note occu- pied in common, and the state chamber where AVashington and Lafayette are said to have rested. In the garret the slaves were accommodated, and the crooknecks and red peppers hung from the rafters. This part of tlio lumse lias been fitted U[) into bedrooms, by the present proprietor, Mr. Lemon. Conducted by the presiding genius of the place, Mrs. Dad- mun, we passed from room to room and into tlie dance-hall, annexed to the ancient building. The dais at the end for the fiddlers, the wooden benches fixed to the waUs, the floor smoothly polished by many joyous feet, and the modest eflbrt at ornament, displayed the theatre where many a long winter's night had Avorn away into the morn ere the company dispersed to their beds, or the jangle of bells on the frosty air betokened the departure of the last of the country belles. The German was unknown ; Polka, Eedowa, Lancers, were not ; but contra- dances, cotillons, and minuets were measured by dainty feet, and the landlord's wooden lattice remained triced up the livelong AT THE WAYSIDE INN. 423 night. the amorous glances, the laughter, the bright eyes, and the bashful whispers that these walls have seen and listened to, — and the actors all dead and buried ! The place is silent now, and there is no music, except you hear through the open win- dows the flute-like notes of the wood-thrush where he sits carolling a love-ditty to his mate. The road on which stands the old inn first became a regular post-route about 1711, a mail being then carried over it twice a week to I^ew York. But as early as 1704, the year of the publication of the first newspaper in America, there was a west- ern post carried with greater or less regularity, and travellers availed themselves of the post-rider's company over a tedious, dreary, and ofttimes hazardous road. We have the journal of Madam Knight, of a journey made by her in 1704, to ]\'ew Haven, with no other escort than the post-rider, — an undertaking of which we can now form little conception. She left Boston on the 2d of October, and reached her destination on the 7th. The details of some of her trials appear sufficiently ludicrous. For example, she reached, after dark, the first night, a tavern where the post usually lodged. On entering the house, she was interrogated by a young woman of the family after this fashion : — " Law for niee — what in the world brings You here at this time a night. I never see a woman on the Rode so Dreadfall late in all the days of my versall life. Who are You? Where are You going ? I 'm scar'd out of my wits." Who that has ever travelled an unknown route, finding the farther he advanced, the farther, to all appearances, he was from his journey's end, or whoever, finding himself baffled, has at last inquired his way of some boor, will deeply sympathize with the tale of the poor lady's woes. At the last stage of her route, the guide being unacquainted with the way, she asked and received direction from some she met. " They told us we must Ride a mile or two and turne downe a Lane on the Riglit hand ; and by their Direction wee Rode on, but not Yet coming to y« turning, we mett a Young fellow and ask't him 42^ HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. how far it was to the Lane which tiu-ii'd down towards Guilford. Hee said wee muse Ride a little further and turn down by the Corner of uncle Sam's Lott. My Guide vented his spleen at the Luljber." 'No wonder that when safe at home again in Old Boston, she wrote on a pane of glass in the house that afterwards became that of Dr. Samuel Mather, — " Now I 've returned poor Sarah Knights, Thro' many toils and many frights ; Over great rocks and many stones, God has presarv'd from fracter'd bones." The use of coaches was introduced into England by Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel, A. D. 1580. At first they were drawn by two horses oidy. It was Buckingham, the favorite, who (about 1G19) began to have them drawn by six horses, which, as an old historian says, was wondered at as a novelty, and imputed to him a " mastering pride." Captain Levi Pease was the first man to put on a regular stage between Boston and Hartford, about 1784. The first post-route to New York, over which Madam Knight travelled in 1704, went by the way of Providence. Stonington, J^ew London, and the shore of Long Island Sound. The distance was 255 miles. We subjoin the itin- erary of the road as far as Providence : — " From Boston South-end to Roxbury Meeting-house 2 miles, thence to Mr. Fisher's at Dedham 9, thence to Mr. Whites * 6, to Mr. Billings 7, to Mr. Shepard's at Wading River 7, thence to Mr. Woodcock's t 3, from thence to Mr. Turpins at Providence 14, or to the Sign of the Bear at Seaconck 10, thence to Providence 4, to Mr. Potters in said town 8." * Stoughton, + Attleborough. THE HOME OF EUMFOED. 425 CHAPTEE XX. THE HOME OF RUMFORD. " Fortune does not change men, it only unmasks them." rriHE world knows by heart the career of this extraordinary JL. man. Sated with honors, he died at Auteud, near Paris, August 21, 1814. Titles, decorations, and the honorary dis- tinctions of learned societies flowed in upon the poor Ameri- can youth such as have seldom fallen to the lot of one risen from the ranks of the people. The antecedents and character of the man have very naturally given rise to much inquiry and speculation. Benjamin Thompson was born in the west end of his grand- father's house in I^orth Woburn, March 26, 1753. The room where he first drew breath is on the left of the entrance, and on the first floor. As for the house, it is a plain, old-fashioned, two-story farm-house, with a gambrel roof, out of which is thrust one of those immense chimneys of great breadth and solidity. A large willow which formerly stood between the house and the road has disappeared, and is no longer a guide to the spot. This ancient dwelling has a pleasant situation on a little rising ground back from the road, which here embraces in its sweep the old house and the queer little meeting-house, its neighbor. A pretty little maiden deftly binding shoes, and an elderly female companion Avho had passed twenty years of her life under this roof, were the occupants of the apartment in which Count Eumford was born. A Connecticut clock, which ticked noisily above the old fireplace, and a bureau, the heirloom of several generations, were two very dissimilar objects among the fur- niture of the room. There are no relics of the Thompsons remaining there. 426 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. The father of our subject died while Benjamin was yet an infant, and the widowed mother made a second marriage with Josiah Pierce, Jr., of "VYoburn, when the future Count of the Holy Eoman Empire was only three years old. After this event Mrs. Pierce removed from the old house to another which formerly stood opposite the Baldwin Place, half a mile nearer the centre of Wohurn. At the age of thirteen young Thompson was apprenticed to John Appleton, a shopkeeper of Salem, Massachusetts, and in 1769 he entered the employment of Hopestill Capen in Boston. While at Salem, Thompson was engaged during his leisure moments in experiments in chemistry and mechanics, and it is recorded that in one branch of science he one day blew himself up with some explosive materials he was preparing, while on the other hand he walked one night from Salem to Woburn, a distance of twenty odd miles, to exhibit to his friend Loammi Baldwin a machine he had contrived, and with which he ex- pected to illustrate the problem of perpetual motion. His mind appears at this period absorbed in these fascinating studies to an extent which must have impaired his usefulness in his mas- ter's shop. A few doors south of Boston Stone every one may see an antiquated building of red brick, a souvenir of the old town, which was standing here long before the Eevolution. Strange freaks have been playing in its vicinity since Benjamin Thomp- son tended behind the counter there. The canal at the back has been changed into solid earth, and sails are no more seen mysteriously gliding through the streets from the harbor to the Mill-pond. The facsimile of Sir Thomas Gresham's grasshopper, on the pinnacle of Faneuil Hall, is about the only object left in the neighborhood familiar to the eye of the apprentice, who, we may assume, would not have been absent from the memorable convocations which were held within the walls of the old temple in his day. Tlie build- ing with which Eumford's name is thus connected forms the angle where Marshall's Lane enters Union Street, and bears the sign of the descendant of the second oysterman THE HOME OF KUMFORD. 427 in Boston, himself for fifty years a vender of the delicious bivalve. Thompson's master, Hopestill Capen, becomes a public char- acter through his apprentice, whom he may still have regarded as of little advantage in the shop by reason of his strongly developed scientihc vagaries. Capen had been a carpenter, with whom that good soldier, Lemuel Trescott, served his time. He married an old maid who kept a little dry-goods store in Union Street, and then, uniting matrimony and trade in one harmonious partnership, abandoned tools and joined his wife in the shop. Samuel Parkman, afterwards a well-known Boston merchant, was Thompson's fellow-apprentice. The famous Tommy Capen succeeded to the shop and enjoyed its custom. ThomjDson, at nineteen, went to Concord, New Hampshire, then known as Eumford, and from which his titular designation was taken. At this time he was described as of " a fine manly make and figure, iiearly six feet in height, of handsome fea- tures, bright blue eyes, and dark auburn hair." He soon after married the widow of Colonel Benjamin Eolfe, a lady ten or a dozen years his senior. Eumford himself is reported by his friend Pictet as having said, " I married, or rather I was mar- ried, at the age of nineteen." One cliild, a daughter, was the result of this marriage. She was afterwards known as Sarah, Countess of Eumford. If Eumford meant to convey to Pictet the idea that his union with Mrs. Eolfe was a merely passive act on his part, or that she was the wooer and he only the consenting party, he put in a plea for his subsequent neglect which draAvs but little on our sympathy. His wife, according to his biographers, took him to Boston, clothed him in scarlet, and was the means of intro- ducing him to the magnates of the Colony. The idea forces itself into view that at this time Eumford's ambition was beginning to develop into the moving principle of his life. The society and notice of his superiors in worldly station appears to have impressed him greatly, and it is evident that the agitation which wide differences with the mother 428 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. country was then causing in the Colonies did not find in liiiu that active sympatliy which was the rule with the young and ardent spirits of his own age. He grew up in the midst of troubles which moulded the men of the Eevolution, and at a time when not to be with his brethren was to be against them. We seldom look in a great national crisis for hesitation or de- liberation at twenty-one. Certain it is that Eumford fell under the suspicions of his own friends and neighbors as being incHned to the royalist side. He met the accusation boldly, and as no specific charges of importance were made against him, nothing was proven. The feeling against him, however, was so strong that he fled from his home to escape personal violence, taking refuge at first at his mother's home in Woburn, and subsequently at Charlestown. Thompson was arrested by the Woburn authorities after the battle of Lexington, was examined, and released ; but the taint of suspicion still clung to him. He petitioned the Provincial Congress to investigate the charges against him, but they re- fused to consider the application. He remained in the vicinity of the camps at Cambridge, vainly endeavoring to procure a commission in the service of the Colony, until October, 1775, when he suddenly took his departure, and is next heard of within the enemy's lines at Boston. In the short time intervening between October and March, — the month in which Howe's forces evacuated Boston, — Thompson had acquired such a confidential relation with that general as to be made the bearer of the official news of the end of the siege to Lord George Germaine. He does not seem to have embraced the opportunity of remaining neutral under British protection, as did hundreds of others, but at once makes himself serviceable, and casts his lot with the British army. It has been well said that nothing can justify a man in be- coming a traitor to his country. Thompson's situation with the army at Cambridge must have been wellnigh intolerable, but he had always the alternative of living down the clamors THE HOME OF RUMFORD. 429 against him, or of going into voluntary exile. His choice of a course which enabled him to do the most harm to the cause of his countrymen gives good reason to doubt whether the attachment he had once professed for their quarrel was grounded on any fixed principles. Be that as it may, from the time he clandestinely withdrew from the Americans until the end of the war his talents and knowledge were directed to then- overthrow with all the zeal of which he was capable. From this point Rumford's career is a matter of history. At his death he was a count of the Holy Eoman Empire, lieuten- ant-general in the service of Bavaria, F. E. S., Foreign Fellow of the French Institute, besides being a knight of the orders of St. Stanislaus and of the White Eagle. Eumford had derived some advantage from his attendance at the lectures of Professor Winthrop, of Harvard University, on Natural Philosophy. With his friend, Loammi Baldwin, he had been accustomed to walk from Woburn to Cambridge to be present at these lectures. Being at the camp, he had assisted in packing up the apparatus for removal when the College buildings were occupied by the soldiery. In his will he re- membered the University by a legacy of a thousand dollars annually, besides the reversion of other sums, for the purpose of founding a professorship:) in the physical and mathematical sciences, the improvement of the useful arts, and for the exten- sion of industry, prosperity, and the well-being of society. Jacob Bigelow, M. D., was the first incumbent of the chair of this professorship. A miniature of Count Eumford, from which the portrait in Sparks's Biography was engraved, is, or was, in the jjossession of George W. Pierce, Esq. The Count is painted in a blue coat, across which is worn a broad blue ribbon. A decoration ajipears on the left breast. The miniature, a work of much artistic excellence, bears a certain resemblance to the late Presi- dent Pierce, a distant relative of the Count. It is a copy from a portrait painted by Kellenhofer of INIunich, in 1792, and is inscribed on the back, probably in Eumford's own hand, " Pre- 430 HISTOmC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. seiited by Count Eumford to his much loved and respected mother 1799." Colonel Loammi Baldwin, the companion of Thompson in early youth, and who manfully stood up for his friend in the midst of persecution, when the name of tory was of itself suffi- cient to cause the severance of lifedong attachments, lived in the large square house on the west side of the road before you come to the birthplace of Thompson. The house has three stories, is ornamented with pillars at each corner, and has a balustrade around the roof. In front is a row of fine elms, with space for a carriage-drive between them and the mansion. The liouse could not be niistaken for anything else than the country- seat of one of the town notabilities. Baldwin's sympathies were wholly on the side of the patri- ots, and he was at once found in the ranks of their army. He was at Lexington, at the siege of Boston, and in the surprise at Trenton, where a battalion of his regiment, the 26th Massachu- setts, went into action with sixteen officers and one hundred and ninety men. Wesson, Baldwin's lieutenant-colonel, and Isaac Sherman, his major, Avere both in this battle, leading Mighell's, Badlam's, and Robinson's companies. Colonel Baldwin resigned before the close of the war, and was appointed High Sheriff of Middlesex in 1780. He has already been named in connection with his great project, the Middlesex Canal. He discovered and improved the apple known by his name, and if that excellent gift of Pomona is king among fruits, the Baldwin is monarch of the orchard. His son Loammi inherited his Itither's mechanical genius. While a student at Harvard lie made Avith liis pocket-knife a wooden clock, the wonder of his fellow-collegians. Tlie AVestern Ave- nue, formerly the Mill Dam, in Boston, and the government docks at Charlestown and Newport, are monuments of his skill as an engineer. Woburn was originally an appanage of ancient Charlestown, and was settled in 1640 under the name of Charlestown Vil- lage. Among its founders the name of Thomas Graves — the same wliom CromAvoll named a rear-admiral — appears. A THE HOME OF EUMFOKD. 431 confusion, not likely to be solved, exists as to whether he was the same Thomas Graves who laid out Charlestown in 1629, and is known as the engineer. The admiral, however, is en- titled to the distinction of having commanded, in 1643, the " Tryal," the first ship built. in Boston. " Our revels now are ended ; these our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into tliin air ; And, like the baseless fabric of this vision. The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, Tlie solemn temjiles, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And like this insubstantial pageant faded. Leave not a rack behind." 19 INDEX Adams, Hannah, 337. Adams, John, 68, 337. Adams, John Quincy, 226. A(Uinis, Sanniel, at Lexington, 365-368. Alcott, A. Bronson, his residence and family, 376-378. Alcott, Louisa May, 378. Alcott, May, 378. ' Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 318. Allston, Washington, residence at Cambridge, 193 ; works of, 193, 194 ; burial-place, 279. Amory, Thomas C, 93. Anchor, the history of, 39. Andrew, John A., 409. Appleton, Nathaniel, 215. Apthorp, East, 197, 273, 274. Arlington, incidents of battle at, 398 - 405. Arnold, Benedict, at Bemis's Heights, 133 ; at Cambridge, 257, 32.5 ; anec- dotes of, 2.5S, 27-2, aoa. Artillery, American, 152-155. Auvergne, Philip d', 358. B. Baldwin, Loammi, 81, 4-30, 431. Baldwin, Loammi, Jr., 40. Baldwin, Captain Jonathan, 187. Ballard, John, anecdote of, 354. Barker, Josiah, residence of, 28 ; re- builds Constitution, 40; sketch of, 41. Barren, Joseph, 172, 177, 178. Batchelder, Samuel, 283 ; residence of, 285. Baylor, George, 300. Bayonet, history of the, 247. Belcher, Andrew, 214. Belcher, Governor Jonathan, death and burial, 279 ; residence of, 285, 2S6. Belknap, Dr. Jeremy, 68. Bennington battle, incidents of, 126, 127; trophies of, 128, 129; prisoners, 128. Bei-nard, Governor Francis, 228. Bigelow, Dr. Jacob, 330, 338. Bird, Joseph, 346. Bissell Trial, 397. Bond, William C, 201. Borland, John, 197. Boston, blockade of, in 1781, 35 ; naval battle in harbor, 35 ; Grenadiers, 178 ; bombardment of, 181, 182 ; relics of siege, 265. Boston Frigate, armament of, 34. Bourne, Nehemiah, 12. Boutwell, George S., 416. Boylston, Nicholas, 225, 226. Bradstreet, Governor Simon, 351. Branding, examples of, 171. Brattle's Mall, 280, 281. Brattle Street Church (Boston), ball in, 182. Brattle, Thomas, 281. Brattle, Thomas, son of William, 281, 282. Brattle, William, 281. Bray, Major John, 97, 184. Brimmer, George W., 338. Brocklebank, Captain, 414, 415. Brooks, Governor John, residence and sketch of, 1.3.3, 134. Bunker, George, 80. Bunker Hill Monument, history of, 73-79. Bunker (Breed's) Hill, battle of, British landing-place, 48, 49 ; Brit- 434 INDEX. ish regiments engaged, 53 ; losses in, 56, 57 ; anecdotes of, 56-60 ; Trumbull's picture, 60 ; question of command, 60 - 63 ; anecdotes of, 64, 65; redoubts, etc., 65, 66; disap- pearance of, 66 ; anomalous aiithor- ity of American officers, 66 - 68 ; ac- counts of, 70 - 73 ; American hos- pital, 71; prisoners, 71; slaughter of British officers, 72, 73; Bunker Hill proper fortified, SO, 81. Burbeck, Captain Henry, 173. Burgoyne, General Jolm, in Boston, 59 ; arrives at Cambridge, 158 ; re- turns to England, 165; residence in Cambridge, 197. Burr, Aaron, anecdotes of, 104, 105. Cambridge, fortifications, 180-187, 213, 243, 244; settlement of, 195, 196; first church, 211, 212; Ferry, 212; topography of, 212, 213; Court- Honse, 217 ; camps at, 245; Com- mon, 245 et seq.; old burial-place, 276-280. Campbell, Colonel Archibald, 89 ; imprisoned at Concord, 382, 383. Capen, Hopestill, 426. Carter, Robert, 323. Cartwright, Cuff, 358. Cijjher of United States, origin of, 47. Channing, W. E., 200. Chardon, Peter, 181. Charles River, named, 2; bridged, 3- 5. Charles River Bridge, projected, 3 ; built and opened, 4, 5 ; bnilding committee, 6. Charlestown Lane, 357. Cliarlestown Ferry established and granted to Harvard College, 5 ; ex- change of prisoners at, 8, 9. Charlestown, topography and settle- ment, 8 ; dispersion of inhabitants, 8 ; site of the "Great House" and first ordinaiy in, 9 ; old burial-place, 11 ; distingni.shed citizens of, 10. Christ Church (Boston), bells of, 52. Christ Church (Cambridge), 273-276. Church, Dr. Benjamin, residence of, 286; his treason, 287, 288. Clielsea Bridge, built, 7. Claflin, William, residence of, 351. Claghorn, Colonel George, constructs frigate Constitution, 29. Clap, Preserved, 154. Clarke, James Freeman, 352. Clarlie, Samuel, 352. Clarke, Samuel C, 352. Clark's House (Lexington), 364 ; occu- pied by Hancock and Adams, 865. Clark, Rev. Jonas, 36-3, 367. Cleaveland, Colonel, 183. Clinton, General Sir Henry, 80. Cobble Hill (McLean Asylum), forti- fied, 172; prisoners on, 177; Barrell's palace, 177; Lisaue Asylum, 178. Codman, Captain John, mui'der of, 169, 170. Coffin, John, at Bunker Hill, 57. Colonial Army, early composition of, 246 ; in 1775, 247-254; location of regiments, 249 ; roster in Cambridge, 250 ; fiag of, 251, 252: punishments, 252 ; uniform, 253, 254. Committee of Safety, rendezvous of, 257. Concord, 371-394; approach to, 372, 373; topography hi 1775, 380-383 ; Old Court House, 380; grist-mill and jail, 381 ; mill-pond, 383 ; Old Hubbard House, 384 ; hill burial- ground, 385 ; battle monument, 387 -389; named, 389; Old Manse, 389 -392; retreat from, 393, 394; Mer- riam's Corner, 393. Constitution, frigate, incident of her building, 29, 30; cruise in the East Indies, 30; conflict with the Guer- riere, 32, 33; rebuilt in Charlestown, 40 ; story of the figure-head, 41 - 44 ; action with the Java, 47 ; has the first made mast in our navy, 47 ; memorials of, 50; lines to, 363. Convent of St, Ursula, 91 -95. Convention troops, march to Rutland, 163; barracks at, described, 164 ; march to Virguiia, 165. Cook, John, residence of, 348. INDEX. 435 Coolidge, Oiarles, 378. C'oolidge, Joseph, 378. Copley, John S., works of, 225. Copper sheathing, origm of, 47. Cox, Lemuel, builds Charles River Bridge, 3, 4 ; sketch of, 6. Cradock's Fort, 134. Cradock, Governor MattheAV, 134, 135, 136; dies, 139. Craigie, Andrew, 179. Cresap, Michael, 88. Curtis, George William, 379, 380. Cushmau, Charlotte, birthjolace of, 22; anecdotes of early life, 22 ; first ap- pearance in public, 22 ; studies for the stage, 23; debut in London, 23, 24 ; Cushman School, 25. D. Dana Hill, 199 ; mansion, 200. Dana, Judge Francis, 200. Dana, Richard H., 200. Dane, Natlian, 218, 219. Davis, Isaac, killed, 408. Davis, Judge John, residence of, 59. Dawes, Major Thomas, 173. Daye, Stephen, 224. Dearborn, General Henry, 105 ; at Monmouth, 106. Derby, George H., 380. Derby, Richard, 370. Dewey, Samuel P., exploit with Con- stitution's figure-head, 41 - 44. Dickerson, Mahlon, 43, 44. Dickinson, Edward, 193. Dirty Marsh, 27. Doncaster, England, night surprise at, 12, 13. Dorchester Heights, occupation of, pro- posed, 260, 261. Downer, Eliphalet, duel with the regu- lar, 399. Downing, Sir George, 238. Dudley, Thomas, residence of, 112. Duer, William, 303. Duuster, Henry, 211. E. Edes, Benjamin, printing-oflSce of, 347, 348. Edes, Thomas, 19. Ellsworth, Annie G., dictates first tel- egraphic message, 21. Emerson, Rev. William, 389. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 378, 379. Essex Bridge built, 6. Eustis, William, burial-place of, 370. Everett, Edward, 11, SO, 210, 211. F. Fayerweatlier, John, 414. Fayerweather, Thomas, 316. Fife, the, introduced ijito British army, 248. First church (Cambridge), sites of, 211, 212; Provincial Congress sits in, 215. Flags of truce, methods of conducting before Boston, 86, 87. Flucker, Thomas, 63. Foot of the Rocks, 359. Fox, Jabez, residence of, 256. Fraser, Simon, 382. Fresh Pond, 340; ice-traffic of, 344, 345. Fuller, Abraham, 351. Fuller, Joseph, 351. Fuller, Jolm, 351. Fuller, Sarah, 351. Fuller, Sarah Margaret, birthplace of, 192. Funeral customs, 331 - 333. G. Gage, General Thomas, 8, 63, 356. Gardiner, Rev. J. S. J., anecdote of, 18. Gates, General Horatio, 104, 299. Gergeroux, Marquis de, banquet to, 36. Gerry, Elbridge, 317, 320. Gerrymander, history of the, 320 - 322. Gibbeting, instances of, 169, 170. Gibbet in Middlesex, location of, 170. Gibbs, Major Caleb, Washington's re- buke of, 15, 27 ; commands Life Guard, .308. Gilbert, John, birthplace of, 22. Glover, Colonel John, quarters of, 292 - 294. Gookin, Daniel, 200. Gordon, Rev. William, 347. Gorham, Nathaniel, sketch of, 14-16, 436 INDEX. Graves, Samuel, 358. Graves, Thomas, 432. Greene, Catliariue, Eli Whitney a pro- tege of, 152. Greene, General Natlianiel, Knox's opinion of, 1-19 ; camp on Prospect Hill, 149 ; trial of Andre, 150 ; money embarrassments, 150, 151, 272. Green, Samuel, 224. Gridley, Colonel Richard, 1S7. H. Haldimand, General, 355. Hamilton, Alexander, 300. Hancock Frigate, armament of, 34. Hancock, John, at Lexington, 365- 370. Hancock, Thomas, 225, 368. Hand, General Edward, 90. Harrington, Jonathan, 361. Hari'ington, Daniel, 361. Harris, Lord George, at Bunker Hill, 56, 57. Hartt, Edmund, naval yard of, 27. Harvard College, Charlestown Fei'ry granted to, 5 ; first observatory, 201 ; Fellows' Orchard, 201; Gore Hall, 201; College libraries, 201-206; President's house, 206-212; Dane Hall, 218; early accounts, 221, 222, 229; enclosures, 222; building and sites of old Halls, 223 ; College Press, 223, 224; Massachusetts, 224, 225; Porti'ait Gallery, 225, 226 ; lotteries, 226, 227; buildings xised for bar- racks, 227; Harvard, 227, 228; Hol- lis, 229; Holden Chapel, 229, 230; Holworthy, 230; University Hall, 230; customs, 232, 2-33; clubs, 234; Commencement, 234, 235; dress of students, 235, 236; Oxford caps, 237, 238; distinguished graduates, 238. 239; historic associations, 240, 241; outbreaks of students, 241, 242; American works, 243, 244 ; seal, 242. Harvard, John, 10; library and monu- ment, 11. Hastings, Jonathan, 256. Hastings, P^ebecca, 261. Hastings, Walter, 256, 257. Hawtliorne, Nathaniel, residence in Concord, 373, 391. Henley, Colonel David, court-martial of, i60; sketch of, 161, 162. Hessians, appearance of, 156; uniform and colors, 315, 316. Hewes, Shubael, 271. Hollis, Thomas, 226. Holmes, Abiel, 262. Holmes, 0. W., 254, 262. Hopkins, Conmiander Ezekiel, per- sonal appearance of, 38. Hoppin, Rev. Nicholas, 275. Hosmer, Abner, 408; John, 381. Hovey, C. M., 186. Howard, Caroline, 324. Howard, Samuel, 324. Howe, Lyman, 419. Hudson, Frederick, 380. Hudson, William, 12. Hull, Commodore Isaac, described, 31, 32; superintends docking the Con- stitution, 40. Hull, General William, tomb of, 349 ; sketch of, 350-352. Humphreys, David, 300. Hmnjjhreys, Joshua, rejiorts in favor of Charlestown as a naval station, 27. Inman, Ralph, 187 - 189. Jackson, Colonel Henry, 27; residence, 348. Jackson, Colonel Michael, 349. Jaques, Samuel, 99. Jones, Ephraim, 381, 382. Jones, Commodore John Paul, lioists American flag, 38. Joy, Benjamin, 178. K. Kent, Duke of, 310, 311. Kent, Judge William, 284. Keyes, George, 389. Keyes, John S., 392. Kirkland, John T., 209. INDEX. 437 Knight, Sarah, journey to New York in 1704, 423, 424. Knox, General Henry, 27, 56 ; book- store of, 172 ; accident, 173 ; mar- riage, 174 ; at Trenton, 175; birth- place, 177, 187, 272, 275; residence, 348. Knox, Lucy(Flucker), 173, 176, 177. Knox, William, 173. L. Lafayette, Marquis, 303, 304. LardJiei-, Dionysius, prediction of, 35. Lechmere's Point, 179; British laud at, 180 ; access to, 180 ; fort on, ISO - 184; executions at, 184. Lechmere, Ricliard, 179. Leclimere, Thomas, 179. Lee, General Charles, aunouuces his arrival to the enemy, 85, 86; quar- ters of, 129, 141 ; sketch and anec- dotes of, 142-144; alleged treason, 145 ; incidents of his capture, 146 ; singular request and death, 147, 148, 272. Lee, Joseph, 316. Lee, Colonel WiUiam R., 107. Leonard, Rev. Abiel, 191. Leverett, Governor John, serves with Cromwell, 12; portrait of, 14. Lexington, battle of. Prisoners of, ex- changed, 8, 9 ; Smith's march to, 354-364; topography of the Com- mon, 360 ; meetmg-house and belfry, 360, 361 ; battle monument, 362, -363; Clark House, 364-369; burial- ground, 370; Fiske's Hill and the road to Concord, 371 ; Smith's jimc- tion with Percy, and the retreat, 395, 396. Lightning conductors first applied to vessels, 47. Linzee, Captain John, 188, 189. Longfellow, H. W., description of his residence, 290, 312. Long, Samuel, innkeeper, 9. Lowell, Rev. Charles, 317, 322. Lowell, James Russell, 317 ; home of, 318, 323, 324. Lurvey, James, 258. M. Magoun, Thatcher, 41. Maiden Bridge, built, 6, 83. Mallet, Audrew, 110. Mallet, John, 110. Mallet, Michael, 110. Martin, Michael, career and execution of, 97, 184, 1S5. Mason, David, 174, 183. Mather, Increase, 211. McLean Asylum, 172. McLean, John, 172. Massachusetts Bay divided into shu'es, 7. Mass. Horticultural Society, 337, 338. Merrimac Frigate, laimch and history of, 45, 46. Middlesex Canal, 81, 82. Middlesex County formed, 7. Mifflin, Thomas, residence of, 282, 283, 300. Military roads in 1775, 83, 84. Miller's River (Willis's Creek), 179, 180. Molineux, William, Jr., 422. Moncrieff, Major, officiates at an ex- change of prisoners, 8, 9. Monmouth, battle of, incidents of, 106, 163. Morgan, General Daniel, accoimt of his corjjs, 87 - 90. Morse, Samuel F. B., birthplace of, 19; first attempts at painting, 20 ; con- ception of the telegraph, 20 ; first line and message, 21. Morse, Jedediah, 16-18; residence, 19. Moulton's Point (More ton's or Mor- ton's), British landing-place at bat- tle of Bunker Hill, 27 ; fortified, 28. Mount Atibum, 326-340; the Tower, 329; the Chapel and statuary, 335- 337; origin of, 337, 338. Mount Pisgah. See Prospect Hill. Murray, Samuel, 357. N. Napoleon L, his opinion of American sailors, 46. Navy Yard, Charlestown, 26-51; first Government yards, 27 ; history of 438 INDEX. Charlestown purchase, 27; surround- ings, 2S; commanders of, 29-33; the park of artillery, 33 ; compared with Woolwich, 34 ; dry dock, 40; famous vessels built at, 44 - 46 ; landing of Sir William Howe, 48, 49 ; area, cost, and original proprietors, 49, 50; Naval Institute and tro- phies, 50. Nelson, Horatio, noble conduct of, 37. Newman, Robert, 354. Newton, celebrities of, 348 - 353. Nicholson, Commodore Samuel, com- mands Charlestown Yard, 29; col- lision with Claghorn, 29, 30 ; death and burial, 30. Night watch, customs of, 9, 10. Nix's Mate, 170. Noddle's Island (East Boston), 27. Nonantum Hill, 352, 353. O. Old Manse (Concord), 389-392. Old South Church (Boston), 183 ; Washington's visit to, 271, 272. Old Wayside Mill. See Powder House. Oliver, Thomas, 318, 319. Oti.s, James, 336. P. Parker, Isaac, 218. Parker, Theodore, birthplace of, 361. Parker, John, 361, 409. Parker, Rev. Samuel, 274, 275. Parkman, Samuel, 379, 427. Pearson, Eliplialet, 262. Percival, Captain John, 30. Percy, Hugh, Earl, march to and re- treat from Lexington, 395 - 405. Penny Ferry, 83. Pere la Chaise, Mount Auburn com- pared with, 329, 334. Phillips, Rev. George, 346, 347. Phillips, General William, 165. Phips, David, mansion, etc., 200. Phips's Point. Sec Lechmere's. Pierce, Josiah, Jr., 426. Pierce, George W., 431. Pierce, Joseph, 173. Pigot, General Robert, 5. Pitcaim, Major John, at Lexingttni, 357 - 359, 381, 382. Plowed Hill (Mt. Benedict), fortifica- tions described, 84, 85; convent on, burnt, 92, 93. Pomeroy, Colonel Seth, at Bunker Hill, 60, 61. Pontefract Castle, England, capture and siege of, 12. Powder House, history and description of, 110-112; legend of, 115. Prentice, Captain Thomas, 348. Prescott, Colonel William, 60-62. Prospect Hill, occupied by Putnam, 62; fortifications, 148; vestiges of, 148, 149, 166, 167 ; garrison of, 149; description of camps and flag-raising on, 156, 157 ; Bui-goyue's troops en- camped on, 157 ; description of their barracks, 159; collision between prisoners and guards, 160. Putnam, General Israel, conducts an exchange of prisoners, 8, 9 ; at Bun- ker Hill, 60 - 62 ; quarters and sketches of, 189-192, 197, 272. Putnam, Colonel Rufus, anecdote of, 108. Q. Quarry Hill, 113. Quincy, Dorothy, 366. Quincy, Eliza S., 206, 210. Quincy, Josiah, 210. Quincy, Samuel, residence of, 59. R. Rainsborrow, General William, ser- vices under Cromwell, 12; killed, 13. Rale, Sebastian, 205. Rawdon, Francis, Lord, at Bunker Hill, 57. Reed, Joseph, 299. Re\'ere, Paul, prints Colony notes, 348; night ride to Lexington, 354, 357, 367. Rice, Reuben, 381. Ripley, Rev. Ezra, 388, 391. Rivington, James, anecdote of, 55. Riedesel, Baron von, 107, 314-316. INDEX. 439 Royal Artillery, 112, 183, 395. Rolfe, Benjamin, 429. Royall, Isaac, 120, 123, 124, 218. Royal], William, 122. Royall, Samuel, 123. Royall, Penelope, 124. Ruggles, Timothy, 1G5. Ruggles, Captain George, 316. Russell, Thomas, 309, 310. Russell, Jason, 402. s. Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 317. Scammell, Alexander, 101. Sedgwick, General Robert, serves under Cromwell, 12 ; death, 14. Serjeant, Rev. Winwood, 274. Seventy-first Highlanders, organization of, 382. Sewall, Jonathan, 313, 314. Sibley, Jolni L., 20.5. Small, General John, anecdote of, 59. Smith, Captain John, names Charles River, 2 ; New England, 3 ; his tomb, 3. Smith, Lieutenant-Colonel, lands at Lechmere's Point, 356. Sparks, Jared, 311. Spooner, Bathsheba, 165, 166. Spooner, Joshua, 166. Stark, General John, at Bunker Hill, 56, 60, 70 ; quarters at Medford, and sketch of, 125, 126, 272. Stirling, Alexander, Lord, 303. Stirling, Lady Kitty, 303. Stone, John, architect of Charles River Bridge, 4. Story, Joseph, 219 ; home of, 283 ; habits of, 2S4, 337. Story, W. W., birthplace of, 284, 337. Stoughton, Israel, 12. Stow, Cyrus, 383. Stratton, John, 318. Sudbury, Green Hill, 410 ; Nobscot, 410; King Philip's attack, 416, 417 ; Noyes Mill, 417. Siillivan, General John, 84; quarters of, 98, 129; his camp, 101, 102; sketch of, 102, 103. 19* T. Talleyrand (Prince of Ponte Corvo), 310. Taverns. The Sim, 71 ; Anna Whitte- more's (Charlestown), S3; Billings's (Medford), 126, 132; Fountain (Med- ford), 132; Conestoga Wagon (Phila- delphia), 148; Bradish's (Cambridge), 158, 213, 214, Richardson's (Water- town), 345, 346; Coolidge's, 348; Davenport's (Cambridge), 357 ; Black Horse (Arlington), 357 ; Tufts's, 357 ; Buclciuan's (Lexington), 361 ; Wright's (Concord), 380; Richard- son's, 381: Bigelow's (Concord), 381; Hey wood's?, 383, 385; Jones's, 381; Mmiroe's (Lexington), 396. Temple, Robert, residence and account of, 96, 97. Ten-Hills Farm, account of, 95 - 99. Thompson, Benjamin (Count Rum- ford), 425-4.32. Thompson, General William, 89. Thoreau, Henry D., 379, 380. Tidd, Jacob, 129. Tilghman, Tench, 300. Tilghman, Lloyd, 300. Tracy, Nathaniel, 308, 309. Trescott, Lemuel, 173, 427. Trenton, battle of, 109 ; council of war before, 126 ; incident of, 175. Trowbridge, John T. , 403. Trowbridge, Judge, home of, 280. Trumbull, John,'299. Tudor, Frederick, 345. Tudor, Colonel William, 151 ; anec- dotes of, 162. Tudor, William, Jr., 74, 338. Tuckerman, Edward, 284. Tufts, Nathan, 113. Tufts, Oliver, 141. Turner, Job, 40. Two Cranes, CharlestowTi, 9. Two-Penny Brook, 113. V. Vanderljni, John, anecdote of, 105. Vassall, Colonel Henry, 125. Vassall, John, Sr., 286, 292. 440 INDEX. W. Wadsworth, Captain Samuel, killed, 414, 415. Wappiiig, 2S. Ward, General Arten)a.s, 61; headquar- ters, 258 ; incident of Sliays's Re- bellion, 259, 260. Ward, Joseph, 349. Warren, Joseph, conducts an exchange of prisoners, 8 ; at Bunker Hill, 60, 61, 261 ; death, 72 ; statue of, 77. Washington Elm, 267. Washhigton, General George, collision with Hancock on a point of etiquette, 15, 70, 71; leave-taking of his otiicers, 174, 208 ; first headquarters in Cam- bridge, 262 ; events in life of, 271, 272 ; headquarters, 289 - 308 ; per- sonal description of, 296; Continental uniform, 297 ; his staff, 299, 300 ; at Monmouth, 301 ; anecdotes of, 301, 302 ; habits of, 306 ; his body-guard, 307, 308. Washington, Lady, 305. Waterhouse, Benjanim, 264. Waters, Captain Josiah, 187. Watertown meeting-houses, 347 ; Bridge, 347, 348 ; burial-grounds, 346, 347. Wayside Inn (Sudbury), 420-425. Weils, William, 317. ' Wesson, Colonel James, 162, 163. West Church (Boston), anecdote of, 322. West Boston Bridge, built, 4, 5. Wheeler, Captain Timothy, ruse of at Concord, 384. Whitcomb, Colonel Asa, anecdote of, 156. Whitefield's Elm, 268. Wilder, Marshall P., 339. Wilkinson, General James, account of Bunker Hill battle, 70; duel with Gates, 104. Willard, Joseph, 209. Willard, Samuel, 211. Willard, Solomon, architect of Bunker Hill Monument, 75, 79, 80. Williams, General Otho H., 88. Windmill Hill (Cambridge), 284. Winter Hill, fortified and garrisoned, 100-102; German encampment on, 106, 107. Wintlnop, Mrs. Hannah, 359, 360. Wintliro]i, Governor John, 95, 96 ; statue, 336 ; William, 200. Woolrich, John, 244. Worcester, Joseph E., 312. Wyeth, Nathaniel J., his trip to the Pacific, 341-344. Wyman, Rufus, M. D., 178. Y. Yankee, origin of the woi'd, 256. Yankee Doodle, 397. THE WRITINGS OF SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE. Old Landmarks and Historic Person^ ages of Boston, One Volume. Square l2mo. 100 Illustrations. Price $2.00l Old Landmarks and Historic Fields of Middlesex. One Volume. Square l2mo. Fully Illustrated. Price $2.00. "Your Old Landmarks of Boston is a perfect storehouse of information." — Henry W. Longfellow. "I am simply amazed at the extent and accuracy of its information." — yi)/^« G. Palfrey. " Historic Fields and Mansions of Middlese.\ is a book after my own heart." — Benson J . Lossmg. Sold by all Booksellers. Mailed, post-paia, on receipt of price., by the Publishers^ THE WRITINGS OF SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE. AROUND THE HUB. A BOY'S BOOK ABOUT BOSTON. 5 ^-^>r NEW ENGLAND LEGENDS .^' FOLK LORE. By SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE, /Juthor of " Old Laiidniarks of ' Boston ' and ' Middlesex,^ " ''Around the Hub," etc. One volume, 12mo, cloth, illustrated. Price, $2.00. THIS volume brings together, for the first time, tlie scattered Legendary and Folk Lore of New England. No subject is so thoroughly fascinating as this is, while very few indeed afford materials at once so rich, so varied, and so picturesque. It is confi- dently believed that every one who sees how fertile is the field the author's research has opened, will now wonder why such a work was not long ago undertaken. The collection, preservation, and effective presentation of the Legendary Tales of New England is then the purpose of this book; and that purpose jjresupposes a work of per- manent interest and value. For a work of this character no man is better qualified than Mr. SAMt;EL Adams Drake, the author who has already a tiigh reputation as a writer of History, Biography, and Travel, and who is thoroughlv c home in any and every phase of Old New England Life. His " Old Landmarks of Boston," his " Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast," are unique works of their kind, to which his " New England Legends " will un- questionably be the appropriate companion and claimant for public favor. Having diligently searched out the origin of the Legendarv Tales that compose this volume, Mr. Drake's method has been to rewrite them in an entertaining manner for his readers of to-day ; and as some of these pieces have been the theme of poetry and romance, he has placed the prose and poetic versions side by side, in order that the thousands to whom "The Scarlet Letter," "The Buccaneer," or "The Skeleton in Armor" are as familiar as household words, may have as ready access to the truth as hitherto they have had to the romance of history. In this way many of the poetical gems of such authors as Longfellow, Whitfier, Holmes, Dana, Lowell, Rrainard, Sigourney, and others, are newly interpreted for the public, besides going to enrich the collection. Motley, Hawthorne, Sir Walter Scott, Austin, the Mathers, — whoever in fact may have drawn upon this subject for inspiration, — are quoted for its illustration. The popular superstitions of our ancestors, vihich included a firm belief in Witchcraft, in the Special Providences of God, and in the Manifestations of the Invisible World, — not to speak of Omens, Charms, and the like, — are an unfailing source of interest to our age. I\Ir. Drake shows us what those beliefs were, and in what way they worked for good or evil, as moral or physical agents, and so moulded the history of the times. Although they possess all the charm of romance, these stories are really the sober record of the start- ling or marvellous occurrences that they narrate. One cannot rise from a perusal of this most fascinating book without saying, " I now know what kind of men and women the founders of New England really were. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction ! 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