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OLD PATHS AND LEGENDS OF NEW ENGLAND SAUNTERINGS OVER HISTORIC ROADS WITH ¦ GLIMPSES OF PICTURESQUE FIELDS AND OLD HOMESTEADS IN MASSACHU SETTS, RHODE ISLAND, AND NEIV HAMPSHIRE BY KATHARINE M. ABBOTT 'pJi^>-' '^ ^- PUTNAM'S SONS ' NEW YORK AND LONDON tibc IRnicherbocher iprcss 1904 Copyright, 1903 BY KATHARINE M. ABBOTT Published, September, 1903 Reprinted, December, 1903 ; January, 1904. Ubc Itnicfierboclter prcee, Dew iporh TO THOSE WHO LOVE THE OLD ASSOCIATIONS, WHO DELIGHT TO STEAL AWAY FROM THESE RESTLESS DAYS TO THE TRAN QUILLITY OF EARLY NEW ENGLAND LIFE AND SIMPLICITY OF ANCIENT HOMESTEADS, TO THOSE WHO FAIN WOULD LISTEN TO THE STORY OF EACH HILL, VALLEY, TREE AND BROOK OF THE OLD BAY STATE, THIS LITTLE BOOK IS SYMPATHETICALLY INSCRIBED PREFACE Once upon a time it might have been said, " Who knows an American town ? ' ' The world had been introduced to portions of our beautiful land — to the Hudson by Wash ington Irving, to Lake George by Cooper, and to California by Bret Harte, yet countless fascinating byways were quite neglected. Some travellers thought we were too young to be interesting ; others in the words of the Old Play directed their search "to farthest Inde in quest of novelties," blink ing owl-like at "ten thousand objects of int'rest wonderful" before their very thresholds, and even the most indefatigable lovers of America became discouraged by difficulties in the way of travelling almost insurmountable. The American found it a far more simple affair to journey with the im mortals from Loch Katrine to Mont Blanc, than to follow the course of Whittier's Merrimack with its sheaf of legends from source to sea. To-day we have changed all that : new modes of travel and philanthropic societies for the promotion of good roads have so successfully battled with the discomforts of long distances that our history-loving countryman, with his favorite volume in his pocket, may step down by the way side from the wheel, the electric car, or automobile, and explore some little stream to the spot where the grist-mill's wheel turns still, and, in the hand-made nails of a primitive garrison, live over again, as it were, his great-great-great grandfather's experiences. His thrill of sympathy with the past is akin to that which comes on seeing for the first time under the warmth of an Italian sun, rich roses smothering in wild luxuriance the balcony on which Juliet leans in one VI Preface of Verona's delicately tinted palaces. In this environment that old story, no one knows how old, appears to have happened but yesterday ; and thus in the New World, with the inspiration of visiting the scene of the poet's theme, has come about a revival of American poets and American history, I have tried to bring together in small compass and somewhat consecutively, from widely scattered sources, legends and illuminating chronicles of authors and travel lers, things of which I myself have felt the want, believing that it may at least suggest a wider investigation of such a delightful and exhaustless subject as old Xew England. My pages reveal to how long a list of authors I am in debted, and to their publishers for permission to include extracts from their works, especially to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., who have placed on our shelves many volumes of American poetry and vivid reminiscences which picture a fast-fading side of New England life. I wish to express gratitude to the artists who have lent their piquant inter pretations of New England's charm in summer and winter, a story no pen alone can tell ; to historians and librarians, to members of patriotic societies, and to many, many others who have graciously offered stores of home traditions out of pure love of their own countryside ; these form a great brotherhood in harmony with the patriot creed of Felix Gras : "I love my village more than tliA' village, I love my province more than th^' province, I love France above all!" BeLVIDERE, LoWliLL, Ahiy, 1903, K. M. A. CONTENTS Boston (Shawmut, Tri-Mountaine), 1630 Cambridge (Newtowne), 1630-1633 Arlington (West Cambridge or Menotomy), 1630- Lexington (Cambridge Farms), 1640-1712 Bedford, 1642-1729 Concord (Musquetaquid), 1635 Medford (Mistick), 1630 Woburn (Charlestown Village), 1630-1642 Wilmington, 1642-1730. Tewksbury, 1655-1734 Lowell, 1655-1826 , Dracut, 1664-1701 . Tyngsborough, 1673-1809 Nashua, 1673-1853 Chelmsford, 1653-1655 Billerica, 1650-1655 Lynn (Saugus), 1629 Swampscott, 1637-1852 Marblehead, 1629-1649 Salem (Naumkeag), 1626 Danvers (Salem Village), 1628-1752 Beverly, 1628— 1668 Gloucester (Wynghersheek), 1639-1873 North Andover, 1646-1855 Andover, 1646 Methuen, 1645-1725 Haverhill (Pentucket), 1640-1645 Byfield Parish, 1702 Ipswich (Agawam) 1634 . Newburyport, 1635-1764 Newbury — Oldtown, 1634-1635 Amesbury, 1638-1668 Salisbury (Colchester), 1638-1640 1807. vni Contents Hampton (Winnicunnett), 1638 . . . . E.xeter (Squamscot), 1638 ... Portsmouth (Strawberry Bank), 1623-1633 Framingham (Danforth's Plantation), 1675-1800 Shrewsbury (1717-1727) Jamaica Plain (Pond Plain), 1633-1851-1873 Dedham, 1635-1636 , . , , , Milton (Unquity-Quisset), 1633-1662 Quincy, 1633-1640-1792 Hull (Nantasco), 1624-1644 Cohasset (Conahesset), 1614-1717-1770 Hingham (Bare Cove), 1633-1635 . Weymouth (Wessagusset), 1622-1635 Braintree, 1633-1640 . , . . Plymouth (Patuxet), 1620 Abington (Maramooskeagin), 1648-1712 Bridgewater (Nunketetest), 1649-1656 Stoughton (Punkapoag), 1650-1726 Taunton (Cohannet), 1637-1639 Easton, 1668-1725 Swansea (Wanamoiset), 1645-1667 Middleborough (Assawampset), 1669 New Bedford (Acushnet), 1664-17S7 Newport, 1638 Providence, 1636 .... Index .... PAGE 246274 27s277 290298 326 338 344 352 359 368 37037938138s394 410420439 455 465 ILLUSTRATIONS . Cover . Title-page Frontispiece An Ipswich Wayside .... The Minute-Man, Concord Daniel C. French, Sculpt. From a photograph by George A. Nelson. Fishing-Reel at Flat-Iron Point, Joppa From a photograph by Baldwin Coolidge. Richardson's Brook, Dracut . . . . . Frora a photograph by George A. Nelson. Old Middlesex and Boston Town . . . . From a drawing by Mildred Howells. Lafayette . . . . From the Huntington Collection in the Library of the Metro politan Museum of Art. Boston Common as Samuel Sewall Saw It From a photograph by George A. Nelson. The Gardiner Greene Mansion By permission from The Family of Greene. The King Hooper House, Danvers . ' The Old State House, Boston From a photograph by Baldwin Coolidge. Christ Church. "The Old North" Tremont Street Mall, Boston From a photograph by Charles B. Webster. Copley Square. Trinity Church Inner Court of the Boston Public Library The "New Cambridge Bridge" "Old Massachusetts" in The Yard, Erected 1720 From a photograph by W. B. Swift. The Home of Longfellow, Cambridge "Elmwood," the Home of James Russell Lowell From photogravures in Under Colonial Roofs, by courtesy of Charles B. Webster and Alvin Lincoln Jones. Memorial Statue of John Harvard From a photograph by Alice E. Manning. Christ Church, Cambridge ... - • 152129 333537 3943 4949 51 53 Illustrations The Samuel Bowman-Whittemore House, Arlington From a photograph by F. S. Frost. Procession of Birches, Mystic Lake, Arlington From a photograph by F. S. Frost. The Robbins Mansion, Robbins Memorial Library From a photograph by F. S. Frost. Captain John Parker Statue, on Lexington Common A Glen on the Old Woburn Road, Lexington From a photograph by B. Eugene Whitcher. The Munroe Tavern, Lexington . From a photograph by Charles B. Webster. The Buckman Tavern, Lexington First Parish Meeting-House, Bedford A Farm Lane, Bedford . From a photograph by Mrs. C, L. Flint. The Old Manse, Concord From a photograph by George A. Nelson. The Old North Bridge .... Orchard House, Concord From a photograph by Henry Troth. The Hartwell Homestead, Lincoln The Royall Mansion-House From a photogravure in Under Colonial Roofs. The Cradock House, Medford From a photograph by George W, Hersey. Entrance to the Brooks Estate, Winchester The Woburn Public Library The Baldwin Homestead, North Woburn From a photograph by Baldwin Coolidge. "A Pasture Meadow" , . . . From a photograph by George \\'. Horsey. St. Anne's Church, Lowell . From a photograph by George A. Nelson. Tyng's Island on the Merrimack . From a phot<.igraph by Alice Saunders, Illustrations XI The Jonathan Tyler Homestead . From a photograph by Alice Saunders. ICE-CuTTING ON THE MeRRIMACK, LoWELL The Rebecca Warren-Smith Homestead From a photograph by Alice E. Manning The Zadoc Rogers Mansion, Lowell Lilacs in Tyngsborough From a photograph by George A. Nelson The Rustic Poet Soliloquizes From a photograph by George A. Nelson The Cloister, All Saints' Church, Chelmsford . A Waste-Way of the Old Middlesex Canal, Billerica The Manning Homestead, Billerica Revere Beach Reservation .... Cottage of George H. Mifflin, Esq., Nahant. From a photograph by H. de Forrest Smith. The Nahant Life-Saving Crew From a photograph by Charles B. Webster. "She 's Fast! To the Rescue!" Hemlocks in the Fells . The Simple Cobler of Aggawam From a photograph by George A. Nelson. Glen Lewis Road, Lynn Woods A By-Path, Lynnfield . From a photograph by F. S. Frost. Our Friend the Captain Short Beach, Swampscott "The strange, old-fashioned, silent town The Oliver House, Smith Point, Marblehead, and Crowninshield Estate on Peach's Point Marblehead Harbor ..... From a photograph by George W. Hersey. xii Illustrations PAGE The Churn, Marblehead Neck ..... 148 The Assembly Hall, Salem . ... 152 Hall with Ancient Staircase ; Cabot-Endicott House, Residence of Daniel Low, Esq. . . , 154 The Charter Street Burying-Ground, Salem 157 Last of the Merchant-Ships , 159 John Andrew House, Washington Square . , 161 Birthplace of Hawthorne , ... 163 By the courtesy of O. W. Holmes Upham. Judge Holten Homestead, Danvers . 167 The Turn at the Willows to Hospital Point Light, Beverly . 172 A Pine Path to the Sea . 173 From a photograph by F. M. Putnam. "We're Here!" Home from the Grand B.\nks, Gloucester . , . -177 From a photograph by George A. Nelson. "By THE Sea" — Cape Ann , , ... 178 The Old Custom-House, Annisquam , . . 1S2 At Folly Cove, Cape Ann ...... 183 From a photograph by Henry Troth. The Governor Bradstreet House, North Andover . 188 From a photograph by Charles B. Webster. The Kittredge Homestead, North Andover 189 Entrance of the Shawshixe into the Merrimack River at Lawrence . . 194 From a photograph bv Gcnrgc .\, Nelson, The Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Axdover . 195 The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, Methuen . 199 Greycourt prom the Lodge . . . 200 Hannah Duston Monument, HA^¦ERHILL . . . 202 Crystal Sunshine in Lo\'Ers' L.vne . . . 206 From a photo^r.-iph by G, W. W. Bartlett. Illustrations xiii PAGE The Whittier Kitchen in Whittier's Birthplace, Haverhill . , , 208 By courtesy of A. A. Ordway, Esq. The Governor Dum.mer Mansion, South Byfield 212 Picking Cinnamon Roses at the Pearl Homestead, West Boxford ... 217 From a photograph by Arthur N. Wilmarth. "And Curson's bowery mill" . . . 219 Indian Hill Farm. The Poore Homestead . . 221 "The Old Chain Bridge" , . 223 From a photograph by Arthur N. Wilmarth. Spencer-Pierce "Garrison" House, Newbury — Old- town . . 226 The Clam-Diggers on Joppa Flats, Newburyport , 229 Fishing-Reel at Flat-Iron Point, Joppa . . 231 From a photograph by Baldwin Coolidge. Salisbury Beach . . . 235 Rocks Bridge across the Merrimack .... 236 From a photograph by W. W. Bartlett. The "Friends" Meeting-House, Amesbury . . . 239 From a photograph by Henry Troth. The House of Harriet Prescott Spofford, Deer Island on the Merrimack .... 240 The Dorr Homestead, Salisbury Point . . . 241 From a photograph by Arthur N. Wilmarth. Great Boar's Head, Hampton Beach . . . 245 The Wells Homestead, "Elmfield," Hampton Falls, N. H. 249 Hampton Marshes 251 From a photograph by Arthur M. Dodge, M.D. "The Old Garrison," Exeter 253 From a drawing by Sears Gallagher. The Apple-Tree 255 From a photograph by George A. Nelson. The Governor Langdon Mansion, Portsmouth . . 257 XIV Illustrations St. Andrew's by the Sea, Rye The Wentworth Mansion, Portsmouth From a photograph by Charles F. Peck. The Sir William Pepperell House From a photograph by Henry Troth. Old Drew Garrison, Dover . From a photograph by L. W. Flanders, M.D. The Tortuous, Historic Charles From a photograph by Charles B. Webster. Norumbega Tower ..... Hemlock Gorge, Newton Upper Fall Home of Major-General Artemas Ward, Shrewsbury Jamaica Park — View from South Cove From the Boston Park Guide, by courtesy of Sylvester Baxter. The Moses Williams Mansion, Jamaica Plain Brook Farm Meadow . ... The Fairbanks Homestead, Dedham From a photograph by Baldwin Coolidge. Old "Norfolk House," Dedham The Willow by the Brook, Westwood Park From a photograph by Emma L. Baker. A Pleached Alley in the "Governor's Garden' The Vose Farm, Brush Hill . From a photograph by Margaret Sutermeister. Madam Belcher House, Milton The Home of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Ponkapog HoosicwHisiCK Lake, Milton ..... From a photograph by F. .S. Frost. The Rotch Observatory, Blue Hill Shepherd with Dogs and Pike on the Estate of Au gustus Hemenway, Canton .... John Rowe, his Fire Bucket ..... The Quincy Granite Quarries From a photograph by George A. Nelson. Illustrations XV Birthplace of John Quincy Adams By courtesy of the Quincy Historical Society. The First Church, Quincy Low Tide — Nantasket Beach Reservation From a photograph by George W. Hersey. U. S. Frigate "Constitution" From a painting belonging to Benjamin S. Stevens, Esq. Minot Light "When the tide comes in ' Homestead of Mordecai Lincoln, Cohasset . Accord Pond ... . . From a photograph by H. I. O. The Guardian Elm, South Hingham From a photograph by H. I. O. Derby Academy from Broad Bridge Wilder's Pond, Hingham Architecture in Weymouth and Braintree Three Famous Rocks of Eastern Massachusetts Husking — The Farmer's Rainy Day From a photograph by Marshall P. Crane. The Monatiquot River .... Little Pond, South Braintree From a photograph by Granville Bowditch. The Howland House, Plymouth From a photograph by Halliday. Burial Hill, Plymouth From a photograph by George A. Nelson. OxE OF Plymouth's Meresteads The Home of Major John Bradford Dyer Homestead, Whitman Homestead of Dr. Jabez Fuller, Kingston (1778) The General Lazell and Judge Mitchell Homestead Memorial Library, Bridgewater .... A Pleasant Pasture ...... From a photograph by H. W. Benjamin. xvi Illustrations The Colonial Club House .... Indian Weapons .....,, From a drawing by George H. Hallowell. Sabbatia Lake, Taunton .... Historical Hall and Morton Hospital, Home of Governor Marcus Morton . The Governor Oliver Ames House, North Easton From a photograph by Henry Troth. The Coram-Shove House, Dighton On the Banks of Cole's River A Somerset Lane and a Somerset Brook From photographs by Cornelius A. Davis. Yachting on Taunton River From a photograph by A H. Skinner. July on the River From a photograph by Daniel W. Gladding. The Christian Church, Swansea Centre The Town Hall, Swansea Derelict at South Swansea The Kingsley Lean-to, South Rehoboth From a photograph by J. Gardner. The Baker Homestead, South Rehoboth Three-Mile River, AVestville From a photograph by F. M Atwood. Old Wooden Bridge, Ten-Mile River From a photograph by Daniel W. Gladding The Pratt Homestead, Pratt Brook, North Middle- borough, and Lake Nippenicket, Bridgewater , The Nelson-Washburn House, Lakeville . The Wild Carrot "I heard, or seemed to he.vr, the chidixg sea" From a photograph by Edwin Young Judd. Bouncing Bets in a Nantucket Lane , . . . From a photograph by Henry Troth. PAGE377378 381 383 386389 391 393 393394397399 400402403405 407 411413 415417 423 Illustrations XVII Edwin D. Mor- The Whaler's Stanch Captain on Shore From a photograph by Margaret Sutermeister. Farming on the Heights above Stone Bridge, Tiver TON ........ From photographs by F. C. Brownell. In Mount Hope Bay .... Vaucluse, the Home of Samuel Elam, and Whitehall THE Home of Dean Berkeley, Old Newport . From photographs by Frank H. Child. The Cliffs and Surf off Newport "The Rocks," Summer Residence of Henry Clews Esq., Newport , , . "Beacon Rock," Summer Residence of GAN, Esq., Brenton's Cove . The Vanderbilt Arch, Newport . From a photograph by George A. Nelson Old Trinity's Spire At Play on Easton's Beach Mohegan Cliffs, Block Island From a photograph by C. E. Cornwall. Benevolent Street, Providence . Sullivan Dorr Mansion , From a photograph by Henry A. Church, The Ives Homestead, Providence . Residence of Mrs. Henry G. Russell. Roger Williams Park Traveller's Map of Eastern New England. In pocket PAGE 425 • 427 • 431 ¦ 435 . 441 443447 449 451 454 457459460461 463 at end k'icJiardson's Hrook. Dracut. ,4m/ lion't vou icnieniher llie school. Pen Bolt, Willi the master so cruel anil grim. /[nd tlie shaded nook in the running brook, H7)i7-i' the children iccnt to sieini f" OLD PATHS AND LEGENDS OF NEW ENGLAND BOSTON THE MARSHALLING OF EVENTS PRECEDING LEXINGTON Where are you going, Lord Lovell!' she said: " Oh! where are you going ? " said she. " I 'ni going, my Lady Nancy Belle, Strange countries for to see, to see, Strange countries for to see!' Old Ballad. MCE y°^ ^"""^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^" rived in Boston and are to realize your beautiful dreams of trips over the old roads of Middlesex, Essex, the Old Col ony, and even to the banks of the Piscata- way, climb first the cupola of the State House, whose corner stone was laid by Samuel Adams, — himself a corner-stone of our indepen dence, — assisted by the Masonic Grand Master Paul Revere. Look beyond the masts of tossing ships in the sun-kissed Harbor to the bold headland of Hull, the old Nantascot, 2 Old Paths and Legends of New England whose grand sands possess once more the pristine beauties enjoyed by the Pilgrims, There is The Castle; ye fforty- ficacion of ye Port, first a Puritan stronghold; second Castle William, a bulwark of the Province; a sometime prison of Sir Edmund Andros; — almost had he succeeded in making his escape, disguised as a woman, had not a mili tary boot belied his petticoats as he attempted to pass the outer guard. To this Royalist fort the harassed Governor Hutchinson fled from his beautiful Milton home, seeking refuge under the King's colors. The Castle standard underwent many vicissitudes: Puri tan abhorrence of the Cross of St. George caused the flag constantly to disappear, to the discomfiture of the com mander and the loyal masters of ships; Endicott even dared, for conscience' sake, to cut out the cross. When Sir Henry Vane succeeded Winthrop as Governor he was forced to beg the use of a ship's flag to display on the Castle, lest the sailors carrv news of the absence of the royal standard to England and the colonists be rated as rebels. Picture the royal boy-Governor of twenty-four, the dashing young nobleman in plumed hat and courtly attire, preceded bv four sergeants with halberds, steel caps, bandoleers, and small arms, leaving his house at the head of Oticcn (Court) Street in the plain little town of Boston to sit under the bare great beams of the First Church, ililton wrote a sonnet to this brilliant knight, Harry \'ane,' who became the leader of the Republican party in the English Parliament, sufforcil imprisonment through his rival Crom- woU, and on the reslnration of the Stuarts was beheaded for treason by CliarU-s II. , thoiigli not a Regicide: A'aiic ynung in years, hut in sage coimsel old Than whom a bcttiT Senator ne'er held Tin- helm of Rcmie." 'A ma.unilicmt bronze statue of \'anc h\- Maemonnics stands in the vestibule of the Boston Public Library ; tlio inscription by James Freeman Clarke bcinn .1 most interesting; presentation of his character. Boston Harbor 3 After the Boston Massacre, the citizens forced the British soldiery to make their quarters at The Castle, crying with Adams, "Both regiments or none shall go." Captain Pres ton and others implicated were tried before Chief- Justice Lynde, with John Adams and Josiah Quincy, the patriots, and Robert Auchmuty as counsel for the defence, and Robert Treat Paine for the prosecution. Preston and all others were acquitted, except two who were sentenced to be branded on the hand. On the evacuation of Boston, the English garrison blew up the magazine of The Castle. Colo nel Leslie's regiment departed without ceremony. Young Colonel John Trumbull, just out of Harvard, acting under Washington's commission, raised the flag of thirteen stripes over its ruins, and new bastions were constructed under Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Revere. Doubtless, during these lively days in Boston Harbor, Trumbull received vivid in spiration for his future memorial paintings of the Revolu tionary War. In 1779 the guns of Castle Island saluted the Marquis de Lafayette on his brig Herniione, as he passed on to disem bark at Hancock's ¦ wharf. Received with enthusiasm by Congress, appointed Major-General, he gained the friend ship, more precious still, of the great Washington ! Finally, in 1779, the island fortress was rechristened Fort Indepen dence by President John Adams. Built by Governor Dud ley in 1634, it is the most ancient military post in the United States continuously occupied for defensive purposes. Yesterday as you steamed up Boston Harbor in the bril liant early light of a June morning, a bugle sounded the reveille; you saw the wonderfully picturesque and interesting way in which the city spires and buildings rose terrace-like toward the dominating Golden Dome on Beacon Hill. In like manner events at the beginning of the history of the old Bay State group themselves about Beacon Hill, the centre of the Trimountain. Long, long ago on its topmost 4 Old Paths and Legends of New England peak, the Beacon's iron skillet blazed with ominous fire to warn the colonists of Indian depredation or British aggres sion. General Gage, finding a tar-barrel there, momentarily expected to see it fired to call the troops from the ships in the harbor. At the opening of the twentieth cen tury in the frosty midnight air the soft miraculous light of the State House Dome flashed out its evening signal of peace and prosper- itv, as it were the unspoken "All 's well!" of the mod em town-watch, or a benediction to the multitude assem bled on the Com mon led by the \-enerable Edward Everett Hale, our captain in the rev erent searchings for the old traditions.' A\'ith a long blast, four trampeters on the Senate Italcony answcrctl the stroke of one from King's The American cause appeared to be lost ; ( 'ongrcss assembled despairing , lehen Lajayetlc. resolving to consci rah: to this sublime cause his jiirlnnc and his sword, equipped " frigate and einharkcil for Charlesloivn. — llistoirc Moderne. ' The exercises were arranged by Edwin D. Mead, Twentieth Century Club. President of the The Puritan's Beacon Hill 5 Chapel, The Handel and Haydn Society sang the prophetic hymn written by Judge Sewall for the new-born eighteenth century. This honest Judge, who stood up in the Old South to acknowledge his mistaken judgments in the witchcraft cases, would have found the curious spells cast by poor Boston Common as Samuel Sewall saw it. witches far less amazing than this instantaneous magic illu mination of the great city and its suburbs by countless lesser suns. Through Sewall's Elm Pasture, his estate so-called, over its original Coventry and Bishop-Stoke streets and across the Puritan's Beacon Hill of wild rose and bayberry, swiftly glides to-day the odd carriage without the horse 6 Old Paths and Legends of New England toward long lines of great houses in the Back Bay. Here in the past spread water, water everywhere, and the merchant rowed across to Muddy River (Brookline) to inspect swine and other cattle which were kept on his farm in the summer whilst the corn was on the ground in Boston, and brought back to town in winter. In spite of the philosophy of Judge Sewall and a decided fondness of adventure displayed in his entertaining Diary, I fancy he would demur at accompanying us over his favor ite turnpikes if, instead of travelling in seventeenth-century style on his good horse (without the carriage), he must for sooth first descend into our uncanny subterranean passage under Boston Common, on which he was accustomed to see cows grazing and witness the executions of Indians and Ouakers.' How Sewall would marvel at the sensation of ' That cows were pastured on Boston Common as late as 1820 is shown by contemporaneous illustration on a rare plate of Staffordshire pottery in the collection of R. T. H. Halsey of New York. This plate — included among the exquisite reproductions in blue of Mr. Halsey's ^•olume, Pic tures of Early New York jn Dark Blue Staffordshire Pottery — depicts the State House, and the Hancock mansion, which entertained Washington, Lafayette, D'Estaing, and often forty French officers, so that in despair of pro\-isions Madame Hancock sent her cooks out to milk the cows on the Common. It also depicts the Ma>-or John Phillips's house, the Dr. John Joy, Joseph Coolidge, Thomas Perkins, and Thomas .\mory houses. The latter, erected 1796, stands at the corner of Beacon and Park streets. It was occupied by Governor Christopher Gore, Fisher Ames, Malbone, the miniature painter, Samuel Dexter, celebrated lawyer, and George Tick- nor, scholar. It was olTcrnl in i,^j4 bv Mavor Quincy to Lafayette when the nation's guist. On this visit he laid the comer-stone of Bunker Hill Monument. Below, on Park Street, facing these beautiful elms, its north windo\\s overlooking the pensi\-e Granary Burying-Ground, is the Quincy mansion. ( )n the street lloor is a book room, in literary welcome after the sentiment of the agrcealili' old-time book-shop of the Misses Peabody in West Street. The Somerset Club House in Beacon Sti"eet was the Sears mansion, and Go\'inior Bowdoin's house near the corner of Bowdoin, was occupied by General Burgoyne, and the Hancock mansion by General Clinton. The Gardiner Greene Mansion, Pemberton Hill, Boston; built about 1758 by William Vassall on the estate set down in the Book of Possessions as belonging to the Rev. John Cotton. Here Mr. Vassall [a relative of the Vassalls who erected the present Longfellow house, Cambridge] lived in state, entertaining Earl Percy, 177 5: he became a refugee. In 180 j, Gardiner Greene bought the mansion, and laid out a terraced garden, "the most conspicuous and elegant" in Boston. It held the famous Japanese ginko tree, now on Beacon Street Alall of the Common near Joy Street path. Mr. Greene's second wife was a daughter of his Beacon Hill neighbor, John Singleton Copley, whose estate included Blackstone' s six acres. 8 Old Paths and Legends of New England being swiftly propelled up into the sunlight by an unseen force, perhaps as far as Mystic River, to knock at the door of the familiar Cradock house in Aledford, or across Har vard Bridge to search for some feature of the Harvard Col lege of 1668, The old road which he travelled to Cambridge was by Somerville and the Cambridge Woods, through Kirkland Street, In that decade, one Sargeant was con victed by the Harvard Corporation and sentenced "to be publickly whipped before all the scholars, and sit alone by himself in the Hall uncovered at meals during the pleasure of the President and Fellows, and be in all things obedient or else be finally expelled the Colledge." In the summer of 1630, when the worthies Governor Winthrop, Coddington, and other men of Lincolnshire came to the Charles River from Salem, which pleased them not as a site for the capital, William Blaxton the recluse stepped forth from his solitary hut on his exclusive peninsula of Shawnnitt and offered them the hospitality of his spring and a share in his pasture on Boston Common. Whether he offered them "Blackstone apples" is not recorded, but this "man of a particular humour," soon wearied of the Lords-Brethren, as he had of the Lords-Bishops of England, and drove his cattle to far-distant Rehoboth. In the State House, which stands in Governor Hancock's field, you must see the charter of Massachusetts Bay Colony, brought over by Winthrop in the good ship Arbclla, named for that beautiful Lady Arbella, of -whom ]\Iather said, "she took New England in her way to heaven." Her husband, Isaac Johnson, "a holy man and wise," held so large an interest in the New England adventure that he selected for his lot the square between Tremont, Washington, Court, and School streets, and built his house where the Old Suffolk County Court House stands. Mr. Johnson's request to be buried at the upper end of his lot now adjoining King's The Pioneers 9 Chapel, originated the first burial-ground of the Colony. (September, 1630.) Let us turn over the leaves of Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts and Governor Winthrop's Diary, and follow the pioneers who left their good wives with Endicott at Salem, while they took little journeys of exploration up the Mystic and the Charles to find a place for their sitting down. You will agree that the letter of Deputy- Governor Dudley to The Right Honorable my very good Lady — the Lady Bridget, Countess of Lincoln — is the most vivid narrative of all these quaint, delightful, brief relations of early ad venture in New England's plantation, this fascinating lit erature, half-autobiographical, half-narrative, of Francis Higginson, of Richard Mather, Wood, Hubbard, Cotton, and White. Like the apostles of old, each chronicler writes the New- World story out of his own experience and in the sim ple language of Pilgrim's Progress. These were leaders of men, guides of courageous bands, who left all the sacred grandeur, beauty, and comforts of Old England, that they might freely worship God in cabins and garrets, if need be, in face of the gaunt terrors of an unsubdued wilderness. Some of these were of the seaport of old Boston, by the river Witham in Lincolnshire, a city of merchants, no one knows how many centuries old. The legend has come down to us of the derivation of the name " Boston." The harpers sang of a monastery, St. Botolph's in the Fields, Botolph being the patron saint of mariners, whose name interpreted in good Saxon means ' ' to help the boat. ' ' Under the tutelage of the monks after a time little hamlets in creased, and the graziers of the country round about became weary of directing many travellers to shelter by a name of such length, thus they spoke quickly the long title and " St. Botolph's in the Fields " gradually dwindled into Boston. The men of this maritime town dedicated their lovely parish lo Old Paths and Legends of New England church to Saint Botolph. Its corner-stone was laid by Dame Margaret Tilney in 1309, and as a fitting tribute to the good offices of their patron, they built the finest tower in England, and hung therein a lantern as a guide to mari ners at a great distance. This venerable pile, where Cotton preached, was resigned by Dudley, Bellingham, and others who desired, above all, simplicity in worship. In New Boston more than one sober Puritan in steeple- crowned hat, seated on the wooden settle at his unadorned fireside, told the story of the Sabbath of his boyhood days to his grandchildren as an admonition that aU vanity may lure the unwary into sin. In his cocked hat, slashed doublet, and silken hose he had knelt under the subdued light in the great na\-e of St. Botolph's, where fifty windows shed forbidden luxuries of color on titled heads; where twelve carved and massive pillars and three hundred and sixty-five broad steps paved the way to wicked extravagance of life: his lady mother instructed him that these steps were typical of the weeks, months, and days of the year, the flight of time not to be wasted in slothfulness. Others say that the twelve pillars signify the twelve apostles. And the grandsire especially loved to describe its lofty tow^er, the wonder of travellers, and to repeat the saying of the Puritans that St. Botolph's ' lantern ceased to burn when its ^•icar, the Rev. John Cot ton, their silver trumpet, their Attic Muse, severed the chains of custom and ordinance and sought Boston, the new land, that he might preach a more austere life unfettered by the decrees of Laud. ' A chapel in St. Botolph's has been restored and a monument erected to Cotton, in the name of Cotton's descendants and admirers, by Edward lv\-erett. His aihlrcss at Plymouth contains a most interesting refer ence to these links bttween old and new Boston. Boston in Lincoln shire sent us her charter framed in the wood of St. Botolph's Church, which hangs in our City Hall. Master Cotton 1 1 Cotton despised not the day of small things, and great was the flutter and perturbation in Boston when the teacher of the First Church " inveighed loudly from the pulpit against wearing of lace veils over the face, newly the mode, as a sinful and abominable practice, arguing a corrupt heart." Governor Endicott defended the custom, not holding the veil to be a snare of the devil as did Master Cotton. Never theless, the demure Penelope Pelham, recently arrived from England on a visit to her brother, Herbert Pelham, Treas urer of Harvard College, was much perturbed, as "I came hither with a smart new veil cast over my Tiffany hood." She writes in her Diary: "Alack! how countless are the wiles of the tempter! Nothing surely seemeth more inno cent than this film of network which marvellously enhan- ceth the comeliness of an indifferent face!" This young gentlewoman, Penelope Pelham,' as Winthrop relates in his History of Netv England, became the wife of Richard Belling ham, Governor. Much more grave and weighty advice had the worthy Cotton given to the colonists. His celebrated Farewell to Winthrop's Company was a factor in the immediate pros perity and independence of the settlements. Look well to your plantation, said he; be not unmindful of your Jerusalem at home! Neglect not walls and bulwarks and fortifications for your defence. Go forth, every man that goeth,with a pttblic spirit; looking not on your own things but also on the things of others. Sixthly and lastly. Offend not the poor native, but as you partake in their land, so make them, partakers of your preciotis faith. Benjamin Woodbridge, the first graduate of Harvard, eulogizes Cotton, the ripest scholar in New England, as a living, breathing Bible! ' Penelope's Suitors, by Edwin Lassetter Bynner. 12 Old Paths and Legends of New England His \-cry name a title-page; and next His life a commentary on the text; O! What a monument of glorious worth When in a new edition, he comes forth Without erratas, may we think he '11 be In leaves and covers of etemit)' ! It is interesting to compare this eulogy with the epitaph of Benjamin Franklin, composed by himself. At the date of Dudley's letter to the Countess of Lincoln from Boston, ilarch 12, 1630, signed "Your Honor's Old Thoughtful Servant T. D.," the Indians have been carried off by a pestilence, some believed by a special providence to make room for the whites. Dudley has made acquaintance with Chickatabut upon the river Xeponset near to the Massachusetts Fields by the Great Blue Hill, also with Sagamore John seated upon Mystic, and Sagamore James upon the Saugus; upon the Merrimack dwelt the powerful Passaconaway, " esteemed by us a witch," Dudley passed lightly over the settlements begun at Wcssagiissett (Wey mouth), at Plymoiitli and Mount Wollaston (Quincy), and on the Piscataway at Odiorne's Point, Little Harbor, Stran'- berry Bank (Portsmouth), and at Dover settled by the Hil- tons, and relates how the Plantations of Boston which we have begun fell out. How we set sail from Old England for Salem soon after Winthrop's letter to his wife, written "from aboard the .Mbella riding at the Coiccs, March 2S, i6jo!' — in these four good ships, the Arbclla, the Talbot, the Ambrose, and the Jcu'cl. "The good ship Arbella is leading the fleet, Away to the westward, through rain-storm and sleet; The while cliffs of England have dropped out of sight, As birds from the warmth of their nests taking flight Into wilier horizons; each fluttering sail Follows fast where the Mayflourr flew on the gale." Famine at the Bay 13 Some were sent to the Bay who reported a good place upon Mistick (Maiden), btd some others of us found a place that liked lis better three leagues up Charles River (Newtowne or Cambridge), b^lt owing to sickness "we were forced to change counsel and to plant dispersedly," some at Charlestown, led by Increase Nowell, William Aspinwall, and Edward Con verse, first ferryman between Boston and Charlestown, and a first settler of Woburn, and some on the south side of the Charles which we named Boston; some of us upon Mistick which we named Medford; some of us four miles from Charlestown came to a place well watered, and settled a plantation and called it Watertown, under Sir Richard Saltonstall, Knight, and the Rev, George Phillips; others of us two miles from Boston, which we named Rocksbury, William Pynchon at the head; others upon the Saugus, Lynn; and the western-men, Ludlow, Maverick, and Ros- siter of the Mary and John, at Dorchester, Famine then seized the embryo towns, and reduced them to a diet of clams and ground-nuts ; the woful day arrived when Governor Winthrop had his last loaf of bread in the oven, and the discouraged people were about to gather for fasting and prayer, when Mr. Pierce's ship, long believed to have been captured by pirates, was sighted returning with provisions, whereupon the day of fasting was changed to a thanksgiving day on February 22, 1631. The years of the free Puritan commonwealth in sunny New England were dark with shadows of a stern, constrain ing scorn of all gayety, symbolized by sombre gray and brown apparel. It is said that even to-day, in some se cluded villages, a bit of embroidery or bright ribbon is the oc casion of gossip and much solemn consultation among the elders. Many a tale is told of pulpit reproof, of " speaking right out in meeting." Parson Moody of York compared the proud array of a lady entering the meeting-house in her 14 Old Paths and Legends of New England new-fashioned hoop to the rigging of a ship under full sail, which would eventually sink her into hell. Hawthorne's enchanted mirror reflects the domestic dramas of this gloomy period. On holidays, no minstrel nor juggler or Merry iVndrew, with which their fathers had made merry in Ehzabeth's England, was tolerated ; the wrestling match was the uttermost diversion countenanced by the town- beadle. If it were not recorded in black and white, one might scarcely credit that the law decreed that a mother should be punished for kissing her child on the Sabbath, and that undutiful children were delivered to the magistrates and whipped in the market-place. Such was the result of an undivided church and state. The strange follies enacted during the sad commotion of the witchcraft delusion naturalh' brought about a reaction, and so the forced, whimsical side of Puritanism faded. With the Province Charter granted by William III. came the first of the Royal governors. Despite those troublesome re gal representatives, commerce flourished apace, and Boston became the wealthiest seaport of the colonies, noted for a generous hospitahty. Splendid assembhes were given at the Province House.' The merchants of Boston and sur rounding parts entertained handsomely at their country- seats in :\Iilton, Winthrop,' Medford and Billerica, Danvers and Marblehead. Many a seven-gabled or gambrel roof co\'cred a banquet-hall. But in the sixties a murmur of remonstrance arose against English Parliamentary regula tions. The pco]de wotdd no longer sun themselves tran quilly in village doorvards. At town - meetings protest ' The Pro\'ince Charl(-r ma>' be seen at the State House ; Province House, a mere shell of its former glory, stands in the rear of shops opposite the head of Milk Street by the Old South. '' Go\-ernor Shirley had a country-house at Point Shirlej^, Winthrop; Gos'crnor Hutchinson at Milton; Governor Ga,i;c at Danvers, The King Hooper House, Danvers. {Home of Francis Peabody.) Occupied by General 15 Gage in 1774, when the General Court convened at Salem. i6 Old Paths and Legends of New England followed protest. Then came the unexpected, A private coat-of-arms j)cculiar to the Washington family alone, com posed of stars ;tnd stripes, combined alongside of the spread- eagle heraldic emblem of John Milton, poet, Puritan, and Republican, had taken the place of King George's banner. Opposite King's Chapel stood the mansion of Andrew Faneuil, and to those country people who were moved to enter and gaze upon a Church of England assembly, which many of them had never seen, the ecclesiastic sight must have been an astonishing one. The altar-piece decorated with green boughs and flowers ; the strains of the organ, — such strains always the pet detestation of the Puritans ; its noble organ, given by Thomas Brattle, being the first large one erected in New England; the fashionable elegance of the "loyalist" gentry as they with courtly grace handed in their wives and daughters, adorned in brocaded satins, wide hoops, towering head-gear and cobweb laces, to sit under the armorial bearings of the King and the Governors. More strange, perhaps, was his Excellency's pew lined with china tiles, its windows draped in crimson damask. On the retirement of the Royal troops the rector and a number of prominent Tory parishioners departed for Xova Scotia: with the rector disappeared the Church registers, silver, and vestments ; the crown and its supporting mitres was hidden in a garret ; the name of the building became known as the Stone Cliapel. In T7S9 the Chapel became the First Unitarian Church under a .Mr. Freeman as rector for curious reasons interesting to the church antiquar^•. A number of luural tablets, reminders of early monarchical Boston, yet remain on its walls: the Shirlev arms, the really fine monument to William Vassall, and the tablets to John Lowell, Charles A])thorp, Saiuuel Appleton, and otliers. The recent one to Oliver Wendell Holiues, from the design of Mrs. Henry Whitman, must not be overlooked. The Old South 17 Here were buried Puritan and Royalist, notably Governor John Winthrop, his son, the first Governor of Connecticut, also the Rev, John Cotton, Governor Shirley, and Lady Andros. Her funeral of state is described by Judge Sewall as having taken place between five and six in the after noon. The soldiers, he tells us, made a guard down Prison Lane to the South Meeting-house, eight lychins, that is, torches or links, illuminating the cloudy air. Drawn by six horses, the body was then borne from that church to the "Old Burying-Ground," to-day adjoining King's Chapel. On the cross-beam of the Old South bell hovered the dove with its brooding note "Whatever is rung on that noisy bell. Chime of the hour or funeral knell. The dove in the belfry must hear it well." ' Contradictory human nature became sharply pointed in this period of assimilation. We find the complaining letters of Edmund Randolph to the King concerning "these poor people and their demeanor under the new government." He wrote again : ' ' ilay it please your Grace we resolved not to be baffled by their great affronts, though they called our minister Baal's priest, and our prayers ' leeks, garlic and trash,' and we are now come to have prayers on their ex change, the town-house was too ' strait.' " This was indited before the efforts of Governor Andros against the common rights of the " Bostoneers," as Randolph called them. Tact less Andros did not even hesitate to send his deputy to the very doors of the " Old South" and demand the keys of the edifice ¦ for the convenience of the Church of England. Whereupon Judge Sewall, called the " Puritan Pepys " by ' The Belfry Pigeon, by N. P. WiUis. 1 8 Old Paths and Legends of New England Llenry Cabot Lodge, waited upon his Excellency, strenuously objecting U) giving up the same, especially during the ac customed hours of worship.' "Boston's 'Apjjcal to the World' declared against un righteous ttixcs tind 'that a legal meeting in the Town of Boston is an assembly where a noble freedom of speech is e\-cr expected and maintained,' where men think as they please and speak as they think," ("A man ought to be proud to rule such a people," said a Frenchman. " But one does not rule the American people," answered Pierre de Coubertin, " one governs it — if it be quite willing.") " Lib erty, Property, No Stamps," swayed the branches of the Liberty Tree. In August, 1769, John Adams dined with 358 Sons of Liberty at Robinson's the Sign of the Liberty Tree "" in Dorchester. He writes, "We had two tables laid in the open field by the barn" ; and in 1771 Adams writes: "Dined at 'Mr. Hancock's with the members Warren, Church, Cooper, Mr. Harrison and spent the whole after noon and drank green tea, — from Holland I hope but I don't know." ' King's Chapel — "Queen's Chappell" during Queen Anne's reign — is almost the only inemorial left standing of this dramatic and crucial ProN'ineial period of our history. It is doubly interesting because its evolution seems to parallel the bitter controversial era betwixt Puritan and Episcopalian. So imperfect were the notions of religious freedom that even Charles II. was forced to read them a salutar\- lesson on this sul)jeet. Each side had reason to grieve over the other's falling away from the true faith. "Lafayette said, "The world should nc\-er forget the Liberty Tree." It stood at the iunetion of Washington (()rangc), Bovlston (Frog Lane), and Essex (Auchmuty's Lane) streets. .V flag raised signalled the " Sons" to Liberty Hall under its branches. Bas-relief memorial placed over the spot by David Scars. In i?*);, from the Sign of the White Lamb on Orange Street, the first stage-coach ran to Providence. It became, later, the Adams House, so named from the father of "Oliver Optic" who kept the tavern. The Boston Massacre 19 The speeches of Otis and Adams were like musket-shots. The Boston Gazette and the Massachusetts Spy ' flung Whig sentiments broadcast. In the Green Dragon Tavern, Paul Revere and the Sons of Liberty swore secrecy at every meeting. The citizens of Boston could scarcely restrain their anger at the insults heaped by the British soldiery derisively playing Yankee Doodle " : " Yankee Doodle came to town For to buy a firelock. We will tar and feather him And so we will John Hancock." What an excitement there was throughout Boston over the Massacre on King (State) Street in front of the Town House, the "Lobster Backs" firing from Exchange Place!' Faneuil Hall ' in old Dock Square, now Merchants' Row, could not hold the patriots who met with the delegates from the town-meetings — these little republics, the bone and sinew of the great republic. Middlesex County led in bold plans for a Provincial Congress, later called at Concord. " This meeting can do nothing more to save the country," shouted Samuel Adams in the Old South Meeting-house," ' The Massachusetts Spy is the ancestor of the Worcester Spy. '' It is said that our Yankee Doodle is a parody on the first Yankee Doodle, written in ridicule of Oliver Cromwell and his coming to Oxford on a small horse wearing a single plume which the Royalists dubbed a "macaroni." ^ The Crispus Attucks Monument on Boston Common, commemorating Boston Massacre, was unveiled 1888: John Boyle O'Reilly, poet. ¦¦ During the siege the British made a playhouse of Faneuil Hall, and a riding-school of the Old South. Governor Hancock gave a dinner in honor of Lafayette at Faneuil Hall on the anniversary of the Capitulation of Yorktown, October 19, 1784. It was announced by thirteen guns from the market-place. Under thirteen arches thirteen patriotic toasts were given. * The Old South stands on Governor Winthrop's "Green" or garden, which extended from Milk Street to Spring Lane, 20 Old Paths and Legends of New England the ' ' Sanctuary of Freedom, ' ' after Governor Hutchinson determined that the vessels laden with tea should not re pass the guns of The Castle. At the word, the war-whoop of the patriot Mohawks startled these Friends, Brethren, Countrymen, summoned by printed broadsides to meet in manly opposition to the Machinations of Tyranny,' the Tea Party, in Indian war-paint freshly and fervently laid on at the Hancock Tavern in Corn Court," were off down Milk Street to Griffin's Wharf (Liverpool Wharf). One hundred thousand dollars' worth of tea were mixed with water, the Tories wept salt tears, and joy-bells were rung throughout the colonies, " Rally, Mohawks! bring out your axes. And tell King George we '11 pay no taxes On his foreign tea; His threats are vain, and vain to think To force our girls and wives to drink His vile Bohea." — Rallying Song at the Green Dragon Tavern. In 1774 the Province Charter was recalled; Boston went into mourning, as her ports were closed waiting the King's ' Broadside issued November 20, 177,5. Tife of Colonel Paul Revere, by Elbridge Henr}' Goss. Cupples & Schoenof, publishers. '' The Hancock Tavern, or Brasier's Inn, where the patriots disguised themselves, is the oldest hostelry standing in Boston, reseinbling some what the old English Coffee-House. (^nee upon a time, when here stood the inn of Samuel Cok- — a charter member of the Ancient and Honorable Artiller\' Company — there were wide grounds and a fine harbor view, and C.o\-ernor Harry \'ane entertained Miantonomo, Sachem, and twenty Narragansctt warriors Now one approach is through Change Alley, and into a narrowt'r cine, Indian file, off State Street opposite the Ex change Building, or south from Faneuil Hall through Corn Court. In the "Tc.'i. " room hangs the weather-beaten Hancock sign which swung for fifty years or more on a hi.uh post in the court-yard. Both Talleyrand and Louis Philippe, tra\elling incognito as M. D'Orleans, were guests at the Hancock Tavern. u m m m u i nil 2gl¥l TI 3 p M aa I 3 Pii^ii i ^•; 7"/ie OW State House, Boston. Ames Building on site of estate of Henry Dunster, first president of Harvard. View up Court Street or Prison Lane from the Old Town Pump site. " ' 'T is a gret city ! ' exclaimed Goody Surriage, peering over the shoulders of Agnes and Mrs. Shirley froyn the Governor' s house." 21 2 2 Old Paths and Legends of New England pleasure; her wharves once filled with the riches of the world were empty, the people without bread, Paul Revere was sent c.xjjrcss to the Southern Colonies with printed copies of the Boston Port Bill engraved with a crown, skull and cross-bones, and a cap of Liberty. General Gage fortified Boston Neck, The patriots held "ludicrously scanty stores at Worcester and Concord," On the i8th of April Joseph Warren saw the preparations of the British to capture these supplies, and sent for Paul Revere. "Just as the moon rose over the bay Paul Revere silently roK'cd to the Charlestown shore!' What says the toiuer of the Old Xorth Church! Two lights! the British advance by sea! Hurrying hoof-beats echo in Medford's silent streets. Peace- fid Middlesex wakes in alarm. The regulars arc coming! To Lexington! Israel Bissell carried the watch-word Lexington! into Con necticut, and Israel Putnam left his plough for Bunker Hill. On Bowling Green his Royal Slajesty shook in his leaden shoes. In Richmond, at old St. John's, the ^Trginia Con vention applauded the burning words of Patrick Henry. In South Carolina the officers threw up their royal commis sions. Its Provincial Congress, Henry Laurens, president, stood ready to sacrifice "the whole of our estates " for liberty. Lexington! was proclaimed at Savannah, Georgia sending aid to Boston. Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Bovs at Ticonderoga frustrated the British plans. King George would not listen to the protests of many English officers. Lord Dartmouth's dreams of conciliation were destroyed; and at the moment when Richard Car^•cl, Cavalier, gave the toast fyxiiigton! in the noble halls of England, Pilgrim, Puritan, ttnd Ca\'a]icr were standing shoulder to shoulder in the strife. In King (State) Street the curtain had already been drawn on scenes leading up to the final tragedy of war. In The Old State House 23 the Council Chamber of the Old State House ' James Otis had flung scorching words against arbitrary law,— specifically the Writs of Assistance, — in the presence of Chief Justice Hutchinson and his associates in great wigs and robes of scarlet cloth." Looking out at the east window in its original ancient frame — down old King Street, you almost hear the huz zas of the crowd below on the i8th of July, 1776, upon the proclamation of the Declaration of Independence from the balcony. At these demonstrations the Lion and the Unicorn scowled, and the little bell of St. Michael's in Marblehead proceeded to crack its sides with joy. From another balcony at the British Coffee-House across the way the officers had jeered at the speeches of Warren, Hancock, and Otis, and in this tavern Otis received the fatal blow to his reason. The favorite tavern of the patriots was the Bunch of 'Grapes ' on the corner of Mackerel Lane (Kilby Street). After Sir William Howe had stolen away from the Province House with his folded tents, and Colonel Ebenezer Learned had unbarred the gates of Boston to the Continental troops, a dinner was set here before General Washington and his officers. At an earlier date this side of the Exchange Building was, in common parlance, "Justice Dummer's Corner," and the youngest of his distinguished sons was born here. Above, ' The Old State House stands on the site of the first wooden Town House at the head of King (State) Street. * Robert Reid's striking conception of this incisive moment is portrayed over the grand stairway in the new State House. In the same Council Chamber to-day Thomas Hutchinson and his wife, by Peale; Col. James Otis, by Copley; Stuart's Samuel Otis, father of Harrison Gray Otis, and James Otis, the patriot, by Blackburn, gaze amicably at each other from gilded frames — being a portion of the treas ures in the collection of the Bostonian Society. ' This tavern's name is still perpetuated in the places of refreshment of the Exchange Building. 24 Old Paths and Legends of New England Elder Thomas Leverett's estate touched Congress Street, known as Levcrctt's Lane. Governor Winthrop, on his way to the Town House from his mansion in Spring Lane, passed through a part of Pudding Lane now Devonshire Street, which, between Water and Alilk streets, was Black Jack Alley or Joileff's Lane. Here adjoining the Governor's "Green" was the dwelling of Anne Hibbins, a cousin of Governor Bellingham, "of more wit than her neighbors," and consequently hanged as a wdtch on the Common. In those days the exemplary citizen walked in a sort of strait- jticket to avoid breaking the minor canons of the Blue Laws, Strict penance was exacted should one fancy to stroll about one's own estate on the Sabbath Day; walking w^as counten anced only in the strait path to the meeting-house in King Street, and before its door the victims incarcerated in the stocks and pillory for non-attendance on exercise serA^ed as an admonition to all. As the town grew these instruments were placed on wheels for greater convenience. The whip ping-post was used as late as 1805. The Towm House w-as the centre of Colonial Boston, standing about midway be tween Frog Lane (Boylston Street), washed by salt water at the South End, and Copp's or Wind-ilill Hill at the North End, with Fore and Back streets (Salem and North) on the water - front. You must quite forget these sk}'-piercing buildings about our Old State House, and percei^•e onlv Boston's Town Pump on Old Cornhill (Washington Street), and softly steal up Prison Lane (Court Street) in the foot steps of the past. The prcscnt-da\' Court House, gowned in sombre gray, recalls the prison of the Colony on whose site it stands. A1 » )\'e the street clamor you fancv that you hear the clanging of an iron-bound door behind the witches or Caj)l;iin Kidd, double-locked with two-pound kevs bv some grim jailer. Methinks he percei\'cs not the blossoming rose-bush visible to Hawthorne beside that prison portal. Pemberton Hill and Faneuil Hall 25 In 1 7 18, Scollay Square, being common land, was set apart by the General Court for a spinning school, and the young ladies of Boston gathered here to spin wool for a premium in kerchiefs and stuff gowns made by their own hands. Pemberton Hill was once the old Cotton estate, on which Governor Endicott built his mansion. In later years the passer-by was enchanted by the lovely terraced garden of Gardiner Greene,' where peacocks flaunted jewelled tails against the dark-green box. " And where the marjoram once and sage and rue And balm and mint and curled-leaf parsley grew, And double marigolds and silver thyme." Seated in the rose-arbor of this garden long since displaced by the unromantic and learned halls of barristers, one com manded a view of Boston Harbor beyond the crosstrees of our first frigates, and perchance caught the echo of ham mers knocking away the shores and spurs from Old Iron sides, launched to conquer by virtue of the fifteen Stars and Stripes, or may have witnessed the splendid military dis play of the Province which greeted the old Massachusetts frigate after the triumph of Louisbourg as she proudly swung to at Long Wharf with the Governor and Mrs. Shirley on board. Faneuil Hall was planned by Smybert, the celebrated Scotch painter, and surmounted by Deacon Shem Drowne's unique grasshopper vane. Here Trumbull's picture of the ' Pictures of this garden and of the Greene mansion, presented by Mrs. James S. Amory to the Bostonian Society, may be seen at the Old State House, also photographs of Franklin Street from the Crescent, showing the lovely elm parkway and the Eldridge and Gardner houses; also the old Sears estate before occupancy by the Somerset Club on Beacon Street, the Caleb Loring house, Somerset Street, and the Samuel May house on Congress Street (formerly Atkinson Street). 26 Old Paths and Legends of New England Declaration of Independence was visited by John Adams. Miss ( juincy relates in her Memoirs that he pointed to the door ne.xt Hancock's chair, saying, "There is the door out of which W^ashington rushed when I first alluded to him as the man best qualified to be Commander-in-Chief of the American Army." The tide flowed over Dock Square into Brattle Street, and Boston was divided at times into two islands. People were sometimes caught at flood tide and drowned in Haymar- ket Square. A swing-bridge gave access to Merchants' Row. In the Columbian Centennial of 1797 the firm of Thomas and John Hancock invited "Country Traders and others" to No. 8 Merchants' Row "Where they shall feel happy to supply them in the folloieing goods, for cash or ap proved Notes!' A curious stock indeed! — ^ladeira wine, Holland's Gin, Swedes' Iron, Xails, crown and bar soap, dipped candles, chocolate. Raven's Duck and a constant supply of Ciishiiig's much approved Anchors. Wending your way from Faneuil Hall toward North Square, the early Court End of Boston, you turn aside from Hanover Street (formerly Orange-Tree Lane) into Marshall Street to see the Boston Stone, originally a paint-mill of 1700; when it became useless as a grinder a canny Scotch man turned it ui)on its side and inscribed on it "Boston Stone, 1737," to publish his cheese ;ind ale after the fashion of his " auld acquaintance," the haberdasher, b\' the sign of the London Stone. On Union Street the famous Circcn Dragon once curled its copper tail ()\'cr the entrance of the tavern where the meclianics of I lie Norlli End Caucus with Adams, Warren, and Htmcock as leaders hatched patriotic plots to circum vent tlic moN'cnicnts of Goncrtil Gage, This Caucus first saw the light at the sign of the Two Palavcrcrs in Salutation Franklin in the Old North End 27 Street, At the Green Dragon were organized the St, An drew's Lodge of Freemasons and the first Grand Lodge in the Province, Joseph Warren, Master. Fancy how interesting to have peeped in at a certain window at the corner of Hanover and Union streets under the sign of the Blue Ball, signifying that Soap and Candles might be obtained within of Josiah Franklin, tallow-chan dler, and to have seen Benjamin, his youngest son, " Father of all the Yankees," ' filling the prosaic dipping-moulds, and "hankering for the sea." The day's work over, he would scamper off to fish for minnows on the edge of the salt-marsh bordering the Mill-Pond, or to the book-shop to spend his last penny on a new chap-book or volume of his favorite Bunyan. At eight years he went to the celebrated Latin School, the little wooden schoolhouse, on School Street, near the Franklin Statue in front of City Hall.' Our humble printer of the two-penny roll, the genius Poor Richard, himself the epitome of his trenchant every-day wisdom, was pronounced by Lord Chatham "an honor to the English nation and human nature." Many charming attentions were showered upon him by the great ladies of Versailles while sojourning in France as minister plenipo tentiary of the Republic. A French biography relates that Franklin found time to cultivate the mechanical arts. Touched by the goodness of the Queen, Marie Antoinette, he constructed for this amiable princess the first harmonica seen in France. This precious instrument is a part of the fine cabinet of M. Le Breton. Attacked by illness in his seventy-ninth year, and wishing to die in his own country, ' Walking through the British Museum the connoisseur, Mr. Edward A. Silsbee of Salem overheard Carlyle soliloquizing as he stood before the bust of Franklin: " Father of all the Yankees, father of all the Yankees! " " Master Ezekiel Cheever and Master Lovell were well-known peda gogues, and among the pupils were Governors Hancock and Bowdoin, Lieutenant-Governor Gushing, and Sir William Pepperell, 28 Old Paths and Legends of New England Franklin was carried in the Queen's litter from Passy to Havre, liis arrival in Philadelphia was the first of the triumphs of which one finds examples in these States. On his death Congress ordered mourning throughout the Union, and the National Assembly of France went into mourning upon the motion of Mirabeau, led by Mme. de la Roche foucauld and La Fayette. " Sa verttt, son courage et sa siniplicile De Sparte on retrace Ic caractere A ntique El ehcr a la raison, cher U I'Humanite II e'claira V Europe et sauva I'Ameriqne!' When old Mother Goose immortalized the wheelbarrow wedding journey she may have had a vision of odd, crooked North Street, which enters North Square at the birthplace of Paul Revere. North Square has not lost entirely the antique setting familiar to the ^fathers, Holyokes, and Clarks, though shorn of its most ornamental landmarks. The North Church stood here in the earnest, sober days of the Colony. In the aftermath of courtly magnifi cence, great houses of Boston's merchants were erected here, and these streets were for the most part mereh' private lanes leading to their docks. In that gay lialf-centurA; iloon Street, Garden Court Street, and Bell Alley (Prince Street) were lined at the " wee sma' hours " with chairs and coaches awaiting a charming freight of coquetry in powder and patches. To-day what a strange anachronism ha^-e we here! Mr. Muirhead speaks truly of America as "The Land of Contrasts"; this sombre square is dashed with color here and there by ;i gi-ccn kerchief or red sash belonging to the picturesque group of Italian men smoking leisure hours away as if in a Pitizzetta of their sunlit land. Under our grayer skies they lose a trifle of the native happy-go-lucky Christ Church. " The Old North," 1723. High up in the steeple of an old church, far above the light and murmur of the town, and far below the flying clouds that shadow it, dwelt the Chimes I tell of. They were old Chimes trust me. his own dear, constant, steady friends the Chimes began to ring the joy- peals so lustily, so merrily, so happily, so gaily. . — Dickens. 29 30 Old Paths and Legends of New England light-heartedness, but on Sundays, when the drones are joined by the women in gala attire, there is a joyous buzzing as of bees, and on Shrove Tuesday the square gleams white with the confetti of the Roman Carnival. Cooper has described in Lionel Lincoln the ornate Clark mansion on Garden Court Street as "Mrs. Lechmere's" house on Tremont Street, The Clark escutcheon of three white swans, and the coats-of-arms of the Saltonstalls and other Colonial connections were emblazoned on panels and on the tessellated floor. It was purchased by Sir Charles Henry Frankland, Oliver Cromwell's great-grandson. The garden of its magnificent rival, the Governor Hutch inson house, extended back to Hanover and Fleet streets. This house, where the busts of George III. and his queen were reflected in beautiful mirrors, and the coronation of George II, was wrought in tapestry, became a target for the mob, compelling Thomas Hutchinson to flee for his life to Rev. Samuel Mather's house in Moon Street, leaving rare manuscripts to ruthless destruction. A few short months passed, and North Square was glitter ing with the bayonets of scarlet-coated grenadiers. The beautiful Tory, Lady Frankland, had reluctantly retreated from her Hopkinton home guarded by six British outriders, and returned to her long-empty town house for protection. From her window she watched the siege of Charlestown. Erstwhile her thoughts flew back^^'ard to the unique for tunes of her girlhood, and the distant rattle of musketry seemed to be but the echoing hoofs of Sir Harry's pony as he dashed impatiently up the broad stairs to greet sweet Agnes. A short distance away in the belfry of Christ Church, with its storied chime of bells, the "Old North, " as we call it, (jcncral Gage reconnoitred the Americans at Bunker Hill. Again, from Copp's Hill Burying-Ground, among the Bunker Hill 31 peaceful graves of the renowned Mathers, he swept the field with a spy-glass from behind his howitzers. Seeing Colonel Prescott walking with leisurely inspection on the parapet, inspiring his men with indifference to the cannonade. Gage inquired, "Will he fight?" "Yes, sir, he is an old soldier, and will fight as long as a drop of blood remains." "The works must be carried," answered Gage (Frothingham's Siege of Boston). Later the Copp's Hill howitzers set Charlestown on fire. Countless anxious spectators, amidst din of cannon, watched contending armies fighting under a dense black smoke, the sun serene over all, a scene most brilliant and most frightful, one of the crises of the Revolu tionary drama whose far-reaching significance the world is just now beginning to comprehend. Mrs. Spofford finds the inclosure at Bunker Hill peculiarly typical of our na tional characteristics, inasmuch as, being badly beaten there, we built a monument to the fact, and have never ceased boasting thereof. ' ' That rail-fence stuffed with meadow- hay was not merely the breastwork of Putnam and Prescott, it was the first redoubt of freedom." ART AND LETTERS ON TRIMOUNTAINE The personality of Boston is felt intensely in the vicinity of Beacon Hill. There are few among America's " Northern Pilgrims" of art and letters who have not lived on the ground once owned by Copley between the Athenffium ' and the Charles, or been entertained in these storied houses of the purple panes behind the "crisp crocuses" which bloom in the little front yards on Alt. Vernon, Joy, Chestnut, Pinckney, and Beacon Streets, and walked literally or in ' The Boston Athenaeum, founded by the members of the Anthology Club in 1806, contains priceless Americana, including the larger part of Washington's private library, Stuart's head of Washington is placed in the Museum of Fine Arts. The New England Historic Genealogical 32 Old Paths and Legends of New England spirit with the " Autocrat" over the " Long Path"' through the Common. F,cac(in Hill was the home of Gilbert Stuart, Malbone, Parkman, Josiah Quincy, Channing, Richard H, Dana, Cliarles Sumner, Charles Francis Adams, Cyrus A. Bartol, Edwin Booth, and of Ticknor and his friend Prescott,^ each throwing light over untrodden Spanish fields, the latter blind, yet cheery, sparkling, and, as Alitchell writes, "show ing the culture, aplomb, fastidiousness, and all the reserves of Beacon Street." Familiar names of the present day on Beacon Hill are those of T. B. Aldrich, Henry Cabot Lodge, Margaret Deland, Alice Brown, Abbie Farwell Brown, and Mrs. Henry Whitman. The home of James T. Fields, author, publisher, and friend, was frequented by the most splendid group of men- of -letters America has ever knowm, and royal times were those at the early morning breakfasts, where sooner or later e\'ery celebrated stranger coming to Boston on a literary or historical errand was invited to partake of "the simple feast" and oftentimes of the witty sayings of their "Auto crat" neighbor. On visiting the Fieldses' rare home of letters the dominant note is ever the gracious spirit which set the shy youth, Howells, quite at ease over his novel blueberry cake break fast — an unknown luxury in the West at the time of his first Society, most stimulating to research in local histor\-, open to all stu dents, occupies the Solid lor-Gcneral Daniel Da\-is house (1805) at 18 Somerset Street. Next door is the birthplace of the scientist, Rear- Ailmiral Charles na\'is. 'Joy Street to Boylston Street = Prescott wrote Jurdinand and l.^abella at 55 Beacon Street Holmes lived in later years at 211(1 Beacon, prexiouslv on Charles Street, close to the old li;\c and f.ar Infirmary. Motley lived at 7 Waliuit; Wendell Philli]is was born al the corner of Walnut and Beacon; the Harrison Gray Otis house was 45 Beacon. The Nathan .\])pleton house, home of the celebrated wit, Tom Appleton, is 39 Beacon. Here Lono-fellow i: Tremont Street Mall, Boston, " in misty, moisty weather." Park Street Church on " Brimstone Corner, " erected i8og on site of the Old Granary, where corn was stored for the poor and the sails of " Old Iron sides" made. Opposite the Subway entrance is Old St. Paul's. 33 34 Old Paths and Legends of New England visit to Boston. Howells writes: "I found here the same odor and air of books such as I fancied might belong to the literary homes of London." ' One regards with reverence the portraits of the authors and friends of priceless Yester- ilays. On the walls of "The Study'' are rare engravings of Wordsworth and Carlyle, inscribed with a line from their pens. A note from the Fountain Inn is signed "J. Addison." The charmingly frank acknowledgment of Charles Reade dis covers anew to us the not unusual experience of an unher alded prophet. He writes: "In my own country I have, up to the present time, met with but little encouragement to go on tearing my brains out and putting them on paper." (Had not Mr. Fields in his sanctum at the Old Corner Bookstore been our trumpeter of good things through the Atlantic, how much would have been lost to the world of literature!) In one of the beautiful rooms overlooking the Charles River Bay, "where Hawthorne liked to sit at twilight to watch the vessels dropping down the stream," Dickens speaks to us through Alexander s brush. This sweet, quaint portrait of Miss Mitford might have been that of a lady of Cranford. And ah! we have now seen perhaps the most valuable autograph in the world, that of Filippo Sydney, signed to a money draft when travelling in Italy. We are told by ;\Irs. Fields that Dr. Holmes delighted in the legends of his old house in the neighborhood of the Charles, where Washington is said to have tarried three nights, and Dr. Bradshaw to have stepped from the door and made a prayer on the departure of the troops. In the twilight of Holmes's life, wlien it was difiicult to go far away, he spent many s>Mnpathetic hours before the warm hearth of Aldrich on Mt. A'crnon Street. wooed and won Miss .Vjipleton. Sumner's home was at 120 Hancock Street, George llilliard's at 54 Pinckney. Here Hawthorne was mar ried to Sophia Peabody li\- James Freeman Clarke. Louisa Alcott lived in Louisburg S(|iiarc. 'Literary I'ncnds and .ycquainlancc, by William Dean Howells. Old-Time Dinners in Boston 35 As we know, the event of Howells' s visit was the "rap turous" little dinner made for him by James Russell Lowell with Dr. Holmes and Fields at the Parker House, which by a coincidence stands on the site of the brick mansion and Copley Square. Trinity Church. Built 1877. Organized 1728. Rich ardson, architect. Institute of Technology. Spire of Arlington Street Church, Organized 1727. garden of Jacob Wendell, the great-grandfather of Holmes. At the brilliant dinner given here by Dickens, after the humorous "Great International Walking-Match" over the mill-dam to Newton, the contestants being Mr. Fields and himself, " eloquence was voted a bore, as David Copperfield, Hyperion, Hosea Bigelow, the Autocrat, and the Bad Boy were present, and there was no need of set speeches." " ^ Yesterdays with Authors, by James T. Fields. 36 Old Paths and Legends of New England The Jacobins' Club held its feast of wit at the old Tre mont House, with Ripley, Channing, Theodore Parker, .Alcott, and Peabody among the members. A dinner, the forerunner of the unceremonious Saturday Club of good talkers, at which was broached the project of publishing the \tlantic Monthly, was given by Moses Dresser Phillips in 1857. At the head of the Saturday Club's table during its prime presided successively Agassiz, Longfellow, Emer son, Lowell, and Dr. Holmes.' Summer Street, the home of Daniel Webster, was, in 1636, ye Mylne Street, the grass-bordered road to the grist-mill. Hereabouts were the farms and gardens of many of the "F. F. B.'s": the RusseUs, Coffins, Prebles, and Geyers. On Pearl Street stretched the rope-walk of the celebrated Gray family, Harrison Gray being the treasurer of the province and a neighbor of the Lowells, Mascarenes, and Boutineaus, all Royalists dwelling in the vicinity of the Province House,^ The spacious barn of the opulent Tory, John Prince, on Pearl Street, as the studio of Washington Ahston, held Belshazzar' s Feast, now in the Museum of Fine Arts. The Theophilus Parsons house was close by, and next door lived Thomas Handasyd Perkins, admired by Webster, and a benefactor of the blind and of the Athenaeum. Colonel Per kins was succeeded in the presidency of the Boston Branch of the United States Bank liv the Hon. George Cabot, leader of the Federalists, and of v.'hom Aaron Burr said "he never spoke but light followed him " ; he lived in Bumstead Place. Temple Place was then Turnagaine AUev, having no outlet into Washington Street. ()ne may sock out many literary homes in and about Boston, those of Mrs. Julia ^^'ard Howe, Mrs. Louise Chand- ' ;\ sketch of the Phillips dinner and Dr. Holmes's list of members is inehidcil in James Russell Loieell and His Friends, bv Edward Everett Hale. -¦0/1/ Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston, by Samuel Adams Drake. Copley Square 37 ler Moulton, Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells, Arlo Bates, Robert Grant, Bliss Perry, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Joseph H. Rhodes, Albert Bushnell Hart, Eliza Orne White, Caro line Hazard, Nathan Haskell Dole, Mrs. Abby Morton Inner Court of the Boston Public Library. Diaz; among the poets are Louise Imogen Guiney, Kath arine E. Conway, Charles Follen Adams, and Josephine Preston Peabody. COPLEY SQUARE Closely allied in historic and literary associations with Boston are Cambridge and Old Concord. On your way 38 Old Paths and Legends of New England thither beyond the Public Garden, the Arlington Street Church — the church of Gannett, Ware, and Brooke Herford, which grew out of the famous Federal Street Church of Jeremy Bclknaj) and Channing — and the Institute of Tech nology, with Henry S. Pritchett as President, you linger in C(jpley Square, inscjiarable from Trinity Church and the memory of Phillips Brooks. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Public Library offer to you the works of the masters, old and new, rare volumes and mural paintings; the pride of the good American and of the connoisseur exults over illustrious names attached to volume and canvas. By the New Old South, of the attractive tower, is the Boston Art Club, and not far distant, toward the Fens, is the Mas sachusetts Historical Society ' and classic Symphony Hall. The Venetian prospect from Harvard Bridge across the basin of the Charles will become in time far more beautiful by the artistic transformation of its banks, after the fashion of the celebrated Alster Basin; the work is already begun in the Cambridge Esplanade and the new Cambridge Bridge, a masterpiece in steel and stone. The regular fall of the oars of yonder crew, of the crimson pennant, recall the Charles River fleet of the "Autocrat" and his daily "pull" at sunrise with ten-foot sculls in his water-sulky. Dr. Holmes says: "I dare not publicly name the infinite de lights that intoxicate me on some sweet June morning, when the river and liay are smooth as a sheet of beryl-green silk, as I run along ripping it up with my knife-edged shell of a boat . . to take shelter from the sunbeams under one of the thousand footed bridges, and look down its intermin able colonnades crusted with green and oozy growths, while overhead st roams and thunders the otlier river whose every wave is a human soul llowing to eternitv. , , Why should I loll of those things?" And so the dear, delightful poet writes on, interpreting to us anew the river and life, ' 1154 Boylston Street; open to visitors on Wednesday afternoons. From Harvard Bridge 39 Looking backward nearly three centuries, one perceives Captain John Smith in his shahop exploring this broad tidal river, and on his return offering his map of the new England to his Prince, a boy of fifteen, beseeching him to name at his pleasure the bays, rivers, and hiUs north and south of The New " Camb in place of the Old West Boston Bridge. the river Charles, which Smith had already named in his honor. To-day, of all the names given by Prince Charles and this king of adventure, so adept in cartography, only three are ours — the Charles River, Plimouth, and Cape Anna. We will pause on the esplanade at the gate of Cambridge in anticipation of the pleasure of travelling over Massachu setts Avenue of long and high degree, which extends far northward into Middlesex County, yet keeps within the 40 Old Paths and Legends of New England early bounds of Cambridge, the " Newe Towne," selected by Go\'crn- A'assall house was a j)ancl large enough to conceal a refugee. Facing the old Watertown road, the King's Highway, it belonged to "Tory Row," Cambridge 47 the Remington and Belcher estate for some years. Jona than Belcher, the royal Governor, travelled with much cere mony ; on attending an assembly of the officers of Harvard College, he was "guarded into town by a military troop, then waited on by two foot companies." Judge Sewall writes that " Mr. Jonathan Belcher and his bride dine at Lieutenant-Governor Ushers. Came to town at six o'clock, about twenty horsemen, three coaches and many slays." At Mrs. Belcher's funeral in 1736, one thousand pairs of gloves were given away. Penelope Royall \'assall, entering this house as a bride in 1742, dwelt by her beloved row of hawthorns until the Tory exodus. The widow Vassall was a familiar figure in her chariot, driven every Sunday to Christ Church by her old Jamaica servant, Tony, and often into Boston to pay visits, perhaps even as far as her brother's mansion at Medford. Madame Vassall's servants were proudly laid in the Vassall tomb, one at her head and the other at her feet, and on the \"assall monument a vase and the sun, vassal, speak of a long lineage. In later years the acres of the West Indian planter became the hospitable home of Samuel Batchelder.' In the Brattle House was quartered that gallant and brave gentleman. Major Alifflin, portrayed in such a piquant manner by Mrs. Abigail Adams in her graphic description of the social situation and political happenings at the seat of war. Mrs. Adams was on a visit at the Quartermaster- General's when General Lee commanded his dog, Spada, to mount and offer her his paw; this trusty friend was Lee's companion at dinner parties, and received his guests at Hob goblin Hall (Royall House, Medford). At a skirmish at Lechmere's Point (in East Cambridge, near the Middlesex ' The Batchelder House and Its Owners, by Mrs. Isabella James. A chapter on "The Cambridge of 1776, with the Diary of Dorothy Dudley," edited by Arthur Gilman. 48 Old Paths and Legends of New England County Court House, whence a cannon-ball from Putnam's Battery hit the Brattle Street Church), four hundred regu lars seized some cattle, having caught the sentinels napping; Colonel Thompson and his riflemen marched neck-high in water and drove them off. " Major Mifflin, I hear, was there, and flew about as though he would raise the whole army. May they never find us deficient in courage or spirit," writes Mrs. Adams.' Strolling from the Brattle House of 1709 near Brattle Square, toward Elmwood, one easily recognizes, among lovely flowering shrubs, fragrant with poetic associations, the Colonial roof-trees of the seven "scarlet-coated" Tories. At the corner of Ash Street (the boundary of the Palisadoe of 1632) is the John Fiske house, which he arranged for the convenience of his library, whose rare volumes were crowded three deep on the shelves at the old house. (If you enter Brattle Street from the Washington Elm through ilason Street, you pass between the Shepard Congregational Church and the Judge Fay house, in which Fair Harvard was written by Rev. Samuel Gilman of Charleston and sung at the two-hundredth anniversary in 1836. This house is a part of Radcliffe College, of which Mrs. Agassiz was long President. = Under the favor of President Eliot and the Fellows it follows closely year by vear the curriculum of Harvard University, though a distinct corporation.) \early opposite the Major Henry ^^assall house of 1700 is ' In a letter from Braintree to Mr. .\clains at Philadelphia some weeks before Mrs. Mifflin's arrix-al at Cambridge, Mrs. Adams says: "My eom- pliments to .Mrs Mifflin and trll her I do not know whether her husband is safe Iutc. Bellona and Cupid ha\ e a contest about him. Vou hear nothint; fr(jm the ladies but about Major Mifflin's eas\- address, politeness, comjjlaisance, ele. It is well he lias so agreeable a lady in Philadelphia. Tliey know nothing about forts, intrenchments, etc., when Ihey return: ' a few days and enter tain friends. The vcr\' games of the Cambridge schoolboy were seasoned with historic tratlitions, and as provincial colonels and generals in miniature they strode the grass- grown ramparts. Their curious oath, "by Goffe-Whalley," savored of the m>'stcrious and exciting advent of the regi cides. You wish, like Mr. Higginson, that you knew on which armorial tomb the boy Lowell sat one Hallowe'en and watched for ghosts. Longfellow and His World 53 Incidents here and there reveal the sympathetic chain welded by the " White Mr, Longfellow," ' linking Cambridge and the nation to all the world, China fans herself with the Psalm of Life, and Iceland said, "Tell Longfellow that we know him by heart," Mrs. Fields 's Diary relates that Long fellow described being addressed by a strange, rough-looking officer in a railway station near Washington, saying, "Is this Professor Longfellow? It was I who translated Hia watha into Russian. I have come to this country to fight for the Union." ' The Norsemen in the days of their stormy and reluctant conversion used always to speak of the White Christ, and Bjornstjerne Bjornson, on leaving America, wrote to Howells, "Give my love to the White Mr. Longfellow." Christ Church, Cambridge. ARLINGTON (WEST CAMBRIDGE OR MENOTOMY), 1633-1807 Signs of a crisis, a coming appeal to arms, appeared in all the towns near Boston. If you had passed through Cambridge to Menotomy (Arlington) on the i8th of April, 1775, perchance you might have encountered an English officer in disguise mapping out the roads, or overheard the boast of one of the ten sergeants posted by General Gage hereabouts, to cut off communications, that " five regiments of regulars could easily march across the continent." To day, crossing Alewife Brook, the Cambridge boundary line, let us halt under the mighty solitary elm, which, with its companion, long marked the east gateway of Arlington, and review the situation on the day before the first shot was fired. On pretence of drill, the British were gathered on Boston Common, at the foot of which the transports awaited the em barkation of Lieutenant-Colonel Smith and his grenadiers. Warren at once dispatched a message to Hancock and Adams at Lexington, and the Concord supplies were hastily con cealed. Paul Revere was on the qui vivc. Five minutes be fore the sentinels recei\'ctl at sunset the order to let no one pass, Revere's small boat glided under the grim bows of the British man-of-war Somerset.' He set out over Charlestown Neck for Medford, stopped at the Porter mansion on Ram's Head Lane,^ to rouse the caiitain of the Minute-men, and crossed the Mystic twice bchirc reaching Menotomy (Arling ton ) . 'Afterwards sunk off Ihe treacherous coast of Cape Cod. More than one hundred years later the liallercd hulk was uncovered and eagerly souglit .after by the relie-hunter. 2 At the e(jrner of Rural .'\\-enuc and High Street. 54 The Samuel B owman-Whittemore House, Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington. Pre-Revolutionary. 55 56 Old Paths and Legends of New England About two by the clock the red-coats — "Lobster-Backs" the mol) called them at the Boston Massacre — silently crossed the sluggish, winding Charles to Lechmere Point, landing near the County Court House at East Cambridge. Over the Charlestown Road, or " Milk-Row," they marched to Menotomy, the Second Parish of Cambridge. Just under the elm gateway, Samuel Whittemore was "awakened by the stir in the street, and, looking out, saw bayonets glisten ing in the moonlight." ' His grandson, Amos, repaired the old fiintlocks in preparation for the fight. Hard by stood the Black Horse Tavern, which the troops searched in vain for the Committee of Safety. Vice-President Elbridge Gerry and Colonels Lee and Orne escaped by the back door, and lay concealed in the com stubble. The house is still standing where Lieutenant Sam Bowman answered a sol dier's request for water with "What are you out at this time of night f or ? " So they turned to the house opposite (de stroyed), where they were sure of hearty welcome, because its whitened chimneys betokened a Tory inmate. On the corner of AVinchester Road (]\Iystic Street) the troops knocked roughly at the village shoemaker's, asking why the candles burned at this unseemly hour. The gude- wife replied that she was making herb tea. The shoe maker's "herb tea" was a concoction afterwards absorbed by the red-coats in the form of solid material, sometimes known as " Yankee bullets," made from the household pew ter. Cajitain Locke mustered the Menotomv men, and they marched to Lexington. The " Exempts" did duty bravely, '.Address of Samuel .Miliot Smith on West Cambridge in 1775. Mr. Whittemi>ri' was o\-er eighty years of ai^e, \-et he refused to seek safety with his wife, but took up his stand liehind a stone wall on M\-slic Street, and did fleadly work against the retreating British regulars. Thev bay oneted him anil left him for dead, but ho was borne to Cooper's tavern,. attended by Dr Tufts of Medford, and li\-ed to ninety-eight \-ears of age- Amos Whittemore inxented the cotton and wool carding machine. Arlington 57 seizing Earl Percy's military supplies in front of the Town House, the first capture of the Revolution, The women fled to "George Prentiss on the hill," Lame Jason Russell was warned to fly by one Ammi Cutter, but instead barri caded his 'tavern (Jason Street corner). At this hour the Procession of Birches, Mystic Lake, Arlington. " Cream birches, yellow-curtain' d, break The cloudless, pale blue sky, and shake Their sprays to the pellucid lake." — J. E. Nesmith. Danvers and Salem Minute-men were watching up the road to harass Earl Percy's men on the retreat. Suddenly a flanking party attacked them in the rear; they rushed into the tavern, and eleven were killed, with Jason Russell and two English. 5'"^ Old Paths and Legends of New England The Americans hastened down the hillside to the "foot of the rocks," (You may define this spot on your way toward Arlington Heights by the old Locke houses and the Lowell turn])ikc.) With Gen, Heath and Dr, Warren they pressed the flying British closely. The loss of the crestfallen regu lars was 273 men ; the Americans one third as many, twenty- two of whom were killed in Menotomy. As the last red-coat crossed the Alewife Brook into Cambridge, the men of Menotomy, who had waked up that morning as King George's subjects, slept as American patriots, A visit in Arlington is not complete without a peep at the district of the "Flobeenders," by way of Pleasant Street, which leads past the Trowbridge residence to Spy Pond and beautiful Belmont, and also a ride to Winchester in view of the Mystic Ponds, Of course you will like to see "The Partings," the ancient shoal which divides Mystic Pond. The shad have deserted their haunts since the intrusion of the Water Works. The fish way is under the care of the Massachusetts Fish Commission,' It was the lovely Spy Pond which impelled J, T, Trow bridge to take up his habitation in Arlington, for no land scape is complete to him without water. E\-ery boy knew how Jack Hazard found A Chance for Himself in the days when Our Young Folks was edited bv Mr. Trowbridge and Lucy Larcom. His story of Tlie Medal was suggested by an adventure of the author himself on ]\Iystic Lake, when he rescued a boy from drowning, and for which the Humane Society surprised him with a medal, Longfellow, walking with his host, Mr. Trtnvbridge, on the shore of Spy Pond, said: " Have you never put this lake into a poem?" Menotomv Lake, was his answer: ' For details of delightful walks along the Reservation Parkways in this vicinity, see Baeon's Walks and Rides .About Boston. /- .fc,"*^^ The Robbins, Mansion. Formerly Squire William Whittemore House, 1809. -„ View from Arlington Green. Robbins Memorial Library. 6o Old Paths and Legends of New England " I row by steep woodlands, I rest on my oars Under banks deep embroidered with grass and young clover; Far round, in and out, wind the beautiful shores. The lake in the midst, with the blue heavens over." Beyond the Soldiers' Monument, on which stands the " Heater Piece," the buildings of the square represent inter esting contrasts of architecture : the First Parish Church of 1847 and the Robbins Memorial Library (1892), the first free library in Massachusetts. Its lofty frescoed reading-room, with bronzes and the valuable portraits, are most interesting. Conspicuous is the stately Squire William Whittemore house of 1809, now the Robbins mansion. The Russell store, of four generations, where the British pulled the plugs out of the molasses barrels, is opposite the Cutter homestead on Water Street, that ancient mill-lane o\'er which the Water- town com was brought to be ground at Captain Cooke's mill on Vine Brook, Massachusetts Avenue is the Paul Revere route, except for a short distance, where the old road, now Appleton Street, makes a circuit back to the avenue. Arlington Heights was a part of the Welsh ;\Iountains. A view of the fields of Middlesex and the entire stage of the siege of Boston may be obtained by following Park Avenue to the water tower. LEXINGTON (CAMBRIDGE FARMS), 1640-1712 " In their ragged regimentals Stood the old Continentals, Yielding not!' McMaster, It was the opening of a warm, languid day in an unusu ally early spring, when, after the rapid, silent march. Major Pitcaim halted on the scraggly, pasture-like common of Lexington, facing some sixty intrepid militia, drawn up by Sergeant Munroe. Pitcairn was aware by the alarm-bells from the villages that messengers had announced the ad vance of the troops. (Thaddeus Bowman, acting as scout, had escaped capture by " a hair's breadth," and dashed back to the parade-ground, warning Captain Parker, who sum moned his company by beat of drums from Buckman 's Tavern.) Nevertheless they expected an easy victory over "these country people," whom Governor Hutchinson's message to Parliament had declared " must soon disperse, as it is the season for planting their Indian com, the chief sus tenance of New England." Pitcairn was astounded when his "Disperse, ye rebels! " was answered by a firm stand on the defensive, and by volley for volley. In the meantime. Revere and Dawes were captured on the road to Concord; Dr. Samuel Prescott, "a high Son of Liberty," escaped by leaping a stone wall. The British offi cers, frightened by the report of the Lexington guns, released their prisoners. Previous to this Revere had gone to the house of the patriot Counsellor, the Rev. Jonas Clarke, to persuade the proscribed Hancock and Adams to set out at once for Woburn Precinct (Burlington), as they were marked men, — " obnoxious leaders," — outside the pardon of his most gracious Majesty. Thus ran the Tory ballad : 61 62 Old Paths and Legends of New England "And for their King, that John Hancock, And Adams if they 're taken Their heads for signs shall hang up high Upon the hill called Beacon," As Revere dashed up with his insistent message the guard begged him not to make a noise, "Noise! you '11 have noise enough before long. The regulars are coming!" Captain John Parker Statue, on Le.rington Coininon. " Shiiid your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a lear, let it begin here." Sculptor. H. .[. Kitson. Hancock polished his sword, all afire to answer the alarm- bell on the (b-ccn, but Adams finally persuaded him that "being of the Cabinet " theirs was another business, and they set off for the house of .Madame Jones and the Rev, Mr. A Glen on the Old Woburn Road, Lexington. "We paused beside the pools that lie Under the forest bough." — Shelley. 63 64 Old Paths and Legends of New England Marrctt, followed l)y the sprightly Madame Lydia Hancock, and the witty and coquettish Dorothy Q,, in Hancock's coach,' As the undaunted Captain Parker and the ilinute-men re turned their fire, the regulars recognized a foe worthy of their steel. These farmers might be unlessoned in the finesse of war, — yet here was reserve force, the discipline of character inherited from men who had conquered the hardships of the frontier. Each husbandman was the head of a little independent kingdom which rose early to churning and the hoe, the freeman's sceptre when upturning his own soil; they worked long by candle-light in the " keeping room," exchanging com mon-sense philosophy dashed with humor while husking corn, shelling the cars by drawing them across the handle of a frying-pan fastened over a wash-tub, and picking ' Madame Hancock was the widow of Thomas Hancock, who bequeathed the " Hancock 1 louse ' to his nephew John. John Hancock and Dorothy Quine\' were married the following September at the Thaddeus Burr house, Fairfield, Conn., and were forced to spend their hone^'moon in hiding, as the red-coats had marked for capture this elegant, cocked hat "rebel" di])loniatisl of the blue and buff'. Dorothv Quincv Hancock, daugliter of Judge Edmund Ouiney of Braintree. the niece of Holmes's "Dorothy () ," is a fascinating figure in history, Lafa\'ctte paid her a \'isit of ceremoii)' and pleasin-e at the Hancock House on his triumphal tour, and no doubt the onee youthful che\-alier and reigning belle flung many a iiuij) and sall\- over the teacujis of their e\-entful past. Madame Hancock was fond of depicting the manners of the British officers quar tered in Bostim, and dwelt particularly on the military virtue of Earl Percy, son of the Duke of Northumberland, who slept in a tent among LEXINGTON LANDMARKS. Massachusetts Ave nue. " Great Meadows," Mt. Eph raim, Tablet Benj, Wellington, corner Pleasant St. Follen house, now Library. Emerson and Dwight preached here, Follen Church, Jonathan Harrington house. Filer Minute-men, Mt, Independence (320 ft.), Peirce homestead. Maple St, Elm, 161 years. Col W, A, Tower estate. Munroe Tavern. Munroe Hill. Cannon Rock, Brit ish fieldpiece commanded village. Mason mansion. Lord Percy's can non. Town Hall, with Gary Library, open 2 to 8 P.M. ; Sandham's " Dawn of Liberty." The Old Belfry, Clarke St. Monuments on Com mon. First Parish Church. Old Burying Ground, tombs Parsons, Hancock, and Clarke ; monument to Oov. Eustis. Site Daniel Harrington house. Mrs. Harrington was daugh ter of Robert Munroe, first man killed in battle of Lexington. Lex ington Golf Club, North Lexington. Lexington 65 over cranberries, or plucking turkeys. It was customary for country lawyers, physicians, and clergymen to partake in homespun labors, the whole family rising at daybreak. At first the kitchen served as parlor, storehouse, and shop, blocks of logs for seats, and bean-porridge in wooden Munroe Tavern, lOg^. Headquarters of Lord Percy. On the Sign of the Punch Bowl. "Entertainment — By Wm. Munroe. 1775." Property of William H. Munroe, Esq. trenchers as the piece de resistance. The entire house of their first minister, to which the Rev. John Hancock brought his bride, was the present ell of the Hancock-Clarke house.' his soldiers encamped on the Common in the winter of '75. The rings made by these tents have been traced by Dr. Hale in the early grass of spring. ' The address of the Rev, Carlton Staples of the First Parish Church, 66 Old Paths and Legends of New England By and by Lexington farms became so prosperous that the men drove the cows to larger pasturage in New Hampshire. For the two days' journey the women-folk packed hampers of goodies, and great was the merry-making over the return. At Lexington the British also met the "fighting JIunros," This patriotic and martial race lived in the eleventh century on the River Ro in the north of Ireland, and won by valor large grants in Scotland, becoming lords of the Barony of Fowlis.' The Munroe lands in Lexington are Scotland to this day. Later on in the severe running fight on the retreat from Concord, the regulars were picked off from the stone walls by the Minute-men according to the tactics of the French and Indian ^Vars,^ The Captain Parker statue represents Lexington, on the anniversary of the ordination of John Hancock over Cambridge Farms Parish, 1698, is an interesting picture of the times. ^'ovmg Parson Hancock was married to Elizabeth Clarke of Chelmsford, a minister's datighter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter. The bride's mother was a daughter of the Rev. Edward Bulkley of Concord, son of the Rev. Peter Bulkley, the founder. Who will say that " blood does not tell" when we trace to this home a long line of men and women who have rendered grand ser\-ices to the State, the Church, and the nation? Parson Hancock's Common Place Book held pithy sayings of his own: "War is a fire struck in the de^¦i^s tinder-box," "Some men will marry their children to swine for a golden trough, " I Sir Hector Munro dwells in the present castle (1600) of Fowlis, Pro vince of Ross and Cromatz. The historic castle erected by Donald Fifth, in 1154 was burned. History of the Miinros, by Alexander Mackenzie, and Sketch of the Miinro Clan, by James Phinney Munroe, Lexington. ' In the far-away South, some weeks after the Battle of Lexington, a party of hunters clad in buckskin, — armed with flintlocks, hatchets, and scalping-knix'cs, lest they encounter the redskin varmints in these impenetrable cancdirakes or the trackless forests, — supped on "jerk" and parched corn. By a clear spring, they had resolved to pitch their tents and make a settlement, and what should they name this luxuriant wilderness? Strange news came on the wing: " King George's troops had called Americans ' rebels ' and shot them down at Lexington on the i()th of A]iril!" Every other name was flung aside, and Lc.v/ngion in old Kentuckv was bom. Lexington 67 him as leaping upon a stone wall. In New England towns, you see this mnning from tree to tree, the "advance, cover, and retreat fire" of Indian warfare repeated in the games of the schoolboys. Among the men of Acton, Woburn, Reading, and Con cord were old Indian fighters, and thankful indeed were the poor "red-coats," hot and hungry, without food since The Buckman Tavern, i6qo, Lexington. Here the Minute Men awaited the beat of drum. midnight, when Lord Percy's "square" opened and took them in. Of the five houses which our "gran'thers" tell us faced the fight, three remain: the Buckman Tavern imbedded with bullets, the Marrett Munroe house next the handsome Congregational Church, and the house of Jonathan Har rington, to which he crawled, wounded to death. The great elm on the Green was a witness, as well as its sister elm, planted by the Rev. Mr. Clarke before his house on Bed ford Row, now Hancock Street, where two illustrious guests were startled by the knock of Paul Revere. 68 Old Paths and Legends of New England Llere on the visitors' book of the Lexington Historical Society were recorded in one year twelve thousand pilgrims, who came, as one might say, from Kamchatka to Peru, to sec not only this interesting collection, — from a cup and spoon used by Washington at Munroe Tavern to the ink stand of Theodore Parker, — but the dwelling of the fervent and learned Jonas Clarke, bold rnditer of patriotic State papers, and its "best room," where Hancock courted Dorothy Quincy. The birthplace of Theodore Parker is a short w^alk through North Street from the Waltham road. In Waltham stands the Governor Christopher Gore house; from here the Charles River courses through the city toward Watertown and Newton. The loveliest of country vistas may be ob served from the high ridge on the " old Woburn road " lead ing from Lexington past beautiful Shaker Glen toward Woburn, where in that ancient town this road as far as the "Winn" Library becomes "Lexington road," once upon a time the old ^Military Lane leading from the training field to "Up Street" (Cambridge Street). BEDFORD, 1642-1729 "Old roads winding as old roads will. Here to a ferry, and there to a mill, And glimpses of chimneys and gabled eaves Through green elm arches and ^naple leaves!' Whittier. The quick marching course, which the British took from Lexington to Concord, measures two leagues; the other road to history is three leagues. Choose first the longest way round, that you may see the regal elms of Bedford. Metaphorically kept under glass in the heroic spirit of the fine old town, they rival in rarity the remarkable flag pre served at the Library ' in the Town Hall. This was the flag of the Bedford Minute-men in the Con cord fight. Sent over from England, a hundred years be fore, it was carried by the Middlesex County Regiment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, A century later it came forth from the garret of the Page homestead to answer the Lexington alarm. Ensign Page returned the flag to its garret comer for another hundred years ; then it celebrated the Concord Centennial, and finally was presented to the town by Captain Cyrus Page. The rich red damask of the first banner to proclaim the sentiment of the patriots bids fair to hold its lustre as long as the precious independence it symbolizes.On the approach from Lexington, just by the Shawshine River bridge, Shawshine Road led aforetime through the woods to the Shawshine house. Now you will find the old Webber-Kendrick house in its place. Brooksby Road turns ^ Open Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. 69 70 Old Paths and Legends of New England from Great Road at the Reed Tavern, — residence of Elihu G. Loomis. Its halcyon days were those of the stage coaches between New Hampshire and Boston; higher stiU is the Page house, whose ancient site across the road com mands the Shawshine \'alley. If you possess the genius for sauntering, wliich Thoreau admired in Channing, follow the Page Road and the old Bib lerica Road passing the ruins of the Fitch mill, where meal was ground, cider made, and lumber sawed by good miller Fitch. High on the left is the Willard Hospital, a benevolent enterprise; its President is Edward Everett Hale. You cannot mistake the Bacon homestead of six genera tions, or the flourishing Parker farms. This is a wide (two miles or so) di gression from the Great Road, so turn back to the beckoning village spire, which has these many years pointed upward over the enchanting vale of the Shawshine. According to the old saying, " a rib was taken off Billerica to make Bedford," but the evolution of Bedford began wlien Go\^ernor Winthrop and Deputy-Governor Dudley selected hereabouts tlieir thousand-acre grants from the Crown. They joumcyctl down the Concord River, making up a little tiff on the way, and tlie Governor's Journal tells us of their final friendly hantl-shake over the Two Brothers ' rocks which divided their famis. Meadows of distinction First Parish Meeting house, 1816; within. Fitch Clock, 1 81 2. ' The Two Brotliers rocks, in a fine botanical region, are north of the village towaiil Billerica. Follow Dudley Road and, with permission, a grassy back lane througli the Pickman estate to the Concord River, Dudley Leavitt Pieknuui is a descendant of Depvtty-Govemor Dudley, Bedford 7' are these in the annals of wild blossoms, its rarest denizens being the water-marigold, the crowfoot, the swamp rose- mallow, and crowned in May by the amethyst petals of Emerson's loved Rhodora flower: " Here might the red bird come, his plumes to cool. And court the flower that cheapens his array," The Winthrop farm district runs south to the village, nigh to great Wilson oak in Wilson Park, where the Minute-men A Farm Lane, Bedford. " There 's nae life like the Ploughman in the month o' sweet May." assembled. Snatching a hasty breakfast at Fitch's tavern, they marched to Concord, inspired by Captain Jonathan Wilson's "Come, boys, we'll take a little something, and 72 Old Paths and Legends of New England wc '11 have every dog of them before night." The Fitch Ta\-crn is the centre of an interesting group of homesteads representing different periods of architecture; on the east side is the Parson Stearns ' homestead of 1790, with gambrel roof and twenty -four paned windows; west, shadowed by the symmetrical Fitch elm, is the Squire Steams "brick- cn( 1 ' ' mansion with the four side chimneys, which replaced the early "one great chimney" fashion. Its fascinating door is the original denizen with " 2 -foot" hinges restored by the present owner, G. R. Blinn, One hundred and seventy-two years sit Hghtly upon the exterior of the Fitch Tavem, the oldest house in the village, but the interior holds hall-marks of age: "great beams sag from the ceilings low," countless tall, short, and fat cup boards surround the six fireplaces of the six-flued chimney. How grateful to a wear\" traveller the glowing logs in De cember after the small chaise foot-stove, and the geniality of mine host as he dispensed flip and good cheer from the movable carved comer cupboard! Its scalloped shelves hold to-day the family delft of Jeremiah Fitch, merchant of Boston, for whom Bedford Street was named. Among the public-spirited men of Bedford is ^Ir. Wallace G. Webber of the old Webber family. Bedford has happily restored to her highways the appellation of Road joined to that of a family holding, before having been irrevocably lost and lamented. In the Free Librarv the Bedford Historical Society have remarkable heirlooms, — among them the Web ber cradle, brought over in 10S-, Mistress Stearns's curi ous hand box for wca^•ing lace, and Parson Stearns's desk.'' ' Birthplace i>( the Re\'. Samuel Stearns of tlie Old South Church, the Re\-. \V, A. Slearns. of .\mherst. Josiah .\ Stearns, Ph.D.. and the Rev. iCben S. Stearns. Cli.ancellor of the State Uni\-crsity of Xashville. ' llluslrated Journal of Samuel Steams unAGov. W inthrop's Farm, by Abram English Brown, \'eio England .Magazine. Bedford 73 Across the Great Road is the Rev. Nicholas Bowes house (1731), first minister, the residence of Mrs. M, R. Lawrence. Toward the northern bounds of the town, just beyond the Captain John Lane lean-to is Sweetwater Avenue, leading to Bedford Springs.' Across meadows and meadows rises the spire of the old Carlisle Meeting-house, and blue Wachusett rests on a green divan. Presently appear the three spires of Billerica. Your advent to Lowell from the North Billerica highway is wel comed by the chief Passaconaway, the genius of the Merri mack valley. ' An Indian legend clings to these mineral springs of Sweet Waters. The forest tribe had captured a young pioneer, bound him to a tree in tending to put him to death; Sweet Water, the beautiful daughter of the chief Maneomee, snatched the burning brand from the fagots crying : " The Great Spirit is angry, the pale-faee shall not die, unless Sweet Water dies with him." Maneomee heard the Great Spirit and bade a warrior unbind the captive, who eventually married Sweet Water, be coming a counsellor of the tribe. CONCORD, 1635 MUSKETAQUID, GRASS-GROWN RIVER " The mind loves its home." — Emerson on " Nature." You are arrived in Concord with May smiling on the meadows, the river freshet climbing the tree trunks, and her elms' bare, brown branches delicately fringed with green lace; you say: "There is but one Concord in the world," and wonder if beauty of environment is not after all a more compelling power in directing the true and beautiful pen and chisel than Chatterton's garret. "Genius burns," said iliss Alcott's Jo, and clinging to Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse, you begin to pursue Concord's elusive many-sided IMuse on the battle-ground at the Old North Bridge where the eternal Minute-Man ' stands guard, traversing thence the ri\'er brink of the loitering, slumberous Musketaquid to the Old South Bridge under the hill Nashawtuk. How softlv the Concord and the Assabeth glide together beneath the hemlocks' " outstretched arms as they stoop to tell the flags and rushes and cardinal flower the golden thoughts of Channing, Hawthorne, and Thoreau, recounting the table-talk of three congenial souls who mirthfully partook of a savorv meal spread out on a moss- grown log in this beautiful wildwood banqueting hall ! And as you drift with the gentle current into the deeper solitudes of the Assabeth moi-c and more }'tui feel it a presumption to ' Till' lirst statue of Daniel Chester French, who was bom in Concord ^ y\ talilet is liere inscribed "To tlie most courteous kindly gentleman Cicorgi- Brail ford Bartlett." It was his constant pleasure to show to his .'U'(|iiaintanees tlie be;uities of Concord. 74 Concord 75 attempt a word -picture of this spot, after Hawthome's mar vellous interpretation of the river and his glorification of the " black mud over which the river sleeps " in his aphorism The Old Manse, Concord. " My house stands in low land, with limited outlook, and on the skirt of the village. Bull go with my friend to the shore of our little river ; and with one stroke of the paddle, I leave the village politics and personalities be hind, and pass into a delicate realm of sunset and moonlight." — " Nature." Written by Emerson in the Old Manse, of the noisome yellow and the pure white water-lilies, the ugly and celestial blossoming from the same soil. Through a cracked window-pane of his study ^ in the Old ' This study was the "Saint's Chamber" of the minister's house. It was the study also of Dr. Ezra Ripley, of Hawthorne, and of Parson Emerson's grandson, Ralph Waldo Emerson. 76 Old Paths and Legends of New England Manse, the Rev, Wilham Emerson watched the fight at the Old North Bridge where the stream is about the breadth of twenty strokes of a swimmer's arm. At sunrise the good I>arson, shouldering his musket, had answered Dr. Prescott's alarm, and under Captain Alinot's orders he climbed the Mile-Long Ridge with his townsmen and the men of Acton, of Linci iln, and Carlisle, to the Liberty-pole and looked down on his beloved Meeting-house, whence the Provincial Con gress with John Hancock President had adjourned four days before, and where five weeks previous he had preached to the militia from this text: "And behold God is with us for our Captain." As the British regulars were seen advancing in numbers "more than treble ours," Colonel Barrett or dered the militia to fall back to Ponkawtasset HiU. The "fighting parson" ' returned to the ilanse to protect his family (it has been said that he was locked in by his devoted parishioners for fear that he might be injured through patriotic enthusiasm) ; he saw acting Adjutant Hosmer form the companies, and ^ilajor Buttrick lead down to the bridge, the captains intrepidly facing the British on the hither side.^ " He waited in an agony of suspense the rattle of the musketry. It came; and there needed but a gentle wind to sweep the battle smoke about the quiet house." Captain Isaac Davis of Acton was the first to fall. Two of the British invaders lie here peacefully by the stonewall, the musket of tnic may be seen in the valuable collection from "the Six Miles Square called Concord " at the house of the Antiquarian Society; also the first cutlass taken in the ' Parson Emerson asked his iiarish to excuse him that he might go to Ticonderoga as chajiUiin, but not before he had written in the family almanac under April : " This month remarkable for the greatest events of the present age." — Concord, First in .Many Fields, by Frank B, Sanborn; in Historic Ttmnis of i\'civ England. G. P. Putnam's Sons, " The C'oiiiord Fight, by Rev. Grindall Reynolds, Concord n Revolution,--that of Samuel Lee,— and the sword of Colonel James Barrett, Commander. At Colonel Barrett's, two miles distant on Barrett Mills Road, the cannon had been concealed under the ploughed furrows and in Spruce Gut ter; a hundred red coats marched out there to seek them, and these " ene mies ' ' were duti fully fed by Mrs. Barrett. ' In the general excitement and exodus many odd things oc curred. A farmer's wife, getting ready to take her children to the woods, donned her checked apron "of state," for she never did anything of impor tance without that badge of dignity. Unconsciously she went to her drawer for an apron again and again until when she recovered her wits in a safe hiding- place she found she had on seven checked aprons. History repeated itself at the great Chicago fire, when a lady was seen fleeing with four bonnets on. The Old North Bridge over the Concord River. French' s statue of the AI inute-man on the other side. ' Mrs. Lothrop's story, A Little Maid charming picture of the Barrett family. of Concord Town, contains a 78 Old Paths and Legends of New England If you ride into Concord over Bedford Road by shadowy Slec])y Hollow," the next point in fascination after the river spreading broadly blue in the lowlands is the Mile-Ridge, the water-shed of Mill Brook. From nigh the elm, a co lonial \vhipping-])ost, rude steps pick their way up this abrupt hillside between gray weather-beaten stones, mark ing the resting-place of Concord's forefathers. This quaintly placed burying-ground of 1668 was always included in the deed of the house at its foot (the John Adams-Deacon Tol- man house) until 1818. Tucked under the Ridge is the Hillside Chapel of the Con cord School of Philosophy, founded by Amos Bronson Alcott, "whose orbit never, even by chance, intersects the plane of the modern earth," writes Lowell, and by Dr. W F Harris, first among American educators, and their disciples. Did transcendental thought simmer through these murmuring pines under which runs the tangled path where Hawthorne delighted to walk, unconsciously following the footsteps of the aborigine and quite oblivious of the primitive stone tool at his feet, which Thoreau could not have passed by, be cause, as Hawthorne said of his friend's characteristic trait: ' ' Thoreau seldom walks over a ploughed field without picking up an arrow-point or a spear-head, as if the spirits of the red men willed him to be the inheritor of their simple wealth ' ' ? Doubtless Hawthorne paced in company with some stem Puritan of the day of the Rev. Peter Bulkeley, the founder of Concord, who left Odell or "Muddle" on the river Ouse, the country of John Bun\'an and Cromwell, only to en counter dissension at Boston, and gladlv came hither to abide by the river tark. General Lee, and General Sullivan. "Hobgoblin Hall!' General Gage determined to carry oft" to the Castle. His troops embarked from Long \\'harf, landed at Temple Farm, and seized two hundred and fifty half-barrels of gunpowder. The tablet ' placed by the .Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the Rc\-olution sets forth the sequel: "And thereby ' .\n interesting sketch of the work of the Massachusetts Sons of the Re\ olution, by Walter Gilman Page of the Tablet Committee, is included in the Register of the .Society, iSiji). Medford 85 provoked the great assembly of the following day on Cambridge Common. The first occasion on which our patriotic fore fathers met in arms to oppose the tyranny of George II L" The story of Colonel Royall's mansion-house ' (George Street) is as long as his acres ; its paved courtyard and ser vants' quarters betoken the splendid state of Isaac Royall 2nd, the generous-hearted Tory, member of the Governor's Council, In magnificent style, Colonel Royall dined the Vassalls, Olivers, Sir Harry Frankland, and other Tory friends, toasting the King's cause in rich " Madeira," till the Sunday before the battle of Lexington, when, arming him self with a pair of pistols and a carabin, he hurried off in his coach to Boston, thence to Halifax, and died in England, bequeathing 2000 acres to Harvard, The Royall Professor ship of Law is the foundation of the Harvard Law School. A daughter married William Pepperell Sparhawke, who suc ceeded to Sir William's estate and name. In the Records of the "third Meeting-house" (its bell struck twelve for Paul Revere) is written: "July 28, 1771. On this day was used the pulpit cushion given by Wm. Pepperell, who im ported it from England at a cost of eleven guineas." The Butters and AVait houses face the " Heigh Waye" which passes over Cradock Bridge (tablet to Mrs. Sarah Bradlee Fulton, "a Heroine of the Revolution," erected by the Sarah Bradlee Fulton Chapter, D. A. R.) into Medford Square. Directly before you is Forest Street (the old Andover turnpike through Stoneham), which leads into the lovely Middlesex Fells by the ancient Kidder Place and Pine Hill. Spot Pond was discovered by "the Governor, Mr. Nowell and Mr. Eliot," and named for "the divers small rocks stand ing up here and there in it. They went all about it on the ^ From the Royall mansion it is a pleasant half-hour's walk by Medford's landmarks as far as Grace Church. 86 Old Paths and Legends of New England ice." A very high rock N. W. "they called Cheese Rock, be cause, when they went to eat somewhat, they had only cheese the Governor's man forgetting, for haste, to put up some bread," (February 7, 1632), On Riverdale Avenue (Ship Street) is the Cradock house (fifteen minutes' walk), passing the Greenleaf house. On Salem street (the Maiden road) is the burying-ground; the birthplace of Lydia Maria Child,' Here is the Medford Historical Society Rooms and Collection, with models of Medford ships. In the Withington house next door lived JMarm Betty, who kept a dame school, and was the envied possessor of "some flowered bed-curtains." The greatest cross of Marm Betty's life was that Governor Brooks saw her drinking from the spout of her tea-pot. Mrs, Child paid Marm Betty many a neighborly visit ; she was indeed so benevolent as to deprive herself of every comfort that she might give more to some good cause, Mrs, Fields relates that at eighty years she sought in Boston the plainest lodgings ; her one pleasure was in seeing her friends, Whittier was "an intimate personal friend from the earliest days of the anti-slaver}- struggle," and at the houses of mutual cronies they would sit side by side, reminisce and "make merry, ' It was good to see Mrs. Child.' ' Yes,' said Whittier, ' Lvdd}' s bunnets are n't always in the fashion ' (with a quaint look as much as to say, ' I wonder what you think of anything so bad '), ' but we don't like her any the worse for that.' " = Turning to the left from the square (following the Win chester car) is the brick Secomb house (1756); the old Wade " Garrison "house (163-) of Pasture Hill Lane; the Ar mory built by General Lawrence. The handsome building of the Medford Public Library was the house of Thatcher Magoun 2nd, the shipbuilder. He built it as much like a I Lydia Maria Child, liy Anna D. Hallowell, in the Medford Historical Register of July, igoo. ^Authors and l''riend.s, Annie Fields. Medford 87 ship as possible, with high-studded front rooms for his wife and the other rooms after the fashion of a ship's cabins. The Library contains an ideal children's reading-room. In its Historical Collection is a letter from Washington to The Cradock House {1634) or ' The Fort" On Rivet side Avenue the old Ship Street, Medford. Property of Genet al Samuel C. Lawrence. Governor Brooks; the Diary of Dr. David Osgood, whose ministry began with the "revolutionary earthquake" ; and two curious china cats over two hundred years old, the play things of Miss Lucy Osgood. The Osgood house is above the Unitarian Church, also the Jonathan Watson-Samuel Swan house (1750), where General Brooks entertained Wash ington. The Train house is next ; Grace Church of Richard son design stands on the site of the Timothy Bigelow mansion-house. Paul Revere called up the captain of the Minute-men at the Porter house. Ram's Head Lane, now Rural Avenue, leading to the " Lawrence" Tower, Medford's "fat black earth," of which Mr. Higginson 88 Old Paths and Legends of New England speaks, according to the old saying, was ready for seed " when the while oak-leaves look goslin-gray. Plant then, be it April, June, or May!' The farmers' harvest list in Brooks' history of rare anecdote runs : 1646 Aug. I. The great pears ripe. 3. The long apples ripe. 12. Blackstone 's apples gathered. 1647 July 5. We began to shear rye. The car passes the ancient Symmes Comer (1638) and site of the Black Horse Tavem, over the old Woburn road through Winchester, once South \\'obum. A charming place is this "town of lawyers," very rich in water land scape: AVedge Pond, Winter Pond, and "Big ilystic" sup plied by the lovely Aberjona River. The country mansion-house of Edward Everett on Mystic Pond,' entertained many men of many climes. On the Everett estate in 1638 was the royal house of the Squaw Sachem Queen of Nanepashemet, killed by the Taratines in 16 19. Many of her deeds of land are on record. In 1621, when Edward AA'inslow and the Plymouth people went up to see the Sachem of Boston, Winslow writes of seeing at Mystic the house of this King, "not like others, but on a scaffold." And a fort seated upon top of a hill, "of poles some thirty or forty feet long, stuck in the ground, as thick as they could be set one by another, ' ' a trench digged about ; "one way was there to get into it with a bridge," In this palisade stood a house wherein Nanepashemet lay buried. The Clock-Tower tells how many times Winchester has changed her name.'' In the Library is the painting — Coast of Normandy — by J. Foxcroft Cole, a sometime resident of ' Cambridge Street. '^History of Winchester, by Abijah Thompson, Winchester Press. Winchester 89 Winchester. The room of the Historical and Genealogical Society contains a memorial to Edward Converse, pioneer and builder of the first house and mill. Among the resi dences in beautiful " Rangely " is that of Edwin Ginn, owner of the Park. Entrance to the Brooks Estate, Winchester. In Wakefield, Stoneham, Melrose, and especially in Mai den (" Mistick Side"), the student of bygone days will find an interesting field. Wakefield, the old parish of Reading, is adorned by Crystal Lake and Lake Quanapowitt, the In dian "Great Pond," about which many stone tools have been picked up. John Poole's water-mill of 1644 stood on the site of the Rattan Works. Crystal Lake and Lake Quanapowitt adorn the town. Maiden has an unusually fine park, — Pine Bank, arranged and beautified for the people of Maiden by the Hon. E. H. Converse. WOBURN, 1630-1642 The antiquarian so inclined may spend an hour, an after noon, or a day most profitably in Woburn. In Woburn Square the historical sites are admirably tableted. The Soldiers' Alonument, stands as formerly did the first Meet ing-house, near the market-place. Within the handsome Ttie Woburn I'liblic Library. Richardson, architect. p'ounded bv 'Jonathan H. Winn and Charles B. ]]'inn. Winn Library, designed b\' Richardson, genealogists revel in colonial and rc\'olution;iry archives, exhaustively indexed go Woburn 91 WOBURN under the direction of the local historian, W. R. Cutter. Its attractive Art Gallery contains an interesting paint ing, The Ordination of Thomas Carter in 1642, first pastor of this little settlement, then known as Charlestown Village. That curious and oft-quoted narrative. The Providence of Wonder Working Z ion's Saviour in New England LANDMARKS: Woburn PubUc Li brary, Site house Rev. Thomas Carter (1642), 23 Pleasant St., residence Charles Taylor, Site Fowle Tavern, 442 Main; here Min ute-men met. Daniel Thompson house, 649 Main; " slain at Concord Battle," residence Mrs. M, A, Briggs. Supplementary: Legends of Wo burn, 1642-1692. Ellis's Life of Rumford. Cutter's sketch of Wo- btu^n under Winchester in Kurd's Middlesex County, (from 1628 to 1652), was written by Captain Edward Johnson, some times called "The Father of Wo burn," and one of Winthrop's Company. A quaintly written letter from Woburn in 1804, by a young girl, reads: Papa and Cyrus are busy planting, mamma takes care of the family cards.' Mary weaves, Emily spins, Abigail winds quills. Our meeting-house is almost done; I hope you will come to the dedication. We have had an ordina tion, dedication, and installation this winter, and did real piety keep pace with party spirit, we should indeed be an exemplary people, but there is as much division as ever. ' The carding of wool was one of the oldest traditional occupations of a Roman lady, held in great estimation as late as the beginning of the Empire. The highest praise bestowed on the mother of the family was " She stayed at home to card the wool." NORTH WOBURN The stateliest of the fine old-fashioned houses of "New Bridge," or North Woburn, is the Baldwin mansion. Above the delicately moulded colonial doorway, linden-tree arched, a mullioned window gleams warmly iridescent under the touch of old Father Time. From its white fluted niche on the stairs a shining mahogany clock solemnly ticks away the centuries in lofty measure, talking over the happenings within these panelled walls with its lettered companion, the collection of rare tomes found in the Long Room. The twin lindens, of a younger growth than the elms, were dispatched across the wide Atlantic to Loammi Bald win by his friend Count Rumford, bom plain Benjamin Thompson, whose notable career of rare interest on two continents began in the primitive dwelling just a little way up the road. Its closing chapter at Auteuil saw our many-sided philosopher of purely Yankee origin (who, by the way, had sided with the Tories, which, strange to state, had never entirely lost him the affection of his coimtry^men) a Knight of the Order of St. Stanislaus and the White Eagle, a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, a Lieutenant-Gen eral of Bavaria, and a Fellow of the French Institute, More than a hundred and thirty years ago, on the old Woburn Highway, bail you belonged to the rural wit and beaux of the precinct you might have met and exchanged glances with the youths Baldwin and Thompson striding home from Cambridge, both evolving schemes in daring suppositions for c.x]x>rimeiit suggested by their last lesson in the science of causes ;ts expounded by the colonial teacher. Tradition names a particular bad quarter of an hour when 92 North Woburn 93 young Baldwin was discovered by his family flying a silk kite in a severe thunder-storm, apparently enveloped in flames. The fact that glass bottles supported his rude platform ap peased but little the consternation of the appalled lookers-on. Colonel Baldwin crossed the ice-bound Delaware with Washington and led to the battle of Trenton the 26th Massachusetts, one battalion hav ing 16 officers and 190 men. Sur veying one day for the Middlesex Canal near " Butters Row" in Wil mington, Colonel Baldwin was attracted by woodpeckers NORTH WOBURN LANDMARKS: JamesBaldwin house, (177-) residence Baldwin Coolidge. Baldwin mansion (1661), property of Mrs, C. Rumford Griffith, Josiah Bartlett-Wheeler house, here was held centennial ball, Thompson- Nichols-Winn house (1769), resi dence Mrs. Ruel Carter. William Tidd house. Home for Aged Women, Cleveland Homelands. Birthplace of Count Rumford, 1781. Tay-Nichols house. Lilley-Eaton house. Deacon Samuel Eames house (1730), New Boston st. The Baldwin Hotnestead, North Woburn. Built 1661. Property of Mrs. C. Rumford Griffith. Residence of Loammi Baldwin the fourth. 94 Old Paths and Legends of New England drilling circles about the trunk of a tree, red with apples. He set a dish of the delectable fruit before his guests at din ner. " What is the name. Colonel?" "It is an unknown species hercaliouts," answered their host, "Then a toast to the Baldwin apple ! ' ' The centennial jubilee ball, given by this Colonel Baldwin in the house opposite, was long the talk of old Aliddlesex at seasons' quiltings; especially was remarked the marvellous transformation of the figures 1799 traced by colored wick lights into 1800, at the turning of the hour-glass for the new year. The pretty schoolmistress imparted her impressions of The Ball in a dozen verses: " On New Year's eve at Baldwin's Hall Was held a great and splendid Ball; Hand in hand the blooming pairs Marched to the house and walked up-stairs. " The waiters round with salver bend And dealt to all, for all were friends. No spare of cake or wine or tea; The generous donor made it free." WILMINGTON, 1642-1730 TEWKSBURY, 1655-1734 In ancient Wilmington you journey past Squaw Pond and the aforetime famous " Ox Bow " of the old Middlesex Canal. Near Wilmington Depot appears the Tim Carter house, per haps the oldest in the town. On the Boston Road to Tewks bury, circled by summer cottages, is the translucent Silver Lake or Sandy Pond of unsoundable depth in parts. Here was an immense lake, its adjoining "Great Sandy Desert" having been pushed in during the glacial period. The earliest localities of Wilmington were named Goshen, Nod, Lebanon, Ladder-Pole, and Maple-Meadow Brook. Wil mington at one period was nicknamed "Hop-town," be cause every farmer owned a flourishing hop-yard. Beyond the "Rich" Carter house is "bound-stone" farm. Crossing the Shawshine River, in a wayside cemetery, lies buried "Life" Manning, Washington's bodyguard. The John Bridges farm is made picturesque by an elm of multi tudinous branches. These Tewksbury farms are fine mar ket gardens. The State Almshouse seems to be a little town in itself. At the entrance of the pleasant village of Tewksbury Cen tre stands the Kittredge homestead, in the bend of the East Billerica road. On Main Street we come upon the Rev. Samson Spaulding homestead (1737) and the Rev. Jacob Coggin house, the residence of H. M. Billings. No one leaves Tewksbury town without a draught from the famous well on the green. When Tewksbury was Billerica this re gion suffered from Indian raids. Before stealing away from 95 96 Old Paths and Legends of New England the scene of destruction the savage was wont to strap his dog's mouth with wampum lest the cur's bark should disturb the midnight silence and thus proclaim the direction of his retreat. Little streams are light and shadow Flowing through tlie pasture meadow, Floicing by the green wayside. Through the forest dim and wide!' — Mary Howitt. LOWELL, 165 5-1826 '' / listen, awake, for the city's hum, A faint little threadlet of far-off sound, Growing ever confused like a skein unwound. By heedless fingers, wherein I hear Tlie voices of myriad work-folk dear. Who make earth the sheltering home that it is, With their beaiUiful -manifold industries." Lucy Larcom. The hamlet of Wamesit, the praying town of the Paw- tucket tribe, once extended over the great neck of land "where Concord river falleth into Merrimak river." No one can tell for how many successive moons of May the tribes had resorted to these falling waters for salmon, shad, and sturgeon before the Apostle Eliot followed them, "to spread the net of the Gospel to fish for their souls." ^ Over the red man's ancient capital-seat rise spires and smoking chimneys; the noon-hour bells of the "Spindle City," speaking to hurrying thousands, witness that all the wiles of the sorcerer Passaconaway, Chief Sachem of Pen- nacook, stayed not the " increase " of the white man, though by Indian legend he caused " the green leaf to grow in winter, the tree to dance, and the water to burn." Fort Flill was palisaded by Wannalancet, son of Passa conaway, to defend his people against the Mohawk's arrow. His wigwam stood on the estate of Frederick Ayer, near Pawtucket Falls. By the singing waters, in picture lan guage, he said to his white brothers — the Apostle Eliot, General Gookin, Mr. Richard Daniel of Billerikey, and other ' "And from Massic Island, where Stott's Mills now stand, told his dusky listeners of their great Father." — The Lowell Book. 97 98 Old Paths and Legends of New England Englishmen of quality: "All my days I have been used to pass in an old canoe, but now I yield myself to your advice, and enter into a new canoe, and do engage to pray to God hereafter!' LOWELL LANDMARKS : City Government Building, Memorial Building, con taining Free Public Library of 62,000 volumes, and Memorial Hall, Monu ment Square, Ladd and Whitney Monument, Statue of Victory, gift of Dr, J, C, Ayer, Unveiled July 4, 1867, Lowell visited by Presidents Tyler, Polk, Jackson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt ; by General Grant, Je rome Buonaparte and Princess Clo- tilde, Louis Kossuth, Charles Dick ens, Wm, Lloyd Garrison, The Ar mory M, V, M, Tappan Wentworth house, Lawrence St, Durkee house, (1704), Pawtucket Boulevard, Joel Spalding Homestead, Pawtucket St, Batch & Coburn's Tavern, or the " Old Stone House " ; first town meeting held here. Kirk Boott Moderator. First School Committee, — Theodore Edson, Warren Colburn, Samuel Batchelder, John 0, Greene Elisha Huntington, father of Wm. R. Huntington, D.D, ; here First Uni tarian Church organized 1829 ; en larged for J. C. Ayer mansion. Now the Ayer Home, endowed by Mrs, Ayer and Frederick Fanning Ayer. Old Ladies' Home, Fletcher St. Old Marshall Tavern, Parker St. Liv ingston and French homesteads, Westford St, Fort Hill Park, from which may be seen Minot's Light. Supplementary : Cowley's History of Lowell. A Stronger in Lowell, by Whittier, A New England Girlhood, by Lucy Larcom, Loom and Shuttle. by Harriett Robinson, Lowell, by Mabel Hill, New England Magazine. Merrimae River at the Junction of the Concord with its Waters, by Jane E, Locke of Lowell, " Inscribed to the Hon. Caleb Gushing, by whose request it was written." The Pawtuckets sold their grant to Colonel Tyng and Major Henchman; a map of 1821 out lines Sundry Farms of Pawtucket in the Town of Chelmsford,^ which were bought up by the Proprie tors of the Locks and Canals. Kirk Boott was sent to prospect the river's mechanical force, pointed out by Ezra Worthen, and while apparently casting a fly for salmon appraised these valuable fishing rights. The young English officer was, how ever, worsted in his first bargain by a Yankee farmer, who doubled the price of his farm over night, "as I calk'lated su'thin' was in and lithencss were lamprey eels. ' The Fletcher, Cheever. and Whiting farms occtipied the present heart of Lowell. On the Xathan Tyler farm stand the Merri mack J tills of iS;2, the Carpet Mills, and .\\-er Laboratory. Little Canada occupies the Robert Brinley farm, and A>-er's City the Joshua Swan Meadows, Middlesex Mills stand on the site of the manvifactory of Captain Phineas Whiting and Colonel Josiah Fletcher; at the raising, in 1813, took place a wrestling match, the favorite amusement of Dracut men at ordinations and Four Da^• Meetings. Their strength facetiously said to be due to their being raised on The Mills of Lowell 99 the wind when I saw two strangers across the river sit on a rock and talk, then one feller go up and the other daown, an' talk ag'in," The Kirk Boott mansion, now the Cor poration Hospital, stands near the Moody Street Bridge. Paul Moody's inventions followed fast after the first power- loom was set up by Francis Cabot Lowell, — the inspirator of cotton manufacture, — for whom the city was named. Early expedient called on the aid of the sun for bleaching, and the overseer's wife sprinkled with her watering-pot large areas of cotton cloth pinned to the grass. That remarkable feat of engineering, the Northern Canal, was the thought of James B. Francis, later President of the American School of Engineers. The cynics called his Guard Locks, built on the Pawtucket Canal, " Francis's Folly," till after one fateful night in 1852, when the water rising four teen feet above the dam would have flooded the lowlands, carrying off the Appleton and Hamilton mills, had his port cullis not been let fall at the crucial moment. The Merri mack has never again attained that height. If you stand on the picturesque Canal AValk late in February — between the foaming canal forced out of its usual serenity into a boil ing cauldron, and a maddened whirl of waters tossing ice floes like snowflakes — you cannot but marvel that the wild course of these myriad streams hastening from the snow- covered New Hampshire hills to the Atlantic may be diverted by man's invention. the mills of LOWELL The merry comrades of Lucy Larcom, daughters of min isters and backwoodsmen who had broken out the primeval forest threaded by treacherous Indian trails from the Can adian frontier, reflected the purity and vigor of these New Hampshire hills. You fancy that you can see these Yankee girls in the spinning-room, Lucy Larcom committing to loo Old Paths and Legends of New England memory the poets from slips of paper pasted on the walls to the music of the shuttle, and after the day's work guessing the authors of the anonymous contributions to their little journal, the Lowell Offering. Later they found vocations in literature, art, or in marrying New England merchants and mill-owners. The looms were next watched by the witty Irish lassies, followed in turn by the dark-eyed graceful "The gray stone walls of St. .Anne's Church and rectory made a pictur esque spot in the town, a lasting monument to the religions purpose which animated the first manufacturers. I liad never before seen anything but a plain frame meeting-house, and the church and the benign, apostolic-look ing rector were like a leaf out of an English story-book." — Lucy Larcom. French-Canadian girls who are maiTying into the Greek colony. The French of Louis XI\' is heard on the streets, and Lc Jour de L'An is the chief festival-day of Le Petit Canada in Lowell, kept with all the dear traditions of the home parish in the province of Quebec. These national ities, as well as the l\)rtuguese and Armenians, have their churches and schools in cosmopolitan Lowell. Lowell's cxiiorts arc not entirely from the loom; there The Mills of Lowell loi are many factories devoted to proprietary medicine, fancy leather, wire goods, machines, and in almost every depart ment of mechanics. The city has made distinct strides re cently in education through the State Normal School, with the Bartlett Practice School, the Lowell Textile School, and the Training School. The invaluable "Summer Play- Ground" has been introduced through the Middlesex Women's Club. Lowell offers splendid opportunities for out-of-door pleas ures. The golf course of the Vesper Country Club at Tyng's Island is one of the oldest and most beautiful in New Eng- -land. At the perfectly equipped Vesper Boat-house have originated, under a peculiarly efficient management, many events in the sporting annals of Massachusetts. The American Canoe Association has a camping-ground on the lovely inland water, Tyng's Pond, or Lake Mascuppic, whose most ancient settlement, Willow Dale, has for gen erations been famous for "basket picnics," and the queer modem statuary guarding the lovely grove. The summer amusements at Lakeview Park are changed in winter to the ice sports of hockey and polo on skates. From Lakeview, travelling northward through the pines, you arrive shortly at Nashua on the Merrimack. BELVIDERE "Belvidere," the mansion' of Judge St. Loe Livermore, — previously the "Gedney" or the "Old Yellow House, " — 'A part of the house stands next St. John's Hospital. "It is beauti fully situated at the confluence of the Merrimack and Concord rivers," writes the daughter of Judge Livermore, the wife of Judge J. G, Abbott, whose son. Captain Edward G. Abbott, fell at Cedar Mountain — leading the "Abbott Greys" of Lowell, Major Henry Livermore Abbott fell at the battle of the Wilderness. Judge Livermore's daughter Harriett was the "woman tropical, intense" of Whittier's Snow-Bound. The long military record of Lowell and the Grand Army of the Republic is included in the sketch of Lowell by C, C, Chase in Kurd's Middlesex County. Tyng's Island on the Merrimack ¦ Where the sleeping river grasses Brush my paddle as it passes To and fro." E. Pauline Johnson, The Jonathan Tyler Homestead (Residence of Mrs. J. Tyler .Elevens), and the Nesmith Homestead, from Park Garden, Belvidere, Lowell. Art in Lowell 103 gave its name to a large part of the 3000-acre grant to Ma dame Winthrop in 1649, which may be seen in fairest pros pect from Fairmount Hill, Below, lies the city, in the heart of the Merrimack valley ; the Concord, another Avon, creeps under a score of bridges to meet the greater river of widely differing beauties. The horizon is broken by Robin's Hill, distant Wachusett, the Peterborough, Temple Hills, and Un- canoonucs. Monadoc, the lonely peak, "rock-ridged," has been translated to our hearth-stones by the brush of William P. Phelps and the exquisite lines of James E, Nesmith. " All day the purple shadows dream Along his slopes or upward stream, And shafts of golden sunlight gleam. " The curled cups of the gentian catch The eye with hues the heavens match, Tho' Winter's hand is on the latch," The suburb of Belvidere was founded by John Nesmith, Lieutenant-Governor under "War" Governor Andrew, and Colonel Thomas Nesmith. The Nesmith mansion enter tained Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner, Vice-President Henry Wilson, Parson Brownlow, and other distinguished guests. Near by is the Governor Frederick T. Greenhalge house and that of Hon. John A. Goodwin, author of The Pilgrim Republic. Lowell is the birthplace of Charles H. Allen, Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the Spanish War, and first Civil Governor of Porto Rico. In' the Tal bot house lived Judge Nathan Crosby, who, as our famous " Sixth " marched on, said, " We must take care of our boys," inaugurating the "Soldiers' Aid." About Park Garden are grouped the older mansions of Belvidere. On their walls hang the paintings of many ar tists associated with Lowell: etchings by Whistler, whose father, Major George Washington Whistler, left Lowell to I04 Old Paths and Legends of New England become consulting engineer to the Emperor of Russia. Por traits by David Neal, the first American to receive "highest award" from the Royal Academy, Munich, also bom in Lowell; and by Alfred Ordway, Thomas B. Lawson, Sarah W. Whitman, Adelaide Cole Chase, the younger Healey; landscapes by Joseph A, Nesmith, and the Old- World handi craft of Laurin H, Martin. The Young Trumpeter, by Mar garet Foley, recalls her earliest work, — the faces carved on her bobbins. Ice-Cutting on the Merrimack, below the Lowell General Hospital, formerly the Fay Homestead Among the art treasures of the Public Library are Healey's portraits of Nathan Appleton and Patrick T. Jackson, founders of Lowell; Lawson's portrait of Webster, said to be his best likeness; and La Basilica Di San Marco in Venczia, in memory of Elizabeth O. Robbins of Lowell. To her memory also " A Library for the Use of Travellers " was founded in Boston by Susan Travers. On Andover Street, overlooking Hunt's Falls and the Dracut 105 beautiful view down the Merrimack, is the General Benjamin F. Butler mansion, built by Samuel Lawrence, the residence of General Adelbert Ames. An ancient and curious powder- horn hangs in the library; it is carved by the hand of a soldier ancestor in this wise: " Zephaniah Butler His Horn of Woodbury, April 22, 1758. War." Half way to North Tewksbury Hill, by the old black smith's shop across the course of the Long Meadow Golf Club, lies an unusual eskar — one of the ridges used by In dians for a camping- or burial-ground — extending to the Merrimack. On the opposite bank, high above the Indians' path described by Whittier in Taking Comfort, a car glides toward Haverhill and Methuen and the down-river towns. Below the Hood's farm ridge is Deer's Jump, the river's narrowest span for miles, across which, tradition says, Wash ington was ferried to Vamum's Landing in Dracut, and rode up the rough fern-bordered cart-path escorted by General Joseph Bradley Vamum, to be greeted hospitably at the threshold by his wife Molly. Behind the gnarled pink apple blooms of the Vamum homestead is the family burying- ground, and hard by, on the old Lawrence road, is the General Simeon Cobum house. The river hurries along in occasional rapids between steep banks by Glen Forest, and falls under the long bridge at Lawrence with the force of a miniature Niagara, for the Merrimack has no leisure to form broad and fertile meadows like the Connecticut, its course being only half as long to the sea, starting at the same elevation. DRACUT, 1664-170I In passing Christian Hill at dusk on wintry days the great mills appear masses of soft hght. The Merrimack is a sil very sheet in summer, in autumn reflecting foHage of myriad io6 Old Paths and Legends of New England hues, and perhaps most lovely at winter sunset, when the ice flashes opal tints against the heights of Belvidere. Central Bridge of ceaseless trafflc overshadows the path of Bradley's Ferry, and "Ferry Lane" (now Hildreth Street) leads to Dracut Common, a triangular piece of turf remain ing after the division of the Hildreth estate, long before the Revolution, and presented by seven Hildreth sons to the town. Three homesteads adjoin this training green of more than a century ago: the Hovey homestead, built in 1760; the Lieutenant Micah Hildreth-Richardson house, and the General Wilham Hildreth-Joseph L. Sargent house, built about 1800.' The latter has a hand-carved cornice, and once had a gallery around its second story, after the fashion of the Southern homes which General Hildreth saw and ad mired before he finished his campaign at A'orktown. The Vamums, Hildreths, Parkers, Hoveys, Samuel Barron, and Thomas Coburn protested openly against Shays' Rebellion, and signed an oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth. The Dr, Amos Bradley house is close by, also the pretty Hillside Meeting-house ; to another part of Dracut belongs the cele brated Old Yellow Meeting-house, Dracut, at first an in land fishing town, was patriotic to the backbone. Two thirds of her citizens wore the blue and buff ; General Joseph Bradley Vamum, General James A'amum, and Colonel Louis Ansart were distinguished officers ; romantic material enough for several historical novels was gathered under the rafters of the Squire Hildreth house, truly an Old Curiosity Shop of war accoutrements, firelocks, powder-horns, can teens, knapsacks, rapiers, pikes, and striking black leather helmets with floating white horsehair plumes worn by En sign Thomas Hildreth, who lost his life in the French and Indian wars.' ' Origin and Genealogy of the Hildreth Family, by Captain Philip Reade. Dracut 107 Dracut is the birthplace of the Honorable Gustavus Vasa Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy. During his unique mission to Russia in 1866 he was offered the bread and salt of welcome throughout the empire, receiving a thousand offi cial courtesies. Arriving at Helsingfors in the Mianto- nomoh, — the first monitor to cross the Atlantic, — he was escorted to Cronstadt by a fleet commanded by the Russian Rear-Admiral. ilr. Fox delivered the congratulations of the United States to his Imperial Highness the Emperor Alex ander II, , then sent the first message from Russia to America over the Atlantic cable. The splendid imperial banquet in honor of our American mission was succeeded by the magnificent entertainments of the Prince Gortchakoff, Prince Dolgorouky, and Prince Galitzine; by dinners at the Naval and English clubs. At the banquet of the Good-Birth Society of St. Petersburg, in their beautiful pavilion on the Countess Strogonoff's estate, a poem of Holmes was read in honor of the occasion. Mr. Fox having been invited to breakfast at the palace of the Grand Duke Constantine, the Grand Duchess and her daugh ter Olga paid the American officers the compliment of re ceiving them, gowned in white with sashes of red, white, and blue. On the Isle of Czaritzine in the gardens of Peterhof stands an oak grown from the tree shading Washington's tomb. Each of our officers reverently plucked a leaf to carry home to testify to the homage paid in Russia to the founder of our Republic. A superb "Malachite Box, Gift of the City of St. Petersburg," to Mr. Fox, is in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The Emperor's farewell gift was a snuffbox, his miniature set in diamonds on the lid, pre sented by sovereigns only to persons of the highest dis tinction. In 1871, the Grand Duke Alexis paid a visit to his "good friend, Mr. Fox, at Lowell." These facts are from the interesting narration. Fox's Mission to Russia. From the Journal of J. F. Loubat. Edited by John D. Champlin, Jr. io8 Old Paths and Legends of New England One hundred and twenty-eight years ago, a Dracut boy, Israel Hildreth, with but two pennies in his pocket, started out to seek his fortune in Newburyport; he shipped on the privateer \^engea}ice. Captain Newman, and after most ad venturous voyages turned back to buy with his share of doubloons his father's farm in Dracut. As "Squire Hil dreth," Justice and tithing-man, he was among the last of the Middlesex gentry to give up his cue and small-clothes. On the old Hildreth farm sloping to the river is the house of Mrs. Rowena Hildreth Reade, with graceful trees, fronting the rapids of the Merrimack (Lakeview Avenue) . Strolling thence toward the Navy Yard, where by Beaver Brook the famous Dracut Garrison faced Indian attack, there yet stands on Pleasant Street a tavem where, the story goes, shortly before Lexington battle, knocked two soldiers from the King's troops asking the road to Londonderry'. At sun rise half-a-dozen pursuing red-coats demanded to know if the inmates had given shelter to two deserters, "No, but two men had asked the road," "Didn't you give 'em shelter or food? If you did, we '11 string you up!" It turned out that the deserters were Irishmen, who, not wish ing to fight the Americans, were seeking refuge at London derry with their Scotch-Irish kinfolk. The settlers of Londonderry, it is said, introduced us to the potato and the secret of the manufacture of linen cloth. MIDDLESEX VILLAGE Quiet Middlesex \dllage, at the Great Bend of the Merri mack in Lowell, was the li\-clv shopping district of East Chelmsford, aforetime called the "Glass-house village."' ' On the opposite sandy shore, during his ll'ivA' on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Thoreau and his brother landed to gather wild plums, and (lisco\'ercd the harebell of the poets, common to both hemispheres, growing close to the water. " llere, in the shady branches of an apple tree on the sand, we took our nooning," Lowell 109 No vestige remains of the glass-works where lights were manufactured for the White House, or the hat factory, though "owner Bent's" house yet stands on Baldwin Street. At the substantial Clark Tavem Governor Hancock dined Tlie Rebecca Warren-Smith Homestead. Built 182 j. Middlesex Village, Lowell. when he inspected the Middlesex Canal, for which he granted the charter in 1793. Up-street are the Tyler, Bow ers, Major Nathaniel Howard, Amos Whitney, and Samuel Burbank homesteads ; opposite is the Cyrus Baldwin house, where the village children beheld with awe gracious Ma dame Baldwin, the grand-dame of their day, as she sat erect in her carved mahogany chair receiving her friends. Near by the stages emptied their passengers into the Bos ton packet-boat commanded by the jovial Captain Silas Tyler. In the Judge Hadley orchard by the Tavern is a grass-grown hollow reminiscent of the past delightful long- drawn water journey from Lowell to the Governor's seat at no Old Paths and Legends of New England Boston, the half -hours marked by the winding of the horn at the locks. The canal's nose went out of joint and the stage coach's also, when, in 1835, steam became the vogue, in turn to be challenged by electric power. A farmer " sez, sez he," looking at the first train puffing onward to Lowell, " It 's only them resky fellows can afford to ride be hind that there iron nag ; a family man like me dare n't do it." The Zadoc Rogers Mansion, Lowell. Endowed by .M iss Elizabeth Rogers as Rogers Hall School. TYNGSBOROUGH, 1673-1809 ' For once for fear of Indian beating Our grandsires bore their guns to meeting. Each man equipped on Sunday-morn With psalm-book, shot, and powder-horn!' McFlNGAL. The bard, John Trumbull, writes of King Philip's War, when Tyngsborough, Chelmsford, and Dracut men went armed to the ploughing. And these were the days when the farmer built first his house and then laid out the road over the- grassy path to his neighbor's door, and when the size of the wood-pile in front of the farmhouse declared to the wise the rank of the owner. Beyond Stony Brook, a half-mile above North Chelms ford, you will mark a ferry, somewhat after the fashion of the ancient chain ferry, crossing the Merrimack to Tyng's Island, the old Wickasuck Island of Tyngsborough. Hid den by pines is the summer house of the Vesper Country Club, with its fine golf course. The factitious Indian attack of the Knights Templars some years ago had a flavor of the days when Tyngsborough was the First Parish of Dun stable, a frontier town of seven garrisons, commanded by Colonel Jonathan Tyng, who faced the foe in his fortified house — and known as the ' ' Haunted House ' ' — alone. After King Philip's War, the last of the Pawtuckets, or Praying Indians, lived under the charge of Colonel Tyng, to whom the Court presented this island. The Tyng garrison stood on the little hill close to the Tyngsborough road opposite the ferry landing; beyond, at Drake's Corner, are the spacious halls, decorated in quaint scenes on silvery gray paper, built by Eleazer Tyng in 1700; on the great rock Tyngsborough 1 1 3 where Whitefield preached, shaded by a twisted butternut, is a tablet to Wannalancet, who lies at the feet of his friend Jonathan Tyng, in the family burying-ground yonder. Dudley Atkins Tyng, Reporter of Decisions, was of this family. A mile up the river, in the village, the Brinley homestead speaks of a splendid hospitality.' The tragedy of Holden's Brook was the shooting of the celebrated Joe English,^ who taunted his Indian captors to save himself from torture. There is still a Bancroft farm, and many are the descend ants of the Spauldings, Esterbrooks, Colbums, Farwells, Vamums, Butterfields, Fletchers, and the Perhams of 1760. Among the famous sons of Tyngsborough are two chief jus tices. Judge John Tyng, and Hon. William A, Richardson, Secretary of the Treasury, ' The eminent lawyer, Francis Brinley, died at Newport. The great house at Tyngsborough was filled with fine portraits and the most elegant appointments. This distinguished family came from the village of Datehett near Windsor, the scene of Sir John Falstaff's ducking in the Merry Wives of Windsor. The occasion of leaving England was the con fiscation of certain estates in the Cromwell epoch. The life of Grissell Brinley, the bride of Nathaniel Sylvester, the founder of the historic house on Shelter Island, is full of romantic interest. Many of the Brin ley heirlooms went to the bottom of the sea when they, with her brother Francis, were wrecked off Newport in the Goldeti Parrot. " Joe English, a friendly Indian, and a great favorite in the settlements, was a grandson of the Sachem of Agawam (Ipswich) . The tradition goes that on the hill in New Boston named for him, Joe, being pursued by an Indian, and finding escape impossible, threw himself suddenly over a precipice on to a familiar ledge, while his pursuer, unable to stop, was dashed to pieces below. Ford was another "Indian fighter," He was splitting logs when a party of Indians pounced suddenly upon him. Pretending to be very anxious to finish his work, he asked them to pull, while he drove the wedge, then quickly knocked the wedge out instead of in, and they were his prisoners, with their fingers caught fast. NASHUA, 1673 " What time the noble Lovewell came With fifty men from Dunstable The cruel Pequ'at tribe to tame." Ballad of Lovewell's Fight, 1725, Nashua, N. H., just across the border of the old Bay State, on the Nashua River, and a part of the two-hundred- miles-square township of Old Dunstable, is to all outward ap pearance a sprightly young manufacturing city, yet the deer and bear were scared off by the whetting of the farmer's scythe many, many years ago, and houses were planted on Salmon Brook as early as 1673, Thoreau discovered traces, a mile up the brook, of the cellar of "old John Love- well," an ensign of Oliver Cromwell, who lived to the age of one hundred and twenty years ; notwithstanding his part in the Narragansctt Swamp fight, he was unmolested through several Indian wars, because he had done some kindness to his neighbor of the forest. The smoke from Lovewell's chimney must have been a welcome sight to Hannah Duston after her long flight from above Penacook ' (Concord), fear ing to see at any moment a redskin's birch canoe cross her jjath. Lo\'cwcll is best known as the father of the valiant Captain Lovewell, who fell in "Lovewell's Fight" at Pe- quawket (Frycburg, Ale.), where, as the song goes, "they killed Lieutenant Robbins, and wounded good voung Fryc." ^ The English numbered thirty-four and the rebel ' In 1660 Vhv bold and warlike Penacooks, fearing an attack from the Mohawks, nici\-ed ilown lo Pawtucket (in Lowell); the following year in an e.xiu'ilition against this powerful enemy they were nearly all destroyed, the remainder joining the Praying Indians of Wamesit. -' Chaplain Jonathan Frye of Old .\ndover begged his comrades, Eleazer 114 Nashua 115 Indians four-score, yet the English were left in possession of the field. Chief Paugus fell also, owing to a slip of his ramrod, through which he lost two seconds in the race be tween himself and Chamberlain in cleaning, loading, and firing their guns by Saco Pond. Paugus had raised his gun to his shoulder as Chamberlain fired. But what availed the tomahawk's protest ! The red man had already deeded away his magnificent hunting-grounds by a mere beaver or arrow mark to a laboring man despising game and sport and of great common sense ; to a race which had crossed over a wide sea in order to plant enduring towns. The mill-wheel, turning near yonder rude bridge flung over the Indian's "carrying place," had driven the beaver and musk-rat further up-stream. The very wayside flowers, the free, wild things, were already nodding to more civilized foreign rivals scattered broadcast from English grain sown in Indian cornfields; glorious native mountain laurel, — carpeting the woods with snow in July , — the clinging trailing arbutus, delicate wind-flowers, Indian pipe, the red lily, purple iris, and the golden-rod were told by the South wind and the East wind of a new pale-faced being who threw up the rocks of good Mother Earth into stone walls, strewing his pathway with the dandelion and trefoil, the yarrow, pink and white, silvery mullein, and prickly bur dock; and, moreover, of a strangely refined and experienced woodsman who, with dim longings for cathedral arches, cleared away the lesser trees, leaving the lofty elm and sym pathetic willows to adorn his door-yard and the village green. A hundred and fifty years are gone and this new Angle- race is engaged in throwing off old " coils" in open warfare. Davis of Concord and Lieutenant Farwell of Dunstable to leave him and save themselves. Hawthorne's story of Roger Malvin's Burial is said to have been built upon this pathetic incident. Ii6 ' Nay, chide mc not because my pipe oft sings Of country doings and of common things' Of sun-steeped fields where men forestall the day To gather tip iti mows the winter's hay." The Kustic Pod Soliloqtiizes (Richard Burton). Nashua 1 1 7 Nashua's flourishing farms advanced promptly to the front in the Revolutionary siege of ' 7 s . Bancroft says, ' ' The hus bandmen about Nashua had already sent many loads of rye to the poor of Boston." Concord Street is the finest in Nashua, — "The Gateway of the Switzerland of America." CHELMSFORD, 1653-1655 " Let the wealthy and great Roll in splendor and state, I envy them not, I declare it. I eat my own Lamb, My own Chicken and Ham, I shear my own Fleece, and I wear it. I have fruits, I have Flowers. I have Lawns, I have Bowers, The Lark is my morning alarmer. So Jolly Boys now Here 's God speed the Plough, Long life and success to the Farmer. " ' Song of an axciext Pitcher, But a half-hour's ride from Lowell lies the little hamlet of Chelmsford, named for the English town on the river Chel- mer. The charming old town is sought by lovers of grassy lanes, of quaint homesteads, of real country roads, bounded by stone walls, and scented with wild blossoms, Robin's Hill is a favorite climb, and its wide-spreading landscape after sun- Tlic C:hn\ler, Ml Saints' Church, Chelmsford. set includcS the dis- ' Inscribed on a ]iitclier, decorated with agricultural implements, one hundred and fifl>' >ears old, inherited from Oliver Pierce of Chelmsford by Miss Marriclte Rea. Chelmsford 119 tant lights of "The Hub." Daughters of the American Revolution delight in interviewing the town clerk, in whose CHELMSFORD LANDMARKS: Fiske house. Central Square. Henry Farwell-Timothy Adams house. On " The Road to the Bay," old thoroughfare from Groton and Lancaster by Chelmsford and Billerica to Boston. First Parish Church, on site of first edifice, 1665. Chelmsford Burying-ground. Sol diers' Monument. Captain Davis- Worthen house, Worthen St. Lovell Fletcher-Crosby Farm, 1800. Albert Perham house with three- fiued chimney and two ovens. John Perham Cider Farm (1664), residence Henry S. Perham, Emerson house, 1660, Spalding house, 1769, The Richardson farm. Bartlett House (1699) Old Tavern, residence J. Adams Bartlett. Gibson-Adams- Bartlett house, residence of C. E, A. Bartlett. Robin's Hill. " Heyward Garrison," South Chelmsford. charge are the ideally kept records of the mother-town of Lowell ; the Molly Vamum Chapter have erected a boulder on the spot where Captain Ford's Company assembled in April, '75. Parson Bridge, one of Chelmsford's famous preachers, requested the men to go first to the meeting-house for prayer, but Captain Ford replied, " More urgent business is on hand, ' ' and hastened toward Concord.' In this company enlisted Governor Benjamin Pierce of New Hamp shire (father of the President), who was born in East Chelmsford, now Lowell. He was ploughing when a messenger shouted news of the battle; tying his steers to a stump, he walked to Concord. In a subsequent battle where the color-bearer was shot, he seized the colors and bore them to the front. In the peaceful bury ing-ground (1690) lie some forty Revolutionary heroes. The Chelmsford Social Library, established in 1794 by the Rev. Hezekiah Packard, is merged, into the Adams Library. Among the teachers of the Chelmsford Classical School were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Benjamin P. Hunt, and Professor John Dalton. The building is the present parsonage of the Central Baptist Society, whose church stands on the site of the Colonel Samson Stoddard house, in which, according to Parson Bridge's Diary, he "Dined with his Excellency the Governor and Hon. Mr. Bowdoin," June 24, 1763. ^Chelmsford, by Henry S. Perham, in Kurd's Middlesex County. BILLERICA, 1650-1655 " The white man comes with a list of ancient Saxon, Norman, atid Celtic names and strews them up and down this river, — Framingham, Sudbury, Bedford, Carlisle, Billerica, Chelmsford, — and this is New Angle-land, and these are the West Saxons, whom the red tnen call, not Angle-ish or English, but Yengcese, and so at last they are known for Yankees!' — Thoreau's Week on The Concord. Billerica of the wine-glass elms and mighty oak must go hand in hand with Chelmsford in historic interest. The ancient " Billerickey, " declared by the records of 1661 "a hopeful plantation," extended from Cambridge to the mouth of the Concord River, and with Chelmsford was pos sessed of grants including the larger part of Lowell and Tewksbury. Billerica is endowed with the fairest gifts which Nature can bestow: grassy roads, beguiling trout-brooks, crystal ponds, and two sweet, refiective streams, — the Concord and the town's especial love, Shawshine, the meandering. This sleepy and neighborly stream delights in creeping this way and that, to gossip at the stoops of half the towns of old Middlesex. An enchanting spot on the Shawshine is the vine-wrapped ruin of the aqueduct of the old Middlesex Canal, once a quaint and fa^'orite means of transit to Bos ton. For the sake of drinking in all the summer sights and sounds one would like to board a canal-boat this very sum mer's day, loitering by village spires between fields luminous with buttercups and daisies (" pesky weeds " from the farm er's point of view, "henderin' the first hayin'"), and occa sionally sweep the strings of Miss Guiney's Roadside Harp: Billerica 121 Sweet is cherry-time, sweet A shower, a bobolink. And the little trillium blossom Tucked under her leaf to think." Billerica's bustling taverns were many and noted in the latter part of the eighteenth century; the winding of horns, cracking of whips, and shouts of "The stage, the stage!" heralding the heavily laden stage-coach from Franconia Notch rumbling on toward Boston made halcyon times for the tavern-keeper. Billerica did not escape Indian calamity A Waste-Way of the Old Middlesex Canal, Billerica. or the witchcraft mania, and "stories of sorcery and mid night carousals filled with terror the simple and imaginative country folk." ' One of the Minute-men of this patriotic town, Thomas Ditson, Jr., while innocently trying to ' Billerica, by Frederick P, Hill, in Drake's History of Middlesex County. [22 Old Paths and Legends of New England purchase a gun, was tarred and feathered and drawn through the streets of Boston to the tune of Yankee Doodle by a mob of British soldiery, on the pretence that he was "a rebel tempting a soldier to desert," Near the bridge on the The Planning Homestead, i~p2, Billerica. Open to visitors in summer. North Billerica road, the weather-beaten homestead on the left in front of which is a memorial boulder, was the home of Asa Pollard, the first man killed at Bunker Hill by a can non ball thrown from the line-of-battle ship Somerset, wit nessed and remarked upon by Colonel Prescott himself. i\t the dame's school of 1680, little scholars gathered about the fireside and studied from the ancient horn -book, — a square of transparent horn with the alphabet pasted on the back. Pemberton Academy flourished in 1 797, and Billerica Billerica 123 was known as a literary centre. Among her names of dis tinction are Governor Talbot of Massachusetts, Governor Steams of New Hampshire, the Rev. Elias Nason, Miss Elizabeth Peabody, and the Rev. Minot J. Savage. The Rev. Samuel Whiting established an eminent family, and the Danforths, Parkers, Crosbys, Kidder s, Roger ses, Whit mans, Lockes, Prestons, and Faulk- ners are prominent throughout the town records. In the vocabulary of this Bil lerica of ours, and in secluded farming districts of New England, the casual visitor marks occasional quaint phrases now obsolete in Eng land. At the old homestead farm on Thanksgiving day the white- haired house-mother — gentlewo - man to her finger-tips — having heaped some twenty plates with turkey and ' ' fixins, ' ' seizes the golden opportunity to inculcate a bit of thrift and table manners into the lively mind of her youngest grandson with her mother's early precept: "Look out for your arts, sonny, look out for your arts, then Grand ma '11 give you a piece of mince-pie ! " The city boy's mother has to translate the queer word to her little son, telling him that it means that the odds and ends left upon his plate must be duly swallowed. The expressive Yankee excla mation, "Oh dear me, suz!" is, in the original, "Oh dear me, sorrows! " BILLERICA LANDMARKS: North BiUerka : Asa Pollard house and boulder; first man killed at Battle of Bunker HiU, John Rogers Farm (1695) ; scene of Indian massacre. Talbot Memorial Hall, near railroad station. Billerica 1 Bennett Hall (1800), Residence of the Hon. Joshua Bennett Holden. Howe School (1852). Stearns House (181 1), now " Hillhurst." Site Old Danforth Garrison house (1676), River St., near "Fairview " J. Neisou Parker residence. Bowers home stead C1804) ; summer residence of the Rev. Minot J. Savage. Bennett Library and Historical Rooms. Unitarian Church (1697), org. 1663; view from belfry. Town Hall. Sol diers' Monument, The Common, Whitman's Lane, from Bedford St. to Concord River. South Burying Ground, Bedford St, Jaquith home stead, cor. Old Middlesex Turnpike, Jaqui*h "Garrison," Nutting's Pond and Causeway, i;^ mile from Square. Bowman house, once famous hos telry on Lexington Road. Winning's Pond. Gilson's HiU. Site Fletcher "Garrison" (1676), Allen St. Fox Hill Cemetery, Old Aqueduct over Shawshine River and Old Middlesex Canal (near Wilmington linej. Con tent Brook. MIDDLESEX FELLS AND REVERE BEACH Middlesex Fells and Revere Beach are everybody's play ground ; they are dedicated by the State to the people, and are a part of the almost ideal metropolitan park system of Boston, The Fells ' is a tract of wild woodland two miles square, a veritable paradise for children, — especially children of a larger growth. The grand feast of nature is spread be fore him who wishes to enjoy, accompanied by the melody of birds and brooks and talking trees, and the most beautiful woodland roads and footpaths wind in and out and across causeways between great ponds, where the sunset views defy description; the nature-lover lingers bewitched, until "The night shuts the woodside , with all its whispers up. " The Met ropolitan Park Commissioners are continually opening new paths for pleasure, and every year interest increases in their artistic work; our unrivalled park systems, we are told, may one day reach in an unbroken chain from the eastern seaboard to the shores of California.^ Revere Beach, the new American Brighton, has been under constant improvement by the Park Commissioners for many months. The original "shantydom" which destroyed the singularly beautiful line of the beach has been literally swept away. Everything has been arranged to forward the healthful pleasure of those who delight to disport them selves on the sand or in the ocean ; the immense bath-house, with subway passages to the beach, is not the usual blot on the landscape ; and there is music for the multitude. A fine promenade and a roadway are being built, and it is probable may be extended towards King's Beach reservation, and to Chelsea and Boston, eventually bordering the whole North ' "Park-Making as a National Art," .-Mlantic Monthly, Jaunary, 1897. ^ The lioston Park Guide, by Svb'esler Baxter. 124 Middlesex Fells and Revere Beach 125 Shore. At Chelsea a park is being laid out by the city ad joining the Naval Hospital grounds. Near by is the site of the first house in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and under the shadow of Powderhorn Hill stands the Pratt house, black Revere Beach Reservation, in Front of the Government Baih-Housc. with the good old age of nearly two hundred and fifty years. Winnisimmet (Chelsea) was declared by Ward to be "a very sweet place for a situation, being fit to entertain more planters than are as yet seated." Winnisimmet Ferry was kept by Thomas Marshall in 1 6 3 5 . The Marquis Chastellux, crossing in 1782, lamented that it should take seven tacks in a scow filled with cattle to reach Boston town. On Pullin Point, now Winthrop, is the house of the sixth son of Governor Winthrop, — Deane Winthrop, — built about 1650. NAHANT " Skoal ! to the Northland! Skoal I" " Of \'mer's flesh Was earth created. Of his blood the sea." The Elder Edda. The Norwegian sagas of long, long ago tell us that Bjame of Iceland, colony of the sea-kings, drifted far out of his course as he sailed toward Greenland. Light and land were hid by clouds and sleet blowing about, these being the "brains of the Giant Ymer." Suddenly Balder, " god of the summer sun," smiled upon his ship, throwing a path of golden light across the blood of Ymer, and revealed to Bjame an unknown land without overshadowing mountains. Returning to the Northland, the wonders of his adventure fired the bold Leif, son of Eric the Red, King of the Vik (bay), to discover anew the sunlit country of wooded hills. It was now the year looo, and King Olaf commanded Leif to carry hither the good news of Bethlehem, which the harpers had sung to his people. Thus he sailed, and sailed, standing high on the bow, guiding the oarsmen over Bjame's course. For days the ship swept on before favorable winds, the rowers' scats were em]rty, the battle-shields hung along the gunwales. (Jne morning, the raven-pilot let loose did not return to the masthead, and Leif, pointing the huge dragon-prow o\'cr the bird's flight, entered a fjord and landed where grapes \\'cre plenty. Erickson turning his ship into a house, dwelt here in \"incland, where there is no long darkness. Thorwald, his brother, exploring the coast in 1004, seeing a remarkable headland holding a bay, named 126 Nahant and the Norsemen 127 it Kialames, or Keel-Cape, because of its resemblance to a ship's keel (probably Cape Cod). Another day they were attracted by a promontory covered with wood and battle- mented by stone (Nahant).' The Viking exclaimed, "Here it is beautiful, and here I should like to fix my dwelling!" On Cottage of George H. Mifflin, Nahant. Egg Rock Light. "Across the narrow beach we flit One little sand-piper and I!' — Celia Thaxter. the sandy beach three canoes hid each three Indians who had seen this strange big canoe approaching from their ' ' Sea of Darkness " (the Atlantic Ocean). The Norsemen and the ' Some believe that the promontory on which Thorwald landed was Hull, others Gurnet Point. A party of young Norsemen built a ship after the pattern of the Vikings and voyaged from Norway to the "World's Pair'' at Chicago in 1893, 128 Old Paths and Legends of New England Skralligs fought, and Thorwald, finding his arrow -wound mortal, said: "I now advise you to take your departure, but nu' yc shall bring to the promontory where I thought g()( )d to dwell. There ye shall bury me, and plant a cross at my head and at my feet and call the place Krossaness — Cape of the Cross -in all time to come." Ci.|n right Ch.is. B, Wvbster The .Valiant Life-saving Crew. ".4 Gun .' Where Away :'" Ikdow the Clift" Walk of Great Nahant, the salt waters rushing in and out of wide fissures, di\-ing into the Swallows' Cave and otlior t^rottos, gossip all the while in an undertone of the coiirtsliip of AA'enepoykin, Sagamore of Lynn and Cbolsoa, and .\liana>-et, maid of Nahant, daughter of Po- qtianum, the /',/;/,¦ .S7,'//;, or "Black Will," who is said to ha\o sold his birtlirit^ht, Nahant, to Thomas Dexter, for a suit of clothes. The throe beautiful daughters of Wenepoy- kin (a feather) wore called Wanapanaquin, the Plumed Ones. Nahant a Sheep Pasture 129 He was the youngest son of Nanepashemet, the Great Moon Chief, who left Lynn when he heard the Taratines were sharpening their tomahawks to take vengeance, and fortified himself at Mistic (Medford). In the Puritan period, when wolves were plenty and sheep few, a demure and silent shepherdess watched the first flocks of New England lest they fall into the sea. Mehitable heeded the Province laws which forbade her "to hold con verse with the young men meanwhile," and obediently spun the family tax of woollen yarn. Peradventure when a smit ten shepherd came to the rescue of her wandering sheep the law was not broken by the glance which said, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" Copyright Chas. B. Webster. " She 's Fast ! To the Rescue ! " Nahant was the pet pasture of the Lynn farmer of old, who drove his flock behind the wolf barrier across the nar row neck of the Long Beach, linking Great and Little Na- biant ; he was wroth, indeed, when Mr. Edmund Randolph, I30 Old Paths and Legends of New England " the Collector, Surveyor, and Searcher in New England," instant in the taking away of our colonial charter, after as suring the King that the "bank" of "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" might be di verted to build an Episcopal church, also hesitated not to ask Governor Andros to grant him Nahant as his private domain. Seeing "our Nahants" in danger of alienation, the men of Lynn protested without avail ; fortunately, the landing of the Prince of Orange at Torbay, with the spirited rising of Boston against the tyrannical Governor, prevented more insult, and the men of Lynn went up to Boston to help unseat the hated Andros and his Councillors. The following extract " from a Manuscript Account of the Insurrection among the papers of the Archbishop of Can terbury, is said to have been written by Randolph himself" (Lewis): "April 19th about 11 o'clock the country came in, headed by one Shepard, teacher of Lynn, like so many wild bears, and the leader, mad with passion more savage than any of his followers. AU the cr\' was for the Governor and Mr. Randolph." The modem air of the aristocratic old watering-place, — Nahant, — this rocky promontory discovered by Agassiz to be older than the Continent of Europe, is rife with traditions of science, literature, and statesmanship. Nahant's long fa miliar l(n'crs were Longfellow, Motley, Agassiz, Prescott, Wendell Phillips, and the Eliots, Amor}-s, Austins, Princes, Minots, Codmans. The clift' path to-day passes through the estate of the Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge. Among the pioneer cottages were those of the Breeds, Hoods, Johnsons, and Tudors. At the Jonathan Johnson house t1ic Song of Hiawatha was written. The pulpit of this oldest Union Church has been filled by famous preachers for fifty years. The jiggers of Swampscott swoop like curlews over the- Copyright Chas. B, Webster, 131 Hold Fast ! See the Life-Boat ! ' 132 Old Paths and Legends of New England foaming wake of great steamers making port by Egg Rock, " a " hon couchant" on the sea. The traveller listens with Longfellow to the iiells of Lynn: " Borne on the evening wind across the crimson twilight. O'er land and sea they rise and fall, O bells of Lynn! The fisherman in his boat far out beyond the headland. Listens and leisurely rows ashore, 0 bells of Lynn!" In Boston Harbor the setting sun touches the islands and inleted shore, burnishes the State House dome, tips Bunker Hill Monument and the many-masted craft with gold, Minot's Ledge Light flashing far to the left is the finishing touch to a twilight pastel. Hemlocks in the Fells. LYNN (SAUGUS) 1629 " The bonnie heire, the weel faured heire. And the weary heire of Lynne, Yonder he stands at his father's gate And naebody bids him come in.'' " The Heir of Lynne." Old Ballad. Lynn of the New World challenges, forsooth, to legendary combat Lynn Regis or King's Lynn, famous for shrimps, that extremely ancient Saxon harbor town, fiavored with its far-back Roman Empire nautical lore and favored by King John with his sword and a silver cup. Farther down the centuries it is well known as a storied bit of Norfolk, Eng land, as we find in Thomas Hood's delicious verse : " Two stern-faced men set out from Lynn Through the cold and heavy mist; And Eugene Aram walked between With gyves upon his wrist." It must be acknowledged that our Lynn never possessed such a "Friar" as theirs, who by magic art flew over the seaport's embattled wall to the North Pole. Yet to her belong transatlantic Norwegian and Indian myths ; more over, our wonder - seeking dame weird Moll Pitcher, the Prophetess, here dwelt in lonely witchery under the shadow of High Rock, now itself overshadowed by traffic in the bewildering undertaking of fashioning daintily, by the million, my lady's shoe. An early New England fol lower of St. Crispin, Phillip Kertland by name, is said to have made for all the maids of Saugus, the name by which Lynn was first known, a pair of neat's leather shoes matched 13.^ 134 Old Paths and Legends of New England by another pair fashioned in white satin for their wedding day. About 1727 the maid's buckles went out of date, and in 1750 a Welshman, John Adam Dagyr, made the town celebrated for the production of foot-gear quite on a par with the best EngHsh make, thereby laying the foundation LYNN °^ ^ gigantic industry. The first emigrant "shoomaker" of New England, a Thomas Beard, was of LANDMARKS: High Rock, i8o feet, (View of Massachusetts Bay.) House of Alonzo Lewis, the Lynn bard, Boston St. Old Hathorne| SUCh importance that he WaS aS- house, now Lynn Hospital, Boston . i o /¦. i- i i i .1 St. Ocean St. Lynn and Nahant' SlgUCd fifty aCreS of land by the Beaches (or Long Beach). Soldiers' Monument. Oxford Club House. City Hall. Kettle, first iron cast in America by Joseph Jenks, first founder, *' who worked in brass and iron," here shown. Lover's Leap, 133 feet, West Lynn. Site of the first Iron Works in U. S. at Saugus, 1642, Floating Bridge, Glenmere Road, The Fay estate — in 1700 estate of Dr. Caspar Richter van Crowninscheldt, ancestor of the Crowninshields — Cot ton Mather praised the virtues of his New England Company, who men tioned in their letter of advice of 1629, that "the said Thos. Beard hath in the ship ^lay Flower, divers hydes wch hee intends to make upp in boots and shoes there in the countr\'." In the days of JuHus Cjesar. Red Spring. Rhodes Memorial' Paris itsclf is Said to havc been a Chapel, in Pine Grove Cemetery. I .,., . ^ .. .. .. Johnson's Grove. Lynn Woods ^ ShCCr COllCCtlOn Of hutS, and the (2000 acres). Sadler's Rock of pixr- ple porphyry. From hills of por phyry were erected St, Stephen's and the First UniversaUst Churches, Supplementary: Annals of Lynn. by Alonzo Lewis and James R, New- hall. Lynn Woods, by Nathan M, Hawkes. Boston Park Guide, by Sylvester Baxter, earlv "Proprietors' of Lynn," for the most part, lived in thatched cottages facing the south, each in itself a "domestic sun-dial," for when the sun "shone square" at noon, the h'us'wife knew it was time to call her good man in to dinner, of which it seems ' The largest Proprietor bein.q granted eight hundred acres, was Lord Brook, who never entered into his coxeted heritage of liberty in America, because this "fanatic Brook." as Scott calls him in Marmion, was .shot down as he "stormed and took" the fair cathedral of Litchfield. Other |)ro|)rietors were Edward Ilolyoke. ancestor of Elizur Holyoke, for whom Mt. Ilolyoke was n:imed; .Mien Breed, Nicholas Brown, Edward Howe, also 'rnmlins, Hawkes, Burrill, Hutchinson, Newhall, Ballard, Howell, and the "very learned Samuel Whiting," The sons of the last Lynn 135 pumpkins was a prominent dish. Edward Johnson said, in his Wonder-Working Providence, " Let no man make a jest of Pumpkins, for with this food the Lord fed his people till Come and Cattell increased." "The Simple Cobler of Aggawam. Willing to help 'tnend hisNative Country!' {From life). "Jest like the old feller's shop where I use to swap politics!' {Com ment by Farmer B.) The village folk were much put about by a visit from pirates, who anchored, tradition says, in Saugus River. The stranger crew were seen to hasten westward seeking an named became ministers, one in England, another at Billerica, and the third in Southampton, L. I. Caroline Lee Hentz, the author, was the daughter of General John Whiting and sister of General Henry Whiting. Among the Kertlands (or Kirkland) family is Rev. Daniel Kertland of Norwich, Rev. Samuel Kertland, missionary to the Oneida Indians, father of John Thornton Kirkland, President of Harvard. Southampton, L. I., was settled by the Kertlands, Job Sayre, Farrington, and others^ because they had found themselves "straitened" at Lynn. 136 Old Paths and Legends of New England impregnable spot in the recesses of the forest. This deep and narrow valley in Lynn Woods, hidden by pines and hemlocks, is known as the Pirates' Glen. From one point on the summit of the craggy rocks the banditti could spy the coast. Near the iron foundry a workman found a paper setting forth that if certain iron tools, including shackles and hatchets, were left on that spot, silver would be left in re turn, which came to pass, as the villagers dared not refuse. But men from a King's cruiser followed, discovered their hiding-place, and carried three of the pirates away to be executed. The fourth, Thomas Veal, concealed himself in a cavernous rock with the plunder, where he was buried alive by the great earthquake of 1658 in the Pirates' Dun geon. This rock was excavated nearly two centuries later by Hiram Marble, inspired by supposed "revelations" of pirate treasure. His labor was fruitless, and Marble's dollar bonds are "null," indeed quite void, inasmuch as his "spirit- led" tunnel is controlled bv the Public Forest Trustees. The Great ^A'oods Road, once the woodman's cart -path, cuts so wide a swathe as it enters Lynn Woods by Glen Lewis Pond that it covers all trace of the ancient Blood Swamp Landing, where the Woodenders, Gravesenders, Nahant Streeters, and Mansfieldenders gee'd and haw'd to the patient o.xen from their wood-sleds. Once again we hold Lynn Woods in common, as did the colonists till it was divided among the freeholders in 1706. The ten crystal ponds, chained as it were within the town 1)Ounds, mirrored hosts of wild fowl, and William Wood, ar riving in Lynn soon after the Ingalls settlers, tells us in his charming Neiv Englands Prospect that the sun's light was obscured by the swarming flight of wild pigeons, — the In dian's icuseowan, or "wanderer." Behind these \'cncrable boughs and ledges of tinted por phyry lurks no catamount or bear, and the great Wolf-Pits, Lynn Woods 137 dug by the farmers, still there after two hundred years, catch no game ; the last captives being a squaw and a wolf who sat, each in a horrid fright, staring at each other. Strolling through a lane of pines in Penny Brook Glen, or Glen Lewis Road, Lynn Woods. another, there is a spirit of mild adventure in a chance squirrel or woodchuck, a fox, or even an unexpected water fall chiming with the wild-wood voice of the hermit-thrush, — "all the sweeter because he is a hermit." The mystic fairy ring marks Oberon revels or some sylvan Arabian Nights' Entertainments related to the listening cedars by a dryad perched on a mossy boulder. A climb to Tophet Ledge, Burrill Hill, or to Mount Gilead (267 feet) reveals the larger part of the Puritan's country. 138 Old Paths and Legends of New England from the Blue Hills and Cohasset along the coast by the marshes of Saugus and Revere, following northward the line of curving surf toward Mt. Agamenticus. Lynn Beach, wlicre the Indians held running matches, is the city's in- -1 By-Path, Lynnfield. valuable rescr\'ation for coming centuries. On Lynn Ter race below ( )ccan Street, where the lawns of beautiful homes almost touch green water, the haiTnonious scene is illumined by tlic lines of Aldrich: For me the clouds; the ships sail by for me; For me the petulant sea-gull takes her flight; And mine the tender moonrise on the sea." SWAMPSCOTT, 1637-1852 The Swampscott highway hugs King's Beach and Whales Beach on the right ; to the left is the beautiful Mudge estate with the Mudge Memorial Church, formerly owned by the Hon. Ebenezer Burrill ; beyond, lovely Paradise Road winds through the woodland. There are hosts of wild flowers in Swampscott, — hepatica, bloodroot, yellow violet, and fringed gentian ; and at midsummer such a glory of yellow broom covers the rocky pastures that it would seem as if a King Midas gifted with the Golden Touch had passed this way. Yet some matter-of-fact historian may whisper to you that, after all (the Genista tinctoria), a proud Plantagenet plume, was merely an immigrant in Endicott 's goodly company. To Master Wib Ham Humphrey was granted Swamp scott; on his arrival with his wife. Lady Susan of Lincoln, he distributed a gift from one Andrew, Alderman of Lon don, of fifteen heif- Our Friend the Captain. ers, eight of which were for the Colony's ministers and the remainder for the poor. The Lady Deborah Moodie 139 I40 Old Paths and Legends of New England bought his farm, "to her undoing," she being the occasion of great distress to the elders of the Salem Church. She was presented at the Quarterly Court, with Mrs. King and the wife of John Tilton, in 1642, not as "common sleepers in time Short Beach, Swampscott — The Galloup House, on Galloup's Point. " Splendiirs of morning the billow-crests brighten. Lighting and luring them on to the land." —"Surf," E. C. Stedman. of the exercise of preaching," but for houldinge infant bap tism a sinful ordinance. Dame Deborah fled from intoler ance, and at Long Island she rendered such great assistance to Governor Stuyx'csant that he at once conceded the nomi nation of the magistrates that year to her. Passing the quaint Blaney homestead, the road winds in land. The view towards Phillips Beach is one of green Swampscott 141 meadows, summer villas, and blue sea, to which the occa sional high ledges on the left are in striking contrast. Be yond is cloistered Crowningshield Lane at Clifton, Clifton Heights, and Gun Rock, together with the old Devereux mansion along shore ; the brave harbor of Marblehead reins in the prancing horses of the sea, saucily stamping and foaming half a league out around Half- Way Rock, on whose rugged, frowning slopes the outgoing fisherman must toss a coin to bring him " good luck and safe return." Trace Longfellow s fancy in purple, fantastic flames of The Fire of Drift-Wood, at the old Devereux farm whose windows look over the bay : " Not far away we saw the port. The strange, old-fashioned, silent, town, The lighthouse, the dismantled fort " " from out the fire Built of the wreck of stranded ships The flames would leap and expire. And, as their splendor flashed and failed We thought of wrecks upon the main. Of ships dismasted, that were hailed And sent no answer back again." MARBLEHEAD, 1629-1649 "Marvill Head is a place which lictli four miles south from Salem, and is a very convenient place for a plantation; especially for such as will set upon the trade of fishing. Here be a good harbor for boats and a safe riding for ships." — New Englands Prospect, 1633. Marble Harbor is best loved of the old fishing-towns. There is a hint of far-away Devonshire in the manner in which the fisher-folk set their " quaint clusters of gray houses crowding down unto the harbor's edge!' Even the casual summer visitor "champions to the death" the odd little village which betrays its thrilling sea-histor}' in e\'ery nook and corner; salty wharves and cobble-stones, bewitching old-fashioned gardens where unseaworth}' dories and buckets carry a blossoming freight of warmest, deepest color ; houses stand cornerwise on the amazing lanes — paths of the prime val calf followed by a million men ' — and the unexpected is always with us. Just such a crooked labyrinth of streets confronted the elegant Sir Henry Frankland, his ]\Iajesty's new Collector of Customs and his liveried servant; seeking refreshment they gladly followed the direction of an open- mouthed urchin, to stand oft" on the "lorboard tack" till they came to Moll Pitcher's, where a street to the leeward cur\'cd toward the shabby inn. (This led up to a love ejiisodc that fascinated (Oliver Wendell Holmes in one of his playful moods, and more than one grave historian has analyzed its touching points.) On the foll Franklin and Washington Sts. Par son Barnard house, Franklin St. " The Old Brig," Orne St. Site of Fountain Inn, Orne St. Old Fort Washington. Burying Hill, Sail ors' Monument, erected by Marble head Seamen's Charitable Society. Powder House (l755). Ferry Road or Green St. Skipper Ireson house. Circle St. Mugford house, Back St. Gen. Glover house, Glover St. Old Tavern, corner Glover and Front Sts. Colonel Jonathan Glover, or '* The Eagle " house. Front St. Old Cus tom house. Tucker house (1640). Tucker Wharf. Crocker Park. " Bartoll's Head." Fort Sewall. Gerry Island. Peach's Point. Cod- den's Hill, Naugus Head. Com- [44 Old Paths and Legends of New England attractive spot to the reflective mind. Seated under the knotted limbs of a wind-swept tree, near the carved slates that have weathered wintry gales of two centuries, one may gaze across the green dis mantled fort to Little Harbor dotted with sails, and beyond Gerry's Island (where Parson William Walton built his parsonage) to the Great Harbor, made picturesque by the light-house on jagged rocks. modore Tucker house, near Catholic Church, Our Lady, Star of the Sea, MARBLEHEAD GREAT NECK Marblehead Light, Corinthian Yacht Club House. Eastern Yacht Club House. John Andrews (*' Shoreman ") " Samoset House " (1762). The Churn or Spouting Horn, Castle Rock. View Half- Way Rock. Custom for fishermen to throw coin on this rock for " good luck." •"oiWjiB^- The Oliver House. Smith Point. Marblehead. and Crowninshield Estate on Peach's Point. Scene of the First Settlement. To pass aw:i\' tho long evenings, sailors spun yarns of smugglers and pirates hiding their identity as honest guests at the Fountain Inn; of the clever capture of the captain of the bantl, in 1704; of the strange adventures of Marble- Marblehead 145 head's Robinson Crusoe, one Philip Ashton, Jr., who, seized by pirates on the high seas, escaped by concealing himself in the forest on a nameless island, where pirates had landed, tormented by want of fresh water and where he was eventu ally picked up by bluff Captain Dove, of Salem. Some times on a howhng night, just as the story-teller had reached a dramatic point and the cutlasses of the boarding-party were close to the throats of their victims, the boom of a gun signalling a boat in distress would recall to his memory the white wizard of Marblehead; then he would anchor at the most thrilling point and call out "Belay there! barken to the voice of ' Old Dimond ', shrieking orders to the vessels as he 'beats about' among the graves on Burial Hill," No one dared to question "Old Dimond's" power to save from shipwreck; his "black art" became a terror to evil-doers working good and never harm. It was said that he " charmed " the fellow who had stolen a poor widow's wood, compelling him to walk all night with a log of wood on his back, I Early New England was fed on the most uncanny super stitions, and Marblehead absolutely enjoyed witches; no judge ever meddled with Mammy Red for causing the butter churned by her enemies to turn to blue wool ; it was left for Salem to harass their town- witch, and the sons of Marble- head's exclusive and brawny skippers delighted to snub a Salem boy and "rock him around the corner." Marbleheaders were held in admiration by the other colo- nistsfor their brusque independence and extraordinarypowers of fortitude. From Marblehead in June, '75, Colonel John Glover marched forth at the head of a daring company of ' We are indebted to the Honorable Samuel Roads, Jr., for the preserva tion of Marblehead legends of sea and shore. As a boy having indifferent health and kept from school, he listened instead to the yarns of old salts, often above ninety years of age, which are woven into his History and Traditions of Marblehead. 146 Old Paths and Legends of New England soldiers. Time has not dimmed that march or his other cxjdoits by sea and land; the "amphibious" regiment, as Irving called it, was chosen to row Washington across the Delaware and lead the advance at the battle of Trenton. Marblehead Harbor. " My wingi'd boat .i bird afloat." Commodore Tucker secured forty prizes of war and the Marl)lchead fleet of privateers won many a sea-fight. The first British flag was stmck to Captain I\fanlv as he sailed under the Pine Tree flag of Massachusetts, and in Nantasket Roads Captain Mugford defiantly ran off wdth a prize in the face of the Enghsh fleet. Marblehead 147 When Colonel Leslie, of the Royal army, sailed down from the Castle in Boston Harbor to seize Salem's supplies and landed on Homan's Beach, Major John Pedrick galloped to Salem with the startling news. He was one of sixty mer chants of Marblehead whose vessels swept the main and his generosity supplied much-needed stores to the new and quickly formed American government. It was he who in structed his son not to take a single copper in return for his services as a soldier, and requested his daughters to quilt him a belt with silver coin. The opulent Robert Hooper, of grave and stately depute, hugely enjoyed being dubbed "King" by the fishermen for his noble efforts on their be half during the war. A batch of fearless patriots Colonel Jeremiah Lee, Colonel Orne, and Elbridge Gerry, "the Signer," all of Marblehead, had a wonderful escape from the military clutches of the British, by hiding in a cornfield behind Wetherby's Black Horse Tavem after the meeting of the Province Committee of Safety and Supplies. Colonel Lee died from the expos ure. In a long list of recorded guests at the Lee mansion appear the names of Presidents Washington, Monroe, and Jackson, and General Lafayette. Many of the pre-Revolu- tionary houses are well-preserved. Tories did not find hfe here free from agitation, and one, hotly pursued by angry citizens, took refuge in the Bowden house; Mrs, Bowden said: " Gentlemen, I assure you the man you seek is not in the house. On my honor, he is not under this roof; if you persist, you wifl cause the death of my daughter." The search was given up. The escaping Tory was, indeed, not imder the roof, but on top behind the chimney. Dr. Story, of Marblehead, "Son of Liberty," and Samuel Gore, of Boston, made a special capture by gagging the sentinels of the gun-house near Boston Common and carried 148 Old Paths and Legends of New England off the brass cannon to the American lines; these field- pieces, inscribed as The Hancock, sacred to Liberty, and The Adams, served through the war, and are comfortably pen sioned at Bunker Hill Monument.' An interesting piece of the past is St. I\Iichaers Church The Churn, Marblehead Neck. "The sea drew its breath in hoarse and deep, And the next vast breaker Curled its edge, gathering itself for a mightier leap." with its ancient English frame and chandeliers, the oldest Episcopal church building in New England. One of its rectors, the Rev. David Mossom, afterwards settled in Vir- ' Mistress Dorothy De\-ereux, the heroii-ie of the Revolutionary romance From Kingdom to ( 'olony lived in Marblehead, the birthplace of the author, Mrs. Mary Devereu.x Watson, a daughter of Gen, L H. Devereux of the Marblehead Devereu.xs of 1636. Marblehead 149 ginia, performed the marriage ceremony between George Washington and widow Custis, "Church to reverend memories dear. Quaint in desk and chandelier. Bell whose century-rusted tongue Burials tolled and bridals sung." In contrast to sedate history are the gay summer colonies along shore. Picturesque villas have superseded the fish- flakes of John Pedrick and Joshua Coombs, first settlers on the "Great Neck." Pleasure -craft domineer over the once all-powerful fishing-smacks. No more beautiful scene is there in the wide world than the shifting light and shadow over old Marblehead. At sunset, incoming sloops drop rest less sails, displaying stripped masts and black hulls against the golden sky. A purple haze spreads over the glimmering landscape and all the town, from the top of highest spire to edge of low barnacle-studded wharves, becomes one with the darkening water; a tiny launch leaves in her wake a yellow trail of sea-fire between swinging lights aboard har bored vessels; Marblehead Light gleams from the Point, and Hospital Point Light from Beverly; like dim stars twinkle the twin lights of Baker's Island, while Minot's re volves in numbers. You wander to the eastern shore of Great Neck. The red disk of the full moon rising out of a quiet sea presently flings a ribbon of molten silver quite to your feet, cheering the becalmed fisherman as he rows his tiny shallop into port. SALEM (NAUMKEAG), 1626 HE happiest entrance to Salem is by the quaint and winding highway from Marble Harbor, "Sweetly along the Salem road. Bloom of orchard and lilac showed." He who rides up beautiful Lafayette Street under the Derby elms and from Town House Square down " Old Paved Street," may read here and there Salem's distinc tion in colonial annals and moreover her proud Revolution ary record. The fine Armory ' of the Salem Cadets with its beautiful oak-panelled Banqueting Hall and the annual camp ' ' at old Boxford, are tokens of an unfailing patriot ism. In 1789, the bars were let down in the grassy lane, now Lafayette Street, for President AVashington to ride through on his white charger; while he listened to the formal welcome of Senator Goodhue, the artist Mclntire — whose charming ornamental doorways and fanciful gate posts are the hall-marks of his day — sketched Washington's profile, which you mav see at the unique Essex Institute.^ ' The .\rmory (at 136 Essex Street) was the Colonel Francis Peabody mansion. In the Banqueting Hall Prince Arthur was entertained on the occasion of his American trip to attend the funeral of George Peabody, the banker. The North Church contains a La Farge window to the mem ory of Colonel Peabody and his wife. On tills site originalh- stood the house of Emanuel Downing. It was inherited by his daiigliler, who married, first, the famous " Fighting Joe'' (Captain Joseph Gardner) of the Narragansctt wars; second, Governor Simon Bradstreet, who died at Salen-i at ninety-hve years, having out lived all the Winthrop company. " The Essex Institute was founded in 1S48 by the Union of the Essex Historical Societv (first president, Dr. Edward .\. Holyoke, who presided on his hundredth birthday at a dinner of the Massachusetts Medical 150 Salem 151 The repeal of the Stamp Act, in 1765, was celebrated in Salem by a great display of fireworks. Ben jamin Thompson (later Count Rumford),' was injured by the ex plosion of some detonating mix ture which he was preparing for the joyous occasion at the shop of his master, John Appleton. Early in February, 1775, the veterans of Essex County scented powder in the air, for electric cur rents of Revolutionary thought SALEM LANDMARKS: City Hall; contains Frothingham's copy of Stuart's fuU- length**Washington inNewportTown Hall," presented by Abiel Abbot Lo-w to his native city, Salem; portrait of Andrew Jackson by Maj. R. E. W. Earle; contract (1638) concerning enlargement of First Church, proba bly -written by Governor Endicott, with signatures of John Woodbury, William Hathorne, Lawrence Leach, Roger Conant, and John Pickering. Stone Court House contains deeds and wills. Brick Court House, contain ing witch documents and witch pins ; Hunt's portrait of Chief-Justice Shaw; portrait of Rufus Choate by Joseph Ames presented by Gen, B, F, Butler hangs in the Law Library, Town Hall or Market House, Derby Society) and the Essex County Natural History Society. The renowned society is largely the work of Dr. Henry Wheatland. The present presi dent is Robert S. Rantoul. The collection of portraits, water-colors of ships illustrating the naval architecture of Salem, the many colonial properties of her worshipful governors and other Salem worthies, as well as the natural history collection now included in the Peabody Academy of Science founded by George Peabody of London, is described in the Visitors' Guide of the Essex Institute. I The "Rumford Roaster," one of the practical inventions of this remarkable man, was the favorite oven of Salem housekeepers for cooking to a turn their delicate "dier" bread (sponge cake), the art being a part of the education of every properly brought up young lady of old Salem, as well as her admittance to the select circle of the "Misses Wither- spoon's" dame-school in the little Gray house in Essex Street, Very aristocratic was this symposium kept by these fine old gentlewomen — so dear to Eleanor Putnam's childhood^with their elegant manners of days gone by. "At recess the girls were not allowed to romp rudely out of doors, but amused themselves with A Ship from Canton and The Genteel Lady. The boys were told to go out into the yard and shout. Miss Emily seemed to think that boys must go somewhere to shout, as a whale comes up to blow. The boys never did shout. They were too much de pressed by the gentility of everything; they generally sat on a deserted "hencoop and banged their heels." "Another indispensable passport to Salem society of fifty years ago was my grandmother's cashmere shawl," says Miss Silsbee. 152 Old Paths and Legends of New England The Assembly Hall (i^6q), Salon. Residence of Mrs. John Bertram. PresiLient Washington and ihe Marquis de Lafayette atiejided balls hcre^ " iL'eni io assembly, luJiere there was at least a hundred handso}}ie and well- dressed ladies." — Diary of ^Vasiiixgton. — "Mais ce fut a SaUvn que I'eelat de sa reception se fit particulierefnent retnarquer." — Voyage du (n':NERAL Lafayette aux Etats-Uxis d'Amerique. Square, opened 1817 on visit Presi dent Monroe. Narbonne house, 71 Kssex St. Witch House or Judge Jonathan Corwin house{ 1634), Essex and North Sts. Captain John Ber tram house, now Public Library, Essex and Monroe Sts. Benjamin Goodhue house, 403 Essex St. Joshua Ward house, 148 Washing ton St. ; Washington lodged here. IntiersoIlhouse,S4 Turner St., "House of the Seven Gables." " Grimshaw House," 53 Charter St.; home of Sophia Amelia Peabody; house of Hawthorne's courtship. Haw- \\oro flashing between Concord, Boston, and Salem. Cannon were being mounted at the blacksmith's just across the Xorth Bridge. "The regulars are marching on us from .\hirblehead!" had scarcely passed from ]x^w to pew in excited under- tt^nes at afternoon meeting, before the crisp snowcrust was crackling Revolutionary Salem 153 ¦under the tramp, tramp of Colonel 1 Leslie's regiment. His congrega tion with one accord followed Par son Barnard from the North Church to the bridge. The draw had been raised, and two gondolas, in which the British attempted to cross, were quickly scuttled by John Felt and James Barr, defiant of bayonet pricks. Parson Barnard then in terfered for peace on the Lord's Day; Colonel Leslie, reading de termination in the faces about him, while Colonel Timothy Pick ering ^ drew up his men on the other side, gave his word that he would advance only thirty rods be yond the bridge, and, as AIcFingal tells the story, the bold battalion "Marched o 'er a bridge, in open sight Of several Yankees armed for fight. Then, without loss of time or men. Veered round for Boston back again. And found so well their projects thrive. That every soul got home alive." In Salem's infancy a cooling spring bubbled in the market-place. thorne's House, 14 Mall St Haw thorne's birthplace, 27 Union St. Nathaniel Silsbee house, remodelled, 94 Washington Sq. ; Daniel Webster, Henry Clay entertained here. John Andrew Safford house (1818), 13 Washington Sq. Forester house (Salem Club), 29 Washington Sq, Old Daland house (1652). Birthplace Nathaniel Silsbee, 27-9 Daniels St. Richard Derby house, 170 Derby St.; oldest brick house standi .ig iu Salem. Fine old staircase. Sec, Navy Benjamin W. Crowninshield house, 180 Derby St.; Presi dent Monroe with Commodores Perry and Bainbridge entertained. Later, General James Miller residence, hero of "Lundy's Lane" ; Collector of the Port ; now Old Ladies' Home, gift of Robert Brookhouse ; open Wednes day and Saturday afternoons. Wil liam Gray house, on site of the Sun Tavern. Essex Coffee House, now the Essex House. King's Arm Tavern and '* Mansion House," site occupied by the West Block. Ar mory of Salem Cadets, 136 Essex St. Ezekiel Hersey Derby house, corner Lafayette St. and Ocean Ave. Gal lows or Witch Hill. South Meeting- House: steeple after Christopher Wren by Mclntire. Hamilton Hall. Broad Street Burying-Ground. John Pickering house, birthplace Tim othy Pickering (1660), 18 Broad St. County Jail from 1763-1813, 4 Federal St. ; beams from old Jail where witches ^7ere confined. ; resi dence of Abner C. Goodell, formerly editor of the Province Laws. Salem Athenaeum (1810), outgrowth of " Social Library," 1760. Plum mer Hall. New Normal School. The Willows, the city park. Nineteen European white willows planted 1801. *' The Pavilion." View outer harbor and open sea. Juniper Point. ' Timothy Pickering became quartermaster-general, negotiator of the treaty with Six Nations, 1791 ; Postmaster-General, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State, successively, in Washington's administration ; member of the "Essex Junto," the name given by Hancock to leaders in New England Federalism, among whom were Fisher Ames, the Lowells, Cabot, and Theophilus Parsons, Hall with .¦\ncient Staircase. House (jrt^ /'.'.vscv Street, Salem), built by'Tosefih Cabot {iy4''^). Home of tlie Hon. William li-owninshield Endicott, Secretary of War under I'rcsident t'leveland. Residence of Daniel Low, Esq. 154 The Town Pump 155 the very same rill whose rythmic tales of strange and won derful events Hawthorne interpreted for us out of the nose of the Town Pump. Sparkling hospitality did the spring offer to Roger Conant, to whom belongs the high honor of being the first planter of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay ; he, with the western adventurers, much disliking the occupation of fishing at Cape Ann, found this goodly spot, the Indian Nahitm Keke, or " Nahum Kirke, by interpreta tion. The Bosom of Consolation!' Then to the spring came austere and loving Master Endicott, of courage bold, "a fit instrument to begin this wilderness work." This first emi gration sent out by the Massachusetts Company had some bickering with the adventurers; fortunately "the expecta tion of a dangerous jarre" was averted by our prudent gentleman Roger Conant, and in remembrance of a peace, Nahum Kirke was changed to Salem, — "a pitty, though upon a faire ground, " wrote Rev. John White to England in his Planter's Plea. Shortly arrived two hundred planters more with Francis Higginson. He enthusiastically describes the advantages of the Plantation where the abundance of corn' is a "wonder ment," and of his cordial welcome to the fair house, ^ newly built for the Governor (Endicott) , after the Talbot and Lion's Whelp's "speedy passage of six weeks and three days, " On the twelfth of June, 1630, there was a great bustle in the market-place, and the people prepared to welcome Governor Winthrop, who had anchored in the Arbella, inside ' Higginson says: "The setting of 13 gallons of com increased 52 hogs heads, every hogshead holding 7 bushels of London measure, and every bushel was sold and trusted to the Indians for so much beaver as was worth 18 shillings." That they "might see the truth of it," he sent home many ears of corn of divers colors, red, blue, and yellow. ' Endicott's house is said to have been built of the timbers from Roger Conant's house on Cape Ann, and some of these were later incorporated in a house on the corner of Court and Church streets, Salem. 156 Old Paths and Legends of New England Baker Island just off Bass- River-Side (Beverly) with a com pany ( )f persons of rank, bringing the Charter of the Colony, closely followed by the Jewel. Here they remained over Sunday, many of the people going ashore to gather wild strawberries, and on Monday warped ship into the inner harl )( )r of Salem. The last record of the Company in Eng land as the Arbella rode at Cowes is merely a list of names, yet each shines as a golden mile-stone at the opening of ye cross-roads of greatest import to prosperity in Xew England: "At a Court of Assistants aboard the 'Arbella! j\Iarch 2j, i62g. PRESEXT. Mr. John Winthrop, Covcrnor, Islr. William Coddington, Sir Richard Saltonstall, ]\Ir. Thomas Sharpe, Mr. Isaac Johnson, Mr. William Vassall, Mr, Thomas Dudley, ilr. Simon Bradstreet." This record is in the handwriting of the youngest assist ant, Simon Bradstreet, who, in the ship's stem, beside his bride of sixteen, Ann Dudley, watched old England fade away, and, with statesmen and yeomen, turned resolutely to sail on westward, in order to knit the bonds of a new nation. One may picture two fair English brides, the stately Larly Arbella and pretty ilistress Ann, attended across Salem's market-place in farthingales and high-heeled shoes, accepting the spring's liquid refreshment out of goblets of birch-bark from their bc-ruft"ed cavaliers. "There are maidens discreet. And saintlie.st matrons; but none so sweet As the delicate blush-rose from Lincoln's old hall, Tlic Lady Arbella, the (lower of them all," ¦ ' The story of Lady .\rhclla. daughter of the Earl of Lincoln and wife of Isaac Jnhiison, wliose death soon followed the stormy voj'age, was written by Lik'>- Lareoni for the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary Salem 157 How they built the house of worship nigh to the spring, we know, and that the teacher Higginson "wet his palm and laid it on the brow of the first town-born child. ' ' Within The Charter Street Burying-Ground, Salem, or "Burying Point." Oldest Stone, 16'/ J. Graves of Governor Bradstreet, Rev. John Higginson, Chief-Justice Lynde, Judge Hathorne. the walls of this tiny Puritan Church,' the most tang ible memory we have (though it be doubted by many in of the landing of Winthrop at Salem. The Rev. George Phillips, founder of the Phillips family, who preached daily on board ship and catechised the passengers, also lost his wife, overcome by the fatigue of the voyage, and, having buried her beside Lady Arbella Johnson, departed for Water- town, where he was placed as pastor at thirty pounds a year, ' The frame of the First Puritan Church belongs to Essex Institute. Early preachers were Roger Williams, banished; Hugh Peters, Edward Norris, and John Higginson. Its lineal successor is the First Church (Unitarian), organized 1629, at the corner of Essex and Washington streets, possessing early records and fine silver cups of ancient service, gifts of Sarah Higginson, Mary Walcott, William and Samuel Browne, 158 Old Paths and Legends of New England authority that it be the original frame) , you feel quite certain that the tything-man could, with but a long reach of the arm, rap on the heads the men who nodded over the turning of the hour-glass for the third time, or draw the fox's tail, tipping his wand of rebuke, gently across the faces of drowsy " gude-wives." Two of Salem's titles to fame were anything but peaceful. and her name seemed a misnomer for almost a century. The charming town is celebrated for witches, old and modem. Reading Mrs. Spofford's vivid story of these evil days, you can but shudder at ' ' one of the greatest mistakes in one part of the earth " with the denouement of innocent victims toiling up " Gallows Hill." Another mistake, quite as terrible, was the persecution of Quakers; it must be confessed that the scourging and branding are, as elsewhere, a real and awful part of open records ; nevertheless, one must not forget that at first the Quakers were not all the peaceful broad-brims of the Whittier type ; many were wild and aggressive, out raging the laws.' The centre of persecution in Salem was in the vicinity of the historic glass house field (on the Pea body line), where glass was made before 1638 by Lawrence Southwick and the Conclines. ileetings were held at the Southwick house by Holden, Copeland, and the martyr Ledra; here Provided Southwick Hved, the "Cassandra" of Whittier's poem, and daughter of the banished Lawrence Southwick and his wife, who fied to Shelter Island, where they were tenderly cared for by the Sylvesters.^ ' "A Quakeress in Massachusetts thrust herself upon a meeting-hotise clad in sack-cloth, and with her face iiaintod black to represent the coming of the small-pox." — The United States, by Goldwin Smith. ' Abbott Street runs through the Southwick lot. The old Quaker Burying-Ground is in Peabody. "Part of Salem in 1700," bv Sidney Perlcy in The Essex .-intiquarian, July, 1902, with map, "The Manor of Shelter Island," Magazine of .\merican History, vol. xviii. Salem's Argosies 159 It is good to leave these unvarnished tales and peruse the most fascinating chapter in Salem's annals, delineating her unequalled commercial history, Salem's argosies were the first to fioat our flag in Russian ports, in Calcutta, Madagas- _ _'__, car, Australia, and Bombay. In 1698, she had twenty ketches, two ships, and a bark in commerce. During the Revolution 158 daring ves sels, ranging the seas as pri vateers, cleared 445 British decks. Little is recorded of many lonely sea - battles fought ship to ship without witnesses. One thrilling fight between the General Pickering and the British cutter Achilles was observed by thousands of Spanish spectators.' Last of the Merchant-Ships lying at Derby or Long Wharf. The years of the coming and going of the great Indiamen were fraught with a spirit of mystery and adventure in Salem; no one knew how many encounters with pirates, with cannibals, and perils of coral-reefs were ahead of the bold sailors just up and away with a "heave-ho" at the anchor, leaving behind them an inevitable silence of eighteen months ere the ship's bulging clouds of canvas were sighted off Mar blehead. Sea-togs and sea-dogs, and the most delightful specimens of sailing-masters who ever trod deck, filled Derby ' Ross Turner's martial portrayal of the fight between the Chesapeake and Shannon off Salem shore hangs in the East Hall of the Peabody Academy of Science, surrounded by trophies donated by early sea-cap tains who, in the old East India Museum's fascinating confusion, seemed to have hustled them down in any handy vacant space. i6o Old Paths and Legends of New England and Water streets. On Long Wharf, swarthy, tattooed sailors, with gold rings in their ears, were seen month after month unloading bales of merchandise, saturated with the strange, spicy odors of the East. Sandal-wood fans, thou sands of pounds of rock-candy and amber ginger in fas cinating blue jars inclosed in split bamboo from India; or perhaps the Grand Turk's cargo of teas, soft China crepe shawls, India shawls so fine that they would pass through a ring, or thin-edged Canton China — priceless now — to adorn Salem's corner cupboards. She opened trade with China as a venture of Elias Hasket Derby's, the famous merchant.' Seated with him in his counting-room one day, an English captain, who had been set adrift by a mutinous crew, caught sight of his own vessel, the Amity, in the offing. Mr. Derby immediately had one of his brigs manned, and, with a couple of cannon, recaptured her in the twinkling of an eye. One may imagine how these kings of the main hugged themseh^es with delight as some long-looked-for ship's cargo brought unlooked-for profits. The return of the ship Eliza, laden with one million, tweh'e thousands pounds of pepper, and trifling duties of $66,903.90, might have made the owner sneeze, but he only chuckled over his fine secret of pepper growing wild on the west coast of Sumatra, discov ered by his clever captain, Jonathan Cames, selling at seven hundred per cent., to say nothing of the profit of her return trade-cargo of gin, tobacco, iron, and salmon. Evervthing depended on a wise captain who "kept his weather-eye peeled" in strange waters and on strange shores, while ex- I In the cupola of the house of Elias Hasket Derby, on the southern corner of Washington and Lynde streets, a space was left in the blind for a spy-glass. The house was built by the Hon, Benjamin Pickman in 1764. Colonel Benjamin Pickman having made a fortune exporting codfish to the West Indies, naively set a golden efligy of his fish of good fortune on the side of each stair in his mansion which stands in the rear of 165 Essex Street. The East India Museum i6i changing cargos. The word ' ' Salem' ' then stood for the entire outside world to countless savages. Membership in the East Indian Marine Society flourished, even though initiation was onlv to those who had "actually navigated around the Cape John Andrew House {1818), the Safford Residence, I J Washington Square. Typical Salem tnerchant's house of brick, following the three-story wooden period of late eighteenth-century style. Tradition says that John Andrew, merchant, ballasted these tall, hollow pillars with rock salt from Russia; he was the uncle of "War-Governor" Andrew. of Good Hope or Cape Horn." Peep into the East India Museum a century ago; there is, perhaps. Captain Derby, just off ship Margaret, proudly laden with Japanese trays and cups, our first introduction to the incomparable art of Japan. Another bronzed and genial soul deposits a 1 62 Old Paths and Legends of New England treacherous war-club of the Fejee Islander or a spear bristling with sharks' teeth, from which he narrowly escaped annihila tion. Regard the Malay cutlass, memento of Captain En dicott's narrow escape when seized by the natives of Sumatra and rescued by Rajah Po Adam. What superstitions may be attached to yonder eerie twin whistling-jar, what stories of the heart belong to these vases and bottles from the tombs of Peru, quien sabe? On every barrel and box in a certain comer store on Derby Street, fifty years or more ago, perched a mariner, reeling off the saltiest salt tales of Salem's grand old times, accompanied by a " Shiver my timbers," a hitch and shake of the head at our sad days, with nothing but land lubbers about, good ships, and warehouses rotting. Be hind the sign of the swinging quadrant repose the dusty shades of compasses, chronometers, and sextants. Stepping into the next shop, you fortify 3'ourself against these de generate times with a dish of gossip and one of Miss Mandy's consoling Black-jacks tinged with an elusive burnt flavor altogether intentional. "The pre-historic Gibraltar is the aristocrat of Salem confectionery. It gazes upon choco late and sherbet and says, 'Before you were, I was; after you are not, I shall be.' " Be careful of your choice of flavor — to prefer peppermint to lemon is a sign of age — and meditate between riotous stickiness and delicate creami- ness on a prophecy concerning these Two Salem Institu tions: "Together, Black-jack and Gibraltar have lived, to gether they have rejoiced the souls of generations. Witch Hill may blow away; the East India Museum may be swallowed up in earth; Charter Street Burying Ground may go out to sea ; but as long as a single house remains standing in Salem village so long will Black-jack and Gibral- ter retain their honorable place in the inmost hearts of Salem people." ¦ 0/1/ Salem, by Eleanor Putnam. Houghton, Mifflin & Co, Chestnut Street 163 Traces of the power and good taste of Salem's wealthy sea merchants remain in the grand old mansions in the Court End of the town, filled with treasures brought by my great- uncle from over-seas. Standing on Chestnut Street at dusk, shadowy forms of powdered dames pass by with their gal lants, to assemble under some one of these spacious roofs of a Derby — Pickering — Ward — Gray. In the early days of this century, Hamil ton Hall constantly blazed with becoming candlelight in honor of persons of distinc tion who tarried in Salem. Adams, Choate, and Web ster plead here, and Haw thorne, musing, walked the streets at night, drawing weird inspiration from Salem fires. By day, he weighed f ="«'""^ and gauged in the custom house ' performing well his uncongenial task. ' ' He never could add up figgers," says the oldest inhabitant; would it not have been passing strange if he could, with visions of some Great Stone Face, a living Snow Image or little Pearl in the forest, dancing along between the long black columns! Here Hawthorne feigned to have unearthed the manuscript of The Scarlet Letter. It was Mr. Fields who divined the hiding-place of the new work, so hesitatingly handed to him by its desponding author from the old bureau in the house in Mall Street. Hawthorne's most ' The custom house was built in 1819. 1 64 Old Paths and Legends of New England sanguine moments never told him that he had written the greatest of American romances, or that Lowell should say to Fields: "I don't think people have any kind of a true notion yet what a master he was, God rest his soul ! Shake speare, I am sure, was glad to see him on the other side." ' From Salem Common or Washington Square, near Union Street, lines drawn to three points of the compass will touch the birthplaces of Hawthorne, Prescott, and Bowditch, the mathematician.^ ' Letters of James Russell Lowell, edited by Charles Eliot Norton. ^ Salem is also the birthplace of the Rev. Jones Very, the poet; the Hon. William D. Northend, author of The Bay Colony; of William W. Story, the sculptor; of Frank W. Benson, one of the "Ten American Artists"; of Maria T. Cummins, author of The Lamplighter; Marianne C. D Silsbee, author of .4 Half Century in Salem, and Henry Fitzhugh Waters, of genealogic note. ^^^*=._»; DANVERS (SALEM VILLAGE), 1628-1752 "v^ IDE-SPREADING Danvers ' — so extensive that it has nine railroad stations — is one of the lovely towns of New England, a superb countryside of rivers, brooks, hills, dotted with rarest wild flowers. On the old Boxford road is the Nichols homestead, now Femcroft Inn, named by Whittier, The ancient IngersoU-Peabody house, now the Endicott residence, was the country home of the Honorable William Crowninshield Endicott, Secretary of War under Cleveland. Among his distinguished visitors was the Right Honorable Joseph Chamberlain, his son-in-law. ' The Rea-Putnam-Fowler house (see initial letter) in the Putnam- ville section of Danvers, is one of the oldest houses in Essex County, having been built in 1636 by Daniel Rea. It was purchased by Deacon Edmund Putnam; his granddaughter married Augustus Fowler, who be came a recluse and naturalist in later life; his paintings of native birds are in the Essex Institute. His children's children, at play, still model images from the fine potter's clay of the brook bed, romp under the great willows, with sweethearts' walk in the narrow acorn path of "lovers' lane," and wander farther on under the Burley chestnut grove, so old that, Uke the Waverley Oaks, no one knows when the first leaf was un curled by the sun. Crystal springs bubble up here and there; two beaten paths lead to the famous "drinking spring"; the cans of milk are cooled in the "milk spring," and the cattle luxuriate in their own particular spring in the bam. On the farm are traces of an artificial canal for irrigation, of an ancient brickyard and a chocolate mill. Up the road is the Squire Elias Putnam house, the birthplace of Dr, A. P, Putnam, president of the Danvers Historical Society, and Judge A, A, Putnam, of Uxbridge. Deacon Samuel Fowler, brother of Augustus, had a charming old flower-garden much admired by Whittier, 165 1 66 Old Paths and Legends of New England Yet with all its charms Salem Village must have been a weird place to live in, some two hundred years ago. The reputed witches of the Old World be gan to sail by on broomsticks with startUng frequency "from Chelsea Beach to Misery Isles." Women and children, brought up on the literally fearful Day of Doom and kindred doleful Wigglesworth literature, en forced by Fox's sombre Book of Mar tyrs, clutched at a brand-new superstition ; and though good Parson Higginson, in 1630, had perceived in Salem no cloven hoof, or midnight hags hugging coal-black cats, only "many lyones" and other terrible monsters, yet, in 1692, curious ap paritions ran ridiculous riot, creating sorrow and despair in many a worthy family. There is a house yet standing in Danvers from which a witch, close- bolted in a garret, disappeared by Sa tanic influence ! Her friends dared not reveal their part in her escape, lest they too be shackled in Boston jail with aged Rebecca Nurse, i the excellent Susannah Martin of Amesbury, Sarah Good and her innocent child (who, by some occult power, was said to bite the girls Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams), and also the Rev. George Burroughs,- "declared b}^ eight confessed witches a DANVERS LANDMARKS: Page House at Square. Old Berry Tavern. His torical Society Rooms in Perry's Block. Peabody Institute, Sylvan St. First Church, Danvers Centre. Hathorne (Asylum) Hill. General Israel Putnam's birthplace. Colonel Jesse Putnam house. Old Nichols Homestead, now Ferncroft Inn. Oak Knoll. Home of Whittier. Gov. Endicott pear-tree. Prince house. Clark house. " King," Hooper-Collins house. The Lin dens. Site of Parris house. Re becca Nurse house. Folly or Browne's Hill described by Haw thorne; site Hon. Wm. Browne mansion ; Browne descendants inter married with the Washingtons of Virginia. Wadsworth Cemetery; graves of Elizabeth, wife Rev. Sam uel Parris, of Putnams, Clarkes, Hobarts; inscriptions in Essex Anti^ quartan for January, 1902. Supplementary : Historic Danvers. F. E. Moynahan, Publisher. Browne's HiU, by Ezra D. Hines. Holmes's Broomstick Train. ' Rebecca Nurse (or Nourse) was of an old Huguenot family and a woman of intellect; possessing a wide sympathy and an understanding of medicine, she devoted herself to the sick. .\ famous descendant is Miss Elizabeth Nourse, recently elected Societaire of the Soci6t6 Nationalc des Beaux ;\rts, an unprecedented honor. Ten of her paint ings were shown in the Salon of 1902, a tribute to the originality, sin cerity, and poetry of her pictures of the humble peasant life. ^ The Kev. Geor;.;e Burroughs lived on the estate of Oak Knoll, where Danvers 167 leader in their infernal sacraments." Members of the church who opposed punishment were excommunicated; Captain Joseph Putnam, father of Israel Putnam, kept a horse constantly saddled, expecting that he too would be accused The Homestead of Judge Holten, a Revolutionary Patriot, Danvers {near the Middleton line). on account of his opposition to the "Great Delusion." For the same reason. Colonel Dudley Bradstreet, of Andover, left his home for several weeks. We are fain to believe that the suspected witches were women of unusual strength of character. Behold, in suc ceeding generations, what heroes Danvers sent to the front ! The daring intrepidity of the boy, Israel Putnam,' Whittier passed some happy summers amid bowery orchards and under his Poet's Pagoda of oaks, elms, spruce, and hemlocks, ' The room where General Israel Putnam was born is kept intact. Drake 1 68 Old Paths and Legends of New England was the talk of all Essex, The corner store boasted with reason of "young Put's" conquest of a ferocious bull by a twist of the tail and a dig of his spurs in the south ' ' med- der." Gallant soldier boys came "marching home again:" General Gideon Foster, General Moses Porter, Colonel Enoch, and Captain Jeremiah Putnam, and Jeremiah Page, commander of the Danvers militia. It was Captain Page's wilful wife (the joy of his life) who gave a rebellious tea- party on yonder railed-in gambrel roof; her patriot husband, departing, said: " I have promised no one shall drink tea inside my house. Your gossips elsewhere must carouse." ' His hoof -beats had scarcely grown faint ere his obedient lady invited her friends to sip the forbidden cup upon the house-top, but not within it. From this roof General Gage was wont to watch the ships up Salem harbor. Though he was "affable and courteous," and the English soldiery well-mannered, Danvers folk could not be exactly cordial to their uninvited guests, the 64th Regiment, royal troops, encamped in front of Gage's headquarters, " King " Hooper's charming country house. ^ PE.\B0DY On a certain sultry se^'entccnth of June, when the season was so far ad"\'anced that green peas were plenty and grass new-mown was pressed between two fences for a breast- says: "This very plain-looking dwelling has been the cradle of a man of the people, who raistcl himself to a high station by the sheer force of his own natural powers." ' .1 Gambrel Roof, by Lucy Larcoin, ^ See illustration, page 15 ; one of our finest specimens of colonial archi tecture A large oak-tree near the encampment was afterwards known as "King (li'orge's whipping-post." This tree, where the soldiers were punish(.'d, became the stern-post of the frigate Essex, built in Salem, Peabody 169 work at Bunker Hill, a regiment, on their way to the field, stopped at the Bell Tavern, at the present Lexington Monu ment, in the parish of South Danvers (Peabody), for re freshment.' From the ranks, Elias Hasket Derby, the Salem merchant, stepped in to see Mrs. Bethiah Southwick, opposite the inn. As a quakeress, Mrs. Southwick could not consistently aid the soldiers, yet, so deeply did she sympa thize with the patriots, that she brought out a large basket of provisions to Mr. Derby, saying : ' ' We cannot assist thee and thy fellow-soldiers, but as there is a long and painful march before thee, and as it is not right ye should suffer, here is a little food ! " Peabody, the ancient " Brooksby," was the birthplace of George Peabody, the philanthropist and banker, of London. Even Dr. Holmes found himself "Dead broke of laudatory phrases," and "Worcester and Webster up the spout" in sounding the praises of " The friend of all his race, God bless him!" In the Peabody Institute is the portrait of Queen Victoria, presented by her to Mr. Peabody, also the medal presented him by Congress on account of his gift of nearly two million dollars for the advancement of education in the South. Here is also the Sutton Reference Library, in mem ory of Eben Dale Sutton . ' Mrs. Anna Endicott, displeased at the delay, walked up to Colonel Pickering and, with the voice of an Amazon, said: " Why on earth don't you march? Don't you hear the guns in Charlestown?" — History of Danvers, by J. W. Hanson. BEVERLY, 1628-1668 "Find the Yankee word for Sorrento and you have Beverly, — it is only the Bay of .\aples translated into the New England dialect!' — " Letters" of James Russell Lowell. The highway to Beverly is over the famous Essex bridge. On the Salem side Winthrop is said to have landed near " Prof. Hitchcock's dike rock." Washington alighted from his carriage to admire this remarkable structure, and jour neyed on to be entertained by George Cabot, one of three distinguished brothers, and to visit, at North Beverly, the first cotton-factory in the States. In the earliest records of Beverly, Richard Brackenbury says : " We took farther possession on the north side of Salem ferrye, commonly cahed Cape An Side by cutting thach for our houses" (1628). The General Court granted two hun dred acres of land at Bass Ri^'er to John Woodburs', Conant, John Balch, and Peter Palfrey, and changed its name to Beverly ; but the name was not one of sweet sounds to Roger Conant and his neighbors, and they besought to be denominated Budleigh, for their market-town in Devon shire, lest they be subjected to the nickname of beggarly. During the early wars the trails on Beverly's eastern border became wide-trodden wood-paths, leading to garri son houses or rude protecting earth -works on the shore. Brackenbury Lane was the earliest of these and 't was from charming Beverly Cove that Captain Lothrop led the flower ' The first witness of the parchment deed signed before Benjamin Gedney by the heirs of Nanepashemet, in figures of samp bowls, tobacco pipes, fish hooks, and other symbols, was Beverlj^'s town clerk, Andrew Eliot, ancestor of President Eliot of Harvard, J, Ehot Cabot, John Eliot ThayiM-. 170 Beverly 171 of Essex, m^ 1695, 'to perish at Bloody Brook, Deerfield. Beautiful Hale Street coquettes with the sea for seven miles along the Riviera of Massachusetts, now approaching salt water, again winding half a mile inland, piercing groups of balmy pines, fringing finished estates. You will remem ber the playful comment of Dr, Holmes on Beverly's next-door neighbor, Manchester-by-the-Sea, as he dated his letters at " Beverly- Farms-by-the-Depot, ' ' and also the pet tape-measure of the patriotic doctor, with which he spanned each superb elm of large trunk and high degree. How he rejoiced on his visits to other lands, when the girth of his own dear trees of Essex County were found to surpass all foreign rivals ! The most picturesque wooded ways imaginable are those thread ing Beverly, Wenham, and Hamil ton — anciently, Bass - River - Side, Enon, and Ipswich Hamlet. Every hillside has its fastidious residence in this Utopian country ; ever and anon an enchanting quaint gray homestead, set on a above the road, is brightened by deep crimson hollyhocks reaching up protectingly toward a face at the window, where, perchance, long time ago, sat some lonely Hannah, binding shoes, watching for her sunburnt fisher to return by Marble head, through twelve times twenty months of galloping BEVERLY LANDMARKS: Cabot Street— Es sex Bridge, Ferry Estab. 1636. 109, Seth Norwood house, built by George Cabot, 1783; Washington enter tained here. 117, Mansion of John Cabot, 1779; now Historical Society Building, bequeathed by Edward Burley; Lafayette welcomed here, 1824, by Robert Rantoul for the town. 156, birthplace of Rev. Andrew P. Peabody. 191, City Hall Building, Andrew Cabot mansion 1783. (Near Cabot St.) birthplace of Lucy Larcom, 13 Wallis St. 217, First Parish Church, 1770, " with Revere Bell and ancient Clock " ; organized, 1667. 238, residence of hon. Nathan Dane. 463, home of Roger Conant. 634, house of Rev. John Chipman (first minister of Worth Beverly, 1715). Hale St. — 33, parsonage of Rev. John Hale, 1690; his wife last person accused of witch craft. Historic Elm. Hospital Point Light. Chapman Corner. Mingo's Beach, named for Robin Mingo, a slave. Pride's Crossing. granted to Peter Pride *' provided he showed travelers to Gloucester the way over the hill." Dr. O. W. Holmes's residence. Beverly Farms, — West Beach. Church and Old Burying Ground at Worth Beverly. Beverly Reservoir, Brimble Hill. Wenham Lake, Enon St. For a more complete list see '* Beverly Citi zen Guide Book." nse 172 Old Paths and Legends of New England winds, sunshine, or impenetrable fog-banks, Lucy Lar- com's sweetest, most pathetic poems were inspired by her native Cape-Ann-Side, The home of Colonel Robert Dodge, commander of the " Ipswich Hamlet " company at Bunker Hill, is the Myopia The Turn at the Willows to Hospital Point Light, Beverly. Hunt Club-house, The pink coats of the chase against yellowing corn-fields warm the chill autumn landscape. Among Hamilton's landmarks is the church of the First Congregational Society, erected in 1762, the Adams home stead, aged about twc> hundrctl years, and the Lemuel Brown homestead. The residence of Judge Daniel E, Safford stands on the site of the Dr. Elisha Whitney-Roberts house ' ; the house of Samuel Wigglesworth, son of Michael Wiggles- ' Now the property of Mrs. Francis Dane. Hamilton 173 worth, the poet, was the parsonage of Dr. Manasseh Cutler ' during his long pastorate of Ipswich Hamlet, now Hamil ton, beginning in 1771. In 1787, inspired by Dr. Cutler, a little band of settlers left this fine old house to lay the foundations of Marietta, Ohio, under the leadership of Gen- A Pine-Path to the Sea. eral Rufus Putnam, whom they joined at Rutland, Mass., often called the "cradle of Ohio." Eighteen months later Dr. Cutler, wishing to see with his own eyes the swift be ginnings of the great Northwest Territory, followed them in his sulky, a month's journey, but shortly returned ; his son, ' Illustrations of the church, parsonage, and Dr. Cutler's clock are included in the article on Manasseh Cutler and the Ordinance of I'j8'j , by Nathan N. Withington, in the New England Magazine, July, 1901. 174 Old Paths and Legends of New England Judge Cutler, became a leader in Ohio. Dr. Cutler's great est achievement was as instigator of the Ohio Company, with General Putnam, formed at the Bunch of Grapes Tavem, Boston, March i, 1786; it not only comprehended the eventual building up of the great Northwest, and the just compensation of our soldiers of the Revolution by grants of land therein, but the peopling of the States with worthy citizens; at the same time the powerful ordinance was passed, by virtue of which slavery was excluded from the Northwest Territory, having been previously drafted for Nathan Dane by Dr. Cutler, making free education a cer tainty. The importance to the entire country of this tact ful wedge, driven in by these far-sighted men of the villages of Rutland and Ipswich Hamlet, was incisively set before us by Senator George F Hoar at the centennial celebration of Marietta. Dr. Cutler, like other colonial ministers, practised medicine, the town's physician having volunteered in the war. He was probably the first to describe the fiora of New England, and, with a party of seven, including Dr. Jeremy Belknap, ascended Mt. Washington, being the first white to attain the summit. Riding through North Beverly, by clear Wenham Lake, into old Wenham, you will encounter one of the prettiest, quaintest streets in all New England, and mark the little shoe-shop attached to each delightful old-fashioned farm house for family cobbling and the finishing of shoes before great shops were established. GLOUCESTER, 1639-1873 "I ploughed the land with horses, But my heart was ill at ease, For the old sea-faring men Came to me now and then. With the sagas of the seas." From Beverly to Gloucester the winding road through ancient Cape-Ann-side is continually losing itself in Che- bacco woods, "among a hidden chain of gem-like ponds." The fascination of riding onward to Wenham and Man chester and Essex through scent o' pines in the silent wood loneliness is enhanced by the momentary expectation of coming out upon the broad, open sea with only white sails between you and the other side. Sea-fever is as infectious as measles; every grown-up boy of parts will confess that he has had his day of running away to sea— like Tom Bailey,' — when he surreptitiously tied up his "kit" in a bandanna kerchief and slipped the home cable, ready to fill the desirable position of cabin-boy, and become a bloomin' Jack-tar in the 'eave of a 'and- spike. The city-born youth is more often turned back by the " Bow-bells" of circumstance, but the Gloucester boy of forty years ago may boast a share in yonder close-reefed schooner, making in toward Eastern Point, and spin for you the true yam of her last voyage, when she dressed a catch of ninety thousand fish for the Boston market. We landsmen compromise with this imperative longing for the sea — our Norse inheritance — ^by summering on Cape Ann, where the sea blows salt from three points of the com- ^ The Story of a Bad Boy, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich. 175 176 Old Paths and Legends of New England pass. On the Cape, the highways delight in unexpected twists, following early dory paths to sheltered coves. The spicy bay-berry and "sweet single roses" hug rough, gray boulders strewn by the glacier; honeysuckle climbs the old-time cottage, whose weather-stained dory makes a picturesque basket for a brilliant nosegay of clove-pinks, nasturtiums, mignonette, forget-me-not, and scarlet pop pies — a bit of compensation for the lonely fishermen's wife when the fleet is out on Georges. One may not picture Gloucester minus wharves lined with staunch fishing-vessels; the awkward pink pointed at both ends and without a bowsprit is almost forgotten since Captain Andrew Robinson invented the schooner, in 17 13. "Oh! how she scoons!" a sailor cried, as she slipped down the ways, and "schooner" she remains. "Gloucester schooners are the best heavy weather small craft afloat. They can sail like cup defenders and walk into the wind like steamers." ' It is not a mar^•ellous sight to see a fleet of two hundred sad beat out of Gloucester harbor, leaving behind the white-crested reef of Norman's Woe and the soft green hills of ^Magnolia. The summer visitor watches with pleasure the drying of the fish on the flakes, the shred- ing by machinerv, until the cod, manipulated in proper sequence, is ready to appear on the Sunday morning break fast table of all good New Englanders. The one who is sympathiquc looks far beyond that smiling, summer sea, o\'er which bird-like yachts are playfully careening under wide, racing sails in answer to the lightest touch of old Boreas. From harbor to harbor they flit in careless sauntering, ciaiising after health lost in the un nerving strain of their commander's portion of labor in ' " ;\ Dash to the Banks and Back," James B. Connolly, Boston Trans- script, March 30, igoi. 177 ' We 're Here." Home from the Grand Banks, Gloucester. 1 78 Old Paths and Legends of New England State or Wall Street, a no less strenuous task than voyaging for "fisherman's luck " on Georges. When the sturdy boats sail away from Gloucester it means bread and butter for the pretty cottage where, on long wintry nights, the expect- " By the Sea" — Cape Ann. " The gentleness of Heaven is on the sea; Listen, the mighty being is awake. And doth witli his eternal motion make A sound like thunder — everlastingly." — Wordsworth. ant light shines at the window. Pray the flag may not float at half-mast for her! Wbcn they go down on Georges, it is with all on board. The treacherous shoals are as A B C to the Captains C\vtrageous, at every turn of the tide. But when the fog comes on thick, and the rigging becomes Cape Ann and Early " Voyageurs " 179 shrouded with ice, and the whistling gale brings blinding snow, then comes the horror ! If the cable parts, the vessel may helplessly glide down afoul of her comrades and wreck several of the fleet. Yet where is the sailor who would exchange his trawls for a plough? "So when you see a Gloucester [Brixham] boat Go out to face the gales. Think of the love that travels Like light upon her sails." In Merry England, Cape Ann was an exciting topic of speculation! The western voyageurs, whether in search of gold, pearls, and whales, or a settlement for conscience' sake, sent home news of the abundance of fish "almost be yond believing" and "of the fine and sweet harbor" of Cape Ann, — " where twenty ships may easily ride therein." Gloucester Harbor is indeed well protected, except from a sou'wester, and four hundred ships can anchor in the outer and two hundred in the inner harbor, Francis Higginson says, in his narrative of the New England Plantation, that in his opinion it is "a nice course for all cold complexions to come to take physic in New England; for a sup of New England's air is better than a whole draught of Old Eng land's ale." I like to remember how the Puritan Higgin son — the ancestor of our Thomas Wentworth Higginson — stooped even from his serious height to the fragrance of the wild roses of Cape Ann. Lucy Larcom wrote: "A rose is sweet, no matter where it grows: But our wild roses, flavored by the sea. And colored by the salt winds and much sun To healthiest intensity of bloom — We think the world has none more beautiful." i8o Old Paths and Legends of New England In 1614, Captain John Smith fell in love with the sea-girt, wild tumble of rocks, and named it Cape Tragabizanda, for the beautiful princess who helped him escape from a Mo hammedan prison, and lie called these isles off shore the Three Turks' Heads (Alilk, Straitsmouth, and Thatcher's of the twin lights). Smith urged the English to set up a fisheries plantation. \'eritably, he was an enthusiastic angler himself. He says; "Is it not pretty sport to pull up two pence, si.i' pence, or twelve pence as fast as you can hale and vearc a line? Aud what sport doth yccld a more pleasing content than angling with a hooke and crossing the sweete ayrc from He to He, over the silent streames of a Calme Sea?" The Plymouth colonists who set up a fishing-stage at Cape Cod, in 1624, found it usurped by one Hewes, who entered into dispute behind a barricade of hogsheads with the doughty Miles Standish, A peacemaker appeared in the person of Roger Conant, who persuaded the Plymouth com pany to follow him to Salem, In 1642, a permanent settle ment was made by Pastor Blynman on Gloucester Xeck, between Annisquam and Alill rivers. They cultivated the soil without a suspicion of the riches of the sea at their doors, through which Gloucester was to become the greatest fishing-port of the world,' Strange tales are told : of spectral leaguers marching around the blockhouses of Cape Ann ; of Peg Wosson, the witch, who threatened the troops setting out for Cape ' A report of the U. S. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries shows 112,04(1,572 pounds of fish landed at rrloucester for one year, valued at .'»;2,765,3o6. This includes cod, from the Banks of Newfoundland and Block Island, and line-fishing off shore: also haddock, hake, pollock, and mackerel. The Commission has a hatchway at Gloucester for cod and lobsters. Lobsters are scarcer than ever before known. Collections of eg,gs are made lietwoen November and March, the fry is hatched and planleil along the eoasl from Roekport to Beverly. Three million have been dciiosited in Chesapeake Bay, as an experiment. Gloucester Phantoms and War iSi Breton, appearing to them in the guise of a raven before Louisbourg. A soldier brought down the bird of ill-omen with bullets of silver buttons (lead would not hurt a witch) , At that very moment, in Gloucester town. Peg Wosson broke her leg and these silver buttons were abstracted from the fracture! Peg Wosson 's grass-grown cellar is in the deserted village of Dogtown. Wandering between acres of misleading rocks in this forlorn moorland, it is easy to conjure up a spectre colony of widows and their dogs. The over-hanging story of the Ellery house and its bullet holes tell the tale of garrison days. It has been in the famous Ellery family nigh two hundred years. William Ellery, one of the original settlers of Gloucester, was the great-grandfather of William Ellery, "the Signer," of New port. War-times were thrilling! Four regiments marched to Lexington and two to Bunker Hill. Armed cruisers hovered about the harbor, and such a reputation did Glou cester men hold that Hull summoned them to man the Constitution. Fishing- vessels became privateers by ' ' length ening the hatchways and slipping four swivels in the comb ings." These privateers knew a trick or two; they would steal away through little Squam River from Gloucester Harbor into Ipswich Bay, and the discomfited stranger-ship had to give up the chase. The ship-of-war Falcon cruised about Squam, impress ing men, and making raids on land and sea. Captain Linzee ' seized a prize with a cargo of sand from Coffin's Beach, instead of provisions. Forthwith he coveted Major Coffin's sheep, but the farm-hands kept up such a rattling ' The swords of Captain John Linzee, R. N., and Colonel William Prescott, worn at Bunker Hill, were bequeathed to the Massachusetts Historical Society by William H. Prescott. They hang crossed, as in the library of the late eminent historian, Prescott — "in token of national friendship and family alliance." i82 Old Paths and Legends of New England fire from behind the sand-dunes that the British retreated before a suyjposcd regiment. Altogether, Gloucester made it "liot" for the Falcon, reca])turing their schooners, and when Linzee attcm])ted to fire the town no li\'cs were lost c.\t'ci)l Dial of Deacon Kinsman's hog. IL is whispered that long ago, smugglers found tlie thick W(Hjds between Hay View and Koikport a safe hiding-] )]ace 'The (>l'l (~ustoin lloii^e. .\nnisquam. for plunder. ( )n a grass-grown \\'ood-j)ath a glooni\' smug gler's house, with a secret closcl, ma\' be sci'ii, easily ap proached by the ])ursucd Ironi the water on citlier side, thus eluding capture. \(m will like to travel all around the Cajic, where summer co|,t,;igcs are notched in bt'lwccn the cos\- hearthstones of old (doucester, ;\nnis(|uaiii, and Pigeon Co\'e. Lea\'e the car at ICast- Cdoueester, whose wliarxes are a pii'lurcsque tangle oT sea tools; of seines dr\'ing and smalk-r net.s — the bag, dip, gill, .snap, trap nets and wch's. !k'\'ond Rocky Neck Avi'nue, a sandy bcai'li curves toward Ivastem Point Ai Folly Cove, Cape Ann. ' The boatie rows, the boatic rows fit' weel, Atid mickle luck attend the boat, the merlin and the creel." " Weel May the Boatie Row." John Ewen. 1 84 Old Paths and Legends of New England Light, where the surf is pounding in contrast to Niles pond of tranquil water-lilies; the cottage of Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward is hard by. From Bass Rocks, Long Beach stretches toward Turk's Head Inn at Land's End. The nearest way is by a Roekport car from Gloucester centre: turn to the right at the foot of the hill, walking by orchards fringed with blue sea, past Loblolly Cove to the Atlantic Cable. Roekport has a rare terminal moraine ; the geologist finds here perfect examples of strata of all periods, as the quarries let him down into the bowels of the earth. On the pocket beaches he traces the action of the waves upon rocks. ^ In the quarries the Italian workman is most apt in fine carving, true to the art traditions of his race. Their little colony clings to home customs and games ; you may catch snatches of Neapolitan airs. Connoisseurs in folk-lore have visited the Italians of Roekport and translated their songs. The Finnish village has its own church, physician, and teachers. The ^Vmerican minister found a surprising talent for mathematics in this class of Finn boys, who, in appear ance, were somewhat stupid from lack of language. These bristling quarries supplied the granite for Saint Ann's; her cross is the mariner's beacon. Cape Ann has many churches and the [Mission of Emanuel Charlton (of remarkable history) designed es]iccially for strangers and foreigners who make port at Gloucester, Across the bay from Pigeon Co^¦e are the glistening sands of Plum Island. Passing Folly Cove and Halibut Point it is a short mile walk to a Gloucester car. You will linger over your good-by to the old locust trees of Lanesville and the sunset ^'ie\^' up the coast from Is]nvich, along Salisbury Pjcach, the Great Boar's Head and Rve Beach to Ports- Prof. N. S, Shaler on " Geology of Cape Ann." Roekport 185 mouth Light, and above all to yonder curious blue appari tion, a mountain standing alone on the sea, the round Agamenticus. You may, perchance, see the cup-winner America stand ing out from Ipswich Bay, as in past years when General Butler occupied his country-seat at Bay View. Lobster Cove and the old Universalist Church of Annisquam are a most attractive picture by moonlight. NORTH ANDOVER, 1646-1855 North Andover, as the most advanced in years, though by no means decrepit, of the Merrimack Valley trio, Andover, North Andover, and Methuen, demands our first considera tion ; its very stones have a strictly colonial air, while the stately mansions of this North Parish of Andover promise a marvellous store of history and tradition. Just beyond the village is Lake Cochichawick, Andover's Indian name before it was sold by the unwary Cutsamache for a "Coat and six pounds sterling, provided y' y Indian called Roger may have liberty to take alewives in Cochichawick River, but if they either spoyle or steale any come or other fruitc to any considerable value of ye inhabitants then this liberty of taking fish shall forever cease!' i On the way thither, amid the green nestles a homestead of the Osgood ^ family, influential in civil and military aft'airs from the first settlement. The hill beyond displays the modern mansion of the Hon. Aloses T. Stevens, and other beautiful residences occupying the homestead grants of first settlers. The house of General Eben Sutton stands nigh to the ancient "house lot, kort-vard and dwelling house" of Richard Sutton, with its ' ' forty and eight acres of upland lying on the farr side of Shawshin river," sold to him by Mr, Simon Bradstreet and Ann, his wife. Hard by were the log huts of George .\bbot scnr. on the north and George Abbot jr. on the south, also of Mr. Bradstreet, who took up his last ' The early towushi]) of .\ndover inehided land lying between the Merriinack Ri\'er, Rowley, Salem, Woburn, and Cambridge. ^ Samuel Osijdod was a member of the Provincial Congress and Post master-General. Dr, Joseph Dsgood and Dr, George Osgood were emi nent physicians, 186 North Andover 187 sitting at Andover, a place well fitted for the husbandman's hand but of great inconvenience to the planters in carrying their corn to market.^ You will find the second and more commodious house of the worshipful Simon Bradstreet on the highway to the Old North Church, the home of our first wo man poet, Anne Bradstreet.^ The house, with buttressed chimney like a fortress to the roof, is most attractive in its present-day quaint- ness; to every rafter hangs a tale and a certain chamber confesses a ghost. When the Indians fell on Andover to take revenge on " Pem- aquid Chubb," -^ forty savages, led by the implacable Assacumbuit, dragged Colonel Bradstreet and his family over the snowry road by the light of burning farms, then, as NORTH ANDOVER LANDMARKS: PubUc Library in Odd Fellows' Building, The First Church, Phillips Sq, ; organized 1645. Kittredge mansion (1784). Home of Dr. Thomas Kittredge of Revolu tionary fame. " Old North Burying- Ground," Phillips Manse (1752), OsgoodSt. Bradstreet house (1667). Samuel Osgood house First Post master-General. Timothy Johnson Homestead (169-), Stevens St.; here Penelope Johnson was killed by the Indians ; residence. Miss Kate John son. John Osgood house; home of Colonel Osgood of the French and Indian War. Osgood mansion, home of Hon. Gayton P. Osgood; (owned by Mrs. J. H. Davis). Man sion house of Mr. Moody Bridges of the First Provincial Congress ; birth place of Major-General Isaac Stevens, killed at Chantilly, 1862 ; now the residence of Oliver Stevens, Esq., corner Essex and Depot Sts. Adams House; home of Major John Adams; now the Charlotte Home. Frye house; home of Chaplain ^ Historical Sketches of .Andover, by Sarah Loring Bailey. ^ In the Bradstreet lineage are Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Ellery Channing, Wendell Phillips, Richard H. Dana. Later dwellers in the homestead were the Rev. William Symmes, the Hon. John Norris, associate founder of the Theological Seminary (many were the hospitable " tea-drinkings " at Mrs, Norris's); also Mrs, Elizabeth Parks, the Rev. Bailey Loring, and Master Simeon Putnam, the pedagogue whose idle boys, wearing the dunce-cap, seated by the roadside, quite wore out the grass in doing penance for their misdemeanors, 3 "Pascoe Chubb late Commander of his Majesty's ffort William Henry at Pemaquid is released from jail in Boston on account of his indigent family,'' He was committed for the cowardly giving up of the fort to the French and Indians, who threatened him with torture on account of an unpardonable act of treachery, he having supplied with liquor Penob scot Indians who were in conference with him about exchange of prisoners, and then ordered a massacre. 1 88 Old Paths and Legends of New England Jonathan Frye, Chestnut St,, res, Mrs, Sarah P. Grozlier, Abraham Poor Estate or old " Priest Abbot " (author of the History oi Andover) place on the Shawshine. Mills (Prospect) Hill. St. Paul's Church, Peabody house, now owned by Nathaniel Gage, Russell Farm, Lake Cochichawick, Foster home stead on J, M. Hubbard Estate; birthplace Hon. Jedediah Foster. Hubbard Elm, near Boxford line; oldest tree in Essex County, 270 years. Ancient Fishery on bank of the Merrimack, near mouth of Shawshine River. suddenly released them at the plea of an Indian, — who, when a hunted boy, was fed and sheltered by Colonel Bradstreet's mother, — then returned with escort to Saco. A similar act of gratitude was the bringing home of the half-starved captive boy Timothy Abbot by a poor, affectionate squaw, who took pity on his mother. The Governor Bradstreet House, .Yorth Andover. Home of Mistress ,[nne Bradstreet. "The tenth muse sprung up America." "I am obnoxious to each carping tongue Who says my hand a needle better fits, .1 pod's pen all scorn I should thus wrong. For such despite they cast on female wits." North Andover 189 Across the road is the old Phillips Manse,' the ancestral home of Philhps Brooks. There is his beloved corn-barn, under whose shadow he longed " to sit and talk it aU over, " his European letter tells us. The Kittredge Homestead {i'/84) , North A ndover. Residence of Miss Sarah Kittredge. Lying close by, with only a pasture between, is the old burying ground, and a step farther is the Kittredge mansion, the home of six generations of physicians and of as many sweet singers. Doubtless some one of these was accom- ' The Phillips homestead was built by Samuel Phillips about 1734. He married Elizabeth Barnard, daughter of the Rev, John Barnard, "who came as a bride with a considerable fortune." Their son, the celebrated Judge Phillips, was a great-grandfather of Phillips Brooks, Mary Ann Phillips, daughter of the Hon. John Phillips, was married here to William Gray Brooks, in 1833, They set up housekeeping near their uncle Peter Chardon Brooks, on High Street, Boston, where Phillips Brooks was bom. — Life and Letters of Phillips Brooks, by Alexander V. G. Allen. igo Old Paths and Legends of New England panied by the ancient bassoon at the North Church, and learned the "art of singing and rules of psalmody" from a music-book of old melodies, America, Wells, Oxford, arranged without staves and with Sanskrit-like notes, lying on the Clement piano of Madame Kittredge. A flax wheel spun lavendered linen for the high canopied bed from flax raised in Andover, and a baby's wrought cap speaks of hours of loving toil by the weary housemother, seated primly in high- back chair close to the flickering light in the quaint candle stick brought over by Governor Endicott. The Indian war-whoop was far less fearful at Andover's peaceful firesides than the witchcraft frenzy caught one sad day from Salem Village. Women of high standing were forced into confession of dark dealings with the "Black Man," afterward retracted, while courageous Martha Carrier, who unflinchingly denied being a witch- wife, languished in Salem jail. If a "seasonable spanking" had been ad ministered to those deluded children of Old Danvers, the plague need not have infected the aforetime staid com munity, and it would not have been necessary to summon the eminent Cotton Mather to disperse the witch-revel. The North Church prospered greatly under the Rev. John Barnard, ordained in 17 19 with elaborate ceremonies. Church records reveal much public admonishing of mem bers in good standing. "Voted, that Lawrence shall make a Public confession for the Idle lazy life he has led for these many years. Voted that B make her confession for scandals. That Timothy jr. make a public con fession for his false and uncharitable reflexion upon me (Mr. Barnard)," The latter offence against the minister was such a grave matter that three ministers were called in from neighboring churches, in consultation. Andover, North and South, played a courageous part in the wars, early and late; two companies under Captain Thomas Poor and Captain Benjamin Ames, in Colonel North Andover 191 James Frye's regiment, appear in the Lexington Alarm Rolls; also companies under Captain Henry Abbot, Captain Nathaniel Lovejoy, Lieutenant John Adams, and Captain Joshua Holt.' Many of these were at Bunker HiU. "Shot fell like rain on Charlestown NecK And brave the deeds oft told. Of Bailey, Farnum, Frye and Poor And stout John Barker bold." " News of the battle reached Andover on Sunday morning, and the patriot parson — Jonathan French — stayed not for scruples of Sabbath travel, but was soon on the field, with musket and surgeon's case. Parson French's fair daughter Abigail became the beauty and toast of the town; and when he presented her with a side-saddle ^ she forthwith proceeded to ride over the hearts of all theologians, staid and otherwise, who came to read with her good father. The saddle finally bore her off on her wedding journey to Bed ford town, leaving a score of suitors lamenting. ' In Captain Joshua Holt's Company were Deacon John Dane, Thomas Blanchard, and other aged men, unable to bear arms, who rode to Cam bridge on the day of the alarm "to carry provisions for those who stood in need." ' Poem by Annie Sawyer Downs on the occasion of the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Andover, 3 Abigail French married the Rev. Samuel Steams, of Bedford. Her saddle is now in the possession of the Bedford Historical Society. ANDOVER, 1646 " To be as good as our fathers we tnust be better!' — Wendell Phillips. "As I watched your sports to-day, and you called to one another across the field, I heard many of the names great in .American history. It is only worth while to have ancestors who have served their country well, if out of the pride of birth you win high-minded reasotis and desires to follow nobly where they led so well." — Phillips Brooks. From address to the boys of St, Paul's School, Concord on Founder's Day. On the 5th of November, 1789, Washington — having left Haverhill, " where the inhabitt's of this small village were well disposed to welcome me by every demonstration which could evince their joy," — writes in his Diary: "About sunrise I set out crossing the Alerrimack River, over to the township of Bradford and in nine miles we came to Abbott's Tavern,^ where we breakfasted and met with much attention from Mr. Phillips,'' President of the Senate of Massachusetts, who ac companied Its through Bellarika to Lexington, where I dined ' Deacon Isaac Abbot's house on Elm Street, recently destroyed, ^ Judge Phillips was President of the Senate fifteen j'ears, also Lieu tenant-Governor of Massachusetts, an overseer of Harvard College, promoter of Phillips .Academy, and one of the original members of the American Academy of ^\-rts and Sciences, He also contemplated a theological professorship which ended in the founding of the Andover Theological Seminary, i^ladame (Phoebe Foxcroft) Phillips and her son united with Samuel .\bbot. Esq,, who was a grandson of Samuel Phillips, Esq., the goldsinith of Salem, he being a grandson of the founder of the Phillips family — the Rev. George Phillips. The chief founder of .Abbot Female .'seminary (whose plan was so ably carried out by the Misses Pliilena and Phebe ilcKeen), Mrs, Sarah Abbot, was also descended from the goldsmith of Salem, and also the wife of the founder of the Browne Professorship of Ecclesiastical History, Moses Brown, Escj., of Newburyport. — Memoir of Judge Phillips, by Dr. J. L. Taylor, 192 Andover 193 and viewed the spot on which the first blood was spilt in the dispute with Great Britain!' President Washington was re ceived at the PhilHps mansion on "The Hill" with ceremony. After his departure Madame Phillips I tied a blue ribbon on the claw-foot chair in which he sat, and on Washington's death substituted a mourning ribbon. The raising of this splendid man sion, in 1782, was celebrated by the closing of schools, a prayer by Parson French, and the drink ing of its health in huge tubs of punch. It lived long and pros pered as the "Mansion House," where famous men and women of all creeds and climes assembled year after year, in Anniversary week, under those glorious elms planted by Judge Phillips ; many a school-day romance, begun in a careless sunset stroll under the romantic " Elm-arch, " continued through a second volume, in which they lived "happy forever after." Here came trustees, professors, missionaries, edu cators, grave and gay: Dr. Hamlin from Turkey, General Armstrong, Professor Samuel B. Morse, Wendell Phillips, the Hon. Alpheus Hardy with his ward Joseph Hardy Neesima,^ also Henry Ward Beecher, Gail Hamilton, Mark I The Andover Chapter of the Daughters of the Revolutioti is named in honor of Phcebe Foxcroft Philhps, the wife of Judge Philhps. ^ The story of Mr. Neesima's flight from Japan at the risk of death and his return to found the University of Doshisha, at Kyoto, the gradual J3 ANDOVER LANDMARKS: Memorial Hall with Public Library, Squire Kneeland house (1700), •• Old South Ministry House," home of Rev. Samuel PhiUips, and Rev. Jonathan French. Christ Church. Old South Church. Abraham Marland house, founder of Andover's woollen manufactures. George Abbot homestead (1678). Deacon Daniel Poor homestead (1673). Benjamin Abbot house (1686), Abbot-Baker house (1697). Indian Ridge (esker). Red Spring. Old Raihroad, Abbot St, Abbot Academy (1829), Punchard High School, founded by Benjamin Pun chard, Phillips Academy (1778), Professor Edwards A. Park house. Old Brick Academy, designed by Bulfinch 1818, burned 1896, restored after original design. The " Classic Hall " in which 0, W, Holmes spoke his Exhibition Ode. Theological Cemetery (the " Sleepy Hollow " of Andover). Jacob Osgood house (West Parish) , where James Otis was killed by lightning. Captain Joshua Chandler homestead (West Parish). Sons : Rev. James Chandler, settled at Rawley; Rev. Samuel Chandler settled at York, Me., and Rev. John Chandler, Billerica ; residence Joshua Chandler. Sunset Rock. Prospect Hill. Hagget's Pond. Timothy Ballard estate (1790), now Ballard- vale. 194 Old Paths and Legends of New England Twain, and Ole Bull; here Lafayette made a happy little speech at the foot of the staircase; General Jackson was reluctantly forgiven by his gracious hostess for his frugal partaking of bread and milk, when she had piled high her keeping - room with goodies for his special delectation. Softly Coursing through the .Andovers. the Shawshine Enters the Merri mack River at Lawrence. However, to endless bowls of bread and milk and hasty pudding, eaten on Zion's Hill in the primitive EngHsh and Latin Commons, is ascribed the success of many an impe cunious but determined farmer's boy. Andover's hospi tality, especially to the struggling student, is proverbial, ever since the days of long ago, when the "stranger's fire" burned invitingly throughout wintry nights on the opening up of Japan through the entrance of Christianitv, is the marvellous tale relateil in his Life and Letters by Professor Arthur S. Hardy. A sweet memory of his ailnpted mother is the " Mrs. Alpheus Hardy chrysan themum," sent as a gift to her from Japan by Mr, Neesima, 195 ^^"-' Harriet Beecher Stowe House, now the ]\Iansion House, Andover. 196 Old Paths and Legends of New England wide hearth of the Dr. Peabody homestead for love of the passing wayfarer. The Fish house had a fireplace in an outside chimney, where Indians might cook their food undisturbed.' i\s you approach on " The HiU " the site of the carpenter's sho]), where thirteen pupils assembled, in 1778, at the open ing of Phillips (our first Academy to be incorporated) , from the campus rings out the familiar P-h-i-1-l-i-p-s 7 'rah, 'rah, 'rah ! At the reunion of his class, in '59, Dr. Holmes con tributed The Boys, one verse referring to Samuel F Smith, who, while a student at the Theological Seminary, wrote America, sung first on Independence Day, 1832, at Park Street Church. "And there 's a nice youngster of excellent pith. Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith; But he shouted a song for the brave and the free, — Just read on his medal, ' My Country, of Thee!' " On the old William Abbot estate stands the " President's House," occupied at different periods by the Rev, Dr. Griffin, Justin Edwards, and Austin Phelps. From the garden-study of Elizabeth Stuart Phelps "Ward, one may enjoy the winter sunset scene described in A Singular Life. On the southerly side of "The Hill" are three fine old- fashioned houses, typical of Andover, and bevond is the handsome modern estate of H. Bradford Lewis. Riding toward Reading over a grassv table-land, you must exclaim at the sight of this glorious rolling country with its inimitable New England flavor. Bv the wayside is ' Beautiful Indian Ridge and the typical kettle-hole. Pomp's Pond named afU'r Pompey Lo\-ejoy (servant of Captain William Lovejoy) who furnishcil 'lection cake and beer for town meeting, are much visited by geological students. Andover 197 the picturesque red farmhouse of three successive Samuel Cogswells. The Goldsmith and Waldo farms have been destroyed. In North Reading, near the State highway, is beautiful Martin's Pond. Entering Reading, you see at once by her ancient roofs that you are in one of the oldest towns in the State. The ancestors of Bancroft and Theodore Parker were natives of Reading. South Reading is now Wakefield. " To raising Townes and Churches new in Wilderness they wander First Plymouth and then Salem next were placed far asunder, Woburn, Wenham, Redding, built with little Silver mettle Andover, Haverhill, Berris-banks their habitation settle." Good News from New England, by Edward Winslow.' ' Andover is the birthplace of Octave Thanet (Miss Alice French). She is a. granddaughter of Governor Marcus Morton, elected governor of Massachusetts by one vote, and niece of Judge Marcus Morton whose old home stands at the corner of School and Morton streets. METHUEN, 1645-1725 A NAME of distinction has Methuen town, for it is the only township of its name in the world. Lord Paul Methuen, privy councillor to the king, was her noble namesake. Once upon a time, when the roads of the lost county of old Norfolk (North Folk) were mere "trails" through the savage wilderness, Methuen was the wild border section on the Haverhill frontier, and the quiet surface of the ilerri- mack was only rippled now and then by a birch canoe; a ferry ran across the Merrimack between the vihages of Methuen and Andover. These two defenceless settlements kept a trained band of armed snow-shoe men ' provisioned with parched corn ready to march against their savage foes when the cart -paths were blocked with drifts. One of their garrisons, built by Andover, stood opposite the Pemberton Mills, in Lawrence.' Later, a stage-coach (at seventy-five cents the round trip) rumbled across Andover bridge and rounded up with a flourish and cracking of whips before the cotmtry taA-em, Suddenly Lawrence sprang up, in a night as it were, and a milhon bobbins now whirl out thread from the misty cot ton, turned by the waters of the Great Cascade, as the Indians called the splendid Falls of the Merrimack at Lawrence, Methuen rises in a series of teiTaces from the low river ' On February 20, 1705, Governor Dudley wrote to Colonel Salton stall: "I jiray you to give direction that yovir snow-shoe men from Newbury to .Vndover be ready at a moment's warning till the weather breaks up, and that we may be (|uiet awhile." " The Merrimack Valley, by R. H. Tewksbury. Pubhshed by the Meth uen Historical Society. iV Catalog of Epitaphs from ye old burying ground (1728) on Meeting-House Hill. 198 Methuen 199 bed, tiU at the top it is crowned by picturesque estates and handsome memorial buildings and monuments. The apse of the First Church is beautified by a La Farge masterpiece, — The Resurrection Morning, — a memorial gift of Mrs. Henry C. Nevins. The Phillips Chapel was named for ^ one of the donors, John C. Phillips, a brother of WendeU Philhps. The Nevins Memorial Li brary contains some fine paintings, a portrait of Henry C. Nevins by Hubert Herkomer, a landscape by Verschuur, and Schenck's In the Storm. In the Methuen Historical Society's Rooms may be seen the collection presented by Mrs. Hayes. The castel lated homes in Methuen add much to the land scape. As seen from the village the picturesque Tenney tower resembles that of a castle on the Rhine. If the hand of five hundred years of mellowing time had but stained the striking turrets and battlements surrounding the Searles estate, the onlooker at the gates would not be startled to hear the trumpet blast and see the drawbridge fall before the heralds of some lordly Ivanhoe or Marmion, advancing amid mailed and doughty knights, a falcon in the plumage of his crest, and gallant The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, Me thuen. Gift of C. H. Tenney. 200 Old Paths and Legends of New England squires, yeomen, archers, and men-at-arms in train. Oppo site, in Washington Place, stands the statue by Ball of our "gentil Saxon knight" — the benignant Washington." ' Methuen, situated on the Massachusetts border-line, is almost within hailing distance of several fine old New Hampshire towns; also Canobie Lake, one of the wild and picturesque inland waters for which the State is famous. Greycourt from the Lodge. Rcsidciuc of Charles H. Tenney. Methuen. HAVERHILL, 1640-1645 There are three generations of Haverhill, prosperous towns all — one in old England, one in the Bay State, one in New Hampshire. The Indian deed of the Pentuckett lands was signed by the "bow and arrow marks" of Passa- quo and Sagahew, ' ' with ye consent of Passaconaway, chief of the Pennacooks." The master-spirit of Pentuckett or Ward's Plantation, was the Rev. John Ward, son of the witty and intolerant Rev. Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich, author of the Simple Cobler of Aggawamm.^ Haverhill and Ipswich were neighbors and staunch friends, and Haverhill often sent messengers to Ipswich for aid against the red man, who, pushing through the dense wilderness from Canada, or in swift canoe following the Merrimack, knocked at their doors in the guise of a trader and made the struggling colony a hunting-ground for scalps. In the early spring of 1676 the frontier township of Haver hill, which included the larger part of Methuen, Salem, Plaistow, and Atkinson, was horrified at the news that hostile tribes were on the war-path in the name of King Philip, and had already crossed the Merrimack at Wamesit (Lowell) . They had six garrisons' and four houses of refuge,the latter ' The cobbler stops in his clever, punning, theological tirade to make a fling at the "Fashions of Women," who disfigure themselves with such exotic garbs having nothing but a few squirrel's brains to help them frisk from one ill-favored fashion to another. If he chose to be so hypercritical over the Puritan dress, what comments would the ephemeral sleeves of this age have called forth ! '' Thomas Whittier, of the Society of Friends, ancestor of the poet, lived near the Sanders garrison; unlike his fellow-townsmen, he never took refuge at night there, or carried weapons. His family often heard voices under their windows or saw a strange dark face peeping in, but Friend Whittier continued to receive cordially the Indians who visited him and 202 Old Paths and Legends of New England of brick, each with a small door admitting but one person at a time. The upper room was entered by a ladder, which Hannah Duston .llonument, Haverhill. could be drawn up in case of attack. The Peaslee "Garri son" ' of i6(;o, standing near Rocks Bridge, was the home of had never reason to regret his trust in them. "My best swarm of bees," left Whittier liy Henry Rolte, of Xewbury, were the talk of the town, as thev were among the first hone\--bees to sip Massachusetts flowers. ' ()lher landmarks are Ihe site of the first meeting-house, 167 Water The Colonists' Moot-Hall 203 Whittier's great-grandmother. One of the brick houses be longed to Captain Simon Wainwright, another to the ' ' wor shipful Major Nathaniel Saltonstall" ' — son of Sir Richard Saltonstall, patentee of Connecticut. Nathaniel was cap tain of the train-band and became influential in town-meet ing about the time that a ' ' paper- vote ' ' replaced the black and white beans in the election of moderator and selectmen (first called "seven men," then "towne's men" and "town's men select," finally "select men"). The building of the schoolhouse, a crucial event, was placed in charge of Major Saltonstall, William White, and Peter Ayres. It was to serve also as a watch-house and a shelter on the Sabbath, between morning and aftemoon exercise. The meeting house itself must have been rather gruesome, with flintlocks stacked in the corners and grinning wolves' heads, for which bounties had been paid, nailed to the walls Yet it is not strange that it was ever first in the heart of the colonist, standing not only as a place of worship, but as their Saxon "moot-hall," the home of the freeman, where government was through the ' ' aye " or " nay " or by the showing of hands, just as each Saxon land-owner and sea-rover used to vote by waving his battle-axe or spear in answer to the question discussed or "mooted" in the "moot-hall" of his inde pendent tun or town. The beauty of the early Saltonstall estate, "Button- Street. Greenwood Cemetery; epitaphs published in the Haverhill Gazette, January i6, 1897. Great Hill, view of the Atlantic from Boar's Head to Cape Ann. Winnikenni Park and Winnikenni Castle, Crystal Lake and Job's Hill, ' The Honorable Gurdon Saltonstall, son of Major Saltonstall, succeeded Fitz-John Winthrop as Governor of Connecticut. Leverett, son of Judge Richard Saltonstall, was fiist Mayor of Salem, president of the State Senate, of the Essex Agricultural Society, and of the Essex Bar. Colonel Richard Saltonstall was among those who capitulated at Fort William Henry, during the French and Indian War, narrowly escaping massacre Tsy the Indians who fell on the unarmed prisoners. 204 Old Paths and Legends of New England woods," which overlooks the river from Golden Hill, was remarked by Washington. It was originally granted by the town to the Rev. John Ward, who bequeathed both land and house to his daughter Elizabeth and her husband, Nathaniel Saltonstall. In 1815 it was purchased by Major James Duncan and has recently been presented to the Haverhill Historical Society by the Duncan famdy. These fine old sycamores, or buttonwoods, were set out for Judge Richard Saltonstall in 1740 by his servant, Hugh Tallent, a gay and popular fiddler. To "Buttonwoods" Dr. Na thaniel Saltonstall brought his bride. In 1788, the "Old Doctor," as he was affectionately called in later years, built a substantial mansion on Alerrimack Street, the land being a gift from his father-in-law. Squire Samuel White, for whom White's Corner was named. The grandchildren of the doctor's daughter, "Sally" SaltonstaU, have preserved this fine specimen of colonial architecture b}' removing it from the business thoroughfare to the banks of Lake Salton stall ; the lake took its name from the house, now the resi dence of Gurdon Saltonstall Howe. Dr. Saltonstall's " Day Book," a curious and familiar history of the time, opens January i, 1774, thus: " IMr. Cornelius Mansis, a visit, 8d.," eight pence being the physician's fee in the village and one shilling for a Bradford call. The poet's grandfather, Joseph Whittier, paid his bill in full to the "Old Doctor" bv a jug of hay, six pounds of butter, and a quarter of veal. It is interesting to cull a paragraph here and there from Haverhill's records. The town ordered, in 1652, instead of having a drum beat for meeting, that "Abraham T^-ler shall blow his horn in the most con^¦enient place everv Lord's day, for wliich he is to ha\-e one peck of corn of every family." . . . £4 'js. donated to Harvard College. . . . The wife of John Hutchins presented for wearing a silk hood, but upon testimony of her "being brought up Lurking and Friendly Indians 205 above the ordinary way" she was discharged; the wife of Joseph Swett fined los. for the same offence. "It is ordered that all doggs for the space of three weeks shall have one legg tyed up ; if a man refuse to tye up his dogg's legg and hee be found scraping up fish in a corn field, the owner thereof shall pay twelve pence damages." In each hill of corn the farmer dropped a fish, shad and sal mon being " a drug on the market, " and his apprentices con tracted that they should not eat salmon more than six times a week. Because the blossom of the pyrus opens on the first appearance of the shad in May, it is commonly called shad-blossom, and when the apple orchards are filled with huge white bouquets, then is the shad's greatest run. During seventy years Haverhill was never free from the lurking Indian, and many women and children were carried captive to Canada. Perhaps the most remarkable incident in the history of Indian warfare concerned the capture of Hannah Duston, who, in the words of Cotton Mather, despatched with Hatchets her Sleeping Oppressors, and turned back to cut off the Scalps of these Ten Wretches (who had killed her child and "sent several English captives as they began to tire of their sad Journey to their Long Home"), that they might be shown as silent, hideous witnesses of her unparalleled adventure. The savages burned the house of Thomas Duston, but her eight children were preserved by the father's courage. As they marched off toward safety with the pace of a child five years old, Duston kept in the "Rear of his Little Army of Unarmed children," menacing the Indians with his gun from behind his horse till the little flock reached the garrison, a mile distant. Friendly Indians were of great service. Some Haverhill men, engaged with Captain Baker in an expedition near Winnipiseogee, the Lake of The Smile of the Great Spirit, were pursued by an overpowering number of warriors. 2o6 Old Paths and Legends of New England Their Indian guide urged them not to halt an instant in their march down the Pemmigewasset River, and when at Crystal Sunshine in lovers' Lane after a New England Icc-Stonn. Salisbury the fatigued men said they must have refresh ment he advised them to build many fires and cut many The Whittier Homestead 207 sticks to broil their meat on, burning the end of each as if used, and stick them in the ground. One may picture the disappointed "Ugh! ugh!" of the balked braves over the smouldering fires, as they counted the sticks of too great a number of pale-faces, and turned back on their trail by the chief's command, who had doubtless expected, in the next grand council, to have been awarded another feather in his war-bonnet, tipped by a tuft of red horsehair, signifying the deed of great prowess in tomahawking or capturing these foes. " Is it possible that men had to run for their lives through this tranquil countryside !" exclaims the traveller, as he wends his- way toward Amesbury, by the serene Lakes Saltonstall and Kenoza, on whose south side was the great ox-common; his road carries him around the foot of the hill crowned by Winnikenni Castle, toward the simple Quaker cottage where Whittier was born; here upon the growing boy "the shades of the prison-house" began to close, yet "The Youth, who daily farther from the east Must travel, still is Nature's Priest, And by the vision splendid Is on his way attended." On Whittier's eighty-fourth birthday. Dr. Holmes paid him a call and found him unchanged, clinging to the Quaker dress, beside him a picture on glass of the dear hearthstone of the Whittier homestead which remains to-day almost as pictured in Snow-Boitud. The boy Whittier was invited to pay a visit in Boston by a relative, Mrs. Greene,' and started ' The Greene family had what old New England people call the " Bachi- ler eyes, deep, dark, burning eyes," inherited from the remarkable colonial preacher, the Rev. Stephen Bachiler, of Hampton, "These eyes were marked in Hawthorne, Webster, Caleb Gushing, and William Bachiler Greene," — "Whittier" in Authors atid Friends, by Annie Fields. 2o8 The Whittier Kitchen in Whittier's Birth place, i6SS, Haverhill. Preserved under the Care of Trustees, and (>pcn to the Public. 'Shut tn from all the world without. The mug of eider simmering slow. We sat the clean-winged liearth about . The apples sputtered in a row." Between the andirons' straddling feet, Snow-Bound Bradford 209 off in a coach with great expectations in a new homespun suit trimmed with "boughten buttons." While sight seeing on Washington Street, he says, "I found a terrible stream of people and when I got tired of being jostled, it seemed as if the folks might get by if I waited a little while." So he stepped into an alley-way and grew homesick and reflected that the "boughten buttons" made no difference at all. BRADFORD Bradford is closely associated with Haverhill, though divided by the Merrimack, Thomas Kimball's house on the Boxford Road was raided by the Indians ; his wife and five children, who were made captive, were set free through the intervention of Wannalancet, The old powder-house has disappeared from Indian Hill, but you will find standing the Dudley Carleton house, used for prisoners of war in the Revolution. The teacher of mathematics, Benjamin Green- leaf, was born in Bradford. Bradford Academy is one of the oldest schools for girls in the country. THE TRAIL TO IPSWICH When the sun-chariot wings its course highest above the Merrimack valley, Haverhill's felicitous situation is most in evidence. From out her wide estate a series of fascinat ing country roads swerve toward our Atlantic seaboard, — salt, sand-ribboned, rugged. The longest, most southerly path veers toward Ipswich, — Haverhill's best friend and running-mate in the troublous Indian days, — swinging through Georgetown ' around into Byheld, a part of old Newbury, before crossing Rowley's storied Green and Ipswich's border. You will discover that this picturesque highway and byway divides splendid farm-lands, toning into yellow green marsh by the thousand acre, well salted indeed by the little rivers ilill and Parker, and on which the thrifty farmer sets great store as fodder for his cattle. Another and another summer day tempts you this way ; it is a placid country side laden with sweets of flowers and herbs, yet seldom of the same humor, because sea-mist and sun play hide-and-seek over a baker's dozen of hills in Ipswich; over Ox-Pasture and Prospect Hill, in Rowley; over great Sunset Rock, ' ' sib^ery-gray and mossy, at the crossroads close by old Dummer's mile-stone, which points out in its accustomed imperturbable manner that vour road co^-ers thirty-three miles to Boston town, or flve to Xewburvport from South Byfield, It has told the same story since 1708 to country folk and city folk, to the clans of Noyes, Moody, Longfellow, Parsons, Dummer, moreover to Judge Sewall, who claimed a kinsman at e^'cry other corner hereabouts, his sisters' lih'-iiartncrs having chosen Byfield Parish as their abiding-place. ' Thepresent (icdi^etown wasa part of the " accominodations'' offered by the General Court to Ezekiel Rogers and his company in 163S. Byfield Parish of "Ould" Newbury 211 This mile -stone ' saw, in 171 2, the building of yonder country home by ye honored Lieutenant Governor Dummer ; again, ye laying out of ye country road to ye meeting house ; it saw yearly the ceremonious arrival of Lady Dum mer with her coats-of-arms and liveries covered with dust after the long drive over Boston road from their School Street estate, close neighbor to Province House, the resi dence of the royal governors of Massachusetts. As the daughter of Governor Dudley, my Lady Katherine was ac customed to entertain regally in Roxbury, and it is not amazing that Governor Shute, stopping at the Dummer mansion on his way to Portsmouth, found himself "finely entertained." Entering her mansion through the handsome grape- vined door, you regard my lady's portrait still hanging op posite that of her lord. ^ How the aristocratic dame would lament the absence of her favorite tapestries from these white-panelled walls! The Governor's house is still the Dummer Academy, founded by the Governor and opened to pupils in 1763. Byfield Parish is a unique patchwork of towns. One patch is of old Rowley's soil, and when the company assem bled to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of Byfield Congregational Church in 1902, some were seated in New- ' Just above Dummer Academy on the left of the road to Byfield Station stands the Joseph Noyes- Knight house, now the Ambrose resi dence. '¦ In 1727 a highway 2 rods wide was laid out from ye country road near to his honor the Lieutenant Governor Dummer's house to the parsonage land in Byfield Parish to the land of John Dummer, Esq., Mr. Richard Dummer and Mr. Joseph Noyes." The first Richard Dum mer was punished in 16,37 by the General Court and "deprived of swords, gun, pistols, shot and matches" because he openly sympathized with "the heretics Anne Hutchinson and the Rev. John Wheelwright,'' ^ Painted by Robert Feke, of Oyster Bay, L. I. His masterpiece, the portrait of Lady Wanton, wife of Rev, Joseph Wanton, hangs in Red wood Library, Newport, 212 Old Paths and Legends of New England bury, others in Georgetown, yet all were in Byfield Parish. In the old parsonage (1704) Theophilus Parsons was bom; prepared for college, and perhaps birched at " Dummer" by the celebrated Master Moody, with other eminent Essex County men ; he studied law with the learned loyalist, Judge Edmund Trowbridge, of Cambridge, who chanced to be The Governor Dummer Mattsion, South Byfield. Now the Administration Building of Dummer Academy, opened in 1763. hiding at Byfield in terror of the "Sons of Liberty," Mr. Parsons in his turn prepared John Ouincv Adams and J\(ibert Treat Paine for law. The first chapter in Mr. Parsons's romance opened at a dinner given by judge Benjamin Greenleaf at his house in Newburyport,' Miss Elizabeth Greenleaf, hearing that ¦ Ould Neiubury, by John J, Currier, Damrell & Upham, Quascacunquen Falls 213 the brilliant Mr. Parsons was to be one of their guests, de clared that she should not dare to utter a word. "You need not," said her father, "he will talk for you and himself too, if you wish it." Within a year Mr. Parsons married Miss Greenleaf, having won that suit to which he always referred as worth all the others he had ever gained. The godfather of Byfield was Nathaniel, youngest of one- and-twenty children and one of sixteen who followed their pious father, the Rev. Richard Byfield, to church in Long Dutton of Sussex. Judge Nathaniel Byfield was, moreover, a "circuit" crony of Judge Samuel Sewall's. Their corre spondence about this "Infant Parish" is extant, also the petition of Nathaniel Byfield, aged twenty-one, to the Gov ernor and Council, in 1674, stating that "being lately married" he humbly requested discharge from going out to war against the Indians, ' ' under benefit of the Law of God in 24 Deut. 5 : ' That when a man hath taken a new wife he shall not go out to warre, but he shall be free at home one year.' " Quascacunquen Falls, on the Parker River, where the first mill-wheel turned in 1634, is about a mile south of By- field Station, hard by the homestead of William and Mehit able (Sewall) Moody, birthplace of Paul Moody, inventor, and of the Honorable William Moody, Secretary of the Navy under Roosevelt. In the waters of these Falls, so runs the legend, witches were baptized by Satan, taking an oath of allegiance to evil. Just up Orchard Road, beyond the Moody House, stands a granite horse-block, the sole rem nant of the home-lot of the poet Longfellow's grandparents, William Longfellow and Anne Sewall, his wife, a sister of Judge Sewall, who left a lingering sweet remembrance in the wild sweetbrier transplanted from his birthplace at Bishop Stoke, in England. 2 14 Old Paths and Legends of New England Climbing the hill to Highfields, the Captain Abraham Adams homestead of 1705, whence a father and four sons marched to Revolutionary fields, one. Captain Stephen Adams, walking to Valley Forge and back, you may discern from Deacon Leonard Adams's apple-orchard opposite, the site of the first ship-yard of old Newbury on the little Parker, sweeping restfuUy through marsh meadows in a wonderful double ox-bow. It flows under Thorlays bridge on the Newburyport turnpike, the once famous colonial road from Boston to the East. This is one of three New England bridge sites, aged two hundred and fifty years; "built by Richard Thorlay at his own cost, he hath liberty to take 2d, for every horse, cow, ox," Where the river turns on itself, rises fascinating "Doubling Rock" close to the Newbury port turnpike, on which is the Hale-Boynton House; the picturesque gray gambrel of the John Noyes i house is mid way between "old Dummer" and Newburyport town — "quite our idea of bustle and excitement," said an old Byfield boy, now of New York, Below Quascacunquen Falls toward South B\dield, }'Ou are struck with the charm of the comfortable yellow home stead built in 1 80 1 by Eben Parsons ' a brother of Theo- ophilus, which he called the Fatherland Farm. It is now the Forbes residence, ' Other homesteads of Bvfield include the Benjamin Pearson house, the Richard Dummer house, the Hill residence, the Root and Tenney houses, the President Webber-Caldwell house and the first female seminary in America, 1807, Among the pupils were Harriet Xewell and Mary Lyon, founder of Mt. Holyoke College. A daughter of Mt. Holvoke is the Fidelia Fiske Seininary in Oroomiah of Persia, and sister seminaries have been planted in Africa and other lands. ^ Mr, Parsons was .1 man |iatlerned after Washington's heart, as he was instrumental in advancing a,i;riculture by importing the finest fruit, seeds, and grain, besides cattle and sheep. The Florentine marble mantle, carved with emljlems of agrieulture, was a tribute to him from the Massachusetts Societ\- for the Promotion of .\griculture, .Vn interesting sketch of the El)en Parsons homestead, by Susan E. P. Forbes, is in the Neiu ICngland llistoriial and Genealogical Register of January, 1896, Ipswich 2 1 5 AGAWAM, 1633. In 1634 only a narrow winding footpath ran from Quas cacunquen to Agawam, "resort for the fish of passage!' Ipswich has still many of the attractions of her seventeenth- century youth ; from her enchanting reed-grown river, great Pan, were he not dead, might pluck a shepherd's pipe and summon his entire train of immortal nymphs. Naiads from Ipswich brooks. Oreads from her hills, and Nereids from the ocean, and, loveliest of all, a mortal Dryad out of the heart of each glorious elm ; happily, we too feel the presence of some sympathetic spirit dwelling in every tree, and with the ancients hold it an impious act to destroy one wantonly. From under the low rafters of these gambrel roofs which lean toward the street, generations " of the salt of the earth " have been sifted throughout the States, an indispensable strata in the Union ; here is the veritable Heartbreak Hills of the old, old legend where a dusky Ariadne kept tryst with her sailor lover; as the story runs in Mrs. Thaxter' s words : " For he cried, as he kissed her wet eyes dry, ' I '11 come back, sweetheart, keep your faith.' She said, ' I will watch while the moons go by ' ; " He never came back! Yet faithful still She watched from the hilltop her life away. And the townsfolk christened it Heartbreak Hill, And it bears the name to this very day." Certainly Ipswich, in some respects, is not the Agawam planted by John Winthrop, Jr., where the eminent Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, a descendant of the Smithfield martyr, preached; no longer are recorded the bountiful entertain ments on such occasions as an old-style house-raising or the minister's funeral, nor on frosty Sabbath mornings does 2i6 Old Paths and Legends of New England the grave and worthy preacher without dissimulation place a jug beside him on the pulpit desk! Mayhap, this gossip was of Ipswich's neighbors — Beverly or Boxford town. Boxford continues to be the traditional New England town in to])ographical aspect. A French traveller drew a capital picture of Boxford in describing Plainfield, Conn., as he saw it in 1781. The Marquis de Chastellux says: . for what is called in America a town or township is only a certain number of houses dispersed over a great space, but which belong to the same incorporation and which send deputies to the general assembly of the " state." The centre or headquarters is the meeting-house or church. This church stands sometimes single and is sometimes sur rounded by four or five houses only; whence it happens that when a traveller asks the question : How far is it to such a town? he is answered. You are there already; but when he specifies the place he wishes to be at, he not un frequently is told, You are seven or eight miles from it. This tallies with an experience of the writer: we alighted at Boxford, only to be told that the place we wished "to be at" was seven miles distant toward the North Andover boundary; nevertheless, in spite of "kind er' ketchy weather," the unexpected drive over sweet hills and dales in old Boxford, "between the drops," was a never-to-be-forgotten pleasure. THE PATH TO PLUM ISLAND Haverhdl's road to Plum Island skirts Groveland's famous pines and passes through West Ncwbur)' and Newburyport. The colonists at the Port spoke rather disdainfully of their Upper Woods (West Newbury) as "waste land," fit only for "perpetual commons," where are now as fine farms as one would wish to see. Coffin's Lane recalls Tristram 217 Picking Cinnamon Roses at the Pearl Home.'^tead, West Bo.xford. An old "Garrison, before i-^oo, with large clay bricks between the outer and inner walk. built 2i8 Old Paths and Legends of New England Coffin, who purchased a large tract of Edward Rawson,' Newbury's town clerk, later secretary of the Colony. Raw- son's Meadow is near the upper bridge of the fetching little Artichoke River, an abiding-place for rare giant birches, fern-dells, and sweet azalea, — the very heart of elfdom and eerie legends. Bewitching, indeed, is Curzon's mill^ at the mouth of the iVrtichoke, on the spot where Sergeant John Emery ground the town's grists in 1679. To this day, what ever corn is brought to the mill must be ground, or else the ' Edward Rawson's daughter, Rebecca, the heroine of Whittier's Leaves from Margaret Smith's Journal, occasionally dated at "Newbury on the Merrimae," married Thomas Rumsey, who pretended to be Sir Thomas Hale, Jr., a nephew of Lord Chief Justice Hale. They sailed for England on the honeymoon. On the day after leaving the ship, "one of the most beautiful, polite, and accomplished young ladies of Boston" found her trunks stuffed with paper, her jewels flown as well as the fic titious young lord. Portraits of the Rawsons handed down through Ebenezer Rawson and Judge Dorr of Mendon hang in the rooms of the New England Historic and Genealogical Society. A portrait of Judge Samuel Sewall in Memorial Hall, Cambridge, the gift of Edward S. Mose- ley, was unearthed in a garret of the Greenleaf family. Note. — In answer to those of the old country who declared it would be impossible to subsist in Xewbury, Judge Sewall prophesied: "As long as Plum Island shall faithfully keep the commanded Post; Notwith standing the hectoring words and hard Blows of the proud and boister ous Ocean ; As long as any Salmon or Sturgeon shall swim in the streams of Merrimack; or any Perch or Pickeril in Crane Pond As long as any Cattel shall be fed with the Grass growing in the meadows, which do humbly bow themseh-es before Turkic-Hill; As long as any Sheep shall walk upon Old-Town Hills, and shall from thence pleasantly look down upon the River Parker; .\s long as .Xatiire shall not grow Old and dote; but shall constantlv remember to give the rows of Indian Corn their education, liy Pairs, So lonj; shall Christians be born there; and being first made meet, shall from thence be Translated to be made partakers of the Inheritance of ihe Saints in Light.'' ' The ])ieluresque homestead which stocui by the bridge, built for a hunting lodge in lyHt, by Stephen Hooper, subsequently enlarged and unhappil\' burned in January, [QO,q, was the home of the Misses Curzon and Miss Mari]uand- It was furnislied with family heirlooms of the scN'cnteenth and eighteenth centuries. Pipe Stave Hill, West Newbury 219 ancient water privileges are forfeited. Judge Sewall writes in 1708: "Visited Cousin Jacob Toppan and laid a stone of the foundation of ye meeting house at Pipe Staff Hill," so called because its primeval growth contributed staves for West Indian molasses hogsheads. About the time of the great awakening in the Colonies preceding the Revolution, "And Curson's bowery mill." June on the Merrimac, the Dalton country house on Pipe Stave Hill became re nowned for the hospitality dispensed by Tristram Dalton, a gentleman of the old school and ardent patriot, who, with Caleb Strong, were the two first United States Senators from Massachusetts, Mr. Dalton was graduated from Harvard in the class of John Adams. The charms of this "patriarchal family" have been sung by many travellers. 2 20 Old Paths and Legends of New England Samuel Breck " relates the story of their subsequent mis fortune, when political ambition lured Tristram Dalton from his peaceful abode. Brissot de Warville writes a naive description of his visit on Pipe Stave Hill : This is one of the finest situations that can be imagined. . . . Mr. Dalton has fine apples, grapes and pears, but he complains that children steal them, an offence readily pardoned in a free country. . . . The Americans are not accustomed to what we call grand feasts. They treat strangers as they treat themselves everyday and they live well. They say they are not anxious to starve themselves the week in order to gormandize on Sunday. This trait will paint to you a people at their ease, who wish not to torment themselves for show. "I, Great Tom, Indian," agreed to part with his hill for three pounds. Indian Hill has been in the Poore family for eight generations. Century-old chestnut trees stand ,guard Indian file over the stately garden. From a honey suckle bower on the hilltop, and at every step down the straight box-bordered walk of great length is a fascinating peep through arching foliage of the gables of Indian Hill Farm, its lovely trellised porch tessellated by grape-leaf shadows. The farm is a treasure-house of furniture of the colonial day, collected by Major Ben : Perlev Poore. Each room has a distinct individuality, each weapon stacked over this stairway has its camp-fire varn. From "high boy " and oaken chest you may pull out silk pelisses, quilted silk petticoats, a scarlet evening cloak, sweeping ostrich plumes, gossamer laces; outsitlc the casement the clamber- ' Diary and Recollections of Samuel Breck, edited by Horace E. Scud der. The Dalton estate passed into the possession of Dr. Robinson, the family physician of all the country roundabout; through his daughter it came into the Moody family, and is now occupied by Horace J , Moody of Yonkers, N, Y. 221 The "Myopia Hunt." On to the chase from Indian Hill Farm ! The Poore Homestead. Remodelled on English plan by Benjamin Poore. Home of Major Ben: Pcrley Poore. Now a part of the Frederick S. Moseley estate. 22 2 Old Paths and Legends of New England ing red and white roses beckon with the sweet assurance of many fragrant summers, and this hawthorn, like a huge pink bouquet, recalls Victor Hugo's words: " But just look at the marvellous rose made by a sprig of hawthorn, when looked at through a microscope ; just compare the finest Mechlin lace with that!" The curious circular study was designed by Major Poore ; on every hand are trophies of a world-wide acquaintance ; friends were constantly ' ' drop ping in" from far and wide, and his table was often reset three times for dinner. "THE laurels" AND LAUREL HILL Some four miles from Newburyport, on the senior Mose ley estate, in a pine-shaded water-bound nook, grows an extravagant bed of mountain laurel, most unusual in the lower valley of the Merrimack, Whittier was among the annual June pilgrims who went together to keep the Feast of Flowers at "The Laurels " by "the rippling river's rune," One of his poems in honor of the day sang of the west wind blowing down Our River, which doubtless sent a ray of glad ness into the prison of Jean Pierre Brissot, the Girondist leader, who, in his youthful travels, became enamored of the prospect from Laurel Hill, On the summit from "Moulton Castle," Sir Edward Thornton, the British Minister, and his guest. Lord Grav, looking across Deer Island to the open sea, agreed that no prospect in the Old World could surpass it in beaut\- On this site is to be built the country house of Charles AA" Mosclc>', who now occupies the quaint John Hall Bartlett house of 1792, at the foot of his Laurel Hill estate, near Bartlett Springs, Its unique door-stone is the toothed granite mill-wheel which ground the bark in the old tannery, a successor of the Bartlett tannery of 1650, This willow- fringed road is the same over which AA'ashington passed to 223 "The Old Chain Bridge. 2 24 Old Paths and Legends of New England vAmesbury Ferry ; the bargemen in white awaiting him are said to have come from Gloucester and Marblehead to row their general over the peaceful Alerrimack, as hitherto they piloted him in perilous depths of night across East River after the battle of Brooklyn Heights, and again battled suc cessfully with the Delaware's ice-floes. From Laurel Hill a charming two-mile dri\-e winds through the Moseley woodland to the Frederick Strong Aloseley house," Maudesleigh," Below the wide slope of velvet turf spreads the river-valley in all its beauty. John Evelyn would have written in praise of this most sweet and de licious garden with its pergola, of the rows of sweet-peas tied in luxuriant bunches of a single variety, of the Canter bury bells, larkspur, and poppies, seething with color, ac centuated by the salt mists which climb the ri\-er thus far. On the road from Alaudesleigh to Curzon's mill is the old burying-ground of Sa^^'yer's Hill. Towards Newburyport you pass the site of Queen Anne's Chapel ' "on the plains ' ' ; the bell was presented by the Bishop of London, Its successor is St, Paul's, whose first treasurer was Alicbael Dalton. Carr's Island, whence George Carr ran the earliest Newburyport- ferry, is now the sheep farm of the Hon. HarAxy N, Shepard. ' In Belleville Cemetery are stones erected to the Rev. Matthias Plant, also Samuel Bartlett and Joshua Bro^^m, founders of Queen Anne's Chapel. Inscriptions in Currier's Ould Newbury. NEWBURYPORT, 1635-1764 "/ left Newbury Port the 13th at teti in the morning, and often stopped before I lost sight of this pretty little town, for I had great pleasure in enjoying the different aspects it presents." — Marquis de Chastellux, 1782, FTER a visit to "Ould" Newbury one is haunted by the scent of apple blossoms and salt-sea marshes ; the farms, as softly green as those of Old England; and, moreover, by dreams of stately ships and wary priv ateers ; of balls and routs where bells and beaux, in French velvets and laces, dancing and drinking syllabubs, are startled by a great earthquake ^ or tidings of a wreck on the sands of Plum Island. These were days of pomp and splendor. A daughter of the Dalton house went forth a bride in a satin-lmed coach and outriders, drawn by six white horses. The dashing young merchant, Nathaniel Tracy, sent out fleets of successful privateers, and married the greatest beauty of the day, a daughter of Colonel Jeremiah Lee of Marblehead. So extensive were his estates, that in travel ling from Newburyport to Philadelphia he could rest each night in his own mansion. One of his transient summer houses was the stone garrison house in 01dtown,where, at the east window, he was wont to sit and watch his ships come in over the bar. It was at about this period that many men of distinction were feted in Newburyport. The Marquis de Chastellux ' Newbury's first earthquake, in 1638, uprooted the springing corn and frightened the Colonists out of their wits. Winthrop says: "It came with a noise like continued thunder or the rattling of coaches in London," The second lasted an aftemoon, then came the third, and finally the bells and dishes were shaken so often that the records spoke of "the earthquake," 15 225 226 Spencer-Pierce "Garrison " Hoiis {C>f>o), Netobiiry — O'dtoion. Ye saide farme was given into the pos^e^sion of Mr. I hiniel I'ier, e who boiiglil il of 'John Spencer by the cere- motiy of turfe and twigge .¦ . "Mr I'ien e did cut off a ttoigge off a tree, and cut up a turfe, and Air. Spencer tooke Ihe twigge and stuck it itito the turfe, and bid us hcarc witness that he gave Mr Pierce possession thereby of the liouse and land and farme." Visit of the Marquis de Chastellux 227 writes entertainingly of his visit, with other Frenchmen of note, to this effect : Mr. John Tracy came with two handsome carriages and con ducted me and my Aide-de-Camp to his country-house. I went by moonlight to see the garden, which is composed of different terraces. . . The house is very handsome and everything breathes that air of magnificence accompanied with simplicity, which is only to be found amongst merchants. At ten o'clock an ex cellent supper was served, we drank good wine, Miss Lee sung and prevailed on Messieurs de Vaudreuil i and [Baron de] Taley- rand to sing also ; towards mid night the ladies withdrew. Mr. Tracy, according to the custom of the country, offered us pipes, which were accepted by M, de Taleyrand, and M, de Montesquieu. . . Mr. Tracy interested me greatly with the vicissitudes of his for tune since the beginning of the war. At the end of 1 7 7 7 , his brother and he had lost one and forty ships and he had not a ray of hope but in a marque of eight guns of which he had no news. Walking one day with his brother and reasoning together on the means of subsisting their families, they per ceived a sail making for the harbour. He immediately interrupted the conversation, saying, ' Perhaps it is a prize for me.' His brother laughed at him, but he immediately went to meet the ship and found it was in fact a prize for him; worth five-and-twenty thousand pounds sterling. . In 1 781, he lent five thousand pounds to the State for the cloathing of the troops, and that only on the receipt of the ' The Marquis de Vaudreuil's squadron was then at Boston, and some of his ships were refitting and taking in masts at Portsmouth, NEWBURYPORT LANDMARKS : Market Square. Watts, his cellar. Old South Church (1746) with cenotaph to George Whitefield, and Whispering Gallery. Birthplace Wm. Lloyd Garrison. Marine Museum, State St. Tracy house {1771); Washington enter tained here (1789); now Public Li brary. Rooms of the Newbury Historical Society. Y. M. C. A, Building, the Corliss Memorial. Tris tram Dalton-Moses Brown house, now Dalton Club. Wolfe Tavern, Davenport*s Inn (1762), corner Fish (State) St. Fountain Park and the Frog Pond. Jonathan Jackson- '* Lord " Timothy Dexter-George Corliss house, High St. Counterpart of the old Job Pillsbury house, de stroyed by fire, residence of the Misses Getchell. Toppan's house (1670), on Toppan's Lane. Atkin son Park. 228 Old Paths and Legends of New England Treasurer, yet his quota of taxes that very year amounted to six thousand pounds.^ Good old mercantile times were these, before the Em bargo Act and the great fire, the cause of deserted wharves and dechne of the ship-master. Newburyport has substi tuted many other successful industries, among them the appropriate manufacture of silver goods in colonial designs. The city's natural attractions are greater than ever. Her elm-arched thoroughfare is literally a High Street of charm ing homes, old and new, presided over by the mitre of St. Paul's, the Diocesan Church of Bishop Bass, first Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts. The altar tablets were a gift from Queen Anne. In the vestry a tablet records the gift to the parish of $333.33 by Timothy Dexter.^ The beautiful spire of the church of the First Religious Society of New buryport is remarked from every approach to the city. In interesting contrast is odd little Joppa and its clam- houses, where, in 1640, sturgeon were pickled for the Euro pean market. An old Newburyporter instead of saying from Dan to Beersheba, says from "Joppa Flats to Grass hopper Plains." On being questioned about Grasshopper Plains (the high plateau on the road to West Newbury, ' Travels in North .America in tlie years lySo. Ij8i and ijS2 by the Mar quis de Chastellux, one of the forty members of the French Academy, and Major-General in the French army, serving under Count de Rochambeau. Translated from the French b)- an English gentleman who resided in America at that period. ^ "Lord" Timothy Dexter said: "I am the first in the East, the first in the West and the gi-catest Philosopher in the known world," In .4 Pickle lo the Knoieing Ones he explains the origin of his fabulous (?) for tune as being acquired by such odd, lucky strokes as sending forty-two thousand warming pans to the West Indies, seized upon with avidity by sug.ar-dealers as dippers and strainers for the syrup. In his second edi tion, because Uie knowing ones " eomplaine of mv book," he places all stops by themselves that they might "pepper and salt it as they pleased" !!!!!!?, 229 The Clatn-Diggers on Joppa Flats, Newburyport. " The sea has left the strand; The waves lie gathered up In their deep sapphire cup Off the hard-ribbed sand!' ¦22,0 Old Paths and Legends of New England whose wells dried up during the great earthquake), he will tell you that the soil is so sandy that even grasshoppers cannot get a living, so they sit on the fence and bark. NEWBURY — OLDTOWN (WESCUSSAUGO), 1635 "Always afternoon" it is said to be in sedate and beauti ful Oldtown. The lover of colonial paths will sail up NEWBURY— OLDTO'WN LANDMARKS : Parker River Bridge, Oldtown Hill. The Coflin house (1654). Oldtown Church. Oldtown Burying Ground (1643), site of first Oldtown Church; floating island, which used to rise and fall with the water some eight feet, with its six large trees. *' The veteran Elm of Newbury' (1717) ; poem by Hannah F. Gould of Newburyport. Noyes house {1646), West India or Lovell's Lane. Arnold tablet. Upper Green and Oldtown Pond. Spencer-Pierce house. Little's Lane. Stephen Swett- March-Ilsley house (1670). Parker River from Ipswich, and land with the Puritans under the shadow of Oldtown hill; here paced their lonely night-watch to spy the lurking Indian. Oldtown hill is the first land sighted by the approaching mariner. General Greely, retumuig out of perilous Arctic seas, hailed with unspeakable joy that serene, blue, rounded height guarding his native town. Not far from Oldtown Green is the farm selected by Nicholas Noyes, first settler,' on which is the home of William Little, President of the Newbury Historical Society. On this street (Green) Sir William Pepperell lost and found a silver cup whilst he was enlisting men for his successful ' Among Newbury's ninety proprietors were Percival and John Lowle, our poet's kin, Percival Lowle -wrote .4 Funeral Elegie on Go^•emor Winthrop's death, preserved on a printed broadside {The Lowell Gene alogy, by Delmar R, Lowell) : "You English Maltachiisians all Forbear some time from sleeping. Let eN'cryone both great and small Prepare themscK es for weeping, "He was \'eie h'ngland's Pelican .Vi'i'c England's Gubernator He was Xew England's Solomon New Etigland's Conservator," Fishing-Reel at Flat-iron Point, Joppa. 232 Old Paths and Legends of New England expedition against Louisburg on Cape Breton Island in 1745. The Atkinson house, long vacant after the hideous witch tragedies of 1690, was a foolish bugbear to little chil dren, who ran quickly by, believing it haunted, only be cause it was connected with Goody Martin.' At the Salem trial the principal evidence against this excellent woman was that, having walked from her home by the Powow to the Atkinson house after a rain-storm, no mud was seen on her shoes or gown. It is related of the Toppan house that Abigail Wiggles- worth, "the Day 0' Doom's daughter," was visiting in New bury, Miss Abigail, seeing a house frame going up, asked of Dr. Christopher Toppan, "Whose new house is that?" "Yours, madam, if you please," he answers, speaking in advance for his brother Samuel, who was building it. Even Cupid's arrow was sped by the colonial ministers' extraor dinary authority. Good Dr. Toppan, during his fifty-one years of pastoral office, "would speak his mind." A child was presented for baptism by 'Sir. and his wife. Dr. Toppan, having no confidence in the man's sincerity, ad dressed the congregation with these words, " I baptize this child wholly on the woman's account." Newburyport citizens were highly concerned in Revolu tionary doings. The Hon, Caleb Gushing says that a town meeting was called April 3, 1 7 70, "on suspicion that a wagon- load of tea had been bro't to town," "As the Mohawks kind of thought The Yankees //c7(/ n't ought To drink that arc tea!' ' Susannah Martin of Amesbury was the only "witch-wife" hung from the north side of the Merrimack. Whittier has woven the romance of her d.'iuglitcr, Mabel Martin, into a harvest idyl: "Let Goody Martin rest in jieace, I never knew her harm a fly," cried Esek Harnden, Mabel's staunch lover. Newbury — Oldtown 2-3 In September, 1775, the town had quite a martial appear ance. General Washington had sent a detachment to embark from Newburyport ' against Canada, by way of the Kennebec, under command of Colonel Benedict Arnold, Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Greene (of Rhode Island), and Major Timothy Bigelow (of Massachusetts). On the comer of Rolfe's Lane were encamped three companies of riflemen, commanded by Captain Daniel Morgan. The other troops, including thirty Newbury men under Captain Ward, occupied two of the rope-walks. I The journal of Major Return Jonathan Meigs witnesses Newburyport's cordiality: "Seventeenth, Sunday. Attended divine service at the reverend Mr, Parson's meeting. Dined at Mr, Nathaniel Tracy's, Eighteenth. Dined at Mr. Tristram Dalton' s, "Nineteenth. Embarked our whole detachment , . on board ten transports.'' Many names famous in after years accompanied this little army on the sloops Britannia and Admiral. Aaron Burr and Matthew Ogden of New Jersey, John I. Henry (later, Judge Henry) , Captain (later. General) Dear born of New Hampshire; chaplain, the Rev, Samuel Spring of Newbury port, THE CROW'S PATH TO SALISBURY The third, or crow's path to the sea from Haverhill, lies over a superb, rolling country of hills and dales, ending where " . . Salisbury's beach of shining sand. And yonder island's wave-smoothed stand Saw the adventurer's tiny sail." ' As you cross the Whittier brook in East Haverhill you see him, a blessed Barefoot Boy, cheerily whistling on his way to the rude schoolhouse set amidst sumach and tangled blackberry vines: desks carved by many a heedless jack- knife, charcoal frescoes on the wall, and after school a tiny figure in the doorway with checked apron and tangled curls, saying shyly to the little boy : " I 'm sorry that I spelt the word: I hate to go above you." Flying from book knowledge, prince and master of all out doors, the barefoot boy shows his wee, sweet playmate the haunt of the wild bee, where the tortoise sleeps, and how the woodchuck digs his hole, together with the "archi tectural plans of the gray hornet," and a thousand pranks of green growing things, every aspect of which Whittier by- and-by lovingly traced, treating to long breaths of clear, country sun.shine generations of school children hemmed in by brick and as]', who married Henry Sheafe, The Honorable William Gushing stayed much at both liouses, driving over in his coach from Washington, where he filled the office of Chief-Justice by President Washington's appointment, though he would not accept the title. Old Kittery on the Piscataqua 263 wharf, and sailed out to the " Shoals" for a chowder party. During the week's visit of Louis Philippe and his suite, it is said that at a banquet Lady Sheafe sweetly shook her head at the King, lest he cut the pineapple before him, then used only for ornament, so rare was the fruit. Strolling from the Sheafe house by the longest way to Portsmouth, your path in Newcastle is constantly beset by tempting water pictures. Beyond the Wentworth is the Barrett Wendell house. Close to crumbling Walbach's tower on Fort Point, continuously fortified since 1623, is Fort Constitution. Across the roadstead is Gerrish Island, and on Cutts Island is the lonely grave of Sir Francis Cham- pernowne, the councillor ' of Piscataqua (Kittery, Me.), commissioned by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who learned of the beauty of the coast from his friend. Captain John Smith. In Kittery, on the old path to Gorgeana [York], the first city of America, stands the Sir William Pepperell Mansion, weird, weather beaten, haunted by the air of mystery, so often enveloping old houses exposed to salt gales. Sir William budt the " Sparhawke "^ house" for his daughter, at the " Top of the Point," in 1742. Ships were built in Gerish field and in front of the Decatur house. At FoUet's wharf on the point [now Mrs. Decatur's wharf] Washington landed when he arrived to spend a few hours in Kittery. A few miles from Kittery the green slopes of Eliot touch the Piscataqua; under her glorious pines, wide-spreading, the Greenacre school holds summer session. The narrow roads of Newcastle turn quaintly between sunny cottages grouped closely, somewhat like a foreign ' The councillors of Agamenticus vi^ere William Gorges, Godfrey, and Hook; of Saco, Vines and Benython, and Henry Jo.slyn of Black Point and Scarboro'. ^ Old neighbors are the Cutts house, the Gerish house on Gerish Lane, and the Bray house of 1660. 264 Old Paths and Legends of New England seaport; a few quick-witted old weather-prophets in oil skins are yet on "deck." Reluctantly you leave the charming, breezy town to walk over the picturesque "three bridges," paying toll for the privilege. Below rock-bound Kittery Point are swirling Narrows, and the danger point The Sir William Pepperell House of I72g. Kittery, Me. called by a name not intended for ears polite; the Navy Yard, with war-\'csscls "in dock," stands on the old Fer- nald's Island; the first frigate, the Raleigh, was built here. Crossing "Goat's" and S]ia]ilcy's islands, which were bought for " 2 hogsheads of Tobago rum," and Frame Point, or " Ca])tain Salter's Island," you enter AA'ater Street. Fields of wild strawberries extended from the " Great House" back over Churcli Hill; one garrison house stood Portsmouth 265 here by Jacob Sheafe' s wharf, another near the Alexander Ladd house on Market Street. Brush away tall grass from a lichened stone in the wind-swept Point of Graves, and decipher 1684; the low- walled plot is, however, fifteen years older. On one of these grass-grown wharves at midnight the Bad Boy Tom Bailey dropped a match on the train of pow der laid by the "Centipedes," to fire the "old sogers," ' or Bailey's battery. Boom! Boom! Portsmouth awoke startled, frightened, mystified; the superstitious believed that a long-looked-for phantom ship had arrived. "The Oldest Inhabitant refused to go to bed on any terms, but persisted in sitting up all night, with his hat and mittens on," says Thomas Bailey Aldrich in reminiscent humor. Not far from the river, on Hunking Street, is the birth place of Tobias Lear,^ where Washington visited him in 1789. Washington once stayed at Staver's Hotel on Court Street,^ which was but twenty feet wide when the Flying Stage Coach ran from "Staver's" to Boston. Portsmouth and the adjoining country are filled with legends, and a fortnight's Rambles with Lewis Brewster, supplemented by the Portsmouth Book and several condensed guide-books, will not exhaust your theme ; best of all, obtain an introduc tion to the Oldest Inhabitant. As early as 1603, Martin Pring, in quest of a sassafras tree ' Fifty years ago, useless twelve-pounders and swivels of privateers, each with a cannon-ball in its mouth, served as ornamental comer-posts on the streets to the river. ^ Some valuable correspondence of Tobias Lear, Washington's private secretary, including letters of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, is now owned by a Portsmouth descendant with some pieces of his silver. 3 The house No, 45 Court Street was the home of the Bad Boy, whence he descended by "a few yards cut from Kitty Collins's clothes-Hne" on the night before the glorious Fourth and with Pepper Whitcomb and the other boys made a bonfire of the skeleton of an old mail-coach in Market Square, 266 Old Paths and Legends of New England of medicinal virtue, was beguiled up the river as far as beautiful Great Bay of tidal water, where five rivers enter,' forming, with the bay, the fingers and palm of a man's hand, and the Piscataqua the wrist. Had not the explorers been disappointed in their quest for sassafras, perchance Pring might have been irresistibly drawn to make a settlement. Daring pioneers eventually built on each high knoll a garrison in order to have the widest possible outlook for the subtle enemy. In spite of precaution, this pink apple-blossom country, loveliest when the solitary elm unfurls his leafy umbrella over rolling meadows, was desecrated by frightful Indian massacre, twelve garrisons on Oyster River being fired in one night, and the families killed or carried captive to Canada, ' The beautiful New Hampshire towns of Portsmouth, Exeter, Dover, and Durham are united by water-ways in the Great Bay. The Squamscot flows by Exeter, the Piscataqua by Portsmouth, and the Lampereel, Oyster, Bellamy, and Cocheco rivers belong to "Ancient" Dover. Old Diew G irrison. on the Rounds Farm, Spruce Lane, Dover. ALONG THE CHARLES " Enough for me, I 'm off. And fellows all. Who could resist the Auburndalean call To go a-foraging f That 's what the spring 's for. What hards have wits and bumblebees have wings for!' " Romany Signs." Bliss Carman. Along the banks of the Charles and thereabouts are a chain of legendary and picturesque parks.' One of these parks is dedicated to the A^ikings, and Leif Erickson, the Discoverer, standing near the entrance to the Fens, shades his eyes as he gazes intently toward Norumbega Tower, commemorating the city of his hopes, which he dreamed of erecting in A/'ine- land. Leaving the river for the nonce, you ride over the splendid Beacon Boulevard, when snow flies gay with color. Near Coolidge's Comer in Brookline the Boulevard passes through the extensive early estates of the Steams and Coolidge families. Skirting Corey Hill, whose prospect, according to an English traveller, surpasses any in the world, the lawns widen into gardens; roads branch toward Aspinwall Hill, the Brookline Woodlands, and beautiful ancestral estates of the aristocratic town once known as Muddy Brook Ham let. You look down with delight on Chestnut Hill Reser voir, which an early poetess would describe in The Garland of Flowers annual, as a sapphire set in emeralds. This lovely sheet of water borders the Schlesinger and other famous Brookline estates. Newton and Brookline are two of the most beautiful ' These belong to the "public open spaces" reserved by the Metropoli tan Park Commission, except Norumbega Park. 267 268 Old Paths and Legends of New England towns in the Commonwealth. At the end of the Newton Boulevard (the Commonwealth Avenue extension) the Charles River greets you once more. Above the "old Weston Bridge" of low arches is the Charles River Recrea tion Grounds at Riverside, the home of the Newton Boat Club and of the Boston Canoe Club and of the Boston Ath letic Association. The river is very dear to the habitants of Aubumdale and W'^ellesley, and no part of the Charles is more entrancing than that between Wellesley and Norum bega Tower. South is the romantic pleasure park of Norumbega. Cosmopolitan in its attributes, the scene is a purely American one. It resembles the gardens of all countries ; here are music and tables for refreshment, "faire " paths enter leafy glades, with grazing deer and elk ; rustic arbors hang over the river; that refrain from Funicidi Fttnicitla, to the accompaniment of mandolin and guitar from the canoes, our aboriginal gondola, is reminiscent of Venice by moonlight ; during the water-carnivals, when all water craft are in costume, and the canoes as thick as lily- pads, the scene on the river has been compared to that on the English Thames. Drifting down In the Shadows of the Charles, the rhythm of your paddle chimes with the beat of the song of Pauline Johnson, daughter of a Aloha wk chief: "I am drifting to the leeward, AVhere the current runs to seaward, Soft and slow. Where the sleeping river grasses Brush my paddle as it passes ^riree>;ter, and Brookfield, straight toward tlie Connecticut river, 3 From the .Address at the Bi-Centcnnial .Anniversarv of Framingham, by C. C. iisly. The King's Highway 275 craft days, as it was a "haven of refuge" to Susan Cloyes, a suspected witch, one of Rebecca Nurse's sisters, who escaped from Ipswich jail with her family, and followed the Old Connecticut Path hither. No one fails to note the three steeples of Framingham, that of the Baptist Church being after Christopher Wren. The " Old Red House " is an Eames homestead. The fine Josiah Temple place is now the Framingham Golf Club. Among the Historical Society 's unique possessions ' is the Sabbath Diary of the Rev. John Swift, the earliest authentic records of Framingham. Southborough parted from old Marlborough in 1727. The first town-meeting was held at the house of Timothy Brigham, which stood on the site of St. Mark's School. Some odd appellations are Handkerchief and Troublesome Meadows and Pancake Brook. The most famous homestead on the King's highway in Worcester Coimty is that of General Artemas Ward, the patriot, of whomi many interesting stories are related. When commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, General Ward charges his rations bill broadly against "The Contin ent," showing that even the leaders were doubtful as to the result of the war; would it be a Republic, a Confederacy, or what? The heading of the account reads : The Continent to the Hon"" Maj. Gen! Artemas Ward D' To Rations for himself and following Sundry Persons be longing to the Continental Army. ' A curious broadside with three galloping horsemen, one carrying a banner inscribed "Stop Thief" reminds us that our forefathers had no telegraph and "The Framingham Thief-Detecting Society" was a neces sity. The duty of its "Band of Detectives" and officers composed of prominent citizens, with Moses Edgell as President, was "to be always furnished with the means of making immediate pursuit," and catch the thief before he could escape over the border into Providence. This is an old and notable society in Shrewsbury still. 276 Old Paths and Legends of New England Following the King's highway (the Bay-Path) from the Ward homestead ])v (Juinsigamond Lake in the country of the i\i])mucks, you enter Quinsigamond — the city of Worcester on the path taken by Israel Bissell on the nine teenth of April, 1775, to carry the war-news to New York. He left Boston by the west road, as the British stopped the Home of Major-General .Artemas ]]'ard, Shrewsbury: built in 7J2-, mod ernized, lyS^. Troperty of .Artemas ]]'ard. Esq., of A'eie York. The original hand-split shingles arc on the house. way on the Pro\idcncc turnpike. .At AA'orcestcr, his horse dro])])ed in his tracks. Remounting, he rode on wings, soutliward to P,rooklyn, Connecticut. Israel Putnam left his plough and took up the \\ar-cr\'. .V AA'orccstcr post-rider flew over till' B;iv-Path to Siiringfield, and another to Hartford; the entire countr\' was agitated with messengers, militia, and volunteers hastening to the scat of war at Cambridge. THE FENS AND JAMAICA PLAIN At the entrance to the Back Bay Fens from Boylston Street, Boston, the beautiful John Boyle O'Reilly memorial is an interesting study, likewise the bridges of contrasting architecture. The haughty arch of Boylston Bridge carries a dignified row of Lombardy poplars ; the coquettish charm of the low five-arched Agassiz bridge, half concealed under graceful trailing plants, compels even the most casual ac quaintance to " cast one longing, lingering look behind." Stony Brook bridge, of light Italian arches, carries the Fenway. On this boulevard is Fenway Court, containing the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Its incomparable works of art are placed in a unique environment such as may not be seen elsewhere in the world. The Fens is also to become the new home of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Speeding along Muddy River and Jamaicaway, the border of Leverett Park, the first enchanting peep at sparkling water announces Jamaica Pond, sought out with zest in the winter season by sleighing and skating parties. Winter pleasures at "Pond Plain" (Jamaica Plain) did not begin until after the passing of the pioneer period ; those exacting years contained no play-days ; the only sportsman for sport's sake we wot of was Tom Morton of Merry-Mount, who found hunting wild turkeys and rioting about a May pole in our New English Canaan of which he wrote, quite to his mind, and it took Captain Myles Standish and all his men to convince him that he was out of his element among purposeful Puritans. There was not even leisure for read ing, and much less for writing in flowers of speech, only the jotting down of plain every-day happenings, to inform the friends in England and Holland of the advance of the 277 278 Old Paths and Legends of New England frontier line. Hence literature before 1 700. JAMAICA PLAIN LANDMARKS : Mile-stone, Eliot and Centre Sts,, " Five miles to Bos ton town-house. P. Dudley." Jo seph Curtis homestead (1722) of four generations, used as barracks by R. I. troops, near the old pump in Hyde's Square, Captain Benjamin Hallowell (loyalist) house (1738), corner of Centre and Boylston Sts. ; used for hospital 1775 ; confiscated by State ; reclaimed by the Hallo well heir, Nicholas Ward Boylston ; now residence of the Dr. Benjamin F. Wing family. General William H. Sumner house, residence of Henry R. Reed, Stephen Erewer- WilUam D. Ticknor house, Thomas st. Captain Artemus Winchester homestead (1800) on John Morey farm. Col. Henry Hatch-HaUett house, built by Crowell Hatch in West Indian style. Balch house, built, about 1800, by Sheriff Cutler, maternal grandfather of Julia Ward Howe, Site Edward Bridge home stead (1710). corner Centre and May Sts. Louder homestead, Loud- er's Lane. Captain William Gordon Weld-Edwin Peter house. South St., built in West Indian style ; in the garden, in bed of Stony Brook, a perfect beaver dam was found, with marks of beaver's teeth on the but ternuts. Old Harris Lands, now divided into the Hook, Pratt, and Sprague estates, Allandale or Sar gent's Woods, the Manlius Sargent estate. we gather but fragments of American The Brook Farmers and the pioneers, arising with the sun for the day's work, each discovered that long- continued exercise in a broiling sun is incompatible with intel lectual activity. You remember that when Zenobia gibed Aides Coverdale because he did not make a song while loading hay, as Burns did, that he was quite positive that Burns never wrote a song while reaping barley, "he was no poet while a farmer, and no farmer while a poet." As early as 1633, one hears in "Pond Plain" the sound of the axe of AA''illiam Curtis, who hewed out his log hut, and, on a wider clearing, in 1639, built of the felled timber a lean-to, which sturdily resisted the vicissitudes of a New England climate and shielded Curtises for two hundred and fifty years,' The British officers who skated on the pond and supped after wards at the Peacock Inn "^ (a favorite resting-place also of Gen- I This was one of the oldest houses in the country and stood near Boylston Station 2 The Peacock Inn, kept by I^enruel Child, Captain of the Minute-men, which eventually became the country house of Samuel Adams, stood on the corner of Centre and Allandale streets, near Weld Hill, the point which Washington had appointed as a rallying-place for the troops in case of disaster, as it was on the direct road to Dedham, which held sup- 279 Jamaica Park — View from South Cove looking towards Pine Bank. 28o Old Paths and Legends of New England eral Washington and General Knox' during the siege of Boston) must have admired these old White Pines, in our epoch the crown of "Pine Bank," and so secluding the Perkins mansion that it had quite the air of a storied Enghsh manor. A beautiful fountain on the terrace de signed by Anne Whitney, marks a new regime, that of the Park Commissioners, who will take care that the AA'hite Pines are never disturbed, John Rowe, the Boston merchant, writes in his Diary: 23 Oct. 1776, I dined at the Peacock with AV"- Livingston, Mr. Thomas Russeh, Air. W"- Savin, Air, Tuthih Hubbard, Colo. AA'""- Palfrey, Mr. James Bowdoin and Mr, Martin Brimmer, I came to Town and Spent the Evening with Mrs, Rowe,= The house of the learned Francis Bernard, royal gover nor [i 760-1 769] quite outvied the Hutchinson mansion, and Lady Frankland's three storied brick dwelling on Garden Court at the North End, the pride of provincial Boston; Governor Bernard's hall was twenty feet wide and fifty-seven feet long! Quite spacious enough, forsooth, to allow six scjuares in the minuet, even with the hoops of that day ; the dances of the period were tripped to the music of the spinet or flute and viol, — Boston's Delight, Love and Opportnnily, Soldier's Joy, the College Hornpipe, or Mcrick's Graces. Before the politic governor quarrelled with the Assembly with whose indignation against unjust taxation he pre- plies. The officers of the Crown atso frequented the little West Roxbury Tavern, on the old stage mule to Pro\'idence; its windows and mirrors are covered with sentiments scratched by British diamonds, ' General llenry Knox was a prominent member of the Societv of the Cincinnati, and Secretary of War under the old Congress of 1785; as Brigadier-Cicnt'ral of .Artdlery, then Major-General, he carried off honors at Bunker Mill, Trenton, Brandywine, Monmouth, and Yorktown. ' From the original MS. hy permission of Mrs. Anne Rowe Cunning ham. Jamaica Plain 281 tended to sympathize, many patriots mingled in his splen did fetes; the guests promenaded in the shade of fig and lemon trees and shrubs imported from the tropics, their novel foliage supplying a topic when conversation lagged. Lady Bernard heard the joy-bells of Boston speeding the departure of the King's advocate, and soon followed her husband. Another loyalist. Sir William Pepperell, lived here three years; after its confiscation it was the home of Martin Brimmer, then of Captain John Prince; to-day it is the Edward Rice estate. The garden of Francis Parkman on Prince Street, oppo site Pine Bank and adjoining the Jonas Chickering place, was his delight; our great historian turned scientist in his leisure hours to "enjoy in gardening the pure delicacies of agriculture." The art of gardening appealed also to Dr. John C. Warren, who believed health and happiness lay hidden therein, and in these gardens on different plans one may read tastes and even character, a sort of unwritten biography of the owner. " Tell me, will you, what governed you in the laying out of the garden that you love?" says Alfred Austin. The "Jamaica End of Roxbury," ' as Jamaica Plain was called before it became a part of West Roxbury, has not only been a land of elegant country-seats, but of typical New England farms, with peaches, pears, plums, and berries, after the fashion of the May homestead, where children swung to the rafters in the great square barn, climbed cherry trees, and jumped for the long arm of the well-sweep. The four lower rooms with ancient beams and fireplace, the quaint little doorway, kept as of yore, are precious possessions which have been preserved in ' Its name, signifying "Isles of Springs," commemorated Cromwell's victory over Jamaica. Many of the houses were built in West Indian fashion, with only a story and a half in the front and two back. 282 Old Paths and Legends of New England remodelling ; the stone mansion house, occupied by descend ants of the Mays, now faces the Arborway, a park boulevard passing through the cdd orchard. iAt "Grecnbank" on the Dedham highway (Centre Street), the Rev. William Ware lived for a time and wrote Zenobia. It has the same dear, old-fashioned flower-beds bordering tiny walks planned by a httle girl fifty years ago, The Moses Williams Mansion, creeied i8o^. Jamaica Plain. who begged a plot where only raspbeiT>- bushes grew, at the time that the house became the Alanning homestead on Manning Hill, now the residence of Ah's. Harriet Manning Whitcomb, On the Burrows estate is the beautiful memor ial hospital to Ahir>' Faulkner, daughter of Dr. George Faulkner, Facing the Square at Centre and South streets is the Loring-Grccnough house; the frame was imported by the brave Commodore Joshua Loring, loyahst, wounded before Jamaica Plain 283 Quebec while in command on Lake Ontario. Like Colonel Royall, the echo of guns caused him to depart for England, leaving all his possessions. General Nathanael Greene made the Loring house his headquarters; becoming the hospital of the Roxbury camp, fifty soldiers who died here lie in the old Walter Street burying-ground, so-called from the Rev. Nathaniel Walter, first minister of the first meeting-house of the second Parish of Roxbury (17 12), which stood hard by. The house was confiscated and sold at the Bunch of Grapes tavem, and purchased by Colonel Isaac Sears, mem ber of the Provincial Congress ; after 1 784 it became the home of David Stoddard Greenough, son of Thomas Greenough, one of the Revolutionary Committee of Correspondence.' Benjamin Pemberton with his wife Susanna built the Third Parish Church in 1769 on the land given by the Apostle Eliot. Its bell was a gift from John Hancock, who had purchased (1780) the Dr. Lemuel Hajrward estate (dur ing the nineteenth century the home of the Nathaniel Curtis family). Governor Hancock soon sold his summer resi dence here, having been offended by the ill-advised public censure of a Puritan of the Puritans, the Rev. William Gordon, = first minister, upright and blunt of speech; of ' The Boston Committee of Correspondence has been likened to a political party manager, of which Samuel Adams was the promoter. "Its importance as a piece of revolutionary machinery can hardly be overestimated. It created public opinion, and played upon it to fashion events. It was the mother of committees, and these committees, local and intercolonial, worked up the war. It initiated measures it was the germ of a government," — Committees of Correspondence of the Atnerican Revolution, by Edward D. Collins. Published in the Report of the American Historical Association for igoi, ' Dr, William Gordon as he "ambled on his gentle bay horse, in short breeches and buckled shoes, revered wig and three-cornered hat" was the terror of the youth whom he catechised and did not spare the birch. One winter's day he fell at full length on the icy threshold, his wig rolling off, to the great glee of the boys, who gave three cheers. Thenceforth he tried a more gentle persuasion. 284 Old Paths and Legends of New England such unrepressible candor, indeed, that Benjamin Pember ton altered his bequest to the Third Parish in favor of "the poor of Boston." Pemberton Square was named for this philanthro})ist. The early resting-place of the Third Parish with moss-covered stcmes is alone serene 'midst the increas ing bustle of the town : "There scatter'd oft, — the earliest of the year, — By hands unseen are show'rs of violets found: The red-bird loves to build and warble there. And little footsteps lightly print the ground." ' Why Jamaica Plain was chosen as the home of intellectual men of admirable taste was not only on account of natural loveliness, but a tiny school-house stood as early as 1676 on the green triangle where is now the Soldiers' Alonument. The Apostle Eliot, minister of the First Church of Roxbury, loved to dispense the joys of learning, and gave seventy-five acres in Pond Plain "to support a school and school master." From his rocky pulpit in the woods (on Brook Farm, AA'est Roxbury) he preached to the poor Indian, having learned their tongue that he might give them a Bible of their own to read, mark, and learn. It was the custom of a few of the blithe brotherhood of Brook Farm to spend the Sabbath afternoon at Eliot's pulpit, " oA^er- shadowed by the canopy of a birch-tree, which served as a sounding-board," through which the sunstreaks sifted with an air of cheerfulness less solemn than among the "dark- browed pines" of Eliot's time. The shattered heap of boulders at one point formed a shallow cave, where Hollingsworth, Aides Coverdale, Ze nobia, and Priscilla took refuge from a sudden shower. ' This beautiful stanza in the original transcript of Gray's Elcgv was inserted before the epitaph, but rejected because the author considered that it occasicmed too long n parenthesis. 285 Brook Farm Meadow. "And the great ivhite cold walks abroad." "It is pleasatit to think in winter, as we walk over snoivy pastures, of those happy dreamers that lie under the sod, of dormice and all that race of dormant creatures, which have such a superfluity of life enveloped in thick folds of fur. impervious to cold. Alas I the poet, too, is in one sense, a sort of dormouse gone into wittier quarters of deep and serene thoughts, insensible of surrounding circumstatices." — Thoreau. 286 Old Paths and Legends of New England "On the threshold, or just across it, grew a tuft of pale columbine." ' The Brook Farmers ^ built many castles along the Charles, and from mossy logs talked over their truly beautiful and unselfish schemes of advancing the world. "Outside bar barians" laughed at the spectacle of rustic philosophers hoeing out wisdom and potatoes at the same time, and the neighbors actually had the face to say that these country bumpkins "raised five hundred tufts of burdock, mistaking them for cabbages." Yet, was not the experiment at Brook Farm a success after all? Xot, we grant, precisely as some transcendental dreamers dreamed, by the estab lishing of a phalanstery; but, who can affirm that the asso ciation at Brook Farm of broad and brilliant minds did not melt certain icy corners of lingering Puritan creeds, and all the world sees that the harp strings of humanitarianism, otherwise brotherly love, touched by them, never cease to vibrate. Jamaica Park is connected b}' the Arborway with the Arnold Arboretum, the ' ' foremost tree museum in the world." The land is historic, being the homestead grant to Captain Joseph AA^eld from the Province. It was pur chased of the Welds, after one hundred and fiftv years, by Benjamin Bussey, who bequeathed his acres of great natural attractions to Harvard Universitv, Its dedication as a great scientific garden under the inspiration of Professor Charles Sprague Sargent, having been endowed by James Arnold of New Bedford, has onb- enhanced its svlvan beauty. Near the Arborway entrance the museum contains the Hunnewell botanical cidlection and a rare library, the gift of Professor Sargent, From here the trees are planted I The lililhedale Romance, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. ^ John Sullivan Dwight, Brook Farmer, by George Willis Cooke. Arnold Arboretum 287 in botanical sequence of groups, ending with the larches at Walter Street. The Bussey mansion became the house of Mr. Thomas Motley, who married a granddaughter of Mr. Bussey. In Mrs. Harriet M. Whitcomb's delightfully intimate Annals and Reminiscences of Jamaica Plain, she says that "Mr. Bussey's life is a remarkable illustration of the success which results from natural ability and persevering industry. With very small pecuniary means he ultimately acquired large wealth and influence. Possibly some here may remember the family coach, with its yellow body and trimmings, drawn by four fine horses, in which Mr. Bussey and his family rode to church each Sabbath. . On the occasion of President Andrew Jackson's visit to Boston, accompanied bj? Vice-President Van Buren, in June, 1833, Mr. Bussey joined the grand procession in his yellow coach, drawn by six horses, richly caparisoned, and attended by liveried servants. For the sake of the first impression of abrupt, precipitous Hemlock Hill with its hanging wood, let us take Mr, Bax ter's advice to visitors, and enter the Arnold Arboretum by South Street from Forest Hills.' So deep a shadow is thrown by these superb hemlocks that not a flower, not even a leaf, dares lift its head through the thick primeval carpet ing of feathery leaves beneath. Below, a chattering brook ' To Hemlock Hill from Forest Hills is some eight minutes' walk, "Thence walk or drive to the Walter Street entrance, then returning, follow the main drive with detour to Weld Hill, and thence to the main entrance of the Arborway, Coming from Olmstead Park follow the Arborway to South Street and thence to Hemlock Hill," — The Boston Park Guide, with maps by Sylvester Baxter, Secretary of the preliminary Metropolitan Park Commission. (The maps are also displayed in the various shelter and other buildings of the parks.) A park carriage will convey you over the Arborway and through Country Park, the rural section of Franklin Park. 2 88 Old Paths and Legends of New England breaks the breathless quiet of the wood, and in June the blossoming rhododendrons are lifted into high relief by the massive dark grandeur of the hemlocks. In the valley, shrubs are planted in botanical order; the earliest mass of bloom is the forsythia, then the lilacs parade, followed by the rhododendrons and motmtain laurel. In Franklin Park you are on ground planted by William Pynchon of Winthrop's company; loitering along in this ' ' Rocky Wilderness Land, ' ' you notice that pudding-stone is "thicker than daisies in June," and you quite understand why our forefathers caUed their home " Rocksberry " ; rough wayside boulders are entirely hidden by the sheer, white blossoms of the Rosa Wichitriana, a Japanese wild rose. Soft Indian moccasins first trod out the path between Boston Bay and Patuxet (Plymouth), crossing Franklin Park on the course of its "Old Trail Road." On a shady knoll, the "Resting Place," our first military company formed in the Colonies for armed resistance halted on its march home from the fight at Concord, under officers Heathfield and Pierpont of early Roxbury lineage. There is a charming vine-covered arbor on " Schoolmaster's Hill," and hot water for ' ' the cup that cheers ' ' may be procured at the picturesque shelter house designed by Arthur Rotch. Emerson wrote some of his earlier poems on this delightful hill, where he lived while teaching school at Roxburv.' Belle vue Hill rises on the west side of AA'ashrngton Street, our road from Forest Hills to Dedham. (hi the east side ' The splendid colonial homesteads of Roxbury are no more. Dudlev inansion disappeared under necessary fortifications after the battle of Bunker Hill. The birthplace of General Joseph Warren is commemorized by a stone house built in i S4() by Dr. John Collins Warren. The Governor Shirlry-Eustis mansion stood on Dudley Street not far from the Eustis Street burying-ground, where are written the names of the Apostle Eliot, the Dudleys, Eliphalet Porter, Oliver Peabody, and other famous men. Stony Brook Woods 289 spread out Stony Brook Woods; the beautiful West Rox bury parkway is the link between this metropolitan reserva tion and the Arnold Arboretum, thus uniting it with the municipal park system of Boston. It is an easy ascent to the Bellevue water-tower, where is a capital table of the horizon extending even so far as Monadnoc ; the view is re markably beautiful at dusk when the great blue range of the Massawachusett fades, the sentinel harbor lights appear, and rows of white or yellow street lights reveal the towns of three counties. Descending the hillside, here is the prettiest entrance to the Stony Brook Woods, a territory of rocky, wooded elevations of violet beds and marsh marigolds. You are continually seeking a new enchanting peep at the Blue Hills, literally blue, though varying in tinge from a deep purple to a faint pink. Between your little hill and yonder great hills softened by hitting light and shadow, is a rugged glen and a dark silvery pond in the hollow. Ten minutes' walk by Turtle Pond will bring you to "The Perch." Here during the dry season stands the Fire Patrol, watching for the creeping brush fires ; at the least puff of smoke he signals by flag the reservation office, bringing a fire wagon to the scene. In spite of the precautions of the Park Commis- .sioners, who hope to coax back the heavy growth of pine, there have been several rapid and disastrous fires. A wooded way of a mile leads to Rooney's Rock near Happy Valley, and the skating meadows on the Hyde Park corner of the reservation. DEDHAM, 1635-1636 "Old Dedham town that quietly lies Beside the winding Charles River , Thv houses, those sweet and quaint remains Of old-time grandeur." DOXALD RaMS.W. Some five years after the passengers of the !\Iary and John had adventured up the Charles and made a settlement at AA'^atertown, as Captain Roger Clap has told us in his fSIemoirs, several of the more venturesome planters, includ ing Edward Alleyne, John Everard, John Gay, John Ellis, and Samuel Morse, decided to seek new fields and wider farms farther up the Charles ; they felled and hollowed out some large trees, and, in these rude canoes paddled up the narrow, deeply flowing stream, impatiently turning curve after curve around Nonantum (Newton'), until, emerging from the tall forest into the open, they saw in the sunset glow a golden river twisting back and forth through broad, rich meadows, and many wild fowl ' startled into flight. Seeking the most favorable spot for a home, the pioneers, like Miles Courtenay and Aloore Carew, paddled hastily on ;, but, in the words of Carc\\' : The river took many turns, so that it was a burden the continual turning about. AA^est, east, and north we turned on that same meadow and progressed none, so that I, rising in the boat, saw the river flowing just across a bit of grass, in a place wJiere I knew we had ' Newton has seventeen miles of water-front, the Charles River flowing around three sides of the town ^ Tradition says that the " lamous fowl meadow grass " of the Ncponset superior to that of any other kind in the fresh water meadows, was first brought by a largt' flight of wild fowl. — Worthington's Historv of Dedham. 2qo Dedham 291 passed through nigh an hour before, "Moore then to me, "the river is like its Master Charles, of sainted memory, it promises overmuch, but gets you nowhere," ' said Miles our good King In this serene wilderness, where the Charles makes its great bend =" they fearlessly staked out the home-lots of their plantation, Con tentment, disliking less the howl of the wolf from AA'igwam and Purga- torie swamps, than the controver sies of their brethren at the Bay, Moreover, frontier soil har\^ests rich wits, and the divers water-courses hereabout promised fine power for the water wheels of a saw-and grist mill; some clever mind immedi ately proposed turning one third of the waters of the Charles into the Neponset ; this first artificial canal in America was named Mother Brook, and has for nearly three centuries mothered the industries ' From the story of King Noanett, by Frederic J, Stimson ("J, S. of Dale"), Mr. Stimson wrote this graceful romance of early Dedham in his historic house built by Fisher Ames on grounds sloping to the Charles River. ^"Dedham Island" (Riverdale) is formed by a bend in the river seven miles long. "Long Ditch," the cut-off, dug in 1652, one half mile across, connected its upper and lower channels, preventing dam age to the meadows during a freshet. DEDHAM LANDMARKS : Willow Road, leads past Fairbanks liouse to Fairbanks Park, with famous *' Pot Hole." Avery Oak, East Street, presented by Joseph W, Clark to Dedham His torical Society. Fisher Ames home stead (1795), residence Frederic J. stimson ; originally stood oppo site the Court House ; in 1897 moved back toward the river. Site of old Ames Tavern, built in 1658 for Cap tain Joshua Fisher ; taken down in 1814 ; during Revolution known as Woodward's Tavern, " Sign of the Lav/ Book " ; Suffolk Convention organized here, adjourned to Vose house, Milton. Memorial Hall. Dedham Historical Society building, with valuable antiquarian lore ; complete file of the Ames Almanack ; land on which it stands gift of Han nah Shuttleworth, daughter of Jere miah Shuttleworth, first postmaster. Home of Dr. Nathaniel Ames 2d (1772). Base of the Pillar of Liberty on Unitarian Church Green, erected 1766 by the Sons of Liberty, on which was placed a bust of William Pitt, *' who saved America from im pending slavery, and confirmed our most loyal Affection to King George III. by procuring a repeal of the Stamp Act " (inscription) ; the bust was destroyed later. Allin Evan gelical Church on site of the house of four ministers of Dedham. " Norfolk House," near St, Paul's Church, one of the oldest Episcopal parishes in New England, Samuel Dexter house, property of Mrs. Ellen D. Burgess. Judge Haven house. High St, Dowse-Josiah Quincy house (1800) ; window from old Hay- market Theatre; home of Edmund Quincy, a leading Abolitionist, au thor of Wensley 1 residence of Mary (Adams) Quincy. Charles River meadows, junction of Mother Brook at " Two Rivers." Powder Rock ; " The Rock with lichens hoar " 292 Old Paths and Legends of New England (Lowell), Powder house (1766), built on Aaron Fuller's land. Train ing-field on Great Common ; Wight lot ; still held by Wight family under original Indian deed of 1636, Law office of Horace Mann, now dwelling- house. Old Parish Burial-ground ; oldest stone, Hannah Dyar, 1678, Tablet on Bussey St, on site of " First Dam and Corn-mill " built in 1640 by Abraham Shaw ; com pleted by John Elderkin (who re moved to New London, Conn., and built first church and mill there) ; sold to Nathaniel Whiting, 1642, Dedham Boat-Club house, " Wil son's Mountain " and cave ; fine view. View of Nickerson estate, " Riverdale," home of Thomas Mot ley, Sr., ; doorway so wide that the owner might drive in with coach and four. ElUs Oak, Clapboardtree St.; diameter foliage, 160 feet. Purga tory, Islington. of Dedham. Soon the Court de creed that Contentment should be called Dedham, presumably in honor of the three Johns from Ded ham, England, — John Dwight,' John Page, and John Rogers. One hundred and twenty yeomen signed the Town Covenant,^ whereby was agreed to keep off all men "con trary-minded" to their determina tion to "walke in a peaceable conversation." Edward Everett said of the town of his ancestor, Richard Everard, that these settlers of Dedham were "singularly disposed to keep out of hot water. . . . There was but one topic on which they warmed into passion, and that was Liberty. If a poor Quaker was to be scourged at the cart -tail, they waited in Dedham for orders from the metropolis ; but when a usurper was to be prostrated, when a bold champion was required to burst into Mr. Usher's house, to drag forth the tyrant by the collar, to bind him and cast him into a fort, then Ded- ' With John Dwight caine his son Timothy, from whoin are descended the Presidents Timothy Dwight, of Yale University, Others from Eng land were John .-Mlin, pastor of the church thn-ty-two years; Major Eleazer Lusher, captain of the train-band and an original founder of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Coni]iany: Captain Daniel Fisher, selectman for thirty-two years , Michael Mctcalf, the schoolmaster; Lieu tenant Joshua Fisher, who kept the tavern; Deacon Francis Chickering, Deputy and Samuel Guild; oilier families whose houses stood on the old High Street and in Cl.apboard Trees Parish (West Dedham) were those of A\'ery, Bacon, Colburn, Fales, Farrington, Kingsbury, Wright, and Wilson. 2 The compk'tc colonial records havc licen compiled by Don Gleason Hill, President of the Dedham Historical Society, Dedham 293 ham is ready with her intrepid Daniel Fisher." Mr. Everett refers to the going up to Boston of the country people, greatly incensed against Sir Edmund Andros, who, it is The Fairbanks Homestead, Dedham. " What landmark so congenial as a tree!' said, was collared and led back to imprisonment at Fort Hill by Daniel Fisher, the great-grand-father of Fisher Ames. It was this Daniel Fisher, and John Fairbanks, who were 294 Old Paths and Legends of New England sent out by the town as explorers, to select eight thousand acres somewhere in the wilderness, for a new plantation granted Dedham by the Court in place of two thousand acres taken for the praying Indians of Natick. Certain ex plorers had favored the "chestnut lands" of Lancaster, but Fairbanks and Fisher selected the beautiful valley of Po- cumtuck ; here the lovely town of Deerfield was founded by men from Dedham, Captain Pynchon of Springfield, and four others. The Apostle Eliot being nigh with the praying Indians, Dedham had little fear of Indian raids, although each settler was duly cautioned to keep a ladder that he might readily escape the ' ' Salvages ' ' by climbing to the top of his chim ney, as well as put out a fire on his thatch roof ; any man who tied his horse to the meeting-house ladder forfeited sixpence to Robert Onion, One day the killing of a white man by an Indian was traced directly to King Phdip, and the war opened ; the people of AVrentham fled to Dedham,' and Medfield was burned. A great blow was dealt the Indian cause by a company of Dedham and Medfield men who captured Pomham, Sachem of XaiTaganset, and fifty warriors in Dedham woods. In staging days, Dedham and iledfield were on the middle stage road to Hartford from Boston, and often tv-elve coaches drew up at the x\mes Tavem for breakfast. One consolation of a trax'eher who ^^-as compelled to rise before daybreak on a "snapping" winter's morning was the pros pect of good cheer at Dedham, spiced with the hot flip iron, or loggerhead, and a dash of humor from their witty host, the celebrated Dr, Nathaniel Ames,-' a.stronomer, physician, I Old Dedham included Wollomonapoag (Wrcntham) and Bogastow (Medlield), also Nccdham , Bellingham, Walpole, Franklin, Dover, Natick and part of Sherburne. ' Dr. Ames inherited his landed estate from his son by his first wife and because of excessive annoyance at the slow progress of the law in Old Dedham Taverns 295 almanac-maker, and tavern-keeper ; his brilliant son, Fisher Ames, was bom in this tavem. An interesting accessory of early taverns was a small box Old "Norfolk House!' Dedhatn, so-called when last used as a Public House in 1866. Long known as the Alden Tavern, and originally the Ylarsh Tavern, built for Martin Marsh on land leased to him by the First Church in 1801. deciding that he was "next of kin to Fisher," Dr. Ames hung out a unique tavem sign lampooning the tardy court. The five judges were painted in big wigs, the two dissenting judges turning their backs on the Provitice Laws. The judges, — Benjamin Lynde, Richard Saltonstall, Paul Dudley, Stephen Sewall, and John Cushing — dispatched a sheriff to bring this bold sign before them, but Dr. Ames rode faster and tore down his sign ere the sheriff reached Dedham, Dr. Ames's most famous contemporary was the Rev. Samuel Dexter, fourth minister; the house of his son Samuel is standing in Dedham. Samuel Dexter the third was Secretary of War, and Secretary of the Treasury under John Adams, 296 Old Paths and Legends of New England nailed to the wall, with an opening into which money nhght be dropped. On the box was plainly printed, "To Insure Promptness," and "it was expected that guests would drop in such amounts as their inclination prompted." The money collected was divided among the servants. Fre quently some attachi of the tavem would remkid a careless guest by pointing at the box and speaking the first letters of the words, " T. I. P " It graduahy became known as the "Tip Box," and later as a tip.' The box is no longer there, but the custom lingers. Dr. Ames's Astronomical Diary and Almanack, first pub lished in 1726, was a great boon to the sober Xew England fireside by way of literature. No one truly appreciates fun more than our Yankee of the serious air ; this merry astron omer's prophecies, purposely absurd, mixed with homely philosophy, jest, and homeopathic doses of such writers as Milton, Addison, Pope, and Dry den, made his annual al manac a welcome guest. Dr. Ames joined in the laugh at the failure of the events he predicted, and his son Na thaniel, who published the Almanack after his father's death, manifested the same delicious sense of humor. In his Diary, now in the possession of the Dedham Historical Society, he notes: "Oct. I. Country People complain that I have men tioned no snow in nex year's Almank. "Aug. 5, Sun's Eclipse came on rather sooner than the time I said perhap, "Feb, 25, Sam Sterns of Boston ^Yants to know how to make Almanacks. "April 19, 1775. Grand battle from Concord to Charles town. I went and dre.sscd the wounded." " ' Tlie Colonial Tavern, by t'dward Field, Preston and Rounds. ' Down the Nccdham road lo Dedham lU'W a messenger with the news of the advance on Lexington, t^aptain Joseph Guild "gagged a croaker" who said the news was false, and in an hour scarcely a irtan was left in Dedham. Cajitain Aaron I'uUer, Lieutenant George Gould, Captains Dr. Ames's Almanack 297 The Fairbanks house is piquantly picturesque in its de clining years. Mossy greens, red browns, and misty grays mingle on its roofs of differing age, to the bewilderment of the artist. The main roof, which seems to expand in order to embrace the huge brick chimney, is be lieved to have been built by Jonathan Fairbanks in 1637 3-f about the time he signed the covenant. After descending through seven gen erations the house was happily rescued from destruction by Mrs. J. Amory Cod- man. Between Dedham and Norwood in Westwood Park is the loveliest mossy glen imaginable, entered by fascinating trails. The Indians fre quenting this woodland dell may have called it in their musical tongue "wiUow water," and worshipped the w^ater- spirit of the brook whitening the dark rocks with spray. Not far from Westwood Park at Islington is Purgatory, or "Ye Purgatorie Swampe" of the King Noanett territory, a paradise of wild flowers, long time ago a dismal resort for wild -cats and other beasts. The Willow by the Brook, Westwood Park, Islington. William Bullard, William Ellis, and Ebenezer Battle led the Minute-men and the militia. MILTON (UNQUITY-QUISSET), 1633-1662 At the summit of Milton Hill, the traveller imbued with a feeling for the historical and poetical should rest content. Far below, the Neponset, opalescent and dream-hke, shim mers in the marsh-lands, its color varies at the will of the clouds, and these in turn are subjects of the wind. Intensely blue is the river when the east wind sweeps up the vale, until, at the sunset lull, wonderful shadows come lengthen ing, lengthening, to hide the meadows. The purple sea-line cuts the horizon beyond Neponset's steeples, Strawberry Hill, Dorchester Bay, Thompson's Island, Boston Light, and "Nantasco." To the south, the blue " ilassawachu- setts Mount" of Captain John Smith stands sponsor for our Commonwealth as the "great hill place." This field is to be forever open, by the gift of John ilurray Forbes, to all who stand on Unquity (Milton) Hill. Governors of Colony, Province, and State have daily passed over this ancient Country Heigh Waye between Dorchester and Braintree, which, before Israel Stoughton built his grist mill at the foot of Unquity Hill by the Neponset fording- place, was known as the " Old Indian Path" between Shaw- mutt and Plymouth. ^'onder sycamore and Scotch larch were planted by the enthusiastic gardener, Oovcraor Thomas Hutchinson, of whom John Adams said, " He had been admired, revered, and almost adored," Tliomas Hutchinson loved much his "humble cottage" on Unquity Hid; indeed, he would not ha\'c parted with it for the sake of high hfe at Wimpole Hall. He wrote to his son, " I can with good truth assure A pleached Alley in the " Governor's Garden!' " The lilacs were finishing and the jessamine begintiitig, a few fiowers here behitidhand, a few insects before their time, and the vanguard of ihe red butterflies of June fraternized with the vanguard of the white butterflies of lAIay!' — Les Miserables. 299 300 Old Paths and Legends of New England you that I had rather live at Mdton and had rather see Peggy and Tommy playing about me than the Princess C, Prince A., or ." When the MILTON LANDMARKS: From the Neponset River, Milton Lower Mills over Adams St. Site earliest ford and foot-bridge on Neponset River, route from Unquity-Quisset to church in Dorchester before 1662. Site Grist Mill (Israel Stoughton's, 1633), where present Stone Choco late Mill stands; first corn ground by water-power in N. E. Site first Powder Mill in the country, Walter Everden and Israel Howe, owners. Saw and chocolate mill where John Hannan manufactured first choco late in the country (1765), continued by Dr. James Baker (1772); con verted into drug mill by Francis Brinley; here first veneers manufac tured. New chocolate mill, Webb and Twombley (188.5) ; Mr. Webb in troduced chocolate creams through out the west; replaced by brick chocolate mill of Henry L, Pierce; all these sites are now occupied by the Baker Company, Daniel Vose house ; Suffolk Resolves adopted here. Milton Public Library. Home of Mrs. A, D, T, Whitney on Adams St,, near junction of Randolph and Can ton avenues. Edward Cunningham estate. Governor Hutchinson-Rus sell house, Dr, Amos, Holbrook house (1801). J, Murray Forbes estate. Churchill's Lane; pleasant walk by Milton Academy to the " Twin Churches." Site First Meet ing-house on grassy triangle. Colo nel Joseph Gooch-Edward Hutchin son Robbins-Asaph Churchill house (1740), Judge Joseph M, Churchill house. Oliver W. Peabody house, opposite Churchill's Lane, Belcher Milestone, Rev. Joseph Angler house, John Murray Forbes estate, residence of J, Malcolm Forbes. Ware cottage. Charles E. Perkins estate. Glover house, on site of Provincial Treasurer William Foye house. Captain Robert B, Forbes snow has gone, spring spreads the "Governor's Garden" with soft green velvet, and the pleached bower with unfolding tendrils ; the orioles come to sing among the fruit-trees, snow-balls, and bleeding hearts every June, as joyfully as on the day when Governor Hutchin son smihngly — ^yet broken-hearted — walked down Unquity Hill, shaking hands Avith his neighbors, both patriot and Tory, before sail ing for England to become a royal pensioner, his Boston estates con fiscated, and Hutchinson Street changed to Pearl. " 'T is said that Washington rides in m^- coach at Cambridge," he wrote some months later, and mourned sincerely that the land of his birth was about to fall in ruins, through the zeal of such rash, mistaken, and worthy men as Dr, Joseph Warren and his compatriots, who had declared by the Suffolk Resolves,' adopted in '^ The last Resolve referred to the unwar ranted building of fortilications on Boston Neck and the "repeated insults by the soldiery to persons passing." The com mittee appointed to wait on His Excellency the governor (Gage) to inform him of this matter for alarm, included Joseph War- Milton 301 the house of Daniel Vose at the foot of Milton Hill, that a King who violates chartered rights forfeits allegiance. Immediately the Continental Congress,' in Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia (September 17, 1774), approved the Suffolk Resolves, delivered into their hands by Paul Revere; in the following June, Major-General Warren fell in their defence at Bunker HiU. The Hutchinson house has been known as the "Russell house" since it was purchased by the Hon. Jonathan Russell, one of our for eign ministers, and a Peace Com missioner with John Q. Adams, Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin, and James A. Bayard, in concluding the treaty of Ghent, signed by President Madison in the Octagon House, AVashington, — the house of his friend, Colonel Tayloe, of Mt. Airy, Va,, which the Madisons oc cupied after the burning of the ren, Esq., of Boston, Colonel Ebenezer Thayer of Braintree, Captain Lemuel Rob inson of Dorchester, Capt, Wm. Heath of Roxbury, Dr. Samuel Gardner of Milton, Capt, Thomas Aspinwall of Brookline, and Nathaniel Sumner, Esq., of Dedham. ' The State House in Philadelphia was also offered to the Continental Congress, but they accepted that of the carpenters, to show their respect for the mechanics. (Howard of the Sea) estate, Watson estate. Henry P. Kidder estate. Neil-Babcock house (1735). Alger- ine Corner (Union Square). Madam Belcher-Rowe-Payson house ; old willows. Willow Brook, Adams St. Milton Cemetery, made beautiful by gifts of Francis Amory, Daniel L. Gibbons, and the Honorable Elijah "Vose; oldest stone, a Wadsworth of Wadsworth Hill (1687); graves of Wendell Phillips and Rimmer the sculptor. Milton Academy, char tered 1787, opened 1807, Centre St. and Randolph Turnpike. Milton Churches. Vose house, Vose's Lane (1760), Isaac D, Vose-Inches- Seth D. Whitney house, " Elm Cor ner," where Mrs, A, D. T. Whitney wrote We Girls and other works. Read house (1805) by the " Great Oak." Wadsworth house (1766), Read's Lane. Site house Captain Samuel Wadsworth (killed at Sud bury in King Philip's War), Wads worth Hill; birthplace of President Benjamin Wadsworth of Harvard College (erected earliest monument at Sudbury). Site Joseph Calef house (1760). Josiah Webb house. Old School St. Robert Tucker house, built before 1681, oldest house in Milton; remodelled by Susan W. Clark after a house in Goslar, Prussia; Brush Hill; Manasseh Tucker was one of four citizens who purchased the Blue Hill lands in 1711. Colonel Nathaniel Tucker- Colonel H. S. Russell estate. Old Cracker Bakery with ovens (1801), corner Harland and Hillside streets Old Crehore estate near Paul's Bridge. Babcock house. Canton Avenue. Lewis Davenport-Crehore- Sudermeister house. Jackson-Mc Lean-George Hollingsworth house, Mattapan, Park on the Neponset, gift of Amor L, Hollingsworth, Falls at Mattapan, Supplementary ; Teele's History of MiYton, with excellent maps. Bacon's Walks and Rides about Boston, con taining " Walks through the Blue Hills." Baxter's Park Guide, 302 Old Paths and Legends of New England White House. His wife, Mrs. Lydia Smith Russell, is affec tionately mentioned by Frederika Bremer in her Homes of the New World.' It was Mrs, Russell who planted the row of elms to replace Governor Hutchinson's sycamores. A fine mansion of 1801 is that of the eminent Dr. Amos Holbrook, surgeon in 1796 of Colonel Joseph \"ose's regi ment, now the residence of Mrs. Francis Cunningham. The lovely Churchill's (Vose's, f)f 1661) Lane was named for Asaph Churchill, the distinguished lawyer, who, when a boy, found himself adrift, earning six and one quarter cents a day. He obtained Greek and Latin books in some way, and walked from the backwoods of Afiddleborough to Cam bridge, boots in hand to save wear ; graduating with honors, he married Mary Gardner of Charlestown, remarkable for hex beauty, and bought this Adams Street estate from Ed^vard Hutchinson Robbins (Lieutenant-Governor, 1802- 1807). Governor Robbins removed to the historic mansion at Brush Hill, inherited by his wife, Ehzabeth ]\Iurray, — a daughter of James ilurray, the Loyalist, — since knowm as the Robbins house. Hard by the Churchill house stood a little old school- house, where Miss Ann Bent taught for a time, living in Judge Robbins's family; one of her pupils was Anne Jean Robbins, who afterwards married Judge Joseph Lyman of ¦ Frederika Bremer was invited to spend the Christmas holidays with Mrs. Russell in 1X49, " .\mong the visitors who havc interested me are Mrs, Russell and her daughter Ida. Ida was bom in Sweden, where her father was charge d'affaires many years ago, and although she left the country as a child, she has retained an affection for Sweden and the Swedes, She is a handsome and agreeable young lady. Her mother looks like goodness itself. 'I cannot promise you much that is entertain ing,' said she in imiting mc to her house, ' but I will nurse vou.' . I promised to gn there on Christmas eve which they will keep in Northern fashion, with Christmas pine-twigs, Christmas-candles and Christmas- bo.xes, .and, as 1 pcrcciw, great ceremony. But more than all the Christ mas-candles, and the Christmas-boxes do I need — a little rest." Milton 303 Northampton. The Recollections of My Mother, by her daughter, Mrs. Lesley, appeals to one as few biographies do, portraying a rare woman in the environment of the cul tured New England home of fifty years ago. Miss Ann Bent, hke Mrs. Lyman, of fine Scotch ancestry,^ was pos- From the Vose Farm , Brush Hill, is the most beautiful Vista of the Blue Hills. sessed of an original and noble character and loved by every one who knew her ; hke Dolly Madison, she never for got the httle amenities of life. Miss Bent for many years assisted her nieces by means of her store on Marlborough '' Mrs. Lyman's ancestor, James Murray, was of the Murrays of Fala- hill. The "Outlaw" Murray was High Sheriff of Ettrick Forest, a Murray inheritance until the time of Sir John Murray, Knight, of Philiphaugh. Miss Ann Bent's great-great-grandfather was Dr, George Middleton, Principal of King's College, Aberdeen. 304 Old Paths and Legends of New England (old Washington) Street, near Winter. Many Boston people have delightful reminiscences of this great-hearted woman, dispensing hospitality, sympathy, humor, and the most charming French importations at the same moment. Miss Bent attended Dr. Channing's Federal Street Church. In the possession of his niece, .Miss Elizabeth Channing of Milton, the author of several books for chddren, is a fine portrait of Dr. Channing by Gilbert Stuart. Across the road, beyond Governor Belcher's mile-stone (8 miles to B. town house, the lower way 1734) and the John Murray Forbes estate, the residence of J. ilalcolm Forbes, in the house which stands on the site of the old smithy, lived another of the memorable women of the time, ilrs. Mary L. Ware, the wife of the Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., of Cambridge. Farther south stood Provincial Treasurer Foye's man sion (the Theodore R. Glover house is on the site), shaded by a grand elm under which George Whitefield preached, being refused the meeting-house. The gale which shattered Minot's Light in April (185 1) flung the tree across the road in such a manner that Daniel '\"\"ebster, happening by with his wife, was compelled to turn his chaise about and take the road to Boston by Milton Cemeten.'. It must have been a disappointment to lose the drive over ^ililton Hill, for where\-er a fine prospect promised, there ^Ir. Webster chose his road, ^'ou may be sure he drew rein by the Governor Hutchinson house, just as he invariably did at the mile-stone on the Back l^oad in Dover, N. H., where every one, following his well-known custom, halts to drink in tlic marvellous view of Great Bav. Go\'crnor Jonathan Belcher built a country-seat by the willowdionlercd brook at the eastern foot of I\Iilton Hill,' ' Willow Brook is one mile and a half by Adams Street from Milton Lower Mills, and half a mile from East Milton Centre. Governor Belcher 305 on the grant of John Holman, who lived here on his forty- three acres when only a bridle-path crossed the brook. After the Governor came, great were the ceremonious visitings and feasts by the willows. He ordered the soldiers of the Province to grade his avenue to such perfection that from the road the people might catch the glint of his shoe-buckles Madam Belcher House, built 1776. Purchased by John Rowe, in 1781. Adatns Street, Milton. as he stood on the threshold of the new mansion which should take the place of his " little cottage." Yonder lane was the beginning of Belcher Avenue, but the Governor was appointed to rale New Jersey (1747) ere it was com pleted. In the eventful year 1776, when loyalists and patriots alike already longed for peace, and that "dreadful distem- 3o6 Old Paths and Legends of New England per, " smallpox," was again going through the town of Bos ton, Madam Belcher and her daughter saw their home here burn to the ground ; they were warmly welcomed to Brush liill by Mrs. Dorothy Forbes and her sister, Ehzabeth Murray. Their aunt, the high-spirited and courageous Mrs. Inman, who had not deserted her self-imposed charge of tlic precious Inman farm and stock in Cambridge, to fly with her servants to Brush Hill until the cannonading began at Bunker 11111,=^ now was shut up in the besieged city of Boston with Mr. Inman and other Tories, who saw their families only at the hues and by leave of the commander-in- chief, with General Howe's consent. In a letter of Feb ruary 14, 1776, Mr. Murray wrote to his daughter, Dorothy Forbes, and Elizabeth Alurray: I could not with propriety ask leave to go to the Lines yesterday . . . when I heard of your being at the Ren dezvous I was grieved for my having been so much out of Luck. I am charmed that you have the happiness of get ting Madam and Airs. Belcher under vour Roof. You now live to some purpose, indeed, when you ha^'e a house and ,' The earliest recollection of Josiah Ouincv ("President") is connected with these exciting events: "My grandfather's carriage was the last which Gage permitted to leave town. It was my lot to be with my mother in that carriage. The smaU-pox was at that dav the terror of the country. .\t the line wliich separates Boston and Roxbury there were trni.ps stationed. The cai-riagc was stopped and its inmates made to enter the sentry-box sucessivelv. On each side of the bo.K was a small platform round which each was compelled to walk until our clothi's were fumigated witli fumes of brimstone cast upon a body of coals." = Mrs. Forbes of Brush Hill was in Cambridge on the momino- of the battle of Bunker HiU, and she related that, "unable to endure her frio^ht she made a fiftccn-ycar-old boy harness a horse to her .\unt Inman's chaise and drive her to Brush Hill, the noise of the firing causincr her to stop her cars all the way," — Letters of James Murray, Lovalist. '^Edited by Nina Moore Tiffany, assisted by Susan I, Lesley. With Biof;rapliical Notice of Hon. James Murray Robbins, by Hon. Roger Wolcott 307 Redman Farm, Ponkapog. The Spring atid Autumn Home of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Esq., at the Foot of the Blue Hills. 3o8 Old Paths and Legends of New England hearts for an Asylum to such merit in Distress. If any Necessary is wanted for these Ladies which this town can afford, I havc authority to say it will be permitted to be sent out. Not long after, James Alurray became a refugee, and writes from New York and, later, from England; he dared not return, and never saw them again. Had Mrs. Inman's plan that they should all settle on Mr. John Rowe's land at St. John's, been carried out, .Mr. Murray might have been always with his daughters and sister, 3ilrs. Inman. Another of the invaluable letters included in the box of papers of James Murray, Loyalist, which lay untouched in the Brush Hill garret until put into the hands of his great- granddaughter, Mrs. Lesley, is \vritten by the h^-elv and witty "E. F.," on April 17, '76. It relates her experiences in Mrs. Inman's house after V^ashington left Cambridge: Only imagine to yourself two unhappA* females, from some high misdemeanor driven from the Society of the world and e\'ery social pleasure into a wilderness surrounded not by wild beasts, but by savage men, IMiss Murray and I are in ]\Ir, Inman's house ' just as it was left by the soldiery, without any one necessary about us, except a bed to lodge on & Patrick for a protector & servant, in consta,nt fear that some outrage will be committed if it is once discovered that one of us is connected with Mr, Inman, to prevent which ever\i;hing is done in mv name you would be reall\- diverted, could you give a peep when Mrs. Inman visits us, to see Betsey and I resigning our broken chairs & teacups, and dipping the water out of an iron skoUet into the pot as clicerfully as if we were usino- a silver urn, I cannot tell what it is owing to, unless it is seeing Mrs. I in such charming spirits, that prevents our I Afterwards confiscated. The Inman house stood on the site of City Hall, Cambridge, War Troubles 309 being truly miserable. Tell her friends in England not to lament her being in America at this period, for she is now in her proper element, having an opportunity to exert her benevolence for those who have neither Spirits or ability to do for themselves. No (other) woman could do as she does with impunity, for she is above the little fears and weak- H oosicwhisick Lake or Houghton's Pond, Blue Hills Reservation, Milton. nesses which are inseparable companions of most of our sex. Oh that imagination could replace the wood lot, the wil lows round the pond, the locust-trees ! but in vain to wish it, every beauty of art or nature, every elegance which it cost years of care and toil to bring to perfection, is laid low. It looks like an unfrequented desert, and this farm is an epitome of all Cambridge. 3IO Old Paths and Legends of New England Madam and Mrs. Belcher left Brash HiU, intending to rebuild, but no workmen could be procured, and they were obliged to use the coach-house as a dining- mom and "the Fowl house for their bed-chamber, but the old lady looks majestic even there, and dresses with as much elegance as if she was in a palace" (letter of E. F. from Brush Hill). Soon after Madam Belcher's house was completed it was purchased by John Rowe, merchant, of Boston. Boston still has " Rowe's Wharf," and " Rowe's pasture " once covered Bedford and Kingston streets. Mr. Rowe was an intimate friend of James Smith, a warden of King's Chapel, who built the Brush Hill house and married James .Murray's sister, afterwards ]\Irs. Ralph Inman. His sugar house, next to the Brattle Street Church, is celebrated as having been occupied bv Colonel Dalrymple's regiment, from which went forth Captain Preston's company to the Boston Massacre. John Rowe dines frequently with " Jemy" Smith; indeed, Mr, Rowe dined with from ten to thirty persons every day, whether at home in Boston or abroad. He knew e\'crybodv and CA'cr^'bodv knew him. Dinner, usually at noon, was not then a complex function of courses ; turtle or a haunch of veal constituting the prin cipal dish, followed by sweets. On business or pleasure, Mr, Rowe dined sooner or later at everv notable tavem in the colony in most distinguished companv, and we could wish that he might haA'c been as fond of jotting down spicy details in his Diary as Judge Sewall was, instead of being as sparing in comment as Washington. Conceming the missing one of the fourteen \'olumes, in possession of his grcat-grandniecc, Mrs, Cunningham, Mr, Rowe notes on a flyleaf, " fmm June to December's mislaid — or taken out of my store," This contained the battle of Bunker Hid, His favorite diversion was fishing. On the 19th of July, 1765, The Great Blue Hill 311 he set out for Mrs. Pratt's at Milton, who resided opposite the Foye house. 20 Saturday. Very lazy this morning. M; Calef the Rev? Mr. Auchmooty and myself went to a pond [Ponka pog] beyond the Blue Hill and put up at Mr. Joseph Gooch, went a fishing had very fine Diversion, the Weather very hot. Came from thence to Mr. James Smith [at Brush Hill] and dined with him and Wife the Rev, Mr, Winslow the Rev. M' Auchmooty and his Daughter Beha, Mr, Rob; Th£ Rotch Meteorological Observatory on Summit of the Great Blue Hill, erected by A. Lawrence Rotch, Esq. The Blue Hill Observatory co-operates in Observations with the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard University. Auchmooty and Wife, Mr, Rob. Temple & wife [probably of Ten Hills Farm, Medford] Mr. Inman & Mrs. Rowe, Mrs. Prat, Miss Polly Overing and Miss Bella Prat and Mr Sam Calef, came home and spent the evening with Mr. Inman, 312 Old Paths and Legends of New England Mrs, Rowe, and Suky.' [Susannah Inman,= who became the wife of Captain Linzee of the British man-of-war Falcon]. To Mr. Smith we owe the fine Dutch ehns in front of the Unitarian Church, Milttjn, which were offshoots of those propagated at his Brush Hill nurseries, being imported by him after admiring the elms in Brompton Park, London. Mr. Gilbert Deblois begged some to set out in front of the Granary, near his house on Tremont Street, promising in return to name his httle son for ^Ir. Smith. They were famiharly known as the "Paddock Elms," because Mr. Paddock " kept his eye on them " for Mr. Deblois. . . . The remarkable State Recreation Park of the Blue HiUs covers about four thousand acres, and these hills " are the greatest on the Atlantic coast of the United States, from Mount Agamenticus in southern Maine to the i\Iexican boundary at the mouth of the Rio Grande. One of the lovehest regions, that of Hoosicwhisick, or Houghton's Pond, may be easily seen by riding over the Randolph Turn pike from I\Iilton Lower ]\Iills, and leaving the car at Hill side Street to walk by Hancock Hid (from which Governor Hancock cut his wood for the poor of Boston during the severe winter of 1780) to Ralph Houghton's Pond. Here is a striking view of the bold face of the Great Blue Hill and of the Rotch Observatory. What peaceful seclusion must Ralph Houghton have enjoyed in his homestead by Hoosic whisick after life in England, where he fought for Cromwell against Charles I., notwithstanding that he had been knighted by the King! Crossing the sea, he sought Lancas- ' From the original manuscript, by permission of Mrs. ,\nne Rowe Cun ningham, who is now editing The Diary and Letters of John Rowe. to be "Printed, not published," by W. B. Clarke Co. ^ Susannah Inman's mother was the twin sister of Mrs. John Rowe. Portraits of Mrs. Rowe and Mrs. Inman, by Copley, are owned by Mrs. Charles Amory, Jr., and C. \V. .Vmory, Esq.; the Blackburn portrait of John Rowe, by Dr. Joseph Rowe Webster. Milton 3'3 ter, Mass., and after the destruction by the Indians, came thither. Not far from the Readville Station, at "Great Fowl Meadows," you pass over Paul's Bridge, rudely built by Farmer Hubbard in 1662, on your road to the northwest approach of the Great Blue HiU, by way of Brush HiU and Shepherd with Dogs and Pike, — " lotig slender tapering up like a lance into the air," — tending Sheep in a Meadow on the Estate of Augustus Hemenway, Canton. Blue HiU avenues and the Wolcott Pines. Along Canton avenue are beautiful estates, ancient and modern. Many Davenports lived a hundred years ago in this vicinity, and the old Augustus Hemenway house, with its fine old pine- path, one of the homes of Mrs. Lewis Cabot, was in the last century the Nathaniel Davenport place. Here is the A. 314 Old Paths and Legends of New England Lawrence Rotch estate, the Governor Roger Wolcott estate, and the J. Huntington Wolcott place; the celebrated Wol cott Pines are now a part of the Blue Hill Reservation, as are the Crossman Pines, where old-style picnics are the vogue. To reach the old Crossman house from Mattapan (here arc the c;trly Hollingsworth places and a Park on the Neponset, the gift of Amor L, Hollingsworth) follow the beautiful Brush Hill Road over Tucker and Robbins streets to Canton Avenue, thence by a lane to the Pines. The view from Hoosicwhisick is ri\-alled by that from Cherry Hill on the Canton Pass. Cherry Tavem, of old famous for cherry parties, became the country house of Dr. Samuel Cabot, now owned by Dr, Arthur Cabot, Hard by, the Rev. Peter Thacher, a founder of Unquity-quisset, preached a monthly discourse to the Punkapoag Indians. They re quested that Colonel John Quincy, for whom Quincy was named, should be appointed their guardian. John liowc, his Fire Bucket. QUINCY, 1633-1640-1792 "Who cometli over the hills. Her garments with morning sweet. The dance of a thousand rills, flaking music before her feet ? . . . Freedom, O, fairest of all The daughter of Time and Thought." Lowell, (Ode read at the One Hundredth Anni versary of the Fight at Concord,) UINCY, old Braintree's North Precinct, brings to mind numberless images of patriotism and sentiment. First appears the dauntless champion of the New World, Captain John Smith, parleying with a curious, friendly race in the shadow of Mos-wachuset Mount ; this "paradise" satisfies alike his passion for dis covery and his love of the beautiful. In 162 1, see the shallop of Standish of Standish, who comes to treat with Chickatabut in the Massachusetts Fields; his warriors have been swept away by a mighty pestilence, and the Indian corn-fields are sere and waste. The Pilgrims land near Neponset's mauth, at the romantic headland Squan- tum.' They breakfast off a pile of lobsters on the shore, later ^ Tisquantum, or Squanto, was the herald of Massasoit to New Ply mouth, He saw at once their starving plight and "went out at noone to fish for Eeles" for them. Governor Bradford says that he was the "spetiall instrument sent by God, He directed them how to plant their come, where to fish, and was also their pilott to bring them to unknown places for their profitt and never left them till he dyed," Tisquantum was the only living member of all the Patuxet tribe. He had been carried off to England by Captain Hunt before the plague, and found a home with Gorges; Captain Dermer brought him back to Ply mouth, speaking English and with English habits, 315 3i6 Old Paths and Legends of New England paying an Indian woman for them, who conducted them to the Sachem's wigwam. In 1625 Captain WoUaston enters, and like Gorges at Wessa gusset, finding the chmate -uncon genial, sets out for Virginia leaving Tom Morton and his boon com panions on Mount WoUaston. The captain away, the mice did play on Merry-Mount, — and such merry, merry mice were these that they fell into disgrace with both Ply mouth and the Bay, and Captain Myles Standish was forced again to voyage thither to rid Xew England of a reckless adventurer, who, moreover, was instructing the In dians in the use of firearms and " fire-water." ilorton retaliated bv satirizing Standish as "Captain Shrimp." Blackstone of Beacon Hill was assessed twelve shillings ttnvard the expense of arresting IMorton, and Governor Endicott himself hewed down the ilay-pole. Thereafter nobody wished to liA^e south of the Neponset until some gentlemen who had arrived with Thomas Hooker and John Cotton, accepted allotments: Coddington and Edmund Quincy, the RcA'. John Wilson, the Rev. John Wheelwright, and Atherton Hough ; William Hutchinson*s QUINCY LANDMARKS: Birthplace of John Adams (1681-1700); restored by the Adams Chapter, D. R., and opened to the public after a new " Hanging of the Crane." " The Cottage," birthplace of John Quincy Adams, restored by Quincy Histori cal Society; in summer the houses are open from 2 to 5. President's Lane, opened by John Adams to his cow pastures, Goff St. Christ Church (1728-1874). Church of England services held in 1684 at Braintree. Hancock Cemetery, old est stone, 1666, Leonard Vassall- President John Adams mansion (1730-1787), Adams St. Furnace Brook. Chief Justice Thonias B. Adams house. Elm St., home of Elizabeth C. Adams, who witnessed the last meeting of Lafayette and John Adams. Miller place ; Dr. Wiliiam Everett house. Brackett homestead, Brackett St. Samuel Brackett house (1827). Deacon Savil house. Beale house. Old Quincy homestead and Hon. Peter Butler house (1633-1705); Wil liam Coddington's home-lot by Black's Creek on Quincy Brook, birthplace of Dorothy Q, ; Judge Sewall slept in " the chamber next the Brooke " when visiting " Unckle Quinsey." Charles F. Adams, Sr,, mansion. President's Hill. Colonel Josiah Quincy mansion ( 1 770) . Quincy mansion (1828'), now Quincy Mansion School. Merry-Mount Park, gift of C. F. Adams, the younger. Sachem's Brook, bound ary of Quincy Grant. Crane Me morial Hall (Richardsonl, contains Thomas Crane Public Library. Adams Academy, on site birthplace of John Hancock. Woodward Institute. PubHc Park, gift of Henry H. Faxon. Memorial Cairn on Squantum head land, corner-stone laid by Charles Francis Adams and Mrs. William Lee, Regent, D. R. Old shipyard, The Quincy Mansion 317 Quincy Point, Deacon Thomas's shipyard, Germantown, The Mass3^ cliusctts launched (1789), national event; lines drafted by Captain William Hackett of Amesbury, builder of the Allianee 1 colors hoisted by Captain Amasa Delano; shipped three crews before finally securing plucky Yankee crew, be cause of Moll Pitcher's prophecy that she would go to '* Davy Jones's locker." acres are now WoUaston Heights, His wife, iVnne, was that woman of wit who caused so much trouble in Boston and abroad by her mag netic exhortations to a more lib eral Covenant of Grace, and par ticularly by her criticism of each Sunday's sermon; she had been an admirer of Rev. John Cotton's preaching, but was an tagonistic to the stiff-necked Rev. John Wilson, he who read her sentence of expulsion from the First Church in Boston. We shall see her next in Rhode Island. Colonel Edmund Quincy (the son of Edmund the "immi grant ") built the Quincy mansion, where "Dorothy Q."' was bom. "My Dorothy," Holmes calls her, contemplat ing her portrait in his study : "Grandmother's mother: her age I guess Thirteen summers or something less, . . . Look not on her with eye of scorn, Dorothy Q. was a lady born!" " My Dorothy" was demure and domestic and devoted to her garden, drying her laces on the old box borders, and at fifteen the right hand of her mother, owing to her sister's marriage to John Wendell, Hancock's Dorothy was a be witching coquette, the youngest of the five beautiful daugh ters of " Squire Edmund," who removed here from Summer Street, Boston, when she was two years old,^ It was a piquant household in which pretty Dorothy grew up, her sisters having scores of admirers, especially "the ' The daughter of "Dorothy Q." Jackson married Judge Oliver Wen dell, Their grandson was Oliver Wendell Holmes, and his son is Chief Justice O, W, Holmes. ^ Where American Independence Began, by Daniel Munro Wilson, a resident of this older Quincy mansion in recent years. 3i8 Old Paths and Legends of New England pert, sprightly, and gay Esther," as John Adams calls her; he prefers the society of the ' ' bookish ' ' Hannah ' Quincy, her cousin, and writes in his Diary of his devoted friend, Jonathan Sewall that his "courtship of Esther Quincy brought him to Braintree commonly on Saturdays, where he remained till Monday. ' ' William Greenleaf was the accepted suitor of Sarah Quincy, and at General Greenleaf 's home in Lancaster Squire Quincy took refuge in 1 7 7 5 . In honor of Dorothy's approaching wedding to John Hancock, it is said that one of the rooms was hung with odd Chinese paper, but fortunes of war upset the best of plans, and her wedding came about very quietly at the Thaddeus Burr house in Fairfield, owing to the proscription on Hancock's head. Dorothy was ever " coy and hard to please," and poor Han cock was obliged to ask the favor of a watch string, — "I wear them out so fast, I want some httle thing of your doing." Would that the President of the Continental Con gress and worshipful Governor of Massachusetts had not begged in vain for longer epistles from his sweet Dorothy Q I "I have ask'd million questions & not an answer to one." Quincy had many distinguished correspondents, — educa tors and authors. John Adams has left us our best journals of the Revolution, and we would not lose one line of ilrs. ' Daus;htcr of Colonel Josiah Quincy, who lived in the "Hancock par sonage" until it was bvimcd, erecting the later Otiincv mansion in 1770. John Hancock was living in Boston with his vincle, Thomas Hancock, on Beacon Street, Another spacious Oiuncy house near bv, now the Quincy Mansion School, was built in 1S2S by Josiah Quincv, grandfather of the Hon. Josiah P. Quincy, Mayor of Boston, iSq6-q7. In his Boston home hangs a Copley of the lirst Josiah, with the heavv lace ruffles of his time. On the site of the parsonage, John Hancock's birthplace, stands .\dams Acadeiuy, Famous masters were Dr. William R, Dimmock, Dr, William Everett, and Mr. Williaiu Royall Tyler. The celebrated "Quincy sys tem ' was established by Charles Francis Adaius, the historian. The home of Professor Henry Adams of Washington, atithor of the History of the United Stales, is in Washington, The third Charles Francis Adams is Treasurer of Harvard, 3IQ The Quincy Granite Quarries. The decision of Solomon Willard, the architect of Bunker Hill Monument, that it should be made of Quincv granite caused the building of the first railroad in the United States by Gideon Bryant, from the quarries to the Neponset River. The first cars were run by horse-power on October 7, 1826. Early tools were so inefficient that the blocks for King's Chapel were broken into shape by letting iron balls drop on heated blocks. 320 Old Paths and Legends of New England Adams's letters, even to her longings for pins at twenty shillings the paper. l^he c(3untry house of Leonard Vassall, a West Indian planter, the home of Airs. John Quincy Adams, was pur chased after the war by John Adams, and Vassall's St. Domingo mahogany room, panelled to the ceiling, remains. In the east, or "ceremony room," President John Adams celebrated his golden wedding ; and also his son. President John Quincy Adams, and Charles Francis Adams, our ilin- ister to Great Britain. The \'assalls, Apthorps, Cleverlys, Borlands, and other gentry were Church of England folk. Judge Sewall refers to the old Christ Church society on "Christmas-day, 1727, Shops open, and people come to Town with Hoop-poles, Hay, wood etc. Mr. ililler keeps the day in his New church at Braintev; people flock thither." In 1773, its rector, the Rev. Edward AAdnslow, found it no longer safe to read the prayer for the king, and took refuge in New York. Samuel Quincy was the only other loyalist expatriated, although the town was looked upon as a "Tory hot-bed." ' As war-times waxed hot. Colonel Quincy " and General Joseph Palmer were obliged to close their glass-works, the first in iVmerica, and one may imagine vdth what a sigh of rehef Colonel Ouincv wn-ite with his diamond on his attic pane the significant legend, ''October i6th, lyj^. Governor Gage sailed to England with a fair wind!' But Braintree's suspense continued for months, and Colonel Quincy anx iously watched the ]-Kirt from his attic, reporting to AVashing ton; while Aliigail Adams chmbed Penn's Hill, whenever I Three Eltisodcs of MassachiiseUs lli.'ttorv. by Charles Francis Adams, 2 In the later Ouincv mansion the " Franldin room" recalls Colonel Quinry's warm friendship with the philosopher, begun when he was on his mission to Philadelphia, sent by C.overnor Shirley to induce Pennsyl vania to unite witli Massachusetts in placing a fortress near Ticonderoga. Penn's Hill, Quincy 321 she could snatch a moment from caring for soldiers and refugees, to review the situation and then write late into the night, in order to keep her husband posted at Philadelphia. The people momentarily looked for an attack from floating batteries, and a fortnight after the battle of Lexington the seacoast was so alarmed that the ladies of the Quincy family The Adams "Cottage." Birthplace of John Quincy Adams. -took refuge over night with Mrs. Adams at the foot of Penn's Hill.' In March, just before the evacuation, Mrs. Adams writes : I On Penn's Hill is a cairn (see initial letter) with the inscription : Frcrm this spot, with her son John Quincy Adams, then a boy of seven, at Iter side, Abigail Adams watched the smoke of burning Charlestown while listening to the guns of Bunker Hill, Saturday, June 17, 177 5. Erected by the Adams •Chapter of Quincy, of the Daughters of the Revolution, Mrs. N.V.Titus, 322 Old Paths and Legends of New England "From Penn's HiU we have a view of the largest fleet ever seen in America . . . upwards of a hundred and seventy sail. They look like a forest . many people are elated at their quitting Boston, I confess I do not feel so, t is only lifting a burden from one shoulder to the other perhaps less able or less willing to support it every foo. of ground which they obtain now they must fight for, and may they purchase it at the Btmker Hill price! " Josiah Quincy, son of the " Btjston Cicero" and President of Harvard College, prided himself on his successful farming experiments ' on this inherited estate. President Alonroe, after dining with Mr. Adams, paid Mr. Quincy a visit, their political differences apparently forgotten. The roses were in bloom, and his son Edmund says: "It must be confessed that my father had ordered a few loads of hay, already housed, to be spread again for the picturesque effect and chiefly to afford the laborers an opportunity of seeing the President as he walked over the estate." The courtship of ^Ir. Quincy was romantic ; one evening at a small company, listening to a song of Burns's, exquisitely regent; the comer-stone, a polished Quincy granite sleeper of the first railroad, was laid by .\bigail .\dams, daughter of John Qiiincy Adams, Other stones were from patriotic societies: one from Concord battlefield, brought liy Colonel E. S. Barrett, President of the Sons of the American Revolution; one from Lexington, by Mrs. .\bbie B, Eastman, etc. ' These were of great value to the neighborhood, but his favorite scheme of stibstituting the hawthorn hedge for the rail-fence was more ornamental than useful, Xew Hampshire cows being more wilful than the mild, civilized kine of En;,;land, President (Juincy arose at four and made a breakfast of crackers and coffee. On account of, or in sjiite of, his mother's hygienic practices, he lived to the age of ninety-two; when btit three years (ild, he was taken from his warm bed and dipped in a "cold tub" winter and summer. One realizi-s his sjian of years in remembering that Mr, Quincy attended the levees of Washington, and that President Lincoln sent him on New Year's. Day, 1863, an imperial photograph portrait of himself. "President" Josiah Quincy 323 sung in an adjoining room, he immediately became inter ested in the stranger. Miss Eliza Susan Morton, a daughter of "the Rebel banker," as the Tories called Mr, Morton, who was visiting in Boston, and in one week won her hand. Miss Morton returned to New York, and his first visit to his betrothed, ostensibly to see New York and Philadelphia, was undertaken in company with Mr. William Sullivan, son of Governor James Sullivan, his onl}^ confidant. Mr. Quincy says, in part: "I set out from Boston in the line of stages of an enterprising Yankee, Pease by name, considered a method of transportation of wonderful expedition. The journey to New York took up a week. The carriages were old and shackling and much of the harness of ropes. . We reached our resting-place for the night, if no accident intervened, at ten o'clock, and, after a frugal sup per, went to bed with a notice that we should be called at three — which generally proved to be half-past two." Whether it snowed or rained, the traveller must make ready b}^ the help of a horn lantern and a farthing candle, and proceed over bad roads, sometimes obliged to help lift the coach out of the quagmire. Mr. Quincy met with flat tering attentions, and made distinguished acquaintances during his stay, — Alexander Hamilton, Robert Morris, Sam uel Breck. At Mr. William Bingham's, Colonel Quincy met Talleyrand, then "in the intermediate state of humiliation" from the bishopric of Autun to the principality of Beneven- tum. During this forced residence in America, Talleyrand formed his opinion of our social pleasures, and cynically answered a French lady who said, "You have not forgotten. Prince, the ball you and I were at together in Phdadelphia? " "Ah, no!" with an eloquent shrug; "the Americans are a hospitable people, — a magnanimous people, — and are des tined to be a great nation; — mais leur luxe est affrciir . " ' Opening the jewel-box of Miss Ehza Susan Quincy, one finds, among other mementos, a valentine of 1752, which ' Life of Josiah Quincy, by Edmund Quincy, 324 Old Paths and Legends of New England l)elonge(l to ber German grandmother, Mrs. Sophia Kemper iMorton, inscribed, To Sophia Kemperin; a brooch, sent by .Maria Edgeworth to Miss Quincy; a lock of Washington's hair, presented by Mrs. Peters, the daughter of Martha Washington; and a mourning badge for Washington, worn by Miss Quincy. She lived in the homestead with her brother Josiah, Mayor of Boston, , — the story of the "Josiahs" is long, and it is said of the Quincys that while in other families the descent is from sire to son, with them it is from " 'Siah to 'Siah." In the burying-groimd of the First Church strange histories are written underneath epitaphs of Pilgrim and Puritan, AVhig and Tory, and pathetic heart -links with the Old World. Here lie Henr^• Flynt, the first "teacher," and his wife, Marger}- Hoar ; their daughter was "Dorothy Q." ^largery Hoar's mother, Joanna Hoar, the widow of Charles Hoar, sherift" of Gloucester, emi grated ^^-ith five children. "Great ?iIother" is inscribed on the tonrb erected to her by the Hon. George F Hoar, a descendant of her son, John Hoar, who settled at Concord. Judge E. R. Hoar endowed a i-ladchffe scholarship as a tribute to "the widow Joanna Hoar," by addressing a quaint, fanciful letter to i\Irs. Agas siz, purporting to ha\-c been written by Joanna Hoar from old Braintree, declaring herself "a contemporary of the pious and bountiful Lady Radclift'e, for whom your college The First Church or "The .Adams Temple." The Widow Joanna Hoar 325 is named." Dr. Leonard Hoar, son of Joanna Hoar, third President of Harvard, sleeps here ; and his wife, the daugh ter of gentle Lady Alice Lisle, whose existence was blighted by the ferocious Jeffreys. Macaulay tells the pitiful story of how she was condemned to be burned alive for unwittingly harboring two fugitives from the battlefield of Sedgemoor, where the Monmouth rebellion came to an end. Ladies of high rank interceded for her, the clergy waxed indignant, and Jeffreys reluctantly commuted his barbarous sentence to beheading. I On Quincy shore, the cruiser Des Moines was christened with ceremony on September 20, 1902, in one of the most interesting shipyards in the world. When the small Fore River Engine Works which built successfully steam-yachts, undertook great battleships they were obliged to move down Fore River to Quincy for deeper water. A new era for sail-freighters is begun in the completion of a seven-masted schooner of steel, the first on any seas. In the double bottom, water is pumped after her cargo is delivered, as an economical ballast. The Rhode Island and New Jersey, first class battleships, were under construction at the same time. ' The account of the visit of Senator Hoar to Moyles's Court, the home of the Lisles, is included in The Hoar Family in America and its English Ancestry, by Henry Stedman Nourse. HULL (NANTASCO), 1624-1644 " .Mariner, what of the deep ?" Quaint little Hull is tucked away on an elbow of Ply mouth County, amid fortifications, memories, and the sea. In front of the bastions of this old French fort have passed in review the world's argosies. Her batteries, placed by Count D'Estaing' in 1776, kept at a safe distance Admiral Howe's fleet, which hovered outside like a British hawk, ready to pounce again upon the French ships, recuperating in Boston Harbor from recent injuries at Newport. On the headland of Hull you may sweep with a spy -glass the entire Puritan coast from Cape Ann to the "jagged Brewsters" in Boston Bay, than which no bay is more beautiful. South ward stretches the Pilgrim coast. From Plymouth came hither the disaffected Lyford and Oldham to join "the stragglers" at Nantasket and trade with the Indians. Among the first permanent settlers of Hull was John Prince, an exile in Cromwell's day. In the old Loring house was bom Israel Loring, pastor of Sudbury. As you watch the garrisi^n flag on Fort Warren dip to the setting sun, a gowmment boat eagerly runs past her guns towanl the North Church bell-tower, which signalled Paul Revere, and toward tho crowning dome, the fluttering flags of Trimountainc. As the light fades, ghosflv vessels of odd rigging drift in her wake. See first the shallop of Governor \Vinthro]i, who has just paid Captain Squeb a ' During tile liloekaile ni D'Estaing, Governor Hancock o-ave a royal breakhisl for the Freneli ollicers on Beacon Hill, In return a dinner was gi\i'n on liDard the llagshiji; Madame Hancock, being requested to ring a small liell, was much startled at a deafening artillery salute in her honor from the entire squadron. 326 Ship Mary and yohn 327 visit on the Mary and Jolm. Squeb feared to enter this unknown harbor, and without more ado put his homeless passengers ashore on Nantasket Point and left the "godly Low Tide — Nantasket Beach Reservation. " The tide will ebb at day' s decline. (Icli bin dein.) Impatient for the open sea. At anchor rocks the tossing ship. The ship that only waits for thee." families from Devonshire and Dorsetshire" to shift for themselves "in a forlorn place in this wilderness," ' I "But," writes Captain Roger Clap, "as it pleased God, we got a boat of some old planters and laded her with goods, and some able men well armed went in her to Charlestown, where we found some wigwams and one house and then we went up Charles River, until the river grew narrow and shallow, and there we landed our goods with much labor and toil, the banks being steep [Watertown], . . In the 328 Old Paths and Legends of New England Some fifty years later three frigates, filled with colonists and Indians, under Colonel Benjamin Church, the famous Indian fighter, are setting sail against the French settle ments of Maine and Acadia. In Nantasket Roads (1711) anchored the British Armada of fifteen men-of-war and forty transports, including Marlborough's veterans, under Sir Hovenden Walker, whose hopes of the conquest of Canada were destroyed by a storm at the mouth of the St. Lawrence. A rare pageant was the going away of the ten victorious vessels of our French allies, led by Le Trioniphant. Regi ment after regiment, plumed Soissoinais Grenadiers resplen dent in red, white, and pink, led by Comte Segur, after wards a peer of France; the Bourbonnais in black and red; the Count de Deux-Ponts, with his four battalions; the Saintonge regiment led by the Prince de Broglie, and many more, all under the waving flcnr-de-lys, boarded their ships in Nantasket Roads. Gay and gallant noblemen and offi cers, in two-cornered cocked hats with the white cockade, waved farewell from the quarter-deck. The chivalrous Lauzun, with his Legion, was there; Viomenil, afterwards slain defending the Tuderies; the Chevalier Alexandre de Lameth; Count Mathieu Dumas; and Alexandre Berthier, afterwards Marshal under Napoleon. In the War of 181 2 the Constitution ran the blockade of Boston Harbor seven times, and set sail from Nantasket Roads preceding her capture of the Guerricre, under com mand of Captain Isaac Hull, "the cool old Yankee." ^ morning, some of the Indians came and stood a distance off, looking at us some of them came and held out a great bass towards us; so we sent a man with a biscuit, and changed the cake for the bass. After wards, they supplied us with bass, exchanging a bass for a biscuit cake, and were very friendly with us." I Tn the pursuit of the Constiliition by the Belvidere, the Shannon, the Guerricre, " every daring expedient known to the most perfect seamanship was tried, and tried with success, and no victorious fight could reflect Nantasket Beach the Indians' Play-ground 329 Skull Head was the scene of aboriginal battles, and Nan tasket Beach the play-ground of Indian tribes. Three centuries ago, where yonder children are now playing leap frog, stood a pole hung with beaver skins and wampum; fantastic, swarthy figures are running and playing foot ball to win these trophies ; their wild shouts may be heard above the sawkiss (great panting) of the ocean. Chiefs who have seen eighty snows look on stoically while the young men strike on the beach a wooden bowl con taining five flat pieces of bone, black on one side and white on the other ; as the bones bound and fall, white or black, the game is decided ; the players sit in a circle making a deafening noise, — hub, hub, "come, come," from which it was called hubbub. Their council fires were lighted on Sagamore Hill. naore credit on the conqueror than this three days' chase did on Hull her officers and men showed that they could handle the sails as well as they could the guns. Hull out-manceuvred Broke and Byron as cleverly as a month later he out-fought Dacres." — Naval War of 1812, by Theodore Roosevelt, U . S. Frigate " Constitution," built at Boston, 1797. " Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State !" 330 Old Paths and Legends of New England Colonial Boston sailed out here in family parties to enjoy lobsters, "fat and luscious," and fish chowder, with a dessert picked on Strawberry Hill, It is said that Daniel Webster first delivered his apostrophe to the veterans of Bunker Hill to a gigantic codfish off Nantasket, Thus early began the evolution of Nantasket Beach as a pleasure- ground. It is now scientifically cared for by the Metropoli tan Park Commission. One knows not at what hour the long, firm beach is most entrancing. When Evening calls forth her worlds of light to illumine purple waters and misty surf, the merry crowd are subdued under the spell of music and moonlight ; yet, when glorious ilorning sails across waking skies : "The dewy beach beneath her glows; A pencilled beam, the lighthouse burns; Full-breathed, the fragrant sea-wind blows, — Life to the world returns ! " The Bath (Bayard Taylor). COHASSET (CONAHESSET), 1614-1717-1770 Minot Light. Jerusalem Road is the ideal portal of Cohasset, combining in its circuit ous length charming modern villas with ancient settlement. Doubtless the earliest inhabitants of Nantasco, Conahesset, and Scituate built with an eye to the natural beauty of inlet and shore, however stoically colonial lore may insist that material neces sity is the settler's plea. The artist is struck by Cohasset's fantastically worn rocks of many hues, lying alongshore between sloping turf and the cryst alline tones of a changeful sea. There were no roads, not so much as a cart-path, nigh Israel Nichols, the weaver, when he sledded his house across the ice from Green Hill to the south shore of Straits Pond, where ran the slight shore trail on the line of Jerusalem Road. The trail became a well-worn foot-path about the time that young Nathaniel Nichols began to go a-courtin' Elizabeth Lincoln at Little Harbor. We fancy that Nathaniel was so intent on think ing how pretty she looked in her new meetin' bunnit, that he scarcely noticed the moonshine on the water or the camp-fires of the Hingham herders watching the cattle on Beach Island. Some evenings he found his sweetheart carding the wool after the sheep-shearing; again, weaving rye straws into braid for the wide field -hats ; sometimes dip ping candles or peeling apples as rosy as her cheeks, when, like Zekle, he crep' up unbeknown and "peeked in thru' the winder. ' ' Elizabeth would ' ' blush scarlit ' ' when 331 332 Old Paths and Legends of New England "She heered a foot, an' knowed it tu, A-raspin' on the scraper, — All ways to once her feelin's flew, Like sparks in burnt -up paper. "An' all I know is they was cried In meetin' come nex' Sunday," '^ Ehzabeth's father, Daniel Lincoln, built on the lot which had fallen to the Rev. Peter Hobart, when the first division COHASSET of tli6 Cohasset pasture and marsh LANDMARKS: Jerusalem or Tug- lands was made among the men Br(?vparteentnr:X- of Hiugham ; the playfellows of erates with " Titanic Plums," coars- thc six LuiCOlnS WCre the tWClve est pudding-stone in the U.S. Allan- ^ .^ ^ - .,, - ,^ , tic House Hill, an old volcano. Black chlldrCU Of IbrOOk I OWBT, the Rock,lavaspout^ Cold Springy Pie gQ^ AarOU Pratt 's = hoUSC, Corner. Darnel Webster's profile on ^ Rock near Kimball's Hotel. Glacial with itS gabled rOOf and diamond scratches on diabase dyke. Cunning- , , ... ham Bridge. Sandy Cove. "Actor's paUCS, WaS the mOSt piCtureSqUe Retreat." Summer homes of Law- ^ early CohaSSCt. It WaS Johu rence Barrett, Robson, Crane, and -^ others. Hominy Point. Scene of JaCob who COnstrUCtcd thc first n"s fitr ;rs-rB':acr c:: corduroy bridge m 1672 across hasset Yacht Club House. Govern- the SWampv land tO the loadiug- ment Island, Stone shaped here for " ., ., " Minot's." The Unitarian Church, placc, whcuce hay and wood Were 1747. Town Library; Indian impie- boated round to Hingham. Ja- ments ; skeleton of Algonquin Indian ; ^ colonial relics. Home of Nehemiah COb's meadoW, near Cold Spring, Hobart (1722) ; home pf Rev. Joseph ... i ir i j_ t^ • i t -^ Osgood. Glacial Kettle-holes on hcs hah-^^-a^' between Daniel Lm- Cooper's Island. Indian Pot and cqIii'S plaCC and thc hoUSB of Mor- Indian Well. Old James house ., . ., (1701). Tower homestead (1750). dccai Lincolii, the blacksmith, on Turkey meadows. BoUUd BrOOk, thc rivulct dividing " The Coiirtin' , by James Russell Lowell. ^ Aaron Pratt was the son of Phinehas Pratt, who saved Wessagusset by his run to Pl^'mouth. The fourteenth child of Aaron was Chief Jus tice Benjamin Pratt of New Vork, Aaron Pratt owned a pear-tree, the delight of his heart, which was jiersistently robbed, notwithstanding the vigilance of his faithful servant, and the negro's last request was that he might be buried beneath that pear-tree, so that he could "see who stole massa's pears," 333 ' When the tide conies in , At once the sea and shore begin Together to be glad." — H. H. 334 Old Paths and Legends of New England Plymouth Colony from Massachusetts Bay Colony. The in genious, energetic Mordecai Lincoln, ancestor of Abraham Lincoln, soon had three milldams across Bound Brook, and it is said that he contrived in the dry season to use the same water for his saw-mill, grist-mill, and iron smelter. iVfter a time the Lincolns owned a tannery, where the farmers sent hides before making them into boots for their families. This smallest iron pot, set in the chimney comer, was used to melt the tallow, which was rubbed into the stiff leather during long evenings, to make the boots pliable and weather-proof. Indeed, during the first century, every household necessity was made at home or bartered among themselves; blankets, stockings, and homespun garments were woven from the wool of sheep which were washed in Lily, or 'Kiah Tower's, pond (first called Scituate pond, " because it was on the road to Scituate "). Little meat was to be had, and the sailor, in his new yellow tarpauhn, pro visioned his family with a strip of salt pork before starting on a cruise. The good wives supplemented this and the staple ' ' rye 'n Injun ' ' bread with luxuries made from ' ' gar den sass" ; for has not Cohasset its " Pie Comer," " Bread- encheese Tree Lane," and ".\pple Rock" near the Burbank house, where apple -bees were held while the pieces of apple were spread to dry in the sun. "\Adiat a pleasant place to gossip! One dame inquires about the cut of that elegant paduasoy woim by Abby's cousin from Hingham. Another guesses as to whether the "catch" of the Pretty Sail will make enough quintals to all