Historic mansions and highways around Boston

Front matter

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HISTORIC MANSIONS

Chapter I. The Gateway Of Old Middlesex

Environs of Boston. — Charles River. — History of the Bridges. — Lemuel Cox. — Charlestown in tlie Olden Time. —John Harvard. — The Night Surprise at Doncaster. — William Rainsborrow. — Robert Sedgwick. — Nathaniel Gorham. — Washington and Hancock. — Jedediah Morse. — Anecdote of Dr. Gardiner. — Samuel F. B. Morse. —His first Telegraph. — Charlotte Cushman's Home. — Her debut in England .

Chapter II. An Hour In The Government Dockyard

Origin of Charlestown Navy- Yard. — Wapping. — Nicholson and the Constitution. — Commandants of the Yard. — Constitution and Java. - Commodore Hull. — George Claghorn. — The Park of Artillery. — Cannon in the Revolution. — Compared with Woolwich. — Naval Battle in Boston Harbor. — Anecdotes of Lord Nelson. —Tribute to A.i„iers. — Hopkins. — Paul Jones. —Projectiles. — Invention of the Anchor. — The Dry-Dock. — Josiah Barker. — Captain Dewey and the Constitution's Figure-Head. — Famous Ships built here, — Launch of the Merrimac. — Masts, Sheathing, and Conductors. — Tlie Origin of «U. S." — Iron Clads. — Landing of Sir William Howe. —Area of the Yard. — The Naval Institute 26

Chapter III. Bunker Hill And The Monument

Coup d'oeil from the Hill. — British Regiments in the Battle. — Their Arms, Dress, and Colors. — Anecdotes of the Royal Welsh. — Losses and Incidents of the Battle. — Lords Rawdon and Harris. —John vm CONTENTS.

Cofiiu. — Admiral Graves. — Generals Small, Burgoyne, and Pigot. — Trumbull's Painting. — The Command. — American Officers engaged.

— Putnam's Exertions. — The Redoubt. — Other Intrencliments. — Vestiges of the Works. — Singular Powers of American Officers. — Fall of Warren. — The Slaughter. — History of the Monuments. — Bunker Hill Proper and Works. — Middlesex Canal . . . .52

Chapter IV. The Continental Trenches

Military Roads in 1775. — Momit Benedict. — General Lee at the Outpost.

— Morgan's Rifles. — Burning of the Ursuliue Convent. — Governor Winthrop and Ten Hills. — Robert Temple. —Redoubts at Ten Hills.

— General Sullivan. — Samuel Jaques. — Winter Hill fortihed. — View of Sullivan's Camp and Fort. — Scammcll, Wilkinson, Burr, and Arnold.

— Anecdote of Vanderlyn, the Painter. — Dearborn at Monmouth. — Hessian Encampment. — Will Yankees light ? 83

Chapter V. The Old Wayside Mill

Its History and Description. — A Colonial Blagazine. — Removal of the Powder by General Gage. — Washington and the Powder Scaixity. — Expedients to supply the Army. — A Legend of the Powder House . 110

Chapter VI. The Plantation At Mystic

Tlie Royall Mansion and Family. — Flight of Colonel Royall. — John Stark occupies the House. — Anecdotes of Stark. — Bennington and its Results. — Prisoners brought to Boston. — The Bennington Guns. — Lee and Sullivan at Colonel Royall's. — Hobgoblin Hall. — Taverns and Travel in former Times. — Old Medford and its Inns. —Shipbuilding. — John Brooks at Bemis's Heights. — Governor Cradock's Plantation-House. — Political Conj) d'etat by tlie Massachusetts Company. — Cradock's Agents. — Reflections 119

Chapter VII

lee's HE.^DQUARTERS AND VICINITY.

Lee's Headquarters. — Was he a Traitor ? — Anecdotes of the General. — The Surprise at Baskingridge. — Meeting of Washington and Lee at Monmouth. — Lee's Will and Death. — Works on Prospect Hill de-

CONTENTS. IX

scribed. — General Greene'.s Comniaiid. — Wasliiugton's Opinion of Greene. — Retires from the Army embarrassed. — Eli Whitney. — How the Provincials mounted Artillery. — Their Resources in this Arm. — Massachusetts Regiment of Artillery. — Small- Arms. — Putnam's Flag- Raising. — Deacon Whitcomb. — Colonel Wesson. — Union Standard hoisted. — Quarters of Burgoyne's Troops. — Appearance of British and Hessians. — Mutinous Comluct of Prisoners. — They are transferred to Rutland. — They march to Virginia. — Horrible Domestic Tragedy. — Remains of the Old Defences . . . . . . . .141

CHAPTER VIII. OLD CHARLESTOWN ROAD, LECHMERE's POINT, AND PUTNAM'S HEADQUARTERS

Executions in Middlesex. — Site of the Gibbet. — Works on Cobble Hill. — Sketches of Colonel Knox. — He brings Battering Train from Crown Point. — Mrs. Knox. — Joseph Barrell. — His Mansion-House. — McLean Asylum. — Miller's River. — Lechmere's Point. — Access to in 1775. — Fortification of. — Bombardment of Boston. — The Evacuation. — Career and Fate of Mike Martin. — Cambridge Lines described. Ralph Inman's. — Captain John Linzee's Courtship. — Putnam at Inman's. — Anecdotes of Putnam. — Margaret Fuller. — Allston and his Works 169

Chapter IX. A Dat At Harvard

Old Cambridge. — An Episcopal See contemplated. — Dr. Apthorp. — BurgojTie's Quarters. — Dana Mansion. — David Phips. — General Gookin. — First Observatory at Harvard. — Gore Hall and the College Library. — Father Rale's Dictionary. — His cruel Fate. — The President's House. — Distinguished Occupants. — Willard. — Kirkland. — Quincy. — Everett. — Increase Mather and Witchcraft. — Thomas Dudley. — Topography. — Bradish's Tavern. — First Church. — Old Court- House and Jail. — Laws and Usages of the Colonists. — Dane Hall. — Only two Attorneys in Massachusetts 195

Chapter X. A Day At Harvard, Continued

Founding and Account of First College Buildings. — College Press. — Stephen Daye. — Samuel Greene. — Portraits in Massachusetts Hall. — College Lotteries. — Governor Bernard. — The Quadrangle. — College

; CONTENTS.

Customs. — The Clubs. — Coiunieucement. — Dress of Students. — Oxford Caps. — George Downing. — Class of 1763. — Outbreaks of the Students. — The American Lines 221

Chapter XI. Cambridge Camp

Early Military Organization by the Colony. — Soldier of 1630. — A Troop in 1675. — The Bayonet invented. — Formation of a Provincial Army. — Cambridge Common. — The Continental Parades. — Arrangement of the Army. — Its Condition in July, 1775. — Want of Distinguishing Colors. — Attempts to uniform. — Army Headquarters. — Jonathan Hastings. — Explanation of the word "Yankee." — Captain Benedict ArnoM. — Committee of Safety. — General Ward. — His Intrepidity in Shays's Rebellion. — Warren en route to Bunker Hill. — Professor Pearson. — Abiel Holmes. — 0. W. Holmes. — Lines to Old Ironsides 245

CHAPTEE XII.

CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS.

Dr. Waterhouse. — Inoculation. — Siege Cannon. — Whitefield's Elm. — The Washington Elm. — The Haunted House. — Important Crises in Washington's Career. — Visits the Old South Church. — New England Church Architecture. — Christ Church. — Occupied by Troops. — The Ancient Burial-Place. — Judge Trowbridge. — Old Brattle House. — Thomas Brattle. —General Mifflin. —Judge Story. — W. W. Story.— The Winilmill. — Jonathan Belcher. — Benjamin Church's Treachery 264

Chapter XIII. Headquarters Of The Armt

Visit to Mr. Longfellow.— Colonel John Vassall. —Colonel John Glover. — Washington takes Possession. — His personal Appearance, Habits, and Dress — Continental Uniform. — Peale's Portrait.— Order of March 17, 1776. —The General's Military Family. —His Pugnacity. — Chirography of his Generals. — Monmouth again. — Anecdotes. — " Lord " Stirling and Lady Kitty. — Lafayette" and his Family. — French Generals in our Service. —Washington's, Napoleon's, and Wellington's Orders. — Councils of War. — Arrival of Mrs. Washington. — The Household. — Formation of the Body-Guard. — Caleb Gibbs. — Nathaniel Tracy. —Andrew Craigie. —Talleyrand and Prince Edward. — Jared Sparks and other Occupants. — Longfellow becomes an Inmate 289

CONTENTS. XI

Chapter XIV. Old Tory Kow And Beyond

Sewall Mansion. — Jonathan and John. — General Riedesel. — Prisoners of War in 1777. — How the German Flags were saved. —Judge Lee. — Thomas Fayerweather. — Governor Gerry's. — Thomas Oliver. — Political Craft. — The Gerrymander. — Dr. Lowell. — James Russell Lowell.

— Speculations. — Caroline Gilman 313

Chapter XV. Mount Auburn To Nonantum Bridge

Thoughts. — The Tower. — Pere la Chaise. — Dr. Jacob Bigelow. — luditfereuce which old Cemeteries experience. — Funeral Rites. — Duration of Bones. — The Chapel and Statuary. — The Origin of Momit Auburn. — Fresh Pond. — A Refuge on the Day of Lexington.

— Nat Wyeth's Expedition to the Paciftc. — The Ice-Traffic. — Frederick Tudor. — Richardson's Tavern. — Cock-Fighting. — Old Watertown Graveyard. — Rev. George Phillips. — Provincial Congress. — Rev. William Gordon. — Edes's Printiug-Office. — Sign of Mr. Wilkes.

— John Cook's and the Colony Notes. — Thomas Prentice. — Joseph Ward. — Michael Jackson. — Nouautum Hill. — General Hull. — TJie Apostle Eliot 326

Chapter XVI. Lechmere's Point To Lexington

Discovery of Gage's Plans. — American Preparations for War. — British Reconnoissance. — Colonel Smith lands at Lechmere's Point. — His March. — The Country alarmed. — Philip d'Auvergne. — Pitcaim arrives at Lexington Green. — Who is responsible ? — Tojtography. — Battle Monument. — Disposition of the Dead. — The Clark House. — Hancock and Adams. — Dorothy Q. — The Battle of Lexington in England 354

Chapter XVII. Lexington To Concord

The Approach to Concord. — The Wayside. — Hawthorne. — A. Bronson Alcott. — Louisa. — May. — R. W. Emerson. — Thoreau. — Concord on the Day of Invasion. — Ephraim Jones and John Pitcairn. — Colonel Archibald Campbell. — 71st Highlanders. — Anecdote of Simon Eraser. — Mill Pond. — Timothy Wheeler's Ruse-de-guerre. — The Hill Burying-Groimd. — The Slave's Epitaph 371

Xll CONTENTS.

Chapter XVIII. The Retreat From Concord

The Battle Monument. — The two Graves. — Position of the Americans

— The Old Mau.se. — Hawthorne's Study. — The Old House over the Way. — The Troops retreat. —John Brooks attacks them. —A Rout described. —A Percy to the Rescue. — The Royal Artillery. —Old Munroe Tavern. — Anxiety in Boston. — Warren and Heath take Part.

— Action in Menotomy. — Eliphalet Downer's Duel. — His Escape from a British Prison. - The Slaughter at Jason Russell's. -Incidents.

— Percy escapes. — Contemporary Accoimts of the Battle. —Monuments at Acton and Arlington

Chapter XIX. At The Wayside Inn

South Sudbury. -^ Outlireak of Philip's War. — Measures in the Colony.

— Marlborough attacked. —Descent on Sudbury. — Defeat and Death of Captam Wadsworth. — Wadsworth Monument. — Relics of Philip.

— The Wayside Inn. — Ancient Taverns xs. Modern Hotels. — The Interior of the Wayside. -Early Post-Routes in New England -Journey of Madam Knight in 1704 410

Chapter XX. The Home Of Rumford

Birthplace of Count Rumford. — His Early Life. — The Old Shop near Boston Stone. — Rumford's Marriage, Arrest, and Flight. — Bequest to Harvard College. — Porti-ait of the Count. — Thomas Graves, the Admiral 425

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page

Old Wayside Mill, Somerville Frontispiece

Map of Boston and Environs, 1775

Royall Mansion, Medford ^^^

Cradock's Plantation House, Medford 133

Tufts Mansion (Gen. Lee's Headquarters), Somerville 141

Inman House, Cambridge 1^'

Apthorp Mansion, Cambridge 1^'

President's House, Cambridge 206

Ancient College Buildings, Cambridge 224

Birthplace of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Cambridge 255

Christ Church, Cambridge -'^

Craigie-Longfellow Mansion, Cambridge 300

Elmwood (J. R. Lowell's), Cambridge 317

Lexington Green in 1775 (Drawing of the Time) 360

Buckman's Tavern, Lexington 361

Hancock-Clark Parsonage, Lexington 364

Parsonage Kitchen, Lexington

Place of Revere's Capture, Lincoln 3/1

Old Manse, Concord ^^*^

Meriam's Corner, Concord . . ^

The Wayside Inn, South Sudbury ^^^

Birthplace of Count Rumford, Woburn 425

ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD.

Page

Belcher Arms 285

Belcher {Portrait) 285

Bunker Hill from the Xavy-Yard, about 1826 .... 26

Bunker Hill Monument 52

British Flag captured at Yorktown 54

Brattle Arms 281

Broken Gravestone 276

Cannon and Carriage used before Boston 153

Cannon dismantled 8-3

Charlestown Navy- Yard in 1873 36

" 1858 38

Chaunct Arms 208

Flag op Washington's Life-Guard 308

Flag of Morgan's Rifles 87

Fort on Cobble Hill 172

GooKiN Arms 200

Gore Hall, 1873 202

Great Harry 35

Harvard College Lottery Ticket {Facsimile of an Original) . 227

Harvard's Monument 11

Hessian Flag 106

King Philip {from an old Print) 414

Lexington Monument 362

Lowell Arms 322

Mount Auburn Gateway 326

Mount Auburn Chapel 335 xvi ILLUSTRATIONS.

Nix's Mate 170

Sewall-Riedesel Mansion 313

Sign of the Wayside Inn 421

Smith, Capt^un John 3

Stanch and Strong 39

Trophies of Bennington 1

Ursuline Convent in Ruins 91

Washington Statue (Ball's) 295

Wendell Arjis 255

Washington Elm, 1873 267

Willard Arms 207

Chapter I. The Gateway Op Old Middlesex

"A snii of New England's Aire is Ijetter than a wliole draiiglit of Old England's Ale."

THE charming belt of country around Boston is full of interest to Americans. It is diversified Avith every feature that can make a landscape attractive. Town clasps hands with town until the girdle is complete where Kahant and Nantasket sit with their feet in the Atlantic. The whole region may be compared to one vast park, where nature has wrought in savage grandeur w^hat art has subdued into a series of delightful pictures. No one portion of the zone may claim precedence. There is the same shifting panorama visible from every ruo-ged height that never fails to delight soul and sense. We can liken these suburban abodes to nothing but a string of precious gems flung around the neck of Old Boston.

JSTor is this all. Whoever cherishes the memory of brave deeds — and who does not ^— will find here the arena in Avhich the colonial stripling suddenly sprang erect, and planted a blow full in the front of the old insular gladiator, — a blow that made him reel with the shock to his very centre. It was liere the

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Hi a:

axr people of the " Old Thirteen " first acted together as one nation, and here the sejiarate streams of their existence united in one mighty flood. The girdle is not the less interesting that it rests on the ramparts of the Revolution.

It is in a great m(_';isiire true that what is nearest to us we know the least about, and that we ignorantly pass over scenes every day, not a whit less interesting than those by which we are attracted to countries beyond the seas. An invitation to a pilgrimage among the familiar objects whicli may be viewed from the city steeples, while it may not be comparable to a tour in tlie environs of London or of Paris, will not, our word for it, fail to supply us with materials for reflection and entertainment. Let us beguile the Avay with glances at the interior homelife of our English ancestors, while inspecting the memorials they have left behind. Their hahitations yet stand by the wayside, and if dumb to others, will not altogether refuse their secrets to such as seek them in the light of historic truth. We shall not fill these old halls with lamentations for a greatness that is departed never to return, but remember always that there is a living present into which our lives are framed, and by which the civilization of Avhat Ave may call the old regime may be tested. AVhere Ave haA^e advanced, Ave need not fear the ordeal ; Avhere Ave have not advanced, Ave need not fear to avoAv it.

We suppose ourselves at the Avater-side, a Avayfarer by the old bridge leading to CharlestoAvn, Avith the tide rippling against the Avooden piers beneath our feet, and the blue sky above calling us afield. The shores are bristling Avith masts which gleam like so many polished conductors and cast their long wavy shadoAvs aslant the Avatery mirror. Behind these, houses rise, tier over tier, mass against mass, from which, as if disdainful of such company, the granite obelisk springs out, and higher yet, a landmark on the sea, a Pharos of liberty on the shore.

The Charles, to which Longfellow has dedicated some charming lines, though not actually seen by Smith, retained the name with which he christened it. It was a shrewd guess in the

THE GATEAVAY OF OLD MIDDLESEX.

bold navigator, that the numerous islands he saw in the hay indicated the estuary of a great riA^er penetrating the interior. It is a curious feature of the map which Smith made of the coast of ]^ew England in 1C14, that the names of Plymouth, Boston, Cambridge, and many other towns not settled until long afterwards, should be there laid down. Smith's map Avas the first on which the name of ^ew England appeared.

In the pavement of St. Sepulchre, London, is Smith's tombstone. The inscription, except the three Turk's heads, is totally effaced, but the church authorities have promised to have it renewed as given bj^ Stow.

The subject of bridging tlie river from the old ferry-way at Hudson's Point to the opposite shore — Avhich is here of about the same breadth as the Thames at ^"^

London Bridge — was agitated as early as 1712, or more than seventy years before its final accomplishment. In 1720 the attempt was renewed, but while the utility of a bridge was conceded, it was not considered a practicable undertaking. After the Revolution the project was again revived, and a man was found equal to the occasion. An ingenious shipAvright, named Lemuel Cox, was then living at Medford, Avho insisted that the enterprise was feasible. Some alleged that the channel of the riA^er was too deep, that the ice Avould destroy the structure, and that it would obstruct navigation ; Avhile by far the greater number

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.

4 HISTOEIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS.

rejected the idea altogether as cliimerieal. But Cox persevered. He brought the influential and enterprising to his views ; a charter was olitained, an<l this energetic and skilful mechanic saw the bridge he had so dexterously planned in his brain become a reality. Captain John Stone, of Concord, Mass., was the architect of this bridge. His epitaph in the old burying-ground there says he was a man of good natural abilities, which seemed to be adorned with modern virtues and Christian graces. , He died in 1791.

The opening of the structure upon tlie anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, and only eleven years after that event, attracted upwards of twenty thousand spectators. The day was ushered in by a' discharge of thirteen cannon from the opposite heights of Breed's Hill, Charlestown, and Copj^'s Hill, Boston, accompanied by repeated peals from the bells of Christ Church. At one o'clock, p. m., the proprietors assembled in the State House for the purpose of conducting the several branches of the Legislature over the bridge. The procession, which included not only the public officials, but almost every individual of prominence in the community, moved from State Street, amid a salute from the Castle, and upon its arrival at the bridge the attendant companies of artillery formed two lines to the right and left, through which the cort.ege passed on to the middle of the bridge, where it halted. The President of the Corporation, Thomas Russell, then advanced alone, and directed Mr. Cox to fix the draw for the passage of the company, which was immediately done. The procession continued its march to Breed's Hill, wliere two tables, each three hundred and twenty feet long, had been laid, at which eight hundred guests sat down and prolonged the festivities until evening.

When built, this was the longest bridge in the world, and, except the abutments, was entirely of wood. Until AVest Boston Bridge was constructed, in 179.3, it yielded a splendid return to the proprietors ; but the latter surpassed it not only in length, but in beauty of architecture, and, with the causeway on the Cambridge side, formed a beautiful drive or promenade of about two miles in extent. It also lessened the distance from Cambridge to Boston more than a mile. In 1828 Warren Bridge was opened, but not without serious opposition from the proprietors of the old avenue ; and the two bridges might not inaptly liave served some native poet for a colloquy as famous as that of the rival " Brigs of Ayr."

" Nae langer thrifty citizens au' douce Meet owre a pint, or in the Council-house ; But staumrel, corky-headed, graceless Gentry, The herryment and ruin of the country ; Men tliree-parts made by Tailors and by Barbers, Wha' waste your well haiu'd gear on d — d neiv Brif/s and Harbours ! "

The ferry, which was the original mode of transit between the two peninsulas, was established in 1635, and five years later was granted to Harvard College. To compensate for the loss of the income from this source Avhen Charles Iliver Bridge was built, the proprietors were required to pay £200 per annum to the University, and in 1792 the same sum was imposed on the West Boston Bridge Corporation.

Two handbills, each embellished with a rude Avoodcut of the bridge, were printed on the occasion of the opening, in 1786. One was from the " Charlestown Press " ; the other was printed by "E. Russell, Boston, next door to Dr. Haskins', near Liberty Pole." From the broadside (as it was then called), published at the request and for the benefit of the directors and friends of this " grand and almost unparalleled undertaking," we present the following extract : —

" This elegant work was begun on the First of June 1 785, (a day remarkable in the Annals of America as the Ports of Boston and Charlestown were unjustly shut up by an arbitiary British Administration) and was finished on the seventeenth of the same month 1786, the ever memorable day on which was fought the famous and bloody Battle of Bunker-Hill, where was shewn the Valour of the undisciplined New England Militia under the magnanimous Warren who gloriously fell in his Country's Cause ! Blessed Be His Memory ! ! And All the People — Say Amen ! ! ! "^

1 A new steel structure is now replacing the old.

6 HISTORIC MA^SIONS AND HIGHWAYS.

The building committee were Hon. Nathaniel Gorham, Richard Devens, David Wood, Jr., Captain Joseph Cordis, Andrew Symmes, Jr., and John Larkin.

Lemuel Cox, the artisan, was born in Boston in 1736, and died in Charlestown in 1806. In 1787 he built the bridge to Maiden, which Avas tinished in six months ; and in the following year (1788), the Essex Bridge, at Salem, was constructed l)y him. In 1789 he was living in Prince Street, in Boston, and styled himself a millwright. In 1790, accompanied by a Mr. Thompson, Cox went to Ireland, where he was invited to estimate for the building of a l)ridge over the Foyle at Londonderry. His proposals being accepted, the two Americans purchased a ship, which they loaded at Sheepscot, Maine, with lumber, and having secured about tAventy of their countrymen, skilled in shaping timber, set sail for Ireland. The bridge, which connected the city and county, consisted of fifty-eight arches, all of American oak, and was completed in five months. The Foyle was here about nine hundred feet wide and forty feet deep at high water. What made Cox's achievement the more important was the fact that ]\Iilne, an English engineer, had survej^ed the river and pronounced the scheme impracticable.

Our pioneer in bridge-building on a great scale in America has received but scanty recompense at the hands of biographers. Dr. Ure has neitlier noticed his great works in Ireland nor in this country. Before he left Europe, ]\Ir. Cox was applied to by the Corporation of I^oridon to take down Wren's monument, which was supposed to threaten a tail ; but, as they would not give him his price, he declined. Massachusetts granted him, in 1796, a thousand acres of land in Maine, for being the first inventor of a machine to cut eard-Avire, the first projector of a powder-mill in the State, and tlie first to suggest the employment of prisoners on Castle Island to make nails. The rude woodcut which adorned the head of the broadside circulated at the opening of Charles Eiver Bridge was executed, as the printer says, by "that masterpiece of ingenuity, Mr. Lemuel Cox." It shows a detachment of artillery with cannon ready for firing, and a coacli with four horses, and a footman behind, driving at full speed over the bridge.

In 1786 no ceremony would have been considered complete without the aid of the Muses, and the Nine were energetically invoked in forty stanzas, of which we submit a fair specimen : —

" The sniiliiig mom now peeiDS in view, Bright witli peciTliai- cliarnis, See, Boston Nj-mplis and Charlestown too Each linked arm in arm.

2. " I sing the day in wliich tlie BRIDGE

Is finished and done, Boston and Cliarlestown lads rejoice, And fire your cannon guns.

3. " The BRIDGE is finished now I say,

Each other bridge outvies, For London Bridge, compar'd with ours Appears in dim disguise,

23. " Now Boston, Charlestown nobly join And roast a fatted Ox On noted Bunker Hill combine.

To toast our patriot COX.

38. " May North and South and Charlestowni all Agree with one consent.

To love each one like Indian's rum.

On publick good be sent. "

Chelsea Bridge was built in 1803, and the direct avenue to kSalem opened by means of a turnpike, by which the distance from Boston was greatly diminished. The bridge was to revert to the Commonwealth in seventy years.

In 1043 the colony of INIassachusetts Bay was divided into four shires, of which Middlesex, named after that county in Old England Avhich includes London, was one. It is the most populous of all the counties of the Old Bay State, and embraces Avithin its limits the earliest battle-fields of the Eevolution, the first seat of learning in the English colonies, and the manufactures Avhich have made American industry known in every quarter of the globe.

Charlestown, the mother of Boston, resembled in its superhcial features its more powerful olfs{)ring. It was a peninsula, connected with the mainland by a narrow neck ; it had three principal hills also, but the mutations which have swept over the one have not left the other untouched. To remove a mountain is now only a question of time ; and ^vere Mahomet to live again, he would see that his celebrated reply has become A^oid of significance.

Like Shawmnt,^ ]\Iishawum^ had its solitary settler in Thomas Walford, the sturdy smith, who was found living liere in 1G28, when some of Endicott's company made their way through the wilderness from Salem. The next year the settlement received some accessions, and was named Charles Towne by Governor Endicott, in honor of the reigning prince. AYinthrop's company arrived at Charlestown in June and July, 1().30 ; but, owing to the mortality that prevailed and the want of water, the settlers soon began to disperse, the larger part removing with the governor to Shawmut. A second dispersion took place on account of the destruction of the town during the battle of 1775, leaving nothing but the hills, the ancient burial-place, and a few old houses that escaped the confiagration in the victors' hands.

After nearly two centuries and a half of separate existence, Charlestown has at length become part of Boston. The people simply ratified what History liad already decreed. Now Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights lie, as they ought to lie, within a common municipal government.

The old ferry, besides serving the primitive settlers, is deserving of recognition as the place where the first exchange of prisoners took place after hostilities began between America and Great Britain. This event occurred on the 6th of June folloAving the battle of Lexington, and was conducted by Dr. Warren and General Putnam for the colony, and by Major Moncrieff on behalf of General Gage. The contending parties concerned themselves little at that time alxilit Avhat has since 1 Indian name of Boston ; 2 and Cliarlestown.

been known as " belligerent rights," each being ready to get rid of some troublesome visitors by the easiest and most natural method. Warren and Putnam rode to the ferry in a phaeton, followed by a cavalcade of prisoners, some mounted and others riding in chaises. Arrived at the shore, the Doctor and ' Old Put' signalled the Lively, man-of-war, and Major Moncrieff come off as related. After the performance of their public business, the parties to the exchange adjourned to Mr. Foster's, and had what Avas then and since known as "a good time." A much worse fate happened to the Bunker Hill prisoners, and it is quite evident that both parties looked upon the collision at Lexington as premature, — the King's commander with misgiving as to whether his conduct would be sustained in England ; the colonists as to whether their resistance had not closed the door against that reconciliation with the throne they professed so ardently to desire.

The great square around which clustered the humble habitations of the settlers ; the "great house," inhabited for a time by the governor, and in which the settlement of Boston was probably planned ; the thatched meeting-house, and even the first tavern of old Samuel Long, — afterwards the sign of the Two Cranes and situated on the City Hall site,* — -were what met the eye of Josselyn as he ascended the beach into the market-place in 1638. He describes the rattlesnake he saw M'liile walking out there, and his visit to Long's ordinary. Eventually, the town stretched itself along the street leading to the mainland.

In these times of degeneracy, when man requires the most repressive measures to compel him to abstain from the vice of intemperance, Ave can but look back Avith longing eyes upon those halcyon days Avhen a traveller entering a public inn Avas immediately followed by an officer, Avho, Avith the utmost sang froid, placed himself near the guest, and Avhen, in his opinion, his charge had partaken of enough strong Avaters, by a Avave of his hand forbade the host to fetch another stoup of liquor. What a companion for a midnight Avassail of good felloAvs ! With his

* Also the site of the "Great House." 1« gaze riveted upon the countenances of the revellers, he marks each stage of transition from sobriety to that point which we may call the perfect equipoise, where the law steps in. "With a rap of his staff upon the floor, or a thwack of his iist on the table, he checks the song or silences the jest. We hardly know how to sufficiently admire such parental care in our forefathers ; we hesitate to compare it with the present system.

The night-watch, too, was an institution. With their greatcoats, dark lanterns, and iron-shod stafts, they went their rounds to warn all Avayfarers to their beds, admonish the loiterers who might chance to be abroad, or arrest evil-doers. Whether they were marshalled nightly by their officer we know not, but we doubt not they would have diligently executed their commission.