HIGHWAYS ^AROUND - BOSTOM SAMUEL> ADAMS -DRAKE - W. A, BUTTERFIEUD BOOKSELLER 59 BROMFIELD ST. HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS AROUND BOSTON. OLD WAYSIDE MILL, SOilKiiV Historic Mansions and Highways AROUND BOSTON. BEING ^ Ncia anti 9RcfaisctJ lEtiitfan OF ''OLD LANDMARKS AND HISTORIC FIELDS OF MIDDLESEX." BY SAMUEL ADAPTS DRAKE. SMitlj Ellustratfons. BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 1906. Entered according to Act of Clongres^ in the year 1S73, By James K. Os(;oo» andj^Company, In the Office of the Librarian of\CongTess, at Washington. Entered according to Act of CongresSjin the vear 1S76, By Samuel Adams Di^4e, In the Office of the Librarian of C^ongr^fTat Washington, Copyright, iShg, ffi By Little, Brown, aVjd Company. Copyright, 1901, 1904, By Samuel Adams Drake. All rights reserved. printers S. J. I'arkhill &, Co., Boston, U. S. A. TO THE EEADEE. " I stand by the old tliouglit, the old thing, the old plac(!, and the old friend. " — Lowell. I TAKE it that we, of this generation, can form little con- ception of the value which every visible token of our ancestors, however humble, will have for those who shall come after us. And that simple statement carries its own moral. In the hroadest and most enlightened sense, we, of to-day, are hut the passing custodians of all those visible and authentic memorials wliich Time and Progress have yet spared to us. They helong not to us, hut to History. We can tear down, hut Avho shall huild up again ? It was, in the main, this thought which first prompted the writing of this hook. And it is true that, within compara- tively few years, something has been realized in that direction — thanks to the praiseworthy efforts of our patriotic societies ; hut Old Father Time is a relentless iconoclast, even of our most cherished idols, and much more remains to be done if we are to stand fully acquitted of our ohligations, not only to ourselves, hut to what may mean so much to posterity. I have long been convinced that nothing so healthfully stimulates the study of histoi'y, especially to young people, as a visit to scenes made memorable by the lives of great men or the march of great events. Seeing is believing, the world over. Unless one is wholly wanting in imagination, it is hardly possible to visit such places without feeling something of the living presence of the actors themselves, or fail to carry away far more vivid and lasting impressions than could be received from the most graphic descriptions alone. At all events, there is a vast deal of satisfaction in being able to VI TO THE READER. say that we have stood on the very spot where our national life began. Since you and I, most kind reader, went over the ground together, covered in these pages, the changes, I had 'almost said the havoc, wrouglit on every side by the steady outreach- ing of a great and growing city have rendered a thorough revision of tlie whole work indispensable to a correct reading. To this end, every place mentioned therein has been revisited, in order that present conditions might be established. Atten- tion is especially called to tlie illustrations, Avhich do not appear in earlier editions, but which form so attractive a feature of this present volume. In having so many places of the highest interest, situated at oTir own doors, so to speak, we are indeed a favored community, since at almost every corner one may turn some page of history. Every old house we shall visit is a voice speaking to us from out of tlie Past. At parting, I shall hope you may have no reason to regret our companionship. May, 1899 ■ CONTEN^TS. CHAPTER I. THE GATEWAY OF OLD MIDDLESEX. Environs of Boston. — Charles River. — History of the Bridges. — Lemuel Cox. — Charlestown in the Olden Time. — John Harvard. — The Night Surprise at Doncaster. — William Rainsborrow. — Robert Sedgwick. — Nathaniel Gorham. — Washington and Hancock. — Jedediah Morse. — Anecdote of Dr. Gardiner. —Samuel F. B. Morse. — His first Telegraph. — Charlotte Cushman's Home. — Her debut in England CHAPTER II. AN HOUR IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. Origin of Charlestown Navy- Yard. — Wapping. — Nicholson and the Constitution. — Commandants of the Yard. — Constitution and Java. — Commodore Hull. — George Claghorn. — The Park of Artillery. — Cannon in the Revolution. — Compared with Woolwich. — Naval Bat- tle in Boston Harbor. — Anecdotes of Lord Nelson. — Tribute to Algiers. — 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 Merriniac. — Masts, Sheathing, and Conductors. — The 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. Coitp d'ceil 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 Vlil CONTENTS. Coffin. — Admiral Graves. — Generals Small, Burgoyne, and Pigot. — Trumbull's Painting. — The Command. — American Officers engaged. — Putnam's E.xertions. — Tlie Kedoubt. — Otlier Intrenchments. — 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. — Mount Benedict. — General Lee at the Outpost. — Morgan's Rities. — Burning of the Uisuline Convent. — Governor Wlnthrop aud Ten Hills. — Robert Temple. — Redoubts at Ten Hills. — General Sullivan. — Samuel Jaques. —Winter Hill fortified. — View of Sullivan's Camp and Fort. — Scanimell, Wilkinson, Burr, and Arnold. — Anecdote of \ anderlyn, tlie Paiuter. — Dearborn at Monmouth. — Hessian Encampment. — Will Yankees tight '! 83 CHAPTER V. THE OLD WAYSIDE MILL. Its History and Description. — A Colonial Magazine. — Removal of the Powder by General Gage. — Washington and the Powder Scarcity. — Expedients to supply the Army. — A Legend of the Powder House . 110 CHAPTER VI. THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. The Royall Mansion and Family. — Flight of Colonel Royall. — John Stark occupies the House. — Anecdotes of Stark. — Bennington and its Results. — Prisoners brought to Boston. — The Bennington Guns. — Lee and Sullivan at Colonel Royall's. — Hobgoblin Hall. — Taverns and Travel in former Times. — Old Medford and its Inns. — Shipbuild- ing. — John Brooks at Bemis's Heights. — Governor Cradock's Planta- tion-House. — Political Cimp d'elat by the Massachusetts Company. — Cradock's Agents. — Reflections . 119 CHAPTER VII. lee's HEADQUARTERS AND VICINITY. Lee's Headquarters. — Was he a Traitor ? — Anecdotes of the General. — The Surprise at Baskingridge. — ISIeeting of Washington and Lee at Monmouth. — Lee's Will and Death. — Works on Prospect Hill de- CONTENTS. IX scribed. — General Greene's Command. — Washington'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 Conduct 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. E.xecutions in Middlesex. — Site of the Gibbet. — Works on Cobble Hill. — Sketches of Colonel Knox. — He brings Battering Train from Crown Point. — Mrs. Knox. — Joseph Barrell. — His Mansion-House. — McLean Asylum. — Miller's River. — Lechmere's Point. — Access to in 1775. — Fortification of. — Bombardment of Boston. — The Evacua- tion. — Career and Fate of Mike Martin. —Cambridge Lines described. Ralph Inman's. — Captain John Linzee's Courtship. — Putnam at Inman's. — Anecdotes of Putnam. — Margaret Fuller. — Allston and his Works 169 CHAPTER IX. A DAT at harvard. Old Cambridge. — An Episcopal See contemplated. — Dr. Apthorp. — Burgoyne's Quarters. — Dana Mansion. — David Phips. — General Gookin. — First Observatory at Harvard. — Gore Hall and the College Library. — Father Rale's Dictionary. — His cruel Fate. — The Presi- dent's Hou.se. — Distinguished Occupants. — Willard. — Kirkland. — Quincy. — Everett. — Increase Mather and Witchcraft. — Thomas Dud- ley. — Topography. — Bradish's Tavern. — First Church. — Old Court- House and Jail. — Laws and Usages of tlie Colonists. — Dane Hall Only two Attorneys in Massachusetts 195 CHAPTER X. a day at harvard, continued. Founding and Accoimt of First College Buildings. — College Press. — Stephen Daye. — Samuel Greene. — Portraits in Massachusetts Hall. — College Lotteries. — Governor Bernard. — Tlie Quadrangle. — College : CONTENTS. Customs. — The Clubs. — Commencement. — Dress of Students. — Ox- ford Caps. — George Downing. — Class of 1763. — Outbreaks of the Students. — The American Lines 221 CHAPTER XI. CAMBRIDGE CAMP. Early Military Organization by tlie Colony. — Soldier of 1630. — A Troop in 1675. — Tlie Bayonet invented. — Formation of a Provincial Army. — Cambridge Common. — The Continental Parades. — Arrange- ment of the Army. — Its Condition in July, 1775. — Want of Distin- guishing Colors. — Attempts to uniform. — Army Headquarters. — Jonathan Hastings. — Explanation of the word " Yankee." — Captain Benedict Arnold. — Conunittee of Safety. — General Ward. — His In- trepidity in Shays's Rebellion. — Warren en route to Bunker Hill. — Professor Pearson. — Abiel Holmes. — 0. W. Holmes. — Lines to Old Ironsides 245 CHAPTER XII. CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. Dr. Waterhouse. — Inoculation. — Siege Cannon. — Wliitefield's Elm. — The Washington Elm. — The Haunted House. — Important Crises in Washington's Career. — Visits the Old South Church. — New England Church Arcliitecture. — Christ Church. — Occupied by Troops. — The Ancient Burial-Place. —Judge Trowbridge. — Old Brattle House.— Thomas Brattle. —General Mifflin. —Judge Story. — W. W. Story.— The Windmill. — Jonathan Belcher. — Benjamin Church's Treachery 264 CHAPTER XIII. HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY. Visit to Mr. Longfellow.— Colonel John Vassall. — Colonel John Glover. — Wasliington takes Possession. — His personal Appearance, Habits, and Drtiss.- Continental Uniform. — Peale's Portrait. — Order of March 17, 1776. —The General's Military Family. —His Pugnacity. — Chi- rography of his Generals. — Monmouth again. — Anecdotes. — " Lord " Stirling and Lady Kitty. — Lafayette and his Family. — French Generals in our Service . — Washington's, Napoleon's, and Wellington's Orders. — Councils of War. — Arrival of Mrs. Washington. — The Household. — Formation of the Body-Guard. — Caleb Gibbs. — Na- thaniel Tracy. — Andrew Craigie. — Talleyrand and Prince Edward. — Jared Sparks and other Occupants. — Longfellow becomes an Inmate 289 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER XIV. OLD TORY ROW AND BEYOND. Sewall Mansion. - Jonathan and John. -General Riedesel. - Prisoners of War in 1777. — How the German Flags were saved. —Judge Lee. — Thomas Fayerweather. -Governor Gerry's. - Thomas Oliver. - Polit- ical Craft. — Tlie Gerrymander. —Dr. LoweU.— James Russell Lowell. — Speculations. —Caroline Gilmau 313 CHAPTER XV. MOUNT AUBURN TO NONANTUM BRIDGE. Thoughts. -The Tower. -Pere la Chaise. - Dr. Jacob Bigelow. — Indmerence which old Cemeteries experience. - Funeral Rites. - Duration of Bones. -The Chapel and Statuary. - The Origm of Mount Auburn. - Fresh Pond. —A Refuge on the Day ot Le-xmgton. — NatWyeth's Expedition to the Pacific.— The Ice-Traffic. — Fred- erick Tudor. —Richardson's Tavern. - Cock-Fighting. — Old Water- town Graveyard. - Rev. George Phillips. - Provincial Congress. - Rev William Gordon. -Edes's Printing-Office. - Sign of Mr. WUkes. -John Cook's and the Colony Notes. -Thomas Prentice. - Joseph ■ Ward. — Michael Jackson. — Nonantuni Hill. — General Hull. — Tlie Apostle Eliot 326 354 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. — Pitcairn ar- rives at Lexington Green. — Who is responsible ? — Topography. — Battle Monument. — Disposition of the Dead. —Tlie Clark House. — Hancock and Adams. — Dorothy Q. — The Battle of Lexington in England 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 HDl Bury- ing-Ground. — 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 Manse. — 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 Meuotomy. — Eliphalet Downer's Duel. — His Escape Iroin a British Prison. — The Slaughter at Jason Russell's. —Incidents. — Percy escapes. — Contemporary Accounts ot tlie Battle. — Monu- ments at Acton and Arlington 33(j CHAPTER XIX. AT THE WAYSIDE INN. South Sudbury. — Outbreak of Philip's War. — Measures in the Colony. — Marlborough attacked. — Descent on Sudljury. — Defeat and Death of Captain Wadsworth. — Wadsworth Monument. — Relics of Pliilip. — The Wayside Inn. — Ancient Taverns vs. Modern Hotels. — The Interior of the Wayside.— Early Post-Routes in New England. —Jour- ney of Madam Kuight 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. — Portrait of the Count. — Thomas Graves, the Admiral 421 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Old Wayside Mill, Sonierville Frontispiece Map of Boston and Environs, 1775 1 Royall Mansion, Medford 119 Cradock's Plantation House, Medford 133 Tufts Mansion (Gen. Lee's Head(juarteis), Soraerville 141 Inman House, Cambridge 187 Apthorp Mansion, Cambridge 197 President's House, Cambridge 206 Ancient College Buildings, Cambridge 224 Birthplace of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Cambridge 255 Christ Church, Cambridge 274 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 368 Place of Revere's Capture, Lincoln 371 Old Manse, Concord 390 Meriam's Corner, Concord . . , 893 The Wayside Inn, South Sudbury 410 Birthplace of Count Rumford, Woburn 425 ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD. Page Belcher Arms 285 Belcher {Portrait) 285 Bunker Hill from the Navy- Yard, about 1S26 .... 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 DisMANTLEb 83 Charlestown Navy- Yard in 1873 36 " 1858 38 Chauncy Arms 208 Flag of 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 3a Harvard College Lottery Ticket {Facsimile of an Original) . 227 Harvard's Monument 11 Hessian Flag 106 Kma Vm\AV { from an old Print) 414 Lexington Monument 362 Lowell Arms 322 moukt aoburn gateway 326 Mount Auburn Chapel . 335 Xvi ILLUSTRATIONS. Nix's Mate . 170 Quadrangle Harvard College ....... 231 Sewall-Riedesel Mansion 313 Sign of the Wayside Inn 421 Smith, Captain John 3 Stanch and Strong 39 Trophies of Bennington 1 Ursuline Convent in Ruins ........ 91 Washington Statue (Ball's) 295 Wendell Arms 255 Washington Elm, 1873 267 WiLLARD Arms . 207 — , ■ ■' *^^ '■ ^*' ^^" ^ - - -^^rrr^-" > CHAPTER I. THE GATEWAY OF OLD MIDDLESEX. "A sup of New England's Aire is better than a wliole draught of Old England's Ale." THE charming belt of country around Boston is full of in- terest to Americans. It is diversitied Avitli every feature that can make a landscape attractive. Town clasps hands with town until the girdle is complete where Nahant 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 what art has subdued into a series of delightful l)ictures. No one portion of the zone may claim precedence. There is the same shifting panorauia visil)le from every rugged 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. Nor is this all. Whoever cherishes the memory of brave deeds — and who does nof? — will find here the arena in which the colonial stripling suddenly sprang erect, and ]ilanted a blow full in the front of the old insular gladiator, — a Idnw that made him reel with the shock to his very centre. It was here the 1 A /\ ^ T^: 2 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. people of tlie " Old Thirteen " first acted together as one nation, and here the separate streams of their existence united in one mighty flood. The girdle is not the less interesting that it rests on tlie ramparts of the Revolution. It is in a great measure 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 Avhich may be viewed from the city steeples, while it may not be comparable to a tour in the environs of London or of Paris, will not, our word for it, fail to supply us with materials for reflection and entertain- ment. Let us beguile the way with glances at the interior home- life of our English ancestors, while inspecting the memorials they have left behind. Their habitations 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 witli lamentations for a greatness that is departed never to return, but remember always that there is a living present into wliich our lives are framed, and by which the civilization of what we may call the old regime may be tested. AVhere we have advanced, we need not fear the ordeal ; where we have not advanced, we need not fear to avow it. We suppose ourselves at the water-side, a wayfarer by the old bridge leading to CharlestoAvn, with the tide rippling against the wooden piers beneath our feet, and the blue sky above call- ing us afield. The shores are Itristling with masts which gleam like so many polished conductors and cast their long wavy shadows aslant the w^atery inirror. Behind these, houses rise, tier over tier, mass against mass, from which, as if dis- dainful of such company, the granite obelisk springs out, and higher yet, a landmark on the sea, a Pharos of liberty on the shore. The Charles, to which Longfellow has dedicated some charm- ing lines, though not actually seen by Smith, retained the name with which lu; cliristened it. It was a shrewd guess in the THE GATEWAY OF OLD MIDDLKSEX. bold navigator, that the numerous islands he saw in the hay indicated the estuary of a great river penetrating the interior. It is a curious feature of the map which Smith made of the coast of New England in 1614, that the names of Plymouth, Boston, Cambridge, and many other towns not settled until long afterwards, should be there laid down. tSmith's map was the first on which the name of New England appeared. In the pavement of St. Sepulchre, London, is Smith's tomb-^ stone. The inscription, except the three Turk's heads, is totally effaced, but the church authorities have promised to have it renewed as giA^en by Stow. The subject of bridging the river from the old ferry-way at Hudson's Point to the opposite shore — Avhich is here of about the same breadth as the Thames at London Bridge — was agitated as early as 1712, or more than seventy years before its final accomplish- ment. In 1720 the attempt was renewed, but while the utility of a bridge was conceded, it was not considered a practicable under- taking. After the Revolution the project was again revived, and a man was found eipial to the occasion. An ingenious shipwright, named Lemuel Cox, Avas then living at Medford, who insisted that the enterprise was feasible. Some alleged that the channel of the river was too deep, that the ice would destroy the structure, and that it would obstruct navigation ; while by far the greater number CAPTAIX JOHN SMITH. 4 HISTOIUG -MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. rejected the idea altogether as cliiiiierical. But Cox persevered. He brought the influential and enterprising to his views ; a charter was obtained, and this energetic and skilful mechanic saw the bridge he had so dexterously planned in his brain be- come a reality. Captain John Stone, of Concord, Mass., was the architect of this bridge. His epitaph in tlie old burying- groiind there says he was a man of good natural abilities, Avhich seemed to be adorned with modern virtues and Christian graces. He died in 1791. The opening of the structure upon the 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 Copp'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 cortege passed on to the middle of the bridge, where it halted. The Presi- dent 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 con- tinued its march to Breed's Hill, where 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 West Boston Bridge was constructed, in 1793, 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 cause- way on the Cambridge side, formed a beautiful drive or prom- THE GATEWAY OF OLD INIIDDLRSEX. 5 enade of about two miles in extent. It also lessened the dis- tance 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 have served some native poet for a colloquy as famous as that of the rival " Brigs of Ayr." " Nae langer thrifty citizens an' donee Meet owre a pint, or in the Conncil-honse ; But staunirel, corky-lieaded, graceless Gentry, The herryment and ruin of the country; Men tliree-parts made Ijy Tailors and by Barbers, Wha' waste your well hain'd gear on d — d new Brigs 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 when Charles River 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 Avith a rude woodcut 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 folloAving extract : — " This elegant work was begun on the First of June 1785, (a day remarkable in the Annals of America as the Ports of Boston and Charlestown were unjustly shut up by an arbitrary British Admin- istration) 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. b HISTOUIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. The building committee were Hon. Nathaniel Gorham, Eichard 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 was finished in six months ; and in the fol- lowing year (1788), the Essex Bridge, at Salem, was con- structed by him. In 1789 he was living in Prince Street, in Boston, and styled himself a millwright. In 1790, accom- panied by a Mr. Thompson, Cox went to Ireland, where he was invited to estimate for the building of a bridge 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 twenty 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 Milne, an English engineer, had surveyed 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 neither noticed his great works in Ireland nor in this country. Before he left Europe, Mr. Cox was applied to by the Corporation of London to take down Wren's monument, which was supposed to threaten a fall ; 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 card-wire, the first projector of a powder-mill in the State, and the first to suggest the employ- ment 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 detaclmient of artillery with cannon ready THE (;ATE\VAY of old MIDDLESEX. 7 for firing, and a coach 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 smiling morn now peeps in view, Bright with peculiar charms, See, Boston Nymphs and Charlestown too Each linked arm in arm. 2. " I sing the day in which the BRIDGE Is finished and done, Boston and Charlestown lads rejoice, And fire your cannon guns. 3. " The BRIDGE is finished now I say, Each other bridge outvies, For London Bridge, comj)ar'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 Charlestown all Agree with one consent. To love each one like Indian's nun. On publick good be sent." Chelsea Bridge was built in 1803, and the direct avenue to Salem 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 1643 the colony of Massachusetts Bay was divided into four shires, of which jMiddlesex, named after that county in Old England whicli includes London, was one. It»is the most populous of all the counties of the Old Bay State, and em- braces within its limits the earliest battle-fields of the lievolu- tion, the first seat of learning in the English colonies, and the manufactures which have made American indu.stry known in every quarter of the globe. 8 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Charlestown, the mother of Boston, resembled in its super- ficial features its more powerful offspring. It was a peninsula, connected with the mainland by a narrow neck ; it had three principal hills also, but the mutations which have swej)t over the one have not left the other untouched. To remove a mountain is now only a question of time ; and were ]\Iahomet to live again, he would see that his celebrated reply has be- come void of significance. Like Shawmut,^ Mishawum^ had its solitary settler in Thomas Walford, the sturdy smith, who was found living here in 1628, when some of Endicott's company made their way through the wilderness from Salem. The next year the settle- ment received some accessions, and was named Charles Towne by Governor Endicott, in honor of the reigning prince. AViu- throp's company arrived at Charlestown in June and July, 1630 ; but, owing to the mortality that prevailed and the want of water, the settlers soon began to disperse, the larger part re- moving with the governor to Shawmut. A second dispersion took place on account of the destruction of the town during the battle of 177-5, leaving nothing but the hills, the ancient burial-place, and a few old houses that escaped the conflagra- tion in the victors' hands. After nearly two ceaturies and a half of separate existence, Charlestown has at length become part of Boston. The peo- ple simply ratified what History had 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 de- serving 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 following t\\e battle of Lexington, and was conducted by Dr. Warren and Genei'al Putnam for the colony, and by Major INIoncrieff on behalf of General Gage. The contending parties concerned themselves little at that time about what has since 1 Indian name of Boston ; 2 ^p,] Charlestown. THE GATEWAY OF OLD MIDDLESEX. 9 been known as "belligerent rights," eaeh 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-M'ar, and Major JSloncrieff come off as related. After the performance of their public business, the parties to the exchange adjourned to Mr. Foster's, and had what was then and since known as " a good time." A much worse fate happened to the Bunker Hill prisoners, and it is quite evident that botli parties lo(iked 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 whicli clustered the humble habita- tions of the settlers ; the "great house," inhaliited for a time by the governor, and in whicli 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 Avhat met the eye of Josselyn as he ascended the beach into the market-place in 1638. He describes the rattlesnake he saw while 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, we can but look back with longing eyes upon those halcyon days when a traveller entering a public inn was immediately followed by an officer, who, with the utmost sang froid, placed himself near the guest, and when, in his opinion, his charge liad partaken of enough strong waters, by a wave of his hand forbade the host to fetch another stoup of liquor. What a companion for a midnight wassail of good fellows ! With his * Also the site of the " Great House." 1* 10 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. 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 fist 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 great- coats, dark- lanterns, and iron-shod stafts, they went their rounds to warn all wayfarers 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. Dogb. Well, you are to call at all the alehouses, and bid those that are drunk get them to bed. 2 Watch. How if they will not ? Dogb. Why, let them alone till they are sober. The watchman had an ancient custom of crying " All 's well ! " and the hour of the night, as he went lais rounds, at the same time striking his biU upon the pavement. This was to banish sleep altogether from the bed of sickness, or divide it into periods of semi-consciousness for the more robust. Well can we imagine the drowsy guardian, lurking in some dark passage or narrow lane, shouting with stentorian lungs his sleep-destroying watch-cry under the stars, and startling a whole neighborhood from its slumbers. Like the Scot, he murdered sleep ; like him, he should have been condemned to sleep no more. Dr. Bentley, of Salem, who perhaps had a watchman nightly posted under his window, pertinently inquired through a news- paper if it would not be better to cry out when all was not well, and let well enough alone. Charlestown has given to the world some eminent public characters. Earliest among these is Jolin Harvard, the patron of the college that bears his name. He was admitted a free- man " with promise of such accommodations as we best can," in 1637, but died the following year, leaving half his estate for THE GATEWAY OF OLD MIDDLESEX. 11 HARVARD S MONUMENT. the use of the infant school of learning. He also loft his li- brary of more than three hundred volumes to the College, and has a simple granite shaft, erected to his memory on Burial Hill, in Charles- town, by the graduates of the University he aided to found. Edward Everett = delivered the ad- ^ dress on the oc- casion of the ded- Z ication. The eastern face of ~-^^ the monument, ^ besides the name of John Harvard, bears the follow- ing inscription. " On the 26th of September, a. d. 1828, this stone was erected by the graduates of the University at Cambridge, in honor of its founder, who died at Charlestown on the 26th of September, 1638." The Avestern front bears a Latin inscription, recognizing that one who had laid the corner-stone of letters in America sliould no longer be without a monument, however humlde. This memorial, which was raised nearly two hundred years after the decease of Harvard, rests on a suppositive site, his burial-place having been forgotten or obliterated. Unfortunately, less is known of Harvard than of most of his contemporaries, but that little is treasured as a precious legacy to the Alumni of the University. The old graveyard, one of the most interesting in New England, as having received the ashes of many of "Win- throp's band, suttered mutilation while the town was held by the British in 1775 -6. It is stated that the gravestones were in some cases used by the soldiers for thresholds to their barracks. 12 HISTOllIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. THE NIGHT SURPRISE AT DONCASTER. Charlestown may also lay claim to having given two hrave soldiers to Old Noll's army when that hard-hitting Puritan was cracking the crowns of loyal Scot, Briton, or Celt, and sending the ringleted cavaliers over-seas to escape his long arm. Principal of these was William Paiusborrow who lived here in 1639, and was, with Pobert Sedgwick and Israel Stough- ton, a member of the Honorable Artillery Company of Boston. Rainsborrow had risen to be colonel of a regiment in the Parliamentary army, in which Stoughtou (of Dorchester) was lieutenant-colonel, Nehemiah Bourne, a Boston shipwright, major, and John Leverett, afterwards governor, a captain ; William Hudson, supposed to be of Boston, also, was ensign. In the year 1648, the Yorkshire royalists, who had been living in quiet since the first war, were again excited by intel- ligence of Duke Hamilton's intended invasion. A plan was laid and successfully carried out to surprise Pomfret Castle, (sometimes called Pontefract) the greatest and strongest castle in all England, and then held by Colonel Cotterel as governor for the Parliament. The castle was soon beseiged by Sir Ed- ward Rhodes and Sir Henry Cholmondly with five thousand regular troops, but the royal garrison made good their conquest. It being likely to prove a tedious affair. General Rains- borrow Avas sent from London by the Parliament to put a speedy end to it. He was esteemed a general of great skill and courage, exceedingly zealous in the Protector's service, with a reputation gained both by land and sea, — he having been, for a time. Admiral of Cromwell's fleet. Rainsborrow pitched his headquarters, for the present, at Doncaster, twelve miles from Pomfret, with twelve hundred foot and two regi- ments of horse. The castle garrison having learned of Hamilton's defeat at Preston, and that Sir Marmaduke Langdale, who commanded the English in that battle, was a prisoner, formed the bold design of seizing General Rainsborrow in his camp, and liold- in'f him a hostage for Sir INlarmaduke. The design seemed THE GATEWAY OP OLD MIDDLESEX. 13 the more feasible, because the general and. his men were in no apprehension of any surprise ; the castle being twelve miles distant, closely besieged, and the only garrison for the King in England. The plan was shrewdly laid, favored by circumstances, and was completely successful except that instead of bringing the general off they were obliged to kill him. With only twenty- two picked men, well mounted. Captain William Paulden penetrated into Doncaster undiscovered. The guards were forced and dispersed, while a party of four made for the gen- eral's lodgings. At the door they were met by his lieutenant, who, on their announcing that they had come with despatches from General Cromwell, conducted them to the general's cham- ber, where he was in bed. AVhile the general was opening the despatch, in which was nothing but blank paper, the king's men told him he was their prisoner, but that not a hair of his head should be touched, if he went quietly along with them. They then disarmed his lieutenant, who had so innocently facilitated their design, and brought them both out of the house, A horse was prepared for the general, and he was directed to mount, which he at first seemed willing to do, and put his foot in the stirrup, but looking about him and seeing only four enemies, while his lieutenant and sentinel (whom they had not disarmed) were standing by him, he pulled his foot out of the stirrup, and cried Anns ! Ai-ms ! Upon this, one of his enemies, letting fall his sword and pistol, — for he did not wish to kill the general, — caught hold of Rainsborrow, who grappled with him, and both fell to the ground. The general's lieutenant then picked up the trooper's pistol, but was instantly run through the body by Paulden's lieutenant, while in the act of cocking it. A third stabbed Eainsborrow in the neck ; yet the general gained his feet with the trooper's sword, with whom he had been struggling, in his hand. The lieutenant of the party then passed his sword through his body, when the brave but ill-fated Rainsborrow fell dead upon the pavement. Another of Charlestown's worthies whom we cite was 14 HISTORIC MANSION'S AND HIGHWAYS. Robert Sedgwick, who became a major-general under the Protector, and is mentioned by Carlyle. Sedgwick was a favorite with the " Usurper " as he was called by the King's party, who sent him with a well-appointed fleet to Jamaica, to replace D'Oyley, a cavalier, who, notwithstanding his success in the West Indies, was dishked by Cromwell. Cromwell had, with his usual astuteness, encouraged the cavaliers to embark in the conquest of Jamaica, where rich booty was expected and whence few of them returned. Sedgwick, unaccustomed to the climate and mode of life, died before he had an oppor- tunity of accomplishing anything. An original portrait of Leverett in his military garb shows him to be every inch a soldier. He is painted in a buff sur- coat fastened with steel frogs, and has a stout blade with steel hilt and guard suspended by an embroidered shoulder-belt, at his thigh. " His waistcoat was of stubborn Buff, Some say Fuizee and Ponyard proof" ; his head is uncovered, and his curling black locks and beard set off a bronzed and martial countenance. Plumed hat, high jack-boots, and gauntlets complete a inilitary attire of the time by no means unbecoming. Nathaniel Gorham, a resident of ToAvn Hill, whose name appears among the projectors of Charles River Bridge, was a man eminent in the councils of the State and the nation. He was a member of both the First and Second Provincial Con- gress ; of the General Court, the Board of War, and of the State Constitutional Convention. A delegate to the Conti- nental Congress in 1782-83, and president of that body in 1 78G ; he was also a member of Governor Hancock's council in 1789, at the time of Washington's visit. His account of the dilierence which arose between the President and the Governor, as to which should pay the hrst visit, and which it is believed is now for the first time in print, sheds some new light on that affair which at the time convulsed all circles of the Massachu- setts capital. In regard to the assertion that the Governor expected the first call, Mr. Gorham says : — THE GATEWAY OF OLD MIIJDLESEX. 15 " There is nothing further from the truth than this idea; and I do not speak from uncertainties, for the Council was sitting every day for a week before the President's arrival, and met almost eveiy day at the Governor's house to concert proper measures for his reception. I was apprehensive something like what has happened might take place, and proposed that the address which the Governor and Coun- cil had agreed to make should be delivered at Cambridge, where the Lieutenant-Governor and Council first saw the President, with a letter from the Governor, or an authorized message, that his indis- position prevented his attending with the Council : but this idea was not supported. The Governor did not oppose it, but on the contrary declared in the most explicit terms that he had no doubt in his mind of the propriety of his making the first visit. This was on Friday. On Saturday the President arrived, and not choosing to come up to the Governor's to dine, the Lieutenant Governor and two of his Council w-ent down to his lodgings in the evening, authorized by the Governor to make the most explicit declaration as to the point in question- This brought some explanation from the President by which it appeared that he had been misinformed as to the state of the Govenior's health ; for he had been led to believe that the Governor had dined out some days before, and had rode out every day the preceding w^eek, when to my knowledge he had not been out of his chamber. But the explanation made by the Council on Saturday evening and the Governor's visit on Sunday soon I'emoved every difficulty." It was during this visit that an incident occurred illustrat- ing Washington's rigid punctuality. He had appointed eight o'clock in the morning as the hour in which he shouhi set out for Salem ; and while the Old South clock was striking eight, he was mounting his horse. The company of cavalry which was to escort him, not anticipating this strict punctuality, were parading in Tremont Street after his departure ; and it was not until the President had reached Charles River Bridge, where he stopped a few minutes, that the troop overtook him. On passing the corps, the President with perfect good-nature said, " Major Gibhs, I thought you had been too long in my family, not to know when it was eight o'clock." Charlestown was the first town in Massachusetts to institute j^ublic funeral honors on the death of this great man. 16 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. "What was particularly remarkable in Mr. Gorham was his perspicacity with regard to the destiny of the great West. This led him, at a time when there was neither jDublic nor private credit, to purchase, in connection with Oliver Phelps, an im- mense tract of land then belonging to Massachusetts, lying on the Genesee, in New York. The area of the purchase com- prises ten or twelve counties and includes hundreds of flourish- ing towns. Jedediah Morse, the father of American geography, antl minister of the hrst church in Charlestown from 1789 to 1820, describes Charlestown in his Gazetteer of 1797 as containing two hundred and fifty houses and twenty-five hundred in- habitants, with no other public buildings of note than the Congregational meeting-house and almshouse. A traveller who visited the place in 1750 says it then had two hundred houses, and was a pleasant little town " where the Bostoneers build many vessels." The destruction of the tov/n and disper- sion of the inhabitants caused the exemption of that part lying within the Neck, that is to say the peninsula, from furnishing troops for the Continental army in 1776. In 1784 Nathaniel Gorham was sent to England on a singular mission by the suf- ferers from the burning of the town in 1775, — it being for no other purpose than to solicit aid for the consequences of an act of war. The mission resulted in failure, as it deserved, and was condemned by the thinking portion of the community, who did not believe we could afford to ask alms of those whom we had just forced to acknowledge our independence. Dr. Morse's first work on geography for the use of schools was prepared at New Haven in 1784. This Avas soon followed by larger works on the same subject and by gazetteers, com- piled from the historical and descriptive works of the time, and aided by travel and correspondence. We cannot withhold our astonishment when we look into one of these early volumes ; for it is only by this means we realize the immense strides our country has been taking since the Revolution, or that a A^ast extent of territory, then a wilderness, has now become the seat of political power for these states and the granary from whence THE GATEWAY OF OLD MIDDLESEX. 17 half Europe is fed. What was then laid down as a desert is now seamed by railways and covered with cities and villages. The early volumes of the Massachusetts Historical Society contained many valuable topographical and descriptive papers contributed by Drs. Belknap, Holmes, Bentley, and others, and of which Dr. Morse, an influential member of the society, in all proba- bility availed himself in his later works. Geography was an original passion with Dr. Morse, which it is said rendered him so absent-minded that once, being asked by his teacher at a Greek recitation where a certain verb was found, he replied, " On the coast of Africa." While he was a tutor at Yale, the want of geographies there induced him to prepare notes for his pupils, to serve as text books, which he eventually printed. Such was the origin of his labors in this field of learning. The clergy have always been our historians, and New Eng- land annals would be indeed meagre, but for the efforts of Hubbard, Prince, the Mathers, Belknap, Gordon, Morse, Holmes, and others. As Hutchinson drew on Hubbard, so all the writers on the Eevolution derive much of their material from Gordon, whose work, if it did not satisfy the intense American feeling of his day, seems at this time remarkable for fairness and truth. The meridian of London, where Dr. Gor- don's work first appeared, was freely said to have impaired his narrative and to have caused the revision of his manuscript to the suppression of whatever might wound the susceptibilities of his English patrons. Dr. Morse engaged much in controversy, Unitarianism hav- ing begun publicly to assert itself in his time, and in some in- stances to obtain control of the old Orthodox houses of wor- ship. The struggle of Dr. Holmes to maintain himself against the wave of new ideas forms a curious chapter in religious con- troversial history. The energy with which Jedediah Morse engaged in the conflict seriously affected his health, but he kept his church true to its original, time-honored doctrines. Dr. Morse, who was the townsman and classmate of Dr. Holmes, is understood to have introduced the latter at Cambrid"e. IS HlSTOillC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. On some occasion, Dr. Gardiner of Trinity Cliurcli, Boston, who, by tlie way, was a pupil of the celebrated Dr. Parr, went to preach in the church at Cambridge, and, as a matter of course, many of the professors went to hear him. Unitarianism had ap- peared in the Episcopal, as well as the Congregational Church. Dr. Gardiner began his discourse somewhat in this wise : " ]My brethren, there is a new science discovered ; it is called Biblical criticism. Do you want to know what Biblical criti- cism is ? I will tell you. ' Off" -with his head ! So much for Buckingham.' Cooke. ' Off with his head! So much for Buckiusliaiu.' Kemhle. Mr. Cooper says neither are right, l)ut that it should be ren- dered, ' Off with his head ! so tmich for Buckingham ! ' My friends that is Ijiblical criticism." We leave the reader to imagine the efiect upon the grave and reverend professors of the College. Dr. Morse was sole editor of the Panoplist from 180G to 1811, and was prominent in establishing the Andover Theo- logical Seminary. He engaged at times in missionary work, the records of marriages performed by him at the Isles of Shoals being still in existence there. One of his last labors was a visit to the Indian tribes of the Nortliwcst, under the direction of the government, a report of which he })ublished in 1832. At the time of tlie excitement in New England against secret societies, when the most direful apprehensions existed that religion itself was to be overthrown by Eree-Masonry, the Illuminati, or bugbears of a similar character. Dr. Morse was one of the overseers of Harvard College and a distinguished alarmist. As such, he opposed Avith all his might the proposal of the Phi Beta Kappa Society to puljlish " The Literary Mis- cellany," which afterwards appeared under their auspices. It was conjectured that this literary association, Avith its then unrevealed Greek initials, was an otf-shoot of some order of Masonry, and hence the Doctor's vigilance to prevent the en- trance of any corrupting influences within the walls of the seminary. THE GATEWAY OF OLD MIDDLESEX. 19 The old parsonage which was the residence of Dr. Morse was situated in what is now Harvard Street, between the City Hall and Church, the house standing quite near the latter, while the garden extended down the hill on the ground now occupied by Harvard Row, quite to the City Hall. It was a two-story wooden house, removed many years since from its historic site on the ancient Town Hill. Dr. Morse's more distinguished son, Samuel Finley Breese, known to all the world for making electricity the instantaneous messenger of his will, first saw the light under the shadow of Bunker Hill. His eulogy, thanks to his own invention, was pronounced simultaneously from St. Petersburg to California; his memory received the homage of crowned heads, as well as of our own republican court, such as has rarely, if ever, been accorded t-o any ex[)lorer in the pathways of science. As the savans of the Old World have in times past bowed before a Franklin, a Kuraford, and a Bowditch, they have once more been called upon to inscribe in their high places of honor the name of an American. Samuel F. B. Morse was not born at the parsonage, but in the house of Thomas Edes, on Main Street, to which Dr. Morse had removed wliile his own roof was undergoing some repairs. The house, which is also noted as the first erected in Charlestown after its destruction in 1775, stands at the corner of Main Street Court at a little distance from the Uni- tarian Church, is of wood, and has three stories. Young Morse seconded his father's passion for geography l)y one as strongly marked for drawing, and the blank margin of his Virgil occupied far more of his thoughts than the text. His j^enchant for art, exhibited in much the same manner as Allston's, his future master, did not meet with the same en- couragement. A caricature, founded upon some fracas among the students at Yale, and in which the faculty were burlesqued, was seized, handed to President D wight, and the author, wlio was no other than our friend Morse, called up. The delinquent received a severe lecture upon his waste of time, violation of college laws, and filial disobedience, without exhibiting any 20 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. signs of contrition ; but wlien at length Dr. Dwight said to him, " Morse you are no painter ; this is a rude attempt, a com- plete failure," he was touched to the quick, and could not keep back the tears. On being questioned by his fellow-students as to what Dr. Dwight had said or done, " He says I am no painter ! " roared Morse, cut to the heart through his darling passion. A canvas, executed by Morse at the age of nineteen, of the Landing of the Pilgrim's may be seen at the Charlestown City Hall. He accompanied Allston to Europe, where he became a pupil of West, and, it is said, also, of Copley, though the latter died two years after Morse reached England. He exliibited his "Dying Hercvdes" at the Eoyal Academy in 1813, re- ceiving subsequently from the London Adelphi a prize gold medal for a model of the same in plaster. In 1815 he returned to America and pursued portrait painting, his price being fifteen dollars for a picture. Morse became a resident of New York about 1822, and painted Lafayette when the latter visited this country shortly after. Various accounts have been given of the manner in which Morse first imbibed the idea of making electricity the means of conveying intelligence, the one usually accepted being that, while returning from Europe in 1832, on board the packet ship Sully, a fellow-passenger related some experiments he had witnessed in Paris with the electro-magnet, which made such an impression upon one of his auditors that he walked the deck the whole night. Professor Morse's own account was that he gained his knowledge of the working of the electro-magnet while attending the lectures of Dr. J. Freeman Dana, then professor of chemistry in the University of New York, delivered before the New York Athenteum. " I witnessed," says Morse, " the effects of the conjunctive wires in the different forms described by him in his lectures, and exhibited to his audience. The electro-magnet was put in action by an intensity battery ; it was made to sustain the weight of its armature, Avhen the conjunctive wire was connected with the poles of the battery, or the circuit was closed ; and it was made ' to drop its load ' upon opening the circuit." THE GATEWAY OF OLD MIDDLESEX. 21 Morse's application to the Twenty-Seventh Congress for aid to put his invention to the test of practical illustration was only carried by a vote of eighty-nine to eighty-seven. The in- ventor went to Washington with exhausted means and heartsick with despondency. Two votes saved, perliaps, this wonderful discovery to American invention. With the thirty thousand dollars he obtained, Morse stretched his first wires from Wash- ington to Baltimore, — we say wires, because the principle of the ground circuit was not then known, and only discovered, we believe, by accident, so that a wire to go and another to return between the cities was deemed necessary by Morse to complete his first circuit. The first mre was of copper. The fi.rst message, now in the custody of the Connecticut Historical Society, was dictated by Miss Annie G. Ellsworth. With trembling hand Morse must have spelled out the words, — " What Hath God Wrought ! " With an intensity of feeling he must have waited for the " aye, aye " of his distant correspondent. It was done ; and the iron thread, freighted with joy or woe to men or nations, now tlii'obs responsive to the delicate touch of a child. It now springs up from the desert in advance of civilization ; its spark o'erleaps the ocean and weU-nigh spans the globe itself. No man can say that its destiny is accomplished ; but we have lived to grasp the lightning and play with the thunderbolt. The telegraph was at first regarded with a superstitious dread in some sections of the country. Will it be credited that in a Southern State a drouth was attributed to its occult influences, and the people, infatuated with the idea, levelled the wires with the ground 1 The savages of the plains have been known to lie in ambush watching the mysterious agent of the white man, and listening to the humming of the wires, which they vaguely associated ^\^th evil augury to themselves. So common was it for the Indians to knock off the insulators with their rifles, in order to gratify their curiosity in regard to the " singing cord," that it was, at first, extremely difficult to keep the Hnes in re- pair along the Pacific railway. As you go towards Charlestown Neck, when about half-way 22 HISTOHIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. from the point where Main and Warren Streets unite, you see at your right hand the old-fashioned two-story wooden house in which Charlotte Cushman passed some of her early life. She was born in Boston, in that part of the town ycleped the jSTorth End, and in an old house that stood within the present enclosure of the Hancock School yard. It should nut be forgotten that that sterling actor, John Gilbert, was born in the next house. Here young John spoke his first piece and here the great curtain Avas rung up for little Charlotte, When the lights shall be at last turned off, and darkness envelop the stage, there will be two wreaths of immortelles to be added to the tributes which that famed old quarter already claims fur its long roll of celebrated names. It is related that, when a child, Charlotte was one day in- cautiously playing on Long Wharf, where her father kept a store, and there fell into the water. She was rescued and taken home dripping wet, but instead of an ecstatic burst of juy at the safety of her darling, her mother gave her a sound whip- ping. Perhaps this was only one of those sudden revulsions which Tom Hood exemplifies in his " Lost Heir." After her removal to Charlestown Charlotte went to Miss Austin's school. This lady was a relative of William Austin, the author of " Peter Eugg." Charlotte was a good scholar, and almost always had the badge of excellence suspended from her neck. She was very strong physically, as some of her schoolmates bear witness to this day. Although she displayed considerable aptitude as a reader, her predilection was, at this time, altogether in favor of a musical career, and she cultivated her voice assiduously to that end. Her first appearance in public was at a social concert given at the hall No. 1 Franklin Avenue, in Boston, March 25th, 1830, where she was assisted by Mr. Farmer, Mr. John F. Pray, Messrs. Stedman, Morris, and others. She also sang at one of Mrs. Wood's Concerts, and that lady, pleased with her fine contralto voice, advised her to turn her attention to the lyric drama. Mr. Maeder, the husband of Clara Fisher, brought her out as the Countess, in Les Noces de Figaro, in April, 1835, at the Tremont Theatre. THE GATEWAY OF OLD MIDDLESEX. 23 Her voice failing, she determined to adopt the acting branch of the profession, and studied under the direction of W. E. Burton, the celebrated comedian. Having mastered the part of Lady JSIacbeth, she appeared with complete success at the New York theatres in this and other leading characters. At this time she brouglit out her youngest sister, Susan, herself assuming male parts. She was manageress of one of the Phila- delphia theatres until Mr. Macready, in 1844, invited her to accompany him in a professional tour of the Northern States, Avhich gave her an opportunity of displaying her tragic powers to advantage. During her tour with Macready, she played in Boston at the Old Melodeon, with scarcely a single voice of the press raised in her favor. Her benefit, at which the tragedian, with charac- teristic littleness, refused to appear, was a pecuniary loss to her. But it was during this trip that Macready said to her one day, in his brusque, pompous way, " Girl, you would do well in London." This remark was not lost ou the quick-witted Yankee maiden. The next year found her in London, but she had kept her own counsel, and even Mr. Macready did not know her inten- tion. In vain, however, she solicited an engagement, for she had neither fame nor beauty to recommend her. But at last, when she had spent almost her last farthing, — except the little sum at her hanker's, laid aside to take her back home in case all else should fail, — a ray of hope appeared. Maddocks, the manager of the Princess's Theatre, proposed to her to apj)ear in company with Mr. Forrest, who was then, like herself, seeking an opening at the London theatres. The shrewd manager thought that perhaps two American Stars might fill his house. Charlotte's reply was characteristic of her acuteness. " Give me," she said to the manager, " a chance first. If I succeed, I can well afford to play with Mr. Forrest ; if I fail, I shall be only too glad to do so." She made her debut as Bianca in Fazio. The first act, in which the dialogue is tame, passed off ominously. The audience were attentive, but undemonstrative. The actress retired to her dressing-room much depressed with 24 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. the fear of failure. " Tliis will never Jo, Sally," slie remarked to her negro waitiug-niaiJ, tlieu and after her atfectionate at- tendant. " No, indeed, it won't, miss ; but you '11 fetch um bimeby," said the faithful creature. The play quietly proceeded until Bianca spoke the lines, — "Fazio, thou hast seen Aldabella!" Those words, in wdrich love, anger, and jealousy were all struggling for the mastery, uttered with indescribable accent and energy, startled the audience out of its well-bred, cold- blooded propriety ; cheers tilled the house, and Miss Cushman remained mistress of the situation. She afterwards appeared in conjunction with Mr. Forrest; but that gentleman, wdio had then for the nonce put a curb upon his fashion of tearing a passion to tatters, was overshadowed by her. Forrest resented the preference of the public by extreme rudeness to Charlotte on the stage, and by various unfriendly acts, which caused a rupture that was never healed. Forrest played Othello on the occasion above mentioned. Miss Cush- man sustaining the part of Emilia. Her performance was throughout intelligent, impressive, natural, without any strain- ing after effect ; while her energy, at times, completely carried the audience along with her. By the friendship of Charles Kemble and of Mr. Phelps of Sadler's "Wells she attracted the favorable notice of royalty. It is a fact as singular as it is true, that, on her return from England, Boston, the city of her birth, was the only place in wdiich she did not at once meet a cordial reception ; but her talents compelled their own recognition and buried the few paltry detractors out of sight. She appeared at the Federal Street Theatre and Avon an enthusiastic verdict of pojjular favor within that old temple of histrionic art. The part in which Miss Cushman has achieved her greatest reputation in this country is that of Meg Merrilies in " Guy Mannering," a creation peculiarly her own. The character, not- withstanding its repulsive features, becomes in her hands weird, THE GATEWAY OF OLD MIDDLESEX. 25 terrible, and fascinating. Her somewhat masculine 2'>^^y^'i^'^f^(^ and angular physiognomy have given more character to the as- sumption of such male parts as Ion and Romeo than is usually tlie case with her sex. But Miss Cushman Avas a real artiste, limited to no narrow sphere of her calling. She could play Queen Catharine and Mrs. Simpson in the same evening with equal success, and retained in no small degree, when verging on threescore, the energy and dramatic force of her palmy days. At the opening of the Cushman School in Boston, Charlotte made an extempore address to the scholars, in which she ex- plained to them her grand principle of action and the secret of her success. " Whatever you have to do," she said, " do it with all your might." 26 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. CHAP TEE II. AN HOUR IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. " Tliere, where yoiir ai-gosies witli jiortly sail, — • Like signiors and rich burghers on tlie flood, Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea, — Do over-peer the petty traffickers." Merchant of Venice. THERE is a singular fascination in viewing objects created expressly for our ilcstruction. The wounded soldier will make the most convulsive efforts to see the place where he has been struck, and if the leaden bullet which has so nearly threat- ened his life be placed in his hand, he regards it thereafter with a strange, unaccountable affection. So, when we find ourselves within the government dockyard we cannot pass by the rows of cannon gleaming in the sunshine, or the pyramids of shot and shell, without wondering how many they are destined to destroy. We have not yet learned to dispense with war, and the problem " How to kill " yet taxes the busiest brain, the most inventive genius. Somehow, too, there is a certain consciousness the moment you set foot mthin any little strip of territory over which Uncle Sam exercises exclusive authority. The trig, pipe-clayed marine paces stiffly up and down before the entrance, hugging his shining musket as if it Avere a piece of himself, and looking straight before him, though you would feel yourself more at ease if he would look at you. The officer you see coming, in the laced cap, and to whom you avouM lain address yourself, never allows your eye to meet his own, but marches straight on, as he would do if he were going to storm a battery. The Avorkmen, even, pursue their labor Avithout tlie cheerful cries and chaffing which enliven the toil of their brethren outside. The « ^ AN HOUR IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. 27 calkers' mallets seem to click in unison, the carpenters chip tlioughtfully away on the live-oak frame. Everything is syste- matic, orderly, and precise, hut rather oppressive withal. In the first years of the nation's existence the government was obliged to make use of private yards, and that of Edmund Hartt, in Boston, may be considered the progenitor of this. Several vessels of the old navy, among them the famed Con- stitution, were built there, under supervision of officers ap- pointed by the government. Henry Jackson, formerly colonel of the Sixteenth Continental Regiment, was appointed naval agent by his bosom friend, General Knox, when the latter was Secretary of War, and Caleb Gibbs, first commander of Wash- ington's famous body-guard, was made naval storekeeper, with an office in Batterymarch Street, Boston. The yard at the bottom of Milk Street was also used for naval purposes by the govern- ment. When Admiral Montague of the royal navy was stationed in our waters, he caused a survey of the harbor to be made, and is reported on good authority to have then said, " The devil got into the government for placing the naval depot at Halifax. God Almighty made Noddle's Island on purpose for a dockyard." In 1799 the government despatched Mr. Joshua Humphries, the eminent naval architect, to Boston, to examine the pro- posed sites. The report was favorable to Charlestown, much to the chagrin of the proprietors of Noddle's Island, now East Boston, who had reckoned on a different decision. As Mr. John Harris, the principal owner of the tract selected, and Dr. Putnam, the government agent, were unable to agree upon terms, the affair was decided by a decree of the Middlesex Court of Sessions. The purchase made by the United States was originally called Moulton's Point, from Eobert Moulton, the ship-carpen- ter ; it has also been indifferently styled Moreton's and Morton's Point, in connection with accounts of the battle of Bunker Hill, it being the place where Howe's main body landed on that day. The site also embraced what was known in old times as Dirty Marsh. The point was quite early selected for 28 HISTORIC ^MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. a fortifi-cation, and a small battery, or, as it was then called, a sconce, was thrown up, and armed with light pieces. The guns were secretly removed by the patriots in the autumn of 1774, without exciting the least suspicion of what was taking place on board the British vessels of war in the stream. Upon the evacuation of Boston this was one of the points which Wash- ington directed his chief of artillery to fortify. That part of the town in the neighborhood of the yard was long ago called Wapping, a circumstance which it has been thought proper to distinguish by a street of that name. In the days of the Great Eebellion this now unsavory locality could not have been much inferior to its prototype by the Thames, and poor Jack, in making his exit from the yard after a long cruise, had to run the gauntlet of all the merciless land-sharks that infested the place. At one time, however, the neighbor- hood was of quite a different cast, and some of the artisans of the yard found a convenient residence here ; among others, Josiah Barker, for thirty-fbiu' years the distinguished naval con- structor at this station, lived in Wapping Street, in a house still standing on the north side of the street as you approach the yard from Chelsea Street. The lirst records of this station begin in 1815, when an aggregate of forty-four officers and men was borne on the rolls, while it is said as many as six thousand were employed here during the Rebellion. In the beginning of the year men- tioned, which was just at the conclusion of war with Great Britain, there was but a single wharf in the yard. The frigates Congress, Macedonian, Constitution, the seventy-fours Washington and Independence, and the brig Chippewa were then lying here. A lady who visited the yard in 1824, and recorded her impres- sions, gives a somewhat humorous account of the difficulties she encountered. She says : — " The United States Navy- Yard is likewise located in Charles- town. A few marines are also stationed here ; the most trifling, abandoned-looking men, from their ai)pearance, to be found. I applied to the Commandant, Major W , for liberty to inspect the AN HOUR IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. 29 interior of the yard, but this haughty bashaw sent word '■he vxis en- gaged, and that I must report my business to the lieutenant,' — rather a reproach to Uncle Sam. As in duty bound, I obeyed his high- ness, and called on the lieutenant, whom I found unqualified to give the information I wished to obtain ; and, after undergoing sundry indignities from these mighty men of war, I had to give up the design." Commodore Samuel Nicholson was the first commandant of the yard, and the somewhat peculiar architecture of the house used as a residence by the commodores is a specimen of his taste, - — ' ' The brave old commodore, The rum old commodore." Wlien the Constitution was building, Nicholson, who was to have her, exercised a general sujjervision over her construction ; though, notwithstanding anything that has been said, Colonel George Claghorn was the principal and authorized constructor. In consequence of the narrow limits of Hartt's Yard, it had been agreed that no spectators should be admitted on the day previous to that fixed for the launch, without the permission of Captain Nicholson, Colonel Claghorn, or General Jackson. While the workmen Avere at breakfast Colonel Claghorn had admitted some ladies and gentlemen to view the ship, but when they attempted to go on board Nicholson forbade their enter- ing. This was communicated to Colonel Claghorn. In the af- ternoon of the same day some visitors who had been denied an entrance to the ship by Nicholson were admitted by Claghorn, who, however, Avas not aAvare that they had been preAaously refused permission. The captain, Avho was furious Avhen he saAv the men he had just turned aAA^ay approaching, exclaimed to Claghorn, " D — n it ! do you knoAV Avhom you haA^e admitted, and that I have just refused them 1 " The latter replied that he did not know that circumstance, but, having passed his word, they might go on board. The Avhole party being assem- bled on the Constitution's deck. Colonel Claghorn went up to the captain and desired, with some heat, that he might not treat these visitors as he had done the ladies in the morning; to 30 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. which Xicholson replied that he should say no more to them, but that he had a right to command on board his own ship. To this Claghorn rejoined that he commanded on board the ship, and that if Captain Nicholson did not like the regida- tions, he might go out of her. Upon this the parties im- mediately collared each other, and Nicholson, who carried a cane, attempted to strike his adversary, but the l)ystanilers in- terfered and separated the belligerents. The ati'air was settled by mutual apologies. Nicholson died in Charlestown in 1811, and was buried under Christ Church, in Boston. It was said that Preble, who was appointed to the Constitution under Nich- olson, declined serving with him, and expressed doubts of his courage. General Knox's son, Henry Jackson Knox, was a midshipman on board Old Ironsides on her lirst cruise. Hull was one of the early commanders of the yard. The receiving-ship Ohio, now at this station, carried his flag in the Mediterranean in 1839. Bainbridge was commandant at tlie time of Lafayette's visit in 1824. These two men, famous in the annals of the American Navy, could conquer their invinci- ble adversaries yard-arm to yard-arm, and afterwards gain their hearts by the most kindly offices to them while prisoners. Dacres, whom Hull captured in the Guerri^re, became his friend in after time. We may here relate an episode of Bainbridge and the Java. Early in 1845 the C'onstitution, then commanded by Mad Jack Percival, cast anchor in the roadstead of Singapore. She had on her way taken out Henry A. AVise, our minister to Brazil, and was on special service in the East Indies and Pacific. The vertical rays of a tropic sun and the deadly breezes of the African coast had made a hospital of the ship ; her gun-deck on the starboard side Avas hung with cots and hammocks. The captain had given up the forward cabin to the sick. The exterior of the old invincible responded mourn- fully to the interior. Her hull had been painted a dull lead- color at Ptio, ftiintly enlivened by a red streak ; but a long pas- sage across the Indian Ocean had brought her old sable color here and there into view, wliile tlie stiTaks of iron-rust down her sides told her condition but too plainly. AN HOUR IN THE GOVEKNMENT DOCKYARD. 31 Before the anchor was let go a boat with an officer from H. B. M. frigate Cambrian came alongside with the compliments and friendly offers of Commodore Chads. The officer's return brought the gallant commodore on board the Constitutioii. Ho was a tinedooking nnin of about fifty, more than six feet, per- fectly erect, and as he stepped over the gangway he simulta- neously saluted the officers who received him, at the same time surveying the ship fore and aft, and alow and aloft. The spar- deck of the old ship looked passing well, and the commodore's scrutiny was not at all mortifying. He then descended to the cabin, where Captain Percival received him on crutches. " I have hastened on board your ship," said Commodore Chads, " to offer my services, having heard you were sick, as well as many of your people ; and I have brought my surgeon, who has been long out here, and is familiar with the diseases of India." He then inquired if this was the same ship called the Con- stitution in 1813. Having been told that she was the same in model, battery, and internal arrangements, although rebuilt, he said he was very glad to meet her again ; that she was an old acquaintance ; and that in the action of the Java he had the honor to fight her after Captain Lambert was disabled ; and that, although he had hauled down his colors to the Constitu- tion, there were no reminiscences more pleasing to him than those resulting from the skill, gallantry, and bravery of the noble Bainbridge during and after the action. " The Constitu- tion, sir, was manoeuvred in a masterly manner, and it made me regret that she was not British. It was Greek meet Greek, for we were the same Itlood, after all." These particulars are from a letter supposed to have been from the pen of j\Ir. Ballestier, our Consul at Singapore. Mrs. Ballestier, who accompanied her husband to the East Indies, was a daughter of the famous Paul Eevere. Commodore Hull was rather short and thick-set, with a countenance deeply bronzed by long exposure to sun and weather, he having gone to sea when a hoy. He was a man of plain, unassuming manners, and rather silent than loquacious. 32 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Cooper, who knew him well, describes him as one of the most skilful seamen of history, remarkable for coolness in moments of danger. He seldom mentioned his exploits, but sometimes, when the famous action with the Guerriere was alluded to, he would speak with enthusiasm of tlie beautiful day in August on which that battle was fought. The two Commodores Hull, uncle and nephew,* married sis- ters belonging to the family of Hart, of Saybrook, Connecticut, and remarkable for their beauty. Another sister married Hon. Hem an Allen, of A^ermont, at one time minister to Chili ; while stUl another was the wife of Eev. Dr. Jarvis of St. Paul's, Boston. The most beautiful of the sisters, Jeanette, never mar- ried, but went to Rome and became a nun. She is said to have been, in her day, the handsomest woman in America. Another nephew of Isaac Hull was the late Admiral Andrew Hull Foote, Avho Avas so greatly distinguished in the early part of the Eebellion, receiving, at Fort Donelson, a wound that eventually contributed to cause his death. It appears, from excellent authority, that the original draft of the Constitution was changed at the suggestion of Colonel George Claghorn, who ought therefore to be regarded as the person most entitled to the credit of having created the jiride of the navy, as it was to him her construction was confided. The subject of an alteration in her dimensions had been verbally broached to the Secretary of War — who also presided over our infant marine at that time — when he was in Boston in 1794. General Knox consented, in presence of the agent. Gen- eral Jackson ; but Claghorn, having been a soldier, was not satisfied until he obtained the authority in writing. At the festival in Faneuil Hall given to Captain Hull on his return from tlie fight with the Guerriere, Ex-President Adams, Avho, on account of his infirmities was unable to be present, sent the following toasts, wliich were read by Hon. Samuel Dexter : — " May every commodore in our nu\'y soon lie made an admiral, and every captain a commodore, with ships and scpiadrons wortliy * Commodore Joseph B. Hull. AN HOUR IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. 133 of their coumianders and worthy of the wealth, power, and dignity of their country. Proh dolor ! Proh ^^udor ! " " Talbot, Truxtun, Decatur, Little, Prel)le, — had their country given them the means, they would have been Blakes, Drakes, and Nelsons." On her return to port from this cruise the Constitution spoke the Dolpliin and Decatur, privateers, the latter of which, flunk- ing she was pursued by an enemy, threw her guns overboard. It is at least a coincidence that the news of the surrender of Detroit by General Hull should have reached Boston only a few hours after the arrival of his nephew. Captain Hull, from his successful combat. Shubrick commanded the yard in 1825, Crane in 1826, and Morris from 1827 to 1833, when he was succeeded by Jesse D. Elliott. The park of naval artillery bears as little resemblance to the cannon of a century ago as do the war-ships of to-day to those commanded by Manley, Jones, or Hopkins. No event will better illustrate the advance in gunnery than the battle be- tween Sampson and Cervera off Santiago. The naval tactics of the first period were to lay a ship alongside her adversary, and tiien let courage and hard Hgliting win the day. But nowadays close actions are avoided, or considered unneces- sary, and instances of individual gallantry become more rare. Ships toss their heavy shot at each other miles away, without the least knowledge of the damage they inflict, and Old Shy- lock is now only half right when he says, " Ships are but boards, sailors but men," for iron succeeds oak, though no substitute is yet found for bone and muscle. In the beginning of the Revolution cannon was the most essential thing Avanted. Ships were built and manned with alacrity, but all kinds of shifts were made ti) supply them with guns. A fleet of privateers was soiju alloat in the waters of Massachusetts Bay, and public vessels were on the stocks, but how they were armed may be inferred from the following extract from a letter dated at Boston, September 1, 1770 : — 2* C 34 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. " There is so great a demand for guns here lor fitting out priva- teers that those old things that used to stick in the ground, particu- larly at Bowes's Corner,* Admiral Vernon, etc., have been taken up, and sold at an immoderate price ; that at ]\Ir. Bowes's was sold hy Mr. Jones for fifty dollars. I imagine it will sp it in the first attempt to fire it." The Hancock, which was the second Continental frigate launched, and was commanded by Captain INIanley, as well as the Old Boston frigate. Captain McXeill, were both armed with guns, chiefly nine-pounders, taken from the works in Boston harbor, and furnished by Massachusetts. The Hancock was built and launched at Kewburyport, and not at Boston, as has been stated. Manley, the first sea officer to attack the enemy on that element, received in 1792 a compensation of £150, and a pension of j£ 9 per month for life. Unlike the celebrated English dockyard and arsenal at Wool- wich, our dockyards are only utilized for naval purposes, while the former is the depot for the royal horse and foot artillery and the royal sappers and miners, with vast magazines of great guns, mortars, bombs, powder, and other warlike stores. The Eoyal Military Academy was erected in the arsenal, but was not completely formed until 1745, in the reign of George II. It would seem that the same system might be advan- tageously carried out in this country, so far as the corps of engineers and artillery are concerned, with the benefit of com- bining practical with theoretical instruction upon those points where there exists an identity of interest in the military and naval brairches of the service. The area of the great British dockyard is about the same as that of the Charlestown yard, but in depth of water in front the latter has greatly the advantage, the Thames being so shal- low at Woohvich that large ships are noAV chietly constructed at the other naval ports. • We may here mention that Woolwich is the most ancient arsenal in Great Britain, men-of-war having been built there as early as the reign of Henry VIII. , when the Harry Grace de Dieu was constructed in 1512. Tlie Eoyal * South Corner of State and WasliiusTtou Streets. AN HOUR IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. 35 i:EAT ilAr,i:Y. George, in which Kempeufelt went down at Spithead, and the Nelson, Trafalgar, and other first-rates, were also built at Wool- wich. When we look around upon tlie wonderful progress of the steam marine during the pa {piarter of a ecu tury, and reflect upon its possibil- ities, the predic- tion of the cele- brated Dr. Dio- nysius Lardner, that steam could never be profit ably employed in ocean naviga- tion, seems incredible. Sixty years ago this was demonstrated by the Doctor with facts and figures, models and diagrams. In the summer of 1781 the port of Boston was almost sealed by the constant presence of British cruisers in the bay, who took many valuable prizes and brought several mercantile houses to the verge of ruin. The merchants accordingly besought Ad- miral Le Compte de Barras to send some of his frigates from Newport round to Boston ; but the Count replied that the efforts already made to induce his men to desert and engage on board privateers compelled him' to refuse the request. The merchants then sent a committee composed of Messrs. Sears, Broome, Breck, and others, to assure the Count that his men should not be taken under any circumstances. The Count's compliance resulted in the loss of one of his sliips, the Magicienne, of thirty-two guns, which was taken by the Assurance, a British two-decker, in Boston harbor. The action was so plainly visible from the wharves of the town, that the French colors were seen to be struck and the English hoisted in their stead. The French ships Sagittaire, fifty guns, Astrie, thirty-two, and Hermione, thirty -two, were in the mSTOPJC MANSIONS AND IlIGFIWAYS. harbor when the battle commenced, and immediately got under weigh to go to the assistance of their consort ; but the wind being light and the Sagittaire a dull sailer, the enemy escaped with his prize. ]\Iauy Bostonians went on board the French z ships as volunteers g in the expected ac- H tion. Colonel Da- w vid 8ears was among o the number who "l joined the Astrie in i the expectation of i enjoying some di- 3 version of this sort. The merchants of IJoston afterwards gave a splendid din- ner to the Marquis de Gergeroux, the commander of the French fleet, and his officers, for the ser- vices rendered in keeping the bay clear of the enemy's cruisers. Nelson, who in 1782 was ordered to cruise in the Albemarle on the AN HOUR IN THE GOVERNiFENT DOCKYARD. 37 American station, fell in with a fishing schooner on our coast, which he captured, but the master, liaving piloted the cruiser into Boston Bay, was released with his vessel and the following certificate : — " This is to certify that I took the schooner Harmony, Nathaniel Carver, master, belonging to Plymouth, but on account of his good services have given him up his vessel again. " Dc'ited on board His Majesty's ship Albemarle, 17th August, 1782. " Horatio Nelson." The grateful man afterwards came off to the Albemarle, at the hazard of liis life, bringing a present of sheep, poultry, and other fresh provisions, — a most welcome supply, for the scurvy was raging on board. Xelson exhibited a similar trait of nobility in releasing two officers of Eochambeau's army, who w^ere captured in a boat in the West Indies wdiile on some ex- cursion. Coimt ])eux-Ponts was one and Isidore Lynch the other captive. Xelson gave them a capital dinner, and the wine having got into their heads, the secret imprudently came out that Lynch was of English birth. The poor prisoners were thunderstruck at the discovery, but Xelson, without appearing to have overheard the indiscretion, set both at liberty. It sounds somewhat strangely at this time to recall the fact that the United States once paid tribute to the ruler of a horde of pirates, to induce him to hold oft" his hands from our com- merce ; and that our captured crews were sold into slavery or held for ransom at the behest of a turbaned barbarian. Six thousantl stand of arms, four field-pieces, and a quantity of gunpowder was the price of the peace granted by the Dey of Algiers to America in 1795. In May, 1794, an exhibition was given at the Boston Theatre for the relief of our countrymen, prisoners in Algiers, which realized about nine hundred dollars. Dominie Terry & Co. advanced $3,000 for the maintenance of these prisoners, ■wdthout security. Of the early commanders of our navy Hopkins was de- scribed in 1776 as an anticjuated-looking person, with a strong 38 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. ideal resemblance to Van Tromp. He appeared at first an- gelic, says our authority, until he swore, and then the illusion vanished. Hopkins commanded the first American squadron that set sail from our shores, and carried the colony flag at his gaff. NAVV-VAKD IN lSo8. \ Paul Jones had the honor not only of hoisting with his own hands the American flag on hoard the Alfred, in 177.5, which he says was then displayed for the first time, but of receiving in the Ranger the first salute to that flag by a foreign power from M. de la JNTotte Pi(]^uet, who, with a French squadron, on board of which was Lafayette, was lying in the bay of Quiberon, ready to sail for America. This occurred February 13, 1778. Next comes a half-acre of round-shot and shell arranged in pyramids, and Avaiting till the now torpid Dahlgreus or Parrotts shake off their lethargy and demand their indigest- ible food. Some of the globes are painted black, befitting their funereal purpose, while we observed that others had received a coat of white, and now looked like great sugar- coated pills, — a sharp medicine to carry off the national bile. To the field of deadly projectiles succeeds a field of anchors, the last resource of the seaman, the symbol of Hope in all the civilized world. AN HOUR IN THE (lOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. 39 The inventiou of tlie anchor is ascribed by Pliny to the Tyrrhenians, and by other writers to Midas, the son of Gor- dias, whose anchor Pausanias declares was preserved until his time in a temple (bMlicatcd to Jni)it('r. The most ancient an- chors Avere mad< of stone, and af terwards of wood which containi'i i a great quantit} of lead ; some times baskets filled with stones, or shingle, and even sacks of 1 1 ST.\N( II AM> .-.IKiiXii. sand were used. The Greeks used ninch the same anchor as is now in vogue, except the transverse piece called the stock. Many of the an- chors used by our iirst war- vessels came from the Old Forge at Hanover, Mass. If we might linger here, it would be to reflect on which of these ponderous masses of metal the fate of some good ship with her precious burden of lives had depended ; with what agony of suspense the tension of the stout cable had been watched from hour to hour as the greedy waves rushed by to throw themselves with a roar of baffled rage upon the flinty shore. Remember, craftsman, in your mighty workshop yon- der, wherein you wield forces old Vulcan might have envied, that life and death are in every stroke of your huge trip-ham- mer ; and that a batch of rotten iron may cost a thousand lives, therefore, " Let 's forge a goodly anchor, — a bower thick and broad; For a heart of oak is hanging on every blow, I bode ; And I see the good ship riding all in a perilous road, — Tlie low reef roaring on her lee ; the roll of ocean poured From stem to stern, sea after sea ; the mainmast by the board ; The bulwarks down ; the rudder gone ; the boat stove at the chains ; But courage still, brave mariners, — the bower yet remains ! And not an inch to Hindi he deigns, save when ye pitch sky high; Then moves his head, as though he said, ' Fear nothing, here am I ! ' " 40 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. We can comjiare tlie granite basin, fashioned to receive the great war- ships, to nothing else than a huge bath wherein some antique giant might disport himself. It seems a miracle of intelligence, skill, and perseverance. "When Loammi Baldwin was applied to to undertake the building of this Dry Dock, ho liesitated, and asked Mr. Southard, then Secretary of the Navy, " What if I should fail V "If you do," replied the Secretary, " we will hang you." It proved a great suc- cess, worthy to be classeil among the other works of this dis- tinguished engineer. The foundation rests upon piles on which is laid a massive oaken floor. AVe cannot choose but admire the great blocks of hewn granite, and the exact and elegant masonry. Owing to some defect, when nearly completed, a rupture took place in the wall, and a thundering rush of water came in and hlled the excavation, but it was soon pumped out and eftectually repaired. After an examination of the records of the tides in Bos- ton harbor for the previous sixty years, Mr. Baldwin fixed the height of the capping of the dock several inches above the highest that had occurred within tiiat period. In the gale of April, 1851, however, the tide rose to such a height as to overflow tlie dock, falling in beautiful cascades along its whole length. The basin occupied six years in building ; Job Turner, of Boston, being the master mason, under Colonel Bahlwin. It was decided that Old Ironsides should be the first vessel admitted ; and upon the opening of the structure, June 24, 1833, Commodore Hull appeared once more on the deck of his old ship and superintended her entrance with- in the dock. The gallant old sailor moved about the deck with his head bare, and exhibited as much animation as he would have done in battle. The Vice-President, Mr. Van Buren, the Secretary of War, INIr. Cass, Mr. Southard, and other distinguished guests graced the occasion by their pres- ence, while the officers at the station were required to be pres- ent in full uniform. The Constitution was here rebuilt by Mr. Barker. He had AN HOUR IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. 41 served in the lievolution both in the army and navy. In the latter service he sailed with Captain Manley in the Hague, formerly the Deane, frigate, on a cruise among the A¥est India Islands. His lirst ship-yard was within the limits of the pres- ent government yard, and here he began to set up vessels as early as 1795. Later, he removed his yard to a site near the state-prison. While naval constructor Mr. Barker built the Independence, Virginia, and Vermont, seventy-fours, and the sloops of- war Frolic, Marion, Cyane, and Bainbridge. Thatcher Magoun, the well-known shipbuilder of Medford, received his instruction in modelling from Josiah Barker. Before the Constitution was taken out of dock, a brand-new ship, a figure-head of President Jackson had been fixed to her prow by (Jlommodore Elliott, who then commanded the yard. If it had been desired to test the President's popularity iu the New England States no act could ha\'e been more happily devised. A universal shout of indignation went up from joress and people ; for the old ship was little less than adored by all classes, and to affix the bust of any living personage to her was deemed an indignity not to be borne in silence. In that immense crowd, which liad witnessed the re-baptism of Old Ironsides, stood a young Cape Cod seaman. His father, a brave old captain in the 3d Artillery, had doubtless instilled some strong repulilican ideas into the youngster's head, for he had accompanied him to Fort Warren ''' during the AVar of 1812, and while there the lad had seen froui the rampart the doomed Chesapeake lift her anchor, and go forth to meet the Shannon. He had heard the cannonade oft" in the bay, had noted the hush of the combat, and had shared in tlie anguish with wliirh all hearts were penetrated at the fatal result. Old Ironsides was moored with her head to the west, be- tween the seventy-fours Columbus and Independence. The former vessel had a large number of men on board, and a sen- tinel was placed where he could keep the figure-head in view ; another was posted on the wharf near at hand, and a third patrolled the forecastle of the Constitution ; from an open port * Now Fort Winthrop. 42 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. of the Columbus the light fell full upon the graven features all these precautions were designed to protect. On the night of the 2d of July occurred a thunder-storm of unusual violence. The lightning played around the masts of the shipping, and only by its lurid Hash could any object be distinguished in the blackness. Young Dewey — he was only twenty-eight — unmoored his boat from Billy Gray's Wharf in Boston, and, with his oar muffled in an old woollen comforter, sculled out into the darkness. He had reconnoitreil the position of tlie ships by day, and was prepared at all points. At length he found himself alongside the Independence, the outside sliip, and worked his way along her big black side, which served to screen him from observation. Dewey climbed up the Constitution's side by the man-ropes and ensconced himself in the bow, protected by the headboards, only placed on the ship the same day. He extended himself on his back, and in this position sawed oft' the head. While here he saw the sentry on the Avharf from time to time looking earnestly towards the spot where he was at work, but the lio-htniu'"'' and the storm each time drove the guard back to the shelter of his box. Having completed his midnight decapitation Dewey re- gained his boat, to hnd her full of water. She had swung under the scupper of the ship and had received the torrent that poured from her deck. In this plight, but never forgetting the head he had risked his life to obtain, Dewey reached the shore. We can never think of this scene, with its attendant circum- stances, without remembering Cooper's episode of the weird lady of the Bed Bover. If this act proves Dewey to have been a cool hand, the one we are to relate must cap the climax. After the excitement caused by the affair — and it was of no ordinary kind — had subsided, Dewey packed up the grim and corrugated features he had decapitated and posted off' to Washington. At Bhila- delphia his secret leaked out, and he was obliged to exhibit his prize to John Tyler and Willie B. jNIangum, afterwards Bresi- dent anil acting Vice-Bresident, who were then investigating AN HOUR IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. 43 the affairs of the United States Bank. These grave and rev- erend seigniors shook their sides as they regarded the colossal head, now brought so low, and parted with Captain Dewey with warm and pressing o Iters of service. The Captain's intention to present the head to General Jackson himself was frustrated by the dangerous illness of the President, to whom ull access was denied. He however obtained an audience of Mr. Van Buren, the Vice-President, who at once overwhelmed him with civilities after the manner in which that crafty old fox was wont to lay siege to the sus- ceptibilities of all who approached him. Upon Dewey's an- nouncing himself as the person who had taken otf the Consti- tution's figure-head Mr. Van Buren gave a great start and was thrown off his usual balance. Eecovering himself, he demanded the particulars of the exploit, which seemed to aftbrd him no small satisfaction. Captain Dewey wished him to receive the head. " Go to Mr. Dickerson," said the Vice-President, " it belongs to his department ; say you have come from me." To Mahlon Dickerson, kSecretary of the Xavy, our hero accord- ingly went. The venerable Secretary was busily engaged with a heap of papers, and requested his visitor to be brief This hint was not lost on the Captain. " Mr. Dickerson, I am the person who removed the figure- head from the Constitution, and I have brought it with me for the purpose of returning it to the Government." The Secretary threw himself back in his chair, pushed his gold-bowed spectacles with a sudden movement up on his fore- head, and regarded with genuine astonishment the man Avho, after evading the most diligent search for his discovery, now came forward and made this voluntary avowal. Between amaze- ment and choler the fild gentleman could scarce sputter out, — " You, sir ! you ! What, sir, did you have the audacity to disfigure a ship of the United States Xavy '? " " Sir, / took the responsibility." " Well, sir, I '11 have you arrested immediately " ; and the Secretary took up the bell to summon a messenger. 44 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. " Stop, sir, " said the Captain, " you cannot inflict any pun- ishment; I can only be sued for a trespass, and in the county where the offence was committed. Say the word, and I will go back to Charlestown and await my trial; but if a jNIiddle- sex jury don't give me damages, my name 's not Dewey." The Captain had explored his ground: there was no statute at that time against defacing ships of war, and he knew it. Mr. Dickerson, an able lawyer, reflected a moment, and then put down his bell. "You are riglit, sir," said he; "and now tell me all about the affair." The Captain remained some time closeted with the Secretary, of wliose treatment he had no reason to complain. All these incidents, modestly related by Captain Dewey to the writer, stamp liim as a man of no common decision of character. He resolved, deliberated upon, planned, and exe- cuted his enterprise without the assistance of a single indi- vidual, — one person onl)^ receiving a hint from him at the moment he set out, as a precaution in case any accident might befall him. His looks when narrating this adventure are thus recalled. " Captain Dewey shows little sign of decay. A man of middle stature, his sandy hair is lightly touched Avitli gray, his figure but little bent; his complexion is florid, perhaps from the effects of an early seafaring life ; his mouth is expressive of determined resolution, and an eye of bluish gray lights iip in moments of animation a pliysiognomy far from luipleasant. He is not tlie man to commit an act of mere bravado, but is devoted to liis convictions of riglit witli the zeal of a ]\Iussulman. We may safely add that he was never a Jackson Democrat." The names of several of the vessels constructed by Mr. Barker have become historical. The Frolic was captured in 1814- by H. B. ]\I. frigate Orpheus and an armed schooner, after a chase of sixty miles, during which the Frolic threw her lee guns overboard. She was rated as a vessel of 18 guns, but was built to carry twenty 32-pounder carronades and two long 1 8- or 24-pounders. At the time of her capture she Avas commanded by Master-Commandant Bainbridge. AN HOUR IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. 45 The Independence was launched July 20, 1814, during hos- tilities with Great Britain, and was the first seventy-four afloat in our navy, — if the America, launched in 1782, and given to the French, be excepted. Her first cruise was to the Mediterranean, where she carried the broad jDennant of Commodore Bainbridge, and was the first of her class to display our Stars and Stripes abroad. Owing to a defect in her build she was afterwards converted into a serviceable double-banked 60-gun frigate. As such she has been much admired by naval critics, and was lionored while lying at Cronstadt by a visit from the Czar Nicholas,* incognito. The Vermont has never made a foreign cruise, though in- tended in 1853 for the flagship of Commodore Perry's expedi- tion to Japan. The Virginia, sleeping like another Rip Van Winkle, in her big cradle for half a century, until she had be- come as unsuited to service as the galley of Medina Sidonia would be, remains in one of the ship-houses, a specimen of ancient naval architecture, with her bluff" bows and sides tum- bling inboard. It would, perhaps, require a nautical eye such as we do not possess to determine which was the stem and which the stern of this ship. The Cumberland went down at Hampton Eoads in the unequal conflict with the Merrimac in March, 1862. The Cyane, named after the British ship cap- tured by the Constitution, was broken up at Philadelphia in 1836. The launch of the Merrimac, in the summer of 1855, is a weU-remembered scene. Such was the admiration of her beautiful proportions that it was generally said, if the other five frigates ordered to be built were like her, we should at length have a steam navy worthy of the name. Her model was furnished by Mr. LenthaU, chief of the Bureau of Con- struction, and she was buUt by Mr. Delano, then IJ'aval Con- structor at this station, under the supervision of Commodore Gregory. Melvin Simmons was the master-carpenter. A year after her keel was laid she glided without accident into the element in which she was destined to play so important a part. * Captain Preble's Notes on Ship-bnilding in Massachusetts. 46 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. She displayed at every available point the flag her batteries were turned against in her first and only battle. Many thousand spectators witnessed from the neighboring wharves, bridges, and shipping her splendid rush into the waters. The Ohio and Vermont, then lying at their moorings in the stream, were thronged with people who welcomed the good ship, at her parting from the shore, with loud huzzas. As she rode on the surface of the river, majestic and beautiful, no conjecture, we will venture to say, was made by any among that vast mul- titude of the powers of destruction she was destined to ex- hibit. At that time her size appeared remarkable, and so indeed it was Avhen compared with the smaller craft among which she floated. Her armament was from the celebrated foundry of Cyrus Alger, South Boston. Returning from a peacefid cruise in the Pacific, she arrived at Norfolk early in February, 1860, and was lying at that station in ordinary when the flag of rebellion was raised at Charleston. But for the prevalence of treason in liigh places, the Merrimac would have been saved to our navy before the destruction of the dockyard at Norfolk, April 21, 1861. She became a rebel vessel, and, encased in iron, descended the river, appearing among our fleet in Hampton Roads ]\Iarch 8, 1862, where she pursued a course of havoc — her iron prow crashing into our wooden ships — unparalleled in naval annals. Her conflict on the following day with the little Monitor, commanded by the brave Worden, and of which the world may be said, in a manner, to have been spectators, is still fresh in the memories of the present generation. Napoleon, no mean judge, while candidly admitting the superiority of the English over the French sailors, asserted as his belief, that the Americans were better seamen than the English. It was the general belief in the British Navy, dur- ing the War of 1812, that our discipline was more severe than their own. If true, this would have gone far to confute the assertion that our crews were largely composed of Britisli sailors. The truth is, that we always had plenty of the best sailors in the world. I AN HOUR IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. 47 General Hyslop, who was on the quarter-deck of the Java during her contest with the Constitution, stated it as his con- viction that the American sailors were far more elastic and ac- tive in their habits than the British. He was astonished, also, at the superior gunnery of the crew of Old Ironsides, who were able to discharge three broadsides to two from the Java, thus adding one third to the weight of their hre. To this cir- cumstance he attributed the victory of Bainbridge. It is well known that the royal navy was long indebted to American forests for its masts, the Crown reserving for this pur- pose the trees of a certain girth, to which an officer affixed the broad-arrow. The owner of the soil might, if he chose, cut down and haul the king's trees to the nearest seaport, receiv- ing a certain compensation for his labor ; and one of the most notable old-time sights the Maine woods witnessed was the removal of the giant pines by a long train of oxen to the sea. As was truly said of England, " E'en the tall mast that bears your flag on high Grew in onr soil, and ripened in our sky." The mast-ship had its regular time for sailing from Piscata- qua (Portsmouth) or Falmouth (Portland), convoyed, in time of war with France, by a frigate. In process of time the in- creasing scarcity of timber led to the construction of ship's masts in sections. The first vessel in our navy to carry one of these sticks was the Constitution, whose maimnast, in 1803, when she sailed for Tripoli, was a made mast of twenty-eight pieces. Copper sheathiug for vessels of war was first applied to the Alarm, British frigate, in 1758, but conductors, which we owe to the genius of Franklin, were first used on American ships, and previous to 1790. The cipher which is used in the United States to designate government property owes its origin, according to Frost's Naval History, to a joke. When the so-called last war with England broke out tliere were two inspectors of provisions at Troy, New York, named Ebenezer and Samuel Wilson. The latter gentleman (universally known as " Uncle Sam ") gen- 48 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. erally superintended in person a large numlier of workmen, who, on one occasion, were employed in overhauling the pro- visions purchased by the contractor, Elbert Anderson of New York. The casks were marked " E. A. — U. S." This work fell to the lot of a facetious fellow, who, on being asked the meaning of the mark, said he did not know unless it meant Elbert Anderson and Uncle Sam, alluding to Uncle Sam Wil- son. The joke took and became very current. The Charlestown yard is further distinguished as having the only rope walk under the control of the government, in which un endless twisting of the flexible material — from the slender thread which flies the youth's kite to the serpent-like folds of the great ship's cable — is forever going on. " At the end an open door; Squares of sunshine on the floor Light the long and dusky lane; And the whirring of a wheel, Dull and drowsy, makes me feel All its spokes are in my brain." Under cover of houses or temporary roofs are some of those sea-monsters whose creation dates from the Eebellion ; sub- marine volcanoes that hurl destruction by the ton, and vomit fire and smoke from their jaws. As they lie here upon the river's brink, with their iron scales and their long, low hulks, we can liken them to nothing else than so many huge alligators basking themselves in the sunshine to-day, but only waiting the signal to plunge their half submerged Indies into the stream and depart on their errand of havoc. Long may ye lie here powerless by the shore, ye harbingers of ruin ; and long may your iron entrails lack the food that, breathing hfe into those lungs of brass and steel, gives motion to your unwieldy bulk ! May ye lie here tied to the shore, until your iron crust drops off like the shell of any venerable crustacean, ere the tocsin again shall sound that lets slip such " dogs of war " ! The lower ship-house marks the beach where the choice troops of Old England left their boats and began their fatal march to Breed's Hill ; where the glittering and moving mass. AN HOUK IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. 49 extending itself like a painted waU, broke off into columns of attack. The light infantry and grenadiers keep the shore of the Mystic, and at length deploy in front of the stern old ranger, John Stark, and of the brave Knowlton, crouched behind their flimsy, simulated rampart of sweet-scented, new-mown hay. A flash, a rattling voUey, and the line is enveloped in smoke, which, drifting slowly away before the breeze, reveals what was a wall of living steel rent into fragments, little scattered groups, while the space between is covered with the dead and dying. Reader, do you know the battle-held and its horrors, — an arm tossing here and there ; a limb stiffened after some grotesque fashion in the last act of the expiring will, the finger pressed against the trigger, the bayonet at the charge, while the green turf is dotted far and near with little tires fallen from tlie deadly muzzles 1 Many of the slain in this battle were probably buried within the duck3'ard enclosure ; and they once showed you at the Naval Institute a heap of bones brought to light while digging down the hill, — relics of the fight which the earth has given up be- fore their time. We have httle sympathy with the exhibition of dead men's bones. These poor memorials of the brave de- serve Christian burial at our hands. Fallen far from the Welsh hills or Irish lakes, there is something uncanny and reproach- ful in their detention above ground ; a grave and a stone is due to the remains of those whose fate may one day be our own. Having thus circumnavigated the hundred acres of Uncle Sam's exclusive domain, we may congratulate that much-abused old gentleman upon the successful speculation he has made. The original estimates included only twenty-three acres, to be obtained from the following proprietors, namely : Seven acres of Harris, estimated worth $ 12,000 Three " Stearns, " " 500 Two " Breed " " 150 Nine " " " " 3,600 ^ 16,250 Two acres additional were procured in order to alter the road so as to get more room where the ships were to be built, and for which was paid, 3,000. 3 D 50 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS, Subsequent purchases, together with tlie attendant expenses, swelled the first cost of the site to $ 40,000, for about eighty acres of land and marsh ; but the work of tilling, which has con- stantly proceeded, has considerably extended the area. The government has expended about three and a half millions upon the yard, the value of the land alone being now estimated at nearly six millions. Efforts have been made to induce the re- moval to some other locality, in order to secure the site for commerce, but thus far without success. The Naval Institute, which comprises a museum, a library, and a reading-room, is very creditable to its founders and pro- moters. The walls of the museum are decorated with imple- ments of war, or of the chase, belonging to every nation between the poles, Avhile the cabinets are well stocked with curiosities and relics to Avhich every vessel arriving at the station brings accessions. It will readily be seen, with such unlimited oji- portunities for bringing, free of cost, articles of value from the most remote climes, what collections might be made at the public dockyards were the government to give a little official stimulus to the object. The sword which Preble wore before Tripoli, and that of Captain Wliynyates of H. M. ship Frolic, are here preserved, together with relics of the Boxer, the figure-head of the General Armstrong, privateer, and some memorials of the ill-fated Cum- berland. The library is valuable and well selected, but the books appear but little used. A huge aquatic fowl, which stands sentinel near the entrance to these rooms, seems to have been placed there for the convenience of cleaning pens, his downy breast being seamed Avith inky stains. There are few trophies within the yard, some field-pieces used in the Mexican War, and one of the umbrellas with which Hull walked his ship away from Broke's squadron, be- ing the most noticeable. The latter is now stored in the In- stitute, a fitting memorial to the prowess of "A Yankee ship and a Y^ankee crew ! " The great wall of Tartary is not more formidable than is the AN HOUR IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. 51 granite fence which shoulders out the neighborhood, and speaks of the possibiHties of invasion of these precincts by the rabble. The appearance without is that of a prison, or a fortress ; within, a vista of greensward stocked with cannon, with rows of poplars shading cold granite walls, confounds the Adsion. Joyous children are warned away from the enclosures by some battered old guardian who will never more be fit for sea. " Keep off ! " " Touch nothing ! " " Your pass ! " - — ■ So, we are free again. 52 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. CHAPTER III. BUNKER HILL AND THE MONUMENl. " I'd better goue an' sair'd the King, At Bunker''s Hill." Burns. IN June, 1875, was celebrated the centennial of the Battle of Bunker Hill. Never before did the tall gray shaft look down upon such a pageant. Fifty years had elapsed since the corner-stone of the monument was laid, in the presence of General Lafayette, Daniel Webster, . and of many survivors I *l^ of the battle. It is ■* not idle sentimentahty that has hallowed the spot. A hundred thou- sand brave men have fought the better be- cause its traditions yet linger among us, and are still recounted around our hresides. Why is it that we can o'erleap the tre- mendous conflicts that liave taken place since Hunker Hill, and still 1 an undiminished interest in that day? 1 1 is* not the battle, for it was fought without order on the American side, and witlunit skill on the British ; it is not the carnage, BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. I BUNKER HILL AND THE MONUMENT. 53 for many fields have been more bloody in our own times. It is perhaps because the men of New England here cast their first defiance in the teeth of the trained bands of Old England ; it is because it was an act of aggression, and showed that our sires were determined to fight and ready to die in their good cause. The battle was as astounding to British arrogance as it was destructive to British prestige ; it cannot be doubted that the memory of that day followed Sir William Howe with blighting effect to the end of his military career. The story of the battle is so familiar that every schoolboy will tell you where the Provincials intrenched, and where the enemy landed ; how many times the foe was borne back with slaughter, and how many fell. Here, across the river, is Copp's HUl, where Clinton and Burgoyne watched the varying for- tunes of the battle, and from which a battery played upon these heights. The dead sleep as quietly there now as they did on the day when the foundations of the hill were shaken by the discharges of the guns. There, you see the tower and steeple of Christ Church, from which Gage, it is said, witnessed the fray, and whose bells first rang a Merry Christmas peal in 1745, the year of Louisburg. Below us the river ebbs and flows as it did in centuries gone by. Behind us is Bunker Hill proper, its name so tenaciously allied with the battle as to compel the adoption of an historical error. The K^eck, over which the Americans advanced and retreated, has disappeared within the body ; the Mill Bond, which figured in the military operations, has been filled up to meet the demands of the neighboring rail- roads for more room. The British force engaged at Bunker Hill was made up fr(im parts of fourteen regiments, then in Boston, besides the Royal Artillery and two battalions of INIarines. Some of these corps were the very elite of the army. These were the 4th, or Hodg- son's ; 5th, Percy's; 10th, Sandford's ; 18th, or Royal Irish; 22d, Gage's; 23d, Howe's (Welsh Fusileers) ; 35th, F. H. Campbell's ; 38th, Bigot's ; 43d, Gary's ; 47th, Carleton's ; 52d, Clavering's ; 63d, Grant's ; 65th, Urmston's. The marching regiments for the American service consisted of twelve com- 54 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. panies, and each company mustered fifty-six efiective rank and file. Two companies of each regiment were usually left at home on recruiting service. " Aud now they 're I'orniing at the Point, and now the lines advance; We see Vieneath the sultry sun their polished bayonets glance; We hear anear the throbbing drum, the bugle challenge ring; Quick bursts and loud the tiashing cloud, and rolls from wing to wing; But on the height our liulwark stands tremendous in its gloom, — As sullen as a tropii" sky, an cation to the town of Boston. 3 Erom Eoxbury the main road , passed through Brookline and Little Cambridge, now Brighton, crossing the causeway and bridge Avhich leads directly to the Col- leges. This was the route by which Lord Percy marched to Lexington. From Charlestown, after passing the Neck by an artificial causeway, constructed in 1717, two roads diverged, as they now do, at what was then a common, now known as Sullivan Square. Near the point where these roads separated was Anna Whittemore's tavern, at which the Committee of Safety held some of its earliest sessions in 1774, and which had been an inn kept by her father as early as the famous year '45, and perhaps earlier. Maiden Bridge is located upon the site of the old Penny Ferry, over which travel to the eastward once passed. The first of these roads, now known as Washington Street, in Somerville, skirts the base of Prospect Hill, leaving the McLean Asylum on the south, and conducting straight on to S4 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. the Colleges. By this road the Americans marched to and retreated from Bunker Hill. Lord Percy entered it at what is now Union Square, in Somerville, and led his worn battalions over it to Charlestown. The second road proceeded by Mount Benedict to the sum- mit of Winter Hill, where it divided, as at })resent ; one branch turning northward by General Eoyall's to Medford, while the other pursued its way by the powder-magazine to Avhat is now Arlington, then known as Menotomy. The road over Winter Hill, by the magazine, which it has been stated was not laid out in 1775, is denominated a country road as early as 1703, and appears on the map included in this volume. Besides these there were no other roads leading to the colonial capital. The shore between was yet a marsh, unim- proved, except for the hay it afforded, and reached only at a few points by unfrequented cartways. A causeway from the side of Prospect Hill, and a bridge across what is now Miller'.s River, gave access to the farm at Lechmere's Point. From the road first described a way is seen parting at Avhat is now Union Square, crossing the river just named by a bridge, and leading by a circuitous route to Inman's house in Cambridgeport, and from thence to the Colleges. Tliis road, from the nature of the ground, could have been but little used. Mount Benedict is the first point where we encounter the American line of investment during the siege of Boston, after passing Charlestown JN'eck. In Eevolutionary times it was called Ploughed Hill, probably from the circumstance of its being cultivated when the Americans took possession, while Winter and Prospect Hills were still untilled. The hill was within short cannon-range of the British post on Bunker Hill, and its occupation by the Americans on the 26th of August, 1775, was expected to bring on an engagement ; in fact, Washington offered the enemy battle here, but tlie challenge was not accepted. Ploughed Hill was fortified by General Sullivan under a severe cannonade, the working party being covered by a detach- ment of riflemen, or riflers, as they were commonly called. THE CONTINENTAL TRENCHES. 85' posted in an orchard and under the shelter of stone-walls. Finding tliey were not attacked, the Provincials contented themselves with stationing a strong picket-guard on the hill, usually consisting of about half a regiment. Poor's regiment performed a tour of duty there in November, 1775. A guard- house was built within the work for the accommodation of the picket, which was relieved every day. General Lee was much incensed because an officer commanding the guard allowed some boards to be pulled off the guard-house for fuel, and administered a sharp reprimand. The Continental advanced outpost was in an orchard in front of Ploughed Hill. In summer the poor fellows were not so badly otf, but in tlie inclement winter they needed the great watch-coats every night issued to them before they went on duty, and which the poverty of the army recj^uired them to turn over to the relieving guard. Here, as at Boston Neck, the pickets were near enough to each other to converse freely, — a practice it was found necessary to prohibit in orders. The reliefs on both sides could be easily counted as they marched down from their respective camps. Tlie rules of civilized war- fare which respect sentinels seem, at first, to have been little observed at the Continental outposts. We had some Indians posted on the lines who could not understand why an enemy should not be killed luider any and all circumstances. The Southern riflemen, also, were very much of this opinion, each being, Corsican-like, intent on "making his skin." The British officers were soon inspired with such fear of these marksmen that they took excellent care to keep out of range of their dreaded rifles. It is time to relate an incident Avhich occurred at this out- post, where the parleys and flags that were necessary on this side of the lines were exchanged. Very soon after General Lee's arrival in camp he took occasion to despatch a character- istic letter to General Burgoyne, in which he argued the ques- tion of taxation, lamented while he censured the employment of his quondam friends. Gage, Burgoyne, and Howe, in the army of subjugation, and ridiculed the idea which prevailed in 86 IIlSTOIilG MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. the British army of tlie cowardice of the Americans. This let- ter was written in Philadelphia before the battle of Bunker Hill, and the general was the bearer of his own missive as far as (Cambridge. It was proljably not later than the morning after his arrival in camp that Lee went down to the British lines on Charles- town Xeck, — then pushed about one hundred and hfty yards beyond the isthmus, — ■ hailed the sentinel, and desired him to tell his officers that General Lee was there, and to inform Greneral Burgoyne that he had a letter for him. The letter was to have been sent into Boston by Dr. Church, but Avas taken by Samuel Wel)b (afterwards a general), aid to General I'utnam, to the lines near Bunker Hill, where Major Bruce of the 38th — the same who fought a duel with General Pigot — came out to receive it. "Webb advanced and said : " Sir, here is a letter from General Lee to General Burgoyne. Will you be pleased to give it to him 1 As some part of it requires an immediate answer, I shall be glad you would do it directlyj and, also, here is another letter to a sister of mine, Mrs. Simpson, to whom I should be glad you would deliver it." The Major gave him every assurance that he would deliver the letter to INIrs. Simp- son himself and also to General Burgoyne, but could not do it immediately, as the General was on the other lines, meaning Boston Neck. " General Lee !" exclaimed Major Bruce. "Good God, sir ! is General Lee there 1 I served two years with liim in Portugal. Tell him, sir, I am extremely sorry that my profes- sion obliges me to be his opposite in this unhappy affair. Can't it be made vip 1 Let me beg of you to use your influence, and endeavor to heal this unnatural breach." Upon hearing that General Lee had a letter for him, Bur- goyne had sent out a trumpeter, of his own Light Horse, over Boston Neck to receive it, but then learned by a second letter from Lee how his first had been forwarded. In his second com- munication Lee endeavored to obtain an exact list of the British losses at Bunker Hill, which great pains had been taken to conceal. INIajor Bruce told Mr. AVebb that Colonel Aber- THE CONTINENTAL TRENCHES. 87 crombie of the 22cl was dead of a fever, — suppressing the fact that the fever was caused by a fatal wound, — and it was not until this parley took place that the Americans knew of Pit- cairn's death. Lee, on his part, enclosed an account of the American losses in that battle. As mention has been made of the rifle regiment, the nucleus of Morgan's celebrated corps, and as we are now upon the scene of their earliest ex- ploits, a briei account v^v^^.i^^^^^ of the leader and his merry men may not be uninteresting. The riflemen were raised by a resolve of Congress,passedJune ^ 14, 1775, which au- thorized the employ- ment of eight hun- dred men of this arm, and on the 22d of the same month two companies additional from Pennsylvania were voted. The expresses despatched by Congress to the persons deputed to raise the companies had in many cases to ride from tlu'ee to four hundred miles, yet such was the enthusiasm Avith which officers and men entered into the afl'air, that one company joined Washington at Cambridge on the 25th of July, and the wliole body, numbering 1,430 men, arrived in camp on the 5th and 7th of August. The whole business had been completed in less than two months, and without the advance of a farthing from the Continental treasury. All had marched from four to seven hundred miles, encountering the extreme heat of midsummer, yet they bore the fatigue of their long tramp remarkably well. They were chiefly the backwoodsmen of the Shenandoah Valley, and brought their own long rifles with which they kept the savages from their clearings or knocked over a fat buck in full career. FLAG OF MORGAN S REGIMENT. 88 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Michael Cresap, the same whom Logan, the Indian chief, charged with the cold-blooded murder of his women and children, com- manded one of these companies, and Otho H. Williams, who afterwards became Greene's able assistant in the 8onth, was lieutenant of another. It is not to be wondered at that men who in boyhood had been pnnislied by their fathers for shooting their game any- where except in the head should soon become the terror of their foes, or tliat they should be spoken of in the British camp as " shirt-tail men, with their cursed twisted guns, the most fatal widow-and-orphan makers in the world." Their dress was a white or brown linen hunting-shirt, orna- mented with a fringe, and secured by a belt of wampum, in which a knife and tomaliawk were stuck. Their leggings and moccasins were ornamented in the Indian fashion with beads and brilliantly dyed porcupine-quills. A round hat completed a costume which, it will be conceded, was simple, appropriate, and jiicturesque. Tall, athletic fellows, they seemed to despise fatigue as they welcomed danger. They marched in Indian file, silent, stealthy, and flitting like shadows though the forests, to fall on the enemy at some unguarded point. These riflemen were the only purely distinctive body of men our Revolution produced. In costume, as in their mode of fighting, they were wholly American. In physique and martial bearing they were worthy to be compared with the Highlanders of Auld Scotland. The devotion of the men to their leader was that of clansmen to their chief. Indian fare in their pouches and a blanket on their backs found them ready for tlie march. We have only to picture to ourselves a " Deer-slayer " or a " Hawk-eye " to see one of these hard-visaged, keen-eyed, weather-beaten woodsmen stand before us. For a skirmish or an ambush such men were iinrivalled, but tliey could not with- stand the bayonet, as was shown in the battle of Long Island, where the rifle regiment, then commanded by Colonel Hand, was broken by a charge. Their weapon required too much deliberation to load ; for, after emptying their rifles, the enemy THE CONTINENTAL TRENCHES. 89 were iipou them before they could force the [jatched ball to the bottom of the barrel. Colonel Archibald Campbell, of the 71st Highlanders, who, with a battalion of his regiment, was taken prisoner in Boston harbor and detained at Eeading, admired the rifle-dress so much that it was reported he had one made for his own use, with which it was supposed he meant to disguise himself and effect his escape. The officer who made this discovery de8cril)ed the Higliland colonel as " a damned knowing fellow," and adtls, " If he should get away, I think he would make a formidable enemy ; for he is the most soldierdike, best-looking man I ever saw." Morgan was a plain, home-bred man. He was very familiar with his men, whom he always called his boys ; but this familiarity did not prevent his exacting and receiving implicit obedience to his orders. Sometimes, in case of a secret expedi- tion, the men ordered on duty were to be in readiness by three o'clock in the morning. They were then mounted behind horsemen provided for the purpose, and before daybreak would thus accomplish a day's march for foot-soldiers. Morgan told his men to shoot at those who wore epaulettes rather than the poor fellows who fought for sixpence a day. He carried a conch-shell, which he was accustomed to sound, to let his men know he still kept the field. His corps Avas sent to Gates to counteract the fear inspired by Burgoyne's Indian allies, who were continually ambushing our outposts and stragglers. It did not take them long to accomplish this task. Burgoyne after- wards said, not an Indian could be brought within sound of a rifle-shot. The British general himself owed his life on one occasion to another officer being mistaken for him, who received the bullet destined for his general. Washington estimated the corps at its true value, and, although he lent it temporarily to Gates, he very soon applied for its return ; but Gates begged hard to be permitted to retain it, and his victory at Saratoga was due in no small degree to its presence. The first colonel of the rifle regiment was William Thomp- son, by birth an Irishman. He had been captain of a troop of 90 HISTORIC iMAN'SIOXS AND HIOIIWAYS. horse in the service of Pennsylvania in the French war of 1 759 - 60, and before the Eevohition resided at Fort Pitt, since Pittsburg. He was made a brigadier early in 1776, and, hav- ing joined General Sullivan in Canada, was made prisoner at Trois Rivieres. Thompson was succeeded, in March, 1776, by Edward Hand, his lieutenant-colonel, who had accompanied the lloyal Irish to America in 1774 as surgeon's mate, but wIk? resigned on his arrival. He was afterwards a brigadier, and fought to the close of the war. Daniel Morgan, who, in less than a week after the intelli- gence of the battle of Lexington, enrolled one hundred and seven men, with Avhom he marched to Cambridge, had been a wagoner in Braddock's army in 175.5. For knocking down a British lieutenant he had received live hundred lashes without flinching. He seems at one period to have fallen into the worst vices of the camp, but before tlie Eevo- lution had become a correct member of society. AVashing- ton despatched him with Arnold to Quebec in September, 1775, where, after having forced his way through the first defences, he was made prisoner while paroling some captives that he himself had taken; so that a common fate befell both Morgan and Thompson, and on the same line of operations. Morgan, after his exchange, was appointed colonel of tlie 11th Virginia, a rifle-corps, November 12, 1776. Of his subse- quent career we need not speak. Chastellux relates that when some of Eochambeau's troops were passing a river between Williamsburg and Baltimore, where they were crowded in a narrow joassage, they were met by General Morgan, who, seeing the Avagoners did not under- stand their business, stopped and showed them how to drive. Having put everything in order, he proceeded quietly on his way. The best account we have of Colonel Morgan's appearance describes him as " stout and active, six feet in height, not too much encumbered with flesh, and exactly fitted for the pomp and toils of war. The features of his face were strong and manly, and his brow thoughtful. His manners plain and THE CONTINENTAL TIIENCHES. 91 decorous, neither insinuating nor repulsive. His conversation grave, sententious, and considerate, unadorned and uncapti- vating. " ]\Iount Benedict is associated with an event which has no parallel, we believe, in the history of our country, namely, the destruction of a religious institution by a mob. The ruins of the Convent of St. Ursula long remained an evidence of wliat popular rage, directed by superstition and lawlessness, has been able to accomplish in a community of high average civilization. For half a century, these ruins served to emphasize a condi- tion which has as completely disappeared as liave the ruins themselves, by the grading down of tlie hill-top, where they stood, to its present level. N I \ IN I [ l\ It must be admitted that the Jesuit fathers who planted the missions of their order in every available spot in the Xew World possessed an unerring instinct for choosing fine situa- tions. Wherever their establishments have been reared civili- zation has followed, until towns and cities have grown uj) and 92 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. environed their primitive chapels. Whatever may be said of the order, it has left the finest specimens of ancient architec- ture existing on the American continent. We need only cite Quebec, Mexico, and Panama to support this assertion. The choice of Mount Benedict, therefore, for the site of a convent is only another instance of the good judgment of the Catholics. The situation, though bleak in winter, commands a superb view of the meadows through which the Mystic winds, and of the towns which extend tliemselves along the opposite shores. Beyond these are seen the gray, rocky ridges, resem- bling in their undulations some huge monster of antiquity, wliich, coming from the Merrimack, form the most remarkable valley in Eastern Massachusetts, and through which, in the dim distance of bygone ages, the river may have found its outlet to the sea. Perched on their rugged sides appear the cottages and villas of a population half city, half rural, but altogether distinctive in the well-kept, thrifty appearance of their homes. On the night of the 11th of August, 1834, the convent and outbuildings were destroyed by incendiarj' hands. The flames raged without any attempt to subdue them, until everything combustible was consumed, the bare walls only being left standing. The firemen from the neighboring towns were pres- ent with their engines, but remained either passive spectators or actors in the scenes that ensued. A feeble effort was made by the local authorities to disperse the mob, — an effort calculated only to excite contempt, unsupported as it was l)y any sliow of force to sustain it. The affair had been planned, and the concerted signal expected. For some time previous to the final catastrophe rumors had prevailed that Mary St. John Harrison, an inmate of the con- vent and a candidate for the veil, had either been abducted or secreted where she could not be found by her friends. As this belief obtained currency, an excitement, impossible now to imagine, pervaded the community. Threats were openly made to burn the convent, but passed unheeded. Printed placards were posted in Charlestown, announcing that on such a night the convent would be burned, but even this did not arouse the THE CO^'TINENTAL TRENCHES. 93 authorities to action. At about ten o'clock on the night in question a mob, variously estimated at from four to ten thou- sand persons, assembled within and around the convent grounds. A bonfire was lighted as a signal to those who were apprised of what was about to take place. The Superior of the convent, INIrs. Motfatt, with the other inmates, were notified to depart from the doomed building. There were a dozen nuns, and more than fifty scholars, some of whom were Protestants, and many of a tender age. The announcement hlled all with alarm, and several swooned with terror. The unfortunate females were at length removed to a place of security, and the work of destruction began and concluded without hindrance. The mob did not even respect the tomb belonging to the con- vent, but entered and violated this sanctuary of the dead. A general burst of indignation followed this dastardly out- rage. Reprisals from the Catholics were looked for, and it was many years before the bad blood created by the event subsided. The better feeling of the community was aroused ; and few meetings in Old Faneuil Hall have given more emphatic utter- ance to its voice than that called at this time by Mayor Lyman, and addressed by Harrison Gray Otis, Josiah Quincy, Jr., and others. Measures of security were adojited, and once more, in the language of the wise old saw, " the stable door was shut after the steed had escaped." The Catholics showed remarkable forbearance. On the day follo^nng the conflagration their bishop, Fenwick, contributed by his judicious conduct to allay the exasperation of his flock ; and even Father Taylor, the old, earnest pastor of the seamen, was listened to with respectful attention by a large assemblage of Irish Catholics, who had gathered in the immediate neigh- borhood of their church, in Franklin Street, Boston, on the same occasion. In reverting to the conduct of the firemen, it should be re- membered that Colonel Thomas C. Amory, then chief engineer of the Boston Fire Department, repaired to the convent at the first alarm, and did all in his power to bring the firemen to their duty. Finding this a hopeless task, he then visited the 94 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. bishop, and advised him to take such precautions as the danger- ous temper of the mob seemed to demand. Many arrests were made, and some of the rioters were con- victed and punished. Chief Justice Shaw was then on the bench, and John Davis governor of the State. Both exerted themselves to bring the offenders to justice, and to vindicate the name of the old Commonwealth from reproach. The form of the main building of the convent, which faced southeast, was a parallelogram of about thirty-three paces long by ten in breadth ; what appear to have been two wings joined it on the west side. The buildings were partly of brick and partly of the blue stone found abundantly in the neighboring quarries ; the principal^ edifice being of three stories, with a pitched roof, and haviiig entrances both in the east and west fronts. The grounds, which were very extensive, and em- braced most of the hill,Vere terraced down to the highway and adorned with shrubbery. A fine orchard of several acres, in the midst of which the buikiings stood, extended on the west quite to the limits of the enclosure, where, until recently, were visible the remains of the convent tomb. The hill is now being levelled with a rapidity that is fast obliterating every vestige of its original appearance, as nature left it. Mount Benedict already belongs to the past, Avhatever regret we may feel at the disappearance of so beautiful an eminence. The convent was opened on the 17th of July, 1826. It is but little known that there was a similar establishment in Boston, contiguous to the Cathedral in Franklin Street, though no incident drew the popular attention to it. The information upon which the mob acted in tlie sack of the Mount Benedict institution proved Avholly groundless. When we last visited the ruins the scene was one of utter loneliness. Year by year the walls had been crumbling away, until the elements were fast completing what the fire had spared. The snow enshrouded the heaps of debris and the jagged out- lines of the walls with a robe as spotless as that of St. Ursula herself. For nearly forty years these blackened memorials of the little community of St. Angela had been visible to thousands THE CONTINENTAL TRENCHES. 95 journeying to and from the neighboring city. The lesson has been sharp, but eftectual. Whoever should now raise the torch against such an establishment would be deemed a madman. Our interest is awakened at the mention of Ten Hills Farm in connection with the plantation of Governor Winthrop, who gave it the name by which it is still known, from the ten little elevations which crowned its nneven surface, but of which few traces remain visible to this day. The grant to Winthrop was made Sej)tember 6, 1631, of six hundred acres of land " near his house at Mistick," from which it would appear that the governor already had a house built there which was probably occupied by his servants. We are now speaking of a time nearly coincident with the settlement of Boston, when no other craft than the Indian canoe had ever cleft the waters of the Mystic, and when wild beasts roamed the neighboring forests. Governor Winthrop tells his own story of what he, the original white inhabitant of Ten Hills, experienced there in 1631 : — " The govemour, being at his farm house at Mistick, walked out after supper, and took a piece in his hand, supposing he might see a wolf, (for they came daily about the house, and killed swine and calves, etc. ;) and being about half a mile off, it grew suddenly dark, so as, in coming home, he mistook liis path, and went til he came to a little house of Sagamore John, which stood empty. There he stayed, and liaving a piece of match in his pocket, (for he always carried about him match and a compass, and in summer time snake- weed,) he made a good fire near the house, and lay down upon some old mats which he found there, and so spent the night, sometimes walking by the fire, sometimes singing psalms, and sometimes getting wood, but could not sleep. It was (through God's mercy) a warm night; but a little before day it began to rain, and having no cloak, he made shift hy a long pole to climb up into the house. In the morning there came thither an Indian squaw, but, perceiving her before she had opened the door, he barred her out; yet she stayed there a great while essaying to get in, and at last she went away, and he returned safe home, his servants having been much perplexed for him, and having walked about, and shot off pieces, and hallooed in the night, but he heard them not." 96 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Savage supposes that Ten Hills Avas the governor's summer residence for the first two or three years; Boston being, after the removal of his house there, his constant home. It has also been usually considered as the place where Winthrop built his little bark, the Blessing of the Bay, the first English keel launched in the jurisdiction of Massachusetts Colony. This event occurred on the 4th of July, 1631, and in October the Blessing spread her canvas and bore away on a voyage to the eastward. The farm of Ten Hills was owned at the time of the Revolu- tion by Robert Temple, a royalist ; and the house he occupied stood on the supposed site of Governor Winthrop's until de- molished a few years ago. The following description applies to its appearance when the writer last visited it. The mansion-house has a spacious hall, and a generous pro- vision of large square rooms. As you ascend the stairs, in front of you, at the first landing, is a glass door, opening into a snug little apartment which overlooks the river. This must have been a favorite resort of the family. The wainscoting and otlier wood-Avnrk is in good condition^ if a general hlthiness be excepted, inseparable from the occiipancy of the house by numerous families of the laborers in the neighboring brick- yards. All is now changed by the levelUng of the adjacent hills beyond the possibility of recognition. Robert Temple of Ten Hills was an elder brother of Sir John Temple, Bart., the first Consul-General from England to the United States. His eldest daughter became Lady Dufferiu. Mr. Temple sailed for England as early as May, 1775 ; but, the vessel being obliged to put into Plymouth, Massachusetts, he was detained and sent to Cambridge camp. Mr. Temple's family continued to reside in the mansion at Ten Hills after his attempted departure, under the protection of General Ward. The Baronet married a daughter of Governor Bowdoin, while his brother's wife was a daughter of Governor Shirley. Previous to his coming to Ten Hills, Robert Temple had resided on Noddle's Island, in the elegant mansion there after- wards occupied by Henry HoweU Williams. Although himself THE CONTINENTAL TRENCHES. 97 a tenant, the Temples had in times past owned the island. Sir Thomas, who was proprietor in 1667, had been formerly Gov- ernor of Nova Scotia. It is related of him, that once, when on a visit to England, he was })resented to Charles II., who com- plaijied to him that the colonists had usurped his prerogative of coining money. Sir Thomas replied, that they thought it no crime to coin money for their own use, and presented his Majesty some of Master Hull's pieces, on which was a tree. The king inquiring what tree that was, the courtier answered, " The royal oak which protected your Majesty's life," — a reply which charmed the king and caused him to look with more lavor on the otiending colony. If one of Master Hull's shillings be examined, we are not greatly surprised that his Majesty so readily believed the pine to be an oak. Ten Hills was the landing-place of Gage's night expedition to seize the powder in the province magazine, in September, 1774. The next day the uprising in Middlesex took place. And on Saturday, the 3d, the soldiers were harnessed to four field-pieces, which they dragged to Boston Neck, and placed in battery there. The Lively frigate, of twenty guns, came to her moorings in the ferry -way between Boston and Charlestown, and the avenues to the doomed town were shut up as effectually by land as they had been by water. The vicinity of Ten Hills was that chosen by Mike INIartin for the robbery of Major Bray. It was near where the old lane leading to the Temple farm-house, and now known as Temple Street, enters the turnpike, that the robber overtook the chaise of his victim. After his condemnation, Martin related, with apparent gusto, that the pistol which he presented at the Major's head was neither loaded nor cocked, but that the latter was terribly frightened and trembled like a leaf. Mrs. Bray tried to conceal her watch, but was assured by the highwayman that he did not rob ladies. Even now the place seems lonesome, and is not the one we should select for an evening promenade. On a little promontory which overlooked the Mystic the Americans erected a battery during the siege. At this point 5 G vS nisTOK;c mansions and highways. the river makes a Avestcrly hrml, so fliat a hostile llntilla must approach for some distance in llie teetli of a raking lire from this redoultt. This was fully proved ■when the enemy brought their floating batteries within range to attack the working party on Ploughed Hill and enfilade the road. A nine-pounder mounted in this redoubt smdc one of the enemy's batteries and disabled the other, Avhile an armed vessel which accompanied them had her foresail shot away, and M'as obliged to sheer off. The next day (Monday, September 28) the enemy sent a man-of-war into Mystic River, drew some of their forces over from Boston to Charlestown, where they formed a heavy column of attack, and seemed prepared to make a bold push, — as was fully expected in the American camp, — but Bunker Hill was too recent in their memories, and Ploughed Hill had been made much stronger than the position they had carried with so much loss of life on the 17th of June ; the combat was declined. Leaving the redoubt, a hundred yards higlier rip the hill we found traces of another work, with two of the angles quite clearly defined. Owing to the Avholesale demolition which has been going on here, all these years, it has become quite impossible to relocate these very interesting relics of the siege of Boston. General Sullivan, on lirst coming to camp, took up his quar- ters at Medford, where Stark and his New Hanqishire men were already assembled. In a letter to the Committee of Safety, the general lamented extremely that the Xew Hamp- shire forces were without a chaplain, and were obliged to attend prayers with the Ehode-Islanders on Prospect Hill. We are ignorant whether the men of Xew Hampshire required more praying for than the men of Ehode Island, but we fully recog- nize the fact that in those days an army chaplain was not a mere ornamental appendage, dangling at the queue of the staff. General Sullivan was absent from camp in November, 1775, having been sent to Portsmouth on account of the alarm occa- sioned by the burning of Falmouth. He took with him some artillery officers and a company of the rifle regiment. About THE CONTINENTAL TKENCHES. 99 the same time General Lee went to Rhode Island on a similar mission. Samuel Jaqiies, a later resident of Ten Hills Farm, is worthy of remembrance as a distinguished agriculturist. Born in 1776, a few weeks after the declaration of formal separation from England, he died in 1859, just at the dawn of a scarcely less momentous convulsion, thus spanning with his own life the greatest epochs of our history. Colonel Jatjues was in habits and manners the type of the English country gentleman. When a resident of Charlestown, he had, like Gradock's men at Mystic Side in 1632, impaled a deer-park. He also kept his hoiinds, and often Avakened the echoes of the neighboring hills with the note of his bugle or the cry of his pack, bringing the drowsy slumberer from his bed by sounds so unwonted. We trust no incredulous reader will be startled at the assertion that the hills of Somerville have re- sounded with the fox-hunter's " tally-ho ! " Colonel Jaques, who acquired his title by long service in the militia, was engaged for a time during the hostilities of 1812 in the defence of the shores of the bay, being stationed at Chelsea in command of a small detachment. He was twenty- eight years a resident of the old Temple Manor, and discharged the duties of hospitality in a manner that did no discredit to the ancient proprietor. The farm was also occupied at one time by Elias Hasket Derby, who stocked it with improved breeds of sheep. The place has now been much disfigured with excavations, to procure the clay, which is excellent for brickmaking, and that branch of industry has been extensively carried on for many ■years by the sons of Colonel Jaques. In time a large portion of the soil has been removed, and is, or was, standing in many a noble edifice in the neighboring city, — a gradual but sure process of annexation. The vein of clay, which is traced from Watertown to Lynn, underlies Ten Hills Farm. Brickmaking was very early pursued by the settlers, one, at least, of the houses they built in the first decade of the set- tlement being still in existence. The size of bricks was regu- 100 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. lated by Charles I., hence the name statute-bricks. The very- first vessels which arrived at Salem had bricks stowed under their hatches, which were doubtless used in the erection of some of the big chimney-stacks that still exist there, their in- destructible materials rendering them as useful to-day as Avhen they were originally burnt. In 1745 all the bricks used in reconstructing the works at Luuisburg and Annapolis Royal were shipped from IJoston to General Amherst. The costly and disastrous examples of Portland, Chicago, and Boston have only confirmed the experience that bricks are more durable than stone. The sun-dried bricks of Nineveh and Babylon are still in existence, while the Roman baths of Caracalla and Titus have withstood the action of the elements far better than the stone of the Coliseum or the marble of the Forum. Winter Hill Avas fortified immediately after the battle of Bunker Hill, and garrisoned by the commands of Poor, Stark, Reed, Mansfield, and Doolittle. The policy of placing the sol- diers of the same colony together Avas at first observed, and while Greene on Prospect Hill had his Rhode-Islanders, Sulli- van on Winter Hill quartered in the midst of the men of Ncav Hampshire. Webb's and Hutchinson's regiments Avere under Sullivan's orders in XoA^ember, 1775. This, being the extreme left of the American interior line of defence, Avas fortified Avitli great assiduity, especially as it covered the land approach to the toAvn of Medford, and, to some extent, the navigation of the Mystic. The principal Avork Avas thrown up directly across the road leading over the hill, noAV Broadway, at the point where the Medford road diverges ; and, except at the northwest angle, Avhere it was entered by the last-named higliAvay, Avas enclosed on all sides. It Avas in form an irregular pentagon, Avith bastions and deep fosse. A breast- work conforming Avith the present direction of Central Street joined the southAvest angle. This plan of redoubt and breast- work Avas the almost stereotyped form of the American Avorks. A hundred yards in advance of the fort were outAvorks, in Avhich guards Avere nightly posted. When Central Street was being made, the remains of the intrencliment were exposed, and THE CONTINENTAL TRENCHES. 101 are also remembered by some of the older people in the vacant land of Mr. Byam on the north side of the road. Let us take a view of Sullivan's camp and fortress as it was in Xovember, 1775. At eight in the morning the drummers and filers of all the regiments t)n the hill assemble in the citadel and beat the troop. The martial sounds are taken up on Prospect Hill, and passed on to Heath at Cambridge. The refrain echoes along the line until it reaches the veteran Thomas at Roxbury, where it is wafted across the waters of the bay to the ears of the king's sentinel on the ramparts of the castle. The details for pickets and guards are now paraded and inspected by the brave Alexander Scammell, who has followed his general and friend from the law-oftice at Exeter to be his major of brigade in the Continental service. The camp is now fully astir, and the detachments for fatigue are in motion. Some march to the neighboring forests, where they are em- ployed in cutting wood for fuel and material for fascines. Soon the frosty air is vocal with the blows of their axes. Others are employed in mending the roads, strengthening the works, or deepening the ditches ; still others are busy erecting barracks for the approacliing winter. Bustle and preparation have invaded the former solitude of the green slopes, and the beautiful verdure is furrowed with yawning trenches. There never were such men for liuilding earthworks as the Americans. Fort after fort rose before the astonished \asion of the Britons, like the fabled palace of Aladdin. Now Breed's Hill, then Lechmere's Point, and finally Dorchester Heights, showed what workers those Yankees were. Gage was aston- ished, Howe petrified ; both were outgeneralled before Boston. In fine Aveather the men off duty engage in a thousand occupations or amusements. Some read, others write, while not a few are cleaning their trusty firelocks or elaborately carv- ing their powder-horns, to be handed down as heirlooms to their children's children. Until barracks were built, officers and men made for them- selves huts, after the manner described by Mr. Emerson, the general being accommodated in an old house on the hill. The 102 HISTOrjC MANSIONS AXl) lilGHWAYS. officers exchanged visits, attended garrison courts -martial, — which might be held in Nixon's hut or Doolittle's barracks, — or rambled through the adjacent lines. Card-playing, the soldiers' favorite pastime, was strongly discountenanced by the commander-in-cliief ; Init we believe we should oidy have to lift the corner of the old sail that served as a door to the huts to see group after group, rebels that they were, paying court to king and queen. At night a bit of tallow candle, stuck in the socket of a bayonet, serves to illuminate the soldier's cabin and prolong his pleasures till the drums at tattoo admonish him that the day is dtme. Within the lines a regiment went on duty every night. The tour came round often ; the service was hard. A company was stationed at Medford to prevent the men straggling from camp ; and not a few officers, seduced by the comforts of a clean bed or tlie witchery of a pair of bright eyes, Avere in the habit of absenting themselves from camp to sleep at Mystic, as Medford was then called. There was in each brigade a field-officer of the day. "When a colonel mounted guard he was attended by his own surgeon and adjutant. He was in the saddle from troop to retreat, catching, perhaps, a mouthful at the picket, or sharing pot-luck with some comrade Avhile on his rounds. The advanced lines must be visited twice a day, and if there should be an alarm, the officer of the day must be at tlie threatened point. The post at Ten Hills, the valley redoubts, the detachments at IMystic and the PoAvder House, were comprised A\'ithin his charge. He must not sleep or remove his arms during his tour. Mrs. Jolui Adams, in her letters, has left some admirable portraits of the distinguished characters of the Eevolutionary army. Speaking of General Sullivan, she says : — "I drank coffee one day Avith General Sullivan upon Winter Hill. He appears to be a man of sense and spirit. His countenance de- notes him of a warm constitution, not to be very suddenly moved, but, Avhen once roused, not very easily lulled; easy and social; well calculated for a military station, as he seems to be possessed of those popular qualities necessary to attach men to him." THE CONTINENTAL TKENCHES. 103 A London paper said, in 1777: "General Sullivan, taken prisoner by the king's troops, was an attorney, and only laid down the pen for the sword about eight months ago, though now a general." He was found by the Hessians after the disastrous battle of Long Island, secreted in a cornfield ; was searched, and General Washington's orders taken from him. Among the ridiculous stories with Avhich the foreign officers regaled their home correspondents, the Hessian, Heeringen, in de- scribing this affair, says : "John Sullivan is a lawyer, but before has been a footman ; he is, however, a man of genius, whom the rebels will very much miss." In the same letter Lord Stirling, who was also made prisoner, is spoken of as an " echappe de famille, who is as much like Lord Granby as one egg is like another." General Putnam, says the same authority, is a butcher by trade. This battle of Long Island was where the Hessians became so terrible to their adversaries. They re- peatedly halted under a heavy fire to dress their lines and advance with Old-World precision. Their officers took care to tell them the rebels would give no quarter, consequently they put to death all who fell into their hands. Some of the Americans were found after the action pinned to trees with bayonets. At Trenton these bugbears were stripped of their lions' skins. General Sullivan was rather short in stature, but well-made and active. His complexion was dark, his nose prominent, his eye black and piercing. His countenance, as a whole, was har- monious and agreeable. Scammell had been a schoolmaster and a surveyor before he became Sullivan's confidential clerk. In 1770 he was a mem- ber of the Old Colony Club, the first society in New England to commemorate publicly the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. He stood six feet two inches, — just the height of the com- mander-in-chief, — and fought on the hardest fields of the Revolution. Just as final victory was about to crown the efforts of the Americans, Scammell fell at Yorktown, a victim to the ignorance or brutality of a Hessian vidette. "When this unlucky event occurred he was in command of a picked corps of light infantry. 104 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. There are two actors in the same great drama of which we are endeavoring to rearrange the scenes, whose accj^uaintance prob- ably begun here, and wliose fates long after became interwoven. These two were James Wilkinson and Aaron Burr. Both joined the army at Cambridge as volunteers in 1775. Washington gave the former, who first united himself with Thompson's ritte- corps, a captaincy in Eeed's regiment. At the time of this appointment he was a member of General Greene's military family on Prospect Hill, and did not, therefore, join his regi- ment until he reached Xew York. Wilkinson took part in the possession of Cobble Hill, Leclimere's Point, and Dorchester Heights, and has recorded his opinion that Howe might have forced Washington's lines at almost any time prior to January, 1776. As is well known, Wilkinson became Gates's adjutant-gen- eral in the campaign against Burgoyne, and was the bearer of the official despatches of the surrender to Congress. He was implicated in the Conway cabal, but became estranged from Gates, and a challenge passed between them. Wilkinson says that Gates came to him at the last moment with an apology, and that the duel did not take place, though it was currently reported in the army to the contrary. A general officer, writ- ing from White Plains, September, 1778, says: "General Gates fouglit a duel with ^Ir. Wilkinson. General Gates's pistols Avould not give fire, but flashed twice. Wilkinson's gave fire, but the balls did not take effect." " Wilky, " as he was called in the army, was elegant in person aud manners. Burr and jNIatthias Ogden were recommended to Sullivan by Gates in November, 1775, for positions, in reward for past ser- vices. Both accompanied Arnold to Quebec. Colonel Burr's eventful career is familiar. His eye was remarkably piercing and brilliant. With talents equal to any position, he seems to have been formed by nature for a conspirator. The courtliness of his manner and address gave him a fatal ascendency over both sexes, of which he did not scru]ile to avail himself. The death of Hamilton and the ruin of Blennerhassett painfully illustrate the career of Aaron Burr. THE CONTINENTAL TRENCHES. 105 It is not a little curious that Arnold, Burr, and Silas Deane, who, it is believed, was more sinned against than sinning, were from the same State. It is also a coincidenee that the two former in their young, chivalric days should have fallen in love with two young ladies of the New England capital, both celebrated for their beauty. Ai-nold lost his heart to the " heavenly Miss Deblois," and laid at her feet the spoils of rich stuffs which he had ignobly plundered from the shops of Mon- treal. His suit was, however, unsuccessful ; for when did a Boston girl become the mother of traitors 1 Burr, on his part, improved a visit which ]\Iadam Hancock, the governor's aunt, was paying bis uncle at Fairfield, to lay siege to the heart of Dorothy Quincy, who was then under the protection of Madam Hancock. Aaron was then a handsome yomig fellow of very pretty fortune ; but the dowager, who was apprehensive that he might defeat her purpose of uniting Miss Quincy to her nephew, would not leave them a moment togethei". If we are to believe report, the lady was not insensible to the insinuating manners of young Burr. John Vanderlyn, the painter, owed his rescue from the ob- scurity of a village blacksmith's shop to the acuteness and patronage of Colonel Burr. The latter, while journeying in the interior of New York, was much struck by a little pen-and-ink drawing that hung over the fireplace in the bar-room of a tavern. The lad was sent for, and, on parting, Colonel Burr said to him : " Put a shirt in your pocket, come to New York, and inquire for Aaron Burr; he will take care of you." Tlie boy followed his patron, who sent him to Paris, where he achieved a reputation that justified the sagacity of the then Vice-President of the United States. Among the officers who served on Winter Hill, and who subsequently acquired fame, were Henry Dearborn, John Brooks, and Joseph Cilley. Dearborn was a captain in Stark's regi- ment, Brooks major of Bridges', and Cillej^ of Poor's regiment. Dearborn and Brooks became very distinguished in military and civil life : both testified their affection for Alexander Scammell by naming a son for that lamented oflicer ; both fought with conspicuous valor at Saratoga. 106 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. JJuring the battle of Monmouth a corps commauded by- Colonel Dearborn acquitted themselves with such undaunted bravery that they attracted particular notice. A Southern officer of rank rode up to Dearborn and inquired " who they were, and to what portion of America that regiment belonged." The Colonel replied in this laconic and soldierly manner : " Full-blooded Yankees, by G-d, sir, from the State of New Hampshire." * The same anecdote has been related of Colonel Cilley. The Germans of Burgoyne's army, to the number of about nineteen hundred, took np their quarters in "the liarracks and huts on Winter Hill which had been used by the Ameri- cans. General liiedesel, ^\'ith liis family, were ac- commodated in a farm- liouse, where he was oliliged to content him- M'lf with a room and a garret, with nothing bet- ter than straw for a couch. Tlie General's biographer continues the description: " The landlord was very kind, but his other half was a veritable dragon, doing every- thing to ofi'end and annoy her obnoxious guests. But, as it was impossible to find another place, they were obliged to put up with everything rather than be driven from the house." After a sojourn here of three weeks, the General and Madame Riedesel were furnished with excellent quarters at Cambridge. Several of the officers Avere allowed to reside at that place and at Medford, but none were allowed to pass into Boston Avithout special permission. The officers and soldiers had the privilege of going, first a mile, and eventually three miles, from their * Mrs. Warren. HESbl \N !• I \i THE CONTINENTAL TEENCHES. 107 barracks. Colouel William Eayraond Lee commanded on Winter Hill at the time of the arrival of the Hessians. These mercenaries were employed, it is said, at the instiga- tion of Lord George Germaine. The British government stipu- lated with the Landgrave of Hesse to pay £ 30 sterling for every man that did not return, and £ 15 sterling for each one disabled, so that it was commonly said, after a battle in which the Hessians were engaged, that theh* loss was the Landgrave's gain. Similar treaties were made with the Duke of Lrunswick and the Count of Hanau. We make the following extracts, which serve to convey an accurate idea of the condition of things on Winter Hill as they appeared to the German prisoners, from General liiedesel's memoirs : — " The camp of the prisoners was encircled by a chain of outposts. The officers, who were permitted to go somewhat beyond the camp, were obliged to promise in writing, on their word of honor, to go no farther beyond it than a mile and a half. Within this space are the villages Cambridge, Mystic, or Medford, and a part of Charlestown. In these places the generals and brigadiers could select lodgings, for which, of course, they had to pay dearly. After a while this per- mission Avas extended to other staff and subaltern officers. Only a few of the Brunswiekers availed themselves of this pennission, pre- ferring to remain in their miserable barracks, and thus share all inconveniences with their men. " The camp was located on a height, which, to a distance of eight miles, was surroiinded with woods, thus presenting a splendid view of Boston, the harlior, and the vast ocean. The barracks hail been built in 1775, at the time that the Americans first took up arms, and upon these very heights took their first position against General Gage. These heights were fortified. " When the fatigued and worn-out troops arrived here on the 7th of November they found not the least thing for their sup]iort. A little straw and some wood was everything that was furnished to the soldiers. The officers and privates were obliged to repair the bar- racks as well as they could, although they had neither tools nor ma- terials with which to do it. Necessity, however, which is the mother of invention, accomplished incredible things." The question, " Will Yankees fight 1 " had to be settled in 108 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. the Revolution. It might he supposed that Lexington and Bunker Hill would have given a hnal answer to such queries, but they did not. The New England troops, when they came to join those from the Southern Colonies, were mercilessly ridi- culed by the chivalrous Southrons. It was Puritan and Cava- lier over again. Hear the avowal of a Pennsyh^ania officer, who evidently spoke the feeling of his section : — " In so contemptible a light were the New England men regarded, that it was scarcely held possible to conceive a case which could be construed into a reprehensible disrespect of them." The officers came in for a degree of ridicule second only to the rank and hie. " So far from aiming at a deportment which might raise them above their privates, and thence prompt them to due respect and obedience to their commands, the object was, by humility, to pre- serve the existing blessing of equality ; an illustrious instance of which was given by Colonel Putnam, the chief engineer of the army, and no less a personage than the nephew of the major-general of that name. ' What ! ' says a person, meeting him one day with a piece of meat in his hand, ' carrying home your rations yourself, Colonel 1 ' ' Yes,' says he, ' and I do it to set the officers a good example.' " This feeling, which the Southerners were at no pains to con- ceal, was not lost on the objects of it, who, nevertheless, for the most part quietly endured the opprobrium, trusting to their deeds to set them right in good time. Sullivan, who was a little quick-tempered, was rather restive under such treatment. An officer of Smallwood's Maryland regiment, wliich " was distin- guished by the most feshionaldy cut coat, the most macaroni cocked-hat, and hottest blood in the Union," had been guilty of some disrespect or disobedience to the General. He was arrested and tried, but, as the narrator ingeniously records, a majority of the officers being Southern men, the offender was acquitted with honor. Putnam and Greene were not exempt from the derision of these blue-blooded heroes. This was about the time of the disastrous campaign of Long THE CONTINENTAL TRENCHES. 109 Island. The battle of Trenton displayed the qualities of the men of New England in such a light that a more creditable feeling began to be discovered by the men of the South. The despised Yankees showed themselves true descendants of the men of Marston Moor, Dunbar, and Worcester ; they became to Washington what Cromwell's Ironsides were to the Protec- tor. The Southern cock crowed less loudly, and Northern courage, proved again and again, asserted, as it ever will assert, to its gainsayers : — " If you dare figlit to-day, come to the field ; If not, when you have stomachs." We may well pardon one of our generals a little exultation when he writes home, after the battles of Trenton and Prince- ton : — " I have been much pleased to see a day approaching to try the difference between Yankee cowardice and Southern valor. The day, or rather the days, have arrived, and all the general officers allowed, and do allow, that Yankee cowardice asstunes the shape of true valor in the field, and that Southern valor appears to be a composi- tion of boasting and conceit. General Washuigton made no scruple to say publicly that the remains of the Eastern regiments were the strength of his army, though their numbers were, comparatively speaking, but small. He calls them in front when the enemy are there. He sends them to the rear when the enemy threaten that way. All the general officers allow them to be the best of troops. The Southern otticers and soldiers allow it in time of danger, but not at all other times. Believe me, sir, the Yankees took Trenton before the other troops knew anything of the matter. More than that, there was an engagement, and, what will still surprise you more, the hne that attacked the town consisted of but eight hundred Yankees, and there were sixteen hundred Hessians to oppose them. At Prince- ton, where the I7th regiment had thrown thirty-five hundred Southern militia into the utmost confusion, a regiment of Yankees restored the day. This General Mifflin confessed to me, though the Philadelphia papers tell us a different story. It seems to have been quite forgot that, while the 17th regiment was engaging these troops, six hundred Yankees had the town to take against the 40th and 55th regiments, which they did without loss, owing to the manner of attack." 110 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. CHAPTEE V. THE OLD WAYSIDE MILL. " There watching high the least alarms, Thy rough, rude fortress gleams afar, Like some bold vet'ran gray in arms, And marked with many a seamy scar." BY far the most remarkable object to be seen in the vicinity of Boston is the Old Powder House, which stands on a little eminence hard by the road leading from Winter Hill to Arlington, — formerly the old stage-road to Keene, New Hampshire. In the day of its erection it stood at the meeting of the roads from Cambridge, Mystic, and Menotomy, — a situ- ation excellently adapted to the wants of the settlements. It is the only really antique ruin we can boast of in Massa- chusetts ; and for solitary picturesqueness, in aU New England, only its fellow, the Old Mill at Newport, can rival it. Long before you reach the spot its venerable aspect rivets the atten- tion. Its novel structure, its solid masonry, no less than the extraordinary contrast with everything around, stamp it as the handiwork of a generation long since forgotten. We are not long in deciding it to be a windmill t)f the early settlers. The Old Mill, as we .shall call it, belongs to the early part of the reign of good Queen Anne, and was doubtless erected by John Mallet, who came into possession of the site in 1703 - 04. It remained for a considerable period in the Mallet family, de- scending at last, in 1747, to Michael, son of Andrew Mallet, by whom it was conveyed in the same year to the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, for the use of " y^ Gover- nor, Council and Assembly of said province," with the right of way to and from the high-road. It had, however, ceased to be THE OLD WAYSIDE MILL. Ill used as a -wiiulmill long before tliis transfer. So tliat before Shirley's armada had set sail for Louisburg, its lusty arms had ceased to beat the air. Strange that an edifice erected to sustain life should become the receptacle of such a death-dealing sub- stance as powder ! The walls of the mill are about two feet in thickness, with an inner structure of brick, the outside of which is encased in a shell of blue stone, quarried, probably, on the hillside. Within, it has, or had, three lofts supported by oaken beams of great thickness, and having, each, about six feet of clear space between. A respectable number of visitors have carved their names on tliese timbers. There were entrances on the northwest and southwest sides, but only the latter belonged to the original edifice, the small brick structure on tlie northwest liaving been constructed at a recent date. From this southwest door expands a most charming view. The structure is capped witli a conical roof, and stands about thirty feet high, with a diameter of fifteen at the base. To find what was an isolated landmark, not so many years ago, now overlooking a populous neiglibor- hood, is strange indeed. Better yet, it is no longer a neglected ruin. Mallet's Mill ground for many an old farmstead of Middle- sex or Essex. The old farm-house in Avhich the miller dwelt stood by the roadside, where a newer habitation now is. Ten, thirty, sixty miles, and back, the farmers sent their sons to mill. The roads were few and bad. Oxen performed the labor of the fields. Those that came from a distance mounted their horses astride a sack of corn in lieu of saddle, and so performed their journey. As a historical monument, the mill is commemorative of one of the earliest hostile acts of General Gage, one which led to the most important events. At the instance of William Brattle, at that time major-general of the Massachusetts militia. General Gage sent an expedition to seize the powder in this magazine belonging to the province. About four o'clock on the morning of September 1, 1774, two hundred and .sixty soldiers embarked from Long Wharf, in Boston, in thirteen boats, and proceeded 112 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND IIIGIRVAYS. up the Mystic Eiver, landing at Ten Hills Farm, less than a mile from the Powder House. The magazine, which then con- tained two hundred and fifty half-barrels of powder, was speed- ily emptied, and the explosive mixture transported to the Castle, while a detachment of the expedition proceeded to Cambridge and brought off two field-pieces there. At the time of this occurrence William Gamage was keeper of the magazine. The news of the seizure circulated with amazing rapidity, and on the following morning several thousand of the inhabi- tants of the neighboring towns had assembled on Cambridge Common. This appears to have been the very first occasion on which the provincials assemliled in arms with the intention of opposing the forces of their king. Those men who repaired to the Common at Cambridge were the men of Middlesex ; when, therefore, we place Massachusetts in the front of the Revolu- tion, we must put Middlesex in the van. It was at this time that the lieutenant-governor (Oliver) and several of the coun- cillors were compelled to resign. The Revolution had fairly begun, and accident alone prevented the first blood being shed on Cambridge, instead of Lexington, Common. "We will not leave the old mill until we consider for a moment what a centre of anxious solicitude it had become in 1775, when the word " powder" set the whole camp in a shiver. Putnam prayed for it ; Greene, Sullivan, and the rest begged it of their provincial committees. A terrible mistake had occurred through the inadvertence of the Massachusetts Com- mittee, which had returned four hundred and eighty-five quar- ter-casks as on hand, when there were actually but thirty-eight barrels in the magazine. When Washington was apprised of this startling error, he sat for half an hour without uttei'ing a word. The generals present — the discovery was made at a general council — felt with him as if the army and the cause had received its death-blow. " The word 'Powder' in a letter," says Reed, " sets us all a-tiptoe." The heavy artillery was use- less ; they were obliged to bear with the cannonade of the rascals on Bunker Hill in silence ; and, what was worse than THE OLD WAYSIDE MILL. 113 all the rest, there were only nine rounds for the small-arms in the hands of the men. In the whole contest there was not a more dangerous hour for America. We have had occasion elsewhere to mention this scarcity of ammunition. At no time was the army in possession of abun- dance. Before Boston the cartridges were taken from the men that left camp, and fourpence was charged for every one ex- pended without jiroper account. The inhabitants were called upon to give up their window-weights to be moulded into bul- lets, and even the churchyards were laid under contribution for the leaden coats-of-arms of the deceased. The metal pij^es of the English Church of Cambridge were appropriated for a like purpose. On the lines the men plucked the fuses from the entmiy's shells, or chased the spent shot with boyish eagerness. In this way missiles were sometimes actually returned to the enemy before they had cooled. The old name of the eminence on which the Powder House stands was Quarry Hill, from the quarries opened at its base more than a century and a half ago. The region round about was, from the earliest times, known as the Stinted Pasture, and the little rivulet near at hand was called Two Penny Brook. When the province bought^the Old Mill there was but a quar- ter of an acre of land belonging to it. After the Old War the Powder House continued to be used by the State until the erec- tion, more than forty years ago, of the magazine at Cambridge- port. It was then sold, and passed into the possession of Nathan Tufts, from Avhom the place is usually known as the " Tufts Farm," but it has never lost its designation as the "Old Powder-House Farm," up to the present time. • Except that the sides of the edifice are somewhat bulged out, which gives it a portly, aldermanic appearance, and that it shows a few fissures traversing its outward crust, the Powder House is good for another century if for a day. Fortunately the iconoclasts have not yet. begun to sap its foundations. Nothing is wanting but its long arms, for the Old Mill to have stepped bodily out of a canvas of Eembrandt or a cartoon of Albert Diirer. It carries us in imagination beyond seas to the H 114 TIISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. banks of the Scheldt, — to the land of burgomasters, dikes, and guilders. Tliere is not the smallest doubt that Washington has often dismounted at the Old Mill, or that Knox came here seeking daily food for his Crown Point murtlierers. Sullivan, in whose command it was, watched over it with anxious care. It is pleasant to record the rescue of such a conspicuous and telling landmark as this from the rage of threatened demolition. This fury of progress, which has assailed Soniervillc in its high places, was here arrested by the joint action of the heirs of Xathan Tufts and of the city fathers, with the result that the permanence of tlie old building is now fully assured. These heirs, in 1S90, proposed to exec\ite a deed of gift to the city, under certain expressed conditions, of the Old Powder House and the surrovuiding grounds. This being accepted, the city acquired a much larger tract, contiguous to the first, by pur- chase, and the whole, under skilful and sympathetic treat- ment, is now converted into a beautiful park, — Nathan Tufts Park — alike a credit to those who gave and those whose taste has turned an unsightly stone quarry into a garden spot. Some necessary repairs were made in the old structure itself at this time without impairment of its general appearance to the most critical eye. Following close upon these acts, permission \vas granted to the Massachusetts Society, Sons of the Revolution, to place a bronze tablet upon the old building, reciting the leading events connected with it, as we know them. A smaller tablet, affixed to the grille closing the entrance, gives the names of the city officials under whose direction tlie good work pro- ceeded. Thus renovated, this ancient landmark tells its story with a new dignity. Sir Walter Scott has said, " Xothing is easier than to make a legend." We need not invent, but only repeat one of which the Old Mill is the subject. THE OLD WAYSIDE MILL. 115 A Legend of the Powder House. In the clay of Mallet, the miller, it was no unusual occurrence for a customer to dismount before the farm-house door after dark ; so that when, one sombre November evening, the good- man sat at his evening meal, he was not surprised to hear a horse neigh, and a faint halloo from the rider. Going to the door, the miller saw, by the light of the lan- tern he held aloft, a youth mounted on a strong beast, whose steaming flanks gave evidence that he had been pushed at the top of his speed, and whose neck was already stretched wist- fully in the direction of the miller's crib. ]\Iallet, — when was your miller aught else in song or story but a downright jolly fellow, — in cheery tones, bade the lad dismount and enter, at the same time calling his son Andre to lead the stranger's horse to the stable, and have a care for the brace of well-tilled bags that were slung across the crupper. Once within the house the new-comer seemed to shrink from the scrutiny of the miller's wife and daughters, and, notmth- standing his evident fatigue, could scarcely be prevailed upon to touch the relics of the evening repast, which the goodwife placed before him. He swallowed a few mouthfuls, and then withdrew into the darkest corner of the cavernous fireplace, where a rousing fire blazed on the liearth, crackling, and dif- fusing a generous warmth through the apartment. The stranger was a mere stripling, with a face the natural pallor of which was heightened by a pair of large, restless black eyes, that seemed never to rest on any object at which they were directed, but glanced furtively from the glistening fire- irons to the spinning-wheel at which Goodwafe Mallet was em- ployed, and from the rude pictures on the wall back to the queen's arm which hung by its hooks above the chimney-piece. " Certes," muttered Mallet, under his breath, "this fellow is no brigand, I '11 be sworn." 116 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. The habit of those days among the poorer classes was early to bed, and soon the miller set the example by taking a greasy dip-candle and saying : " Come, wife, Marie, Ivan, to bed ; and you, Andre, see that all is secured. Come, lad," — ■ beckoning to his guest, - — " follow me." Leading the way up the rickety stairs, the miller reached the garret, and, pointing to the only bed it contained, bade the wayfarer share a good night's rest with his son Andre. The startled expression of the stranger's lace, and the painful flush that lingered there, were not observed by the bluff old miller. They were plain folk, and used to entertain guests as they might. The youth entreated that if he might not have a couch to himself, he might at least sit by the kitchen tire till morning ; but his request was sternly refused by the miller, with marks of evident displeasure. " Harkye, lad," he blurted out, '"your speech is fair, and you do not look as if you would cut our throats in the dark, but if ye can't sleep with the miller's son for a bedfellow, your highness must e'en couch with the rats at the mill, for other place there is none." To his surprise the boy caught eagerly at the proposal, and, after no little per- suasion, he yielded, and conducted his fastidious visitor out into the open air, muttering liis disapproval in no stinted phrase as he took the well-trod path that led to the mill. The old mill loomed large in the obscurity, its scarce dis- tinguishable outline seeming a piece fitted into the surrounding darkness. The sails, idly flapping in the night wind, gave to the whole structure the appearance of some antique, winged monster, just stooping for a flight. The boy shivered, and drew his roquelaure closer around him. Entering the mill, the youth ascended by a ladder to the loft ; the miller fastened the oaken door and withdrew. Left alone, the strange lad turned to the narrow loophole, through which a single star was visible in the heavens, and, taking some object from his breast, pressed it to his lips. He then threw himself, sobbing, on a heap of empty bags. Silence fell upon the old miU. THE OLD WAYSIDE MILL. 117 The slumbers of the lonely occupant were erelong rudely disturbed by the sound of voices, among which he distinguished that of the miller, who appeared to be engaged in unfastening his locks in a manner far too leisurely to satisfy the haste of his companions. Another voice, one which seemed to terrify the boy by its harsh yet familiar accents, bade the miller despatch for a bungling fool. The boy, moved with a sudden impulse, drew the ladder by which he had gained the loft up to his retreat, and, placing it against the scuttle, ascended yet higher. The flash of lights below showed that the men were within, as a volley of oaths betrayed the disappointment of the princi- pal speaker at finding access cut off to the object of his pursuit. " Ho there, Claudine ! " exclaimed this person, " descend, and you shall be forgiven this escapade ; come down, I say. Curse the girl ! ■ — Miller ! another ladder, and I '11 bring her down, or my name 's -not Dick Wynne." Another ladder was brought, which the speaker, uttering wild threats, mounted, but, not finding his victim as he ex- pected at the first stage, he was compelled to climb to that above. The fugitive, crouched panting in a corner, betrayed her presence only by her quickened breathing, while the man, whose eyes were yet unaccustomed to the darkness, coidd only grope cautiously around the cramped area. Finding it impossible longer to elude her pursuer, the girl, with a piercing cry for help, attempted to reach the ladder, when the man, making a sudden effort to grasp her, missed his footing, and fell headlong through the opening. In his descent, his hand coming in contact with something, he grasped it instinctively, and felt his flight arrested at the moment a yell of horror smote upon his ears. " Damnation ! " screamed the miller, "let go the cord, or you 're a dead man." It was too late. In an instant the old mill, shaking off" its lethargy, was all astir with life. The ponderous arms were already in quick revolution, and the man was caught and crushed within the mechanism he had set in motion. The mill was stopped ; the helpless sufferer extricated and conveyed to the farm-house. He uttered but one word, " Claudine," and became insensible. lis HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. The poor Acadian peasant girl Avas one of those who had been separated from their homes by the rigorous pohcy of their conquerors. These victims were parcelled out among the dif- ferent towns like so many brutes, and Claudine had fallen into the power of a wretch. This man, who wished to degrade the pretty French gii^l to the position of his mistress, had pushed his importunities so far that at last the girl had obtained a dis- guise, and, watching her opportunity, saddled her master's horse and fled. The man, with a warrant and an officer, was, as we liave seen, close upon her track. At break of day the officer returned from the town with a chirurgeon and a clergyman. The examination of the man of medicine left no room for hope, and he gave place to the man of God. Consciousness returns for a moment to the bruised and bleeding Wynne. Powerless to move, his eyes turn to the bedside, where stands, in her proper attire, the object of his fatal passion, bitterly weeping, and holding a crucifix in her hands. Tlie morning sun gilds the old mill witli touches a Turner could not reproduce. His rays fall aslant the farm- house, and penetrate through the little diamond panes within the chamber, where a stricken group stand hushed and awe- struck in the presence of death. \; Itlliilllfll i -\; Willi IIP :| y ii , Jiiiiiii , 't , \ \ ipilillill M ' r~%\\^-m\):s THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 119 CHAPTER VI. THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. "Come pass about the bowl to me; A health to our distressed king." AS you approach Medfonl liy the Old Boston Road, you see at your left hand, standing on a rise of ground not half a mile out of the village, a mansion so strongly marked with the evidences of a decayed magnificence that your atten- tion is at once arrested, and you will not proceed without a nearer view of an ohject which has so justly excited your interest, or awakened, perhaps, a mere transient curiosity. Whatever the motive which leads you to thread the hroad avenue that leads up to tlie entrance door, our word for it you will not depart with regret that your footsteps have strayed to its portal. Built by a West-Indian nabob, inhabited by one whose character and history have been for a hundred years a puzzle to historians, ■ — a man " full of strange oaths," the very prince of egotists, and yet not without claim to our kindly con- sideration, ■ — the old house fairly challenges our inquiry. Externally the building presents three stories, the upper tier of windows being, as is itsual in houses of even a much later date, smaller than those underneath. Every pane has rattled at the boom of tlie British morning-gun on Bunker Hill ; every timber shook with the fierce cannonade which Avarned the in- vaders to their ships. The house is of brick, but is on three sides entirely sheathed in wood, while the south end stands exposed. The reason which promjited the l)uilder to make the west front by far the most ornamental does not readily appear ; but certain it is, tliat the mansion, in defiance of our homely maxim, " Put your best foot foremost," seems to have turned its back to the 120 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. highway, as if it wnuld ignore what was passing in the outer world. Sufficient unto himself, no doubt, with his gardens, his slaves, and his rich wines, was the old Antigua merchant, Isaac Royall, who came, in 1737, from his tropical home to establish his seat here in ancient Charlestown. He is said to have brought with him twenty seven slaves. In December, 1737, he laid before the General Court his petition, as follows, in regard to these "chattels": — " Petitidft of Isaac Royall, late of Antigua, now of Charlestown, in the county of Middlesex, that he removed from Antigua with his family, and T)rought with liim, among other things and chattels, a parcel of negroes, designed for his own use and not any of them for merchandise. He prays that he may not be taxed with impost." The brick quarters which the slaves occupied are situated on the south side of the mansion and front upon the court- yard, one side of which they enclose. These have remained un- changed, and are, Ave believe, the last visible relics of slavery in 'New England. The deep fireplace where the blacks pre- pared their food is still there, and the roll of slaves has cer- tainly been caUed in sight of Bunker Hill, though never on its summit. At either end of the building the brick wall, furnislied with a pair of stout chimneys, rises above the pitched roof. The cornice and corners are relieved by ornamental wood-work, while the west face is panelled, and further decorated with fluted pilasters. On tliis side, too, tlie original Avindows are seen. The Royall House stood in the midst of grounds laid out in elegant taste, and embellished Avith fi-uit-trees and shrubbery. These grounds were separated from the higliAvay by a Ioav brick wall, now demolished. The gateway opening upon the grand avenue was flanked by Avooden posts. Farther to the right was the carriage-drive, on either side of Avhich stood massive stone gate-posts, as antique in appearance as anything about the old mansion. Seventy paces back from the road, along the broad gravelled Avalk, bordered with box, brings you to the door. THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 121 A visitor arriving in a carriage either alighted at the front entrance or passed by the broad drive, under the shade of mag- nificent old elms, around into the court-yard previously men- tioned, and paved with round beach pebbles, through the interstices of which the grass grows thickly. Emerging from the west entrance-door, the old proprietor mounted the steps of the family coach, and rolled away in state to Boston Town- House, where, as a member of the Great and General Court, he long served his fellow-citizens of Charlestown. The driveway has now become a street, to the ruin of its former glory, the stately trees. Behind the house, as we view it, was an enclosed garden of half an acre or more, with walks, fruit, and a summer-house at the farther extremity. No doubt this was the favorite resort of the family and their guests. This summer-house, a veritable curiosity in its way, stood i;pon an artificial mound, with two terraces, ascended by broad fliglits of red sandstone steps. It was octagonal in form, with a bell-shaped roof, surmounted by a cupola, on which stood a figure of Mercury. At present the statue, with the loss of both wings and arms, cannot be said to resemble the ideal. All of this delightfully suggestive and picturesque affair has now disappeared except the mound itself. We discover that utility led to the elevation of the mound, within which was an ice- house, the existence of which is disclosed by a trap-door in the floor of the summer-house. An artist drew the plan of this little structure, a worthy companion of that formerly existing in Peter Paneuil's grovmds in Boston. Doubtless George Erving and Sir William Pepperell came hither to pay their court to the royalist's daughters, and greatly we mistake if its dilapidated walls might not whisper of many a love-tryst. After liaving rambled through the grounds and examined the surroundings of the mansion, we returned to the house, prepared to inspect tlie interior. Without lingering in the hall of entrance farther than to mark the elaborately carved balusters and the panelled wainscot, 6 122 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. we passed into the suite of apartments at the right hand, the reception-rooms proper of the house. These were divided in two by an arch, in which folding-doors were concealed ; and from floor to ceiling the walls were panelled in wood, the panels being of single pieces, some of them a yard in breadth. In the rear°apartment, and opening to the north, were two alcoves, each flanked by fluted pilasters, on which rested an arch en- riched with mouldings and carved ornaments. Each recess had a window furnished with seats, so inviting for a teAe-a-tete, where the ladies of the household sat with their needlework ; these windows were sealed up in winter. The heavy cornice formed an elaborate flnish to this truly elegant saloon. On the right, as the visitor entered, was a sideboard, which old-time hospitality required should be always garnished with wines, or a huge bowl of punch. The host first hlled himself a glass, and drank to his guest, who was then expected to pay the same courtesy to the master of the mansion. No little of Colonel Eoyall's wealth was founded on the traffic in Antigua rum, and we doubt not his sideboard was well furnished. In those days men drank their pint of Antigua, and carried it ott", too, with no dread of any enemy but the gout, nor feared to present themselves before ladies with the aroma of good old Xeres upon them. But we have fallen upon sadly degenerate, weak-headed times, when the young men of to-day cannot make a brace of Kew-Year's calls without an unsteady gait and tell- tale tongue. The second floor was furnished with four chambers, all open- ing on a spacious and airy hall. Of these the northwest room only demands special description. It had alcoves similar to those already mentioned in the apartment underneath, but instead of panels the walls were finished above the wainscot with a covering of leather on which were embossed, in gorgeous colors, flowers, birds, pagodas, and the concomitants of a Chinese paradise. On this side the original windows, with the small glass and heavy frames, still remain. The family of Royall in this country originated ^vith William Eoyall, or Ryal, of North Yarmouth, jSIaine, who was un- THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 123 doubteclly the person mentioned by Hazard as being sent over as a cooper or cleaver in 1629. His son, Samuel, followed the same trade of cooper in Boston as early as 1665 — 66, living "with old Samuel Cole, the comtit-maker and keeper of the first inn mentioned in the annals of Boston. His father, William Royall, had married Hebe Green, daughter of Margaret, former wife to Samuel Cole. William, another son of William, appears to have settled in Dorchester, where he died, in 1724. His son, Isaac Royall, was a soldier in Philip's War, and l)uilt the second meeting-house in Dorchester. Isaac Royall, the builder of our mansion, did not live long enough to enjoy his princely estate, dying in 1739, not long after its completion. His widow, who survived him eight years, died in this house, but was interred from Colonel Oliver's, in Dorchester, April 25, 1747. The pair share a common tomb in the old burying-place of that ancient town. Isaac Royall the Second took good care of his patrimony. He was the owner of considerable property in Boston and Med- ford. Among other estates in the latter town, he- Avas the proprietor of the old Admiral Yernon Tavern, which was stand- ing in 1743, near the bridge. A visitor preceding us by a century and a quarter thus speaks of the same house we are describing : — " On our journey past through Mistick which is a small Town of abt a hundred Houses, Pleasantly Situated, near to which is a Fine Country Seat belonging to Mr. Isaac Eoyall being one of the Grand- est in N. America." When the Revolution begun Colonel Royall fell upon evil times. He was appointed a councillor by mandamus, but de- clined serving, as Gage says to Lord Dartmouth, from timidity. His own account of his movements after the beginning of " these troubles " is such as to confirm the governor's opinion, while it exhibits him as a loyalist of a very moderate cast. He had prepared to take passage for the West Indies, intend- ing to embark from Salem for Antigua, but, having gone into Boston the Sunday previous to the battle of Lexington, and 124 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. remained there until that affair occurred, he was, by the course of events, shut up in the town. He sailed for Halifax very soon, still intending, as he says, for Antigua, but on the arrival of his son-in-law, George Erving, and his daughter, with the troops from Boston, he was by them persuaded to sail for Eng- land, whither his other son-in-law, Sir William Pepperell, had preceded him. Upon his arrival in England he waited upon Lord Dartmouth and Lord Germaine, but was not received by them. Governor Pownall, in the course of a long conversation with Colonel Eoyall, expressed a strong regard for the Province in general, as being a very fine country and a good sort of people, and, while lamenting tlie difficulties, said that if his advice had pre- vailed they would not have happened. Eoyall also exchanged visits with Governors Bernard and Hutchinson, but, neglecting an invitation to dine with the latter, the acquaintance dropped. Colonel Eoyall, after the loss of some of his nearest relatives and of his own health, begged earnestly to be allowed to return " home " to Medford, and to be relieved from the acts which had been passed affecting the absentees. The estate had, how- ever, been taken out of the hands of his agent. Dr. Tufts, in 1788, under the Act of Confiscation. In Colonel Eoyall's plea to be permitted to return home, in 1789, half ludicrous, half pathetic, he declares he was ever a true friend of the Province, and expresses the wish to marry again in his own coimtry, where, having already had one good wife, he was in hopes to get another, and in some degree repair his loss. Penelope Eoyall, sister of Isaac, was married to Colonel Henry Vassall of Cambridge. Peace be with the absconding royalist for an inoffensive, well-meaning, but shockingly timid old tory ! He would fain have lived in amity with all men and with his king too, but the crisis engulfed him even as his valor forsook him. His fears counselled him to run, and he obeyed. But he is not for- gotten. His large-hearted benevolence showed itself in many bequests to that country to which he was alien only in name. The Eoyall Professorship of Law at Harvard was founded by THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 125 his bounty. He has a town (Eoyalston) in Massachiisetts named for him, and is remembered with affection in the place of his former abode. After inspecting the kitchen, with its monstrous brick oven still in perfect repair, its iron chimney-back, with the Eoyall arms impressed upon it, we inquired of the lady who had kindly attended us if she had ever been disturbed by strange visions or frightful dreams. She looked somewhat perplexed at the question, but replied in the negative. " They were all good people, you know, who dwelt here in bygone times," she said. When the yeomen began pouring into the environs of Boston, encircling it with a belt of steel, the New Hampshire levies pitched their tents in Medford. They found the Eoyall man- sion in the occupancy of Madam Eoyall and her accomplished daughters, who willingly received Colonel John Stark into the house as a safeguard against insult or any invasion of the estate the soldiery might attempt. A few rooms were set apart for the use of the bluft' old ranger, and he, on his part, treated the family with considerate respect. Stark's wife afterwards fol- lowed him to camp, and when Dorchester Heights were occu- pied was by him directed to mount on horseback and watch the passage of his detachment over to West Boston. If his landing was opposed, she was to ride into the country and spread the alarm. These were the men and women of 177G. John Stark was formed by nature for a leader. Though the reins of discipline chafed his impetuous spirit, few men pos- sessed in a greater degree the confidence of his soldiers. The very hairs of his head seem bristling for the fray. A counte- nance strongly marked, high cheek-bones, eyes keen and thought- ful, nose prominent, — in short, the aspect of an eagle of his own mountains, with a soul as void of fear. He was at times somewhat "splenetive and rash." While stationed here he one day sent a file of his men to arrest and bring to camp a civilian accused of some extortion towards his men. Such acts, with- out the knowledge of his general, were sure to bring reproof upon Stark, which he received with tolerable grace. But he was always ready to render ample satisfaction for a wrong. The 126 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HICxHWAYS. election for colonel of the J^ew Hampshire regiment was held in the public hall of BUlings's tavern in Medford, afterwards called the New Hampshire Hall. It Avas a hand vote, and some, they say, held uj) botli hands for John Stark. In the fall of 1770 a small party of the British came np the lake before Ticonderoga to take soundings of the depth of water. From the prospect of attack Gates summoned a council of war. There were no officers who had been in actual service except Gates and Stark. Gates took Stark aside, and the fol- lowing dialogue ensued : — Gates. What do you think of it, John ? Stark. I think if they come we must fight them. Gates. Psho, John ! Tell me what your opinion is, seriously. Stark. My opinion is, that they will not fire a shot against this place this season, but whoever is here next must look out. Stark and (Jrates were very intimate ; they addressed each other familiarly' by their given names. The events justified Stark's sagacity. It is also related that at the memorable council of war where the movement to Trenton was decided upon, Stark, who came in late, said to Washington, " Your men have long been accus- tomed to place dependence upon spades, pickaxes, and hoes for safety, but if you ever mean to establish the independence of the United States, you must teach them to put confidence in their fire-arms." Washington answered, " That is what Ave have agreed upon ; avo are to march to-morrow to the attack of Trenton ; you are to take command of the right wing of the advanced guard, and General Greene the left." Stark observed he could not have been better suited. It is noticeable that several officers attached to the brigade on Winter Hill served in this action, namely, Sullivan, Stark, Scammell, and Wilkinson. One of Washington's most trusted officers thus Avrote to a friend in Boston of the battle of Bennington : — " The ncAvs of the Adctory at the northward, under General Stark, mvist give you singular satisfaction; indeed, it Avas a most noble stroke for the oldest troops, but the achievement by militia doubly enhances the value of the action. America will ever be free if all her sons exert themselves equally." I THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 127 This battle, like that of Trenton, was an act of inspiration. We cannot, at this distance of time, appreciate its electric effect upon the public mind, then sunk in despondency l)y the fall of Ticonderoga, and the rapid and unchecked advance of Burgoyne. It was generally believed that Boston was the British general's destination. Great alarm prevailed in conse- quence, and many families removed from the town. The news of Bennington, therefore, was received with great joy. At sundown about one hundred of the first gentlemen of the town, with all the strangers then in Boston, met at the Bunch of Grapes in State Street, Avhere good liquors and a side table were provided. In the street were two brass held-picjces with a detachment of Colonel Craft's regiment. In the balcony of the Old State House all the musicians of Henry Jackson's regi- ment were assembled, with their fifes and drums. The ball was opened by the discharge of thirteen cannon, and at every toast three guns were fired, followed by a flight of rockets. About nine o'clock two barrels of grog were brought into the street for the people that had collected there. The whole affair was conducted Avith the greatest propriety, and by ten o'clock every man was at his home. The effect on enlistments was equally happy. In the back parts of the State the militia turned out to a man. The best farmers went into the ranks, and Massachusetts soon enrolled the finest body of militia that had taken the field. The sea- ports were more backward. The towns that had not secured their quotas for the continental army were giving £100, lawful money, bounty for men. Some towns gave as much as five hundred dollars for each man enlisted. Captain Barns, who brought the news of the battle of Ben- nington to Boston, related that, " after the first action, General Stark ordered a hogshead of rum for the refreshment of the militia ; but so eager were they to attack the enemy, upon be- ing reinforced, that they tarried not to taste of it, but rushed on the enemy with an ardor perhaps unparalleled." Stark sent to Boston not long after the battle the trophies, presented to the State, now placed in the Senate Chamber. 128 HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. The drum is one of several captured on the field, while the sword, carried by one of Eiedesel's dragoons, required no pygmy to wield it ; in fact, the hat and sword of a German dragoon were as heavy as the whole equipment of a British soldier. There are other memorials of the battles of Bennington and of Saratoga preserved in Boston. The original orders of Bur- goyne to Baum were deposited with the jNIassachnsetts Histori- cal Society by General Lincoln, while the capitulation of Sara- toga is in the Public Library. It is n^t a little remarkable, too, that tlie original draft of the surrender of ('ornwallis was found among the papers of General Knox, now in the archives of the Historic Genealogical Society. All these are memorials of great events, and are of inestimable value. What is really noticeable about the battle of Bennington is, that Baum, find- ing himself surrounded, had strongly intrenched himself. His works Avere attacked and carried by raw militia, of whom Baum took little note because they were in their shirt-sleeves. He held his adversaries cheaply and paid dearly for his confi- dence. Of Stark he doubtless thought as one " That never set a squadron in the field, Nor the division of a battle knows More than a spinster." The Bennington prisoners arrived at Boston on Friday, Sep- tember 5, 1777, and were confined on board guard-ships in the harbor. Some of the officers were permitted to quarter in farm-houses along the route, where they soon had the melancholy pleasure of welcoming their brethren of the main army. Of the Hessians confined on board the guard-ships, ten made their escape on the night of the 26tli of October, in a most daring manner. Having, through the connivance of their friends outside, obtained a boat, in Avhicli arms were provided, they boarded the sloop Julia off" the Hardings, took possession of her, and bore away for the southward, expecting, no doubt, to fall in with some of the enemy's vessels of war in Long Island Sound. Some of the guns captured at Bennington by Stark fell THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 129 again into British possession at the surrender of Detroit. The inscriptions were read with much curiosity by the captors, who observed that they would now add a line to the history. The British officer of the day directed the evening salutes to be fired from them. When Stark heard of the loss of his guns he was much incensed. These pieces again became American at the capture of Fort George. Two of the lightest metal were pre- sented by Congress to the State of Vermont. In 1819 Stark was still living, the last survivor of the American generals of the Revolution. His recollections were then more distinct in relation to the events of the Old French ^Yar than of that for independence. Bunker Hill, Trenton, and Bennington should be inscribed upon his tomb. Xot long after his arrival at the camp General Lee took up his quarters in the Eoyall mansion, whose echoing corridors suggested to his fancy the name of Hobgoblin Hall. But Washington, as elsewhere related, caused him to remove to a point nearer his command. After Lee, Sullivan, attracted no doubt by the superior comforts of the old country-seat, unwa- rily fell into the same error. He, too, was remanded to his brigade by the chief, wdio knew the impulsive Sullivan would not readily forgive himself if anything befell the left wing of the army in his absence. In these two cases Washington exhibited his adhesion to the maxim that a general should sleep among his troops. The Eoyall mansion came, in 1810, into the possession of Jacob Tidd, in whose family it remained half a century, until its identity with the old royalist had become merged in the new proprietor. It has been subsequently owned by George L. Barr and by George C. Nichols, but is now unoccupied. The Tidd House .is the name by which it is best known, and all old citizens have a presentiment tliat it will not much longer retain a foothold among its modern neighbors. The surveyor has appeared on the scene with ctmipass and level. Not one of the granite gate-pos'ts remains in tlie driveway, while the stumps of the once splendid elms, planted by Eoyall, lie scat- tered about. I 130 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Xothing goes to our heart more than to see one of these gigantic okl trees, which it has cost a century to grow, struck clown in an hour ; hut when whole ranks of them are swept away, liow quickly the scene changes from picturesque beauty to insignificance ! At the forks of every road leading into their villages the old settlers were wont to plant an elm, where weary travellers and footsore beasts might, in time, gather under its spreading branches, sheltered from the burning rays of the noonday sun. In the market-place, too, they dug their wells, but planted the tree beside. Many of these yet remain ; and if in any one thing our New England towns may claim pre-emi- nence, it is in the beauty of these trees, — the admiration of every beholder, the gigantic ftms that cool and purify the air around our habitations. Dickens, no mean observer, said our country- houses, in their spruce tidiness, their white paint, and green blinds, looked like houses built of cards, which a breath might blow away, so fragile and unsubstantial did they appear. Eeader, if you could stand upon one of those blufts that rise out of our Western prairies, like headlands out of the ocean, and, after looking down upon the town at your feet, wellnigh treeless and blistering in the sun, coidd then descend into the brown and dusty streets, and note the care bestowed upon the growth of a few puny poplars or maples, you would come back to your Xew England home, all glorious in its luxuriance and Avealth of every form of forest beauty, prepared to make the destruction of one of these ancestral elms a penal offence. " God the first garden made, and the first city Cain ! " Medford possesses other elements of attraction to the anti- quary besides its old houses. Until Maiden Bridge was built the great tide of travel north and east passed through the town. The visitor now finds it a very staid, quiet sort of place. Travel has so changed both its mode and its channels that we can form fittle idea of a country highway even fifty years ago. Travellers of every condition then pursued their route by the public roads : the wealthy or well-to-do generally in chaises or phaetons ; the professional gentleman on horseback, — a cus- THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 131 torn SO graceful and healtli-giving that we should not be sorry to see its revival in Xew England. Whole families — men, women, and even little children — passed and repassed on foot, carrying with them their scanty effects. Then there was the mail-coach, — a puffy, groaning vehicle, bidging out at the top and sides, and Imng on thoroughbraces. On a rough road it lurched like a Chinese junk in a heavy sea-way, and the pas- sengers not unfrequently provided themselves with brandy, lemons, and other palliatives against sea-sickness. Besides these well-marked constituents of the stream, a nondescript element of stragglers drifted along the edges of the current until caught in some eddy which cast them up at the tavern door. The public inn then had a relative importance to the world of wayfarers that is not now represented by any brown-stone or marble front hotel. The distances from Boston in every direc- tion were reckoned to tlie taverns. The landlord was a man of note. He Avas the village newsmonger, oracle, and referee in all disputes. "When he had a full house his guests were dis- tributed about the floors, and the dining-table commanded a premium. The charge for meals or for baiting a horse was a quarter of a dollar. If the world moved then more slowly than it now does, it was not the less content. The tavern was also the political centre where caucuses were held and the state of the country discussed. It was ofttimes there town-meetings were convened, and in war times it was the recruiting rendezvous. Proclamations, notices of that mul- tifarious character pertaining to the interior economy of the village, from the reward for the apprehension of a thief to the loss of a favorite brooch, were affixed to the bar-room walls. The smell of old Santa Cruz or other strong waters saluted the nostrils of all .who entered the public room, and yet there was call for neither fumigation nor exorcism. The mail-coach, which only stopped to change horses, occupied forty-eight hours in going over this route from Boston to Portland. Concord coaches succeeded the old English pattern, and still traverse here and there a few byways into which the railway disdains to turn aside. 132 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. The mail-coach, too, bore its fixed relation to the population along the line. It marked the time of day for the laborers in the helds, who leaned on hoe or scythe until it was lost to view. The plough stopped in the furrow, the smith rested his sledge on his anvil, while the faces of young and old were glued to the window-jxmes as this moving piece of the f;ir-away metropolis rolled along. Entering the town, the driver cracked his whip, his leaders sprang out into a brisker gait, and the lumbering vehicle drew up with a flourish beside the tavern door. The first of the Medford ordinaries, so far as known, goes back to about 1690, Nathaniel Pierce being mine host. The General Court licensed him to sell not less than a gallon of liquor at a time to one person, and prohibited the sale of smaller quantities by retail. The house was at one time OAvned by Colonel Royall, being known at different times by the name of the " Eoyal Oak" and "Admiral Vernon." In 1775 it became the Eevolutionary headquarters, kept by Roger Billings, and was long afterwaril the principal tavern in the town. The house stood on the corner of Main and Union Streets, and Avas destroyed by fire in 1850. The old Fountain Tavern, so called from its sign representing a fLiuntain pouring forth punch, is no more standing on the old Salem road, at the corner of Fountain Street. Brooks, in his History of Medford, says it was first called the " Two Palaverers." The two large trees in front had each a platform in its branches, connected with each other and with the house by Avooden bridges. In summer these retreats Avere resorted to by the guests for tea-parties or punch-drinking. The house Avas built in 1725, and is extremely unique in appearance. The name of Medford is knoAvn in every seaport under the sun for its stanch and Avell-lmilt ships. Of the thousands that float the ocean bearing any flag aloft, none sail more proudly than those of Curtis or Magoun. Tliis industry, which has dated from the time Avhen Englishmen first set foot on the shores of the Mystic, has of late years fallen into decay, but once more the fiimiliar sound of the shipAvright's beetle is THE PLANTATION AT MV'STIC. 133 beginning to be heard on its banks. Cradock sent over skilled artisans, who at once laid down the keels that have increased so prodigiously. Although we are told his men had a vessel of a hundred tons on the stocks in 1632, the earlier craft were chiefly pinnaces, galleys, and snows, — the latter being rigged some- what after the fashion of our barks. No branch of mechani- cal skill appears to have developed with such rapidity in New England as shipbuilding. The timber, which is now brought hundreds of miles to the yards, then grew along the shores. We now bring the keel from Virginia, the frame from the Gulf States, and the masts from Canada. New England, which does not furnish a single product entering into the construction of the ship, forges the anchor which holds her to the bottom; twists the hemp into shrouds, rigging, and those spiders'-webs aloft whose intricacies confound the eye ; spins the cotton which hangs from the yards, and weaves the colors that float at the mast-head. In the public square of Medford is an excellent specimen of the architecture of the last century, now occupied by offices, but originally a dwelling. A few rods distant in a westerly direction, wliere the Savings Bank now is, was the house Avhich Governor Brooks inhabited, and at the corner Avas the stone wliere he was accustomed to mount liis horse. A plain granite shaft is erected over the remains of this distinguished soldier and civilian in the old burial-ground. Behind the Savings Bank, on a rising ground, is one of the early garrison-liouses, built of brick, and looking none the worse for its long conflict with time, tlianks to tlie owner, Gen. Samuel C. Lawrence, beside whose elegant mansion it stands conspicuous, a foil to the symmetry and gracefulness of modern art. As a soldier Governor Brooks appeared to his greatest ad- vantage in the battle of Bemis's Heights, where he was in com- mand of the old Eighth, Michael Jackson's regiment. His own relation of the incidents of that day to General Sumner is not, even now, devoid of interest. " On the 7tli of October, the day of the last battle with General Burgoyne, General Arnold and several officers dined with General 134 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Gates. I was among the company, and well remember that one of the dishes was an ox's heart. While at tal)le we heard a firing i'rom the advanced picket. The armies were al)nut two miles liom each other. The firing increasing, we all rose from tahle ; and General Arnold, addressing General Gates, said, ' Shall I go ont and see what is the matter V General Gates made no reply, but upon being pressed, said, ' I am afraid to trust you, Arnold.' To which Arnold answered, ' Pray let me go ; I will be cai'eful ; and if our advance does not need support, I will promise not to commit you.' Gates then told him he might go and see what the firing meant." Colonel Brooks repaired to his post, and under the impetuous Arnold, who seemed fully imbued on tliis day with the rar/e militaire, stormed Brey man's Fort, and thus mastered the key to the enemy's position. Arnold, once in action, forgot his promise to Gates, who vainly endeavored to recall him from the field. Had his life been laid down there, his name would have been as much revered as it is now contemned by his countrymen. The object of jiaramount interest which INIedford contains is the plantation house of Governor Cradock, or " Mathias Char- terparty," as the malcontent Morton styled him. This house is the monarch of all those now existing in North Ameiica. As we trace a flimily back generation after generation until we bring all collateral branches to one common source in the first colo- nist, so we go 'from one oLl house to another until we finally come to a pause before this patriarch by the sea. It is the handiwork of the first planters in the vicinity of Boston, and is one of the first, if not the very first, of the brick houses erected within the government of John Winthroji. Every man, Avoman, and child in Medford knows the " Old Fort," as the older inhabitants love to call it, and will point you to the site with visible pride that their pleasant town contains so interesting a relic. Turning your back upon the village, and your face to the east, a brisk walk of ten minutes along the banks of the Mystic, and you are in presence of the object of your search. A very brief survey establishes the fact that this was one of THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 135 those houses of refuge scattered through the New England settlements, into which the inhabitants might fly for safety upon any sudden alarm of danger from the savages. The situation was well chosen for security. It has the river in front, marshes to the eastward, and a considerable extent of level meadow behind it. As it was from this latter quarter tliat an attack was most to be apprehended, greater precautions were taken to secure that side. The house itself is placed a little above the general level. Standing for a century and a half in the midst of an extensive and open field, enclosed by jjalisades, and guarded with gates, a foe could not approach un- seen by day, nor find a vantage-ground from which to assail the inmates. Here, then, the agents of Matthew Cradock, first Governor of the Massachusetts Company in England, built the house we are describing. In the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, at Bos- ton, hangs the charter of " The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England," brought over by Win- throp in 1630. The great seal of England, a most ponderous and convincing symbol of authority, is appended to it. It is well known that the settlement at Salem, two years earlier, under the leadership of Endicott, was begun by a com- mercial company in England, of which Matthew Cradock was Governor. In order to secure the emigration of such men as Winthrop, Dudley, Sir E. Saltonstall, Johnson, and others, Cradock proposed, in July, 1629, to transfer the government from the company in England to the inhabitants here. As he was the wealthiest and most influential person in the associa- tion, his proposal was acceded to. We cannot enter, here, into the political aspects of this couj) d'etat. It must ever arrest the attention and challenge the admiration of the student of American history. In defiance of the crown, which had merely organized them into a mer- cantile corporation, like the East India Company, with officers resident in England, they proceeded to nullify the clear intent of their charter by removing the government to America. The project was first mooted by Cradock, and secrecy enjoined upon 136 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. the members of the company. Tliat he was the avowed author of it must be our apology for introduciug the incident. This circumstance renders Matthew Cradock's name conspicuous iu the annals of New England. Cradock never came to America, but there is little doubt that he entertained the purpose of doing so. He sent over, how- ever, agents, or " servants," as they were styled, who estab- lislied the plantation at Mystic Side. He also had houses at Ipswich and at Marblehead, for fishery and traffic. For a shrewd man of business Cradock seems to have been singularly unfortunate in some of his servants. One of these, Philip liatcliff, being convicted " or-e tenus of most foul and slanderous invectives " against the churches and government, was sentenced to be whipped, lose his ears, and be banished the plantation. Winthrop was complained of by Dudley because he stayed the execution of the sentence of banishment, but answered that it was on the score of humanity, as it was winter and the man must have perished. Eatclilf afterwards, in con- junction with Thomas Morton and Sir Christopher Gardiner, procured a petition to the Lords of the Privy Council, before whom Cradock was summoned. Morton, who Avas sent away to England for his mad pranks and contempt of Puritan authority, wrote as follows of tliis examination : — " My Lord Canterbury having with my Lord Privy Seal caused all Mr. Cradock's letters to be viewed, and liis apology iu particular iov the brethren here, protested against hiui and Mr. Humfry [another of the undertakers] that they were a couple of imposterous knaves, so that for all their great friends they departed the council chamber in our view with a pair of cold shoulders. "As for Ratoliff, he was comforted liy their lordships with the croppings of Mr. Winthrop's ears, which shows what opinion is held among them of King Winthrop with all his inventions and his Amsterdam fantastical ordinances, his preachings, marriages, and other abusive ceremonies, which do exemplify his detestation of the Church of England and the contempt of his majesty's authority and wholesome laws which are and will be established here invita Minerva." THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 137 In the letter to Winthrop which follows, printed in the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections, the old merchant complains bitterly of the conduct of another of his agents : — " London 21 Febr. 1636. " Jno. Joliff writes mee the manner of Mr Mayheues accounts is, that what is not sett down is spent ; most extremely I am abused My seruants write they drinke nothing but water & I haue in an account lately sent me Red Wyne, Sack & Aqua Vitae in one yeere aboue 300 gallons, besides many other intollerable abuses, 10 I for tobacco etc. My papers are misselayd but if you call for the coppyes of the accounts sent me and examine vppou what ground it is made you shall find I doubt all but forged stufte. " Mathewe Cradock." "Wood, one of the early chroniclers, tells us that Master Cradock had a park impaled at Mystic, where his cattle were kept until it could be stocked with deer ; and that he also was engaged in shipbuilding, a vessel of a " hundred tunne " having been built the previous year (1G32). It may be, too, that Cradock's artisans built here for Winthrop the little " Blessing of the Bay," launched upon the Mystic tide July 4, 1631, — an event usually located at the governor's farm, at Ten Hills. This house, a nnirpie specimen of the architecture of the early settlers, must be considered a gem of its kind. It is not disguised by modern alterations in any essential feature, but bears its credentials on its face. Two hundred and thirty odd Xew England Avinters have searched every cranny of the old fortress, whistled down the big chimney-stacks, rattled the win- dow-panes in impotent rage, and, departing, certified to us the stanch and trusty handiwork of Cradock's English craftsmen. Time has dealt gently with this venerable relic. Like a veteran of many campaigns, it shows a few honorable scars. The roof has swerved a little from its true outline. It has been denuded of a chimney, and has parted reluctantly with a dormer- window. The loopholes, seen in the front, were long since closed ; the race they were to defend against has hardly an existence to-day. The windows have been enlarged, with an 138 HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. effect on the ensemble, as Hawthorne says in a similar case, of rouging the cheeks of one's grandmother. Hoary v\-ith age, it is yet no ruin, but a comfortable habitation. How many generations of men — and our old house has sel- dom if ever been untenanted — have lived and died within those walls ! When it was built Charles I. reigned in Old Eng- land, and Cromwell had not begun his great career. Peter the Great was not then born, and the house was waxing in years when Frederick the Great appeared on the stage. We seem to be speaking of recent events when Louis XVI. suffered by the axe of the guillotine, and Napoleon's sun rose in splendor, to set in obscurity. The Indian, who witnessed its slowly ascending Avails with wonder and misgiving ; the Englishman, whose axe wakened new echoes in the primeval forest ; the colonist native to the soil, who battled and died within view, to found a new nation, — all have passed away. But here, in this old mansion, is the silent evidence of those great epochs of history. It is not clear at what time the house was erected, but it has usually been fixed in the year 1634, when a large grant of land was made to Cradock by tlie General Court. The bricks are said to have been burned near by. There was some attempt at ornament, the lower course of the belt being laid with moulded bricks so as to form a cornice. The loopholes were for defence. The walls were half a yard in thickness. Heavy iron bars secured the arched windows at the back, and the entrance-door was encased in iron. The fire-proof closets, huge chimney- stacks, and massive hewn timbers told of strength and dura- bility. A single pane of glass, set in iron, and placed in the back wall of the western chimney, overlooked the approach from the town. The builders were Englishmen, and, of course, followed their English types. They named their towns and villages after the sounding nomenclature of Old England ; Avhat more natural than that they should wish their homes to resemble those they had left behind 1 Such a house might have served an inhabi- tant of the Scottish border, with its loopholes, narrow windows. THE PLANTATION AT MYSTIC. 139 and doors sheathed in iron. Against an Indian foray it was impregnable. Cradock was about the only man connected with the settle- ment in Massachusetts Bay whose means admitted of such a house. Both Winthrop and Dudley built of wood, and the former rebuked the dejjuty for what he thought an unreason- able expense in finishing his own house. Many brick buildings were erected in Boston during the first decade of the settlement, but we have .found none that can claim such an ancient pedi- gree as this of which we are writing. It is far from improljable that, having in view a future residence in New England, Cradock may have given directions for or prescribed the plan of this house, and that it may have been the counterpart of his own in St. Swithen's Lane, near London Stone. . " Then went I forth by London Stone Thronghout all Canwick Street." The plantation, with its green meadows and its stately forest- trees, was a manor of which Cradock was lord and master. His grant extended a mile into the country from the river-side in all places. Though absent, he was considered nominally pres- ent, and is constantly alluded to by name in the early records. Cradock was a member of the Long Parliament, dying in 1G41. The euphonious name of Mystic has been supplanted by Med- foril, the Meadford of Dudley and the rest. It is not to be expected that a structure belonging to so re- mote a period, for IS'ew England, should be without its legend- ary lore. It is related that the old fort Avas at one time beleaguered for several days by an Indian war-party, who at length retired baffled from the strong walls and death-shots of the ganison. As a veracious historian, we are compelled to add that we know of no authentic data of such an occurrence. Indians were plenty enough in the vicinity, and, though gen- erally peaceful, they were regarded with more or less distrust. The settlers seldom stirred abroad without their trusty match- locks and well-filled bandoleer. We cannot give a better pic- ture of the times than by invoking the aid of MacFingal : — 140 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. " For once, for fear of Indian beatinji, Our grandsires bore their guns to meeting; Each man e(iiiipped on Sunday morn With iisaini-book, shot, and powder- horn; And lookeii in form, as all must grant, Like the ancient, true church militant ; Or tierce, like modem deep divines. Who fight with quills, like porcujjines." In all probability tliis most interesting landmark of the beginnings of New England, so suggestive too of the many changes wrought by the passing centuries under its own shadow, as one might say, so knit with the fortunes of an infant com- monwealth, would have gone to irremediable ruin and decay but for the patriotic action of Genei'al Samuel C. Lawrence, who bouglit tlie Cradock House to save it from threatened demolition. lee's headquarteks and vicinity. 141 CHAPTEE VII. lee's headquarters and vicinity. " Night closed around tlie conqueror's way. And lightnings showed the distant hill, Where those who lost that dreadful day Stood few and faint, but fearless still." DESCENDING into the valley between Winter and Pros- pect Hills, any search for traces of the works which existed here in 1775-76 would be fruitless; every vestige had disap- peared fifty years ago. The site of the star fort laid down on the map was a little north of Medford Street and east of Walnut Street. The structure of the ground shows that there was once a considerable elevation here, which commanded the approach by the low land between Prospect, Winter, and Ploughed Hills. On the little byway now dignified with the name of Syca- more Street stands the old farm-house which was the headquar- ters for a time of General Charles Lee. Long ago, I found there Oliver Tufts, whose father, John Tufts, resided tliere in Revolutionary times, and planted with his own hands tlie beau- tiful elm that now stretches its protecting branches over tlie old homestead. When the house was occupied by the mercurial Lee it had one of those long pitched roofs descending to a single story at the back, and which are still occasionally met with in our in- terior New England towns. The elder Tufts altered the exterior to what we now see it ; and although the date of the erection of the house, which once sheltered so notable an occupant, has not remained extant in the family, it evidently belongs to the earlier years of the eighteenth century. The name and career of Charles Lee are not the least inter- esting subjects in our Revolutionary annals. A mystery, not 142 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS, wholly cleared away, has enshrouded the concluding incidents of Lee's connection with the American army. Whether the name of traitor is to accompany his memory to posterity or not, there is no question that he was at the beginning of the con- test a zealous partisan of tlie American cause. It is in tliis light we prefer to consider him. AVhen Lee came to join the forces assembled around Boston he was certainly regarded, in respect to military skill, as the foremost man in the army. His experience had been acquired on the same fields with the men he was now to oftpose, and it is evident that neither Gage, Howe, Clinton, nor Burgoyne underrated his ability. In a " separate and secret despatch " Lord Dartmouth wrote to General Gage to have a special eye on Lee, whose presence in Boston in the autumn of 1774 was known to his lordship. Lord Dartmouth's letter says : — " I am told that M"" Lee, a major upon half pay with the rank of Lieut Colonel, has lately appeared at Boston, that he associates only with the enemies of government, that he encourages the dis- content of the people by harangues and publications, and even advises to arms. This gentleman's general character cannot be un- known to you, and therefore it will be very proper that you should have attention to his conduct, and take every legal method to pre- vent his effecting any of those dangerous pm'poses he is said to have in view." General Lee was five feet eight, and of rather slender make, but with unlimited poAvers of endurance, as was fully proved in his rapid movements from Boston to Xew York, and from New York to the defence of the Southern seaports. His capa- city to resist fatigue was thoroughly tested at Monmouth, the only instance recorded where he admitted that he was tired out. Lee had visited most of the courts of Europe, and was a good linguist. He wrote weU, but rather diffusely ; and although his language is marred by a certain coarsenes-s, it is not con- spicuously so when compared with that of his contemporaries in the profession of arms. " And more tlian that he can speak French, and therefore lie is a traitor." lee's headquarters and vicinity. 143 Lee liad lived for some time among the Mohawks, who made him a chief, and who, on account of his impetuous temper, named him, in their figurative and highly expressive way, " Boiling \Yater." He was more than half Indian in his ex- treme carelessness of his personal appearance, of wliat he ate or drank, or where he slept. He had lost two fingers in a duel in Italy, — one of many personal encounters in which he was en- gaged during his lifetime. Lee was cool, clear-headed in action, and possessed true military insight. The following is probably an accurate pen-portrait of this extraordinary man : — "A tall man, lank and thin, with a huge nose, a satini'al mouth, and restless eyes, who sat his hoise as if lie had often ridden at fox- hunts in England, and wore his uniform with a cynical disregard of common opuiiuu." There is a caricature of General Lee by Eushbrooke, which, if allowed to resemble the General, as it is claimed it does, would fairly establish his title to be regarded as the ugliest of men, both in form and feature. It shoidd, h(iwever, be con- sidered as a caricature and nothing else. Mrs. John Adams, who first met General Lee at an evening party at Major Mifflin's house in Cambridge, describes him as looking like a " careless, hardy veteran," who brought to her mind his namesake, Charles XII. " The elegance of his pen far exceeds that of his person " says this accomplished lady. Lee was very fond of dogs, and was constantly attended by one or more ; his flivorite being a great shaggy Pomeranian, which Dr. Belknap says resembled a bear more than a harmless canine. Spada — that was the dog's name — was constantly at his master's heels, and accompanied him in whatever company he might happen to be. It appears from a letter of John Adams to James Warren, — ■ the then President of the Provincial Congress, — which was intercepted by the British, that Colonel Warren had no great opinion of General Lee, for Mr. Adams tells him he must bear with his whimsical manners and his dogs for the sake of his military talents. " Love me, love my dog," says Mr. Adams. 144 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. General Lee used to relate with great gusto an anecdote of one of his aides who showed a httle trepidation under fire, and who expostulated with his general for exposing himself. The general' told his officer that his Prussian majesty had twenty aides killed in one battle. The aide replied that he did not think Congress could spare so many. Lee's first aide-de-camp was Samuel Griffin, who was succeeded by Colonel William Palfrey, the same who afterwards served Washington in a simi- lar capacity. Lee's slovenliness was the occasion of a rather amusing con- tretemps. On one of Washington's journeys to reconnoitre the shores of the bay he was accompanied by Lee, who, on arriving at the house where they were to dine, went straight to the kitchen and demanded something to eat. The cook, taking him for a servant, told him she would give him some victuals di- rectly, but he must first help her off with the pot, — a request with which he readily complied. He was then requested to take a bucket and go to the well for water, and was actually engaged in drawing it when found by an aide whom Washing- ton had despatched in quest of him. The poor girl then heard for the first time her assistant addressed by the title of " gen- eral." The mug fell from her hands, and, dropping on her knees, she began crying for pardon, when Lee, who was ever ready to see the impropriety of his own conduct, but never willing to change it, gave her a crown, and, turning to the aide-de-camp, observed : " You see, young man, the advantage of a fine coat ; the man of consequence is indebted to it for respect ; neither virtue nor abilities without it AviU make you look like a gentleman." It is somewhat remarkable that most of the officers of the Revolutionary army who had seen service in that of Great Britain, and of whom so much was expected, either left the army before the close of the war with damaged reputations or in disgrace. Lee and Gates, who stood first in the general estimation, suffered a complete loss of favor, while the fame of Schuyler and St. Clair endured a partial eclipse. Montgomery bravely fell before Quebec. St. Clair married a Boston lady lee's headquarters and vicinity. 145 (Phcebe Bajarcl), a relative of Governor Bowdoin, and during the war i)laced his daughter in that town to be educated. In the memorable retreat through the Jerseys Lee's conduct began to be distrusted. He was perhaps willing to see Wash- ington, whose life only intervened between himself and the supreme command, defeated ; but we need not go back a cen- tury to lind generals who have been unwilling to support their commanders, even when within sound of their cannon. Lee had a good private fortune. He was sanguine and lively, and a martyr to gout. He was fearless and outspoken, never concealing his sentiments from any man, and in every respect was the antipodes of a consjjirator. Men, indeed, might say of him, — " YoniV Cassius has a lean and Imngry look ; He thinks too much ; such men are dangerous." By his brother officers he was evidently considered a rival of the commander-in-chief, but we find no contemporary evidence that he was looked upon as a traitor until the day of Mon- mouth. The present generation, however, much wiser, has de- creed him faithless upon the evidence of a manuscript said to be in Lee's handwriting, and purporting to be a plan for sub- jugating the States. This precious document is without date or signature, but is indorsed by another hand, " Mr. Lee's plan — 29th March, 1777," At this time the General was a prisoner in New York. The writing, which bears an extraordinary re- semblance to that of General Lee, is relied upon mainly to convict him of treason. The so-called proofs of the treachery of Lee have been skil- fully put together by George H. Moore, but they contain other fiital objections besides the want of a signature to the " plan." Proof is adduced to show that Lee Avas not a general, and at the same time lie is accredited with having induced General Howe to adopt his " plan " and abandon one carefully matured by his brother and himself, as early as April 2, or four days after the date indorsed on the " plan." Moreover, a motive for Lee's defection is not supplied. He did not want money, nor sell himself, like Arnold, for a price. His fate, which at one time had 7 • J 146 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. trembled in the balance, — the king had ordered him sent home to be tried as a deserter, — was practically decided by Washing- ton's firmness long before the date of the " plan." There is no evidence to show he ever received the least emolument from the British government. Lee rejoined his flag, and his conduct at Monmouth a})pears more like vacillation than treachery ; for it will hariUy l)e doubted that, had he so intendetl, he might easily have l)etraytMl Ids troops into the hands of Sir Henry Clinton. If opportunity was wluit he sought to give eifect to his treason, it must be looked for elsewhere than in this campaign, which he had opposed with all his might, and executed, so far as in him lay, witli languor and reluctance. We can conclude Lee erratic, Avayward, ambitious beyond his abilities, devoured by egotism, but not a traitor ; or if one, he was the most disinter- ested that the pages of history have recorded. A British officer who knew Lee well gives this account of his capture : — " He was taken by a party of ours, under Colonel Harcourt, who surrounded the house in which this arch-traitor was residing. Lee behaved as cowardly in this transaction as he had dishonoral)ly in every other. After firing one or two shots from the house, be came out and entreated our troops to spare his life. Had he behaved with proper spirit I should have pitied him, and wished that his energies had l)een exerted in a better cause. I could hardly refrain from tears when I first saw him, and thought of the miserable fate in Avliich his obstinacy had involved him. He says he has been mistaken in three things : 1st, Tliat the New England men would fight ; 2d, That America was unanimous ; and 3il, That she could afl'ord two men for our one." Opposed to this narration is that of ]\Lajor (afterwards Gen- eral) Wilkinson, who was with the General at the moment of his capture, but who made his escape. He was the bearer of a letter from General Gates, to which Lee was penning a reply, and saw from the window the approach of the British dragoons. He says : — " Startled at this unexpected spectacle, I exclaimed, ' Here, sir, are the Britisli cavalry ! ' ' Where V replied the General, who had signed his letter in the instant. ' Aroiuui the house'; for they had lee's headquarters and vicinity. 147 opened liles and enronipasscd llie building. General Lee appeared alarmed, yet collected, and liis second observation marked his self- possession: ' Where is tlie guard ? Damn the guard, why don't they fire V and after a nuuuentary pause, he turned to me and said, ' Do, sir, see what has become of the guai'd.' The women of the house at this moment entered tlie room, and proposed to him to conceal him- self in a bed, which he rejected with evident disgust." The exact language used by Washington in the hurried alter- cation with Lee at Mounioutli has been a matter of much curi- osity. The officers who overheard this celebrated colloquy exhibited at the trial a remarkable forgetfulness on this point. They agree, however, that His Excellency addressed liis lieu- tenant " tvith much tvarmth" i\\Q conventional expression for strong language. Lafayette, wlio was both on the field and at the trial, is accredited with having related to Governor Tomp- kins, in 1824, that Washington called Lee "a damned pol- troon." "This," said Lafeyette, "was the only time I ever heard Washington swear." * After the battle Lee certainly wrote two very imjjudent and characteristic letters to the commander-in-chief. His subse- (|uent trial, equalled only in interest in our military annals by that of Andre, failed to fix any treasonable design on the gen- eral, though it punished his insubordination by a year's suspen- sion from command. His military peers evidently considered him unfit to command in conjunction with Washington. Lee's encounter with the beautiful Miss Franks of Phila- delphia forms a humorous episode. The lady, who had been one of the bright stars of Sir WiUiam Howe's entertainment of the Mischianza, and was celebrated for her keen wit, had asserted that General Lee wore green breeches patched with leather. The General met the allegation by sending the unmen- tionables in question to the lady, accompanied by a letter, which Miss Franks received in very bad part. The will of General Lee contains this singular request : — " I desire most earnestly that I may not be buried in any church or churchyard, or within a mile of any Presbyterian or Anabaptist * Note to Custis's Recollections, p. 218. 148 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. meeting-house ; for since I have resided in this country I have kept so much bad company when living that I do not choose to continue it when dead." General Lee died at an obscure inn (the sign of the Conestoga Wagon, in Market Street, Philadelphia), October 2, 1782. The last words he distinctly articulated were : " Stand by me, my brave grenadiers." Prospect Hill, second in the line of investment, had formerly two eminences, both of which were strongly fortified. The citadel, defended by outworks, was on the most easterly sum- mit, and covered with its fire the road coming from Charles- town, which winds around its base. Cobble Hill (McLean Asylum), and the low ground towards Mount Benedict. Both eminences were connected by a rampart and ditch, which, after being carried the whole length of the summit, were continued along the lower plateau of the hill in a northerly direction, till they terminated in a strong redoubt situated very near the pres- ent High School. On the Camlnidge side the works joined Fort No. 3 by redoubts placed on each side of the road from Charlestown. It was here Putnam took liis stand after the retreat from Buidver Hill, and the next day found him busy intrenching himself in full view of the late battle-held. Putnam was, per- haps, the only general officer then walling to take and hold so advanced a position. He says he halted here without orders from anybody ; it was expected the British would follow up their success, and he placed himself resolutely in their path. A foreign officer of distinction, who examined the works on Prospect Hill five years after the events of the siege, says of tliem : — " All these intrenchments seemed to me to be executed with intel- ligence; nor was I surprised that the English respected them during the whole winter of 1776." Nearly fifty years afterwards a visitor thus records his obser- vations of the same lines : — " The forts on these iiills were destroyed only a few years ago, but lee's headquarters and vicinity. 149 theii' size can be distinctly seen. On the southern eminence the fort is still entire, and the southwest face of the hill is divided into several platforms, of which I cannot exactly understand the use. There are also evident marks of the dwellings of the soldiers. The extensive view from this hill, the walk on the ancient ramparts, and the site of the various stations occupied by the American army, will render this hill at a future period a favorite resort." After the arrival of General "Washington the army was regu- larly brigaded, and General Greene was assigned, under the orders of Lee, to the command at Prospect Hill. He accord- ingly took up his quarters there on the 26th of July, with Sullivan on his left at Winter Hill, Patterson at his feet in No. 3, and Heath on his right. Greene had with him his own Rhode-Islanders that had been encamped at Jamaica Plain, and the regiments of Whitcomb, Gardner, Brewer, and Little, — a fluctuating garrison of from three to four thousand men. The leader was- the right man in the right place. Nathaniel Greene is one of the grandest figures of the Revo- lution. He is known to us as the man whom Washington deemed most worthy to be his lieutenant, and liow he vindi- cated that confidence the pages of history relate. It is said he was the only general officer who testified his gratification at the appointment of Washington by presenting an address from himself and his officers to the General upon liis arrival at Cambridge, — a circumstance not likely to escape the memory of the commander-in-chief. At his decease, which occurred in 1786, Congress voted to raise a monument to his memory. It was never erected, and we are left to reflect " How nations slowly wise and meanly just, To buried merit raise the tardy bust." General Knox, the bosom friend of Greene, said to a dis- tinguished son of Carolina : — " His knowledge is intuitive. He came to us the rawest and most untutored being I ever met with, but in less than twelve months he was equal in military knowledge to any general officer in the army, and very superior to most of them." 150 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. His ability as commissary-general of the army is well known, as is tlie fact that he would not retain the office unless per- mitted to command in the field. On relieving General Gates after the ilisastrous battle of Camden, Greene sat up the whole night with General Polk of Gates's commissariat, investigatins the resources of the country ; and, as was stated by that officer, Greene better understood what those resources Avere on the fol- lowing morning than Gates had done in the whole jjcriod of his command. His treatment of General Gates on this trying occasion was remarkable for delicacy and magnanimity. Greene was seen, in 1774, in a coat and hat of the Quaker fashion, attentively watching the exercises of the British troops on Boston Common. Perhaps Knox, whose shop in Cornhill he frequented for certain treatises on the art of war, was his companion. Such was the primary school in which these two great soldiers were formed. When Greene was selected by the commander-in-chief to command the Southern army, he urged in the strongest terms the superior qualifications of Knox for that position. With his usual modesty, the Quaker General said : " Knox is the man for that difficult undertaking ; all obstacles vanish before him ; his resources are infinite." Washington, in admitting the truth of all Greene had advanced, re])lied, in eftect, that these were the very reasons that impelled him to retain Knox near his person. It was General Greene's fortune to preside over the board of officers at Tappan which condemned the chivalric but ill-starred Andre. That board was composed of the most distinguished men of tlie army. Among them all, we will venture to Buy, no heart was wrung more acutely l)y the inexorable necessity for the vindication of military law than was that of the president. Alexander Hamilton said, near the close of the war, while opposing reprisals for the death of Captain Huddy : " The death of Andre could not have been dispensed with ; but it must still be viewed as an act of rigid justice." General Greenie retired from the army in very embarrassed circumstances. Like the other general officers, he had received lee's headquarters and vicinity. 151 no equivalent for tile sums he was compelled to disburse for his support while in the held. These officers were obliged to apply to Congress for " relief," such being then, as now, the legal phraseology of an application of a creditor when government is the debtor. Greene met with losses at the South which hurt him. He turned to the soil ; but the season was un- kind, and his first crop was a failure. Congress voted him military trophies, but these did not afford him the means (jf living. It is pleasant to turn from the contemplation of the neglect which Greene experienced as a general to examine the inner characteristics of the man. These cannot better be illustrated than by the following extracts from a letter written by him in the autmnn of 1781, from his camp on the High Hills of Santee. Henry Jackson, of whom the General speaks, was the burly, good-natured colonel of the 16th, sometimes called the Bostoir Eegiment. " We have fought frequently and bled freely, and little glory comes to our share. Our force has been so small that nothing capital could be effected, and our operations have been conducted under every dis- advantage that could embarrass either a general or an army " How is my old friend Colonel Jackson I Is he as fat as ever, and can he still eat down a plate of fish that he can't see over 1 God bless his fat soul with good health and good spirits to the end of the war, that we may all have a happy meeting m the North." One who had frequent opportunities of observing the General has admirably painted his portrait. Fortunately for us, beards were not worn at the Revolution, so that we are enabled to trace the lineaments of celebrated public characters of that time with a degree of satisfaction that will hardly reward the future biographers of the men of the present day. " Major-General Greene in person was rather corpulent, and above the common size. His complexion was fair and florid, his counte- nance serene and mild, indicating a goodness which seemed to soften and shade the fire and greatness of its expression. His health was delicate, but preserved by temperance and regularity." 152 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. " Oil martial ground the school of heroes taught, He studied battles where campaigns were fought; By valor led, he traced each scene of fame, Where war had left no spot without a name. Great by resolve, yet by example warned. Himself the model of his glory formed." General Greene's wife (Catharine Littlefield) was every way worthy of her distinguished husband. Her conversation and manner were fascinating and vivacious. It is noteworthy that EU Whitney conceived the idea of his Avonderful macliine while under Mrs. Greene's roof at IVIulberry Grove, Georgia, in 1792. Whitney, then a poor law-student, Avas protected by Mrs. Greene, who provided him an apartment, where he labored and produced his cotton-gin. The high elevation of Prospect Hill exposes it on all sides to the chill wintry winds. Even now a residence there has its drawbacks, in spite of the charming panorama constantly un- folded to the eyes of the residents. What, then, was it during the winter of '75 -'76, when the ground was held by men who slept in Ijarracks rudely constructed of boards, through the crev- ices of which the snow drifted until it sometimes covered tlieir sleeping forms 1 Greene wrote to his neighbor, Sullivan, the last of September, that his lingers were so benumbed he could scarcely hold his pen. * The General occupied a hut in the rear of his encampment, where he was visited by his wife shortly after he assumed the command on Prospect Hill. As what we desire to give the reader is as accurate a view as possible of the Continental camps during the period we are considering, we cannot do better than to exhibit their resources, and especially how they were provided with artillery to defend such extensive lines. In so far as such testimony is attainable, the evidence of the actors tliemselves or of eyewitnesses is preferred. Dr. Thacher, who was a surgeon's mate in Asa Whitcomb's regiment in barracks on Prospect Hill, in 1775, says : — " Before our privateers had fortunately captured some prizes with cannon and other ordnance, our army before Boston had, I believe, LEE S HEADQUARTERS AND VICINITY. 15 only four* small brass cannon and a few old honey-comb iron pieces with their trunnions broken off ; and these were ingeniously bedded in timbers ia the same manner as stocking a musket. These machines were exceedingbj unwieldy and inconvenient, requiring much skill to elevate and depress them." CABRIAOE FOR CANNON WITHOUT TRUNNIONS, USED BEFORE BOSTON. As early as January, 1775, four brass pieces, two seven-incli mortars, and an unknown number of battering cannon, were in possession of the provincial committees. Besides these, oth- ers are obscurely hinted at without mentioning the number. Worcester and Concord were selected as the places of deposit for all the artillery and munitions of war. Even as far back as November, 1774, the committees had begun to purchase heavy cannon, which could be found in all the seaports from Boston* to Falmouth. Many of these were ship's guns. Others had been purchased to defend the ports during the frequent wars with France ; and not a few had come from the fortifications of Louisburg and Annapolis Royal. It appears that the Revolu- tionary executive had voted to equip a park of sixteen field- pieces, in which those brought out of Boston were to be in- cluded. This will serve to show that, long before Lexington, the Americans were earnestly preparing for war, and that although the artillery in their hands was generally of light calibre, they were by no means as defenceless as has been supposed. The sixteen field-pieces were, in February, voted to be distributed among the seven regiments of militia, in the pro- * This was an underestimate. 7* 154 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. portion ( if two to each, and two to tlie Boston company, lately Paddock's, it being tlie intention to have an artillery company in each regiment of minnte-inen. In March eight field-pieces and two brass mortars, with their ammunition, were ordered to be deposited at Leicester. At Concord, on the lUth of April, the British disabled three iron 24-pounders by knocking off the trunnions. These were too heavy to remove as readily as had been done in the case of the lighter pieces, but Yankee ingenuity made the guns ser- \'iceable. Dr. Preserved Clap invented the carriage which is described by Thacher, and in our drawing made by an officer of artillery present at the siege. There were also field-pieces concealed at i^ewburyport, and cannon at Maiden, Watertown, and Marlborough. Four light brass pieces (3-pounders), two of which had belonged to Paddock's Artillery, were, in the early days of the blockade, brought out of Boston under the very noses of the British officers. Two days after the battle of Lexington the Provincials began to collect their warKke material, and couriers were despatched t(j Gridley, at Stoughton, and to David Mason,"' then upon furlough at Salem. jNLison was ordered to provide the neces- sary implements for eight 3- and three 6-pounders. On the 29th of April the Committee of Safety reported to the Provincial Congress that there were in Cambridge six 3-pounders complete, with ammunition, and one G-pounder. In AVatertown there were sixteen pieces of artillery of differ- ent sizes. The Committee say : — " The said 6-pounder and sixteen pieces of artillery will be taken out of the way; and the first-mentioned six pieces will be used in a proper way of defence." t Measures were taken on the same day to organize two com- panies of artillery, Captain Joseph Foster being appointed to the command of one and Captain A\'illiam Lee of Marblehead to the other. This appears to be the first step taken towards organizing the subsequently f;i,mous regiment of Massachusetts * Afterwards major of Kno.x's Artillery. f Records of the Provincial Congress. lee's iieadquarteus xVND vicinity. 155 artillery, which Gridley, Knox, and Crane commnianded. Tlie pieces first used were 3-pounders, and were those taken to Bunker Hill, where hve of the six were captured by the enemy. Among the Ehode Island troops which arrived at Cambridge early in June was a line company of artillery, with four excel- lent tield-pieces. On the 12th of June Edes's Gazette stated that " Many large pieces of battering cannon are expected soon from different places ; twelve pieces, 18 and 24 pounders, with a quan- tity of ordnance-stores, we are informed, are already arrived from Providence." A train with four field-pieces had also arrived in camp from Connecticut. We have been thus circumstantial because much curiosity has existed in relation to the Provincial artillery before the arrival of Knox from Crown Point with fifty-five pieces of various calibres. In the autumn of 1776 Massa- chusetts began to cast cannon. With regard to small-arms the difiiculties were even greater. Spears were largely used to supply the want of bayonets, and were kept witliin all the works to repel assault. They were frequently examined, cleaned, and kept ready for service. As for muskets, the General Court, as far back as 1770, had tried to wheedle Hutchinson out of the Province arms, but lie refused to distribute them to the militia as recommended. The arms were seized, however, in February, 1775, and removed from Harvard College, where they Avere deposited, to Worcester, to be out of Gage's clutches. Private sources were soon exhausted, and there were no public workshops. Washington jiaid £ 3 for a gun on bis arrival at Cambridge; and by September, 1776, the price for a serviceable musket with bayonet made in tbe State was £ 4. During the siege the scarcity became so great that the muskets had to be taken by force from soldiers whose term of enlistment had expired, and who brouglit their own guns, in order to supply those coming to take tlioir places. Rev. AVilliam Emerson, grandfather of Palph Waldo Emer- son, who was a chaplain in tbe army at this time, affords us glimpses of the Continental camps after the arrival of Wash- ington : — 156 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. " My quarters are at the foot of the famous Prospect Hill, where such great preparations are made for the reception of the enemy. It is very diverting to walk among the camps. They are as different in their form as the owners are in their dress, and every tent is a portraiture of the temper and taste of the persons who encamp in it. Some are made of boards and some of sail-cloth. Some partly of one and some partly of the other. Again, others are made of stone and turf, brick and brush. Some are thrown up in a hurry; others curiously wrought with doors and windows done with wreaths and witlies ill the manner of a basket. Some are your proper tents and marquees, looking like the regular canij) of the enemy. In these are the Rhode-Islanders, who are furnished with tent-equipage and everything in the most exact English style. However, I think this great variety is rather a beauty than a lilemisli in the army." Rhode Island lias always sent her sons to the field in a man- ner highly creditable to herself. As in the Revolution so in the late Rebellion her troops presented themselves supplied Avith every necessary for active service. When tlie Rhode-Islanders reached Washington, in 1861, their commander was asked, "What are your wants'?" " Nothing," was the reply; "my State has provided for everything." It was on Prospect Hill that Putnam raised, on the 18th of July, 1775, his celebrated flag, bearing on one side the motto, " An Appeal to Heaven ! " and on the reverse the three Adnes, which are the armorial bearings of Connecticut, with the legend, " Qui Transtulit Sustinet I " The shouts that rent tlie air when Old Put gave the signal are said to have caused the British on Bunker Hill to rush to arms, in the fear of an immediate attack. Among Greene's officers Colonel Whitcomb of Lancaster has been mentioned. The Deacon, as he was usually called, was left out in the new organization of the army, on account of his age. His men, who were much attached to him, highly re- sented this treatment of the old man, and declared they would not re-enlist. The Colonel told them he did not doubt there were good reasons for the regulation, and said he would enlist as a private soldier. Colonel Brewer, who lieard of this deter- mination, offered to resign in favor of Whitcomb. The affair lee's headquarters and vicinity. 157 coming to Washington's knowledge, he permitted Brewer to carry his proposal into effect, giving him at the same time an appointment as barrack-master nntil a vacancy should occur in the line. The General then published the whole transaction in orders. On New- Year's Day, 1776, the Union Flag, bearing thirteen stripes, was hoisted at Prospect Hill, and saluted with thirteen guns. This was the birthday of the new Continental army of undying fame. Now, for the first time, the thirteen united Colonies had a common flag. From this lofty height the colors were plainly distinguishable in the enemy's camps, and were at first thought to be a token of submission, — the king's speech having been sent to the Americans the same day. But the enemy were speedily undeceived ; the proclamation was not re- ceived until after the Hag had been flung to the breeze. There it continued to fly until raised in triumph on the abandoned works of the British. Prospect Hill is occasionally mentioned as Mt. Pisgah. It could be reached by the enemy's battery at West Boston, which threw a 13-inch shell into the citadel during the bombard- ment preceding the possession of Dorchester Heights. The missile exploded without doing any injury. The hill, too, is associated with the last days of the siege by two incidents. An accidental fire which occurred in the barracks was conceived by Howe to be a signal for calling in the militia from the country, and probably accelerated his preparations to depart. The fol- lovring order was issued to the army from headquarters, March 4,1776: — " The flag on Prospect Hill and that at the Laboratory on Cam- bridge Common are ordered to be hoisted only upon a general alarm: of this the whole army is to take particular notice, and immediately upon these colors being displayed every officer and soldier must re- pair to his alarm-post. This to remain a standing order until the commander-in-chief shall please to direct otherwise." Prospect Hill next demands attention from the circumstance that in November, 1777, it became the quarters of the British portion of Burgoyne's army ; the Hessians occupied the barracks 158 HISTORIC MA.NSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. on Winter Hill. The British arrived at Cambridge on Thurs- day the Gth, and the Germans on the following day. The English entered Cambridge, via Watertown, in the midst of a pelting storm, and, without halting, proceeded quickly onward to Prospect Hill. The officers had their side- arms, which they were allowed by the treaty to retain ; but the men, unarmed, gloomy, and sullen, wore little of the defiant air of British soldiers. As for the Hessians, the appearance they presented was truly pitiable. The men were ragged and filthy, from the effects of the long marches and bivouacs without shelter. Most of them had their tobacco-pipes, with which, with the national phlegm, they were solacing their misfortunes, so that a cloud of smoke enveloped them as they moved along. They were fol- lowed by numbers of their women, staggering under the bur- dens of camp utensds, with huge hampers on their backs, from which peeped infants, some of them born on the road. That the Germans were regarded with the utmost curiosity by the population we can well believe, for the most frightful stories were current concerning their prowess and bloodthirstiness. The American ladies, ignorant that at home these women per- formed their share of the labor of the fields, looked with compassion on Avhat they considered evidence of the brutal- ity of the men. "What Avith the tobacco-smoke and effluvia arising from this motley horde, the air was tainted as they passed by. The Hessian officers politely saluted the ladies Mdiom they saw at tlie windoAvs, but the Britons, ever selfish and intract- able in misfortune, kept their eyes upon the ground. Burgoyne rode at the head of his men, behind the advanced guard. He and his officers went to Bradish's tavern, afterwards Porter's, where they remained temporarily. The animals which drew the prisoners' baggage-wagons seemed to partake of the sorry condition of their masters, being lean and half starved. General Phillips, during the early part of the march from Saratoga, is said to have expressed his astonishment that so great an expenditure of money and life should have been made lee's hExVdquarters and vicinity. 159 to conquer so barren and unattractive a region as that through which they were then passing. AVhen they came to the beau- tiful and fertile valley of the Connecticut, General Whipple observed : " This, (Tcneral, is the country we are fighting for." " Ah ! " replied Phillq)?, " this is a country worth a ten years' Avar." The British officers soon became flimiliar objects to the people of Cambridge, some of whom did not care to conceal their dis- content at the airs these sons of Mars gave themselves. They lived on the best the country and the times afforded, prom- enading the College grounds, and appearing in public with their swords belted about them. A slight check to their self- sufficiency Avas the sight of their whole train of artillery, which was parked on the Common. There Avere tAvo roAvs of barracks situated outside the citadel. These barracks Avere enclosed Ijy a fence, at the entrance gate of Avhich a sentinel Avas posted. Within the citadel Avas the guard-house, ahvays occupied by a strong detachment of our troops. Sentinels were placed on the Charlestown and Cam- bridge roads, and at the proA'ision barracks at the foot of the hill. A chain of sentinels extended across the valley betAveen Prospect and Winter Hills, the line passing immediately in rear of OliA^r Tufts's farm-house. The pecidiarity of the terms granted to Burgoyne and his soldiers under the conA^ention with Gates caused the British officers and men to reject the name of prisoners. They Avere styled "the troops of the Convention." The American guards were draAvn from the militia of Massa- chusetts expressly for this service. They were, for the most part, ignorant of camp discipline, and Avere ridiculed and abused by the prisoners Avhenever an opportunity presented itself. The guards, therefore, did not go beyond the letter of their orders to shoAV respect to the prisoners. The Britons, on the other hand, Avere not of a better class than was usiial in tlie rank and file of that serAdce. INIany rob- beries Avere committed by them on the roads and CA'en Avithin the toAvns. MoreoA^er, tlie apprehensions caused by the pres- ence of so large a body of turbulent spirits near a populous 160 IlISTOPJO MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. place justified the enforcement of stringent regulations. As for the officers, they were supercilious to a degree, and one of them was shot dead for neglecting to answer the challenge of a sentry. Inside their barracks the Convention troops were allowed to manage for themselves. They were paraded, punished, and re- ceived from their own officers orders pertaining to their comfort or discipline precisely as if under the protection of their own flag. There was a British and a Hessian officer of the day who saw that the police of the barracks was properly performed. The barracks were, of course, at all times subject to the inspec- tion of the Continental officer of the guard. Many of the Germans were received into families in Boston as servants, or found employment as farm-laborers in the neighbor- ing towns by their own desire. ISTumbers of them, after having been clothed and well fed, absconded. Five of the British Avere in Boston jail at one time, charged with highway robbery ; on one of them was found a watch taken from a gentleman on Charlestown Common. Numerous instances occurred where houses in and around Boston were robbed of weapons only, while more valuable booty was left untouched. This created an impression that a conspiracy existed among the prisoners to obtain their freedom, especially after the refusal of Congress to carry out the provisions of the capitulation became known in the camp of the Convention troops. Matters soon came to a crisis. Some of the British one day knocked down a sentinel and took away his gun, which they concealed in their quarters and refused to give up. At another time they rescued a prisoner from a guard, and showed every disposition to turn upon their jailers. After this last occur- rence, Colonel David Henley, who commanded at Cambridge, ordered a body of the prisoners who had collected in front of his guard on Prospect Hill to retire to their barracks. One of the prisoners refusing to obey, Colonel Henley wounded him with his sword. On a preA^ous occasion he had, in endeavor- ing to silence an insolent prisoner, seized a hrelock from the guard and sli'ditlv wounded the man in the breast. lee's headquarters and vicinity. 161 For these acts Colonel Henley was formally accused by Gen- eral Burgoyne " of behavior heinously criminal as an oflficer and unbecoming a man ; of the most indecent, violent, vindictive severity against unarmed men, and of intentional murder." Colonel Henley was placed in arrest and tried by a mili- tary court at Cambridge, of which Colonel Glover was presi- dent, and Colonel William Tudor judge-advocate. General Burgoyne appeared as prosecutor. His address to the court was a model of wheedling, cajolery, and special pleading. He complimented the president for his honorable treatment of the Convention troops on the march to Boston. To Col- onel Wesson, who had immediate command in the district when the troops arrived, he also paid his respects, and even the judge-advocate came in for a share of his persuasive eloquence. It was believed that Burgoyne undertook the role of pros- ecutor, not only to recover in some degree his waning influence with his troops, but to retrieve, if possible, his reputation at home, by appearing in the guise of the champion of his soldiers. Henley owed his acquittal mainly to the exertions of Colonel Tudor in his behalf. The evidence showed that the prisoner had acted under great provocation ; but what most influenced the result was the startling testimony add>iced of the mutinous spirit prevalent among the British soldiers. A day or two after this trial the judge-advocate and Colonel Henley met at Roxbury in making a visit to a fainily where a lady resided to whom Colonel H. was paying his addresses. He fancied himself coldly received, and was in rather a melan- choly humor as they rode into town together. In coming over the Neck he abruptly said to his companion, " Colonel Tudor, I will thank you to shoot me ! " " Why, what is the matter now"?" asked Tudor. " You have ruined me." " I thought I had rendered you some assistance in the trial." " You said I was a man of passionate, impetuous temper ; this has destroyed me in the estimation of the woman I love ; you see she received me coldly. You have destroyed my happiness. You may now K 162 HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS do me a favor to shoot me." Colonel Tudor was vexed for a moment at this sort of return for the services he had ren- dered, but these feelings were transient on both sides ; they continued friends, and Colonel Henley married the lady he loved. * Henley had served at the siege of Boston as brigade-major to General Heath. In December, 1776, he was lieutenant-colonel of Itufus Putnam's regiment. He commanded the rear-guard in the disastrous retreat through the Jerseys, gaining the opposite shore of the Delaware at midnight, just as CornwaDis reached the river. Colonel William Tudor presided over the courts-martial at Cambridge after the arrival of Washiugtut it is conceded on all liands that their artillery officers are at least equal to our own. In the nund)er of shells that they flung last night not above three failed. This morning we flung four, and three of them burst in the air. " 5th. We underwent last night a severe cannonade, which dam- aged a number of houses and killed some men." The Royal Artillery endeavored for fourteen days unsuccess- fully to silence the American batteries on the east and Avest of lechmere's point. 183 Boston. On the 6th orders were issued to embark the artillery and stores. Colonel Cleaveland writes as follows of the diffi- culties he encountered : — " The transports for the cannon, etc., which were ordered to the wharf were without a sailor on board and half stowed with lumber. At the same time most of my heax'y cannon and all the field artil- lery, with a great quantity of arms, was to be brought m from Charlestown and other distant posts. I was obhged to send iron ordnance to supply their places, to keep up a fire on the enemy and prevent then breaking gTound on Forster Hill (South Boston). On the fifth day most of the stores were on board, with the exception of four iron mortars and their beds, weighing near six tons each. With great difficulty I brought three of them from the battery, but on getting them on board the transport the blocks gave way, and a mortar fell into the sea, where 1 afterwards threw the other two." Four companies of the 3d Battali-' /r in the morning, summer and winter; In- V/[| " ,,j^ 'vJM. "^^'^^^"^ Mather, whose dynasty embraced a «l I k^ fill R/ P*^^'iofl '^'f great importance in the political ^11^ iR history of the Colony ; Wadsworth, in ^^^^xy^^^ whose time the Church of England made its cHAUNcv. ineiiectual effort to obtain an entrance into the government ; Holyoke, whose term is memorable as the longest of the series ; and Langdon, who left his ofdce at the dictation of a cabal of students, — all are honored names, and part of the history of their times. Upon the coming of General Washington to Cambridge the Provincial Congress assigned the President's House for his use, not because it was the best by many the place could afford, but probably because it was the only one then unoccupied by the provincial forces or their military adjuncts. The house not being in readiness when the General arrived, on the 2d of Jidy, 1775, he availed himself, temporarily, of another situation, and within a week indicated his preference for the Vassall House, which he had not passed down the old Watertown road with- out observing. There is no conclusive evidence that the Gen- eral ever occupied the President's House, and the absence of any tradition involves it in doubt. Washington made a passing visit to Cambridge in 1789, and was welcomed on behalf of the governors of the College by President Willard. He was then accompanied by Tobias Lear, who had owed his confidential position as Washington's secre- tary to the good offices of Willard. A DAY AT HAEVARn. 209 With President Willard departed tlic day of Lig wigs at the President's House. He always appeared abroad in tlie I'uLI-hot- tomed white periwig sanctioned by the custom of tlie times ; this was exchanged in the study f(^r a velvet cap, sucli as adorn the heads of some of the portraits in Old Massachusetts HaU. It is related that when Congress was sitting in New York, during Washington's term. President Willard visited that place. It chanced that he wore his full-bottomed wig, which attracted so great a crowd when he walked about as to occasion on his part apprehensions of ill usage from the mob. With what satis- faction he must have shaken off the dust of that barbarous city, where the sight of his periwig aroused a curiosity akin to that exhibited by the Goths when they beheld the long white beards of the Eoman senators. In Willard's time a club of gentlemen were accustomed to assemble at his house on certain evenings, of which, besides the President and resident professors. Judge Dana, GoA'ernor Gerry, Mr. Craigie, Mr. Gannett, and others, were members. Bachelors were excluded, which caused Judge Winthrop, the former libra- rian and one of the tabooed, to say they met to talk over their grievances. President Kirkland, an elegant scholar and most fascinating companion, was noted for his pithy sayings as well as for his wit. On one occasion an ambitious young felloAV, who had a pretty good opinion of himself, having asked the Doctor at what age a man would be justified in becoming an author, replied, "Wait until you are forty ; after that you will never print anything." To a student who observed in his presence that dress of itself was of little consequence, he made this shrewd remark : " There are many things which there is no particular merit in doing, but which there is positive demerit in leaving undone." The rare abilities of Dr. Kirkland make it a never-failing re- gi'et that he Avas by nature indolent, and indisposed to call into action the full powers of his mind, or to bring forward his reserves of information except in brilliant conversation. He talked apparently without efibrt, and could unite the merest 210 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. minutes of a discourse with little or no preparation and with marvellous address. President Kirkland is described as of middling stature, portly, with fair complexion, a round and comely face, with blue eyes, a small mouth, regular and beautiful teeth, and a countenance noble, frank, and intelligent. Josiah Quincy, after an active political life, became President in 1849. During his occupancy of the chair Gore Hall was built, and the security of the library, which had given him much solicitude, was assured against ordinary contingencies. The sixteen years of Mr. Quincy's administration were a period of great usefulness and prosperity to the College. In 1840 the President published his History of Harvard University, — a work of much value, in which he was assisted by his daughter, Eliza, a lady whose culture and tastes eminently qualified her for the work. Mr. Everett's excessive sensitiveness contributed to make his contact with so many young and turbulent spirits at times dis- quieting. His elegant, classic diction and superb manner have gained for him an enviable name as an orator. He would never, if possible, speak extemporaneously, but carefully })repared and committed his addresses. His mind was quick to grasp any circumstance and turn it to account ; the simile of a drop of water, used by him with mucli force, occurred to him, it is said, through the dropping from a leak over his head while perform- ing his morning ablutions. Similarly, while once on liis way to deliver an address at Williams College, he happened to pass the night at Stockbridge, where a gentleman exhibited to him the watch of Baron Dieskau. The next day this little relic furnished the theme for a beautiful passage, into which the de- feat of Dieskau and the death of Colonel Williams, on the same field, were effectively interwoven. Eev. Sydney Smith, with whom Mr. Everett passed some time in Somersetshire, thus spoke of him : — " He made upon us the same impression he appears to make uni- versally in this country. We thought him (a character which the English always receive with affectionate regard) an amiable Ameri- A DAY AT HARVARD. 211 can, republican without rudeness, and accomplished without ostenta- tion. ' If I had known that gentleman five yeais ago (said one of my guests), I should have been deep in the American funds ; and, as it is, I think at times that I see nineteen or twenty sliillings in the pound in his face.' " Increase Mather was the first person to receive the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Harvard. When he became President he refused to accede to the requirement that the President should reside at Cambridge, and finally resigned rather than comply with it. Vice-President Willard is the only person wlio has administered the afiairs of the College under that title, which was assumed to evade the rule of residence, and to enable him to continue his functions as pastor of the Old South, Boston. It was Increase Mather, then (1700) President, who ordered Eobert Calef's "wicked book" — a satire on witchcraft, en- titled " More Wonders of the Invisible World," and printed in London — burnt in the College yard, and the members of the reverend Doctor's church {The Old North) published a defence of their pastors. Increase and Cotton ]\Iather, called " Truth ivill come offConqjberor." This publication proved even a greater satire than Calef's, as the authors were erelong but too glad to disavow all sympathy with the wretched superstition. The President's chair, an ancient relic, used in the College, from an indefinite time, for conferring degrees, is preserved in Gore Hall. Eeport represents it to have been brought to the College during the presidency of Holyoke as the gift of Eev. Ebenezer Turell. It has a triangular seat, and belongs to the earliest specimens of our ancestors' domestic furniture. In Dunster Street we salute the name of the fu-st President of the College, whose habitation, it is conjectured, stood near. It was at first called Water Street, and in it were situated the first church erected in I^ewtown, which stood on the west side, a little south of the intersection of Mount Auburn Street, upon land formerly owned by Thaddeus M. Harris, and also the house of Thomas Dudley, the deputy of Governor Winthrop, whose extravagance in ornamenting his habitation with a wain- 212 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. scot made of claj)boards the latter reproved. At the font of Water Street was the old ferry by which communication was had with the opposite shore. The old meeting-house stood till about 1650, when the town took order for building a new church on the Watch House Hill, of which presently. A vote of the town in the year mentioned directs the repair of the old house " with a 4 square roofe and covered with shingle." The new house was to be forty foot square, covered in the same manner as was directed for the old, the repair of which was discontinued, and the land belonging to it sold in 16.51. Dudley, the tough old soldier of Henri Quatre, with whom he had fought at the siege of Amiens in 1597, with a captain's commission from Queen Bess, hnally settled in Eoxbury, and left a name that has been honored in his descendants. His house stood on the west side of Water Street, near its southern termination at Marsh Lane. Governor Belcher says : " It was wrote of him, ' Here lies niomas Dudley that tnisty old stud, A bargain 's a bargain and must be made good.' " A brief glance at the topography of our surroundings will enable the reader to understand in what way the Englishmen laid out what they intended for their capital town. They first reserved a square for a market-place, after the manner of the old English towns. This is the present Harvard Square, upon which the College grounds abut, and in its midst was perhaps placed a central milliariuni, which marked the home points of the converging roads. The jDlain, as level as a calm sea, ad- mitted the laying out of the town in squares, tlie streets cross- ing each other at right angles. Between the market-place and the river were erected the principal houses of the settlement, and some of the oldest now standing in Cambridge will be found in this locality. We have noticed the ferry. About 1660 this was super- seded by "the great bridge," rebuilt in 1690, and standing at the Revolution in its present situation at the foot of Boylston A DAY AT HARVARD. 213 Street. Over this bridge came Earl Percy with his reinforce- ment on that eventful morning in April which dissolved the British empire in America. The people, having notice of his approach, removed the " leaves " or flooring of the bridge, but, as they were not conveyed to any distance, they were soon found and replaced by the Earl's troops. A draw was made in the bridge at Washington's request in 1775. The street leading from the market-place to the bridge was the principal in the town for a long period, it being in the direct route of travel from Boston via Eoxbury and Little Cam- bridge (Brighton) to what is now Lexington, and from the capital again by Charlestown Ferry to the Colleges, and thence by the bridge to Brookline and the southward. It was intended to make Newtown a fortified place, and a levy was made on the several towns for this purpose. Eev. Abiel Holmes, writing in 1800, says :■ — ■ " This fortification was actually made, and the fosse which was then dug aroimd the town is, in some places, visible to this day. It commenced at Brick Wharf (origuially called Wmdmill Hill) and ran along the northern side of the present Common in Cambridge, and through what was then a thicket, but now constitutes a part of the ci;ltivated grounds of Mr. Nathaniel Jarvis, beyond which it cannot be distinctly traced. It enclosed above one thousand acres." The road to Watertown, now Brattle Street, and formerly the great highway to the south and west, left the market-place, as now, by the rear of the English Church, but communicated also more directly with Charlestown road by the north side of the Common. It was by this road that Washington amved in Cambridge and the army marched to New York. By it, also, Burgoyne's troops reached their designated camps. The reader will go over it with us hereafter. All these particulars are deemed essential to a comprehension of the mihtary oper- ations of the siege of Boston when Cambridge was an intrenched camp. Not far from the Square, and on the Avest side of Boylston Street, is the site of Ebenezer Bradish's tavern, of repute in Revolutionary times. Its situation near the bridge was com- 214 HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS, patible with the convenience of travellers ; nor was it too re- mote from the College halls for the requirements of the students when Latin classics became too dry, and Euclid too dull for human endurance. Many, we will venture to say, Avere the plump, big-bellied Dutch bottles smuggled from mine host's into Old Harvard, Massachusetts, or Stoughton. Bradish kept a livery too, which Avas no doubt well patronized by the col- legians, though here he encountered some disgrace by letting liis horses to David Phips to carry off the province cannon at Gage's behest. Bradish seems, however, to have been well affected to the patriot cause. His inn was long the only one in the town, and had the honor of entertaining Generals Bur- goyne. Philips, and the principal British officers on their lirst arrival in Cambridge. This tavern, also later known as Porter's, was for a time the annual resort of the Senior Class of the Col- lege on Class Day, for a dinner and final leave-taking of all academical exercises. Bradish's was the rendezvous of Rufus Putnam's regiment in 1777. The first publican in (Jld Cambridge Avas AndrcAv Belcher, an ancestor of the governcjr of that name, who Avas licensed in 1652 " to sell beare and bread, for entertainment of strangers and the good of the toAvne." It is at least a coincidence that a Belcher still dispenses rather more dainty viands in the same locality. It is a relief to find that in the year 1 750 there Avere some convivial and even thirsty souls about, as avo learn from the journal of a rollicking sea-captain, Avho Avas having liis ship repaired at Boston while he indulged in a run on shore : — " Being now ready to Sale I determined to pay niy way in time, which I accordingly did at M" Graces at the Eecpiest of M' Heyleg- her and the Other Gentlemen Gave them a Good Supper with Wine and Arack Punch Galore, Avhere Exceeding Merry Drinking Toasts Singing Roaring &c. untill Morning Avhen Could Scarce see One another being Blinded by the Wine Arack &c. Ave Avdiere in all ab' 20 in comp'." The tavern bills of the General Court in 1768-69 would astonish the ascetics of Beacon Hill. We remark a great dis- A DAY AT HARVARD. 215 parity between the quantity of fluids and edibles. In a docu- ment now before us eigiity dinners are flanked with one hun- dred and thirty-six bowls of punch, twenty-one bottles of sherry, and brandy at discretion. Truly ! we are tempted to exclaim Avith Prince Hal on reading the bill of Falstaft^'s supper, — " O monstrous ! but one hall'-peunywortli of bread to this intolerable deal of sack," What, then, would Prince Hal have said to a bill of your modern ald(;rman 'I Keturning into the Square, we continue our peregrinations around the College enclosure. As you turn towards the Com- mon, in approaching from Harvard Street, you pass over the spot whereon the second ediflce of the flrst church was erected. A little elevation which formerly existed here is supposed to have been the Watch-house Hill, before mentioned, and later called Meeting-house Hill. In 17(H3 the third church was erected on this ground, and in 175G the fourth house was raised, somewhat nearer Dane Hall. This church was taken down in 1833, when the site became the property of the College. In the meeting-house which stood here the First Provincial Congress held their session in 1774, after their adjournment from Salem and Concord. The Congress first met in the old Court Hoiise on the 17th of October, but immediately adjourned to the meeting-house, of which Eev. Nathaniel Appleton was then pastor, and who officiated as their chaplain. This was the period of the Port Act, and the crisis of the country. The Congress was earnestly engaged in measures for the relief of the distressed and embargoed town of Boston, the formation of an army, a civil administration, and other revolutionary meas- ures. Here was made the organization of the celebrated minute- men, the appointment of Jedediah Preble, Artemas Ward, and Seth Pomeroy as general officers ; and of the famous Eevolution- ary committee of nine, of which Hancock, Warren, Church, Devens, White, Palmer, Quincy, Watson, and Orne were mem- bers. This body, called the Committee of Safety, Avielded the 216 IlISTOFJC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. executive power, and in the recess of Congress were vested with almost dictatorial authority. The members of the Second Con- tinental Congress were also chosen at this time. Space does not permit us to linger among those giants who welded the Old Thirteen togetlier with the fire of their elo- quence. One incident must have created no little sensation in an assembly of which probably a majority were slaveholders. A letter was brought into the Congress directed to Eev. Dr. Appleton, whicli was read. It represented the propriety while Congress was engaged in etibrts to free themselves and the people from slavery, that it should also take into consideration the state and circumstances of the negro slaves in the province. After some debate the question " was allowed to subside." " A ! freedome is a nobill tiling! Fi-eedome mayse man to liaiff liking ! Freedome all solace to man giffis; He levys at ese that frely levys ! A nolile hart may haifF nane ese, Na ellys nocht that may him plese, Gyff fredonie failythe ; for fre liking Is yeaniyt our all other thing Na he, that ay hase levyt fre, May nocht knaw well the propryte. The angyr, na the wretchyt dome. That is cowplyt to foul thryldome." In the olden time people were summoned to church by beat of drum, — until a bell was procured, a harsh and discordant appeal for the assemldy of a peaceful congregation, — but those were the days of the church militant. On the contrary, our grandsires, whose ears were not attuned to the sound, could as little endure the roll of British drums near their sanctuaries on a Sabbath morn, as could the poet the clangor of the bell of Tron-Kirk which he so rudely apostrophized : — " Oh! were I provost o' the town, I swear by a' the powers aboon, I 'd bring ye wi' a reesle dovm ; Nor should you think (So sair I 'd crack and clour your crown) Again to clink." A DAY AT HARVAKD. 217 The old Court House, which has been named in connection with the Henley trial, stood at first bodily within the Square, but was later removed to the site of the present Lyceum build- ing, and perhaps is even now existing in its rear, where it is utilized for workshojis. It was built in 1756, and continued to be used by the courts until the proprietors of Lechmere Point obtained their removal to that location by the otter of a large bonus. The old wooden jail stood at the southwest corner of the Square, and was but little used for the detention of crimi- nals after the erection of the stone jail at Concord in 1789. The Court House witnessed the trials of many notable causes, and furnished the law-students of the University with a real theatre, of which they were in the habit of availing them- selves. As late as 166.5 declarations and summonses were published by sound of trumpet. The crier opened the court in the king's name, and the judges and barristers in scarlet robes, gown, and wig, inspired the spectator with a wholesome sense of the majesty of the law. The usual form of a document was " To aU Xtian people Greeting." Under the first charter, or patent as it was usually called, the Governor and Assistants were the sole depositaries of all power, whether legislative, executive, or judicial. When the patent was silent the Scriptures were consulted as the proper guide. The ministers and elders were, in all new exigencies, the ex- pounders of the law, which was frequently made for the occa- sion and applied without hesitation. The cause of complaint was briefly stated, and there were no pleadings. Hutchinson says, that for more than the first ten years the parties spoke for themselves, sometimes assisted, if the cause was weighty, by a patron, or man of superior abilities, but without fee or reward. The jury — and this marks the simplicity of the times — were allowed by law, if not satisfied with the opinion of the court, " to consult any bystander." Such were the humble beginnings of our courts of law. The following is extracted from the early laws of Massachu- setts : — 10 218 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. " Everie luarryed woenian shall be free from bodilie correction or stripes l)y her husband, unlesse it be in his owne defence upon her assalt. If there be any just cause of correction complaint shall be made to Authoritie assembled in some coiu't, from which onely she shall receive it." The common law of England authorized the infliction of chastisement on a wife with a reasonable instrument. It is related that Judge Buller, charging a jury in such a case, said, " Without undertaking to deiine exactly what a reasonable instrument is, I hold, gentlemen of the jury, that a stick no bigger than my tliumi) comes clearly within that description." It is further reported that a committee of ladies waited on him the next day, to beg that they might be favored with the exact dimensions of his lordship's thumb. Dane Hall, which bears the name of that eminent jurist and statesman through whose bounty it arose, was erected in 1832 and enlarged in 184.'). The south foundation-wall of Dane is the' same as tlie uortli wall of the old meeting-house, so that Law and DiAinity rest here upon a common base. The first law-professorship was established through the be- quest of Isaac Iioyall, the Medford loyalist, who gave by his Avill more than two thousand acres of land in the towns of frranby and Eoyalston for this purpose. In 1815 Hon. Isaac Parker, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was appointed first professor, and in 1817, at his suggestion, a law school was established. Judge Parker's lectures were delivered in what was then known as the Philosophy Chamber, in Harvard Hall. Both the Law and Divinity Schools were established during Dr. Kirkland's ]>residency. It is Avorthy of mention that the first doctorate of laws was conferred on Washington for his expulsion of the British from Boston. Nathan Dane, LL. D., a native of Ipswich and graduate of Harvard, is justly remembered as the framer, while in Congress, of the celebrated " Ordinance of 1787 " for the government of the territory northwest of the Ohio, by which slavery was excluded from that immense region. In 1829 the Law School was reorganized through the liberality of Mr. DaJie, who had A DAY AT HARVAKD. 219 offered a competent siun for a professorship, with the right of nominating the first incumbent. The person who had been selected for the occupancy of the chair Avas Joseph Story, whose fame as a jurist had cidminated on the Supreme Bench of the United States. Judge Story remained in the Dane Professorship until his death in 1845, a period of sixteen years. It is believed that his life was shortened by his prodigious intellectual labors and the demands made upon him for various kinds of literary work. As a writer he behmged to tlie intense school, if such a char- acterization be admissible, and this mental tension appeared in the cpiick changes of liis countenance and in his nervous movements as well as in the rapidity of his pen. A great talker, he never lacked interested auditors ; for his was a mind of colossal stamp, and he never wanted language to give utter- ance to his thoughts. The first settlers in Massachusetts Bay did not recognize the law of England any further than it suited their interests. The common law does not appear, says Sullivan, to have been re- garded under the old patent, nor for many years after the Charter of 1692. In 1647 the first importation of law books was made ; it comprised, — 2 copies of Sir Edward Coke on Littleton, of the Book of Entries, of Sir Edward Coke on Magna Charta, of the New Terms of the Law, of Dalton's Justice of the Peace, of Sir Edward Coke's Reports. This was four years after the division of the Colony of Massa- chusetts Bay into four shires. Norfolk included that part of the present county of Essex north of the Merrimac, and also the settled part of New Hampshire. There were attorneys here about ten years after the settle- ment. Lechford, who came over in 1631, and returned to England in 1641, where he published a pamphlet called " Plain Dealing," says that " every church member was a bishop, and, 220 HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. not inclining to become one himself, lie could not be admitted a freeman among them ; that the General Court and Quarter Sessions exercised all the powers of King's Bench, Common Pleas, Chancery, High Commission, Star Chamber, and of all the other courts of England." For some offence Lechford, de- barred from pleading and deprived of practice, returned to England, to bear witness against the colonial magistrates. But from other autliority than Lechford's, we know that the dis- tinction between freeman and non-freeman, members and non- members, appeared as striking to new-comers as that between Cavaher and Eoundhead in Old England. In 1687, almost sixty years from the first settlement of this country, there were but two attorneys in Massachusetts. The noted crown agent, Kandolph, wrote to a friend in England, in that year, as follows : — " I have wrote you the want we have of two or three honest at- torneys, if there be any such thing in Nature. We have but two ; one is Mr. West's creature, — came with hiui from New York, and drives all before him. He takes extravagant fees, and for want of more, the country cannot avoid coming to him." The other appears to have been George Farewell, who said in open court in Charlestown that all causes must be brought to Boston, because there were not honest men enough in Middlesex to make a jury to serve their turns. Our two oldest Universities have never displayed a political bias like Oxford and Cambridge in Old England, where the dis- tinction between Whig and Tory was so marked that when George I. gave his library to Cambridge, the following epigram appeared : — " King George observing with judicious eyes The state of both his Universities, To Oxford sent a troop of horse ; for why ? That learned body wanted loyalty. To Cambridge books he sent, as well discerning How much that loyal body wanted learning." A DAY AT HARVARD, CONTINUED. 221 CHAPTEE X. A DAY AT HARVARD, CONTINUED. " It will be proved to thy face that thou hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun and a verb, and such abominable words." — Jack Cade. THE Marquis of Wellesley is accredited with having said to an American, " Establishing a seminary in New Eng- land at so early a period of time hastened your revolution half a century." This was a shrewd observation, and aptly supplements the forecast of the commissioners of Charles II., who said, in their report, made about 1666 : — " It may be feared this collidg may afford as niauy scismaticks to the ChiuT.h, and the Corporation as many rebells to the King, as for- merly they have done if not timely prevented." The earliest contemporary account of the founding of the College is found in a tract entitled " Noav England's First Fruits," dated at " Boston in New England, September 26, 1642," and published in London in 1643. This is, in point of time, nearly coeval with the University, and is as follows : — " After God had carried us safe to New England, and wee had linilded our houses, provided necessaries for our liveli-hood, rear'd convenient places for God's Avorsbip, and settled the civill govern- ment ; One of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity ; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust. And as wee were thinking and consulting how to effect this great work ; it pleased God to stn up the heart of one Mr. Harvard (a godly gentleman and a lover of learning, then liv- ing amongst us) to give the one half of his estate (it being in all about 1700 ?.) towards the erecting of aColledge and all his Library; After him another gave 300 I. others after them cast in more, and the publique hand of the State added the rest : The Colledge was by 222 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. common consent, appointed to be at Cambridge, (a place very pleas- ant and accommodate) and is called (according to the name of its first fonnder) Harvard Colledge." The account, with its quaint and pertinent title, gives also the first description of the College itself : — " The edifice is very faire and comely within and without, having in it a spacious hall ; where they daily meet at commons, lectures and Exercises ; and a large library with some bookes to it, the gifts of diverse of our friends, their chambers and studies also fitted for, and possessed by the students, and all other roomes of office neces- sary and convenient with all needful offices thereto belonging : And by the side of the Colledge a faii'e Grammar Schoole for the ti-ain- ing up of yoimg scholars and fitting them for Academical learning, that still as they are judged ripe, they may be received into the Colledge of this schoole : Master Corlet is the Mr. who hath very well approved himself for his abilities, dexterity, and painfulnesse in teaching and education of the youths under him." Edward Johnson's account of New England, which appeared in 1G54, mentions the single College building, Avhicli was of wood, as the commissioners before quoted say : — " At Cambridge, they have a wooden Collidg, and in the yard a brick pile of two Cages for the Indians, where the Connnissi oners saw but one. They said they had three or more at scool." The Indian seminary was built by the corporation in Eng- land, and in 1665 contained eight pupils, one of whom had been admitted into the College. It was torn down in 1698, and its bricks were probably used in Stoughtan, as the old building was bought by Willis, the builder. There existed formerly, in lieu of the low railing at present dividing the College grounds from the highway, a close fence, with an entrance opening upon the old College yard between Harvard and Massachusetts. This was superseded in time by a more ornamental structure, with as many as four entrances, flanked by tall gateposts. The present streets, then but lanes, were eidarged at the expense of the College territory, thus re- ducing its area very materially. A DAY AT HARVAKD, CONTINUED. 223 The first building, or Old Harvard, was rebuilt of brick in 1672 by the contributions of the Colony. Of the £1890 raised for this purpose, Boston gave £ 800. The old structures ranging along the street which separates the College enclosure from the Common are, with the exception of Stoughton, on their original sites, and were, when erected, fronting the principal highway through the town. Harvard, Avhich is upon its old ground, was the nucleus around wliich the newer halls ranged themselves. Stoughton, second in tlie order of time, was built in 1G9S, and Massachusetts in 1720. These are the three edifices shown in an illustration, of which the original was published by William Price at the " King's Head and Looking Glass," in Cornhill (Boston), and is dedi- cated to Lieutenant-Governor Spencer Phips. It is entitled " A Prospect of the Colledges in Cambridge in New England." The first Stoughton was placed a little in the rear of, and at right angles with. Harvard and Massachusetts, fronting the open space between, so as to form three sides of a quadrangle. It stood nearly on a line with Hollis, was of brick, and had the name of Governor Stoughton, the founder, inscribed upon it. The foundation-stone was laid May 9, 1698, but, after standing nearly a century, having gone to irremediable decay, it was taken down in 1781. A facsimile of this edifice appears in the background of Governor Stoughton's portrait, in the gallery in Massachusetts Hall. As has been remarked, there is a probability that the College press was kept in either Harvard or Stoughton as early as 1720, and the fact tliat the tj'pes belonging to the College were destroyed by the fire which consumed Harvard in 1764 gives color to the conjecture that the press was there. In May, 1775, the Provincial Congress, having taken possession of the CoUege, assigned a cliamber in Stoughton to Samuel and Ebenezer Hall, who printed the " New England Chronicle and Essex Gazette " there until the removal of the army from Cam- bridge. From this press, says a contemporary, " issued streams of intelligence, and those patriotic songs and tracts which so pre-eminently animated the defenders of American liberty." 224 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. John Fox, who was born at Boston, in England, in 1517, thus speaks of the art of printing : — " What man soever was the instrument [wherehy this invention was made] without all doubt, God himself was the ordainer and dis- poser thereof, no otherwise than he was of the gift of tongues, and that for a similar purpose." In 1G39 the first printing-press erected in New England was set up at Cambridge by Stephen Daye, at the charge of Eev. Joseph Glover, who not only brought over the printer, but everything necessary to the typographic art. " The first thing printed was ' The Freeman's Oath,' the next an Almanac made for New England by Mr. Pierce, mariner ; the next was the Psalms newly turned into metre." * John Day, Avho lived in Elizabeth's time at'Aldersgate, London, was a famous printer, who is understood to have introduced the italic characters and the first font of Saxon types into our typography. Samuel Green, into wdjose possession the press very early came, and who is usually considered the first printer in America, was an inhabitant of Cambridge in 1639, and pursued his call- ing here for more than forty years, when he removed to Boston. Green printed the " Cambridge Platform " in 1 649 ; the Laws in 1660; and the "Psalter," "Eliot's Catechism," "Baxter's Call," and the Bible in the Indian language in 168.5. Daye's press, or some relics of it, are said to have been in existence as late as 1809 at Windsor, A^t. All these early publications are of great rarity. Massachusetts, which is the first of the old halls reached in coming from the Square, is the oldest building now standing. It is but one remove from, and is the oldest existing specimen in Massachusetts of, our earliest types of architecture as applied to public edifices. Like Harvard, it presents its end to the street, and faces upon what was the College green a century and a half gone by, — perhaps the very place where Robert Calef 's wicked book was, by an edict which smacks strongly of the Inquisition, burnt by order of Increase Mather. * Winthrop's Journal. A DAY AT HARVARD, CONTINUED. 225 The building, with its high gambrel roof, dormer windows, and wooden balustrade surmounting all, has a quaint and de- cidedly picturesque appearance. Though nominally of three stories, it shows live tiers of windows as we look at it, above which the parapet terminates in two tall chimneys. Between each range of windows is a belt giving an appearance of strength to the structure. On the summit of the western gable was a clock affixed to an ornamental wooden tablet, which is still in its place, although the clock has long since disappeared. Mas- sachusetts contained thirty-two rooms and sixty-four studies, until its dilapidated condition compelled the removal of all the interior woodwork, when it was converted into a gallery for the reception of the portraits since removed to Memorial Hall. Many of these portraits are originals of Smibert, Copley, and Stuart, which makes the collection one of rare value and ex- cellence. Of these, two of the most characteristic are of old Thomas Hancock, the merchant prince, and founder of the pro- fessorship of that name, and of Nicholas Boylston, another eminent benefactor, — both Copleys. Hancock, who was the governor's uncle, and who became very rich through his con- tracts for supplying Loudon's and Amherst's armies, kept a bookseller's shop at the " Bible and Three Crowns " in Ann Street, Boston, as early as 1726. Copley has delineated him in a suit of black velvet, white silk stockings, and shoes with gold buckles. One of the hands is gloved, while the other, uncovered, shows the beautiful mem- ber which plays so important a part in all of that painter's works. The old gentleman's clothes fit as if he had been melt- ed down and poured into them, and his ruffles, big-wig, cocked hat, and gold-headed cane supply materials for completing an attire suited to the dignity of a nabob of 1756. The artist gives his subject a double chin, shrewd, smallish eyes, and a general expression of complacency and good-nature. What we remark about Copley is his ability to paint a close-shaven face on which the beard may still be traced, with wonderful faith- fulness to natrn-e ; every one of his portraits has a character of its own. 10* o 226 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Boylston is represented in a neglige costume, with a dressing- gown of blue damask, the usual purple-velvet cap on his head, and his feet encased in shppers. This portrait was painted at the request of the corporation in partial acknowledgment of the bequest of £ 1500 lawful money by Boylston, to found a profes- sorship of oratory and rhetoric, of which John Quincy Adams was the first professor. The portrait ordered by the College was a copy from the original by Copley, and was directed to be hung in the Philosophy Koom beside those of Hancock and HoUis. The portraits of Thomas Hollis, one of a family celebrated for its many benefactions to the College, and of President Holyoke, are also by Copley : that of John Loveli, the tory schoolmaster of Boston, is a Smibert. The full length of John Adams ex- hibits a figure full of animation, attired in an elegant suit of brown velvet, with dress sword and short curled wig. As a whole, it may fairly claim to take rank with the superb portrait of Colonel Josiah Quincy in the possession of his descendants, and overshadows the full length of J. Q. Adams by Stuart, hanging near it. There is also a portrait of Count Ptumford. All these portraits are admirable studies of the costumes of their time, and as such have an interest rivalling their purely artistic merits. One of the irreparable conseciuences of the great lire in Boston, of November, 1872, was the loss of a score or more of Copley's portraits which were stored within the burnt district. In 1806 the College corporation ha\dng represented to the General Court that the proceeds of the lottery granted for the use of the University by an act passed June 14, 1794, were in- sufficient, and that great and expensive repairs were necessary to be made on Massachusetts Hall, they were empowered by an act passed March 14, to raise $ 30,000 by lottery, to erect the " new building called Stoughton Hall," and for the purpose of repairing Massachusetts, under direction of the President and FeUows, who were to appoint agents and pubhsh the schemes m the papers. A lottery had been authorized as early as 1765 to raise A DAY AT HAKVARD, CONTINUED. 227 funds for the " new building " (Harvard Hall), another in 1794, — in which the College itself drew the principal prize . (No. 18,547) often thousand dollars, — and still another in 1811. When the camps were formed at Cambridge, the College buildings were found very convenient fur barracks ; but as the greater i)art of the troops encamped during the summer of 1775, they were made available for every variety of military offices as well as for a certain nund)er of soldiers. In June Captain Smith Avas ordered to quar- ter in No. 6, and Captain Sephens in No. 2 of ]\Iassa- chusetts, while Mr. Adams, a sutler, was assigned to No. 1 7. The commissariat was in the College yard, where tlie details from all the posts came to draw rations. Nearly two thousand men in tlie five Ci standing in the winter of 1775 - 76, of which Harvard received 640, Stoughton 240, and the chapel 160. Harvard Hall, as it now appears, was rebuilt in 1765. The fire which destroyed its predecessor was supposed to have originated under the hearth of the library, where a fire liad been kept for the use of the General Court, which was then 3n were sheltered X I'ollege buildings X 228 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. sitting there on account of tlie prevalence of small-pox in Bos- ton. Two days after this accident the General Court passed a resolve to rebuild Harvard Hall. The new edifice contained a chapel, dining-hall, library, museum, philosophy chamber, and an apartment for the philosophical apparatus. Several interesting incidents are associated with the rebuild- ing of Harvard. When the Eev. George Whitefield Avas first in New England he was engaged in an acrimonious controversy with the President and some of the instructors of the College. Upon learning of the loss the seminary had sustained. White- field, putting all animosities aside, solicited contributions in England and Scotland with generous results. On the occasion of the last visit of this celebrated preacher to America every attention was paid him by the President and Fellows of the University. Dr. Appleton, who had moderately opposed Whitefield's teachings, invited him to preach in his pulpit, and the scene is said to have been one of great interest. Harvard Hall was planned by Governor Bernard, — a great friend of the College, whatever else his demerits, — and while it was building he would not suffer the least departure from his plan. It is said he coidd repeat the whole of Shakespeare. That he was somewhat sensitive to the many lampoons levelled at him may be inferred from his complaint to the council of a piece in the Boston Gazette, which ended Avith these lines : — " And if such men are by God appointed, The devil may be tlie Lord's anointed." Shortly after the arrival of the troops from England in 1768, which was one of Bernard's measures, the portrait of the Gov- ernor which hung in Harvard Hall was found with a piece cut out of the breast, exactly describing a heart. The mutilated picture disappeared and could never be traced. After Bernard's return home it was reported, and currently believed, that he was driven out of the Smyrna Coffee House in London, by General Oglethorpe, who told him he was a dirty, factious scoundrel, who smelled cursed strong of the hangman. The General ordered the Governor to leave the A DAY AT HARVARD, CONTINUED. 229 room as one unworthy to mix Avith gentlemen, but offered to give him the satisfaction of following him to the door had he anything to reply. The Governor, according to the account, left the house like a guilty coward. Harvard, the building of which Thomas Dawes superintended, stands on a foundation of Braintree stone, above which is a course of dressed red sandstone with a belt of the same material between the stories. It is composed of a central building with a pediment at either front, to which are joined two wings of equal height and length, each having a pediment at the end. There are but two stories, the lower tier of windows being arched, and the whole structure surmounted by a cupola. It was in the Philosophy Room of Harvard that Washington was received in 1789, and after breakfasting inspected the Library, museum, &c. The three buildings which we have described are those seen by Captain Goelet in 1750.* He says : — " After dinner Mr. Jacob Wendell, Abraham Wendell, and self took horse and went to see Cambridge, which is a neat, pleasant village, and consists of about an hundred houses and three Col- leges, which are a plain old fabrick of no manner of architect, and the present much out of repair, is situated on one side of the Towne and forms a large Square ; its apartments are pretty large. Drank a glass wine with the collegians, returned and stopt at Richardson's where bought some fowles and came home in the evening which we spent at Wetherhead's with sundry gentlemen." Hollis and the second Stoughton Hall, both standing to the north of Harvard, are in the same style of architecture. The hrst, named for Thomas Hollis, was begun in 1762 and com- pleted in 1763. It was set on fire when Old Harvard was consumed, and was struck by lightning in 1768. Thomas Dawes was the architect. Stoughton was built during the years 1804, 1805. They have each four stories, and are exceed- ingly plain " old fabrics " of red brick. Standing in front of the interval between these is Holden Chapel, built in 1745 at * N- E. Hist, and Gen. Register, 230 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. the cost of the widow and daughters of Samuel Holden, one of the directors of the Bank of England. It was hr^t used for the College devotions, subsequently for the American courts-martial, and afterwards for anatomical lectures and dissections. It be- came in 1800 devoted to lecture and recitation rooms for the professors and tutors. Holworthy Hall, which stands at right angles with Stoughton, was erected in 1812. Besides the five brick edifices standing in 1800, was also what was then called the College House, a three-story wooden building, standing without the College yard, containing twelve rooms with studies. It was originally built in 1770 for a private dwelling, and pur- chased soon after by the College corporation. University Hall, built in 1812-13 of Chelmsford granite, is placed upon the site of the old Bog Pond and within the Hmits of the Wiggles- worth Ox Pasture. This building had once a narrow escape from being blown up by the students, the explosion being heard at a great distance. A little southeast of Hollis is the supposed site of the Indian college. It does not fall Avithiu our purpose to recite the history of the more modern buildings grouped around the interior quad- rangle, with its magnificent elms and shady walks ; its elegant and lofty dormitories, and its classic lore. Our business is with the old fabrics, the ancient pastimes and antiquated cus- toms of former generations of Senior and Junior, Sophomore and Freshman. It was a warm spring afternoon when we stood within the quadrangle and slaked our thirst at the wooden punqi. A longing to throw one's self upon the grass under one of those inviting trees was rudely repelled by the painted admonition, met at every turn, to " Keep oif the Grass." The government does not waste words ; it orders, and its regulations assimilate to those of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. ISTever- theless, a few benches would not seem out of place here, when we recall how the sages of Greece instructed their disciples as they walked or while seated under some shady bough, as Soc- rates is described by Plato. Looking up at the open windows of the dormitories, we saw 232 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. that not a few were garnished with booted or slippered feet. This seemed the favorite attitude for study, by which knowl- edge, absorbed at the pedal extremities, is conducted by the inclined plane of the legs to the body, finally mounting as high as its source, siphon-like, to the brain. Any movement by which tlie feet might be lowered during this process would, we are persuaded, cause the hardly gained learning to flow back again to the feet. Others of the students were squatted in Indian fashion, their elbows on their knees, their chins resting in their palms, with knitted brows and eyes fixed on vacancy, in which, did Ave possess the conjurer's art, the coming University boat- race or the last base-ball tournament would, we fancy, appear instead of Latin classics. Perhaps we have not rightly inter- preted the expressions of others, which seemed to say, in the language of one Avhose brain was stretched upon the same rack a century and a quarter ago : — " Now algebra, geometry, Arithmetick, astronomy, Opticks, chronology and staticks, All tiresome parts of mathematics, With twenty harder names than these, Disturb my brains and break my peace." It was formerly the practice of the Sophomores to notify the Freshmen to assemble in the Chapel, where they were indoc- trinated in the ancient customs of the College, the latter being required " to keep their places in their seats, and attend with decency to the reading." Among these customs, descended from remote times, was one which forbade a Freshman "to wear his hat in the College yard, unless it rains, hails, or snows, provided he be on foot, and have not both hands full." The same prohibition extended to all undergraduates when any of the governors of the College were in the yard. These absurd " relics of barbarism " had become entirely obsolete before 1800. The degrading custom which made a Freshman subservient to all other classes, and obliged him to go of errands like a pot- boy in an alehouse, the Senior haAdng the prior claim to his service, died a natural death, without the interposition of A DAY AT HARVARD, CONTINUED. 233 authority. It became the practice under this state of things for a Freshman to choose a Senior as a patron, to whom he acknowledged service, and who, on his part, rendered due pro- tection to his servitor from the demands of others. These petty offices, when not unreasonably required, could be enforced by an appeal to a tutor. The President and immediate govern- ment had also their Freshmen. It is noteworthy that the abolition of this menial custom was recommended by the Over- seers as early as 1772; but the Corporation, which, doubtless, de- rived too many advantages from a continuance of the practice, rejected the proposal. Another custom obliged the Freshman to measure his strength with the Sophomore in a wrestling-match, which usually took place during the second week in the term on the College play- ground, which formerly bounded on Charlestown road, now Kirkland Street, and included about an acre and a half. This playground was enclosed by a close board fence, which began about fifty feet north of Hollis and extended back about three hundred feet, separating the playground from the College buildings. The playground had a front on the Common of about sixty-five feet, and was entered on the side of Hollis. " This enclosure, an irregular square, contained two thirds or more of the ground on which Stoughton stands, the greater part of the land on which Holworthy stands, together with about the same quantity of land in front of the same, the land back of Holworthy, including part of a road since laid out, and perhaps a very small portion of the western extremity of the Delta, so called." This was the College gymnasia, where the students, after evening prayers, ran, leaped, wrestled, played at quoits or cricket, and at good, old-fashioned, obsolete bat and ball, — not the dangerous pastime of to-day, but where you stood up, man- fashion, with nothing worse resulting than an occasional eye in mourning. In the early days offending students were punislied by the imposition of fines or whipping. There is a record of an order to this effect in the Massachusetts archives. 23-4 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Any account of Harvard which ignored the clubs would be incomplete. Besides the Phi Beta Kappa was the Porcellian, founded by the Seniors about 1793. It was originally called the Pig Club, but, for some unknown reason, this homely but ex- pressive derivation was translated into a more euphonious title. A writer remarks that learned pigs have sometimes been on ex- hibition, but, to our mind, to liave been educated among them would be but an ill passport into good society. There was also the Hasty Pudding Club, — a name significant of that savory, farinaceous substance, the dish of many generations of JS'ew- Englanders. Whether this society owed its origin to sumptuary regulations we are unable to say ; but a kettle of the article, steaming hot, suspended to a pole, and borne by a brace of students across the College yard, were worth a visit to OM Harvard to have witnessed. Commencement, Neal says, was formerly a festival second only to the day of the election of the magistrates, usually termed " Election Day." The account in " jS^ew England's First Fruits " gives the manner of conducting the academical exercises in 1642 : — "The students of the first classis that have beene these foure yeeres* trained up in University learning (for their ripening in the knowl- edge of tongues and arts) and are approved for theu' manners, as they have kept their public Acts in former yeares, ourselves being present at them ; so have they lately kept two solenui Acts for their Connnencement, when Governoiu', ]\Iagistrates and the IVIiuisters from all parts, with all sorts of schollars, and othei'S in great num- bers were present and did heare their exercises ; which were Latine and Greeke Orations, and Declamations, and Hebrew Analasis, Grammatical], Logicall and Rhetoricall of the Psalms ; And their answers and disputations in Logicall, Ethicall, Physicall, and Meta- physicall questions ; and so were found worthy of the first degree (commonly called Bachelour pro more Academiarum in Anglia) ; Being first presented by the President to the Magistrates and Minis- ters, and by him upon their approbation, solennily admitted unto the same degree, and a booke of arts delivered into each of their hands, and the power given them to read Lectures in the hall upon * Fixing the founding in 1638. A DAY AT HARVARD, CONTINUED. 235 any of the arts, when they shall be thereunto called, and a liberty of studying in the library." Commencement continued to be celebrated as a red-letter day, second only to the republican anniversary of the Fourth of July. The merry-makings under the tents and awnings ■ erected within the College grounds, for the entertainment of the guests, who had assembled to do honor to the literary triumphs of their friends or relatives, were completely eclipsed by the saturnalia going on without on the neighboring Common. This space was covered with booths, within which the hungry and thirsty might find refreshment, or the unwary be initiated into the mysteries of sweat-cloth, dice, or roulette. Side-shows, with performing monkeys, dogs, or perhaps a tame bear, less savage than his human tormentors, drew their gaping multi- tudes, ever in movement, from point to point. Gaming was freely indulged in, and the INIaine Law was not. As the day waxed, the liquor began to produce its legitimate results, swearing and fighting taking the place of the less exciting ex- hibitions. The crowd surged around the scene of each pugilistic encounter, upsetting the booths, and vociferating encouragement to the combatants. The best mem emerged with battered nose, eyes swelled and inflamed, his clothes in tatters, to receive the plaudits of the mob and the pledge of victory in another bowl of grog, while the vanquished sneaked away amid the jeers and derision of the men and the hootings of the boys. These orgies, somewhat less violent at the beginning of the present century, were by degrees brought within the limits of decency, and finally disappeared altogether. This was one of those " good old time " customs which we have sometimes known recalled with long-drawn sigh and woful shake of the head over our own days of State police, lemonade, and degeneracy. During the early years of the Revolution, and as late as 1778, there was no public Commencement at Harvard. Dress was a matter to which students gave little heed at the beginning of the century. The College laws required them to wear coats of blue-gray, with gowns as a substitute, in warm weather, — except on public occasions, when black gowns were 23G HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. permitted. Little does your spruce young undergraduate of to-day resemble, in this respect, his predecessor, who went about the College grounds, and even the village, attired in summer in a loose, long gown of calico or gingham, varied in winter by a similar garment of woollen stutf, called lambskin. With a cocked hat on his head, and peaked-toed shoes on his feet, your collegian was not a bad counterpart of Dominie Sampson in dishabille, if not in learning. Knee-breeches began to be dis- carded about 1800 by the young men, but were retained by a few of the elders until about 1825, when pantaloons had so far established themselves that it was unusual to see small-clothes except upon the limbs of some aged relic of the old regime. Top-boots, with the yellow lining falling over, and cordovans, or half-boots, made of elastic leather, litting itself to the shape of the leg, belonged to the time of which we are writing. The tendency, it must be admitted, has been towards improvement, and the present generation fully comprehends how " Braid claith lends fouk an unca heeze ; Maks mony kail-worms butterflees ; Gies mony a doctor liis degrees, For little skaith ; In short you may be wliat you please, W'i guid braid claith." An example of the merits of dress was somewhat ludicrously presented by a colloquy between two Harvard men who arrived at eminence, and who were as wide apart as the poles in their attention to personal appearance. Theophilus Parsons was a man very negligent of his outward seeming, while Harrison Gray Otis was noted for his fine linen and regard for his apparel. The elegant Otis, having to cross-examine a witness in court whose appearance was slovenly in the extreme, commented upon the man's filthy exterior with severity, and spoke of him as a " dirty fellow," because he had on a dirty shirt. Parsons, whose witness it was, objected to the badgering of Otis. " Why," said Otis, turning to Parsons, with ill-concealed irony, " how many shirts a week do you wear. Brother Par- sons 1 " A DAY AT HARVAED, CONTINUED. 237 " I wear one shirt a week," was the reply. " How many do you wear ] " " I change my shirt every day, and sometimes oftener," said Otis. " Well," retorted Parsons, " yon must be a ' dirty fellow ' to soil seven shirts a week when I do but one." There was a sensation in the court-room, and Mr. Otis sat down with his plumage a little rutiled. " For though you had as wise a snout on, As Shakespeare or Sir Isaac Newton, Your judgment fouk would hae a doubt on, I '11 tak my aith, Till they would see ye wi' a suit on 0' guid braid claith." The silken " Oxford Caps," formerly worn in public by the collegians, are well remembered. These Avere abandoned, in public places, through the force of circumstances alone, as they drew attentions of no agreeable nature upon the wearer when he Avandercd from the protecting segis of his Alma Mater. In the neighboring city, should his steps unfortunately tend thither, the sight of his headpiece at once aroused the war-cries of the clans of Cambridge Street and the West End. " An Oxford Cap ! an Oxford Cap ! " reverberated through the dirty lanes, and was answered by the instant muster of an ill-omened rabble of sans-culottes. Stones, mud, and unsavory eggs were showered upon the wretched " Soph," whose conduct on these occasions justified the derivation of his College title. Sometimes he stood his ground to be pummelled until within an inch of taking his degree in another world, and finally to see his silken helmet borne off in triumph at the end of a broomstick ; generally, however, he obeyed the dictates of discretion and took incon- tinently to his heels. At sight of these ugly black bonnets, worthy a familiar of the Inquisition, the whole neighborhood seemed stirred to its centre with a frenzy only to be assuaged when the student doffed his obnoxious casque or fled across the hostile border. The collegians, with a commendable esprit du corps, and a 238 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. valor worthy a better cause, clung to their caps with a cluvalric devotion born alone of persecution. They learned to visit the city in bands instead of singly, but this only brought into action the reserves of " digger Hill," and enlarged the war. The North made common cause with the "West, and South Ei^.d with both. The Harvard boys armed themselves, and some dangerous night-affrays took place in the streets, for which tin- actors were cited before, the authorities. ('omnion-scnse at length put an end to the disturbing cause, in which the stu- dents were obliged to confess the game was not worth the candle. The Oxford Caps were hung on the dormitory pegs, and order reigned in Warsaw. It is not designed to enumerate the many distinguished sons of Old Harvard whose names illuminate history. This has betMi done ill a series of biographies from an able pen.* One of the first class of graduates was George Downing, wdio went to England and became Chaplain to Colonel Okey's regiment, in Cromwell's army, — the same whom he afterwards lietraj^ed in order to ingratiate himself in the favor of Charles II. He was a brother-in-law of Governor Bradstreet and a good friend to New England. Doctor Johnson characterized him as the " dog Downing." He was ambassador to the states of Hol- land, and notwithstanding his reputation, soileil by the Ix-trayal of some of his republican friends to the block, was a man of "•enius and address. No other evidence is needed to show that he was a scoundrel than the record of his treatment of his mother, in her old age, as related by herself : — " But I am now att ten pounde ayear for my cliandier and 3 pound for my seruants wages, and liaue to extend the other tene pound a year to accomadat for our meat and drinck ; and for my clothing and all other necessaries I am much to seeke, and more your brother Georg will not hear of for me ; and that it is onely couetousness that maks me aske more. He last sumer bought an- other town, near Hatly, called Clappuni, cost him 13 or 14 thou- sand pound, and I really beleeue one of us 2 are couetous." Downing Street, London, was named for Sir George when ♦ John L. Sibley, Librarian. A DAY AT HARVAIU), CONTINUED. 239 the office of Lord Treasurer was put in commission (May, 1667), and Downing College, Cambridge, England, was founded by a grandson of the baronet, in 1717. The class of 1763 was in many respects a remarkable one, fruitful in loyalists to the mother country. Three refugee judges of the Supreme Court, of which number Sampson Salter Blowers lived to be a hundred, and, with the exception of Dr. Holyoke, the oldest of the Harvard alumni ; Bliss of Spring- field and Upham of Brookfield, afterwards judges of the high- est court in New Brunswick ; Dr. John Jeffries, the celebrated surgeon of Boston, and others of less note. On the Whig side were Colonel Timothy Pickering, General Jedediah Hunting- ton, who pronounced the first English oration ever delivered at Commencement, and Hon. Nathan Cushing. Benjamin Pratt, afterwards Chief Justice of New York under the crown, was a graduate of 1737. He had been bred a me- chanic, but, having met with a serious injury that disabled him from pursuing his trade, turned his attention to study. Gov- ernors Belcher, Hutchinson, Dummer, Spencer Phips, Bowdoin, Strong, Gerry, Eustis, Everett, T. L. Winthrop, the two Presi- dents Adams and the Governor of that name, are of those who have been distinguished in high political positions. The names of those who have become eminent in law, medicine, and divin- ity would make too formidable a catalogue for our limits. The Marquis Chastellux, waiting in 1782, says : — " I must here repeat, what I have observed elsewhere, that in comjjaring our universities and our studies in general with those of the Americans, it would not be to our interest to call for a decision of the question, which of the two nations should be considered an infant people." A University education, upon Avhich, perhaps, too great stress is laid by a few narrow minds who would found an aristocracy of learning in the republic of letters, is unquestion- ably of great advantage, though not absolutely essential to a successful public career. It is a passport which smooths the way, if it does not guarantee superiority. Perhaps it has a 240 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. tendency to a clannishness which has but little sympathy with those whose acquirements have been gained Avhile sternly fighting the battle of life in the pursuit of a livelihood. Through its means many have achieved honor and distinction, while not a few have arrived at the goal without it. Franklin, Rumford, Rittenhouse, and William Wirt are examples of so- called self-made men which it would be needless to multiply. Even in England the proportion of collegians in public life is small. Twenty-five years ago Lord Lyndhurst said in a speech that, when he began his political career a majority of the House of Commons had received a University education, wliile at the time of which he was speaking not more than one fifth had been so educated. The practice which prevails in our country, especially at the West, of distinguishing every country semi- nary with the name of college, is deserving of unqualified reprobation. It would be curious to trace the antecedents of the posses- sors of some of the great names in history. Columbus was a weaver ; Sixtus V. kept swine ; Ferguson and Burns were shepherds ; Defoe was a hosier's apprentice ; Hogarth, an en- graver of pewter pots ; Ben Jonson was a brick-layer ; Cer- vantes was a common soldier ; Halley was the son of a soap- boiler ; Ark Wright was a barber, and Belzoni the son of a bar- ber ; Canova was the son of a stone-cutter, and Shakespeare commenced life as a menial. The historic associations of Harvard are many and interest- ing. The buildings have frequently been used by the legislative branches of the provincial government. In 1729 the General Court sat here, halting been adjourned from Salem by Governor Burnet, in August. Again in the stormy times of 1770 the Court was prorogued by Hutchinson to meet here instead of at its ancient seat in Boston. Wagers were laid at great odds that the Assembly would not proceed to do business, considering themselves as under restraint. They, however, opened their session under protest, by a vote of 59 yeas to 29 nays. Urgent public business gave the Governor a triumph, which was ren- dered as empty as possible by every annoyance the members in A DAY AT HARVARD, CONTINUED. 241 their ingenuity could invent. The preceding May the election of councillors had been held in Cambridge, conformably to Governor Hutchinson's orders, but contrary to the charter and the sense of the whole province. This was done to prevent any popular demonstration in Boston, but the patriotic party celebrated the day there, and their friends flocked into town from the country as usual. An ox was roasted whole on the Common and given to the populace. The tragic events of the 5th of March, 1770, had occasioned great indignation and uneasiness, which the acquittal of Cap- tain Preston and his soldiers contributed to keep alive. The following is a copy of the paper posted upon the door of Boston Town House (Old State House), December 13, 1770, and for which Governor Hutchinson ottered a reward of a hundred pounds lawful money, to be paid out of the public treasury. Otway's " Venice Preserved " seems to have furnished the text to the writer : — " To see the sufferings of my fellow -townsmen And own myself a man ; To see the Court Cheat the injured people with a shew Of justice, which ive ne'er cmi taste of ; Drive us like wrecks down the rough tide of power. While no hold is left to save us from destruction, All that bear this are slaves, and we as such, Not to rouse up at the great call of Nature And free the .world froin such domestic tyrants." Harvard has not been free from those insurrectionary ebulli- tions common to universities. In most instances they have originated in Commons Hall ; the grievances of the stomach, if not promptly redressed, leading to direful results. Sydney Smith once remarked, that " old friendships are destroyed by toasted cheese, and hard salted meat has led to suicide." The stomachs of the students seem, on sundry occasions, to have been no less sensitive. In 1674 all the scholars, except three or four whose friends lived in Cambridge, left the College. In the State archives exists a curious document relative to a difficulty about com- mons at an early period in the liistory of the College. It is the 11 p 242 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. confession of Nathaniel Eaton and wife, who were cited before the General Court for misdemeanors in providing diet for the students. In Mrs. Eaton's confession the following passage occurs : — " And for bad fish, that they had it brought to table, I am sorry there was that cause of offence given them. I acknowledge mj^ sin in it. And for their mackerel, brought to them with their guts in them, and goat's dung in their hast}' pudding, its utterly unknown to me ; but I am much ashamed it should be in the family and not prevented by myself or servants and I humbly acknowledge my negligence in it." The affair of the resignation of Dr. Langdon has been men- tioned. In 1807 there was a general revolt of all the classes against their commons, which brought the affairs of the College nearly to a stand for about a month. The classes, having en masse refused to attend commons, were considered in the light of outlaws by the government, and were obliged to subscribe to a form of apology dictated by it to obtain readmission. Many refused to sign a confession a little humiliating, and left the College ; but the greater number of the prodigals accepted the alternative, though we do not learn that any fatted calf was killed to celebrate the return of harmony. This was during Dr. "Webber's presidency. The students have ever been imbued \ni\\ strong patriotic feelings. In 17C8 the Seniors unanimously agreed to take their degrees at Commencement dressed in black cloth of the manu- facture of the country. In 1812 they proceeded in a body to work on the forts in Bc)ston harbor. In the great Rebellion the names of Harvard's sons are inscribed among the heroic, living or dead for their country. The seal of Harvard was " adopted at the first meeting of the governors of the College after the first charter was obtained. On the 27th of December, 1643, a College seal was adopted, having, as at present, three open books on the field of an heraldic shield, with the motto Veritas inscribed." This, says Mr. Quincy, is the only seal which has the sanction of any record. The first seal actually used hatl the motto "/« Christi A DAY AT HARVARD, CONTINUED. 243 Gloriam,^' which conveys the idea of a school of theoh^gy, aiul is indirectly sanctioned by the later motto, Christo et Ecdesioi. The Americans threw up works on the College green in 1775, which were probably among tlie earliest erected by the Colony forces. They were begun in May, and extended toward? the river. An aged resident of Cambridge informed the writer that a fort had existed in what is now Holyoke Place, leading from Mount Auburn Street, — a jjoint which may be assumed to indicate the right flank of the first position. The lines in the vicinity of the College were carefully efiaced, some few traces being remarked in 1824. They were, in all probability, hastily planned, and soon abandoned for the Dana Hill posi- tion, by which they were commanded. The first official action upon fortifications which appears on record is the recommendation of a joint committee of the Com- mittee of Safety and the council of war — ■ a body composed of the general officers — to throw up works on Charlestown road, a redoubt on what is supposed to have been Prospect Hill to be armed with 9-pounders, and a strong redoubt on Bunker Hill to be mounted with cannon. These works were proposed on the 1 2th of May. The reader knows that the execution of the last-named work brought on the battle on that ground. Ever since Lexington the Americans looked for another sally of the royal forces. They expected it would be by way of Charlestown, and have the camps at Cambridge for its object. By landing a force on Charlestown jSTeck, which the command of the water always enabled them to do, the enemy were within a little more than two miles of headquarters, while a force coming from Eoxbury side must first beat Thomas's troops sta- tioned there, and tlien have a long detour of several miles be- fore they coidd reach the river, where the passage might be expected to be blocked by the destruction of the bridge, and would at any rate cost a severe action, under great disadvantage, to have forced. A landing along the Cambridge shore was im- practicable. It was a continuous marsh, intersected here and there by a few farm-roads, impassable for artillery, without which the king's troops would not have moved. The Lexing- 244 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. ton expedition forced its way through these marshes with infinite difficulty. The English commander might land his troops at Ten Hills, as had already been done ; but to prevent this was the object of the possession of Bunker Hill. He was therefore reduced to the choice of the two great highways lead- ing into Boston, with the advantages greatly in favor of that which passed on the side of Charlestown. The advanced post of the Americans on old Charlestown road, which was meant to secure the camp on this side, was near the point where it is now intersected by Beacon Street. It was distant about five eighths of a mile from Cam- bridge Common. The road, which has here been straightened, formerly curved towards the north, crossing the head of the west fork of Willis Creek (Miller's Eiver), hj what was called Pillon Bridge. The road also passed over the east branch of the same stream near the present crossing of the Fitchburg Railway, where nothing now appears to indicate its vicinity. Tlie works at Pillon Bridge were on each side of the road; that on the north running up the declivity of the hill now crossed by Park Street, and occupying a commanding site. The ex- istence of a watercourse here might long be traced in the vener- able willows which once skirted its banks, and even by the dry bed of tlie stream itself. The bridge, according to appearances, was situated seventy-five or a hundred yards north of the pres- ent point of junction of the two roads, now known as Wasli- ington and Beacon Streets. At tlie Cambridge line the former takes the name of Kirkland Street. Quite near tliis point, at Dane Street, a memorial tablet marks the spot where John Woolrich, the first settler in what is now Somerville, lived. CAMBRIDGE CAMP. 245 CHAPTER XI. CAMBRIDGE CAMP. " Father and I went down to camp Along with Captain Gooding, And there we see the men and boys As thick as hasty pudding." THERE is a certain historical coincidence in the fact that the armies of the Parliament in England and of the Congress in America were each mustered in Cambridge. Old Cambridge, in 1642-43, was generally for the king, and the University tried unsuccessfully to send its plate out of Oliver's reach. In 1775 the wealth and influence of American Cam- bridge were also for the king, but the University was stanch for the Revolution. We confess we should like to see, on a spot so historic as Cambridge Common, an equestrian statue to George Washing- ton, '^'^ Pater, Liberator, Defensor Patrice." Besides being the muster-field where the American army of the Revolution had its being, it is consecrated by other memories. It was the place of arms of the settlers of 1631, who selected it for their strong fortress and mtrenched camp. Within this field the flag of thirteen stripes was first unfolded to the air. We have already had occasion to refer to the uprising of Middlesex in 1774, when the crown servitors resident in Cambridge had their judicial commissions revoked in the name of the people. It was also the place where George the Third's speech, sent out by the " Boston gentry," was committed to the flames. Before reviewing the Continental camp, a brief retrospect of the military organization of the early colonists will not be deemed inappropriate. In the year 1644 the militia was or- ganized, and the old soldier, Dudley, appointed major-general. Endicott was the next incumbent of tliis new office ; Gibbons, 246 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. the third, had first commanded the Sutfolk regiments ; Sedg- wick, tlie fourth, the Middlesex regiment. AStev Sedgwick came Atherton, Denison, Leverett, and Gookin, wlio was tlie last major-general under the old charter. These officers were also styled sergeants major-general, a title borrowed from Old England. They were chosen annually hy the freemen, at the same time as the governor and assistants, while the other mili- tary officers held for life. Old Edward Johnson, describing the train-bands in Gibbons's time, says his forts were in good repair, his artillery well mounted and cleanly kept, half-cannon, culverins, and sakers, as also tieldpieces of brass, very ready for service. A soldier in 1630-40 wore a steel cap or head-piece, breast and back piece, buft" coat, bandoleer, containing his povAaler, and carried a matchlock. He was also armed Avitli a long sword suspended by a belt from the shoulder. In the time of Philip's War the Colony forces were provided with blunderbusses and also Avith hand-grenadoes, which were found elfectual in driving the Indians from an amV)us]i. A troop at this time numbered sixty horse, besides the officers', all well mounted and completely armed with back, breast, head-piece, bulf coat, sword, carbine, and pistols. Each of the twelve troops in the Colony were distinguished by their coats. In time of war tlie pay of a cap- tain of horse was £ 6 per month ; of a captain of foot, <£ 4 ; of a private soldier, one shilling a day. IMilitary punishments were severe ; the strapado, or riding the wooden horse so as to bring the blood, being commonly inflicted for offences one grade be- low the death-penalty. The governoi" had the chief command, but the major-generals did not take the field, their offices being more for profit than for fighting. With improved fire-arms, when battles were no more to be decided by hand-to-hand encounters, armor gradually went out of fashion. " Farewell, then, ancient men of might ! Crusader, errant-sqnire, and kniglit ! Our coats and customs soften ; To rise would only make you weep ; Sleep on, in rusty iron sleej), As in a safety coffin." CAMBRIDGE CAMP. 247 Bayonets as first used in England (about 1680) had a wooden haft, Avhich was inserted in the mouth of the piece, answering thus the purpose of a partisan. The French, with whom the weapon originated, anticipated the EngUsh in fixing it with a socket. A French and British regiment in one of the wars of WilHam III. encountered in Flanders, where this dif- ference in the manner of using the bayonet Avas near deciding the day in faA^or of tlie French battalion. This weapon, once so important tliat the British infantry made it their peculiar boast, is now seldom used, except perhaps as a defence against cavalry. Some confidence it still gives to the soldier, but its most important function in these days of long-range small- arms is the splendor Avith Avhich it invests the array of a bat- talion as it stands on parade. We do not knoAv of a com- mander AA'ho Avould noAv order a bayonet-charge, although in the early battles of the Eevolution it often turned the scale against us. After the battle of Lexington the Committee of Safety re- soh'ed to enlist eight thousand men for seven months. A com- pany AA'as to consist of one captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, four sergeants, a drummer and fifer, and seA^enty privates. Nine companies formed a regiment, of Avhich the field-officers Avere a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and major. Each of the field-oflftcers had a company Avhich Avas called his oAvn, as each of the general officers, beginning Avith AVard himself, had his regiment. The aggregate of the rank and file Avas, two days afterward, reduced to fifty. This must be considered as the first organization of the army of the Thirteen Colo- nies, — as they afterwards adopted it as their oAvn, — the army A\diich fought at Bunker Hill, and opened the trenches around Boston. This Common Avas the grand parade of the army. Here were formed every morning, under supervision of the Brigadier of the Day, the guards for Lechmere's Point, Cobble Hill, White House, North, South, and Middle Redoubts, Lechmere's Point tete da pout, and the main guards for AVinter Hill, Prospect Hill, and Cambridge. Hither Avere marched the de- 248 HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS^ tachments which assembled on their regimental parades at eight o'clock. Arms, accoutrements, and clothing underwent the scrutiny of Greene, Sullivan, or Heath. This finished, the grand guard broke off into small bodies, which marched to their designated stations to the music of the fife and drum. We may here mention that the " ear-piercing fife " was in- troduced into the British army after the campaign of Flanders in 1748. This instrument was first adopted by the Royal Eegiment of Artillery, the musicians receiving their instruction from John Ulrich, a Hanoverian fifer, brought from Flanders by Colonel Belford when the allied army separated. Nothing puts life into the soldier like this noisy little reed. You shall see a band of Aveary, footsore men, after a long march, fall into step, close up their ranks, and move on, a serried phalanx, at the scream of the fife. Fortunate indeed was he who witnessed this old-fashioned guard-mount, where the first efforts to range in order the non- descript battalia must have fiUed the few old soldiers present with despair. There was no uniformity in weapons, dress, or equipment, and until the arrival of Washington not an epau- lette in camp. The officers could not have been picked out of the line for any insignia of rank or superiority of attire over the common soldiers. Some, perhaps, had been fortunate enough to secure a gorget, a sword, or espontoon, but all car- ried their trusty fusees. All that went to make up the outward pomp of the soldier was wanting. Compared -wdth the scarlet uniforms, burnished arms, and compact files of the troops to whom they were opposed, our own poor fellows were the veriest ragamuffins ; but the contrast in this was not more striking than were the different motives with which each combated : the Briton fought the battle of his king, the American soldier his own. The curse of the American army was in the short enlistments. Men were taken for two, three, and six months, and scarcely arrived in camp before they infected it with that dangerous dis- ease, homesickness. The same experience awaited the nation in CAMBRIDGE CAMP. 249 the great civil war. In truth, if history is philosophy teaching by example, we make little progress in forming armies out of the crude material. If the Americans were so contemptible in infantry, they were even more so in artillery, — - as for cavalry, it was a thing as yet unknown in an army in which many field-officers could not obtain a mount. The enemy was well supplied with field and siege pieces, abundant supplies of which had been sent out, while the reserves of the Castle and fleet were drawn upon as circumstances demanded. The unenterprising spirit of the British commander rendered all this disparity much less alarm- ing than it would have been with a Carleton or CornwaUis, instead of a Gage or Howe. An eyewitness relates that " The British appeared so inoffensive that the Americans enjoyed at Cambridge the conviviality of the season. The ladies of the prin- cipal American officers repaired to the camp. Civility and mutual forbearance appeared between the officers of the royal and conti- nental armies, and a frequent interchange of flags was indulged for the gratification of the different partisans." The earliest arrangement of this chrysalis of an army was about as follows. The regiments were encamped in tents as fast as possible, but as this supply soon gave out, old sails, con- tributed by the seaport towns, were issued as a substitute. Patterson's, Whitcomb's, Doolittle's, and Gridley's pitched their tents, and were soon joined under canvas by Glover. Nixon's lay on Charlestown road ; a part of the regiment in Mr. Fox- croft's barn. The houses were at first used chiefly as hospitals for the sick. Patterson's hospital was in Andrew Boardman's house, .near his encampment ; Gridley's, in Mr. Eobshaw's. Sheriff Phip's house was hospital N"o. 2, over which Dr. Duns- more presided. Drs. John Warren, Isaac Eand, William Eustis, James Thacher, Isaac Foster, and others officiated in the hospi- tals, under the chief direction of Dr. Church. John Pigeon was commissary-general to the forces. We are able to give an exact return of all the regiments in Cambridge on the 10th of July, 1775, with the number of men in each : — 11 * 250 HISTOllIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Jonathan Ward, 505. James Scammon, 529. William Prescott, 4S7. Thomas Gardner, 334. Asa Whiteonili, 571. Jonathan Brewer, 373. Epbraim Doolittle, 351. B. Ruggles Woodbridge, 343. James Fry, 473. Paul Dudley Sargeant, 192. Richard Gridley, 445. Samuel Gerrish, 258. John Nixon, 482. John IVIansfield, 507. John Glover, 519. Edmund Phinney, Ifi3. John Patterson, 492. Moses Little, 543. Ebenezer Bridge, 509. Two companies of Bond's and two of Gerrish's were at Med- ford. Maiden, and Chelsea. Phinney had only three companies in camp. This seems to have been before the troops were arranged in grand divisions and newly brigaded by Washing- ton. The aggregate of the troops in Cambridge ])resented by the above return was 8,076, of which probably not many in excess of six thousand were for duty. Under the new arrange- ment of forces Scammon's was ordered to No. 1 and the redoubt on the flank of No. 2, Heath's to No. 2, Patterson to No. 3, and Prescott to Sewall's Point. On the 10th of January, 1 776, when the returns of the whole army only amounted to 8,212 men, but 5,582 were returned fit for duty. Gridley calls for fascines, gabions, pickets, etc., for the bat- teries, and makes requisitions for the service of a siege-train. The artillery, such as it was, but lately dragged from places of concealment, was without carriages, horses, or harness. There were no intrenching tools except such as could be obtained of private persons, no furnaces for casting shot, — no anything but pluck and resolution, and of that there was enough and to spare. Armorers were set to work repairing the men's firelocks. Knox, Burbeck, Crane, Mason, and Crafts mounted the artil- lery. Sailmakers were employed making tents, carpenters to build barracks, and shoemakers and tailors as fast as they could be obtained, — the former in making shoes, cartouch- boxes, etc., the latter in clothing the soldiers. Shipwrights were building bateaux on the river. In this condition of ac- CAMBRIDGE CAMP. 251 tivity and chaos Washington found his army, and reahzed, per- haps for the first time, the magnitude of the work before him. From the Mystic to the Charles and from the Charles to the sea the air echoed to the sound of the hammer or the blows of the axe, the crasli of falling trees or the word of command. Another Carthage might have been rebuilding by another Ciesar, and the ground trembled beneath the tread of armed men. Imagine such an army, without artillery or effective small- arms, without magazines or discipline, and unable to execute the smallest tactical manoeuvre should their lines be forced at any point, laying siege to a town containing ten thousand troops, the first in the world. It was, moreover, without a flag or a commander having absolute authority until Washington came. Picture ^o yourself a grimy figure behind a rank of gabions, liis head wrapped in an old bandanna, a short pipe between his teeth, stripped of his upper garments, his lower limbs encased in leather breeches, yarn stockings, and hob-nailed shoes, indus- triously plying mattock or spade, and your provincial soldier of '75 stands before you. Multiply him by ten thousand, and you have the provincial army. It is certain that no common flag had been adopted by any authority up to February, 1776, though the flag of thirteen stripes had been displayed in January. The following extract from a regimental order book will answer the oft-repeated in- quiry as to whether the contingents from the different Colonies fought under the same flag in 1775 : — "Head Quarters 20th February 1776. " Parole Manchester : Countersign Boyle. "As it is necessary that every regiment should l)e funiislied with colours and that those colours bear some kind of similitude to the regiment to which they belong, tlie colonels with their respective Brigadiers and with the Q. M. G. may fix upon any such as are proper and can be procured. There must be for each regiment the standard for regimental colours and coloiu's for each grand division, the whole to he .small and light. The immber of the reu'iment is tu 252 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. be marked on tlie colours and such a motto as the colonels may choose, in fixing upon which the general advises a consultation among them. The colonels are to delay no time in getting the mat- ter fix'd that the Q. M. General may provide the colours for them as soon as possible. G? Washington." Washington's first requisition on arriving in camp was for one hundred axes and bunting for colors. At the battle of Long Island, fought August, 1776, a regimental color of red damask, having only the word " Liberty " on the field, was captured by the British. As late as Monmouth there were no distinctive colors. The whipping-post, where minor offences against military law were expiated, was to be met with in every camp. The prison- ers received the sentence of the court-martial on their naked backs; from twenty to forty lashes (the limit of the Jewish law) Math a cat-o'-nine-tails being the usual punishment. This barbarous custom, inherited from the English service, was long retained in the American army. Its disuse in the navy is too recent to need special mention. Incorrigible offenders were drummed out of camp ; but though there are instances of the death-penalty having been adjudged by courts- martial, there is not a recorded case of military execution in the American army during the whole siege. The men in general were healthy, — much more so in Eox- bury than in Cambridge, and Thomas had the credit of keep- ing his camps in excellent order. In July, 1776, a company of ship carpenters was raised and sent to General Schuyler at Albany for ser\'ice on the lakes. A company of bread-bakers Avas another feature of our camp. The troops did not pile or stack their arms. They had few bayonets. The custom was to rest the guns upon wooden horses made for the purpose. In wet weather they were taken into the tents or quarters. We have dwelt upon details that may appear trivial, unless the reconstruction of the Continental camps, with fidelity in all things, and dedicated in all honor to the patriot army, be our sufficient warrant. Pope Day, the anniversary of Guy Fawkes's abortive plot CAMBRIDGE CAMP. 253 (November 5, 1605), had long been observed in the Colonies. It was proposed to celebrate it in the American camp on the return of the day in 1775, but General Washington character- ized it as a ridiculous and childish custom, and expressed his surprise that there should be officers and men in the army so void of common-sense as not to see its impropriety at a time when the Colonies were endeavoring to bring Canada into an alliance with themselves against the common enemy. The General argued that the Canadians, who were largely Catholic, would feel their religion insulted. The British, on the con- trary, celebrated the day with salvos of artillery. As the crisis of the siege approached, Washington sternly forbade all games of chance. The glorious evening in June came, when the dark clusters of men gathered on the greensward for Breed's Hill. Silently they stood while Dr. Langdon knelt on the threshold of yonder house and prayed for their good speed. The men tighten tlieir belts and feel if their flints are firmly fixed. Their faces we cannot see, but we warrant their teeth are shut hard, and a strange light, the gleam of battle, is in their eyes. A nocturnal march, with conflict at the end of it, will try the nerves of the stoutest soldier. What will it then do for men who have yet to fire a shot in anger'? They whisper together, and we know what they say, — "To-morrow, comrade, we On the battle plain must be, There to conquer or both lie low ! " Some one who has fairly judged of the raw recruit in general doubts if the Americans reserved their fire at Bunker Hill. The answer is conclusive. As the enemy marched to the attack a few scattering shots were fired at them, soon checked by tlie leaders. This is the testimony of both sides, and is, in this case, perhaps, exceptional. But the best answer is in the enemy's frightful list of casualties, — a thousand and more men are not placed hors du combat in less than two hours by indiscriminate popping. The first attempts at uniforming the Continentals were any- 254 HISTORIC mansions and highways. thing but successful, the absence of cloth, except the homespun of the country, rendering it impracticable. Chester's company, Avhich was clothed in Ijlue turned up with red, is the only one in uniform at the battle of Bunker Hill of which we have any account. In Edmund Phinney's regiment, statin ued in Boston after the departure of the EngHsh, the men were supphed with coats and double-breasted jackets of undyed clotli, just as it came from the looms, turned up with bull" facings. They had also blue breeches, felt hats with narrow brims and white bind- ing. Another regiment, being raised in the same town, wore black faced with red. The motto on the button was, " hiimica Tyrannis," above a hand with a naked sword. During this year (1776) homespun or other coats, brown or any other color, made large and full-lapelled, with fiicings of the same or of white, clotli jackets without sleeves, cloth or leather breeches, large felt hats, and yarn stockings of all colors, were purchased by the Continental agents. Smallwood's Maryland regiment was clothed in red, but Washington eventually prohibited this color, for obvious reasons. In November, 1776, Paul Jones captured an armed vessel, which had on board ten thousand complete sets of uniform, destined for the troops in Canada under Carleton and Burgoyne. The American levies in the British service were first attired in green, which they finally and with heavy hearts exchanged for red, as a prelude to their being drafted into British regiments. The term " Continent " was applied to the thirteen Colonies early in 1776, to distinguish their government from that of the Provinces, and hence the name Continental, as ajiplied to the army of their adoption. The surroundings of Camln-idge Common invite our attention, and of these the old gambrel-roof house, formerly standing on what is now Holmes Place, naturally claims precedence. To the present generation it was known as the birthplace of our Autocrat of tlie Breakfast-table, our songster in many keys, ever welcome in any guise, whether humorous, pathetic, or even a little satirical withal. It was a good house to be born in, and does honor to the poet's choice, as his bouquet of CAMBRIDGE CAMP. 255 WENDELL. fragrant memories, culled for the readers of the " Atlantic," does honor to the poet's self. It is certainly no disadvantage to have first drawn breath in a house which was the original headquarters of the Ameri- can army of the lievolution, and in which the battle of Bunker Hill was planned and orderL'd. The old house was pleasant to look at, though built originally for nothing more pretending than a farm-house. It had a thoroughly sturdy and honest look, like its ''A,, old neighbor, the President's house, and in nothing except its yellow and white paint did it seem to counterfeit tlie royalist man- sions of Tory Row. Tlu^. Professor tells us it once had a row of Lombardy poplars on the west, but now not a single speci- men of -the tree can be found of the many tliat once stood stiffly up at intervals around the Common, Tlie building fronted the south, with the College edifices of its own time drawn up in ugly array before it. Beyond, in unobstructed view, ai-e the Square, the church with its lofty steeple, and its Anglican neighbor of the lowlier tower, where, — "Like sentinel and nun tliey keep Their vigil on the green ; One seems to guanl ami one to weep The dead that lie between." The west windows overlooked the Common, with its beautiful monument in its midst, and bordered by other houses with walls as familiar to the scenes of a hundred years ago as are those of our present subject. "Were we to indulge our fancy, we might as easily invest these old houses with the gift of vision through their many glassy eyes, as to give ears to their walls ; we might imagine their looks of recognition, doubtful of their own identity, amid the changes which time has wrought in their vicinage. It is at least a singular chance that fixed the homes of Long- fellow, Holmes, Lowell, Hawthorne, and Everett in houses of greater or less historic celebrity ; but it is not merely a coinci- 256 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. dence that has given these authors a decided preference for his- torical subjects. All are students of history ; all either are or have been valued members of our historical societies. Evan- geline, The Scarlet Letter, and Old Ironsides are pledges that the more striking subjects have not escaped them. In the roll of proprietors of the old gambrel-roof house, which Dr. Holmes supposed to be about one hundred and fifty years old, but which, we believe, was even more ancient, the first to appear is Jabez Fox, described as a tailor, of Boston, to whom the estate was allotted in 1707, and whose heirs sold it to Farmer Jonathan Hastings thirty years later, with the four acres of land pertaining to the messuage. The first Jonathan Hastings is the same to whom Gordon attributes the origin of the word " yankee." He says : — " It was a cant, favorite word with Farmer Jonathan Hastings of Cambridge about 1713. Two aged ministers who were at the College in that town have told me they remembered it to have been then in use among the students, but had no recollection of it before that period. The inventor used it to express excellency. A Yankee good horse, or Yankee good cider, and the like, were an excellent good horse and excellent cider. The students used to hire horses of him, and the use of the term upon all occasions led them to adopt it, and they gave him the name of Yankee Jon." Gordon supposes that the students, upon leaving College, circulated the name through the country, as the phrase "Hob- son's choice" was established by the students at Cambridge, in Old England, though the latter derivation is disputed by Mr. Ker, who caUs it " a Cambridge hoax." The second Jonathan Hastings, long the CoUege Steward, was born in 1708, graduated at Harvard in 1730, and died m 1783 aged seventy-five. It was during his occupancy that the house acquired its paramount importance. He was appointed postmaster of Cambridge in July, 1775, as the successor of James Winthrop ; and his son Jonathan, who graduated at Harvard in 1768, was afterwards postmaster of Boston. Walter Hastings, also of this family, was a surgeon of the 27th regi- ment of foot (American), from Chelmsford, at the battle of CAMBRIDGE CAMP. 257 Bunker Hill, and rendered efficient service there. Walter Hastings, of Boston, had a pair of gold sleeve-buttons worn by his grandsire on that day. His father, Walter Hastings, com- manded Fort Warren, now Fort Winthrop, in 1812. As early as April 24, 1775, and perhaps immediately after the battle of Lexington, the Committee of Safety established themselves in this house, and here were concerted all those measures for the organization of the army created by the Provin- cial Congress. It was here Captain Benedict Arnold reported on the 29th of April with a company from Connecticut, and made the proposal for the attempt on Ticonderoga, prompted by his daring disposition. It was, without doubt, in the right- hand room, on the lower floor, that Arnold received his first commission as colonel from the Committee, May 3, 1775, and his orders to raise a force and seize the strong places on the lakes. Thus Massachusetts has the dubious honor of having first commissioned this eminent traitor, whose authority was signed by another traitor, Benjamin Church, but whose treason was not then developed. " 'T is here but yet confused : Knavery's plain face is never seen till used." Arnold was the first to give information in relation to the number and calibre of the armament at Ticonderoga. As all that relates to this somewhat too celebrated personage has a certain interest, we give the substance of a private letter from a gentleman who was in Europe when General Arnold arrived there, and whose acquaintance in diplomatic circles placed him in a position to be well informed. The revolution in England respecting the change of ministry was very sudden, and supposed to have been influenced by the honest representations of Lord Cornwallis relative to the im- practicability of reducing America, which rendered that gen- tleman not so welcome in England to the late Ministry as his brother-passenger. General Arnold, who, from encouraging in- formation in favor of the conquest of America, was received with open arms by the king, caressed by the ministers, and Q 258 HISTOPJC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. all imaginable attention showed him by all people on that side of the question. He was introduced to the king in town, with whom he had the honor of many private conferences ; and was seen walking with the Prince of Wales and the king's brother in the public gardens. The queen was so interested in favor of Mrs. Arnold as to desire the ladies of the court to pay much attention to her. On the other hand, the papers daily con- tained such severe strokes at Arnold as \vould have made any other man despise himself; and the then opposition, after- wards in power, had so little regard for him, that one day, he being in the lobby of the House of Commons, a motion was about to be made to have it cleared in order to get him out of it, but upon the member (the Earl of Surrey) being assured that he wovdd not ap2:)ear there again, tlie motion was not made. The name of the corporal who with eight jirivates constituted the crew of the barge in Avhich Arnold made his escape from West Point to the Vulture, was James Lurvey, of Colonel Rufus Putnam's regiment. He is believed to have come fi-om Worcester County. Arnold meanly endeavored to seduce the corporal from his flag by tlie ofter of a commission in the Brit- ish service, but the honest fellow replied, " Xo, sir ; one coat is enough for me to wear at a time." This mansion was probably occupied by General Ward at a time not far from coincident with its possession by the Commit- tee of Safety, but of this there is no other evidence than that his frequent consultations with that body would seem to render it necessary. He received his commission as commander-in- cliief of the Massachusetts forces on the 20th of May, 177-5, at wliich time headquarters were unquestionably established here. It must be borne in mind, however, that the committee exer- cised the supreme authority of directing all military movements, and that General Ward was a subordinate. The fact that this was the Provincial headquarters has been doubtfully stated from time to time, but is settled by the fol- lowing extract from the Provincial records, dated June 21, 1775: — CAMBKIDGE CAMP. 259 " Whereas, a great number of horses have been, from time to time, put into the stables and yard of Mr. Hastings, at headquarters, not belonging to the Colony, the Committee of Safety, or the gen- eral officers, their aids-de-camp, or post-riders, to the great expense of the public and inconvenience of the committee, generals, &c." General Ward's principal motive for quitting the army was a painful disease, which prevented his mounting his horse. His personal intrepidity and resolution are well illustrated by the following incident of Shays's Rebellion. The General was then chief justice of the court to be held in "Worcester, September, 178G. On the morning the court was to open, the Eegulators, under Adam Wheeler, were in possession of the Court House. The judges had assembled at the house of Hon. Joseph Allen. At the usual hour they, together with the justices of the sessions and members of the bar, moved in procession to the Court House. A sentinel challenged the advance of the procession, bringing his musket to the charge. General Ward sternly ordered liim to recover his piece. The man, an old soldier of Ward's own regiment, awed by his manner, obeyed. Passing through the multitude, which gave way in sullen silence, the cortege reached the Court House steps, where were stationed a file of men with fixed bayonets, Wheeler, with a drawn sword, being in front. The crier was allowed to open the doors, which, being done, displayed another party of infantry with loaded muskets, as if ready to fire. Judge Ward then advanced alone, and the bayo- nets were presented at his breast. He demanded, repeatedly, who commanded the people there, and the object of these hos- tile acts. Wheeler at length replied that they had met to prevent the sitting of the courts until they could obtain redress of grievances. The judge then desired to address the people, but the leaders, who feared the effect upon their followers, re- fused to permit him to be heard. The drums beat and the guard were ordered to charge. " The soldiers advanced until the points of their bayonets pressed hard upon the breast of the chief justice, who stood immovable as a statue, without stirring a limb or yielding an inch, although the steel, in the hands of 260 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. desperate men, penetrated his dress. Struck with admiration by his intrepidity, the guns were removed, and Judge Ward, ascending the steps, addressed the assembly." " Says sober Will, well Shays has fled, And jjeace returned to bless our days. Indeed, cries Ned, I always said. He 'd prove at last a. fall hack Shays." When the army first assembled under Ward, officers were frequently stopped by sentinels for want of any distinguisliing badge of rank. This led to an order that they should wear ribbons across the breast, — red for the highest grade, blue for colonels, and other colors according to rank. It is well known that Washington spoke of the resignation of General Ward, after the evacuation of Boston, in a inanner approaching contempt. His observations, then confidentially made, about some of the other generals, were not calcidated to flatter their amour propre or that of their descendants. It is said that General Ward, learning long afterwards the remark that had been applied to him, accompanied by a friend, waited on his old chief at New York, and asked him if it was true that he had used such language. The President replied that he did not know, bnt that he kept copies of aU his letters, and would take an early opportunity of examining them. Accordingly, at the next session of Congress (of Avhich General Ward was a member), he again called with his friend, and was informed by the President that he had really written as alleged. Ward then said, " Sir, you are no gentleman,'" and turning on his heel quitted the room. It is certain that the seizure of Dorchester Heights was re- solved upon early in May, 1775, or nearly a year before it was finally done by Washington. Information conveyed to the besiegers from Boston made it evident that the enemy were meditating a movement, which we now know from General Burgoyne was to have been first directed upon the heights of Dorchester, and secondly upon Charlestown. On the 9th of May, at a council of war at headquarters, the question proposed whether such part of the militia should be CAMBRIDGE CAMP. 261 called in to join the forces at Eoxbury as would be sufficient to enable them to take possession of and defend Dorchester Hill, as well as to maintain the camp at Eoxbury, was passed unani- mously in the affirmative. Samuel Osgood, Ward's major of brigade, signed the record of the vote. On the 10th of May an order was sent to all the colonels of the army to repair to the town of Cambridge, — "as we are meditating a blow at our restless enemies," — the general officers were directed to call in all the enlisted men, and none were allowed to depart the camps till the further orders of Congress. For some reason the enterprise was abandoned, but it shows that both belligerents were fully conscious from the first that the heights of Dorchester and Charlestown were the keys to Boston. Burgoyne says the descent on Dorchester was finally to have been executed on the 18 th of June, and gives the par- ticulars of_ the plan of operations, — a scheme which the in- trenchment on the heights of Charlestown rendered abortive. The next whose personality is involved with the old house is Joseph Warren. The account preserved in the Hastings family is, that the patriot President-general was much pleased with Eebecca Hastings, who was then residing with her father, the College steward. The previous day the General had pre- sided at the deliberations of the Congress at Watertown, where he passed the night, coming down to Cambridge in the morning. His steps tended most naturally to the old house where were his associates of the Committee, and the commanding general. There was perhaps a fair f;ice at the window welcoming him with a smile as he, for the last time, drew up before the gate and alighted from his chaise. Warren, risen from a sick-bed, to which overwork and mental anxiety had consigned him, dressed himself with more than ordinary care, and, silencing the remonstrances of his more cautious colleague, Elbridge Gerry, proceeded to the scene of action at Bunker Hill on foot. The old farm-house is not yet to lose its claim as a worthy memorial of the varying destinies through which our country passed. Washington made it his headquarters upon his arrival 262 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. at camp, remaining in it three days, or until arrangements for his permanent residence could be made. He tirst dined at Cambridge with General Ward and his officers, — an occasion when all resti'aint appears to have been cast aside in the sponta- neous welcome which was extended him. After dinner Adjutant Gibbs, of Glover's, was hoisted (English fashion), chair and all, upon the table, and gave the company a rollicking bachelor's song, calculated to make the immobile features of the chief relax. It was a generous, hearty greeting of comrades in arms. Glasses clinked, stories were told, and the wine circulated. Washington was a man ; we do not question that he laughed, talked, and toasted with the rest. The headquarters being here already, it was natural for the General to choose to remain for the present where the archives, staff, and auxiliary machinery enabled him to examine the condition and resources of the army he came to command. Consultations -with General Ward were necessarily frequent. It was no doubt in this house Washington penned his first official despatches. Eliphalet Pearson, Professor of Hebrew and Oriental lan- guages, became the next inhabitant after what may be called the Restoration, when the sway of warlike men gave place on classic ground to the old reign of letters. Professor Pearson was noted for the sternness of his orthodoxy, as ex- hibited in his resistance to the entrance of Eev. Henry Ware into the Hollis professorship, and for his opposition to Andrew Craigie's efforts to secure a charter for his bridge, — efforts exerted in both instances for the behoof of the College, though in widely difierent spheres of action. Following him came Eev. Abiel Holmes, pastor of the First Church, early historian of Cambridge, whose ministry was suspended by a revolution in his parish, which resulted in the overthrow of the old and the elevation of the new. Dr. Holmes's widow, the daughter of Judge Oliver Wendell, con- tinued to live in the house some time after the decease of her husband in 1837. Oliver Wendell Holmes, their son, did not permanently reside in the old house after he left college. CAMBRIDGE CAMP. 263 The lines to Old Ironsides, to which allusion has been made, Av^ere composed in this old house when the poet was twenty years old. They were written in pencil, and first printed in the " Boston Daily Advertiser." Genuine wrath at the j^ro- posed breaking up of the old frigate impelled the young poet's burning lines : — " And one who listened to the tale of shame, Whose heart still answered to that sacred name, Whose eye still followed o'er his country's tides Thy glorious flag, our brave Old Ironsides ! From yon lone attic on a summer's morn, Thus mocked the spoilers with his school-boy scorn." 264 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. CHAPTER XII. CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. " The country of our fatliers ! May its spirit keep it safe and its justice keep it free ! " PUESUING our circuit of tlie Common, " on hospitable thoughts intent," we ought briefly to pause before the whilom abode of Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse. This house may justly claim to be one of the most ancient now remaining in Cambridge, having about it the marks of great age. The strong family resemblance Avhich the dwellings of the period to which this belongs bear to each other renders a minute description of an individual specimen applicable to the greater number. Here are still some relics of the " American Jenner," and some that belonged to an even older inhabitant than he. In one apartment is a clock surmounted by the symbolic cow. At the head of the staircase, in an upper hall, is another clock, Avith an inscription which shows it to have been presented, in 1 790, to Dr. Waterhouse, by Peter Oliver, former chief justice of the province. The old timekeeper requests its possessor to wind it on Christmas and on the 4th of July. There is also a crayon portrait of the Doctor's mother, done by Allston when an undergraduate at Harvard. The features of Henry "Ware, another inhabitant of the house, look benignly down from a canvas on the wall. Some other articles may have belonged to William Vassall, who owned and occupied the house, probably as a summer residence, before the war. Still another occupant was the Rev. Winwood Serjeant, rector of Christ Church. Dr. Waterhouse is best remembered through his labors to introduce in this country vaccination, the discovery of Jenner, which encountered as large a share of ridicule and opposition as inoculation had formerly experienced. Several persons are remembered who were vaccinated by Dr. Waterhouse. CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. 265 At one time the old barracks at Sewall's Point (Brookline) were used as a small-pox hospital. This was in the day of inoculation, when it was the fashion to send to a friend such missives as the following : — " I wish Lucy was here to have the small-pox. I wish you would persuade her to come here and have it. You can't think how light they have it." The visitor will find some relics formerly kept at the State Arsenal on Garden Street, in several pieces of artillery mounted on sea-coast carriages and arranged within the Common. These guns were left in Boston by Sir William Howe, and, thanks to the care of General Stone, when that gentleman was adjutant- general of the State, were preserved from the sale of a number of similar trophies as old iron. As the disappearance of the arsenal left them unprotected it is to be hoped that the State of Massachusetts can afford to keep these old war-dogs which bear tlie crest and cipher of Queen Anne and the Second George. The largest of the cannon is a 32-pounder. All have tlie broad arrow, but rust and weather have nearly obliterated the inscriptions impressed at the royal foundry. The oldest legible date is 1687. Besides these, were two di- minutive mortars or cohorns. Within one of the houses were two beautiful brass field-pieces, bearing the crown and lilies of France. Each has its name on the muzzle, — one being the Venus and the other Le Faucon, — and on the breech the imprint of the royal arsenal of Strasburg, with the dates respectively of 1760 and 1761. A further search revealed, hidden away in an obscure corner and covered with lumber, a Spanish piece, which, when brought to light by the aid of some workmen, was found literally covered with engraving, beautifully executed, delineating the Spanish Crown and the monogram of Carlos III. It is inscribed, — " El Uenado. Barcelona J8DE Deceimbre De J 767." Inquiry of the proper officials having failed to enlighten us 12 266 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. as to the possession of these cannon by the State, we condude them to be a remnant of the field artillery sent us by France during the Revolution. The Spaniard, when struck with a piece of metal, gave out a beautifully clear, melodious ring, as if it contained an alloy of silver, and brought to our mind those old slumberers on the ramparts of Panama, into whose yet molten mass the common people flung their silver reals, and the old dons their pieces of Eight, while the priest blessed the union with the baser metal aud consecrated the whole to victory. Whitefield's Elm, \uider which that remarkable man preached in 1744, formerly stood on a line with its illustrious fellow the Washington Elm, and not far from the turn as we pass from the northerly side of the Common into Garden Street. It ob- structed the way, and the axe of the spoiler was laid at its root two years ago. Dr. Chauncy and Whitefield were not the best friends imaginable. They had mutually written at and preached against each other, and reciprocally soured naturally amiable tempers. The twain accidentally met. " How do you do, Brother Chauncy," says the itinerant laborer. " I am sorry to see you," replies I)v. C. " And so is the devil," retorted AVhitefield. Ill the early part of his life this gentleman happened to be preaching in tlie ojien fields, when a drummer was present, who was determined to interrupt the services, and beat his drum in a violent manner in order to drown the preacher's voice. Mr. Whitefield spoke very loud, l)ut the din of the instrument overpowered his voice. He tlierefore called out to tlie drummer in these words : — " Friend, you and I serve the two greatest masters existing, liut in different callings. You may beat up volunteers for King George, I for the Lord Jesus Christ. In God's name, then, don't let us in- terrupt each other ; the world is wide enough for us both, and we may get recruits in abundance." This speech had such effect that the drummer w^ent away in great good-humor, and left the preacher in full possession of the field. CAMBRIDGE COxMMOX AND LANDMARKS. 267 ^1 \ "^-^^ . «A. TllK WASHINGTON ELM. Many a pilgrim daily wends his way to the spot where Washington placed himself at the head of the army. Above him towers " A goodly elm, of iiolile girth, That, thrice the hiimaii sp.an — While on their variegated course The constant seasons ran — Through gale, and hail, and fiery bolt, Had stood erect as man." He surveys its crippled hranehes, swathed in bandages ; marks the scars, where, after holding aloft for a century their out- .stretched arms, limb after limb has fallen nerveless and de- cayed ; he pauses to read the inscri{)tion lodged at the base of the august fabric, and departs the place in meditative mood, as he would leave a churchyard or an altar. Apart from its association with a great event, there is some- thing impressive about this elm. It is a king among trees ; a 268 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. monarch, native to the soil, whose subjects, once scattered abroad upon the plain before us, have all vanished and left it alone in solitary state. The masses of foliage which hide in a measure its mutilated members, droop gracefully athwart the old highway, and still beckon the traveller, as of old, to halt and breathe awhile beneath their shade. It is not pleasant to view the decay of one of these Titans of primeval growth. It is too suggestive of the waning forces of man, and of that " Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history." As a shrine of the Revolution, a temple not made with hands, we trust the old elm will long survive, a sacred memorial to generations yet to come. We need such monitors in our public places to arrest our headlong race, and bid us calmly count the cost of the empire we possess. We shall not feel the worse for such introspection, nor could we have a more impressive coun- sellor. The memory of the great is with it and around it ; it is indeed on consecrated ground. When the camp was here AVashington caused a platform to be built among the branches of this tree, where he was accus- tomed to sit and survey with his glass the country round. On the granite tablet we read that Under this tree Washington First took command OF the American Army, July 3i>, 1775. On the spot where the stone church is erected once stood an old gambrel-roofed house, long the habitat of the Moore family. It was a dwelling of two stories, with a single chimney stand- ing in the midst, like a tower, to support the weaker fabric. In front were three of those shapely Lombard poplars, erect and prim, like trees on parade. A flower-garden railed it in from the road ; a porch in front, and another at the northerly end, gave ingress according as the condition of the visitor might warrant. CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDxMARKS. 269 The Moores occupied the house in the memorahle year '75, and saw from the windows the cavalcade conducting Washing- ton to his quarters, — this being, as before stated, the high-road from Watertown to Cambridge Common. On the following day the family might have witnessed the ceremonial of formal assumption of command by the chief, on whom all eyes were fixed and in whom all hopes were centred. Deacon Moore — does he at length rest in peace 1 — was, while in the flesh, much given to patching and repairing his fences, outbuildings, and the wooden belongings of his domain in general. He bore the character of an upright, downright, conscientious deacon, walking in the odor of sanctity, and was regarded with childish awe by the urchins of the grammar- school whenever he chose to appear abroad. The deacon's house had its inevitable best room, into which heaven's sunshine was never allowed to penetrate, and which Was rarely opened except to admit a stranger or hold a funeral service. There are yet such rooms in New England, with their stiff, black hair-cloth furniture, their ghostly pictures, and dank, mouldy odors. The carefully varnished mahogany has a smell of the undertaker ; every sense is oppressed, and the soul pleads for release from the funereal chamber. AVe repeat, there are still such " best rooms " in New England. Upon the decease of Deacon Moore it was discovered that some peculations had been made from the treasury of Dr. Holmes's church. These were laid at the door of the departed deacon. Now comes the startling revelation. Night after night the ghost of Deacon Moore revisited his earthly abode, and made night hideous Avith audible pounding, as if in the act of mending the fence, as was the deacon's wont in life. The affrighted neighbors, suddenly roused from slumber, fearfully drew their curtains aside, and peered forth into the night in (j^uest of the spectre ; but still invisible the Avraith pursued its midnight labors. The Jennisons succeeded the Moores, and at length the shade came no more. Not many years ago the old house was demol- ished. A vault was discovered underneath the kitchen, walled 270 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. up with rough stone, and in this receptacle were two human skeletons. What tale of horror was here concealed, what deed of blood had caused the disappearance of two human beings from the face of the earth, was never revealed. For an unknown time they had remained sealed up in the manner related, and the later dwellers in the house were totally unconscious of their horrid tenants. A family servant had long slept immediately above these bones, and we marked, even after years had passed away, a strange glitter in his eye as he recalled his couch upon a tomb. The remains were of adult persons, one a female. AVhat motive had consigned them to this mysterious hiding-place is left to conjecture. Was it domestic vengeance, too deadly for the public ear 1 We answer that two individuals could not have been suddenly tak^n out of the little community without question. Were they some unwary, tired Avayfarers who had sought hospitable entertainment, and found graves instead 1 " But Echo never mocked the human tongue ; Some weighty crime that Heaven could not pardon, A secret curse on that old building hung, And its deserted garden." We have lived to have grave doubts whether, as the old adage says, " Murder will out." Ins^iect, if you have the stomach for it, our calendar of crime, and mark the HTvaj of names which belonged to those whose fxte is unknown, and who are there set down like the missing of an army after the battle. The record is startling ; only at the final muster will the victims answer to the fatal list, and speak "Of graves, ]ierchance, untimely scooped At midniglit dark and dank." In Spain an ancient custom constrains each passer-by to cast a stone upon the heap raised on the scene of wayside murder, until at length a monument arises to warn against assassination. The peasant always pauses to repeat an ave to the souls of the slain. On this spot a church has reared its huge bulk, piling CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. 271 stone upon stone until its steeple, overtopping the Old Elm, stands a mightier moiiument to the manes of the unknown dead. TJie events in the life of Washington which have most im- pressed us are, the day Avhen he unsheathed his sword beneath the Old Elm ; the morn of the battle of Trenton ; the address to his despairing, mutinous officers at Newburg ; and the fare- well to his generals at New York. As he was mounting his horse before Trenton, an officer presented him with a despatch. His remark, " What a time to bring me a letter ! " is the sequel of his thoughts, — all had been staked on the issue. When he rose from his bed early in the morning of the meeting at New- burg, he told Colonel Humphreys that anxiety had prevented him from sleeping one moment the preceding night. Unwill- ing to trust to his powers of extempore speaking, Washington reduced what he meant to say to writing, and commenced read- ing it without spectacles, which at that time he used only occa- sionally. He found, however, that he could not proceed with- out them. He stopped, took them out, and as he prepared to place them, exclaimed, " I have grown blind as well as gray in the service of my country." In these instances we see the patriot ; in the adieu to his lieutenants, we see the man. When Washington rode into town after the evacuation of Boston, he was accompanied by Mrs. Washington, who, in accordance with our old-time elegant manners, was styled " Lady " Wasliington. Upon reaching the Old South, the General wished to enter the building. Shubael Hewes, who at this time kept the keys, lived opposite, and the General there- fore drew up at his door. With his usual courtesy the General inquired after the health of the family, and was told that Mrs. H. had, the day before, been delivered of a fine child. At this Mrs. Washington in- sisted upon seeing the inflxnt, born on an occasion so auspicious as the repossession of Boston by our troops, and it was accord- ingly brought out to the carriage and placed in her lap. The General, alighting, went into the meeting-house, and, ascending to the gallery, Avhere he could fullj" observe the havoc made by Burgoyne's Light Horse, remarked to the per- 272 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. son who accompanied him that he was surprised that the Eng- lish, who so reverenced their own places of worship, shoidd have shown such a vandal disposition here. Washington died at sixty-seven ; Knox, by an accident, at fifty-six ; Sullivan, at tifty-tive ; Gates, at seventy-eight ; Greene, at forty- four ; Heath, at seventy-seven ; Arnold, at sixty ; and Lee, at fifty-one. Putnam lived to be seventy-two, and Stark to be ninety-three, so that it was commonly said of him, that he was first in the field and last out of it. But other scenes await us, and though we feel that it is good for us to be here, we must reverently bid adieu to the Old Elm. It could perchance tell, were it, like the Dryads of old, loquacious, of the settlers' cabins, when it was a sapling, of the building of the old wooden seminary, and of the multitudes that have passed and repassed under its verdant arch. The smoke from a hundred rebel camp-fires drifted through its branches and wreathed around its royal dome in the day of maturity, while the drum-beat at the waking of the camp frighted the feathered songsters from their leafy retreats and silenced their matin lays. The huzzas that went up when our great leader bared the weapon he at length sheathed with all honor made every leaf tremulous with joy, and every brown and sturdy limb to wave their green banners in triumph on high. We salute thy patriarchal trunk, thy withered branches, and thy scanty tresses, venerable and yet lordly Elm ! Vale I It is much more a matter of regTet than surprise that we have not in all New England a specimen of antique church architecture worthy of the name. Eigid economy dictated the barn-like structures which were the first Puritan houses of wor- ship. Quaint they certainly were, and not destitute of a cer- tain sombre picturesqueness, with their queer little towers and wonderful weather-vanes ; and even their blackening rafters of prodigious thickness, their long aisles, and carved balustrades, gave modest glimpses of a Rembrandt-like interior. But the beautiful forms of Jones and of Wren were left behind when the Mayflower sailed, and not a single type of Old England's pride of architecture stands on American soil. Simplicity in CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. 273 building, in manners, and in dress, as well as in religion, were the base on which our Puritan fathers builded. Had the means not been wanting, it may be doubted whether they would have been appHed to the erection of splendid public edi- fices. The motives which enforced the adherence of the first settlers to the gaunt and unsesthetic structures of their time ceased, in a great measure, to exist a hundred years later, but no revival of taste appeared, and even the Episcopalians, with the memories of their glorious ()ld World temples, fell in with the prevaiUng lethargy wliicli characterized the reign of ugliness. Christ Church stands confronting the Common much as it looked in colonial times. The subscription was originally formed in Boston, the subscribers being either resident or en- gaged in business there. The lot included part of the Common and part of the estate of James Eeed. The building Avas at first only sixty-five feet in length by forty-five in width, exclu- sive of chancel and tower, but has been much enlarged, to accommodate an increasing parish, — a work which its original plan, and the material of which it is constructed, rendered easy. Peter Harrison, the architect of King's Chapel in Bos- ton, was also the designer of this edifice, and seems to have followed the same plan as for that now venerable structure. Service was first held here on October 15, 1761, the Eev. East Apthorp, whom we have already visited, officiating. Of Dr. Apthorp's father it is written that he studied to mind his own business, — a circumstance so rare as to wellnigh deserve canonization. In the alterations which have been called for the primitive appearance of tlie building has been, in a great measure, pre- served. The exterior is exceedingly simple, but harmonious, the tower, placed in the centre of the front, giving en- trances on three of its sides. The old beU-tower appeared rather smaller than its successor, and had a pointed roof, sur- mounted, as at present, by a gilded ball. The symbolic cross, which the Puritans hated with superstitious antipathy, did not appear on the pinnacle, out of deference perhaps to the feeling 12* R 274 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND IIIGHAVAYS. which abominated a painted window, a Gotliic arch, or chancel rail, as the concomitants of that Episcopacy against which the Cromwellian iconoclasts had waged unrelenting war in CA'cry cathedral from Chester to Canterbury. Upon the Declaration of Independence by the Colonies, all the taverns and shops were despoiled of their kingly emblems. A Boston letter of that date says : — " In consequence of Independence being declared liore, all the signs which had crowns on them even the Mitre and Crown in the organ loft of the chapjiell were taken down, and Mr. Parker, (who is the Episcopal minister in town) left off praying for the king." The interior of Christ Church is ipiiet and tasteful, with "Storied windows richly dight, Casting a dim religions light." The Corinthian jiillars of solid wood and the original choir are still remaining. And, very like, the stiif, straight-backed pews are a relic of ancient discomfort. The tablets bearing the Ten Commandments are mementos of Old Trinity in Boston Avhen the wooden edifice was taken down, and have by this means survived their mother church, which the great fire of 1872 left a magnificent ruin. A silver flagon and cup, now in use to celebrate the Holy Communion, were presented by Governor Hutchinson in 1772. These vessels were the property of King's Chapel, Boston, Avhich then received a new service in exchange for the old. They are inscribed as The Gift of K. William and Q Mary To y" Rev* Samll. Myles For y' use of Theire Majesties' Chappell in N. England. MDCXCIV. Dr. Apthorp was succeeded by Eev. Winwood Serjeant, in Avhose time, the Eevolution having converted his wealthy and influential parishioners into refugees and driven him to seek an asylum elsewhere, the church became a barrack, in which Cap- tain Chester's company, of AVethersfield, Connecticut, was cpiar- CHRIST CHURCH. CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. 275 tered at the time of Bunker Hill, and after them one of the companies of Southern riflemen. It appears also to have been some time occupied as a guard-house by our forces, rivalling in this respect the wanton usage of the Boston churches by the king's troops. But was not Westminster Abbey occupied by soldiery in 1643'? General Washington, himself a churchman, attended a service here, held at the request of Mrs. Washing- ton, on Sunday, the last day of 1775. The religious rite was performed by Colonel William Palfrey, one of the General's aids. Mrs. Gates and Mrs. Custis were also present. There is a tradition that Washington continued to attend service here, but the General was probably too politic to have adopted a course so little in accord with the views of the army in gen- eral. He attended Dr. Appleton's church at times, and always showed himself possessed of true Christian liberality. On at least one occasion he partook of the Sacrament at the Presby- terian table. His generals were, in this respect, mindful of his example. At the baptism of a son of General Knox, in Boston, Lafayette, a Catholic, and Greene, a Quaker, stood godfathers to the child, Knox himself being a Presbyterian. From 1775 until 1790 Christ Church remained in the con- dition in which the war had involved it. During that time it had neither parish nor rector, but in the latter year it was re- opened, the Rev. Dr. Parker of Trinity, Boston, officiating for the occasion. A chime of thirteen bells was placed in the belfry in 18G0. For many interesting particulars of the history of this church the reader is referred to the historical discourse of Eev. Nicholas Hoppin, a former rector. The remains of the unfortunate Eichard Brown, a lieutenant of the Convention troops, were deposited under this church. We have briefly referred to the shooting of this officer on Prospect Hill, as he was riding out with two women. It gave rise to a paper war between General Phillips and General Heath, in which, every advantage being on the side of the latter, he may be said to have come off victorious. An inquest pronounced the shooting justifiable, but the British officers, exasperated to the highest degree by this melancholy aifair, 276 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. affected to believe themselves the objects of indiscriminate slaughter. It was at the time the church was opened for the interment of Lieutenant Brown, according to the rite of the Church of England, that the damage to the interior took place. Ensign Anbury asserts that the Americans then seized the oj^portunity " to plunder, ransack, and deface everything they could lay their hands on, destroying the pulpit, reading-desk, and com- munion table, and, ascending the organ-loft, destroyed the bel- lows and broke all the pipes of a very liandsome instrument." This organ was made by Snetzler. The burial-place which lies between the churches has re- ceived from the earliest times of our history the aslies of freeman and slave, s([uire and rustic. In its repose mingle the dust of college presidents, soldiers of forgotten Avars, and ministers of wellnigh for- gotten doctrines. The ear- liest inscription is in 1653, but the interments antecedent to this date were made, in many cases doubtless, without any graven tablet or other stone than some heavy mass selected at hazard, to protect the remains from beasts of prey. In still other instances the lines traced on the stones have been effaced by natural causes, and even the rude monuments themselves have disappeared beneath the mould. "The sluniberer's mound grows fresh and green, Then slowly disappears ; The mosses creep, the gray stones lean, Earth hides his date and years." Among the earlier tenants of God's Acre, as Longfellow has reverently distinguished it, are Andrew Belcher, the innkeeper, Stephen Day, the printer, and Samuel Green, his successor, Elijah Corlet, master of the " faire Grammar Schoole," Dunster, first President of the College, and Thomas Shepard, minister CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. 277 of the cliurcli in Cambridge, who succeeded Hooker when he departed to plant the Colony of Connecticut. In their various callings, these were the forefathers of the hamlet ; Old Cam- bridge is really concentrated within this narrow space. The consideration which attached to the position of governor of the College is indicated by the long, pompous Latin inscrip- tions, to be deciphered only by the scholar. Classic lore, as dead to the world in general as is the subject of its eidogium, followed them to their tombs, — " But for mine own part it was all Greek to me," — and is there stretched out at full length in many a line of sounding import. Dunster, Chauncy, Leverett, Wadsworth, Holyoke, AVillard, and Webber lie here awaiting the great Commencement, where Freshman may at once attain the high- est degree, and where College parchment availeth nothing. The disappearance of many of the leaden family-escutcheons has already been accounted for by their conversion into deadly missiles. Necessity, which knows no law, led to these acts of sacrilege, and yet we should as soon think of fashioning the bones of the dead themselves into weapons as rob their tablets of their blazonry. The cavities in which were placed the heraldic emblems are now so many little basins to catch the dews of heaven, — our precious and only Holy Water. The Yassall tomb, a horizontal sandstone slab resting on five upright columns, is one of the most conspicuous objects in the cemetery. On the fice of the slab are sculptured the chalice and sun, which may have been borne upon the banner of some gallant French crusader ; for the Vassalls were lords and barons in ancient Guienne. Hospitality and unsullied reputation are in the heraldic conjunction reduced to knightly or kingly sub- jection in the name. Whether amid the sands of Holy Land, the soil of sunny France, or the clay of Cambridge churchyard, the slumberers calmly await the summons of the great Eang-of- Arms. iS'ear Christ Church is a handsome monument of Scotch gran- ite, erected by the city in 1870 to the memory of John Hicks, 278 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. William Marcy, and Moses Eicliardson, buried here, and of Jabez Wyman and Jason Eussell, of Menotomy, who fell on the day of Lexington battle. Here is the form of an invitation to a funeral of the olden time. Rev. Mr. Nowell died in London in 1688. " ffor the Reuerend Mr. Mather. These — Reuerknd S"^, — You are desired to accompany the Corps of Mr Samuell Nowell, minister of the Gospell, of Eminent Note in New En(j;laiid, deceased, from Mr Quicks meating place in Bartholemew Close, on Thursday next at two of the clock in the afternoon p'cisely, to the new burying place by the Artillery ground." An epitaph has been described as giving a good character to persons on their going to a new place, who sometimes enjoyed a very bad character in the place they had just left. There is something touching about an unknown grave. Even the igno- rant crave some memento when they are gone, and the dread of being wholly forgotten on earth is depicted in Gray's incom- parable lines : — " Yet even tliese bones from insult to protect. Some frail memorial still erected nigh, With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked, Implores the passing tribute of a sigh." Occasionally Ave see a stone splintered or wantonly defaced. Sometimes an old heraldic device is obliterated by a modern chisel, to give place to some new-comer who has thus, through the agency of a soulless grave-digger, possessed himself of the last heritage of the former proprietor. " I think I see them at their work those sapient trouble tombs." While we are beautifying our newer cemeteries, and making them to " blossom as the rose," our ancient burial-places remain neglected. Cambridge churchyard was long a common thor- oughfare and playground, from which the stranger augured but ill of our reverence for the ashes of our ancestors. Tlie place is much better kept than formerly, but we marked the absence of all attempt at beautifying the spot. There are CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS. 279 neither shady walks nor blooming shrubs in a place so public as to meet the eye of every wayfarer. The older stones, half hidden in the tangled grass, threaten total disappearance at no distant day. Pray Heaven all that is left of ancient Newtown does not return to a state of nature. Governor Belcher, one of Harvard's- best friends, and the patron of Princeton College, died at his government in New Jersey in 1757. He was much attached to Cambridge, his Alma Mater, and the friends of his youth. In his will he de- sired to be buried in the midst of those he liad loved, and accordingly his remains were deposited in this burying-ground in a tomb constructed a short time previous. It appears that the governor and his bosom friend Judge Eemington had ex- pressed the desire to be buried in one grave, so that when Bel- cher was laid in the tomb the body of his friend, who had preceded him, was disinterred and laid by his side. The mon- ument which the governor had directed to be raised over his resting-place was never erected, and in time the memory of the place of liis interment itself passed away with the generation to which he belonged. The tomb became the family vault of the Jennisons. On the decease of Dr. Jennison, it was found to be completely filled with tenants. The old sexton, Brackett, upon being questioned, recollected to have seen at the bottom of the vault the fragments of an old-fashioned coffin, covered with velvet and studded with gilt nails. This was believed to be that of Governor Belcher, whose granddaughter was the wife of Dr. Jennison. The tomb of Belcher and that of Judge Trowbridge (since known as the Dana tomb) are near the gate- way. In the latter were placed the remains of Washington Allston. There have been funerals in New England with some attempt at feudal pomp. When Governor Leverett died, in 1679, the pageant was rendered as imposing as possible. Though the governor had carefully concealed the f;xct of his knighthood by Charles II. during his lifetime, the customs of knightly burial were brought into requisition at his interment in Boston. There were bearers, carrying each a banner roU, at the four 2S0 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. corners of the hearse. After these came the principal gentle- men of the town with the armor of the deceased, the hrst bear- ing the helmet, the last the spur. The procession closed with the led horse of the governor followed by bamiers. The home of Judge Trowbridge was on the ground on which the First Church now stands. Trowbridge, who had been attorney-general, and who was, at the breaking out of tlie Revo- lution, ju rear of and between the Middlesex Hotel and the priest's. The house described as Minott's became, after the war, a tavern kept by John Eichardson of JSTewton. At no great distance from the soldiers' monument stands a magnificent elm, which once served as the whipping-post to which culprits were tied up. Main Street, which we now propose to follow a certain dis- tance, conducted towards the South Bridge which crossed the river by Hosmer's. In 1775 it was merely a causeway leading to the grist-mill which then stood on the spot now occupied by stores, next the old Bank and opposite Walden Street. A few steps fartlier and you reach the second of the burial- places in the town, in whicli lie the remains of gallant John Hosmer, who, " althougli in arms at the battle of Concord and a soldier of the Continental Army, was in all his life after a mail of peace." Beyond tlip bnryiiig-ground was the second situation of the jail built here in 1770. It was a wooden build- ing with gambrel roof, standing on the estate of the late Reuben Rice. On the same estate was the old tavern formerly known as Hartwell Bigelow's. Prior to the erection of the first jail in 1754, prisoners were confined in Cambridge and Charlestown. Concord, having ceased to be one of the shire towns of Middle- sex, now contains neither jail nor malefactors. In 1775 the tavern mentioned as Bigelow's was kept by Captain Ephraim Jones, who had also charge of the jail. Gen- eral Gage wrote home to England that the people of Concord were "sulky" while his troops were breaking open their houses, flinging their property into the mill-pond, and killing their friends and neighbors ! Of what stuff the inhabitants of Con- cord were made in the estimation of the king's officer we are unable to conjecture, but we have his word for it that they were "sulky, and one of them even struck Major Pitcairn." Ephraim Jones was the man. He should have a monument for the blow. Pitcairn went straight to Jones's tavern, where he had often lodged, sometimes in disguise. This time he found the door shut and fastened. As Jones refused to open, Pitcairn ordered 382 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. his grenadiers to break down the door, and, being the first to enter, rushed against Jones with such violence as to overthrow the unlucky innkeeper, who was put under guard in his own bar, while Pitcairn, with a pistol at his breast, comroanded him to divulge the places where the stores were concealed. The crestfallen Boniface led the way to the prison, where the British were surprised to find three 24-pounders in the yard, completely furnished with everything necessary for mounting. The Major destroyed the carriages, knocked off the trumiions of the guns ; and then, feeling his usual good-humor return with certain gnawings of his stomach, retraced his steps to the tavern and demanded breakfast, of which he ate heartily and for which he paid exactly. Jones resumed his role of innkeeper, and found his revenge in the transfer of many silver shillings bearing King George's effigy from the breeches pockets of the king's men to his own greasy till. The jail is also connected with another incident of interest. A battalion of the 71st Highlanders, which had sailed from Glasgow in the George and Annabella transports, entered Bos- ton Bay, after a passage of seven weeks, during which they had not spoken a single vessel to ajiprise them of the evacuation. They were attacked in the bay by privateers, which they beat off after being engaged from morning untd evening. The trans- jjorts then boldly entered Nantasket Road, where one of our batteries gave them the first intimation that the port was in possession of the Americans. After a gallant resistance the ves- sels were forced to strike their colors. The Higlilanders, under the orders of their lieutenant-colonel, Archibald Campbell, fought with intrepidity, losing their major, Menzies, and seven privates killed, besides seventeen wounded. Menzies was buried in Boston with the honors of war, and Campbell sent a prisoner to Reading, while the men were distributed among the interior towns for safety. This regiment, raised at the commencement of the American war, was one of the most famous levied among the Highland clans. It was composed of two battalions, each twelve hundred strong, and was commanded by Simon Fraser, the son of that LEXINGTON TO CONCORD. 383 Lord Lovat who had been beheaded in 1747 for supporting the Pretender's cause. Each battalion was completely officered, and commanded by a colonel. Another Simon Fraser was colonel of the second battalion, — the same of which the larger number were captured in Boston Bay. There was a great desire to enlist in this new regiment, more men offering than could be accepted. One company of one hundred and twenty men had been raised on the forfeited estate of Cameron of Lochiel, which he was to command. Lochiel was ill in London, and unable to join. His men refused to embark Avithout him, but after being addressed with persuasive eloquence, in GaeHc, by General Fraser, they returned to their duty. While their commander was speaking, an old Higli- lander, who had accompanied his son to Glasgow, was leaning on his staff, gazing at the General with great earnestness. When he had finished the old man walked up to him and said, famil- iarly, " Simon, you are a good fellow, and speak like a man. As long as you live Simon of Lovat will never die." When Sir William Howe refused to exchange General Lee, — and it was reported he had been placed in close confinement, — Congress ordered a retaliation in kind. Campbell, one of the victims, was brought to Concord, and lodged in the jail of which we are writing. His treatment was unnecessarily severe, the authorities placing the most literal construction upon the orders they received. He complained in a dignified and manly letter to Sir William, with a description of his loathsome prison. By Washington's order his condition was mitigated, and he was afterwards exchanged for Ethan Allen. In the Southern cam- paign lie fought us with great bravery, and lived to be a British major-general. But to resume our topography. Main Street was also for- merly the old Boston and Harvard road, which left the Com- mon by the cross-way entering Walden Street, opposite the old Heywood tavern, since the property of Cyrus Stow. Within the space between this cross-way and Main Street and Walden Street and the Common was the mill-pond which played so important a part in the transactions of the 19th of April, but 384 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. the existence of which would not be suspected by the stranger. The mill-pond has, in fact, disappeared along with the dam, — the little brook to which it owed its existence now finding its way underground, and flowing onward unvexed to Concord River. We ask the reader to circumnavigate with us the old mill-pond. Pursuing our way along the south side of Walden Street, we soon come to what is called the " Hubbard Improvement," a large tract through which a broad avenue has been opened. Upon this land, where the cellar and well were still to be seen, was once a very ancient dwelling, known as the Hubbard House. It had a long pitched roof, which stopped but little short of the ground, and from wliich projected two chimneys, both stanch and strong. The old well-sweep, now an unaccustomed olyect in our larger towns, had done unwilling service for the king's men in '75, creaking and groaning as it drew the crystal draughts from the cool depths. The house had been visited by these same redcoats, and its larder laid under severe contribution. A little farther on was the dwelling and corn-house of Cap- tain Timothy Wheeler, the miller, whose successful ruse-de-guerre saved a large portion of the Colony flour, stored along with his own. The story has often been told, but will bear repetition. When the troops appeared at his door, he received them in a friendly manner, inviting them in, and telling them he was glad to see them. He then asked them to sit doAvn, and eat some bread and cheese, and drink some cider, Avhich they did not hesitate to do. After satisfying themselves, the soldiers went out and were about to break open the corn-house. Wheeler called to them not to trouble themselves to split the door, as, if they would wait a minute, he would fetch the keys, and open himself; which he did. " Gentlemen," said the crafty Yankee, " I am a miller. I improve those miUs yonder by which I get my living, and every gill of this flour " — at the same time putting his hand on a bag of flour that was really his own — " I raised and manufactured on my own farm, and it is all my own. This is my store-house. I keep my flour here until such time as I can make a market for it." Upon this the officer in LEXINGTON TO CONCOKD. 385 command said, " Well, I believe you are a pretty honest old chap ; you don't look as if you would hurt anybody, and we won't meddle with you." He then ordered his men to march. Heywood's tavern was vigorously searched by the troops for a fugitive who had brought the alarm from Lexington. He, however, eluded their jDursuit by getting up the chimney, where he remained until the search was given ovuv. If the reader is surprised at finding so many houses of entertainment in Old Concord, he must remember it was the ancient seat of justice for Middlesex, and on the high-road from the capital to the New Hampshire Grants. The hill burying-ground is now thickly covered with a growth of young locust-trees, which somewhat obstruct the view, al- though they impart fragrance to the air and shade to the close-set graves. The oldest inscription here is dated in 1677. It is credible that the settlers who first made their homes in this hillside should have carried their dead to its summit. We observed here what we considered to be the rude sepul- chral stones seen in Dorchester and other ancient graveyards. One inscription usually attributed to the pen of Daniel Bliss, has been much admired. " God wills us free ; — man wills us slaves. I will as God wills ; God's will be doue. Here lies the body of John Jack A native of Africa who died March, 1773, aged about sixty years. Tliough born in a land of slavery, He was born free. Though he lived in a land of lilierty, He lived a slave ; Till by his honest though stolen laljours, He acquired the source of slavery, Wliich gave him his freedom ; Tliough not long before Death, tlie grand tyrant. Gave him his final emancipation, And put him on a footing with kings, Tliough a slave to vice, He practised those virtues, Witliout which kings are but slaves." 17 Y 386 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. CHAPTER XVIII. THE BETREAT FROM CONCORD. " That same man that runnith awaie, Male again tight an otlier daie." Erasmus. THE area whicli we have been thus circumstantial in de- scribing was, on the morning of the battle, a sceile of mingled activity, disorder, and consternation. The troops were occupied in searching the houses of the suspected, and in de- stroying or damaging such stores as they could find. Reserve companies stood in the principal avenue ready to move on any point, for Smith was too good a soldier to disperse his whole command. The court-house was set on fire by the soldiers, but they extinguished the flames at the intercession of Mrs. Moul- ton, an aged woman of over eighty. The garret contained a quantity of powder, which would, in exploding, have destroyed the houses in the vicinity. Colonel Shattuck's was also a hiding-place for public property. The inhabitants, though " sulky," certainly behaved with address and self-possession in the emergency in which they found themselves. All this time the storm without was gathering head. The troops had entered the town at seven. It was now nearly ten o'clock. So far the British had little reason to complain of their success, but in reality the provincial magazines had met with trifling injury. A magnetism easily accounted for conducted our footsteps along the half-mile of well-beaten road that leads to the site of the battle-ground, as it is called. A shady avenue, bordered with odoriferous pines and firs, parts from the road at the westward side and leads you in a few rods to the spot. Briefly, this was the old road to Carhsle, which here spanned the river THE KETREAT FROM CONCORD. 387 by a simple wooden bridge resting upon piles. The passage of the bridge was secured by Smith's orders, who did not omit to possess himself of all the avenues leading into the town. A detachment under Captain Parsons, of the 10th, crossed the bridge and proceeded to the house of Colonel Barrett, a leader among the patriots, and custodian of the Colony stores. Cap- tain Laurie of the 43d had the honor to command the troops left to protect the bridge. The monument is built of Carlisle granite, the corner-stone having been laid in 1825 in the presence of sixty survivors of the battle, who listened to an eloquent word-painting of their deeds from the lips of Everett. The Bunker Hill Monument Association aided greatly in advancing its erection. The pil- grim, as in duoy bound, reads the inscription on the marble tab- let of the eastern lace : — Here On the 19th of April, 1775, was made the first forcible resistance to British Aggression. On the opposite bank stood the American militia, and on this spot the first of the enemy fell in the War of the Revolution, which gave Independence to these United States. In gratitude to God, and in the love of Freedom, This monument was erected, A. D. 1836. "What need to amplify the history after this simple conden- sation ! We seated ourselves on a boidder invitingly placed at the root of an elm that droops gracefully over the placid stream, and which stands close to the old roadway. Beyond, where you might easily toss a pebble, were the remains of the farther abutment of the old bridge, for the mastery of which deadly strife took place between the yeomen of jVIiddlesex and the trained soldiers from the isles. For our own part we have never fallen upon so delightful a nook for scholar's revery or lovers' tryst. The beauty, harmony, and peacefulness of the landscape drove the pictures of war, which we came to retouch, clean away from our mental vision. Not a leaf trembled. The 388 HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. river in its almost imperceptible flow glided on without rijjple or eddy. The trees, which had become embedded in the mould accumidated above the farther embankment, cast their black shadows across its quiet surface. A vagrant cow grazed quietly at the base of the monument, where the tablet tells us the newly springing sod ^vas fertilized by the life-blood of the lirst slain foeman. " By tlie rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood ^nd fired the shot heard round the world. " The ground upon which the monument stands was given to the town by Dr. Ripley in 1834, for the purpose, and formed originally a part of the parsonage demesne. We cannot choose but challenge the anachronism of the inscription as well as the fitness of the site. The lirst declares that " here was made the first forcible resistance to British aggression." By substituting the word "American " for " British " we should adhere to his- toric truth ; for, to the eternal honor of those Middlesex farmers, they were the aggressors, while " here " stood the enemy. The British fired the first volley, but the Americans were moving upon them with arms in their hands. When Thomas Hughes, Esq., better known as " Tom Brown," was here, he is said to have exclaimed, '■'British aggression ! I thought America was a colony of Great Britain, and that her soldiers had a right to march where they pleased ! " This Xonument, therefore, marks the spot where the British soldiers fought and fell, while the place where the gallant yeo- men gave up their lives is commemorated by a statue. A wealthy citizen of Concord bequeathed by his will a sum to be applied to the restoration of the old bridge, taken down in 1793, and for the erection of a monument on the farther shore. A committee of intelligent and patriotic gentlemen have ful- filled the conditions of Mr. Hubbard's legacy, thus permanently fixing the positions of the combatants when the collision took place. A spirited figure in bronze, by French, presents to us the minute-man of 1775 hastening to the contiict. The THE KETKEAT FROM CONCORD. 389 artist has succeeded in investing his subject with a good deal of martial fire. Eagerness and determination are well ex- pressed in the attitude of the youthful soldier. The rebuild- ing of the bridge, too, brings tlie warlike scene all the more vividly before us. A few paces from the monument, beside a stone-wall, are the graves of the two Ih'itish soldiers who were killed here, their place of sepulture marked by two rough stones. One of these has so nearly disappeared by acts of vandalism as to be scarcely visible above the sod. A stone from the North Bridge is placed under the corner of the soldiers' monument in the public square, thus uniting two historic eras in the town's annals. At this place the river, which before flowed easterly, bends a little to the north. The old road, after passing the stream, ran parallel with it along the wet ground for some distance be- fore ascending the heights beyond. The muster-field of the provincials is now owned by Mr. George Keyes, who has found flints such as were then used where the Americans stood in battle-array. Were they dropped there by some wavering spirit who feared to stain his soul with bloodshed, or were they dis- carded by some of sterner castl — a Hay ward, perhaps, who drew up his gun at the same moment the Briton levelled his own, and gave and received the death-shot. Mr. Keyes has also ploughed up a number of arrows-heads, axes, pestles, and other of the rude stone implements of the original owners of the soil, who kept faith with the white man as he had kept faith with them. Hardships feU to the settlers' lot, but peace and concord endured, in token of the name which Peter Bulkley, their first minister, gave the plantation. The Old Manse has received immortality through the genius of Hawthorne. It was built in 1765, the year of the Stamp Act, for Rev. William Emerson, the fighting parson, the same who vehemently opposed retreating from before the British in the morning at Concord ; the same who died a chaplain in the army. The same reverend gentleman likewise ofl&ciated as chaplain to the Provincial Congress when it sat in Concord. Standing back from the road, a walk bordered by black ash- 390 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. trees, now somewhat in the decKne of life, leads to the front door. The house looks as if it had never received the coat of paint, the prospect of which so alarmed Hawthorne's sensibili- ties. It is of two stories with gambrel roof and a chimney- peeping above at either end. The front faces the road, the back is towards the river ; one end looks up the street by which you have come from the town, while the other com- mands a view of the old abandoned road to the bridge, — the boundary of the demesne in that direction. A considerable tract of open land extends upon all sides. The Manse is among modern structures what a Gray Friar in cowl and cassock might be in an assemblage of fashionably dressed individuals. The single dormer window in the garret looks as if it might have made a quaint setting for the head of the old clergyman, with his silver hairs escaping from beneath his nightcap. If he looked forth of a summer's twihght to scan the heavens, lireflies flitted sparkling across the helds, as if some invisible hand had traced an evanescent flash ia the air. Behind the house, among the rushes of the river meadows, the frogs sang jubilee in every key from the deep diapason of the patriarchal croaker to the shriU piping of juvenile amphibian. Discord unspeakable followed the shores of the Concord along its Avindings even to its confluence with the Assabeth. The din of these night-disturbers seemed to us, as we stood on the riv- er's bank, like the gibings of many demons let loose to murder sleep. And one fellow — doubt it if you will, reader — actu- ally brayed with the lungs of a donkey. " As the worn war-horse, at the trumpet's sound, Erects his mane and neighs and paws the ground." Walking around to the rear of the Manse, we see a section of the roof continued down into a leanto, — a tiling so unusual that we make a note thereon, the gambrel being the successor of the leanto in our architecture. The back entrance is completely embowered in syringas, whose beautiful waxen flowers form a striking contrast with the gray walls. Vines climb and cling to the house as if inefi'ectuaUy seeking an entrance, imparting THE RETREAT FROM CONCORD. 391 to it a picturesqueness answerable to and harmonizing with the general effect of the mansion. We give a glance at the garden where Hawthorne grew his summer squashes, of which he talks so poetically. What, Hawthorne delving among pota- toes, cabbages, and squashes ! We can scarce bend our imagina- tion to meet such an exigency. It is only a little way down to the river where lie moored his boat, in which he floated and dreamed with EUery Channing. We enter the house. A hall divides it in the middle, giving comfortable apartments at either hand. Some mementos of the old residents serve to carry us back to their day and gener- ation. A portrait of the Eev. Dr. Eipley, the successor of Mr. Emerson, and inhabitant of the house many years, hangs upon the wall. His descendants long possessed the Manse. On the mantel I noticed an invitation to General Washington's table, addressed, perliaps, to Dr. Emerson. The ink is faded and the grammar might be improved ; but the dinner, we doubt not, was none the less unexceptionable. Hawthorne's study was in an upper room, but let none but himself describe it. " There was in the rear of the house the most delightful little nook of a study that ever afforded its snug seclusion to the scholar. It was here that Emerson wrote ' Nature ' ; for he was then an iu- hal)itant of the ]Manse. " There was the sweet and lovely head of one of Raphael's Madon- nas and two pleasant little pictures of the Lake of Como. The only other decorations were a vase of flowers, always fresh, and a bronze one containing ferns. My books (few, and by no means choice ; for they were chiefly such waifs as chance had thrown in my way) st ood in order about the room, seldom to be disturbed. "The study had three windows, set with little old-fashioned panes of glass, each with a crack across it. The two on the western side looked, or rather peeped, between the willow liranches down into the orchard, with glimpses of the river through the trees. The third, facing northward, commanded a broader view of the river, at a spot where its hitherto obscure waters gleam forth into the light of his- tory. It was at this window that the clergyman who then dwelt in the Manse stood watching the outbreak of a long and deadly struggle 392 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. between two nations : he saw the irregular array of his parishioners on the farther side of the river and the glittering line of the British on the hither bank. He awaited in an agony of suspense the rattle of the musketry. It came ; and there needed but a gentle wind to sweep the battle smoke around this quiet house." In 1843 Hawthorne — whom many here name //aic-thorne as they would say " ffaw-huck " to their oxen — came to dwell at the Manse. The place would not have suited him now. The railway coming from Lexington passes at no great distance, and the scream of the steam-wliistle would have rudely interrupted his meditative fancies. He lived here the life of a recluse, re- ceiving the visits of only a few chosen friends, such as Whit- tier, Lowell, Emerson, Channing, Thoreau, and perhaps a few others. Here he passed the first years of his married life, and here his first child was born. The townspeople knew liim only by sight as a reserved, absorbed, and thoughtful man. The house opposite the Manse, now the residence of Mr. J. S. Keyes, is another witness of tlie events of that April day. The theji resident was named Jones, who, from being a spec- tator of the scenes at the bridge, maddened at the sight, wished to fire upon the redcoats. It is said that he levelled his gun from the window, but his wife, more prudent, prevented him from pulling the trigger. He at last stationed himself at the open door of the shed as the regulars passed by, when he was fired at, and Avith evil intent, as you may see by the bullet- hole near the door. Farther our informant did not proceed ; but in the angry swarm that clung to and stuirg the Britons' column all that day, we doubt not Jones at last emptied the contents of his musket. In Mr. Keyes's house we saw a marl)le mantel beautifully sculptured in relief. It is a relic from the old Chamber of Eepresentatives at Washington. On the fender the feet of Adams, Clay, Webster, Calhoun, and the master spirits of that old hall have often rested. Before the emblematic fasces the great Carolinian brooded how to loose the bands. The cau- cuses, bickerings, and party tactics that fireplace could tell of would make a curious volume. Ascending the hill behind the THE KETKEAT FKOM CONCORD. 393 house you have a ravishing landscape, with blue Wachusett looming in the distance. The Concord deserves to be known in all time as the Eubicon of our history. The affair at Lexington was but a butchery : here the Americans gave shot for shot and Ufa for life. Their blood on lire with the rage of battle and the fall of their friends, it is most unaccountable that the patriots allowed Par- sons and his command to repass the bridge unmolested. These last must have stepped over the dead bodies of their com- rades stretched in their path, gathering evil augury from the sight. This ended the advance, and here begins the retreat, which we should say is one of the most extraordinary in the annals of war, for the pertinacity of the pursuit by an armed rabble and for the comjjlete demoralization of eight hundred disci- plined soldiers, led by officers of experience. The old song makes the British grenadier recite in drawling recitative : — " For tifteeu miles they followed and pelted us, we scarce had time to draw a trigger ; But did you ever know a retreat conducted with more vigour ? For we did it in two hours, which saved us from perdition ; 'T was not in going out but in returning, consisted our expedition." The British detachment from the Xorth Bridge buried one of their slain at the point of the hill as they turned into the square, where the house of Mr. Keyes formerly stood. The Avounded were carried into Dr. Minott's. All being at length collected, the troops begin their march, — the main body by tlie road, a strong flanking column by the buryiug-ground hill. This hill terminates at the distance of a mile from the centre of the town at Meriam's Corner. The flanking column had to descend the hill at this point, where the road passes the Ioav meadow by a causeway until it reaches the hill beyond. JS^ear the corner was a little bridge thrown over a brook, which the road crossed, Meriam's house and barn are still seen in the angle where the Bedford road unites with that coming from Lexington. From behind these buildings gallant John Brooks with his 17* 394 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Reading company arrived in time to pour a volley among the enemy as they were passing the bridge. Brooks, a captain in Bridge's regiment, had received his colonel's permission to push on while the regiment halted for refreshment. Loamnii Bald- win came up with the Woburn men, who drifted in a cloud along the British flank. The men of Sudbury, of Lincoln, and even Parkers's from Lexington, joined in the race, for race it was beginning to be. The fields grew armed men, and the highway was fringed with fire-arms. The six miles from Concord back to Lexington were per fectly adapted to the guerilla-tighting of the Americans. They abounded in defiles and places for ambush. On the other hand, the retreating enemy was somewhat covered by the stone-walls as long as the flank guards could keep them clear of foemen ; but the column was fired at in front, in rear, and on all sides at once. Banks, platoons, and the semblance of military order were soon lost. We need no ghost to tell us what such a retreat must have been. The dust trampled into stifling clouds, and en- veloping everything ; the burning thirst which men brave death to assuage ; no time to halt ; tongues parched and cleaving to the roof of the mouth ; haggard faces, and red, bloodshot eyes ; the proud array and martial bearing all gone ; burnished arms and uniforms stained with powder and dirt ; one by one a comrade dropping with a bullet in his heart, or another falling out, ex- hausted, to await his fate in dogged despair, — this is Avhat it meant to retreat fighting from Concord to Lexington. The col- umn, like some bleeding reptile, scotched but not killed, dragged its weary length along. Stedman, the British historian, says » the regulars were driven like sheep. Harassed, humiliated, and despairing, the men became fiends, divested of every semblance of humanity. Every shot that whistled through the broken battalion proclaimed aloud, " The Province is dead ! Long live the Republic ! " That same prowling ensign, Berniere, tells his own tale : — " At last, after we got through Lexington, the officers got to the front and presented their bayonets and told the men if they advanced they should die. Upon this they began to form under a very heavy THE RETREAT FROM CONCORD. 395 fire ; hut at this instant the first brigade joined us, consisting of the 4th, 23d, and 47th regiments, and two divisions of marines, under the command of Brigadier-General Lord Percy; he brought two field-pieces with him, which were inmiediately brought to bear upon the rebels, and soon silenced their fire. After a little firing the whole halted for about half an hour to rest." Percy opened his ranks and received the fugitives within his squares. His cannon, a new element for the militia to deal with, were unlimbered and began to play on the hunt- ers. Smith's men threw themselves upon the ground, " with their tongues hanging out of their mouths, like those of dogs after a chase." Certainly, my lord was near being too late. This was the first appearance of the Eoyal Artillery in the war. The 4th battalion was in Boston under command of Colonel Clearv^eland, who also served on the staff of the army as brigadier, as did most of the colonels of the line regiments. In relation to the report sent to England that the pieces were not well provided with ammunition, Colonel Cleaveland stated that Lord Percy refused to take an ammunition-wagon, which was on the parade, fearing it might retard the march, and did not imagine there could be occasion for more than was in the siile boxes. A more serious complaint Avas preferred against Cleave- land at Bunker Hill, where, according to Stedman, lie sent balls too large for the guns, which rendered the artillery use- less until the error could be rectified. Allusion is also made to this occurrence in a letter in the British Detail and Conduct of the War, in which it is said, " The wretched blunder of the over-sized balls sprung from the dotage of an officer of rank in that corps, who spends his whole time in dallying with the schoolmaster's daughters." This language is attributed to Sir William Howe, and the Misses Lovell are referred to. Colonel Cleaveland, however, says he sent sixty rounds with each of the twelve guns that accompanied the troops, but that not more than half were fired. The name of a brother of the " school- master's daughters" has been mixed up with this accident, wliicli is also referred to in the song : — 396 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS, " Our conductor he got broke For his misconduct, sui-e, sir ; The shot he sent for twelve-pound guns Were made for twenty-four, sir." The companies of the lioyal Artillery were numbered, and wore in full dress a laced hat with black feather, hair clubbed and powdered, white stock, white breeches and stockings. They were armed with a carbine and bayonet. The Conti- nental artillery were formed upon the same model. The place where Percy met the fugitives is about half a mile below Lexington Common. One of his cannon was placed upon a little eminence near the present site of the Town Hall. This elevation has since been levelled. The other gun was posted on the hill above the old Munroe Tavern, and back of the residence of the late Deacon Mulliken. These pieces com- manded the road for a considerable distance in front, and one of them sent a shot through the old meeting-house. The old inn of William Munroe, which was used as a hos- pital for the British wounded during their halt in its vicinity, yet stands, somewhat altered in appearance, but still the same building as in 1775. It presents its end to the high-road, and faces you as you pass up towards ■ Lexington Common. The place is still owned by the Munroe family, the house being at present occupied by William Munroe. A short distance be- yond, the road from Woburn unites witli that in which we are journeying, which was the old post-road to No. Four, Crown Point, and the New Hampshire Grants. Gage had received the express, and at nine o'clock despatched the Earl with something less than a thousand men and two field-pieces. The noble Northumlirian marched out over Boston Neck with the Eoyal Welsh, King's Own, 47th, and his cannon at his heels, to the tune of Yankee Doodle. We feel that al- lowance must be made for Gordon's statement that a smart boy attracted his Lordship's attention by recalling Chevy Chase to him, — a circumstance at which his Lordship seemed much affected ; but as we now know no other means of ascertaining the truth than by a resort to supernatural agencies, — to which, THE RETREAT FROM CONCORD. 397 however, it is possible the noble Earl's ethereal part might fail to respond, — we willingly refer the subject to the reader as a tough historical morsel. Yankee Doodle, from whatever cause, ceased to be popular with the English after this day. On the return from Lexing- ton one Briton asked a brother officer " how he liked the tune now." " Damn them ! " was the reply, " they made us dance it till we were tired." Yankee Doodle was beat along the American line at the surrender of Burgoyne. At eight o'clock on the morning of the 19th the people of Boston first knew that a collision between the troops and people had occurred, though an express had arrived at the Gen- eral's quarters at an earher hour. The anxiety to know the circumstances was extreme, especially when Percy's brigade Avas seen under arms. Word was immediately sent to Watertown by a sure hand, and at ten o'clock Trial Bissell mounted his horse, carrying the first intelligence of the events thus far, — namely, the slaughter at Lexington and the momentarily ex- pected arrival of the first brigade. He took the great southern highAvay. The town committees on the route made copies of his despatch and gave him fresh horses. "Worcester, Hartford, 'Nevf Haven, were in turn reached and electrified. At the time the express rider left Watertown the idea of preventing the junction of Smith with Percy was circidating, but no combina- tion to that end could be effected. At noon Gage gave out to the inhabitants of Boston, by his aide-de-camp, that no one had been killed. He had not, it is said, been informed of the massacre on Lexington Com- mon until late in the afternoon. Eumors then flew thickly, raising the excitement within the town to the highest pitch. Percy and Haldimand were both reported killed. But the reader knows by Avhat exaggerated accounts the neAvs of battle is usually heralded. Percy's force was doubtless considered equal to every emer- gency. His oAvn and Colonel Smith's commands comprised about half Gage's available strength, and included the floAver of the army. The reHcAdng troops passed on unassailed through 398 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Eoxbiiry, Brookline, Little Cambridge, now Brighton, to Charles Eiver. At this point they found the " leaves " of the bridge had been removed, but, the rest of the structure being unin- jured, they were soon found, replaced, and Percy, after being some time delayed, proceeded. The season was unusually early. The barley was waving in the fields, the pastures were green, and the men plucked branches from the cherry-trees, on which the buds were burstmg into bloom. It was a warm and dry day, and the men suffered with the heat. An officer in the de- tachment observing, as they marched along, that the windows of the houses were all shut, remarked to his commander, that, in his opinion, they would meet but little opposition. " So much the worse," Lord Percy replied, " for we shall be tired on from those very houses." Percy, having allowed breathing time to the troops, threw out his flankers, faced about, and commenced his retrograde march. Captain Harris, — the same mentioned in a previous chapter as Lord Harris, — senior captain of the 5 th, Percy's own regiment, was ordered to cover the retreat. It was now about half past two in the afternoon. The Americans were joined in the upper part of Arlington by Dr. Warren and General Heath, who were the master-spir- its in conducting the attack from this point. The Earl adopted a savage expedient for clearing his way. Parties fell off' from the front, entered the houses by the road, first plundered, and then set them on fire. For two miles, after descending into the plain of Arlington, it was a continued scene of arson, pil- lage, and slaughter. The militia having assembled from the more populous toAvns near Boston, their numbers were greatly augmented, and the conflict here merged into the proportions of a battle. Led by Warren, and maddened by the sight of the burning dwellings, the fleeing women and children, and the stark bodies of aged men lying dead by their own hearth- stones, the patriots fell upon the British rear Avith fury. Har- ris was so hard pressed that half his company, with his lieuten- ant, Baker, were either killed or wounded. When accosted by Percy, the captain, with his grenadier-cap filled with water for THE RETREAT FROM CONCORD. 399 the relief of the wounded, offered some of the precious beverage to the Earl, but his Lordship gratefidly declined it. Warren had the pin struck from the hair of his earlock by a bullet at this time. A British officer had his bayonet-scabbard shot from his side, and Percy came near realizing his sombre appre- hensions, a musket-ball carrying away a button from his waist- coat. The cannon amnninition being expended, the pieces became a useless encumbrance. Smith is wounded, and Bernard of the Welsh has received a hurt. Chevy Chase, indeed ! Eliphalet Downer's Duel. Dr. Eliphalet Downer left his house in Punch-Bowl Village, in Brookline, early in the morning, first directing his wife and childi'en to a place of safety. He then repaired to the front. Coming in sight of the main body of the enemy advancing in their retreat, he suddenly encountered one of their flankers, who had stopped to pillage a house. At the same moment the soldier descried Downer, who instantly put himself in the duel- list's posture of defence, presenting his side to his foe. Both levelled their guns, and both missed. The antagonists then closed in deadly struggle. They crossed bayonets, each hoping by superior strength or skill to obtain the advantage. For the little time they looked into each other's eyes, gleaming with fero- city, and read there the bitter resolve to destroy, each kncAV the supreme moment had come. They lunged, parried, locked bay- onets, and with every muscle strained to its utmost tension strove for each other's life. Downer soon found he was no match for his adversary in dexterous use of the bayonet. He could only protract the contest, while all the time the main body was coming nearer. Gathering himself together for a desperate effort. Downer, with ijicredible quickness, reversed his firelock and dealt the Briton a terrific stroke with the butt which brought him to the ground. The blow shattered the breech of his gun, that had served him so good a turn. His blood was up, he had fought for life, his enemy was only dis- abled, and he finished him with eight inches of cold steel ; 400 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. then, possessing himself of the soldier's arms as the spoil of victory, he hastily retreated to a safer position. When the battle was over, he found his forehead had been grazed by a musket-ball. General Heath, in noticing this combat, calls Dr. Downer " an active, enterprising man " ! A little about the bellicose doctor's subsequent career. He immediately joined the army as surgeon. His regiment having disbanded at the conclusion of the siege of Boston, he entered on board the privateer sloop Yankee, Ca})tain Johnson, in a similar capacity. The sloop mounted nine guns, four on a side. In her first cruise in July, 1776, she fell in with two ships, the Creighton and Zachara, heavily laden with rum and sugar. These she took. Our surgeon, compelled to remain below, as- sisted in Avorking tlie odd gun in the cabin. Captain Johnson having sent a number of liis men away with the prizes, the prisoners took advantage of the lenity with which they were treated, rose and possessed themselves of the slooji. Their captors, now prisoners, were taken to England, where they were treated with great rigor. Downer found friends, who obtained his removal from prison into a public hospital as an assistant, and in the course of a year made his escape to France, l^ot finding an immediate opportunity of returning to America, he entered on board the Alliance, then fitting out at a French port for a cruise in the Channel. She had the good fortune to capture eighteen prizes. The Doctor then took ship for home, but on the passage had the ill-luck to again become a prisoner. The vessel in which he was fought for seven hours and a lialf, liad both her masts shot away, and fired her last round before she surrendered. Downer Avas severely Avounded in the action by a grape-shot. He, Avith his felloAv-prisoners, becames inmates of Portsea Prison, near Portsmouth, Avhere, to use the Doctor's oaati language, they were Avorse treated than if they had fallen into the poAver of savages. The prisoners contrived to dig a hole under ground for a dis- tance of forty feet, their object being to pass under the prison- Avall and into the street. This Avas effected Avith no other tool I THE KETEEAT FROM CONCORD. 401 than a jack-knife, and a sack to carry away the earth, which was deposited in an old chimney and beneath the floor. Only one person at a time could work at the excavation, which had to be prosecuted at certain hours of the day, as the noise at night would have discovered them to the sentinel who paced directly above the workman's head. Once they were betrayed, but, the gallery being at length completed, they cast lots for precedence in the order of escape. The Doctor Avas rather corpulent, and when his turn came he stuclv fast in the passage, completely blocking the way until it could be enlarged by the removal of more earth. Owing to the badness of the roads in that chalky country, made worse by rains, many of the fugitives were recap- tured and consigned to the black-hole. The Doctor's friends — for Americans had friends even then in the heart of England — concealed him till an of)portunity offered for him to cross over to France, from wlience he made his way to Boston after an absence of three years. Dr. Downer afterwards served as surgeon-general of the Penobscot expedition, that most melan- choly of failures. He was the grandfather of Samuel Downer of Boston. As you go towards Lexington, at your left hand, nearly op- posite the Baptist Churcb, was an old house rejuvenated with white paint and bright with green blinds. Still, beneath this disguise, and in spite of tbe modern additions grafted on the parent structure, you would have known it for a veteran by its monstrous chimney and simple outlines. The house stood a little l)ack from the street, with the end towards it, and was the dwelling of Mr. Russell Teel. We found in this house the mother of Mr. Teel, a sprightly, intelligent lady of eighty-one. She willingly related the tra- gedy that happened here on the 19th of April, 1775. After the regulars had passed up to Lexington, a number of minute-men from the eastward, who had collected here, thought a good opportunity would occur to harass them on their return. To this end they made a small breastwork of casks, shingles, and such movables as they could readily obtain near the pres- ent gate and next the road. From behind this cover the pa- 402 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. triots tired on Percy's van, but they had not taken into account the flank-guards moving across the fields parallel with the main body. Hemmed in between these two columns, the minute- men sought shelter within the dwelling. " My grandfather, Jason Eussell, then lived in this house," continued Mi's. Teel. " He had conducted his wife and chil- dren to the high hill back of the house, and was returning, when he was discovered and pursued, with the others, into the house. He was first shot and then bayoneted. The bloody stains remained until quite recently upon the floor, where he with ten others perished while in vain entreating mercy. Sev- eral Americans of this ill-fated band, which belonged to Lynn, Danvers, and Beverly, retreated into the cellar, and as they were well armed the British durst not follow them, but dis- charged several volleys into the entrance." Upon opening the door leading to the cellar, a dozen bullet-holes were 2:)lainly visible in the heavy cross-timbers. Jason Eussell was an in- valid, and it is thought imprudently returned to his dwelling to save some articles of value. Eussell's old store, which is seen with a modern addition not far above the railway-station and on the same side of the main street, was entered by the regulars, avIio, after helping them- selves to the liquors which they found there, left all the spigots turned so as to waste what remained. Eight in front of this store a soldier was mortally wounded, and in his agony begged his comrades to finish him. Opposite the Unitarian Church, the successor of the several houses of the First Parish, is the scene of the following inci- dents. Two wagons had been despatched from Boston in the route of Percy's brigade, but at some distance in his rear. One contained ammunition, the want of which he had so miscalcu- lated on setting out, the other was loaded with provisions. A guard of seventeen men and an officer accompanied the convoy. Information reached Menotomy that these supplies were com- ing, and their capture was at once resolved upon. The young men were all in the main action then going on in Lexington, and this aflair was managed by some of the elders, led, say THE RETREAT FROM CONCORD. 403 the town traditions, by David Lamson, a half-breed, though Gordon claims this honor for Eev. Dr. Payson, of Chelsea. A low stone-wall then extended in front of the former resi- dence of George Russell. The ground here falls off sharply towards the railway, forming a hollow in which was kept an old cider-mill. Behind this wall the patriots posted themselves, and wheii the train arrived opposite their ambuscade they rose to their feet, levelled their guns, and called out for the officer to surrendex". For answer the drivers lashed their horses, upon which Lamson's party tired a volley, killing and wounding at least four of the escort, besides disabling several of the horses. The officer soon found himself alone and was made prisoner. Several of the guard ran to the pond, into which they threw their guns ; then, continuing their flight for half a mile along its westerly shore, they came to a little valley where they en- coiuitered an old woman digging dandelions, to whom they gave themselves up. The wagons became the prize of the Americans. We frankly admit the doubts which assailed us at first in regard to this old woman digging dandelions. On a day so un- favorable, with Percy's guns rumbling in the distance, the mus- ketry sputtering spitefully at intervals, the spectacle of Mother Batherick calmly digging early greens awoke in our mind a scepticism such as not unfrequently attends the announcement of natural phenomena. The relation being authenticated by persons of high credibility, we are no longer surprised that a squad of his Majesty's grenadiers gave themselves up to such an Amazon. And yet this woman lived and died in poverty. Her figure was tall and commanding, her eye piercing. She led her captives to a neighbor's house, and there delivered them up with the injunction to tell the story of their capture to their king. The home of John T. Trowbridge, the author, is the arena of Mother Batherick's exploit. The old house which stood opposite the raUway-station, on the spot since occupied by the residence of the late Mr. Pierce, was that of Deacon Adams, a leading man in the village. The dwelling was riddled with bullets, and a big elm standing near 404 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. was spattered with lead, which the youth of "West Cambridge were fond of cutting out and displaying as souvenirs. "When the old house was pulled down, and the tree, rotten with age, was laid low, many of the leaden mementos were secured. Another family of this nam6, so hateful to the British, lived higher up the road. Mrs. Adams was sick in bed, with a new- born infant at her side. The regulars forced open the doors, and, bursting into the room in which she was lying, one of the brutes levelled his bayonet at her breast. The poor woman, in an agony of fear, cried out, " For the Lord's sake do not kill me ! " " Damn you ! " ejaculated the brute. Another, more hu- mane, interposed, and said, "We will not hurt the woman if she will go out of the house, but we will surely burn it." Strength- ened by terror, Mrs. Adams arose, and throwing a blanket about her person crawled to the corn-house -rtdth her infant in her arms. Her other little children, concealed by the curtains, re- mained unsuspected under the bed which she had just left. The soldiers then made a pile of chairs, tables, books, clothing, etc., to which, after helping themselves to as much plunder as they could carry, they set lire. The flames, however, were extin- guished at the instant the troops had passed by. A relative of the family, from whom the wiiter received this narration, has a small Bible which the soldiers had used to kindle the tire at Deacon Adams's. It was much scorched, and although she did not say so much, we could easily see that the owner attributed the preservation of the house to the sacred volume. At Cooper's whig tavern, now the site of the Arlington House, the king's troops committed similar atrocities. Two uiu-esisting old men, non-combatants, were killed, their skulls crushed and their brains scattered about. More than a huudred shots were tired into the house. Farther on was the tory tav- ern, to which the British officers were accustomed to resort. At that time four houses stood near together between the Cam- bridge line and the railway-station in Arlington, all owned by famihes of the name of Winship. The couplet runs, — "Jed' and Jeth', Jason and Jo' All lived in Menotomy Row." THE RETREAT FROM CONCORD. 405 Only a single shot was inadvertently fired, into the tavern which stood near the position of Mr. Abbott Allen's house. AVinship kept here in 1772, and Leiu. Blanchard later. In the same strain the relation might be continued, but enough has been said to show that the severest fighting and most afflicting scenes took place in old Menotomy. Mrs. Win- throp, who passed over the ground shortly -after the battle, says : — " But what added greatly to the horrors of the scene was our pass- ing through the bloody field at Menotomy, which was strewed with the mangled bodies. We met one affectionate father with a cart, looking for his murdered son, and picking up his neighbors who had fallen in battle, in order for their burial." It is probable that Percy intended to return as he came, but by this time he learned that Brighton Bridge had been effectu- ally disabled. Had this not been done, the villages of Old Cambridge, Brookline, and Roxbury would have each renewed the scenes of Menotomy. To have forced his way for eight miles farther might have been difficult, if not impossible, for Percy. Fortune, therefore, conducted the head of his column back through Charlestown by the way around Prospect Hill. At the old tavern in North Cambridge the officers may have hastily swallowed a mouthful of spirits. At six o'clock the British vanguard began to file across Charlestown Neck, and ranged themselves in battle line on the heights of Bunker Hill, where they remained until the next day. They were then re- lieved by the marines and the third brigade. " Says our General we were forced to take to our arms in our own defence ; (For arms read legs, and it will be both truth and sense.) Lord Percy (says he) I must say something of him in civility, And that is I never can enougti praise him for his great agility." We annex the whole account of this battle as it appeared in Draper's Boston Gazette of April 20, 1775, which is, we think, worthy of being numbered among the literary curiosities of its day: — Battle of Lexington. " Last Tuesday Night the Grenadier and Light Companies belong- ing to the several ReLfiments in this Town were ferried in Long 406 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. boats from the Bottom of the Common over to Phip's Farm in Cam- bridge, from whence they proceeded on their way to Concord where they arrived early yesterday. The first Brigade commanded by Lord Piercy with two pieces of Artillery set oft' from here Yesterday Morning at Ten o'clock as a Re-inforcement, which with the Grena- diers and Light Companies made about Eighteen Hundred men. Upon the people's having notice of this Movement on Tuesday night alarm guns were fired tlu'ough the country and Expresses sent off to the different Towns so that very early yesterday morning large numbers were assembled from all parts of the Country. A general Battle ensued which from what we can learn, was supported with great Spirit upon both Sides and continued until the King's Troops retreated to Charlestown, which was after sunset. Numbers are killed and wounded on both sides. The reports concerning this vinhappy Aftair and the Causes that concurred to bring on an En- gagement are so various that we are not able to collect anything consistent or regular and cannot therefore with certainty give our readers any further Account of this shocking Introduction to all the Miseries of Civil War." The American accounts ajipeared in the form of hand-bills. One, printed in Boston, is embellished with a death's-head, and contains a list of the American killed and wounded. Another has at its head twenty coffins, bearing each the name of one of the slain. It is entitled, "BLOODY BUTCHERY BY THE BRITISH TROOPS RUNAWAY FIGHT OF THE REGULARS." " Being the PARTICULARS of the VICTORIOUS BATTLE fought at and near CONCORD, situated Twenty Miles from Boston, in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, between Two Tliousand Regular Troops, belonging to His Britanic Majesty, and a few Hundred Provincial Troops, belonging to the Province of Massachusetts- Bay, whicli lasted from sunrise until sunset, on the 19th of April, 1775, when it was decided greatly in favor of the latter. These particulars are published in this cheap form at the request of the friends of the deceased WORTHIES who died gloriously fighting in the Cause op Liberty and their Country and it is their sincere desire that every Householder in the Country, who are sincere well-wishers to America may be possessed of the same either to frame and glass, or otherwise to preserve in their houses, not only as a Token of Gratitude to the memory of the Deceased Forty Persons THE KETEEAT FROM CONCOED. 407 but as a perpetual memorial of that important event on which perhaps, may depend the future Freedom and Greatness of the Commonwealth of America. To which is annexed a Funeral Elegy on those who were slain in the Battle." In the burying-ground at Arlington we found a plain shaft of granite, nineteen feet high, standing over the remains of the fallen. The monument is protected by a neat iron fence, and has a tablet with this inscription : — " Erected by the Inhabitants of West Cambridge A. D. 1848, Over the common grave of Jason Russell, Jason Winship, Jabez Wymau and nine others Who were slain in tliis Town by the British Troops, on their retreat from the battles of Lexington and Concoi'd, April 19th 1775. Being among the first to lay down their lives in the struggle for American Independence." A plain slate gravestone at the foot of the obelisk has the following : — " M' Jason Russell was barbarously murdered in his own House by Gage's bloody Troops on y 19th of April 1775 ^tat 59 His body is quietly resting in this grave with Eleven of our friends, who in like manner, with many others were cruelly slain on that fatal day. Blessed are y" dead who die in y« Lord." The memorial was erected by the voluntary contributions of the citizens of West Cambridge ; the remains beneath the old slab being disinterred and placed within the vault under the monument, April 22, 1848. Nine of the twelve victims are unknown. 408 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. At Acton, on the 19th of April, 1851, a monument was dedi- cated to the gallant spirits helonging to that town who fell on the day of Lexington and Concord. The tablet bears the names of Captain Isaac Davis and of privates Abner Hosmer and James Hayward, provincial minute-men. It was Davis's company which marched in the van to force the passage of the North Bridge. A halt and parley had occurred among the provincial soldiers. None, apparently, were desirous of occupying the post of honor and of facing the British muzzles. Davis, resolute, and ashamed of this ignoble conduct before the enemy, exclaimed, " I have n't a man that is afraid to go " ; immediately suiting the action to the word by marshalling his men in the front. He appeared depressed, and had rebuked the gayety of some of his comrades who break- fasted with him on that, to him, fateful morning. " 'T is the sunset of life gives ns mystical lore, And coming events cast their sliadow.s before." Davis was a tall, athletic man, famed for courage and cool- ness. He was a gunsmith, and an excellent marksman. At the lirst volley lie was shot through the heart. He leaped convul- sively in the air, and fell, still grasping his musket, over the causeway on the low ground. Hosmer was killed by the same fire. Hayward's more tragic death we have briefly alluded to. He was killed, during the pursuit, at the red house on the right as you descend Fiske's Hill, in Lexington, going towards Bos- ton. His adversary's ball perforated his powder-horn, which is still preserved ; but before he fired his last shot he had nearly expended the forty bullets with which he had set out. The remains of these brave men were exhumed from the burial-ground, where they had lain for seventy odd years, and placed in the tomb at the base of the monument. The graves were then filled up, — the gravestones being left standing to tell the future visitor where they had first been interred. The bones were found remarkably well preserved. The orifice in Hosmer's ski;ll through which the ball passed while he was in the act of taking aim was still distinctly visible. These relics THE RETREAT FROM CONCORD. 409 were carefully placed in a coffin of three compartments and laid away beneath the monument, while the booming of cannon sounded a soldier's recxuiem. Two mementos of the battles of Lexington and Concord may be seen in the Massachusetts Senate Chamber ; one is a Tower musket captured from a soldier of the 43d, the other the gun used by Captain John Parker on that day. These weapons were a legacy to the State from Theodore Parker, and were received by both branches of the Legislature assembled in joint convention. Governor Andrew made the address of pres- entation, during the delivery of which he exhibited much emo- tion, and as he concluded he pressed the barrel of the Revo- lutionary firearm to his lips " with effusion." This occurred in 1861, when the opening events of the Rebellion presented a certain analogy in the Governor's mind to the teacliings of 1776. Many applauded, while not a few were disposed to ridicule his patriotic fervor. An internecine war has raged ever since the event of 1775 between Lexington and Concord, as to which town might claim the greater honor of the day. As if there were not enough and to spare for both ! To Lexington belongs the glory of having assembled the first force to oppose the march of the king's troops, and of the first bloody sacrifice to liberty. At Concord the Americans first attacked the troops, and with numbers which rendered such a measure justifiable. Concord, too, was the object of the British expedition. The conflict raged during the day within the limits of six towns, each of which might fairly claim a portion of the credit due the whole. The his- torian will, however, treat the occurrences of the 1 9th of April as a single event, leaving to local chroniclers the care of sepa- rating the golden sands which make their peculiar portion of fame from the fused ingot. All will agree that no similar quantity of powder ever made so great a noise in the world as that burned on the Green at Lexington, and ail along the old colonial highway. 18 410 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. CHAPTER XIX. AT THE WAYSIDE INN. " All ! who could deem that foot of Indian crew Was near? — yet there, with lust of murderous deeds. Gleamed like a basilisk from woods in view, The ambushed foeman's eye." THE village of South Sudbury lies embosomed in a little valley formed by considerable hills. A few houses mount the slope of the easternmost eminence, which is called Green Hill, while to the southwest of the meadows through whicli trickles the Mill or Hop Brook, rises what we call a mountain in Massachusetts, — a well-wooded height lying partly in Framingham and still holding to its Indian name of Nobscot. The brook once turned the water-wheel of an an- cient saw and grist mill at the foot of Green Hill. The years 1675—76 were fateful ones for New England. The old chronicler, Hubbard, says, " It was ebbing water with New England at this time, and awhile after; but God shall turn the stream before it be long, and bring down their ene mies to lick the dust before them." Philip, the great chief tain of the Wampanoags, had begun hostilities with the whites, and for a time it looked as if he might destroy all their frontier settlements. Had he been able to effect his object of bringing all the savage nations into alliance, the war might have ended with the extermination of the pale-faces. Indians were everywhere. There had been no formal decla- ration of war, — nothing of that poetic exchange of rattlesnake- skin filled with arrows for the white man's powder and lead. There was nothing chivalric about it. The war was planned iu secret and in treachery ; the onset Avas sudden and wellnigh AT THE WAYSIDE INN. 411 irresistible. The first intimation -tlio English had that I'hilip had dug up tlie hatchet was in the fatal shot from an an^bus- aide, or the war-whoop sounded in tlie midst of the hamlets. At this time the Colony could muster about four thousand foot and four hundred horse, without reckoning the aged or infirm. On their part, the whites w^ere not more blameless than they now are, more than two hundred years since, wdien the Avork of extinguishing the remnant of the red race is approaching the end. Two centuries ago the Indians were powerful enough on the Atlantic shore to render it doubtful for a time whether the English might retain a precarious foothold in the seaports. To- day they are hunted down among the rocky fastnesses of the Pacific. In 1675 there were, as now, Indian traders without souls, and Englishmen who thought as little of shooting a savage as of outraging a squaw. There was also the fire-water, under the iirfluence of which the savage parted with his birthright, or made his mark at the bottom of a so-called treaty, of which he knew not the meaning. The English fought then for self-pres- ervation, which we know is nature's first law, so that we can well pardon them for dealing blow for blow, — and even their reverend teachers for preaching a crusade against the savages, as Dr. Mather and the clergy generally did. The Indians — did they not suspect it, and did not their wise men foretell it 1 — were also fighting for self-preservation. The law was as in- exorable to them as to the pale-face. Philip was living in a sort of vassalage which his proud spirit rebelled against. Did an Englishman complain of an injury from an Indian, his sachem was instantly cited to appear before the stranger's coun- ciL Did an Indian complain of the Avrong of a white man, justice was oftentimes both blind and deaf The Indians warred after a cruel fashion, certainly. They tortured the living and mutilated the dead. But then, after all, they were but savages, and it was the manner in which they had been ac- customed to wage war among themselves ; until we had civilized them we had little right to murmur if they did not adopt our style of warfare. But what did the English do 1 With the 41 : HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. Holy Scriptures in one hand, they ordered the beheading and scalping of their red enemies. Tlie Quakers who refused to en- list were comjielled to run tlie gauntlet in Boston streets, and attempts were made to break open the jails and put to death the Indian prisoners. There was a strong dash of heroism in Philip of Pokanoket, and we cannot blame liim for making one grand effort for freedom. When the news came to the Massachusetts capital that the frontier towns were being liarried, drums beat to arms, and stout John Leverett summoned his council together. Hench- man, Hutchinson, Paige, Willard, and the other captains put on their buff coats and belted their heavy broadswords or ra- piers about them. The bands were mustered. In each com- pany was an ensign, who bore aloft a color of red sarsenet, a yard square, with the number of the company in white thereon. An- other had a white blaze in the centre. Volun- teers were demanded, and even the profane seafar- ing men — -"privateers," as they were called — Avere enrolled. A guard of musketeers was set at the entrance of the town. A busy man was John Fayerweather, the com- missary, in providing for the levies. With drums \tf ^^sating, trumpets bray- ing, and standards dis- played, the troops de- filed through the town- gates. A few encoun- ters, and this bravery of regular war was laid aside. This was above two hundred years ago, and yet we have lately seen KING PHILIP, FROM AN OLD PRINT. AT THE WAYSIDE INN. 418 our lirave men led into an enemy's ambush as unwarily as they were in the year 1675. Some of the evils which a solemn session of the General Court, convened at Boston at this time, held to lie at the foun- dation of their misfortunes, w^ere the proud excesses in apparel and hair of which many — " yea, and of the poorer sorte as well as otliers " — ■ were guilty. The Quakers came in for a liberal share of invective. Excess in drinking, and the toleration of so many taverns, especially in Boston, which the townspeople were too much incHned to frequent, were glaring offences. It was urged that profane swearing had frequently been heard, and steps were taken to suppress and punish it. The fourth and fifth commandments w^ere ordered to be better observed than formerly, and it was decreed that there should be no more such oppression by merchants or laborers as had been. Truly, Philip was working a social revolution among his enemies of INIassachusetts Bay ! From these measures we may see that our forefathers were not so well satisfied with themselves as to feel sure of providen- tial aid in their work of killing savages ; but it is set down in the chronicles that on the very day when these new civil regu- lations were established, the English forces achieved a victory at Hatfield. During the summer and autumn of 1675 the Indians had almost uninterrupted success. They had ravaged the country from the Connecticut to the shores of Boston Bay, and a stray warrior had appeared within a few miles of Boston Town -House. In November the commissioners of Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut met at Boston, and agTced to raise an army of a thousand men, of which the Bay Colony furnished more than half. At the head of this force Winslow assaulted the strong- hold of the Narragansetts in December, inflicting a terrible de- feat upon that nation, and entirely breaking its power. The Indians resumed hostilities in the early spring of 1676. The English had become more circumspect ; still their losses were heavy, and the path of Philip's warriors could be marked by desolation and ruin. The whites, too, learned at length to 414 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. make use of the Christian or Praying Indians, to act as runners and scotts, — a measure which we in later times imitated with advantage in the employment of the Warm Springs In- dians against the Modocs. One Sabbath, late in March, the Indians attacketl Marl- borough, while the inhabitants were at divine worship in their meeting-house. The peo[)le sought the shelter of their garrison- houses, which were found in every settlement, leaving the enemy to burn the greater part of the town. Lancaster had previously suft'ered, and the tale of the captivity and redemp- tion of Mrs. Eowlandson furnishes a graphic chapter of these terrible years. In April Philip had assembled about four hundred of his followers in the neighborhood of Marlborough, and after burn- ing the few deserted houses they fell with fury upon Sudbury. A small party from Concord, coming to the assistance of their neighbors, were ambushed and slain. The news of the descent on Marlborough having reached Boston, Captain Samuel Wads- worth was despatched with a company of soldiers to its relief. Reaching Marlborough after a weary march of twenty-five miles, Wadsworth learned that his enemy had gone in the direction of Sudbury, and, after giving his men some rest and refresh- ment, and being joined by Captain Brocklebank, who com- manded the garrison at Marlborough, he returned on his own footsteps in pursuit, following, tradition says, the old trail, afterwards the Lancaster road, now closed to travel. When within what is now South Sudbury, Wadsworth saAv about a hundred of the enemy's war-party, with whom, believ- ing them the main body, he endeavored to close. The Indians retired slowly through the woods, i;ntil Wadsworth's men were wholly encompassed by enemies lying in concealment, when the terrific war-whoop rang through the forest, and every tree around the devoted band blazed with a death-shot. The Eng- lish, perceiving theirs to be a desperate case, fought with obsti- nate bravery, but were at length forced to the top of Green Hill, the circle of enemies all the while drawing closer around them. On this hill they defended themselves valiantly until AT THE WAYSiriE INN. 415 nightfall, when some of the party, attempting to escape, were followed by others, until a precipitate retreat was the result. The Indians pursued, slaying all but thirteen or fourteen, who sought safety at Noyes's mill, — the same referred to in another place. This mill was fortihed after the usual fashion of the garrisons, but had been abandoned by the Sudbury people. Believing it to be still occupied by them, the Indians did not venture to the assault, but withdrew to complete and celebrate their victory. The survivors at the mill were afterwards re- lieved by Captain Hugh Mason's comj^any from Watertown, who approached the battle-ground by way of Mount Xobscot, where they left the carts containing their baggage and pro- visions. The Indians were still in the vicinity, but Mason did not feel sufficiently strong to attack them. The English lost in this battle their captain, Wadsworth ; Sharp, their lieutenant ; and twenty -six others, besides Captain Brocklebank. Five or six who were captured were put to the tortiu-e on the night of the fight. The remains of the fallen Englishmen were gathered and interred near the spot where they fell. Over their common grave a heap of loose stones was piled. This humble monument was in an open field, about thirty rods east of the road, and near a growth of pines and oaks. The soil on the hill-top is light and sandy. "With this victory Philip's onset culminated, and he began to drift down the tide apace. The fierce Maquas and Senecas attacked the undefended villages of his allies, while sickness and disease spread among his people. Disasters overtook him, and he became a hunted fugitive. On the 12th of August, 1676, he fell by the hand of one of his own race, and was be- headed and quartered by the Plymouth authorities, — his head being set on a gibbet, where it was to be seen for twenty years. A plain slab of blue slate was raised over the remains of Captain Wadsworth and his ill-fated companions by his son, President Wadsworth, of Harvard College. It bears the follow- ing inscription : — Capt. Samuel Wadsworth of Milton, his Lieut. Sharp of Brook- Hn, Capt. Broclebank of Rowley, with about 26 other souldiers, 18* AA 416 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. fighting for the defence of their country, were slain Ly y Indian enemy, April 18th, 1676, lye buried in this place." In 1852 the relics were exhumed and removed a little dis- tance to the site of the present monument, — a plain granite shaft, which was dedicated by an address from Hon. George S. Boutwell, present Senator for Massachusetts. The old grave- stone is i)laced at the base of the monument, the tablet of Avhicli recites that it was erected by the Commonwealth and the town of Sudbury, in grateful remembrance of tlie services and sufferings of the founders of the State. The same date is ex- hibited on the monument as is borne on the old slab, namely, April 18, 1676 ; but as this is a subject of contradiction among the historians of the time, the committee concluded to adhere to the date adopted by President Wadsworth. A fuller research has turned tlie weight of testimony against the earlier date, and in favor of April 21 as the time of the fight. In the midst of discrepancies of this character the nar- rator has only to accept what is supported by the greatest num- ber of authorities, and these certainly are on the side of April 21, 1676. In the discussion which has ensued as to the date which should have been placed on the Wadsworth monument, it was assumed by the distinguished advocate of the earlier date that communication with Boston Avas cut off by Philip between the 1 7th and 20th of April. Doubts have also been expressed as to whether intelligence of the fight could have reached the vicinity of Boston on the same day. The authorities had not neglected so vital a matter as the arrangement of signals between the gar- rison attacked and the capital. The firing was, of course, dis- tinctly heard in the neighboring towns, and was communicated by alarm-guns from garrison to garrison until it reached Boston. In Hutchinson's History an example is given of the rapidity with which communication could be transmitted : — " Sejjt 23* (1676) an alarm was made in the town of Boston about ten in the mornhig, 1200 men were in arms before 11 and all dis- missed before 12. One that was upon guard at Mendon, 30 miles AT THE WAYSIDE INN. 417 off, got (Iriiiik and fired his gun, the noise of which alarmed the next neighbors and so spread to Boston." Considering what were then the resources of the Colony, Sud- bury fight was as important in its day as a pitched battle with thousands of combatants would be in our own time. It occa- sioned great depression. The Indians must have lost heavily to have conducted their subsequent operations so feebly. Though the whites usually ventured to attack them with greatly inferior numbers, they were far from being contemptible foes. The Englishman's buff coat would sometimes turn a bul- let, but the Indian's breast was bared to his enemy. His primitive "weapons, however, the bow and arrow, had been ex- changed for guns and hatchets, which he soon learned to use but too w^ell. The Dutch on one side, or the French on another, kept him supplied with piowder and ball. He fought for his hunting-grounds, now parcelled out among strangers. He fell to be received into the elysian fields of the great Manitou. "We cannot forbear our tribute of pity and of admiration for Philip. What though he struck the war-post and chanted the death-song to gather liis dusky warriors for one mighty effort to 'exterminate our ancestors, his cause was the same that has ever received the world's applause. Liberty was as sweet to Philip as to a Tell or a Toussaint, but he failed to achieve it, and the shades of oblivion have gathered around his name. There was a simple yet kingly dignity in Philip's communications to the chief men among the colonists. His neck could not bear the yoke ; he must w^\lk free beneath the sun. Though the great chief's policy would not have left a single foe alive, it is known that he sent "warning to some among the whites who had bound themselves to him by uprightness and honorable dealing. In that part of Taunton now known as Raynham was one of Pliilip's summer haunts for fishing and hunting. The Leonards had there erected the first forge in Xew England, if not in North America, and had there lived in amity with the Indian prince. They fashioned him spear and arrow- heads Avith which to strike the red-deer or the leaping salmon, and he repaid them with game, rich skins, and wampum. To them he gave a hint to look to their safety. 418 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. It seems passing strange to be standing beside a monu- ment erected to commemorate a victory over our sires by a race wellnigh blotted out of existence. Every circumstance of our surroundings, every object upon which the eye dwells in the landscape, gives the lie to such an event. Where the warriors lay in ambush, green and well-tilled fields extend themselves ; where the old mill creaked, steam issues from its successor ; instead of the Indian trail the railway presents its iron pathway ; the rude yet massive garrison-house is replaced by yonder costly villa ; and the simple village meeting, in which the settlers fearfidly pursued their devotions with arms in their hands, is renewed where we see the distant and lofty s})ire. The virgin forests have disappeared as completely as have the red-men who threaded the greenwood. All nature is at work for man where once all was repose. Only the hills and the stream remain as pressed by the moccason or cleft by the canoe. In Pdgrim Hall, at Plymouth, the stranger is shown some memorials of PMhp. The barrel of the gun througli which the bullet- passed to his heart, and the curiously woven helmet which he is said to have worn, are there displayed among the bones and implements of his race. As yet we lack, here in Xew England, a museum devoted to Indian antiquities, in which we might see the dress, arms, and utensils of the natives of the soil. It would be a most interesting collection. They Avere no effete Asiatics, but a brave, warlike, hardy people. Their history is filled with poetry and romance. Even Cooper, Avhile presenting in a Magna the wild, untamable, vindictive savage, depicts on the same scene an Uncas brave, noble, and devoted. About three miles from Sudbury Mills and four from Marl- borough is the old Wayside Inn, which Longfellow has made famous. It stands in a sequestered nook among the hiUs which upheave the neighboring region like ocean billows. For above two hundred years, during the greater part of which it has been occupied as a tavern, this ancient hostelry has stood here with its door hospitably open to wayfarers. AT THE WAYSIDE INN. 419 In the olden time the road possessed the importance of a much-travelled highway, but with the building of railways through this region, travel deserted it, and custom the tavern. After being closed for tliirty years as a public house, for once, at least, sentiment has prevailed over the logic of events, and once again the old inn, true to its ancient traditions, proffers " entertainment to man and beast " as of yore. " As ancient is this hostelry As any in the land may be, Built in the old Colonial day, When men lived in a grander way, With amj^ler hospitality." The name of the house was the Red Horse, and at the other end of the route, belonging to the same family, in rivaliy of good cheer, was the White Horse in Old Boston Town. The horse has always been a favorite symbol with publicans. However tedious the way may have been, however shambling or void of spirit your hackney of the road, the steed on the hostel sign always pranced proudly, was of high mettle, and of as gallant carriage as was ever blazoned on Saxon's shield. The Red Horse in Sudbury was built about 1686. From the year 1714 to near, if not quite, the completion of a cen- tury and a half, it was kept as an inn by generation after gen- eration of the Howes, the last being Lyman Howe, who served the guests of the house from 1831 until about 1860. The tavern stood about half-way on the great road to Worces- ter, measuring twenty-three good English miles from Boston Town-House. Well, those were good old times, after all. A traveller, after a hard day's jaunt, pulls up at the Red Horse. The landlord is at the door, hat in hand, with a cheery welcome, and a shout to the blacks to care for the stranger's beast. Is it winter, a SIGN OF THE WAVSIDE INN. 420 niSTOPJC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. mimic contiagration roars on the hearth. A bowl of punch is brewed, smoking hot. The guest, nothing loath, swallows the mixture, heaves a deep sigh, and declares himself better for a thousand pounds. Soon there comes a summons to table, Avhere good wholesome roast-beef, done to that i^erfection of which the turns})it oidy was capable, roasted potatoes with their russet jackets brown and crisp, and a loaf as white as the landlady's Sunday cap send up an appetizing odor. Our guest falls to. Hunger is a good trencherman, and he would have scorned your modern tidbits, — jellies, truffles, and pates afois (jras. For drink, the well was deep, the water pure and spark- ling, but home-brewed ale or cider was at the guest's elbow, and a cup of chocolate finished his repast. He begins to be drowsy, and is lighted to an upjter chamber by some pretty maid-of-all-work, who, finding her pouting lips in danger, is perhaps compelled to stand on the defensive with tlie warm- ing-pan she has but now so dexterously passed between the frigid sheets. At parting, Boniface holds his guest's stirrup, warns him of the ford or the morass, and bids him good speed. Our modern landlord is a person whose existence we take upon trust. He is never seen by the casual guest, and if he were, is far too great a man for common mortals to expect speech of him. He sits in a parlor, with messengers, perhaps the telegraj)!!, at his beck and call. His feet rest on velvet, his body reclines on air-cushions. You must at least be an English milord, a Eussian prince, or an American Senator, to receive the notice of such a magnate. It is a grave question whether he knows what his guests are eating, or if, in case of fire, their safety is secured. His bank-l)ook occupies his undi- vided attention. " Like m;ister, like man." Your existence is all but ignored by the lesser gentry. You fee the boot-black, tip the waiter, drop a douceur into the chambermaid's palm, and, at your departure, receive a vacant stare from the curled, mustached personage who hands you your bill. At entering one of these huge caravansaries you feel your individuality lost, your identity gone, in the living throng. Neglected, heavy- hearted, but lighter, far lighter in purse than when you came, AT THE WAYSIDE INN. 421 you pass out under a marble portico and drift away with the stream. Give, pubKcan, the stranger a welcome, a shake of the hand, a nod at parting, and put it in the bill. Coming from the direction of Marlborough, at a little dis- tance, the gambrel roof of the Wayside Inn peeps above a dense mass of foliage. A sharp turn of the road, which once passed under a triumphal arch composed of two lordly elms, and you are before the house Itself. Formerly tlie capacious barns and tall sign-posts stood across the old, grass-bordered, country road, which leads straight up to the tavern door. The general appearance of things, liowever, has Ijeen much alteredV the building of a new macadam road past the spot, by the State. But let us go in. The interior of the iim is spacious and cool, as was suited to a haven of rest. A dozen apartments of one of our modern hotels could be set up within the space allotted to his patrons by mine host of the Wayside. Escaping from a cramped stage- coach, or the heat of a July day, our visitor's lungs would here begin to expand "like chanticleer," as, flinging his flaxen wig into a corner, and hanging his broad-flapped coat on a peg, he sits unbraced, with a Ijowl of the jolly landlord's extra-brewed in one hand, and a long clay pipe in the other, master of the situation. Everything remains as of old. There is the bar in one corner of the common room, with its wooden portcullis, made to be hoisted or let down at pleasure, but over which never appeared that ominous announcement, " No liquors sold over this bar." The little desk where the tipplers' score was set down, and the old escritoire, looking as if it might have come from some hos- pital for decayed and battered furniture, are there now. The bare floor, which once received its regular morning sprinkling of clean white sea-sand, the bare beams and timbers overhead, from which the whitewash has fallen in flakes, and the very oak of whicli is seasoned Avith the spicy vapors steaming from pewter flagons, all remind us of the good old days before the flood of new ideas. Governors, magistrates, generals, with scores of otliers whose names are remembered with honor, have been here to quaft^ a health or indulge in a drinking-bout. 422 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. In the guests' room, on the left of the entrance, the window- pane bears the following recommendation, cut with a gem that sparkled on the finger of that young roysterer, William Moli- neux, Jr., whose father was the man that walked beside the king's troops in Boston, to save them from the insults of the townspeople, — the friend of Otis and of John Adams : — " What do you think Here is good drink Perhaps you may not know it ; If not in haste do stop and taste You merry folks will shew it. ' Wm. Molinedx Jr. Esq. 24th June 1774 Boston." The writer's hand became unsteady at the last line, and it looks as though his rhyme had halted while he turned to some companion for a hint, or, what is perhaps more likely, here gave manual evidence of the potency of his draughts. A ramble through the house awakens many memories. You are shown the travellers' room, which they of lesser note occu- pied in common, and the state chamber where Washington and Lafayette are said to have rested. In the garret the slaves were accommodated, and the crooknecks and red peppers hung from the rafters. Tliis part of tlie liouse has been fitted Tip into bedrooms, by the present proprietor, Mr, Lemon. Conducted by the presiding genius of the place, Mrs. Dad- mun, we passed from room to room and into the dance-hall, annexed to the ancient building. The dais at the end for the fiddlers, the wooden benches fixed to the walls, the floor smoothly polished by many joyous feet, and the modest effort at ornament, displayed the theatre where many a long winter's night had Avorn away into the morn ere the company dispersed to tlieir beds, or the jangle of bells on the frosty air betokened the departure of the last of the country belles. The German was unknown ; Polka, Redowa, Lancers, were not ; but contra- dances, cotillons, and minuets were measured by dainty feet, and the landlord's wooden lattice remained triced up the livelong AT THE WAYSIDE INN. 423 night. the amorous glances, the laughter, the bright eyes, and the bashful whispers that these walls have seen and listened to, — and the actors all dead, and buried ! The place is silent now, and there is no music, except you hear through the open win- dows the flute-like notes of the wood-thrush where he sits carolling a love-ditty to his mate. The road on which stands the old inn first became a regular post-route about 1711, a mail being then carried over it twice a week to New York. But as early as 1704, the year of the publication of the first newspaper in America, there was a west- ern post carried with greater or less regularity, and travellers availed themselves of the post-rider's company over a tedious, dreary, and ofttimes hazardous road. We have the journal of Madam Knight, of a journey made by her in 1704, to New Haven, with no other escort than the post-rider, — an undertaking of which we can now form little conception. She left Boston on the 2d of October, and reached her destination on the 7th. The details of some of her trials appear sufficiently ludicrous. For example, she reached, after dark, the first night, a tavern where the post usually lodged. On entering the house, she was interrogated by a young woman of the family after this fashion : — " Law for mee — what in the world brings You here at this time a night. I never see a woman on the Rode so Dreadfull late in all the days of my versall life. Who are You ? Where are You going ? I 'm scar'd out of my wits." Who that has ever travelled an unknown route, finding the farther he advanced, the farther, to all appearances, he was from his journey's end, or whoever, finding himself baffled, has at last inquired his way of some boor, will deeply sympathize with the tale of the poor lady's woes. At the last stage of her route, the guide being unacquainted with the way, she asked and received direction from some she met. " They told us we must Ride a mile or two and turne downe a Lane on the Right hand ; and by their Direction wee Rode on, but not Yet coming to y* turning, we mett a Young fellow and ask't him 424 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. how far it was to the Lane which turn'cl clown towards Guilford. Hee said wee musi Ride a little further and turn down by the Corner of uncle Sam's Lott. My Guide vented his spleen at the Lubber." !No wonder that when safe at home again in (Jld Boston, she wr-ote on a pane of glass in the house that afterwards became that of Dr. Samuel Mather, — " Now I 've returned poor Sarali Knights, Thro' many toils and many frights ; Over great rocks and many stones, God has presarv'd Irom fracter'd bones." The use of coaches was introduced into England by Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel, A. D. 1580. At first they were drawn by two horses only. It was Buckingham, the favorite, who {about 1619) began to have them drawn by six horses, which, as an old historian says, was wondered at as a novelty, and imputed to him a " mastering pride." Captain Levi Pease was the first man to put on a regular stage between Boston and Hartford, about 1784. The first post-route to New York, over which Madam Knight travelled in 1704, went by the way of Providence, Stonington, New London, and the shore of Long Island Sound. The distance was 255 miles. We subjoin the itin- erary of the road as far as Providence : — " From Boston South-end to Roxbury Meeting-house 2 miles, thence to Mr. Fisher's at Dedham 9, thence to Mr. Whites * 6, to Mr. Billings 7, to Mr. Shepard's at Wading River 7, thence to Mr. Woodcock's t 3, from thence to Mr. Turpins at Providence 14, or to the Sign of the Bear at Seaconck 10, thence to Providence 4, to Mr. Potters in said town 8." * Stoughton. •[ Attleborough. THE HUME OF RUMFORD. 425 CHAPTER XX. THE HOME OF RUMFORD. " Fortune does not change men, it only unmasks them." rT'lHE Avorld knows by heart the career of this extraordinary _1_ man. Sated with honors, he died at Auteuil, near Paris, August 21, 1814. Titles, decorations, and the honorary dis- tinctions of learned societies flowed in upon the poor Ameri- can youth such as have seldom fallen to the lot of one risen from the ranks of the people. The antecedents and character of the man have very naturally given rise to much inquiry and speculation. Benjamin Thompson was born in the west end of his grand- father's house in North Woburn, March 26, 1753. The room where he flrst drew breath is on the left of the entrance, and on the first floor. As for the house, it is a plain, old-fashioned, two-story farm-house, with a gambrel roof, out of which is thrust one of those immense chimneys of great breadth and solidity. A large willow which formerly stood between the house and the road has disappeared, and is no longer a guide to the spot. This ancient dwelling has a pleasant situation on a little rising ground back from the road, which here embraces in its sweep the old house and the queer' little meeting-house, its neighbor. A pretty little maiden deftly binding shoes, and an elderly female companion who had passed twenty years of her life under this roof, were tlie occupants of the apartment in which Count Rumford was born. A Connecticut clock, which ticked noisily above the old fireplace, and a bureau, the heirloom of several generations, were two very dissimilar objects among the fur- niture of the room. There are no relics of the Thompsons remaining there. 426 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS, The father of our subject died while Benjamin was yet an infant, and the widowed mother made a second marriage with Josiah Pierce, Jr., of Woburn, when the future Count of the Holy Roman Empire was only three years old. After this event Mrs. Pierce removed from the old house to another which formerly stood (i])iio«ite the Baldwin Place, half a mile nearer the centre of AVoburn. At the age of thirteen young Thompson was apprenticed to John Appleton, a shopkeeper of Salem, Massachusetts, and in 1769 lie entered the employment of Hopestill Capen in Boston. While at Saleiu, Thompson was engaged during his leisure moments in experiments in chemistry and mechanics, and it is recorded that in one branch of science he one day blew himself up with some explosive materials he was preparing, while on the other hand he walked one night from Salem to Woburn, a distance of twenty odd miles, to exhibit to his friend Loammi Baldwin a machine he had contrived, and with which he ex- pected to illustrate the problem of perpetual motion. His mind appears at this period absorbed in these fascinating studies to an extent which must have impaired his usefulness in his mas- ter's shop. A few doors south of Boston Stone every one may see an antiquated building of red brick, a souvenir of the old town, which was standing here long before the Revolution. Strange freaks have been playing in its vicinity since Benjamin Thomp- son tended behind the counter there. The canal at the back has been changed into solid earth, and sails are no more seen mysteriously gliding through the streets from the harbor to the Mill-pond. The facsimile of Sir Thomas Gresham's grasshopper, on the pinnacle of Faneuil Hall, is about the only object left in the neighborhood familiar to the eye of the apprentice, who, we may assume, would not have been absent from the memorable convocations which were held within the walls of the old temple in his day. The build- ing with which Rumford's name is thus connected forms the angle where Marshall's Lane enters Union Street, and bears the sign of the descendant of the second oysterman THE HOME OF rjJMFOKD. 427 in Boston, himself for fifty years a vender of the dehcious bivalve. Thompson's master, Hopestill Capen, becomes a public char- acter through his apprentice, whom he may still have regarded as of little advantage in the shop by reason of his strongly developed scientific vagaries. Capen had been a carpenter, with whom that good soldier, Lemuel Trescott, served his time. He married an old maid who kept a little dry-goods store in Union Street, and then, uniting matrimony and trade in one harmonious partnership, abandoned tools and joined his wife in the shop. Samuel Parkman, afterwards a well-known Boston merchant, was Thompson's fellow-apprentice. The famous Tommy Capen succeeded to the shop and enjoyed its custom. Thompson, at nineteen, went to Concord, IS'^ew Hampshire, then known as Eumford, and from which his titidar designation was taken. At this time he was described as of " a fine manly make and figure, nearly six feet in height, of handsome fea- tures, bright blue eyes, and dark auburn hair." He soon after married the widow of Colonel Benjamin Rolfe, a lady ten or a dozen years his senior. Eumford himself is reported by his friend Pictet as having said, " I married, or rather I was mar- ried, at the age of nineteen." One child, a daughter, was the result of this marriage. She was afterwards known as Sarah, Countess of Eumford. If Eumford meant to convey to Pictet the idea that his union Avith JVIrs. Eolfe was a merely passive act on his part, or that she was the wooer and he only the consenting party, lie put in a plea for his subsequent neglect which draws but little on our sympathy. His wife, according to liis biographers, took him to Boston, clothed him in scarlet, and was the means of intro- ducing him to the magnates of the Colony. The idea forces itself into view that at this time Eumford's ambition was beginning to develop into the moving principle of his life. The society and notice of his superiors in worldly station appears to have impressed him greatly, and it is evident that the agitation which wide differences with the mother 428 HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. country was then causing in the Colonies did not find in him that active sympathy which was the rule with the young and ardent spirits of his own age. He grew up in the midst of troubles which moulded the men of the Eevolution, and at a time when not to be with his brethren was to be against them. We seldom look in a great national crisis for hesitation or de- liberation at twenty-one. Certain it is that Eumford fell under the suspicions of his own friends and neighbors as being inclined to the royalist side. He met the accusation boldly, and as no specific charges of importance were made against him, nothing was proven. The feeling against him, however, was so strong that he fled from his home to escape personal violence, taking refuge at first at his mother's home in Woburn, and subsequently at Charlestown. Thompson was arrested by the Woburn authorities after tlie battle of Lexington, was examined, and released ; but the taint of suspicion still clung to him. He petitioned the Provincial Congress to investigate the charges against him, but they re- fused to consider the application. He remained in the vicinity of the camps at Cambridge, vainly endeavoring to procure a commission in the service of the Colony, until October, 1775, when he suddenly took his departure, and is next heard of within the enemy's lines at Boston. In the short time intervening between October and March, — the month in which HoAve's forces evacuated Boston, — Thompson had acquired such a confidential relation with that general as to be made the bearer of the official news of the end of the siege to Lord George Germaine. He does not seem to have embraced the opportunity of remaining neutral under British protection, as did hundreds of others, but at once makes himself serviceable, and casts his lot with the British army. It has been well said that nothing can justify a man in be- coming a traitor to his country. Thompson's situation with the army at Cambridge must have been wellnigh intolerable, but he had always the alternative of living down the clamors THE HOME OF RUMFORD. 429 against him, or of going into voluntary exile. . His choice of a course which enabled, liini to do the most harm to the cause of his countrymen gives good reason to doubt whether the attachment he had once professed for their quarrel was grounded on any fixed principles. Be .that as it may, from the time he clandestinely withdrew from the Americans until the end of the war his talents and knowledge were directed to their overthrow with all the zeal of which he was capable. From this point Eumford's career is a matter of history. At his death he was a count of the Holy Eoman Empire, lieuten- ant-general in the service of Bavaria, F. E. S., Foreign Fellow of the French Institute, besides being a knight of the orders of St. Stanislaus and of the White Eagle. Eumford had derived some advantage from his attendance at the lectures of Professor Winthrop, of Harvard University, on Natural Philosophy. With his friend, Loammi Baldwin, he had been accustomed to walk from Woburn to Cambridge to be present at these lectures. Being at the camp, he had assisted in packing up the apparatus for removal when the College buddings were occupied by the soldiery. In his wdl he re- membered the University by a legacy of a thousand dollars annually, besides the reversion of other sums, for the purpose of founding a professorship in the physical and mathematical sciences, the improvement of the useful arts, and for the exten- sion of industry, prosperity, and the well-being of society. Jacob Bigelow, M. D., was the first incumbent of the chair of this professorship. A miniature of Count Eumford, from which the portrait in Sparks's Biography was engraved, is, or was, in tlie possession of George W. Pierce, Esq. The Count is painted in a blue coat, across which is worn a broad blue ribbon. A decoration api)ears on tlie left breast. The miniature, a work of mucli artistic excellence, bears a certain resemblance to the late Presi- dent Pierce, a distant relative of the Count. It is a copy from a portrait painted by Kellenhofer of Munich, in 1792, and is inscribed on the back, probably in Eumford's own hand, " Pre- 430 HISTOKIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS. sented by Count Rumford to liis much loved and respected mother 1799." Colonel Loammi Baldwin, the companion of Thompson in early youth, and who manfully stood up for his friend in the midst of persecution, wlien the name of tory was of itself suffi- cient to cause the severance of lifedong attachments, lived in the large square house on the west side of the road before you come to the birthplace of Thompson. The house has three stories, is ornamented with pillars at each corner, and has a balustrade around the roof. In front is a row of tine ebns, with space for a carriage-drive between them and the mansion. The house could not be mistaken for anything else than the country- seat of one of the town notabilities. Baldwin's sympathies were wholly on the side of the patri- ots, and he was at once found in the ranks of their army. He was at Lexington, at the siege of Boston, and in the surprise at Trenton, where a battalion of his regiment, the 26th Massachu- setts, went into action with sixteen ofticers and one hundred and ninety men. Wesson, Baldwin's lieutenant-colonel, and Isaac Sherman, his major, were both in this battle, leading Mighell's, Badlam's, and Eobinson's companies. Colonel Baldwin resigned before the close of the war, and was appointed High Sheriff of Middlesex in 1780. He has already been named in connection with his great project, the Middlesex Canal. He discovered and improved the apple known by his name, and if that excellent gift of Pomona is king among fruits, the Baldwin is monarcli of the orchard. His son Loammi inherited his father's mechanical genius. While a student at Harvard he made with his pocket-knife a wooden clock, the wonder of his fellow-collegians. The Western Ave- nue, formerly the INIill Dam, in Boston, and the government docks at Charlestown and Newport, are monuments of his skill as an engineer. Woburn was originally an appanage of ancient Charlestown, and was settled in 1640 under the name of Charlestown Vil- lage. Among its founders the name of Tliomas Graves — the same whom Cromwell named a rear-admiral — appears. A THE HOME OF RUMFORD. 431 confusion, not likely to be solved, exists as to whetlier lie Avas the same Thomas Graves who laid out Charlestown in 1G29, and is known as the engineer. The admiral, however, is en- titled to the distinction of having commanded, in 1643, the " Tryal," the first ship built in Boston. " Our revels now are euded ; these our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air ; And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all wliich it inherit, shall dissolve. And like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind." 19 INDEX. A. Adams, Hannali, 337. Adams, John, 68, 337. Adams, John Quincy, 226. Adams, Samuel, at Lexington, 365-368. Alcott, A. Bronson, his residence and family, 376-378. Alcott, Louisa May, 378. Alcott, May, 378. Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 318. Allston, Washington, residence at Cambridge, 193 ; works of, 193, 194 ; bm-ial-place, 279. Amory, Thomas C, 93. Anchor, the history of, 39. Andrew, John A., 409. Appleton, Nathaniel, 215. Apthorp, East, 197, 273, 274. Arlington, incidents of battle at, 398 - 405. Arnold, Benedict, at Bemis's Heights, 133 ; at Cambridge, 257, 325 ; anec- dotes of, 258. 272, 30y. Artillery, American, 152-155. Auvergne, Philip d', 358. B. Baldwin, Loammi, 81, 430, 431. Baldwin, Loammi, Jr., 40. Baldwin, Captain Jonathan, 187. Ballard, John, anecdote of, 354. Barker, Josiah, residence of, 28 ; re- builds Constitution, 40; sketch of, 41 Barren, Joseph, 172, 177, 178. Batchelder, Samuel, 283; residence of, 285. Baylor, George, 300. Bayonet, history of the, 247. Belcher, Andrew, 214. Belcher, Governor Jonathan, death and burial, 279 ; residence of, 285, 286. Belknap, Dr. Jeremy, 68. Benningtonbattle, incidents of,126, 127; trophies of, 128, 129; prisoners, 128. Bernard, Governor Francis, 228. Bigelow, Dr. Jacob, 330, 338. Bird, Joseph, 346. Bissell Trial, 397. Bond, William C, 201. Borland, John, 197. Boston, blockade of, in 1781, 35 ; naval battle in harbor, 35 ; Grenadiers, 178 ; bombardment of, 181, 182 ; relics of siege, 265. Boston Frigate, armament of, 34. Bourne, Nehemiah, 12. Boutwell, George S., 416. Boylston, Nicholas, 225, 226. Bradstreet, Governor Simon, 351. Branding, examples of, 171. Brattle's Mall, 280, 281. Brattle Street Church (Boston), ball in, 182. Brattle, Thomas, 281. Brattle, Tliomas, son of William, 281, 282. Brattle, William, 281. Bra)^ Major John, 97, 184. Brimmer, George W., 338. Brocklebank, Captain, 414, 415. Brooks, Govei-nor John, residence and sketch of, 133, 134. Bunker, George, 80. Bunker Hill Monument, history of, 73-79. Bunker (Breed's) Hill, battle of, British landing-place, 48, 49 ; Brit- 434 INDEX. ish regiments engaged, 53 ; losses in, 56, 57 ; anecdotes of, 56-60 ; Trumbull's pictm-e, 60; question of conmiand, 60 - 63 ; anecdotes of, 64, 65; redoubts, etc., 65, 66; disap- pearance of, 66 ; anomalous author- ity of American officers, 66 - 68 ; ac- comits of, 70 - 73 ; American hos- pital, 71; prisoners, 71; slaughter of British officers, 72, 73; Bunker Hill proper fortified, 80, 81. Burbeck, Captain Henry, 173. Burgoyne, General John, in Boston, 59; arrives at Cambridge, 158 ; re- turns to England, 165; residence in Cambridge, 197. Burr, Aaron, anecdotes of, 104, 105. Cambridge, fortifications, 180-187, 213, 243, 244; settlement of, 195, 196; first church, 211, 212; Ferry, 212 ; topography of, 212, 213; Court- House, 217 ; camps at, 245; Com- mon, 245 et seq.; old burial-place, 276-280. Campbell, Colonel Archibald, 89 ; imprisoned at Concord, 382, 383. Capen, Hopestill, 426. Carter, Robert, 323. Cartwright, Cuif, 358. Cipher of United States, origin of, 47. Channing, W. E., 200. Chardoii, Peter, 181. Charles River, named, 2; bridged, 3-5. Charles River Bridge, projected, 3 ; built and opened, 4, 5 ; building committee, 6. Charlestown Lane, 357. Cliarlestown Ferry established and granted to Harvard College, 5 ; ex- change of prisoners at, 8, 9. Charlestown, topography and settle- ment, 8 ; dispersion of inhabitants, 8 ; site of the "Great House" and first ordinary in, 9; old burial-place, 11 ; distinguished citizens of, 10. Christ Church (Boston), bells of, 52. Christ Church (Cambridge), 273-276. Church, Dr. Benjamin, residence of, 286; his treason, 287, 288. Chelsea Bridge, built, 7. Clatlin, William, residence of, 351. Claghorn, Colonel George, constructs frigate Constitution, 29. Clap, Preserved, 154. Clarke, James Freeman, 352. Clarke, Samuel, 352. Clarke, Samuel C, 352. Clark's House (Lexington), 364 ; occu- pied by Hancock and Adams, 365. Clark, Rev. Jonas, 363, 367. Cleavelaud, Colonel, 183. Clinton, General Sir Henry, 80. Cobble Hill (McLean Asylum), forti- fied, 172; prisoners on, 177; Barrell's palace, 177; Insane Asylum, 178. Codman, Captain John, murder of, 169, 170. Coffin, John, at Bunker Hill, 57. Colonial Army, early composition of, 246 ; in 1 775, 247 - 254 ; location of regiments, 249 ; roster in Cambridge, 250; fiag of, 251, 252: punishments, 252 ; untform, 253, 254. Committee of Safety, rendezvous of, 257. Concord, 371-394; approach to, 372, 373; topography in 1775, 380-383 ; Old Court House, 380; grist-mill and jail, 381 ; mill-pond, 383 ; Old Hubbard House, 384 ; hill burial- ground, 385 ; battle monument, 387 -389; named, 389; Old Manse, 389 -392; retreat from, 393, 394; Mer- riam's Corner, 393. Constitution, frigate, incident of her building, 29, 30; cruise in the East Indies, 30; conflict with the Guer- riere, 32, 33; rebuilt in Charlestown, 40; story of the figure-head, 41-44; action with the Java, 47 ; has the first made mast in our navy, 47 ; memorials of, 50; lines to, 363. Convent of St. Ursula, 91 -95. Convention troops, march to Rutland, 163; barracks at, described, 164 ; march to Virginia, 165. Cook, John, residence of, 348. INDEX. 435 Coolidge, Charles, 378. Coolidge, Joseph, 378. Copley, John S., works of, 225. Copper sheathing, origin of, 47. Cox, Lemuel, builds Charles River Bridge, 3, 4 ; sketch of, C. Cradock's Fort, 134. Cradock, Governor Matthew, 134, 135, 136; dies, 139. Craigie, Andrew, 179. Cresap, Michael, SS. Curtis, George William, 379, 380. Cushman, Charlotte, birthplace of, 22 ; anecdotes of early life, 22 ; first ap- pearance in public, 22 ; studies for the stage, 23; debat in London, 23, 24 ; Cushman School, 25. D. Dana Hill, 199 ; mansion, 200. Dana, Judge Francis, 200. Dana, Richard H., 200. Dane, Nathan, 218, 219. Davis, Isaac, killed, 408. Davis, Judge John, residence of, 59. Dawes, Major Tlionias, 173. Daye, Stephen, 224. Dearborn, General Henry, 105 ; at Moumouth, 106. Derby, George H., 380. Derby, Richard, 370. Dewey, Samuel P., e.xploit with Con- stitution's figure-head, 41 - 44. Dickerson, Mahlon, 43, 44. Dickinson, Edward, 193. Dirty Marsh, 27. Doncaster, England, night surprise at, 12, 13. Dorchester Heights, occupation of, i)ro- posed, 260, 261. Downer, Eliphalet, duel with the regu- lar, 399. Downing, Sir George, 238. Dudley, Thomas, residence of, 112. Duer, William, 303. Dunster, Henry, 211. E. Edes, Benjamin, printing-office of, 347, 348. Edes, Thomas, 19. Ellsworth, Annie G., dictates first tel- egraphic message, 21. Emerson, Rev. William, 389. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 378, 379. Essex Bridge built, 6. Eustis, William, burial-place of, 370. Everett, Edward, 11, 80, 210, 211. F. Fayerweather, John, 414. Fayerweather, Thomas, 316. Fife, the, introduced into British army, 248. First church (Cambridge), sites of, 211, 212; Provincial Congress sits in, 215. Flags of truce, methods of conducting before Boston, 86, 87. Flucker, Thomas, 63. Foot of the Rocks, 359. Fox, Jabez, residence of, 256. Eraser, Simon, 382. Fresh Pond, 340; ice-traffic of, 344, 345. Fuller, Abi-aham, 351. Fuller, Joseph, 351. Fuller, John, 351. Fuller, Sarah, 351. Fuller, Sarah Margaret, birthplace of, 192. Funeral customs, 331 - 333. G. Gage, General Thomas, 8, 63, 356. Gardiner, Rev. J. S. J., anecdote of, 18. Gates, General Horatio, 104, 299. Gergeroux, Marquis de, banquet to, 36. Gerry, Elbriilge, 317, 320. Gerrymander, history of the, 320-322. Gibbeting, instances of, 169, 170. Gibbet in Middlesex, location of, 170. Gibbs, Major Caleb, Washington's re- buke of, 15, 27 ; commands Life Guard, 308. Gilbert, John, birthplace of, 22. Glover, Colonel John, quarters of, 292 - 294. Gookin, Daniel, 200. Gordon, Rev. William, 347. Gorham, Nathaniel, sketch of, 14-16. 436 INDEX. Graves, Samuel, 358. Graves, Thomas, 482. Greene, Catharine, Eli Whitney a pro- tege of, 152. Greene, General Nathaniel, Knox's opinion of, 149 ; camp on Prospect Hill, 149 ; trial of Andre, 150 ; money embarrassments, 150, 151, 272. Green, Samuel, 224. Gridley, Colonel Richard, 187. H. Haldimand, General, 355. Hamilton, Ale.xander, 300. Hancock Frigate, armament of, 34. Hancock, John, at Lexington, 365- 370. Hancock, Thomas, 225, 368. Hand, General Edward, 90. Harrington, Jonathan, 361. Harrington, Daniel, 361. Harris, Lord George, at Bunker Hill, 56, 57. Hartt, Edmund, naval yard of, 27. Harvard College, Charlesto^vn Ferry granted to, 5 ; first observatory, 201 ; Fellows' Orchard, 201; Gore Hall, 201; College libraries, 201-206; President's house, 206-212; Dane Hall, 218; early accounts, 221, 222, 229; enclosures, 222; building and sites of old Halls, 223 ; College Press, 223, 224; Massachusetts, 224, 225; Portrait Gallery, 225, 226 ; lotteries, 226, 227; buildings used for bar- racks, 227; Harvard, 227, 228; Hol- lis, 229; Holden Chapel, 229, 230; Holworthy, 230; University Hall, 230; customs, 232, 233; clubs, 234: Commencement, 234, 235; dress of students, 235, 236; Oxford caps, 237, 238; distinguished graduates, 238. 239; historic associations, 240, 241; outbreaks of students, 241, 242; American works, 243, 244 ; seal, 242. Harvard, John, 10; library and monu- ment, 11. Hastings, Jonathan, 256. Hastings, Rebecca, 261. Hastings, Walter, 256, 257. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, residence in Concoi-d, 373, 391. Henley, Colonel David, court-martial of, 160; sketch of, 161, 162. Hessians, appearance of, 158; uniform and colors, 315, 316. Hewes, Shubael, 271. Hollis, Thomas, 226. Holmes, Abiel, 262. Holmes, 0. W., 254, 262. Hoijkms, Commander Ezekiel, per- sonal appearance of, 38. Hoppin, Rev. Nicholas, 275. Hosmer, Abner, 408; John, 381. Hovey, C. M., 186. Howard, Caroline, 324. Howard, Samuel, 324. Howe, Lyman, 419. Hudson, Frederick, 380. Hudson, William, 12. Hull, Commodore Isaac, described, 31, 32; superintends docking the Con- stitution, 40. Hull, General William, tomb of, 349 ; sketch of, 350-352. Humphreys, David, 300. Humphreys, Joshua, reports in favor of Charlestown as a naval station, 27. I. Inman, Ralph, 187 - 189. J. Jackson, Colonel Henry, 27; residence, 348. Jackson, Colonel Michael, 349. Jacpies, Samuel, 99. Jones, Ephraim, 381, 382. Jones, Commodore John Paul, hoists American flag, 38. Joy, Benjamin, 178. K. Kent, Duke of, 310, 311. Kent, Judge William, 284. Keyes, George, 389. Keyes, John S., 392. Kirkland, John T., 209. INDEX. 437 Knight, Sarali, jom-ney to New York in 17U4, 423, 4-24. Knox, General Henry, 27, 56 ; book- store of, 172 ; accident, 173 ; mar- riage, 174 ; at Trenton, 175; birth- place, 177, 187, 272, 275; residence, 348. Knox, Lucy(Flucker), 173, 176, 177. Knox, William, 173. L. Lafayette, Marquis, 0iJ3, 304. Lardner, Dionysius, prediction of, 35. Lechmere's Point, 179; British land at, ISO ; access to, 180 ; fort on, 180 - 184; executions at, 184. Lechmere, Kichard, 179. Lechmere, Thomas, 179. Lee, General Charles, announces his arrival to the enemy, 85, 86; quar- ters of, 329, 141 ; sketch and anec- dotes of, 142-144; alleged treason, 145 ; incidents of his capture, 146 ; singular request and death, 147, 148, 272. Lee, Joseph, 316. Lee, Colonel WilUam R., 107. Leonard, Rev. Abiel, 191. Leverett, Governor John, serves with Cromwell, 12; portrait of, 14. Lexington, battle of. Prisoners of, ex- changed, 8, 9 ; Smith's march to, 354-364; topography of the Com- mon, 360 ; meeting-house and belfry, 360, 361 ; battle monument, 362, 363; Clark House, 364-369; burial- ground, 370; Fiske's Hill and the road to Concord, 371 ; Smith's junc- tion with Percy, and the retreat, 395, 396. Lightning conductors first applied to vessels, 47. Linzee, Captain John, 188, 189. Longfellow, H. W., description of his residence, 290, 312. Long, Samuel, innkeeper, 9. Lowell, Rev. Charles, 317, 322. Lowell, James Russell, 317 ; home of, 318, 323, 324. Lurvey, James, 258. M. Magoun, Thatcher, 41. Maiden Bridge, built, 6, 83. Mallet, Andrew, 110. Mallet, John, 110. Mallet, Michael, 110. Martin, Michael, career and execution of, 97, 184, 1S5. Mason, David, 174, 183. Mather, Inciease, 211. McLean Asylum, 172. McLean, John, 172. Massachusetts Bay divided into shires, 7. Mass. Horticultural Society, 337, 338. Merrimac Frigate, laxmch and history of, 45, 46. MidcUesex Canal, 81, 82. Middlesex Comity formed, 7. Mifflin, Thomas, residence of, 282, 283, 300. Military roads in 1775, 83, 84. Miller's River (Willis's Creek), 179, 180. Molineux, William, Jr., 422. Moncrieti', Major, officiates at an ex- change of prisoners, 8, 9. Monmouth, battle of, incidents of, 106, 163. Morgan, General Daniel, account of his corps, 87 - 90. Morse, Samuel F. B., birthplace of, 19; first attempts at painting, 20 ; con- ception of the telegraph, 20 ; first line and message, 21. Morse, Jedediah, 16 - IS : residence, 19. Moulton's Point (Moreton's or Mor- ton's), British landing-place at bat- tle of Bunker Hill, 27 ; fortified, 28. Mount Auburn, 326-340; the Tower, 329; the Cliapel and statuarj', 335- 337; origin of, 337, 338. Mount Pisgah. Sfc. Prospect Hill. Murray, Samuel, 357. N. Napoleon I. , his opinion of American sailors, 46. Navy Yard, Charlestown, 26-51; first Government yards, 27 ; history of 438 INDEX. Charlestown purchase, 27; surround- ings, 28 ; commanders ot, 29 - 33 ; the park of artillery, 33 ; compared with Woolwich, 34 ; dry dock, 40; famous vessels built at, 44 - 46 ; landing of Sir William Howe, 48, 49 ; area, cost, and original proprietors, 49, oU ; Naval Institute and tro- phies, 50. Nelson, Horatio, noble conduct of, 37. Newman, Robert, 354. Newton, celebrities of, 348 - 353. Nicliolson, Commodore Samuel, com- mands Charlestown Yard, 29; col- lision with Claghorn, 29, 30 ; death and burial, 30. Night watch, customs of, 9, 10. Nix's Mate, 170. Noddle's Island (East Boston), 27. Nouantum Hill, 352, 353. O. Old Manse (Concord), 389-392. Old South Chui-ch (Boston), 183 ; Washington's visit to, 271, 272. Old Wayside Mill. See Powder House. Oliver, Thomas, 318, 319. Otis, James, 336. Parker, Isaac, 218. Parker, Theodore, birthplace of, 361. Parker, John, 361, 409. Parker, Rev. Samuel, 274, 275. Parkman, Samuel, 379, 427. Pearson, Eliphalet, 262. Percival, Captain John, 30. Percy, Hugh, Earl, march to and re- treat from Lexington, 395 - 405. Penny Ferry, 83. Pere la Chaise, Mount Auburn com- pared with, 329, 334. Phillips, Rev. George, 346, 347. Phillips, General William, 165. Phips, David, mansion, etc., 200. Phips's Point. See Lechniere's. Pierce, Josiah, Jr., 426. Pierce, George W., 431. Pierce, Joseph, 173. Pigot, General Robert, 5. Pitcaim, Major John, at Lexington, 357 - 359, 381, 382. Plowed Hill (Mt. Benedict), fortifica- tions described, 84, 85; convent on, burnt, 92, 93. Pomeroy, Colonel Seth, at Bunker Hill, 60, 61. Pontefract Castle, England, capture and siege of, 12. Powder House, history and description of, 110-112; legend of, 115. Prentice, Cajitain Thomas, 348. Prescott, Colonel William, 60-62. Prospect Hill, occui)ied by Putnam, 62; fortifications, 148 ; vestiges of, 148, 149, 166, 167 ; garrison of, 149; description of camps and flag-raising on, 156, 157 ; Burgoyne's troops en- camped on, 157 ; description of their barracks, 159; collision between prisoners and guards, 160. Putnam, General Israel, conducts an exchange of prisoners, 8, 9 ; at Bun- ker Hill, 60 - 62 ; quarters and sketclies of, 189-192, 197, 272. Putnam, Colonel Rufus, anecdote of, 108. Q. Quarry Hill, 113. Quincy, Dorothy, 366. Quincy, Eliza S., 206, 210. Quincy, Josiah, 210. Quincy, Samuel, residence of, 59. R. Rainsborrow, General William, ser- vices under Cromwell, 12; killed, 13. Rale, Sebastian, 205. Rawdon, Francis, Lord, at Bunker Hill, 57. Reed, Joseph, 299. Revere, Paul, prints Colony notes, 348; night ride to Lexington, 354, 357, 367. Rice, Reuben, 381. Ripley, Rev. Ezra, 388, 391. Rivington, James, anecdote of, 55. Riedesel, Baron von, 107, 314-316. INDEX. 439 Royal Artillery, 112, 183, 395. Rolfe, Benjamin, 429. Royall, Isaac, 120, 123, 124, 218. Roy all, William, 122. Royall, Samuel, 123. Royall, Penelope, 124. Ruggles, Timothy, 165. Ruggles, Captain George, 316. Russell, Thomas, 309, 310. Russell, Jason, 402. Saltoustall, Sir Richard, 317. Scammell, Alexander, 101. Sedgwick, General Robert, serves under Cromwell, 12 ; death, 14. Serjeant, Rev. Winwood, 274. Seventy-first Highlanders, organization of, 382. Sewall, Jonathan, 313, 314. Sibley, John L., 205. Small, General John, anecdote of, 59. Smith, Captain John, names Charles River, 2 ; New England, 3 ; liis tomb, 3. Smith, Lieutenant-Colonel, lands at Lechmere's Point, 356. Sparks, Jared, 311. Spooner, Bathshelm, 165, 166. Spooner, Joshua, 166. Stark, General John, at Bunker Hill, 56, 60, 70 ; quarters at Medford, and sketch of, 125, 126, 272. Stirling, Alexander, Lord, 303. Stirling, Lady Kitty, 303. Stone, John, architect of Charles River Bridge, 4. Story, Joseph, 219 ; home of, 2S3 ; habits of, 284, 337. Story, W. W., birthplace of, 284, 337. Stoughton, Israel, 12. Stow, Cyrus, 383. Stratton, John, 318. Sudbury, Green Hill, 410 ; Nobscot, 410; King Philip's attack, 416, 417 ; Noyes Mill, 417. Sullivan, General John, 84; quarters of, 98, 129; his camp, 101, 102; sketch of, 102, 103. 19* T. Talleyrand (Prince of Ponte Corvo), 310. Taverns. The Sun, 71 ; Anna Whitte- more's (Charlestowu), S3; Billings's (Medford), 126, 132; Fountain (Med- ford), 132; Conestoga Wagon (Phila- delphia),148; Bradish's (Cambridge), 158, 213, 214, Richardson's (Water- town), 345, 346 ; Coolidge's, 348 ; Davenport's (Cambridge), 357 ; Black Horse (Arlington), 357 ; Tufts'.s, 357 ; Buckman's (Lexington), 361 ; Wright's (Concord), 380; Richard- son's, 381: Bigelow's (Concord), 381; Hey wood's, 383, 385 ; Jones's, 381 ; Munroe's (Lexington), 396. Temple, Robert, residence and account of, 96, 97. Ten-Hills Farm, account of, 95 - 99. Thompson, Benjamin (Count Rum- ford), 425-432. Thompson, General William, 89. Thoreau, Henry D.., 379, 380. Tidd, Jacob, 129. Tilghman, Tench, 300. Tilghman, Lloyd, 300. Tracy, Nathaniel, 308, 309. Tre.scott, Lemuel, 173, 427. Trenton, battle of, 109 ; council of war before, 126 ; incident of, 175. Trowbridge, John T., 403. Trowbridge, Judge, home of, 280. Trurabuir, John,'"299. Tudor, Frederick, 345. Tudor, Colonel William, 151 ; anec- dotes of, 162. Tudor, William, Jr., 74, 338. Tuckerman, Edward, 284. Tufts, Nathan, 113. Tufts, Oliver, 141. Turner, Job, 40. Two Cranes, Charlestown, 9. Two-Penny Brook, 113. VanderhTi, John, anecdote of, 105. Vassal], Colonel Henry, 125. Vassall, Jolrn, Sr., 286, 292. 440 INDEX. W. Wadswoith, Captain Samuel, killed, 414, 415. Wapi)ing, 28. Ward, General Arteiii as, (51; headquar ters, 258 ; incident of Shays's Re- bellion, 259, 2«i0. Ward, Joseph, 349. Warren, Joseph, conducts an exchange of prisoners, S ; at Bunker Hill, CO, (Jl, 261 ; death, 72 ; statue of, 77. Wasliington Elm, 267. Washington, General George, collision with Hancock on a point of etiquette, 15, 70, 71; leave-taking of his officers, 174, 208 ; first headquarters in C'am- hridge, 262 ; events in life of, 271, 272 ; headquarters, 289 - 308 ; per- sonal description of, 296; Continental uniform, 297 ; his staff, 299, 300 : at Monmoutli, 301 ; anecdotes of, 301, 302 ; habits of, 306 ; his bodv-guard, 307, 308. Washington, Lady, 305. Waterhouse, Benjamin, 264. Waters, Captain Josiah, 187. Watertown meeting - houses, 347 ; Bridge, 347, 348 \ burial -cjrounds, 346, 347. Wayside Inn (Sudbury), 420-425. Weils, William, 317. ' Wesson, Colonel James, 162, 103. West Churcli (Boston), anecdote of 322. West Boston Bridge, built, 4, 5. Wheeler, Captain Timothy, ruse of at Concord, 384. Whitcomb, Colonel Asa, anecdote of, 156. Whitefield's Elm, 268. Wilder, Maishall P., 339. Wilkinson, General James, account of Bunker Hill battle, 70; duel with Gates, 104. Willard, Joseph, 209. Willard, Samuel, 211. Willard, Solomon, architect of Bunker Hill Monument, 75, 79, 80. Williams, General Otho H., 88. Windmill Hill (Cambridge), 284. Winter Hill, lortihed and garrisoned, 100-102; German encampment on, 106, 107. Winthrop, Mrs. Hannah, 359, 360. Winthrop, (lovernur John, 93, 90 ; statue, 336 ; William, 200. Woolrich, Jolm, 244. Worcester, Joseph E., 312. Wyeth, Nathaniel J., his trip to the Pacific, 341-344. Wyman, Rufus, M. D , 178. Y. Yankee, origin of the word, 256. Yankee Doodle, 397. HISTORIC MANSIONS AND HIGHWAYS AROUND BOSTON BEING A NEW, REVISED EDITION OF "OLD LANDMARKS AND HISTORIC FIELDS OF MIDDLESEX " WITH ADDITIONAL PICTURES By SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE Author of "Old Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston," "New England Legends and Folk-Lore," etc. With twenty-one full-page plates, including pictures of Washington's headquarters; General Putnam's head- quarters ; Lowell's residence, Cambridge ; the Old Manse, Concord; Christ Church, Cambridge; Longfellow's Way- side Inn. Also thirty-nine other illustrations and maps. Crown 8vo. $2.50. The author, with his inexhaustible historic lore and his keen appreciation of every Item, anecdote, relic, and place which belongs to the olden times, takes the reader by hand, and, traversing old Middlesexshire, stops at every dwelling, hill, valley, river, or port, and brings back the men and events of colonial and revolutionary times. — IVatc/i- miin arid Reflector. It gives with much detail the history of all the places about Boston that have been made memorable by noteworthy events or as the homes of prominent men. — San Fran- cisco Chronicle. A precious volume. It is much more than a memorial of Boston and its vicinity; it is a memorial of the old nation. It takes one back to the stirring times and issues of America's beginning, scenes made memorable by the lives of great men and the march of great events. — The Los Angeles Herald The book is one to read and read again, and then dream over, and be enriched. — The Si. Faul Globe. NEW ENGLAND LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE In Prose and Poetry. With one hundred effective character illustrations, from designs by Merrill and others. New edition. Crown 8vo. ^2.50. It takes up, in order, the legends of Boston, Cambridge, Lynn and Nahant, Salem, Marblehead, Cape Ann, Ipswich and Newbury, Hamp- ton and Portsmouth, York, Isles of Shoals and Boon Island, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Nantucket. All the old stories are reproduced in telling form, and with apt quotations. Prose and poetry are com- bined, so as to present a complete literary picture. All of the old favorites are before us: Motley's "Solitary of the Shawmut," Whit- tier's "Old South Church," Holmes's "Dorchester Giant," Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride," L. H. Sigourney's " Charter Oak," and James T. Field's " Nantucket Skipper." We read of ^iistress Anne Hutchinson, the Quaker prophetess, the Duel on the Common, the Washington Elm, Moll Pitcher, Endicott and the Red Cross, Giles Corey the Wizard, Skipper Ireson's Ride, Capt. John Smith, Lord Timothy Dexter, Jonathan Moulton and the Devil, a Legend of Blackbeard, the Courtship of Miles Standish, the Skeleton in Armor, and the Newport Tower. — Philadelphia Keystone. LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY Publishers . 254 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON OLD LANDMARKS AND HISTORIC PERSONAGES OF BOSTON A NEW REVISED EDITION OF OLD LANDMARKS OF BOSTON By SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE Author of "New England Legends," etc. New edition, uniform with "Historic Mansions and Highways Around Boston." With ninety-three illustrations in the text and numerous full-page plates. Crown 8vo. Cloth, gilt top. $2.50. The cordial reception given the author's " Historic Mansions and Highways Around Boston," issued in a new edition last year, justifies the publication of a revised and enlarged edition of his most popular work on American history, " Old Landmarks of Boston." Mr. Drake has been for several years accumulating materials for a thorough revision of the work. Besides numerous alterations in the text, designed to keep pace with the march of improvement, the oppor- tunity has been availed of for the introduction of new and interesting matter, as far as practicable. By no means the least important feature of the new edition is the number of fuU-p.age illustrations, not found in earlier editions, and which include a rare picture of Boston in 1830; the daring feat of Isaac Harris in saving the Old South from the flames; Boston Common as a cow pasture, with the Great Elm ; Old Concert Hall, The Almack's of Boston ; State Street in 1825, etc. I am simply amazed at the extent and accuracy of its information. — John G. Palfrey. Your "Old Landmarks of Boston" is a perfect store-house of information. — Henry W. Longfellow. Under Mr. Drake's toucli, details become interesting, old and forgotten scenes are peopled with the personages of the olden time ; every corner becomes historic, and the dead past lives again. — Boston Globe. AROUND THE HUB A Boy's Book about Boston. Profusely illustrated. Square i6mo. $1.25. Beginning with some accounts and anecdotes of the Indians in Boston, he pro- ceeds to state who the first settlers in Boston were ; describes the ancient landmarks; and gives an idea of the government as it then existed, and from this point gives a rapid sketch of the important part sustained by Boston in the War of the Revolution. — Chicago Saturday Evening Herald. The history of Boston is in the main the history of New England during this early period, and the full and authentic knowledge of it, which may be gained from this book, is an important acquisition for every American boy and girl. — Tlie Dial. LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY Publishers . 254 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON i