diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-0.txt | 4268 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-0.zip | bin | 0 -> 100040 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 1740786 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/21895-h.htm | 4481 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 643535 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image01.jpg | bin | 0 -> 11932 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image03.jpg | bin | 0 -> 93128 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image032.jpg | bin | 0 -> 54679 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image033.jpg | bin | 0 -> 31421 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image050.jpg | bin | 0 -> 9857 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image068.jpg | bin | 0 -> 9688 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image069.jpg | bin | 0 -> 34650 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image09.jpg | bin | 0 -> 47075 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image090.jpg | bin | 0 -> 11863 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image091.jpg | bin | 0 -> 23178 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image108.jpg | bin | 0 -> 13304 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image109.jpg | bin | 0 -> 36683 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image111.jpg | bin | 0 -> 76175 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image127.jpg | bin | 0 -> 19993 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image128.jpg | bin | 0 -> 31905 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image146.jpg | bin | 0 -> 14655 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image147.jpg | bin | 0 -> 39292 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image158.jpg | bin | 0 -> 10534 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image159.jpg | bin | 0 -> 31770 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image173.jpg | bin | 0 -> 65073 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image179.jpg | bin | 0 -> 12480 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image180.jpg | bin | 0 -> 32204 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image194.jpg | bin | 0 -> 16040 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image195.jpg | bin | 0 -> 32371 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image212.jpg | bin | 0 -> 11209 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image213.jpg | bin | 0 -> 39319 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image231.jpg | bin | 0 -> 76950 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image243.jpg | bin | 0 -> 9788 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image51.jpg | bin | 0 -> 16006 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21895-h/images/image53.jpg | bin | 0 -> 87515 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/21895-8.txt | 4292 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/21895-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 100252 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/21895.txt | 4292 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/21895.zip | bin | 0 -> 100218 bytes |
42 files changed, 17349 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/21895-0.txt b/21895-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..68ed6f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4268 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Old Coast Road, by Agnes Rothery + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: The Old Coast Road + From Boston to Plymouth + +Author: Agnes Rothery + +Illustrator: Louis H. Ruyl + +Release Date: June 21, 2007 [eBook #21895] +[Most recently updated: July 27, 2021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: David Garcia, Josephine Paolucci, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD COAST ROAD *** + + + + +Transcriber's note: + + Minor typographical errors have been corrected. + + Carats (^) designate a superscript (example: y^e, in + which the "e" is a superscript). + + Footnotes have been moved to the end of each chapter. + + + + + +THE OLD COAST ROAD + +From Boston to Plymouth + +by + +AGNES EDWARDS + +With Illustrations by Louis H. Ruyl + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + +Boston and New York Houghton Mifflin Company +The Riverside Press Cambridge +1920 + +Copyright, 1920, by Agnes Edwards Pratt +All Rights Reserved + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +THE OLD COAST ROAD + +_From Boston to Plymouth_ + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +BOSTON: A FOREWORD ix + +I. DORCHESTER HEIGHTS AND THE OLD COAST +ROAD 1 + +II. MILTON AND THE BLUE HILLS 19 + +III. SHIPBUILDING AT QUINCY 35 + +IV. THE ROMANCE OF WEYMOUTH 57 + +V. ECCLESIASTICAL HINGHAM 75 + +VI. COHASSET LEDGES AND MARSHES 92 + +VII. THE SCITUATE SHORE 111 + +VIII. MARSHFIELD, THE HOME OF DANIEL WEBSTER 123 + +IX. DUXBURY HOMES 142 + +X. KINGSTON AND ITS MANUSCRIPTS 157 + +XI. PLYMOUTH 175 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + +A BIT OF COMMERCIAL STREET IN WEYMOUTH Frontispiece + +THE STATE HOUSE FROM PARK STREET ix + +MAP OF THE SOUTH SHORE _facing_ 1 + +DORCHESTER BAY 1 + +OFF FOR PLYMOUTH BY THE OLD COAST ROAD 18 + +GREAT BLUE HILL 19 + +MILTON ESTATES _facing_ 20 + +THE FORE RIVER SHIPYARD 35 + +THE ADAMS HOUSES IN QUINCY 56 + +THE WEYMOUTH WATER-FRONT 57 + +RATTLING ALONG THE OLD COAST ROAD 74 + +THE LINCOLN HOUSE IN HINGHAM 75 + +THE OLD SHIP MEETING-HOUSE _facing_ 76 + +INTERIOR OF THE NEW NORTH CHURCH IN HINGHAM, +WITH ITS SLAVE GALLERIES 91 + +COHASSET LEDGES AND MINOT'S LEDGE LIGHT 92 + +MODERN COHASSET 110 + +DRYING SEA-MOSS AT SCITUATE HARBOR 111 + +FOURTH CLIFF, SCITUATE 122 + +THE WEBSTER HOUSE 123 + +MARSHFIELD MEADOWS _facing_ 136 + +A DUXBURY COTTAGE 142 + +A BAY VIEW TO DUXBURY BEACH 156 + +THE STANDISH MONUMENT AS SEEN FROM KINGSTON 157 + +OLD RECORDS 174 + +THE MEMORIAL BUILDING FOR THE TOWN OF +PLYMOUTH, DESIGNED BY LITTLE AND RUSSELL, +ARCHITECTS 175 + +VIEW FROM STEPS OF BURIAL HILL, PLYMOUTH, +SHOWING THE TOWN SQUARE, LEYDEN STREET, +THE CHURCH OF THE PILGRIMAGE, THE FIRST +CHURCH, AND, IN THE DISTANCE, THE PILGRIM +MONUMENT IN PROVINCETOWN _facing_ 192 + +CLARK'S ISLAND, PLYMOUTH 203 + + + + +BOSTON: A FOREWORD + +[Illustration] + + +To love Boston or to laugh at Boston--it all depends on whether or not +you are a Bostonian. Perhaps the happiest attitude--and the most +intelligent--is tinged with both amusement and affection: amusement at +the undeviating ceremonial of baked beans on Saturday night and fish +balls on Sunday morning; at the Boston bag (not so ubiquitous now as +formerly); at the indefatigable consumption of lectures; at the +Bostonese pronunciation; affection for the honorable traditions, noble +buildings, distinguished men and women. Boston is an old city--one must +remember that it was settled almost three centuries ago--and old cities, +like old people, become tenacious of their idiosyncrasies, admitting +their inconsistencies and prejudices with complacency, wisely aware that +age has bestowed on them a special value, which is automatically +increased with the passage of time. + +To tell the story of an old city is like cutting down through the +various layers of a fruity layer cake. When you turn the slice over, you +see that every piece is a cross-section. So almost every locality and +phase of this venerable metropolis could be studied, and really should +be studied, according to its historical strata: Colonial, Provincial, +Revolutionary, economic, and literary. All of these periods have piled +up their associations one upon the other, and all of them must be +somewhat understood if one would sincerely comprehend what has aptly +been called not a city, but a "state of mind." + +It is as impossible for the casual sojourner to grasp the significance +of the multifarious historical and literary events which have transpired +here as for a few pages to outline them. Wherever one stands in Boston +suggests the church of San Clemente in Rome, where, you remember, there +are three churches built one upon the other. However, those who would +take the lovely journey from Boston to Plymouth needs must make some +survey, no matter how superficial, of their starting-place. And perhaps +the best spot from which to begin is the Common. + +This pleasantly rolling expanse, which was set aside as long ago as +1640, with the decree that "there shall be no land granted either for +houseplott or garden out of y^e open land or common field," has been +unbrokenly maintained ever since, and as far as acreage goes (it +approximates fifty acres) could still fulfill its original use of +pasturing cows, a practice which was continued until 1830. It was here +that John Hancock's cattle grazed--he who lived in such magnificence on +the hill, and in whose side yard the State House was built--and once, +when preparations for an official banquet were halted by shortage of +milk, tradition has it that he ordered his servants to hasten out on the +Common and milk every cow there, regardless of ownership. Tradition also +tells us that the little boy Ralph Waldo Emerson tended his mother's cow +here; and finally both traditions and existing law declare that yonder +one-story building opening upon Mount Vernon Street, and possessing an +oddly wide door, must forever keep that door of sufficient width to let +the cows pass through to the Common. + +Let us stand upon the steps of the State House and look out over the +Common. To our right, near the intersection of Boylston and Tremont +Streets, lies the half-forgotten, almost obliterated Central Burying +Ground, the final resting-place of Gilbert Stuart, the famous American +painter. At the left points the spire of Park Street Church, notable not +for its age, for it is only a little over a century old, but for its +charming beauty, and by the fact that William Lloyd Garrison delivered +his first address here, and here "America" was sung in public for the +first time. It was the windiness of this corner which was responsible +for Tom Appleton's suggestion (he was the brother-in-law of Longfellow) +that a shorn lamb be tethered here. + +The graceful spire of Park Street Church serves not only as a landmark, +but is also a most fitting terminal to a street of many associations. It +is on Park Street that the publishing house of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. +(now Houghton Mifflin Company) has had its offices for forty years, and +the bookstores and the antique shops tucked quaintly down a few steps +below the level of the sidewalk have much of the flavor of a bit of +London. + +Still standing on the State House steps, facing the Common, you are also +facing what has been called the noblest monument in Boston and the most +successfully placed one in America. It is Saint-Gaudens's bronze relief +of Colonel Robert G. Shaw commanding his colored regiment, and if you +see no other sculpture in a city which has its full quota you must see +this memorial, spirited in execution, spiritual in its conception of a +mighty moment. + +If we had time to linger we could not do better than to follow Beacon +Street to the left, pausing at the Athenæum, a library of such dignity +and beauty that one instinctively, and properly, thinks of it as an +institution rather than a mere building. To enjoy the Athenæum one must +be a "proprietor" and own a "share," which entitles one not only to the +use of the scholarly volumes in scholarly seclusion, but also in the +afternoon to entrance to an alcove where tea is served for three +pennies. Perhaps here, as well as any other place, you may see a +characteristic assortment of what are fondly called "Boston types." +There is the professor from Cambridge, a gentleman with a pointed beard +and a noticeably cultivated enunciation; one from Wellesley--this, a +lady--with that keen and paradoxically impractical expression which +marks pure intellectuality; an alert matron, plainly, almost shabbily, +dressed (aristocratic Boston still scorns sartorial smartness); a very +well-bred young girl with bone spectacles; a student, shabby, like the +Back Bay matron, but for another reason; a writer; a business man whose +hobby is Washingtonia. These, all of them, you may enjoy along with your +cup of tea for three cents, if--and here is the crux--you can only be +admitted in the first place. And if you are admitted, do not fail to +look out of the rear windows upon the ancient Granary Burying Ground, +where rest the ashes of Hancock, Sewall, Faneuil, Samuel Adams, Otis, +Revere, and many more notables. If you have a penchant for graveyards, +this one, entered from Tremont Street, is more than worthy of further +study. + +This is one of the many things we could enjoyably do if we had time, but +whether we have time or not we must pay our respects to the State House +(one does not call it the Capitol in Boston, as in other cities), the +prominence of whose golden dome is not unsuggestive, to those who recall +it, of Saint Botolph's beacon tower in Boston, England, for which this +city was named. The State House is a distinctively American building, +and Bulfinch, the great American architect, did an excellent thing when +he designed it. The dome was originally covered with plates of copper +rolled by no other than that expert silversmith and robust patriot, Paul +Revere--he whose midnight ride has been recited by so many generations +of school-children, and whose exquisite flagons, cups, ladles, and sugar +tongs not only compared with the best Continental work of that period, +but have set a name and standard for American craftsmanship ever since. + +If you should walk up and down the chessboard of Beacon Hill--taking the +knight's move occasionally across the narrow cross-streets--you could +not help treading the very squares which were familiar to the feet of +that generation of authors which has permanently stamped American +literature. At 55 Beacon Street, down near the foot of the hill and +facing the Common, still stands the handsome, swell-front, buff-brick +house where Prescott, the historian, lived. On Mount Vernon Street +(which runs parallel to Beacon, and which, with its dignified beauty, +won the approval of that connoisseur of beautiful streets--Henry James) +one can pick out successively the numbers 59, 76, 83, 84, the first and +last being homes of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and the other two +distinguished by the residence of William Ellery Channing and Margaret +Deland. Pinckney Street runs parallel with Mount Vernon, and the small, +narrow house at number 20 was one of the homes of the Alcott family. It +seems delightfully fitting that Louisburg Square--that very exclusive +and very English spot which probably retains more of the quaint +atmosphere and customs of an aristocratic past than any other single +area in the city--should have been the home of the well-beloved William +Dean Howells. One also likes to recall that Jenny Lind was married at +number 20. Chestnut Street--which after a period of social obscurity is +again coming into its own--possesses Julia Ward Howe's house at number +13, that of Motley the historian at 16, and of Parkman at 50. In this +hasty map we have gone up and down the hill, but the cross-street, +Charles, although not so attractive, is nevertheless as rich in literary +associations as any in Boston. Here lived, for a short time, at 164, +Oliver Wendell Holmes, and at 131--also for a short time--Thomas Bailey +Aldrich. It is, however, at 148, that we should longest pause. This, for +many rich years, was the home of James T. Fields, that delightful man of +letters who was the friend of many men of letters; he who entertained +Dickens and Thackeray, and practically every foreign writer of note who +visited this country; he who encouraged Hawthorne to the completion of +the "Scarlet Letter," and he, who, as an appreciative critic, publisher, +and editor, probably did more to elevate, inspire, and sustain the +general literary tone of the city than any other single person. In these +stirring days facile American genius springs up, like brush fires, from +coast to coast. Novels pour in from the West, the Middle West, the +South. To superficial outsiders it may seem as if Boston might be +hard-pressed to keep her laurels green, but Boston herself has no +fears. Her present may not shine with so unique a brilliance as her +past, but her past gains in luster with each succeeding year. Nothing +can ever take from Boston her high literary prestige. + +While we are still on Beacon Hill we can look out, not only upon the +past, but upon the future. Those white domes and pillars gleaming like +Greek temples across the blue Charles, are the new buildings of the +Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and surely Greek temples were +never lovelier, nor dedicated to more earnest pursuit of things not +mundane. Quite as beautiful and quite as Grecian as the Technology +buildings is the noble marble group of the School of Medicine of Harvard +University, out by the Fenlands--that section of the city which is +rapidly becoming a students' quarter, with its Simmons College, the New +England Conservatory of Music, art schools, gymnasiums, private and +technical schools of all descriptions, and its body of over 12,000 +students. Harvard is, of course, across the river in Cambridge, and +preparatory schools and colleges dot the suburbs in every direction, +upholding the cultural traditions of a city which has proved itself +peculiarly fitted to educational interests. + +All this time we have, like _bona-fide_ Bostonians, stayed on Beacon +Hill, and merely looked out at the rest of the city. And perhaps this is +as typical a thing as we could have done. Beacon Hill was the center of +original Boston, when the Back Bay was merely a marsh, and long after +the marsh was filled in and streets were laid out and handsome +residences lined them, Beacon Hill looked down scornfully at the new +section and murmured that it was built upon the discarded hoopskirts and +umbrellas of the true Bostonians. Even when almost every one was crowded +off the Hill and the Back Bay became the more aristocratic section of +the two, there were still enough of the original inhabitants left to +scorn these upstart social pretensions. And now Beacon Hill is again +coming back into her own: the fine old houses are being carefully, +almost worshipfully restored, probably never again to lose their +rightful place in the general life of the city. + +But if Beacon Hill was conservative in regard to the Back Bay, that +district, in its turn, showed an equal unprogressiveness in regard to +the Esplanade. To the stranger in Boston, delighting in that magnificent +walk along the Charles River Embankment, with the arching spans of the +Cambridge and Harvard bridges on one side, and the homes of wealth and +mellow refinement on the other--a walk which for invigorating beauty +compares with any in the cities of men--it seems incredible that when +this promenade was laid out a few years ago, the householders along the +water's edge absolutely refused to turn their front windows away from +Beacon Street. Furthermore, they ignored the fact that their back yards +and back windows presented an unbecoming face to such an incomparably +lovely promenade, and the inevitable household rearrangement--by which +the drawing-rooms were placed in the rear--was literally years in +process of achievement. But such conservatism is one of Boston's +idiosyncrasies, which we must accept like the wind and the flat A. + +Present-day Bostonians are proud--and properly so--of their Copley +Square, with its Public Library, rich with the mural paintings of Puvis +de Chavannes, with Abbey's "Quest of the Holy Grail," and Sargent's +"Frieze of the Prophets"; with its well-loved Trinity Church and with +much excellent sculpture by Bela Pratt. Copley Square is the cultural +center of modern Boston. The famous Lowell lectures--established about +seventy-five years ago as free gifts to the people--are enthusiastically +attended by audiences as Bostonese as one could hope to congregate; and +in all sorts of queer nests in this vicinity are Theosophical +reading-rooms, small halls where Buddhism is studied or New Thought +taught, and half a hundred very new or very old philosophies, religions, +fads, fashions, reforms, and isms find shelter. It is easy to linger in +Copley Square: indeed, hundreds and hundreds of men and +women--principally women--come from all over the United States for the +sole purpose of spending a few months or a season in this very place, +enjoying the lectures, concerts, and art exhibitions which are so easily +and freely accessible. But in this bird's-eye flight across the +historical and geographical map of a city that tempts one to many +pleasant delays, we must hover for a brief moment over the South and the +North Ends. + +Skipping back, then, almost three centuries, but not traveling far as +distance goes, the stranger in Boston cannot do better than to find his +way from Copley Square to the Old South Church on Washington +Street--that venerable building whose desecration by the British troops +in 1775 the citizens found it so hard ever to forgive. It was here that +Benjamin Franklin was baptized in 1706; here that Joseph Warren made a +dramatic entry to the pulpit by way of the window in order to denounce +the British soldiers; and here that momentous meetings were held in the +heaving days before the Revolution. The Old South Church Burying Ground +is now called the King's Chapel Burying Ground, and King's Chapel +itself--a quaint, dusky building, suggestive of a London chapel--is only +a few blocks away. Across its doorsill have not only stepped the Royal +Governors of pre-Revolutionary days, but Washington, General Gage, the +indestructibly romantic figures of Sir Harry Frankland and Agnes +Surriage; the funeral processions of General Warren and Charles Sumner. +The organ, which came from England in 1756, is said to have been +selected by Handel at the request of King George, and along the walls of +the original King's Chapel were hung the escutcheons of the Kings of +England and of the Royal Governors. + +The Old State House is in this vicinity and is worthy--as are, indeed, +both the Old South Church and King's Chapel--of careful architectural +study and enjoyment. There are portraits, pictures, relics, and rooms +within, and without the beautifully quaint lines and truly lovely +details of the façade infuse a perpetual charm into the atmosphere of +the city. It was directly in front of this building that the Boston +Massacre took place in 1770, and from this second-story balcony that +the repeal of the Stamp Act was read, and ten years later the full text +of the Declaration of Independence. + +Perhaps the next most interesting building in this section of old Boston +is Faneuil Hall, the "Cradle of Liberty" whose dignified, old-fashioned +proportions were not lost--thanks to Bulfinch--when it was enlarged. A +gift of a public-spirited citizen, this building has served in a double +capacity for a hundred and seventy-seven years, having public +market-stalls below and a large hall above--a hall which is never +rented, but used freely by the people whenever they wish to discuss +public affairs. It would be impossible to enumerate the notable speakers +and meetings which have rendered this hall famous, from General Gage +down to Daniel Webster, Theodore Roosevelt, and Marshal Joffre. + +If you are fond of water sights and smells you can step from Faneuil +Hall down to a region permeated with the flavor of salt and the sound of +shipping, a region of both ancient tradition and present activity. Here +is India Wharf, its seven-story yellow-brick building once so +tremendously significant of Boston's shipping prosperity; Long Wharf, so +named because when it was built it was the longest in the country, and +bore a battery at its end; Central Wharf, with its row of venerable +stone warehouses; T Wharf, immensely picturesque with its congestion of +craft of all descriptions; Commercial Wharf, where full-rigged sailing +vessels which traded with China and India and the Cape of Good Hope were +wont to anchor a hundred years ago. All this region is crammed with the +paraphernalia of a typical water-front: curious little shops where +sailors' supplies are sold; airy lofts where sails are cut and stitched +and repaired; fish stores of all descriptions; sailors' haunts, awaiting +the pen of an American Thomas Burke. The old Custom House where +Hawthorne unwillingly plodded through his enforced routine is here, and +near it the new Custom House rears its tower four hundred and +ninety-eight feet above the sidewalk, a beacon from both land and sea. + +The North End of Boston has not fared as well as the South End. The sons +of Abraham and immigrants from Italy have appropriated the streets, +dwellings, churches, and shops of the entire region, and even Christ +Church (the famous Old North Church) has a Chiesa Italiana on its +grounds. There are many touches to stir the memory in this Old North +Church. The chime of eight bells naïvely stating, "We are the first ring +of bells cast for the British Empire in North America"; the pew with the +inscription that is set apart for the use of the "Gentlemen of Bay of +Honduras"--visiting merchants who contributed the spire to the church in +1740; vaults beneath the church, forbidden now to visitors, where lie +the bones of many Revolutionary heroes; a unique collection of +vellum-covered books, and a few highly precious pieces of ancient +furniture. The most conspicuous item about the church, of course, is +that from its tower were hung the signal lanterns of Paul Revere, +destined to shine imperishably down the ever-lengthening aisles of +American history. + +Before we press on to Bunker Hill--for that is our final destination--we +should cast a glance at Copp's Hill Burying Ground, that hillside refuge +where one can turn either back to the annals of the past or look out +over the roof-tops and narrow streets to the present and the future. If +you chose the latter, you can see easily Boston Harbor and Charlestown +Navy Yard--that navy yard which has outstripped even its spectacular +traditions by its stirring achievements in the Great War. "Old +Ironsides" will lie here forever in the well-earned serenity of a secure +old age, and it is probable that another visitor, the Kronprinzessin +Cecilie, although lost under the name of the Mount Vernon and a coat of +gray paint, will be long preserved in maritime memory. + +The plain shaft of Bunker Hill Monument, standing to mark the spot where +the Americans lost a battle that was, in reality, a victory, is like a +blank mirror, reflecting only that which one presents to it. According +to your historical knowledge and your emotional grasp Bunker Hill +Monument is significant. + +Skimming thus over the many-storied city, in a sort of literary +airplane, it has been possible to point out only a few of the most +conspicuous places and towers. The Common lies like a tiny pocket +handkerchief of path-marked green at the foot of crowded Beacon Hill; +the white Esplanade curves beside the blue Charles; the Back Bay is only +a checkerboard of streets, alphabetically arranged; Copley Square is +hardly distinguishable. The spires of the Old South Church, King's +Chapel, the Old State House, and Faneuil Hall punctuate the South End; +the North Church, the North End. The new Custom House Tower and Bunker +Hill Monument seem hardly more than the minarets of a child's toy +village. + +The writer, as a pilot over this particular city, alights and resigns, +commending for more detailed study, and for delightful guidance, Robert +Shackleton's "Book of Boston." Let us now leave the city and set out in +a more leisurely fashion on our way to Plymouth. + + + + +THE OLD COAST ROAD + +_From Boston to Plymouth_ + +[Illustration: THE SOUTH SHORE OFMASSACHUSETTS BAY] + + + + +THE OLD COAST ROAD + + + + +CHAPTER I + +DORCHESTER HEIGHTS AND THE OLD COAST ROAD + +[Illustration] + + +The very earliest of the great roads in New England was the Old Coast +Road, connecting Boston with Plymouth--capitals of separate colonies. Do +we, casually accepting the fruit of three hundred years of toil on this +continent--do we, accustomed to smooth highways and swift and easy +transportation, realize the significance of such a road? + +A road is the symbol of the civilization which has produced it. The main +passageway from the shore of the Yellow Sea to the capital of Korea, +although it has been pressed for centuries immemorial by myriads of +human feet, has never been more than a bridle path. On the other hand, +wherever the great Roman Empire stepped, it engineered mighty +thoroughfares which are a marvel to this day. A road is the thread on +which the beads of history are strung; the beads of peace as well as +those of war. Thrilling as is the progress of aerial navigation, with +its infinite possibilities of human intercourse, yet surely, when the +entire history of man is unrolled, the moment of the conception of +building a wide and permanent road, instead of merely using a trail, +will rank as equally dramatic. The first stone laid by the first Roman +(they to whom the idea of road-building was original) will be recognized +as significant as the quiver of the wings of the first airplane. + +Let us follow the old road from Boston to Plymouth: follow it, not with +undue exactitude, and rather too hastily, as is the modern way, but +comfortably, as is also the modern way, picking up what bits of quaint +lore and half-forgotten history we most easily may. + +I think that as we start down this historic highway, we shall +encounter--if our mood be the proper one in which to undertake such a +journey--a curious procession coming down the years to meet us. We shall +not call them ghosts, for they are not phantoms severed from earth, but, +rather, the permanent possessors of the highway which they helped +create. + +We shall meet the Indian first, running lightly on straight, moccasined +feet, along the trail from which he has burned, from time to time, the +underbrush. He does not go by land when he can go by water, but in this +case there are both land and water to meet, for many are the streams, +and they are unbridged as yet. With rhythmic lope, more beautiful than +the stride of any civilized limbs, and with a sure divination of the +best route, he chooses the trail which will ultimately be the highway of +the vast army of pale-faces. Speed on, O solitary Indian--to vanish down +the narrow trail of your treading as you are destined, in time, to +vanish forever from the vision of New England!... Behind the red runner +plod two stern-faced Pilgrims, pushing their way up from Plymouth toward +the newer settlement at Massachusetts Bay. They come slowly and +laboriously on foot, their guns cocked, eyes and ears alert, wading the +streams without complaint or comment. They keep together, for no one is +allowed to travel over this Old Coast Road single, "nor without some +arms, though two or three together." The path they take follows almost +exactly the trail of the Indian, seeking the fords, avoiding the +morasses, clinging to the uplands, and skirting the rough, wooded +heights.... After them--almost a decade after--we see a man on +horseback, with his wife on a pillion behind him. They carry their own +provisions and those for the beast, now and then dismounting to lead the +horse over difficult ground, and now and then blazing a tree to help +them in their return journey--mute testimony to the cruder senses of the +white man to whom woodcraft never becomes instinctive. The fact that +this couple possesses a horse presages great changes in New England. +Ferries will be established; tolls levied, bridges thrown across the +streams which now the horses swim, or cross by having their front feet +in one canoe ferry and their hind feet in another--the canoes being +lashed together. As yet we see no vehicle of any kind, except an +occasional sedan chair. (The first one of these of which we have +knowledge was presented to Governor Winthrop as a portion of a capture +from a Spanish galleon.) However, these are not common. In 1631 Governor +Endicott of Salem wrote that he could not get to Boston to visit +Governor Winthrop as he was not well enough to wade the streams. The +next year we read of Governor Winthrop surmounting the difficulty when +he goes to visit Governor Bradford, by being carried on the backs of +Indians across the fords. (It took him two days to make the journey.) + +It is not strange that we see no wheeled vehicles. In 1672 there were +only six stage-coaches in the whole of Great Britain, and they were the +occasion of a pamphlet protesting that they encouraged too much travel! +At this time Boston had one private coach. Although one swallow may not +make a summer, one stage-coach marks the beginning of a new era. The age +of walking and horseback riding approaches its end; gates and bars +disappear, the crooked farm lanes are gradually straightened; and in +come a motley procession of chaises, sulkies, and two-wheeled +carts--two-wheeled carts, not four. There are sleds and sleighs for +winter, but the four-wheeled wagon was little used in New England until +the turn of the century. And then they were emphatically objected to +because of the wear and tear on the roads! In 1669 Boston enacted that +all carts "within y^e necke of Boston shall be and goe without shod +wheels." This provision is entirely comprehensible, when we remember +that there was no idea of systematic road repair. No tax was imposed for +keeping the roads in order, and at certain seasons of the year every +able-bodied man labored on the highways, bringing his own oxen, cart, +and tools. + +But as the Old Coast Road, which was made a public highway in 1639, +becomes a genuine turnpike--so chartered in 1803--the good old coaching +days are ushered in with the sound of a horn, and handsome equipages +with well-groomed, well-harnessed horses ply swiftly back and forth. +Genial inns, with swinging pictorial signboards (for many a traveler +cannot read), spring up along the way, and the post is installed. + +But even with fair roads and regular coaching service, New England, +separated by her fixed topographical outlines, remains provincial. It is +not until the coming of the railroad, in the middle of the nineteenth +century, that the hills are overcome, and she ceases to be an +exclusively coastwise community and becomes an integral factor in the +economic development of the whole United States. + +Thus, then, from a thin thread of a trail barely wide enough for one +moccasined foot to step before the other, to a broad, leveled +thoroughfare, so wide that three or even four automobiles may ride +abreast, and so clean that at the end of an all-day's journey one's +face is hardly dusty, does the history of the Old Coast Road unroll +itself. We who contemplate making the trip ensconced in the upholstered +comfort of a machine rolling on air-filled tires, will, perhaps, be less +petulant of some strip of roughened macadam, less bewildered by the +characteristic windings, if we recall something of the first +back-breaking cart that--not so very long ago--crashed over the stony +road, and toilsomely worked its way from devious lane to lane. + +Before we start down the Old Coast Road it may be enlightening to get a +bird's-eye glimpse of it actually as we have historically, and for such +a glimpse there is no better place than on the topmost balcony of the +Soldier's Monument on Dorchester Heights. The trip to Dorchester +Heights, in South Boston, is, through whatever environs one approaches +it, far from attractive. This section of the city, endowed with +extraordinary natural beauty and advantage of both land and water, and +irrevocably and brilliantly graven upon the annals of American history, +has been allowed to lose its ancient prestige and to sink low indeed in +the social scale. + +Nevertheless it is to Dorchester Heights that we, as travelers down the +Old Coast Road, and as skimmers over the quickly turning pages of our +early New England history, must go, and having once arrived at that +lovely green eminence, whitely pointed with a marble shaft of quite +unusual excellence, we must grieve once more that this truly glorious +spot, with its unparalleled view far down the many-islanded harbor to +the east and far over the famous city to the west, is not more +frequented, more enjoyed, more honored. + +If you find your way up the hill, into the monument, and up the stairs +out to the balcony, probably you will encounter no other tourist. Only +when you reach the top and emerge into the blue upper air you will meet +those friendly winged visitors who frequent all spires--Saint Mark's in +Venice or the Soldier's Monument in South Boston--the pigeons! Yes, the +pigeons have discovered the charm of this lofty loveliness, and +whenever the caretaker turns away his vigilant eye, they haste to build +their nests on balcony or stair. They alone of Boston's residents enjoy +to the full that of which too many Bostonians ignore the existence. Will +you read the inscriptions first and recall the events which have raised +this special hill to an historic eminence equal to its topographical +one? Or will you look out first, on all sides and see the harbor, the +city and country as it is to-day? Both surveys will be brief; perhaps we +will begin with the latter. + +Before us, to the wide east, lies Boston Harbor, decked with islands so +various, so fascinating in contour and legend, that more than one volume +has been written about them and not yet an adequate one. From the point +of view of history these islands are pulsating with life. From Castle +Island (on the left) which was selected as far back as 1634 to be a +bulwark of the port, and which, with its Fort Independence, was where +many of our Civil War soldiers received their training, to the outline +of Squantum (on the right), where in October, 1917, there lay a marsh, +and where, ten months later, the destroyer Delphy was launched from a +shipyard that was a miracle of modern engineering--every mile of visible +land is instinct with war-time associations. + +But history is more than battles and forts and the paraphernalia of war; +history is economic development as well. And from this same balcony we +can pick out Thompson's, Rainsford, and Deer Island, set aside for huge +corrective institutions--a graphic example of a nation's progress in its +treatment of the wayward and the weak. + +But if history is more than wars, it is also more than institutions. If +it is the record of man's daily life, the pleasures he works for, then +again we are standing in an unparalleled spot to look down upon its +present-day manifestations. From City Point with its Aquarium, from the +Marine Park with its long pleasure pier, to Nantasket with its flawless +beach, this is the summer playground of unnumbered hosts. Boaters, +bathers, picnickers--all find their way here, where not only the cool +breezes sweep their city-heated cheeks, but the forever bewitching +passage of vessels in and out, furnishes endless entertainment. They +know well, these laughing pleasure-seekers, crowding the piers and boats +and wharves and beaches, where to come for refreshment, and now and +then, in the history of the harbor, a solitary individual has taken +advantage of the romantic charm which is the unique heritage of every +island, and has built his home and lived, at least some portion of his +days, upon one. + +Apple Island, that most perfectly shaped little fleck of land of ten +acres, was the home of a Mr. March, an Englishman who settled there with +his family, and lived there happily until his death, being buried at +last upon its western slope. The fine old elms which adorned it are gone +now, as have the fine old associations. No one followed Mr. March's +example, and Apple Island is now merely another excursion point. + +On Calf Island, another ten-acre fragment, one of America's popular +actresses, Julia Arthur, has her home. Thus, here and there, one +stumbles upon individuals or small communities who have chosen to live +out in the harbor. But one cannot help wondering how such beauty spots +have escaped being more loved and lived upon by men and women who +recognize the romantic lure which only an island can possess. + +Of course the advantage of these positions has been utilized, if not for +dwellings. Government buildings, warehouses, and the great sewage plant +all find convenient foothold here. The excursionists have ferreted out +whatever beaches and groves there may be. One need not regret that the +harbor is not appreciated, but only that it has not been developed along +æsthetic as well as useful lines. + +We have been looking at the east, which is the harbor view. If we look +to the west we see the city of Boston: the white tower of the Custom +House; the gold dome of the State House; the sheds of the great South +Station; the blue line of the Charles River. Here is the place to come +if one would see a living map of the city and its environs. Standing +here we realize how truly Boston is a maritime city, and standing here +we also realize how it is that Dorchester Heights won its fame. + +It was in the winter of 1776, when the British, under Lord Howe, were +occupying Boston, and had fortified every place which seemed important. +By some curious oversight--which seems incredible to us as we actually +stand upon the top of this conspicuous hill--they forgot this spot. + +When Washington saw what they had not seen--how this unique position +commanded both the city and the harbor--he knew that his opportunity had +come. He had no adequate cannon or siege guns, and the story of how +Henry Knox--afterward General Knox--obtained these from Ticonderoga and +brought them on, in the face of terrific difficulties of weather and +terrain, is one that for bravery and brains will never fail to thrill. +On the night of March 4, the Americans, keeping up a cannonading to +throw the British off guard, and to cover up the sound of the moving, +managed to get two thousand Continental troops and four hundred carts of +fascines and intrenching tools up on the hill. That same night, with the +aid of the moonlight, they threw up two redoubts--performing a task, +which, as Lord Howe exclaimed in dismay the following morning, was "more +in one night than my whole army could have done in a month." + +The occupation of the heights was a magnificent _coup_. The moment the +British saw what had been done, they realized that they had lost the +fight. However, Lord Percy hurried to make an attack, but the weather +made it impossible, and by the time the weather cleared the Americans +were so strongly intrenched that it was futile to attack. Washington, +although having been granted permission by Congress to attack Boston, +wished to save the loyal city if possible. Therefore, he and Howe made +an agreement by which Howe was to evacuate and Washington was to refrain +from using his guns. After almost two weeks of preparation for +departure, on March 17 the British fleet, as the gilded letters on the +white marble panel tell us, in the words of Charles W. Eliot: + + Carrying 11,000 effective men + And 1000 refugees + Dropped down to Nantasket Roads + And thenceforth + Boston was free + A strong British force + Had been expelled + From one of the United American colonies + +The white marble panel, with its gold letters and the other inscriptions +on the hill, tell the whole story to whoever cares to read, only +omitting to mention that the thousand self-condemned Boston refugees who +sailed away with the British fleet were bound for Halifax, and that that +was the beginning of the opprobrious term: "Go to Halifax." + +That the battle was won without bloodshed in no way minimizes the +verdict of history that "no single event had a greater general effect on +the course of the war than the expulsion of the British from the New +England capital." And surely this same verdict justifies the perpetual +distinction of this unique and beautiful hill. + +This, then, is the story of Dorchester Heights--a story whose glory will +wax rather than wane in the years, and centuries, to come. Let us be +glad that out of the reek of the modern city congestion this green hill +has been preserved and this white marble monument erected. Perhaps you +see it now with different, more sympathetic eyes than when you first +looked out from the balcony platform. Before us lies the water with its +multifarious islands, bays, promontories, and coves, some of which we +shall now explore. Behind us lies the city which we shall now leave. The +Old Coast Road--the oldest in New England--winds from Boston to +Plymouth, along yonder southern horizon. More history than one person +can pleasantly relate, or one can comfortably listen to, lies packed +along this ancient turnpike: incidents closer set than the tombs along +the Appian Way. We will not try to hear them all. Neither will we follow +the original road too closely, for we seek the beautiful pleasure drive +of to-day more than the historic highway of long ago. + +Boston was made the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1632. +Plymouth was a capital a decade before. It is to Plymouth that we now +set out. + +[Illustration] + + + + +Chapter II + +MILTON AND THE BLUE HILLS + +[Illustration] + + +Milton--a town of dignity and distinction! A town of enterprise and +character! Ever since the first water-power mill in this country; the +first powder mill in this country; the first chocolate mill in this +country, and thus through a whole line of "first" things--the first +violoncello, the first pianoforte, the first artificial spring leg, and +the first railroad to see the light of day saw it in this grand old +town--the name of Milton has been synonymous with initiative and men and +women of character. + +Few people to-day think of Milton in terms of industrial repute, but, +rather, as a place of estates, too aristocratic to be fashionable, of +historic houses, and of charming walks and drives and views. Many of +the old families who have given the town its prestige still live in +their ancestral manors, and many of the families who have moved there in +recent years are of such sort as will heighten the fame of the famous +town. As the stranger passes through Milton he is captivated by glimpses +of ancient homesteads, settling behind their white Colonial fences +topped with white Colonial urns, half hidden by their antique trees with +an air of comfortable ease; of new houses, elegant and yet informal; of +cottages with low roofs; of well-bred children playing on the wide, +green lawns under the supervision of white-uniformed nurses; of old +hedges, old walls, old trees; new roads, old drives, new gardens, and +old gardens--everything well placed, well tended, everything presenting +that indescribable atmosphere of well-established prosperity that scorns +show; of breeding that neither parades nor conceals its quality. +Yes--this is Milton; this is modern Milton. Boston society receives some +of its most prominent contributions from this patrician source. But +modern Milton is something more than this, as old Milton was something +more than this. + +[Illustration] + +For Milton, from this day of its birth, and countless centuries before +its birth as a town, has lived under the lofty domination of the Blue +Hills, that range of diaphanous and yet intense blue, that swims forever +against the sky, that marches forever around the horizon. The rounded +summits of the Blue Hills, to which the eye is irresistibly attracted +before entering the town which principally claims them, are the +worn-down stumps of ancient mountains, and although so leveled by the +process of the ages, they are still the highest land near the coast from +Maine to Mexico. These eighteen or twenty skyey crests form the southern +boundary of the so-called Boston Basin, and are the most prominent +feature of the southern coast. From them the Massachuset tribe about the +Bay derived its name, signifying "Near the Great Hills," which name was +changed by the English to Massachusetts, and applied to both bay and +colony. Although its Indian name has been taken from this lovely range, +the loveliness remains. All the surrounding country shimmers under the +mysterious bloom of these heights, so vast that everything else is +dwarfed beside them, and yet so curiously airy that they seem to +perpetually ripple against the sky. The Great Blue Hill, especially--the +one which bears an observatory on its summit--swims above one's head. It +seems to have a singular way of moving from point to point as one +motors, and although one may be forced to admit that this may be due +more to the winding roads than to the illusiveness of the hill, still +the buoyant effect is the same. + +Ruskin declares somewhere, with his quaint and characteristic mixture of +positiveness and idealism, that "inhabitants of granite countries have a +force and healthiness of character about them that clearly distinguishes +them from the inhabitants of less pure districts." Perhaps he was right, +for surely here where the succeeding generations have all lived in the +atmosphere of the marching Blue Hill, each has through its own fair +name, done honor to the fair names which have preceded it. + +One of the very first to be attracted by the lofty and yet lovely appeal +of this region was Governor Thomas Hutchinson, the last of the Royal +Governors Massachusetts was to know. It was about the middle of the +eighteenth century that this gentleman, of whom John Adams wrote, "He +had been admired, revered, and almost adored," chose as the spot for his +house the height above the Neponset River. If we follow the old country +Heigh Waye to the top of Unquity (now Milton) Hill, we will find the +place he chose, although the house he built has gone and another stands +in its place. Fairly near the road, it overlooked a rolling green meadow +(a meadow which, by the gift of John Murray Forbes, will always be kept +open), with a flat green marsh at its feet and the wide flat twist of +the Neponset River winding through it, for all the world like a +decorative panel by Puvis de Chavannes. One can see a bit of the North +Shore and Boston Harbor from here. This is the view that the Governor so +admired, and tradition tells us that when he was forced to return to +England he walked on foot down the hill, shaking hands with his +neighbors, patriot and Tory alike, with tears in his eyes as he left +behind him the garden and the trees he had planted, and the house where +he had so happily lived. Although the view from the front of the house +is exquisite, the view from the back holds even more intimate +attraction. Here is the old, old garden, and although the ephemeral +blossoms of the present springtime shine brightly forth, the box, full +twenty feet high, speaks of another epoch. Foxgloves lean against the +"pleached alley," and roses clamber on a wall that doubtless bore the +weight of their first progenitors. + +Another governor who chose to live in Milton was Jonathan Belcher, but +one fancies it was the grandness rather than the sweetness of the scene +which attracted this rather spectacular person. The Belcher house still +exists, as does the portrait of its master, in his wig and velvet coat +and waistcoat, trimmed with richest gold lace at the neck and wrists. +Small-clothes and gold knee and shoe buckles complete the picture of one +who, when his mansion was planned, insisted upon an avenue fifty feet +wide, and so nicely graded that visitors on entering from the street +might see the gleam of his gold knee buckles as he stood on the distant +porch. The avenue, however, was never completed, as Belcher was +appointed governor of, and transferred to, New Jersey shortly after. + +Two other men of note, who, since the days of our years are but +threescore and ten, chose that their days without number should be spent +in the town they loved, were Wendell Phillips and Rimmer the sculptor, +who are both buried at Milton. + +Not only notable personages, but notable events have been engendered +under the shadow of these hills. The Suffolk Resolves, which were the +prelude of the Declaration of Independence, were adopted at the Vose +House, which still stands, square and unadorned, easy of access from the +sidewalk, as is suitable for a home of democracy. The first piano ever +made in this country received its conception and was brought to +fulfillment in the Crehore house, which, although still sagging a bit, +is by no means out of commission. And Wilde's Tavern, where was formed +the public opinion in a day when the forming of public opinion was of +preëminent importance, still retains, in its broad, hospitable lines, +some shred of its ancient charm. + +Milton is full of history. From the Revolutionary days, when the +cannonading at Bunker Hill shook the foundations of the houses, but not +the nerves of the Milton ladies, down to the year 1919, when the Fourth +Liberty Loan of $2,955,250 was subscribed from a population of 9000, all +the various vicissitudes of peace and war have been sustained on the +high level that one might expect from men and women nobly nurtured by +the strength of the hills. + +How much of its success Milton attributes to its location--for one +joins, indeed, a distinguished fellowship when one builds upon a hill, +or on several hills, as Roman as well as Bostonian history +testifies--can only be guessed by its tribute in the form of the Blue +Hills Reservation. This State recreation park and forest reserve of +about four thousand acres--a labyrinth of idyllic footpaths and leafy +trails, of twisting drives and walks that open out upon superb vistas, +is now the property of the people of Massachusetts. The granite quarry +man--far more interested in the value of the stone that underlay the +wooded slopes than in Ruskin's theory of its purifying effect upon the +inhabitants--had already obtained a footing here, when, under the able +leadership of Charles Francis Adams, the whole region was taken over by +the State in 1894. + +As you pass through the Reservation--and if you are taking even the most +cursory glimpse of Milton you must include some portion of this +park--you will pass the open space where in the early days, when Milton +country life was modeled upon English country life more closely than +now, Malcolm Forbes raced upon his private track the horses he himself +had bred. The race-track with its judges' stands is still there, but +there are no more horse-races, although the Forbes family still holds a +conspicuous place in all the social as well as the philanthropic +enterprises of the countryside. You may see, too, a solitary figure +with a scientist's stoop, or a tutor with a group of boys, making a +first-hand study of a region which is full of interest to the geologist. + +Circling thus around the base of the Great Blue Hill and irresistibly +drawn closer and closer to it as by a magnet, one is impelled to make +the ascent to the top--an easy ascent with its destination clearly +marked by the Rotch Meteorological Observatory erected in 1884 by the +late A. Lawrence Rotch of Milton, who bequeathed funds for its +maintenance. It is now connected with Harvard University. + +Once at the top the eye is overwhelmed by a circuit of more than a +hundred and fifty miles! It is almost too immense at first--almost as +barren as an empty expanse of rolling green sea. But as the eye grows +accustomed to the stretching distances, objects both near and far begin +to appear. And soon, if the day is clear, buildings may be identified in +more than one hundred and twenty-five villages. We are six hundred and +thirty-five feet above the sea, on the highest coastland from +Agamenticus, near York, Maine, to the Rio Grande, and the panorama thus +unrolled is truly magnificent. Facing northerly we can easily +distinguish Cambridge, Somerville, and Malden, and far beyond the hills +of Andover and Georgetown. A little to the east, Boston with its gilded +dome; then the harbor with its islands, headlands, and fortifications. +Beyond that are distinctly visible various points on the North Shore, as +far as Eastern Point Lighthouse in Gloucester. Forty miles to the +northeast appear the twin lighthouses on Thatcher's Island, seeming, +from here, to be standing, not on the land, but out in the ocean. Nearer +and more distinct is Boston Light--a sentinel at the entrance to the +harbor, while beyond it stretches Massachusetts Bay. Turning nearly east +the eye, passing over Chickatawbut Hill--three miles off and second in +height of the Blue Hills--follows the beautiful curve of Nantasket +Beach, and the pointing finger of Minot's Light. Facing nearly south, +the long ridge of Manomet Hill in Plymouth, thirty-three miles away, +stands clear against the sky, while twenty-six miles away, in Duxbury, +one sees the Myles Standish Monument. Directly south rises the smoke of +the city of Fall River; to the westerly, Woonsocket, and continuing to +the west, Mount Wachusett in Princeton. Far to the right of Wachusett, +nearly over the dome of the Dedham Courthouse, rounds up Watatic in +Ashburnham, and northwest a dozen peaks of southern New Hampshire. At +the right of Watatic and far beyond it is the Grand Monadnock in +Jaffrey, 3170 feet above the sea and sixty-seven and a half miles away. +On the right of Grand Monadnock is a group of nearer summits: Mount +Kidder, exactly northwest; Spofford and Temple Mountains; then appears +the remarkable Pack-Monadnock, near Peterboro, with its two equal +summits. The next group to the right is in Lyndeboro. At the right of +Lyndeboro, and nearly over the Readville railroad stations, is Joe +English Hill, and to complete the round, nearly north-northwest are the +summits of the Uncanoonuc Mountains, fifty-nine miles away. + +This, then, is the Great Blue Hill of Milton. Those who are familiar +with the State of Massachusetts--and New England--can stand here and +pick out a hundred distinguishing landmarks, and those who have never +been here before may find an unparalleled opportunity to see the whole +region at one sweep of the eye. + +From the point of view of topography the summit of Great Blue Hill is +the place to reach. But for the sense of mysterious beauty, for snatches +of pictures one will never forget, the little vistas which open on the +upward or the downward trail, framed by hanging boughs or encircled by a +half frame of stone and hillside--these are, perhaps, more lovely. The +hill itself, seen from a distance, floating lightly like a vast blue +ball against a vaster sky, is dreamily suggestive in a way which the +actual view, superb as it is, is not. One remembers Stevenson's +observation, that sometimes to travel hopefully is better than to +arrive. So let us come down, for, after all, "Love is of the valley." +Down again to the old town of Milton. We have not half begun to wander +over it: not half begun to hear the pleasant stories it has to tell. +When one is as old as this--for Milton was discovered by a band from +Plymouth who came up the Neponset River in 1621--one has many tales to +tell. + +Of all the towns along the South Shore there are few whose feet are so +firmly emplanted in the economic history of the past and present as is +Milton. That peculiar odor of sweetness which drifts to us with a turn +of the wind, comes from a chocolate mill whose trade-mark of a +neat-handed maid with her little tray is known all over the civilized +world. And those mills stand upon the site of the first grist mill in +New England to be run by water power. This was in 1634, and one likes to +picture the sturdy colonists trailing into town, their packs upon their +backs, like children in kindergarten games, to have their grain ground. +Israel Stoughton was the name of the man who established this first +mill--a name perpetuated in the near-by town of Stoughton. + +All ground is historic ground in Milton. That rollicking group of +schoolboys yonder belongs to an academy, which, handsome and +flourishing as it is to-day, was founded as long ago as 1787. That seems +long ago, but there was a school in Milton before that: a school held in +the first meeting-house. Nothing is left of this quaint structure but a +small bronze bas-relief, set against a stone wall, near its original +site. This early church and early school was a log cabin with a thatched +roof and latticed windows, if one may believe the relief, but men of +brains and character were taught there lessons which stood them and the +colony in good stead. One fancies the students' roving eyes may have +occasionally strayed down the Indian trail directly opposite the old +site--a trail which, although now attained to the proud rank of a lane, +Churchill's Lane, still invites one down its tangled green way along the +gray stone wall. Yes, every step of ground has its tradition here. +Yonder railroad track marks the spot where the very first tie in the +country was laid, and laid for no less significant purpose than to +facilitate the carrying of granite blocks for Bunker Hill Monument from +their quarry to the harbor. + +Granite from the hills--the hills which swim forever against the sky and +march forever above the distant horizon. Again we are drawn back to the +irresistible magnet of those mighty monitors. Yes, wherever one goes in +Milton, either on foot to-day or back through the chapters of three +centuries ago, the Blue Hills dominate every event, and the Great Blue +Hill floats above them all. + +"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help," +chants the psalmist. Ah, well, no one can say it better than +that--except the hills themselves, which, with gentle majesty, look down +affectionately upon the town at their feet. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SHIPBUILDING AT QUINCY + +[Illustration] + + +The first man-made craft which floated on the waters of what is now Fore +River was probably a little dugout, a crude boat made by an Indian, who +burned out the center of a pine log which he had felled by girdling with +fire. After he had burned out as much as he could, he scraped out the +rest with a stone tool called a "celt." The whole operation probably +took one Indian three weeks. The Rivadavia which slid down the ways of +the Fore River Shipbuilding Corporation in August, 1914, weighed 13,400 +tons and had engaged the labor of 2000 men for fifty months. + +Between these two extremes flutter all the great sisterhood of shallops, +sloops, pinks, schooners, snows, the almost obsolete batteau and +periagua, the gundelow with its picturesque lateen sail, and all the +winged host that are now merely names in New England's maritime history. + +We may not give in this limited space an account of the various vessels +which have sailed down the green-sea aisles the last three hundred +years. But of the very first, "a great and strong shallop" built by the +Plymouth settlers for fishing, we must make brief mention, and of the +Blessing of the Bay, the first seaworthy native craft to be built and +launched on these shores--the pioneer of all New England commerce. Built +by Governor Winthrop, he notes of her in his journal on August 31, 1631, +that "the bark being of thirty tons went to sea." That is all he says, +but from that significant moment the building of ships went on +"gallantly," as was indeed to be expected in a country whose chief +industry was fishing and which was so admirably surrounded by natural +bays and harbors. In 1665 we hear of the Great and General Court of +Massachusetts--which distinctive term is still applied to the +Massachusetts Legislature--forbidding the cutting of any trees suitable +for masts. The broad arrow of the King was marked on all white pines, +twenty-four inches in diameter, three feet from the ground. Big ships +and little ships swarmed into existence, and every South Shore town made +shipbuilding history. The ketch, a two-masted vessel carrying from +fifteen to twenty tons, carried on most of the coasting traffic, and +occasionally ventured on a foreign voyage. When we recall that the best +and cheapest ships of the latter half of the seventeenth century were +built here in the new country, we realize that shipyards, ports, docks, +proper laws and regulations, and the invigorating progress which marks +any thriving industry flourished bravely up and down the whole New +England coast. + +It is rather inspiring to stand here on the bridge which spans the Fore +River, and picture that first crude dugout being paddled along by the +steady stroke of the red man, and then to look at the river to-day. +Every traveler through Quincy is familiar with the aerial network of +steel scaffolding criss-crossing the sky, with the roofs of shops and +offices and glimpses of vessels visible along the water-front. But few +travelers realize that these are merely the superficial features of a +shipyard which under the urge of the Great War delivered to the Navy, in +1918, eighteen completed destroyers, which was as many as all the other +yards in the country put together delivered during this time. A shipyard +which cut the time of building destroyers from anywhere between eighteen +and thirty-two months to an average of six months and a half; a shipyard +which made the world's record of one hundred and seventy-four days from +the laying of the keel to the delivering of a destroyer. + +It is difficult to grasp the meaning of these figures. Difficult, even +after one has obtained entrance into this city within a city, and seen +with his own eyes twenty thousand men toiling like Trojans. Seen a +riveting crew which can drive more than twenty-eight hundred rivets in +nine hours; battleships that weigh thirty thousand tons; a plate yard +piled with steel plates and steel bars worth two million dollars; cranes +that can lift from five tons up to others of one hundred tons capacity; +single buildings a thousand feet long and eighty feet high. + +Perhaps the enormousness of the plant is best comprehended, not when we +mechanically repeat that it covers eighty acres and comprises eighty +buildings, and that four full-sized steam locomotives run up and down +its yard, but when we see how many of the intimate things of daily +living have sprung up here as little trees spring up between huge +stones. For the Fore River Plant is more than an industrial +organization. It is a social center, an economic entity. It has its band +and glee club, ball team and monthly magazine. There are refreshment +stands, and a bathing cove; a brand-new village of four hundred and +thirty-eight brand-new houses; dormitories which accommodate nearly a +thousand men and possess every convenience and even luxuries. The men +work hard here, but they are well paid for their work, as the many +motor-cycles and automobiles waiting for them at night testify. It is a +scene of incredible industry, but also of incredible completeness. + +To look down upon the village and the yard from the throbbing roof of +the steel mill, seven hundred and seventy feet long and a hundred and +eighty-eight wide, is a thrilling sight. Within the yard, confined on +three sides by its high fences and buildings and on the fourth by +Weymouth Fore River, one sees, far below, locomotives moving up and down +on their tracks; great cranes stalking long-leggedly back and forth; +smoke from foundry, blacksmith shop, and boiler shop; men hurrying to +and fro. Whistles blow, and whole buildings tremble. The smoke and the +grayness might make it a gloomy scene if it were not for the red sides +of the immense submarines gleaming in their wide slips to the water. +Everywhere one sees the long gray sides of freighters, destroyers, +merchant ships, and oil tankers heaving like the mailed ribs of sea +animals basking on the shore. Practically every single operation, from +the most stupendous to the most delicate, necessary for the complete +construction of these vessels, is carried on in this yard. The eighty +acres look small when we realize the extent and variety of the work +achieved within its limits. + +Yes, the solitary Indian, working with fire and celt on his dugout, +would not recognize this once familiar haunt, nor would he know the +purpose of these vast vessels without sail or paddle. And yet, were this +same Indian standing on the roof with us, he would see a wide stream of +water he knew well, and he would see, too, above the smoke of the +furnace, shop, and boiler room, the friendly green of the trees. + +Perhaps there is nothing which makes us realize the magical rapidity of +growth so much as to look from this steel city and to see the woods +close by. For instead of being surrounded by the sordid congestion of an +industrial center, the Fore River Shipyard is in the midst of +practically open country. + +While we are speaking of rapidity we must look over toward the Victory +Plant at Squantum, that miraculous marsh which was drained with such +expedition that just twelve months from the day ground was broken for +its foundation, it launched its first ship, and less than two years +after completed its entire contract. Surely never in the history of +shipbuilding have brain and brawn worked so brilliantly together! + +In this way, then, the history of the ships that have sailed the seven +seas has been built up at Quincy--a dramatic history and one instinct +with the beauty which is part of gliding canoe and white sails, and +part, too, of the huge smooth-slipping monsters of a modern day, sleek +and swift as leviathans. But all the while the building of these ships +has been going on, there has been slowly rising within the selfsame +radius another ship, vaster, more inspiring, calling forth initiative +even more intense, idealism even more profound--the Ship of State. + +We who journey to-day over the smooth or troubled waters of national or +international affairs are no more conscious of the infinite toil and +labors which have gone into the intricate making of the vessel that +carries us, than are travelers conscious of the cogs and screws, the +engines and all the elaboration of detail which compose an ocean liner. +Like them we sometimes grumble at meals or prices, at some discourtesy +or incompetence, but we take it for granted that the engine is in +commission, that the bottom is whole and the chart correct. The great +Ship of State of this country may occasionally run into rough weather, +but Americans believe that, in the last analysis, she is honestly built. +And it is to Quincy that we owe a large initial part of this building. + +It is astonishing to enumerate the notable public men, who have been +influential in establishing our national policy, who have come from +Quincy. There is no town in this entire country which can equal the +record. What other town ever produced two Presidents of the United +States, an Ambassador to Great Britain, a Governor of the Commonwealth, +a Mayor of Boston, two presidents of Harvard University, and judges, +chief justices, statesmen, and orators in such quantity and of such +quality? Truly this group of eminent men of brilliance, integrity, and +public feeling is unique in our history. To read the biographies of +Quincy's great men would comprise a studious winter's employment, but +we, passing through the historic city, may hold up our fragment of a +mirror and catch a bit of the procession. + +First and foremost, of course, will come President John Adams, he who, +both before and after his term of high office, toiled terrifically in +the public cause, being at the time of his election to Congress a member +of ninety committees and a chairman of twenty-five! We see him as the +portraits have taught us to see him, with strong, serious +face,--austere, but not harsh,--velvet coat, white ruffles, and white +curls. He stands before us as the undisputed founder of what is now +recognized as American diplomacy. Straightforward, sound to the core, +unswerving, veracious, exemplifying in every act the candor of the +Puritan, so congruous with the new simple life of a nation of common +people. I think we shall like best to study him as he stands at the door +of the little house in which he was born, and which, with its pitch +roof, its antique door and eaves, is still preserved, close to the +street, for public scrutiny. + +Next to President John Adams comes his son, John Quincy Adams, also a +President of the United States. Spending much of his time abroad, the +experience of those diplomatic years is graven upon features more subtly +refined than those of his sire. But for all his foreign residence, he +was, like his father, a Puritan in its most exalted sense; like him +toiled all his life in public service, dying in the harness when rising +to address the Speaker of the House. Him, too, we see best, standing at +the door of his birthplace, a small cottage a stone's throw from the +other cottage, separated only by a turnstile. Fresh white curtains hang +in the small-paned windows; the grass is neatly trimmed, and like its +quaint companion it is now open to the public and worth the tourist's +call. Both these venerable cottages have inner walls, one of burnt, the +other of unburnt brick; and both are unusual in having no boards on the +outer walls, but merely clapboards fastened directly on to the studding +with wrought-iron nails. + +Still another Adams follows, Charles Francis Adams. Although a little +boy when he first comes into public view, a little boy occupying the +conspicuous place as child of one President and grandchild of another, +yet he was to win renown and honor on his own account as Ambassador to +England during the critical period of our Civil War. America remembers +him best in this position. His firm old face with its white chin +whiskers is a worthy portrait in the ancestral gallery. + +Although the political history of this country may conclude its +reference to the Adamses with these three famous figures, yet all New +Englanders and all readers of biography would be reluctant to turn from +this remarkable family without mention of the sons of Charles Francis +Adams, two of whom have written, beside valuable historical works, +autobiographies so entertaining and so truly valuable for their +contemporaneous portraits as to win a place of survival in our permanent +literature. + +A member of the Adams family still lives in the comfortable home where +the three first and most famous members all celebrated their golden +weddings. This broad-fronted and hospitable house, built in 1730 by +Leonard Vassal, a West India planter, for his summer residence, with its +library finished in panels of solid mahogany, was confiscated when its +Royalist owner fled at the outbreak of the Revolution, and John Adams +acquired the property and left the pitch-roofed cottage down the street. +The home of two Presidents, what tales it could tell of notable +gatherings! One must read the autobiography of Charles Francis Adams and +"The Education of Henry Adams" to appreciate the charm of the succeeding +mistresses of the noble homestead, and to enjoy in retrospect its many +illustrious visitors. + +To have produced one family like the Adamses would surely be sufficient +distinction for any one place, but the Adams family forms merely one +unit in Quincy's unique procession of great men. + +The Quincy family, for which the town was named, and which at an early +date intermarried with the Adamses, presents an almost parallel +distinction. The first Colonel Quincy, he who lived like an English +squire, a trifle irascible, to be sure, but a dignified and commanding +figure withal, had fourteen children by his first wife and three by his +second, so the family started off with the advantage of numbers as well +as of blood. At the Quincy mansion house were born statesmen, judges, +and captains of war. The "Dorothy Q." of Holmes's poem first saw the +light in it, and the Dorothy who became the bride of the dashing John +Hancock blossomed into womanhood in it. Here were entertained times +without number Sir Harry Vane, quaint Judge Sewall, Benjamin Franklin, +and that couple who gleam through the annals of New England history in a +never-fading flame of romance, Sir Harry Frankland and beautiful Agnes +Surriage. The Quincy mansion, which was built about 1635 by William +Coddington of Boston and occupied by him until he was exiled for his +religious opinions, was bought by Edmund Quincy. His grandson, who bore +his name, enlarged the house, and lived in it until his death when it +descended to his son Edmund, the eminent jurist and father of Dorothy. +The old-fashioned furniture, utensils and pictures, the broad hall, fine +old stairway with carved balustrades, and foreign wall-paper supposed to +have been hung in honor of the approaching marriage of Dorothy to John +Hancock, are still preserved in their original place. Of the Quincy +family, whose sedate jest it was that the estate descended from 'Siah to +'Siah, so frequent was the name "Josiah," the best known is perhaps the +Josiah Quincy who was Mayor of Boston for six years and president of +Harvard for sixteen. The portrait of his long, thin face is part of +every New England history, and his busy, serene life, "compacted of +Roman and Puritan virtues," is still upheld to all American children as +a model of high citizenship. + +But not even the long line of the Quincy family completes the list of +the town's great men. Henry Hope, one of the most brilliant financiers +of his generation, and founder of a European banking house second only +to that of the Rothchilds, was a native of Quincy. John Hull--who, as +every school-child knows, on the day of his daughter's marriage to Judge +Sewall, placed her in one of his weighing scales, and heaped enough new +pine-tree shillings into the other to balance, and then presented both +to the bridegroom--held the first grant of land in the present town of +Braintree (which originally included Quincy, Randolph, and Holbrook). + +From the picturesque union of John Hull's bouncing daughter Betsy and +Judge Sewall sprang the extraordinary family of Sewalls which has given +three chief justices to Massachusetts, and one to Canada, and has been +distinguished in every generation for the talents and virtues of its +members. In passing, we may note that it was this same John Hull who +named Point Judith for his wife, little dreaming what a _bête noir_ the +place would prove to mariners in the years to come. + +There is another Quincy man whom it is pleasant to recall, and that is +Henry Flynt, a whimsical and scholarly old bachelor, who was a tutor at +Harvard for no less than fifty-three years, the one fixed element in the +flow of fourteen college generations. One of the most accomplished +scholars of his day, his influence on the young men with whom he came in +contact was stimulating to a degree, and they loved to repeat bits of +his famous repartee. A favorite which has come down to us was on an +occasion when Whitefield the revivalist declared in a theological +discussion: "It is my opinion that Dr. Tillotson is now in hell for his +heresy." To which Tutor Flynt retorted dryly: "It is my opinion that you +will not meet him there." + +The procession of Quincy's great men which we have been watching winds +its way, as human processions are apt to do, to the old graveyard. Most +of the original settlers are buried here, although not a few were buried +on their own land, according to the common custom. Probably this +ancient burying ground, with its oldest headstone of 1663, has never +been particularly attractive. The Puritans did not decorate their +graveyards in any way. Fearing that prayers or sermons would encourage +the "superstitions" of the Roman Catholic Church, they shunned any +ritual over the dead or beautifying of their last resting-place. +However, neglected as the spot was, the old stone church, whose golden +belfry is such a familiar and pleasant landmark to all the neighboring +countryside, still keeps its face turned steadfastly toward it. The +congested traffic of the city square presses about its portico, but +those who knew and loved it best lie quietly within the shadow of its +gray walls. Under the portico lies President John Adams, and "at his +side sleeps until the trump shall sound, Abigail, his beloved and only +wife." In the second chamber is placed the dust of his illustrious son, +with "His partner for fifty years, Louisa Catherine"--she of whom Henry +Adams wrote, "her refined figure; her gentle voice and manner; her +vague effect of not belonging there, but to Washington or Europe, like +her furniture and writing-desk with little glass doors above and little +eighteenth-century volumes in old binding." + +It has been called the "church of statesmen," this dignified building, +and so, indeed, might Quincy itself be called the "city of statesmen." +It would be extremely interesting to study the reasons for Quincy's +peculiar productiveness of noble public characters. The town was settled +(as Braintree) exclusively by people from Devonshire and Lincolnshire +and Essex. The laws of the Massachusetts Colony forbade Irish +immigration--probably more for religious than racial reasons. On reading +the ancient petition for the incorporation of the town one is struck by +the fact that practically every single name of the one hundred and fifty +signers is English in origin, the few which were not having been +anglicized. All of these facts point to a homogeneous stock, with the +same language, traditions, and social customs. Obviously there is a +connection between the governmental genius displayed by Quincy's sons +and the singular purity of the original English stock. + +Little did Wampatuck, the son of Chickatawbut, realize what he was doing +when he parted with his Braintree lands for twenty-one pounds and ten +shillings. The Indian deed is still preserved, with the following words +on its back: "In the 17th reign of Charles 2. Braintry Indian Deeds. +Given 1665. Aug. 10: Take great care of it." + +Little did the Indian chief realize that the surrounding waters were to +float hulks as mighty as a city; that the hills were to furnish granite +for buildings and monuments without number; and that men were to be born +there who would shape the greatest Ship of State the world has ever +known. And yet, if he had known, possibly he would have accepted the +twenty-one pounds and ten shillings just the same, and departed quietly. +For the ships that were to be built would never have pleased him as well +as his own canoe; the granite buildings would have stifled him; and the +zealous Adamses and the high-minded Quincys and Sewalls and all the +rest would have bored him horribly. Probably the only item in the whole +history of Quincy which would have appealed to Wampatuck in the least +would have been the floating down on a raft of the old Hollis Street +Church of Boston, to become the Union Church of Weymouth and Braintree +in 1810. This and the similar transportation of the Bowditch house from +Beacon Street in Boston to Quincy a couple of years later would have +fascinated the red man, as the recital of the feat fascinates us to-day. + +Those who care to learn more of Quincy will do well to read the +autobiography of Charles Francis Adams and "The Education of Henry +Adams." Those who care more for places than for descriptions of them may +wander at will, finding beneath the surface of the modern city many +landmarks of the old city which underlies it. They may see the +scaffolding of the great shipyards latticing themselves against the sky, +and the granite quarries against the hills. They may see the little +cottages and the great houses made famous by those who have passed over +their thresholds; they may linger in the old burial ground and trace out +the epitaphs under the portico of the golden-belfried church. But after +they have touched and handled all of these things, they will not +understand Quincy unless they look beyond and recognize her greatest +contribution to this country--the noble statesmen who so bravely and +intelligently toiled to construct America's Ship of State. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE ROMANCE OF WEYMOUTH + +[Illustration] + + +The paintings of John Constable, idyllic in their quietness, dewy in +their serenity--how many travelers, how many lovers of art, superficial +or profound, yearly seek out these paintings in the South Kensington +Museum or the Louvre, and stand before them wrapt in gentle ecstasy? + +The quality of Constable's pictures delineates in luminous softness a +peculiarly lovely side of English rural life, but one need not travel to +England or France to see this loveliness. Weymouth, that rambling +stretch of towns and hamlets, of summer colony and suburb, possesses in +certain areas bits of rural landscape as serene, as dewy, as +idyllically tranquil as Constable at his best. + +Comparatively few people in New England, or out of it, know Weymouth +well. Every one has heard of it, for it is next in age to the town of +Plymouth itself, and every one who travels to the South Shore passes +some section of it, for it extends lengthily--north and south, east and +west--being the only town in Massachusetts to retain its original +boundaries. And numbers of people are familiar with certain parts of it, +for there are half a score of villages in the township, some of them +summer settlements, some of them animated by an all-the-year-round life. +But compared with the other towns along this historic route, Weymouth as +a whole is little known and little appreciated. And yet the history of +Weymouth is not without amusing and edifying elements, and the scenery +of Weymouth is worthy of the détour that strangers rarely make. + +"Old Spain" is the romantic name for an uninteresting part of the +township, and, conversely, Commercial Street is the uninteresting name +for a romantic part. It is along a highway stigmatized by such a name +that one gets the glimpses of a Constable country: glimpses of rolling +meadows, of fertile groves, of cattle grazing in elm-shaded pastures, of +a road winding contentedly among simple, ancient cottages, and quiet, +thrifty farms. These are the homes which belong, and have belonged for +generations, to people who are neither rich nor poor; cozy, quaint, +suggesting in an odd way the thatched-roof cottages of England. Not that +all of Weymouth's homes are of this order. The Asa Webb Cowing house, +which terminates Commercial Street within a stone's throw of the square +of the town of Weymouth, is one of the very finest examples of the +Colonial architecture in this country. The exquisite tracery and carving +over and above the front door, and the white imported marble window +lintels spin an elaborate and marvelously fine lacework of white over +the handsome red-brick façade. Although it is, alas, falling somewhat +into disrepair, perfect proportion and gemlike workmanship still stamp +the venerable mansion as one of patrician heritage. There are other +excellent examples of architecture in Weymouth, but the Cowing house +must always be the star, both because of its extraordinary beauty and +conspicuous position. Yes, if you want a characteristic glimpse of +Weymouth, you cannot do better than to begin in front of this landmark, +and drive down Commercial Street. Here for several smiling miles there +is nothing--no ugly building large or small, no ruthless invasion of +modernity to mar the mood of happy simplicity. Her beauty of beach, of +sky, of river, Weymouth shares with other South Shore towns. Her +perfection of idyllic rusticity is hers alone. + +Just as Weymouth's scenery is unlike that of her neighbors, so her +history projects itself from an entirely different angle from theirs. +While they were conceived by zealous, God-fearing men and women honestly +seeking to establish homes in a new country, Weymouth was inadvertently +born through the misconduct of a set of adventurers. Not every one who +came to America in those significant early years came impelled by lofty +motives. There were scapegraces, bad boys, rogues, mercenaries, and +schemers; and perhaps it is entirely logical that the winning natural +loveliness of this place should have lured to her men who were not of +the caliber to face more exposed, less fertile sections, and men to whom +beauty made an especial appeal. + +The Indians early found Wessagusset, as they called it, an important +rendezvous, as it was accessible by land and sea, and there were +probably temporary camps there previous to 1620, formed by fishermen and +traders who visited the New England coast to traffic with the natives. +But it was not until the arrival of Thomas Weston in 1622 that +Weymouth's history really begins. And then it begins in a topsy-turvy +way, so unlike Puritan New England that it makes us rub our eyes, +wondering if it is really true. + +This Thomas Weston, who was a merchant adventurer of London, took it +into his head to establish a colony in the new country entirely +different from the Plymouth Colony. He had been an agent of the +Pilgrims in their negotiations with the Plymouth Company, and when he +broke off the connection it was to start a settlement which should +combine all of the advantages, with none of the disadvantages, of the +Plymouth Colony. First of all, it was to be a trading community pure and +simple, with its object frankly to make money. Second, it was to be +composed of men without families and familiar with hardship. And third, +there was no religious motive or bond. That such an unidealistic +enterprise should not flourish on American soil is worth noting. The +disorderly, thriftless rabble, picked up from the London streets, soon +got into trouble with the Indians and with neighboring colonists, and +finally, undone by the results of their own improvidence and +misbehavior, wailed that they "wanted to go back to London," to which +end the Plymouth settlers willingly aided them, glad to get them out of +the country. Thus ended the first inauspicious settlement of Weymouth. + +The second, which was undertaken shortly after by Robert Gorges, broke +up the following spring, leaving only a few remnants behind. Sir +Ferdinando Gorges, who was not a Spaniard as his name suggests, but a +picturesque Elizabethan and a kinsman of Sir Walter Raleigh, essayed +(through his son Robert) an experimental government along practically +the same commercial lines as had Weston, and his failure was as speedy +and complete as Weston's had been. + +A third attempt, while hardly more successful, furnishes one of the +gayest and prettiest episodes in the whole history of New England. +Across the somber procession of earnest-faced men and women, across the +psalm-singing and the praying, across the incredible toil of the +pioneers at Plymouth now flashes the brightly costumed and +pleasure-loving courtier, Thomas Morton. An agent of Gorges, Morton with +thirty followers floated into Wessagusset to found a Royalist and +Episcopalian settlement. This Episcopalian bias was quite enough to +account for Bradford's disparaging description of him as a "kind of +petie-fogie of Furnifells Inn," and explains why the early historians +never made any fuller or more favorable record than absolutely necessary +of these neighbors of theirs, although the churchman Samuel Maverick +admits that Morton was a "gentleman of good qualitee." + +But it was for worse sins than his connection with the Established +Church that Morton's name became synonymous with scandal throughout the +whole Colony. In the very midst of the dun-colored atmosphere of +Puritanism, in the very heart of the pious pioneer settlement this +audacious scamp set up, according to Bradford, "a schoole of atheisme, +and his men did quaff strong waters and comport themselves as if they +had anew revived and celebrated the feasts of y^e Roman Goddess Flora, +or the beastly practises of y^e madd Bachanalians." The charge of +atheism in this case seems based on the fact that Morton used the Book +of Common Prayer, but as for the rest, there is no question that this +band of silken merry-makers imported many of the carnival customs and +hereditary pastimes of Old England to the stern young New England; that +they fraternized with the Indians, shared their strong waters with them, +and taught them the use of firearms; and that Merrymount became indeed a +scene of wildest revelry. + +The site of Merrymount had originally been selected by Captain Wollaston +for a trading post. Imbued with the same mercenary motive which had +proved fatal in the case of Weston and Gorges, Captain Wollaston, whose +name is perpetuated in Mount Wollaston, brought with him in 1625 a gang +of indented white servants. Finding his system of industry ill suited to +the climate, he carried his men to Virginia, where he sold them. When he +left, Morton took possession of the place and dubbed it "Ma-re-mount." +And then began the pranks which shook the Colony to its foundations. +Picture to yourself a band of sworn triflers, dedicated to the wildest +philosophy of pleasure, teaching bears to dance, playing blind-man's +buff, holding juggling and boxing matches, and dancing. According to +Hawthorne, on the eve of Saint John they felled whole acres of forests +to make bonfires, and crowned themselves with flowers and threw the +blossoms into the flames. At harvest-time they hilariously wasted their +scanty store of Indian corn by making an image with the sheaves, and +wreathing it with the painted garlands of autumn foliage. They crowned +the King of Christmas and bent the knee to the Lord of Misrule! Such +fantastic foolery is inconceivable in a Puritan community, and the +Maypole which was its emblem was the most inconceivable of all. This +"flower-decked abomination," ornamented with white birch bark, banners, +and blossoms, was the center of the tipsy jollity of Merrymount. As +Morton explains: "A goodly pine tree of eighty foote was reared up, with +a peare of bucks horns nayled on somewhere near to the top of it: where +it stood as a faire sea mark for directions how to find out the way to +mine host of Ma-re-mount." Around this famous, or infamous, pole Morton +and his band frolicked with the Indians on May Day in 1627. As the +indignant historian writes: "Unleashed pagans from the purlieus of the +gross court of King James, danced about the Idoll of Merry Mount, +joining hands with the lasses in beaver coats, and singing their ribald +songs." + +It doesn't look quite so heinous to us, this Maypole dancing, as it did +to the outraged Puritans. In fact, the story of Morton and Merrymount is +one of the few glistening threads in the somber weaving of those early +days. But the New England soil was not prepared at that time to support +any such exotic, and Myles Standish was sent to disperse the frivolous +band, and to order Morton back to England, which he did, after a +scrimmage which Morton relates with great vivacity and doubtful veracity +in his "New English Canaan." + +This "New English Canaan," by the way, had a rather singular career. +Morton tells in it many amusing stories, and one of them was destined to +a remarkable perpetuity in English literature. The story deals with the +Wessagusset settlers promising to hang one of their own members who had +been caught stealing--this hanging in order to appease the Indians. +Morton gravely states that instead of hanging the real culprit, who was +young and lusty, they hanged, in his place, another, old and sick. In +his quaint diction: "You all agree that one must die, and one shall die, +this young man's cloathes we will take off and put upon one that is old +and impotent, a sickly person that cannot escape death, such is the +disease on him confirmed, that die hee must. Put the young man's +cloathes on this man, and let the sick person be hanged in the other's +steade. Amen sayes one, and so sayes many more." This absurd notion of +vicarious atonement, spun purely from Morton's imagination, appealed to +Samuel Butler as worthy of further elaboration. Morton's "New English +Canaan" appeared in 1632. About thirty years later the second part of +the famous English satire "Hudibras" appeared, embodying Morton's idea +in altered but recognizable form, in what was the most popular English +book of the day. This satire, appearing when the reaction against +Puritanism was at its height, was accepted and solemnly deposited at the +door of the good people of Boston and Plymouth! And thus it was that +Morton's fabricated tale of the Weymouth hanging passed into genuine +history along with the "blue laws" of Connecticut. One cannot help +believing that the mischievous perpetrator of the fable laughed up his +sleeve at its result, and one cannot resist the thought that he was +probably delighted to have the scandal attached to those righteous +neighbors of his who had run him out of his dear Ma-re-mount. + +However, driven out he was: the Maypole about which the revelers had +danced was hewed down by the stern zealots who believed in dancing about +only one pole, and that the whipping-post. Merrymount was deserted. + +Certainly Weymouth, the honey spot which attracted not industrious bees, +but only drones, was having a hard time getting settled! It was not +until the Reverend Joseph Hull received permission from the General +Court to settle here with twenty-one families, from Weymouth, England, +that the town was at last shepherded into the Puritan fold. + +These settlers, of good English stock and with the earnest ideals of +pioneers, soon brought the community into good repute, and its +subsequent life was as respectable and uneventful as that of a reformed +_roué_. In fact there is practically no more history for Weymouth. There +are certainly no more raids upon merry-makers; no more calls from the +cricket colony which had sung all summer on the banks of the river to +the ant colony which had providently toiled on the shore of the bay; no +more experimental governments; no more scandal. The men and women of the +next five generations were a poor, hard-working race, rising early and +toiling late. The men worked in the fields, tending the flocks, planting +and gathering the harvest. The women worked in the houses, in the +dairies and kitchens, at the spinning-wheel and washtub. The privations +and loneliness, which are part of every struggling colony, were +augmented here, where the houses did not cluster about the church and +burial ground, but were scattered and far away. This peculiarity of +settlement meant much in days where there was no newspaper, no system of +public transportation, no regular post, and Europe was months removed. A +few of the young men went with the fishing fleet to Cape Sable, or +sailed on trading vessels to the West Indies or Spain, but it is +doubtful if any Weymouth-born woman ever laid eyes on the mother country +during the first hundred and fifty years. + +The records of the town are painfully dull. They are taken up by small +domestic matters: the regulations for cattle; running boundary lines, +locating highways, improving the town common, fixing fines for roving +swine or agreeing to the division of a whale found on the shore. There +was more or less bickering over the salary of the town clerk, who was to +receive thirty-three pounds and fourteen shillings yearly to keep "A +free school and teach all children and servants sent him to read and +write and cast accounts." + +Added to the isolation and pettiness of town affairs, the winters seem +to have been longer, the snows deeper, the frosts more severe in those +days. We have records of the harbor freezing over in November, and "in +March the winter's snow, though much reduced, still lay on a level with +the fences, nor was it until April that the ice broke up in Fore River." +They were difficult--those days ushered in by the Reverend Joseph Hull. +Through long nights and cold winters and an endless round of joyless +living, Weymouth expiated well for the sins of her youth. Even as late +as 1767 we read of the daughter of Parson Smith, of Weymouth--now the +wife of John Adams, of Quincy--scrubbing the floor of her own +bed-chamber the afternoon before her son--destined to become President +of the United States, as his father was before him--was born. + +But the English stock brought in by the Reverend Hull was good stock. We +may not envy the ladies scrubbing their own floors or the men walking to +Boston, but many of the best families of this country are proud to trace +their origin back to Weymouth. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont; then +New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut attracted men from Weymouth. +Later the Middle West and the Far West called them. In fact for over a +century the town hardly raised its number of population, so energetic +was the youth it produced. + +As happens with lamentable frequency, when Weymouth ceased to be naughty +she also ceased to be interesting. After poring over the dull pages of +the town history, one is sometimes tempted to wonder if, perhaps, the +irreverent Morton did not, for all his sins, divine a deeper meaning in +this spot than the respectable ones who came after him. One cannot read +the "New English Canaan" without regretting a little that this +happy-natured fellow was so unceremoniously bustled out of the country. +Whatever Morton's discrepancies may have been, his response to beauty +was lively and true: whatever his morals, his prose is delightful. All +the town records and memorial addresses of all the good folk subsequent +contain no such tribute to Weymouth, and paint no picture so true of +that which is still best in her, as these loving words of the erstwhile +master of Merrymount. + +"And when I had more seriously considered the bewty of the place, with +all her fair endowments, I did not think that in all the knowne world it +could be paralel'd. For so many goodly groves of trees: dainty fine +round rising hillocks: delicate faire large plaines: sweete crystal +fountains, and clear running streams, that twine in fine meanders +through the meads, making so sweet a murmuring noise to heare, as would +even lull the senses with delight asleep, so pleasantly doe they glide +upon the pebble stones, jetting most jocundly where they doe meet; and +hand in hand run down to Neptune's court, to pay the yearly tribute +which they owe to him as soveraigne Lord of all the Springs." + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ECCLESIASTICAL HINGHAM + +[Illustration] + + +Should you walk along the highway from Quincy to Hingham on a Sunday +morning you would be passed by many automobiles, for the Old Coast Road +is now one of the great pleasure highways of New England. Many of the +cars are moderately priced affairs, the tonneau well filled with +children of miscellaneous ages, and enlivened by a family dog or +two--for this is the way that the average American household spends its +modern Sabbath holiday. Now and then a limousine, exquisite in +workmanship within and without, driven by a chauffeur in livery and +tenanted by a single languid occupant, rolls noiselessly past. A +strange procession, indeed, for a road originally marked by the +moccasined feet of Indians, and widened gradually by the toilsome +journeyings of rough Colonial carts and coaches. + +It is difficult to say which feature of the steadily moving travel would +most forcibly strike the original Puritan settlers of the town: the fact +that even the common man--the poor man--could own such a vehicle of +speed and ease, or the fact that America--such a short time ago a +wilderness--could produce, not as the finest flower on its tree of +evolution, but certainly as its most exotic, the plutocrat who lives in +a palace with fifty servants to do his bidding, and the fine lady whose +sole exercise of her mental and physical functions consists in allowing +her maid to dress her. Yes, New England has changed amazingly in the +revolutions of three centuries, and here, under the shadow of this +square plain building--Hingham's Old Ship Church--while we pause to +watch the Sunday pageant of 1920, we can most easily call back the +Sabbath rites, and the ideals which created those rites, three centuries +ago. + +[Illustration] + +It is the year of 1681. This wooden meeting-house, with the truncated +pyramidal roof and belfry (to serve as a lookout station), has just been +built. A stage ahead, architecturally, of the log meeting-house with +clay-filled chinks, thatched roof, oiled-paper windows, earthen floor, +and a stage behind the charming steeple style made popular by Sir +Christopher Wren, and now multiplied in countless graceful examples all +over New England, the Old Ship is entirely unconscious of the +distinction which is awaiting it--the distinction of being the oldest +house for public worship in the United States which still stands on its +original site, and which is still used for its original purpose. In the +year 1681 it is merely the new meeting-house of the little hamlet of +Hingham. The people are very proud of their new building. The timbers +have been hewn with the broad-axe out of solid white pine (the marks are +still visible, particularly in those rafters of the roof open to the +attic). The belfry is precisely in the center of the four-sided pitched +roof. To be sure this necessitates ringing the bell from one of the +pews, but a little later the bellringer will stand above, and through a +pane of glass let into the ceiling he will be able to see when the +minister enters the pulpit. The original backless benches were replaced +by box pews with narrow seats like shelves, hung on hinges around three +sides, but part of the original pulpit remains and a few of the box +pews. In 1681 the interior, like the exterior, is sternly bare. No +paint, no decorations, no colored windows, no organ, or anything which +could even remotely suggest the color, the beauty, the formalism of the +churches of England. The unceiled roof shows the rafters whose arched +timbers remind one that ships' carpenters have built this house of God. + +This, then, is the meeting-house of 1681. What of the services conducted +there? + +In the first place, they are well attended. And why not, since in 1635 +the General Court decreed that no dwelling should be placed more than +half a mile away from the meeting-house of any new "plantation"--thus +eliminating the excuse of too great distance? Every one is expected, +nay, commanded, to come to church. In fact, after the tolling of the +last bell, the houses may all be searched--each ten families is under an +inspector--if there is any question of delinquents hiding in them. And +so in twos and threes, often the man trudging ahead with his gun and the +woman carrying her baby while the smaller children cling to her skirts, +sometimes man and woman and a child or two on horseback, no matter how +wild the storm, how swollen the streams, how deep the whirling +snow--they all come to church: old folk and infants as well as adults +and children. The congregation either waits for the minister and his +wife outside the door, or stands until he has entered the pulpit. Once +inside they are seated with the most meticulous exactness, according to +rank, age, sex, and wealth. The small boys are separated from their +families and kept in order by tithing-men who allow no wandering eyes or +whispered words. The deacons are in the "fore" seats; the elderly +people are sometimes given chairs at the end of the "pues"; and the +slaves and Indians are in the rear. To seat one's self in the wrong +"pue" is an offense punishable by a fine. + +"Here is the church, and here are the people," as the old rhyme has it. +What then of the services? That they are interminable we know. The +tithing-man or clerk may turn the brass-bound hourglass by the side of +the pulpit two and three times during the sermon, and once or twice +during the prayer. Interminable, and, also, to the modern Sunday +observer, unendurable. How many of us of this softer age can contemplate +without a shiver the vision of people sitting hour after hour in an +absolutely unheated building? (The Old Ship was not heated until 1822.) +The only relief from the chill and stiffness comes during the prayer +when the congregation stands: kneeling, of course, would savor too +strongly of idolatry and the Church of Rome. They stand, too, while the +psalms and hymns are lined out, and as they sing them, very uncertainly +and very incorrectly. This performance alone sometimes takes an hour, as +there is no organ, nor notes, and only a few copies of the Bay Psalm +Book, of which, by the way, a copy now would be worth many times its +weight in gold. + +After the morning service there is a noon intermission, in which the +half-frozen congregation stirs around, eats cold luncheons brought in +baskets, and then returns to the next session. One must not for an +instant, however, consider these noon hours as recreational. There is no +idle talk or play. The sermon is discussed and the children forbidden to +romp or laugh. One sometimes wonders how the little things had any +impulse to laugh in such an abysmal atmosphere, but apparently the +Puritan boys and girls were entirely normal and even wholesomely +mischievous--as proved by the constantly required services of the +tithing-man. + +These external trappings of the service sound depressing enough, but if +the message received within these chilly walls is cheering, maybe we +can forget or ignore the physical discomforts. But is the message +cheering? Hell, damnation, eternal tortures, painful theological +hair-splittings, harrowing self-examinations, and humiliating public +confessions--this is what they gather on the narrow wooden benches to +listen to hour after hour, searching their souls for sin with an almost +frenzied eagerness. And yet, forlorn and tedious as the bleak service +appears to us, there is no doubt that these stern-faced men and women +wrenched an almost mystical inspiration from it; that a weird +fascination emanated from this morbid dwelling on sin and punishment, +appealing to the emotions quite as vividly--although through a different +channel--as the most elaborate ceremonial. When the soul is wrought to a +certain pitch each hardship is merely an added opportunity to prove its +faith. It was this high pitch, attained and sustained by our Puritan +fathers, which produced a dramatic and sometimes terrible blend of +personality. + +It has become the modern fashion somewhat to belittle Puritanism. It is +easy to emphasize its absurdities, to ridicule the almost fanatical +fervor which goaded men to harshness and inconsistency. The fact remains +that a tremendous selective force was needed to tear the Puritans away +from the mother church and the mother country and fortify them in their +struggle in a new land. It was religious zeal which furnished this +motive power. Different implements and differently directed force are +needed to extract the diamond from the earth, from the implements and +force needed to polish and cut the same diamond. So different phases of +religious development are called forth by progressive phases of +development. It has been said about the New England conscience: "It +fostered a condition of life and type of character doubtless never again +possible in the world's history. Having done its work, having founded +soundly and peopled strongly an exceptional region, the New England +conscience had no further necessity for being. Those whom it now +tortures with its hot pincers of doubt and self-reproach are sacrificed +to a cause long since won." + +The Puritans themselves grew away from many of their excessive +severities. But as they gained bodily strength from their conflict with +the elements, so they gained a certain moral stamina by their +self-imposed religious observance. And this moral stamina has marked New +England ever since, and marked her to her glory. + +One cannot speak of Hingham churches--indeed, one cannot speak of +Hingham--without admiring mention of the New North Church. This +building, of exquisite proportions and finish, within and without, built +by Bulfinch in 1806, is one of the most flawless examples of its type on +the South Shore. You will appreciate the cream-colored paint, the buff +walls, the quaint box pews of oiled wood, with handrails gleaming from +the touch of many generations, with wooden buttons and protruding hinges +proclaiming an ancient fashion; but the unique feature of the New North +Church is its slave galleries. These two small galleries, between the +roof and the choir loft, held for thirty years, in diminishing numbers, +negroes and Indians. The last occupant was a black Lucretia, who, after +being freed, was invited to sit downstairs with her master and mistress, +which she did, and which she continued to do until her death, not so +very long ago. + +Hingham, its Main Street--alas for the original name of "Bachelors +Rowe"--arched by a double row of superb elms on either side, is +incalculably rich in old houses, old traditions, old families. Even +motoring through, too quickly as motorists must, one cannot help being +struck by the substantial dignity of the place, by the well-kept +prosperity of the houses, large and small, which fringe the fine old +highway. Ever since the days when the three Misses Barker kept loyal to +George IV, claiming the King as their liege lord fifty years after the +Declaration of Independence, the town has preserved a Cranford-like +charm. And why not, when the very house is still handsomely preserved, +where the nameless nobleman, Francis Le Baron, was concealed between the +floors, and, as we are told in Mrs. Austen's novel, very properly +capped the climax by marrying his brave little protector, Molly Wilder? +Why not, when the Lincoln family, ancestors of Abraham, has been +identified with the town since its settlement? The house of +Major-General Benjamin Lincoln, who received the sword of Cornwallis at +Yorktown, is still occupied by his descendants, its neat fence, many +windows, two chimneys, and its two stories and a half proclaiming it a +dwelling of repute. Near by, descendants of Samuel Lincoln, the ancestor +of Abraham, occupy part of another roomy ancient homestead. The +Wampatuck Club, named after the Indian chief who granted the original +deeds of the town, has found quarters in an extremely interesting house +dating from 1680. In the spacious living-room are seventeen panels, on +the walls and in the doors, painted with charming old-fashioned skill by +John Hazlitt, the brother of the English essayist. The Reverend Daniel +Shute house, built in 1746, is practically intact with its paneled rooms +and wall-paper a hundred years old. Hingham's famous elms shade the +house where Parson Ebenezer Gay lived out his long pastorate of +sixty-nine years and nine months, and the Garrison house, built before +1640, sheltered, in its prime, nine generations of the same family. The +Rainbow Roof house, so called from the delicious curve in its roof, is +one of Hingham's prettiest two-hundred-year-old cottages, and Miss Susan +B. Willard's cottage is one of the oldest in the United States. Derby +Academy, founded almost two centuries and a half ago by Madam Derby, +still maintains its social and scholarly prestige through all the +educational turmoil of the twentieth century. One likes to associate +Hingham with Massachusetts's stanch and sturdy "war governor," for it +was here that John Albion Andrew, who proved himself so truly one of our +great men during the Civil War, courted Eliza Jones Hersey, and here +that the happy years of their early married life were spent. Later, +another governor, John D. Long, was for many years a mighty figure in +the town. + +With its ancient churches and institutions, its pensive graveyards and +lovely elms, its ancestral houses and hidden gardens, Hingham typifies +what is quaintest and best in New England towns. Possibly the dappling +of the elms, possibly the shadow of the Old Ship Church, is a bit deeper +here than in the other South Shore towns. However it may seem to its +inhabitants, to the stranger everything in Hingham is tinctured by the +remembrance of the stern old ecclesiasticism. Even the number of +historic forts seems a proper part of those righteous days, for when did +religion and warfare not go hand in hand? During the trouble with King +Philip the town had three forts, one at Fort Hill, one at the Cemetery, +and one "on the plain about a mile from the harbor"; and the sites may +still be identified. + +Not that Hingham history is exclusively religious or martial. Her little +harbor once held seventy sail of fishing vessels, and between 1815 and +1826, 165,000 barrels of mackerel were landed on their salty decks. For +fifty years (between 1811 and 1860) the Rapid sailed as a packet between +this town and Boston, making the trip on one memorable occasion in +sixty-seven minutes. We read that in the War of 1812 she was carried up +the Weymouth River and covered, masts and hull, with green bushes so +that the marauding British cruisers might not find her, and as we read +we find ourselves remembering that _camouflage_ is new only in name. + +How entirely fitting it seems that a town of such venerable houses and +venerable legends should be presided over by a church which is the +oldest of its kind in the country! + +Hingham changes. There is a Roman Catholic Church in the very heart of +that one-time Puritan stronghold: the New North is Unitarian, and +Episcopalians, Baptists, and Second Adventists have settled down +comfortably where once they would have been run out of town. Poor old +Puritans, how grieved and scandalized they would be to stand, as we are +standing now, and watch the procession of passing automobilists! Would +it seem all lost to them, we wonder, the religious ideal for which they +struggled, or would they realize that their sowing had brought forth +richer fruit than they could guess? It has all changed, since Puritan +days, and yet, perhaps, in no other place in New England does the hand +of the past lie so visibly upon the community. You cannot lift your eyes +but they rest upon some building raised two centuries and more ago; the +shade which ripples under your feet is cast by elms planted by that very +hand of the past. Even your voice repeats the words which those old +patriarchs, well versed in Biblical lore, chose for their neighborhood +names. Accord Pond and Glad Tidings Plain might have been lifted from +some Pilgrim's Progress, while the near-by Sea of Galilee and Jerusalem +Road are from the Good Book itself. + +"Which way to Egypt?" Is this an echo from that time when the Bible was +the corner-stone of Church and State, of home and school? + +"What's the best road to Jericho Beach?" Surely it is some grave-faced +shade who calls: or is it a peal from the chimes in the Memorial Bell +Tower--chimes reminiscent of old Hingham, in England? No, it is only the +shouted question of the motorist, gay and prosperous, flying on his +Sunday holiday through ancient Hingham town. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +COHASSET LEDGES AND MARSHES[1] + +[Illustration] + + +A sickle-shaped shore--wild, superb! Tawny ledges tumbling out to sea, +rearing massive heads to search, across three thousand miles of water, +for another shore. For it is Spain and Portugal which lie directly +yonder, and the same tumultuous sea that crashes and swirls against +Cohasset's crags laps also on those sunnier, warmer sands. + +Back inland, from the bold brown coast which gives Cohasset her +Riviera-like fame, lie marshes, liquefying into mirrors at high tide, +melting into lush green at low tide. + +Between the ledges and the marshes winds Jerusalem Road, bearing a +continual stream of sight-seers and fringed with estates hidden from the +sight-seers; estates with terraces dashed by spindrift, with curving +stairways hewn in sheer rock down to the water, with wind-twisted +savins, and flowers whose bright bloom is heightened by the tang of +salt. For too many a passing traveler Cohasset is known only as the most +fashionable resort on the South Shore. But Cohasset's story is a longer +one than that, and far more profound. + +Cohasset is founded upon a rock, and the making of that rock is so +honestly and minutely recorded by nature that even those who take alarm +at the word "geology" may read this record with ease. These rocky ledges +that stare so proudly across the sea underlie, also, every inch of soil, +and are of the same kind everywhere--granite. Granite is a rock which is +formed under immense pressure and in the presence of confined moisture, +needing a weight of fifteen thousand pounds upon every inch. Therefore, +wherever granite is found we know that it has not been formed by +deposit, like limestone and sandstone and slate and other sedimentary +rocks, but at a prodigious depth under the solid ground, and by slow +crystallizing of molten substances. There must have been from two to +five miles of other rock lying upon the stuff that crystallized into +granite. A wrinkling in the skin of the earth exposed the granite, a +wrinkling so gradual that doubtless if generations of men had lived on +top of the wrinkle they would have sworn it did not move. But move it +did, and the superimposed rock must have been worn off at a rate of less +than a hundredth part of an inch every year in order to lose two or +three miles of it in twenty-five million years. As the granite was +wrinkled up by the movement of the earth's crust, certain cracks opened +and filled with lava, forming dikes. The geologist to-day can glance at +these dikes and tell the period of their formation as casually as a +jockey looking at a horse's mouth can tell his age. He could also tell +of the "faulting," or slipping down, of adjacent masses of solid rock, +which has occurred often enough to carve the characteristic Cohasset +coast. + +The making of the rock bottom is a story which extends over millions of +years: the making of the soil extends over thousands. The gigantic +glacier which once formed all over the northern part of North America, +and which remained upon it most of the time until about seven thousand +years ago, ground up the rock like a huge mill and heaped its grist into +hills and plains and meadows. The marks of it are as easy to see as +finger prints in putty. There are scratches on the underlying rock in +every part of the town, pointing in the southerly direction in which the +glacier moved. The gravel and clay belts of the town have all been +stretched out in the same direction as the scratches, and many are the +boulders which were combed out of the moving glacier by the peaks of the +ledges, and are now poised, like the famous Tipping Rock, just where the +glacier left them when it melted. Few towns in America possess greater +geological interest or a wider variety of glacial phenomena than +Cohasset--all of which may be studied more fully with the aid of E. +Victor Bigelow's "Narrative History of the Town of Cohasset, +Massachusetts," and William O. Crosby's "Geology of the Boston Basin." + +This, then, is briefly the first part of Cohasset's ledges. The second +part deals with human events, including many shipwrecks and disasters, +and more than one romantic episode. Perhaps this human section is best +begun with Captain John Smith. + +Captain John Smith was born too early. If ever a hero was brought into +the world to adorn the moving-picture screen, that hero of the "iron +collar," of piratical capture, of wedlock with an Indian princess, was +the man. Failing of this high calling he did some serviceable work in +discovering and describing many of the inlets on the coast of New +England. Among these inlets Cohasset acted her part as hostess to the +famous navigator and staged a small and vivid encounter with the +aborigines. The date of this presentation was in 1614; the scenario may +be found in Smith's own diary. Smith and a party of eight or more +sailors made the trip between the ledges in a small rowboat. It is +believed that they landed somewhere near Hominy Point. Their landing was +not carried out without some misadventure, however, for in some way this +party of explorers angered the Indians with whom they came in contact, +and the result was an attack from bow and arrow. The town of Cohasset, +in commemorating this encounter by a tablet, has inscribed upon the +tablet Smith's own words: + +"We found the people on those parts very kind, but in their fury no less +valiant: and at Quonhaset falling out there with but one of them, he +with three others crossed the harbour in a cannow to certain rocks +whereby we must pass, and there let flie their arrowes for our shot, +till we were out of danger, yet one of them was slaine, and the other +shot through the thigh." + +History follows fast along the ledges: history of gallant deeds and +gallant defense during the days of the Revolution and the War of 1812; +deeds of disaster along the coast and one especial deed of great +engineering skill. + +The beauty and the tragedy of Cohasset are caught in large measure upon +these jagged rocks. The splinters and wrecks of two and a half centuries +have strewn the beaches, and many a corpse, far from its native land, +has been found, wrapped in a shroud of seaweed upon the sand, and has +been lowered by alien hands into a forever unmarked grave. Quite +naturally the business of "wrecking"--that is, saving the pieces--came +to be the trade of a number of Cohasset citizens, and so expert did +Cohasset divers and seamen become that they were in demand all over the +world. One of the most interesting salvage enterprises concerned a +Spanish frigate, sunk off the coast of Venezuela. Many thousand dollars +in silver coin were covered by fifty feet of water, and it was Captain +Tower, of Cohasset, with a crew of Cohasset divers and seamen, who set +sail for the spot in a schooner bearing the substantial name of Eliza +Ann. The Spanish Government, having no faith in the enterprise, agreed +to claim only two and one half per cent of what was removed. The first +year the wreckers got fourteen thousand dollars, and the second they had +reached seven thousand, when the Spaniards became so jealous of their +skill that they had to flee for their lives (taking the seven thousand, +however). The clumsy diving-bell method was the only one known at that +time, but when, twenty years later, the Spaniards had to swallow their +chagrin and send again for the same wrecking party to assist them on the +same task, modern diving suits were in use and more money was +recovered--no mean triumph for the crew of the Eliza Ann! + +As the wrecks along the Cohasset coast were principally caused by the +dangerous reefs spreading in either direction from what is known as +Minot's Ledge, the necessity of a lighthouse on that spot was early +evident, and the erecting of the present Minot's Light is one of the +most romantic engineering enterprises of our coast history. The original +structure was snapped off like a pikestaff in the great storm of 1851, +and the present one of Quincy granite is the first of its kind in +America to be built on a ledge awash at high tide and with no adjacent +dry land. The tremendous difficulties were finally overcome, although in +the year 1855 the work could be pursued for only a hundred and thirty +hours, and the following year for only a hundred and fifty-seven. To +read of the erection of this remarkable lighthouse reminds one of the +building of Solomon's temple. The stone was selected with the utmost +care, and the Quincy cutters declared that such chiseling had never +before left the hand of man. Then every single block for the lower +portion was meticulously cut, dovetailed, and set in position on +Government Island in Cohasset Harbor. The old base, exquisitely laid, +where they were thus set up is still visible, as smooth as a billiard +table, although grass-covered. In addition to the flawless cutting and +joining of the blocks, the ledge itself was cut into a succession of +levels suitable to bear a stone foundation--work which was possible only +at certain times of the tide and seasons of the year. The cutting of +each stone so that it exactly fitted its neighbor, above, below, and at +either side, and precisely conformed to the next inner row upon the same +level, was nothing short of a marvel. A miniature of the light--the +building of which took two winters, and which was on the scale of an +inch to a foot--was in the United States Government Building at the +Chicago Exposition, and is stone for stone a counterpart of the granite +tower in the Atlantic. Although this is an achievement which belongs in +a sense to the whole United States, yet it must always seem, to those +who followed it most closely, as belonging peculiarly to Cohasset. A +famous Cohasset rigger made the model for the derrick which was used to +raise the stones; the massive granite blocks were teamed by one whose +proud boast it was that he had never had occasion to shift a stone +twice; a Cohasset man captained the first vessel to carry the stone to +the ledge, and another assisted in the selection of the stone. + +It is difficult to turn one's eyes away from the spectacular beauty of +the Cohasset shore, but magnificent as these ledges are, and glittering +with infinite romance, yet, rather curiously, it is on the limpid +surface of the marshes that we read the most significant episodes of +Colonial and pioneer life. + +One of the needs which the early settlers were quick to feel was open +land which would serve as pasturage for their cattle. With forests +pressing down upon them from the rear, and a barrier of granite in front +of them, the problem of grazing-lands was important. The Hingham +settlement at Bare Cove (Cohasset was part of Hingham originally) found +the solution in the acres of open marshland which stretched to the east. +Cohasset to-day may ask where so much grazing-land lay within her +borders. By comparison with the old maps and surveying figures, we find +that many acres, now covered with the water of Little Harbor and lying +within the sandbar at Pleasant Beach, are counted as old grazing-lands. +These, with the sweep of what is now the "Glades," furnished abundant +pasturage for neighboring cattle and brought the Hingham settlers +quickly to Cohasset meadows. Thus it happens that the first history of +Cohasset is the history of this common pasturage--"Commons," as it was +known in the old histories. Although Hingham was early divided up among +the pioneers, the marshes were kept undivided for the use of the whole +settlement. As a record of 1650 puts it: "It was ordered that any +townsman shall have the liberty to put swine to Conohasset without yokes +or rings, upon the town's common land." + +But the Massachusetts Bay Colony was hard-headed as well as pious, and +several naïve hints creep into the early records of sharers of the +Commons who were shrewdly eyeing the salt land of Cohasset. A real +estate transfer of 1640 has this potential flavor: "Half the lot at +Conehasset, if any fall by lot, and half the commons which belong to +said lot." And again, four years later, Henry Tuttle sold to John +Fearing "what right he had to the Division of Conihassett Meadows." The +first land to come under the measuring chain and wooden stake of +surveyors was about the margin of Little Harbor about the middle of the +seventeenth century. After that the rest of the township was not long in +being parceled out. One of the curious methods of land division was in +the Beechwood district. The apportionment seems to have had the +characteristics of ribbon cake. Sections of differing desirability--to +meet the demands of justice and natural conditions--were measured out in +long strips, a mile long and twenty-five feet wide. Many an old stone +wall marking this early grant is still to be seen in the woods. Could +anything but the indomitable spirit of those English settlers and the +strong feeling for land ownership have built walls of carted stone about +enclosures a mile long and twenty-five feet wide? + +Having effected a division of land in Cohasset, families soon began to +settle away from the mother town of Hingham, and after a prolonged +period of government at arm's length, with all its attendant +discomforts, the long, bitter struggle resolved itself into Cohasset's +final separation from Hingham, and its development from a precinct into +an independent township. + +While the marshes to the north were the cause of Cohasset being first +visited, settled, and made into a township, yet the marshes to the south +hold an even more vital historical interest. These southern marshes, +bordering Bound Brook and stretching away to Bassing Beach, were visited +by haymakers as were those to the north. But these haymakers did not +come from the same township, nor were they under the same local +government. The obscure little stream which to-day lies between Scituate +Harbor and Cohasset marks the line of two conflicting grants--the +Plymouth Colony and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. + +In the early days of New England royal grants from the throne or patents +from colonial councils in London were deemed necessary before settling +in the wilderness. The strong, inherited respect for landed estates must +have given such charters their value, as it is hard for us to see now +how any one in England could have prevented the pioneers from settling +where they pleased. The various patents and grants of the two colonies +(indefinite as they seem to us now, as some granted "up to" a hundred +acres to each emigrant without defining any boundaries) brought the two +colonies face to face at Bound Brook. The result was a dispute over the +harvesting of salt hay. + +All boundary streams attract to themselves a certain amount of fame--the +Rio Grande, the Saint Lawrence, and the Rhine. But surely the little +stream of Bound Brook, which was finally taken as the line of division +between two colonies of such historical importance as the Plymouth and +the Massachusetts Bay, is worth more than a superficial attention. The +dispute lasted many years and occasioned the appointing of numerous +commissioners from both sides. That the salt grass of Bassing Beach +should have assumed such importance reveals again the sensitiveness to +land values of men who had so recently left England. The settling of the +dispute was not referred back to England, but was settled by the +colonists themselves. + +The author of the "Narrative History of Cohasset" calls this an event of +only less historical importance than that of the pact drawn up in the +cabin of the Mayflower. He declares that the confederation of states had +its inception there, and adds: "The appointment for this joint +commission for the settlement of this intercolonial difficulty was the +first step of federation that culminated in the Colonial Congress and +then blossomed into the United States." We to-day, to whom the salt +grass of Cohasset is little more than a fringe about the two harbors, +may find it difficult to agree fully with such a sweeping statement, but +certainly this spot and boundary line should always be associated with +the respect for property which has ennobled the Anglo-Saxon race. + +Between the marshes, which were of such high importance in those early +days, and the ledges which have been the cause and the scene of so many +Cohasset adventures, twists Jerusalem Road, the brilliant beauty of +which has been so often--but never too often--remarked. This was the +main road from Hingham for many years, and it took full three hours of +barbarous jolting in two-wheeled, springless ox carts to make the trip. +Even if a man had a horse the journey was cruelly tedious, for there +were only a few stretches where the horse could go faster than a +walk--and the way was pock-marked with boulders and mudholes. With no +stage-coach before 1815, and being off the highway between Plymouth and +Boston, it is small wonder that the early Cohasset folk either walked or +went by sea to Hingham and thence to Boston. + +It has been suggested that the "keeper of young cattle at Coneyhassett," +who drove his herd over from Hingham, was moved either by piety or +sarcasm to give the trail its present arresting name. However, as the +herdsman did not take this route, but the back road through Turkey +Meadows, it is more probable that some visitors, who detected a +resemblance between this section of the country and the Holy Land, were +responsible for the christening of this road and also of the Sea of +Galilee--which last has almost dropped into disuse. There does not seem +to be any particular suggestion of the land of the Pharaohs and +present-day Egypt, but tradition explains that as follows: Old Squire +Perce had accumulated a store of grain in case of drought, and when the +drought came and the men hurried to him to buy corn, he greeted them +with "Well, boys, so you've come down to Egypt to buy corn." Another +proof, if one were needed, of the Biblical familiarity of those days. + +It is hard to stop writing about Cohasset. There are so many bits of +history tucked into every ledge and cranny of her shore. The green in +front of the old white meeting-house--one of the prettiest and most +perfect meeting-houses on the South Shore--has been pressed by the feet +of men assembling for six wars. It makes Cohasset seem venerable, +indeed, when one thinks of the march of American history. But to the +tawny ledges, tumbling out to sea, these three hundred years are as but +a day; for the story of the stones, like the story of the stars, is +measured in terms of milliards. To such immemorial keepers of the coast +the life of man is a brief tale that is soon told, and fades as swiftly +as the fading leaf. + +[Illustration] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] For much of this chapter I am indebted to my friend Alice C. Hyde. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE SCITUATE SHORE + +[Illustration] + + +Scituate is different: different from Cohasset, with its superbly bold +coast and its fashionable folk; different from Hingham, with its air of +settled inland dignity. Scituate has a quaintness, a casualness, the +indescribable air of a land's-end spot. The fine houses in Scituate are +refreshingly free from pretension; the winds that have twisted the trees +into Rackham-like grotesques have blown away falsity and formality. + +Scituate life has always been along the shore. It is from the shore that +coot-shooting used to furnish a livelihood to many a Scituate man, and +still lures the huntsmen in the fine fall weather. It is the peculiar +formation of the shore which has developed a small, clinker-built boat, +and made the town famous for day fishing. It is along the shore that the +unique and picturesque mossing industry is still carried on, and along +the shore that the well-known colony of literary folk have settled. + +Scituate's history is really a fishing history, for as early as 1633 a +fishing station was established here, and in course of time the North +River, winding twenty miles through green meadows to the sea, was once +the scene of more shipbuilding than any other river in New England. + +There is nothing more indicative of the Yankees' shrewd practicality +than the early settlers' instant appreciation of the financial and +economic potentialities of the fishing-trade. The Spaniard sought for +gold in the new country, or contented himself with the fluctuating fur +trade with its demoralizing slack seasons. But the New Englander +promptly applied himself to the mundane pursuit of cod and mackerel. +Everybody fished. As John Smith, in his "Description of New England," +says: "Young boyes and girles, salvages or any other, be they never such +idlers, may turne, carry, and returne fish without shame or either great +pain: he is very idle that is past twelve years of age and cannot doe so +much: and shee is very old that cannot spin a thread to catch them." + +It began when Squanto the Indian showed the amazed colonists how he +could tread the eels out of the mud with his feet and catch them with +his hands. This was convenient, to be sure, but the colonists did not +long content themselves with such primitive methods. They sent to +England for cod hooks and lines; mackerel hooks and lines; herring nets +and seines; shark hooks, bass nets, squid lines, and eel pots; and in a +short time they had established a trade which meant more money than the +gold mines of Guiana or Potosi. The modern financier who makes a fortune +from the invention of a collar button or the sale of countless penny +packages of gum is the lineal descendant of that first thrifty New +Englander who did not scorn the humble cod because it was cheap and +plentiful (you remember how these same cod "pestered" the ships of +Gosnold in 1602), but set to work with the quiet initiative which has +distinguished New Englanders ever since, first to catch, then to barter, +and finally to sell his wares to all the world. For cheap as all fish +was--twopence for a twelve-pound cod, salmon less than a penny a pound, +and shad, when it was finally considered fit to eat at all, at two fish +for a penny--yet, when all the world is ready to buy and the supply is +inexhaustible, tremendous profits are possible. The many fast days of +the Roman Catholic Church abroad opened an immense demand, and in a +short time quantities of various kinds of fish (Josselyn in 1672 +enumerates over two hundred caught in New England waters) were dried and +salted and sent to England. + +This constant and steadily increasing trade radically affected the whole +economic structure and history of New England for two centuries. Ships +and all the shipyard industries; the farm, on which fish was used not +only as a medium of exchange, but also as a valuable fertilizer; the +home, where the many operations of curing and salting were carried +on--all of those were developed directly by the growth of this +particular trade. Laws were made and continually revised regarding the +fisheries and safeguarding their rights in every conceivable fashion; +ship carpenters were exempt from military service, and many special +exemptions were extended to fishermen under the general statutes. + +The oyster is now a dish for the epicure and the lobster for the +millionaire. But in the old days when oysters a foot long were not +uncommon, and lobsters sometimes grew to six feet, every one had all he +wanted, and sometimes more than he wanted, of these delicacies. The +stranger in New England may notice how certain customs still prevail, +such as the Friday night fish dinner and the Sunday morning fish-cakes; +and also that New Englanders as a whole have a rather fastidious taste +in regard to the preparation of both salt- and fresh-water products. +The food of any region is characteristic of that region, and to travel +along the Old Coast Road and not partake of one of the delicious fish +dinners, is as absurd as it would be to omit rice from a menu in China +or roast beef from an English dinner. + +While the fishing trade was highly important in all the South Shore +towns, yet it was especially so in Scituate. In 1770 more than thirty +vessels, principally for mackerel, were fitted out in this one village, +and these vessels not infrequently took a thousand barrels in a season. +In winter they were used for Southern coasting, carrying lumber and fish +and returning with grain and flour. The reason why fishing was so +persistently and exclusively followed in this particular spot is not +hard to seek. The sea yielded a far more profitable and ready crop than +the land, and, besides, had a jealous way of nibbling away at the land +wherever it could. It is estimated that it wastes away from twelve to +fourteen inches of Fourth Cliff every year. + +But in spite of the sea's readily accessible crop it was natural that +the "men of Kent" who settled the town should demand some portion of dry +land as well. These men of Kent were not mermen, able to live in and on +the water indefinitely, but decidedly gallant fellows, rather more +courtly than their neighbors, and more polished than the race which +succeeded them. Gilson, Vassal, Hatherly, Cudworth, Tilden, Hoar, +Foster, Stedman, and Hinckley had all been accustomed to the elegancies +of life in England as their names testify. The first land they used was +on the cliffs, for it had already been improved by Indian planting; then +the salt marshes, covered with a natural crop of grass, and then the +mellow intervales near the river. When the sea was forced to the +regretful realization that she could not monopolize the entire attention +of her fellows, she was persuaded to yield up some very excellent +fertilizer in the way of seaweed. But she still nags away at the cliffs +and shore, and proclaims with every flaunting wave and ripple that it is +the water, not the land, which makes Scituate what it is. + +And, after all, the sea is right. It is along the shore that one sees +Scituate most truly. Here the characteristic industry of mossing is +still carried on in primitive fashion. The mossers work from dories, +gathering with long-handled rakes the seaweed from the rocks and ledges +along the shore. They bring it in, a heavy, dark, inert mass, all sleek +and dripping, and spread it out to dry in the sun. As it lies there, +neatly arranged on beds of smoothest pebbles, the sun bleaches it. One +can easily differentiate the different days' haul, for the moss which is +just spread out is almost black and that of yesterday is a dark purple. +It shimmers from purple into lavender; the lavender into something like +rose; and by the time of the final washing and bleaching it lies in fine +light white crinkles, almost like wool. It is a pretty sight, and the +neatness and dispatch of the mossers make the odd sea-flower gardens +attractive patches on the beach. Sometimes a family working together +will make as much as a thousand dollars in a season gathering and +preparing the moss. One wonders if all the people in the world could +eat enough blancmange to consume this salty product, and is relieved to +be reminded that the moss is also used for brewing and dyeing. + +It is really a pity to see Scituate only from a motor. There is real +atmosphere to the place, which is worth breathing, but it takes more +time to breathe in an atmosphere than merely to "take the air." Should +you decide to ramble about the ancient town you will surely find your +way to Scituate Point. The old stone lighthouse, over a century old, is +no longer used, and the oil lantern, hung nightly out at the end of the +romantic promontory, seems a return to days of long ago. You will also +see the place where, in the stirring Revolutionary days, little Abigail +and Rebecca Bates, with fife and drum marched up and down, close to the +shore and yet hidden from sight, playing so furiously that their +"martial music and other noises" scared away the enemy and saved the +town from invasion. You will go to Second Cliff where are the summer +homes of many literary people, and you will pass through Egypt, +catching what glimpse you can of the stables and offices, paddocks and +cottages of the immense estate of Dreamwold. And of course you will have +pointed out to you the birthplace of Samuel Woodworth, whose sole claim +to remembrance is his poem of the "Old Oaken Bucket." The well-sweep is +still where he saw it, when, as editor of the _New York Mirror_, it +suddenly flashed before his reminiscent vision, but the old oaken bucket +itself has been removed to a museum. + +After you have done all these things, you will, if you are wise, forsake +Scituate Harbor, which is the old section, and Scituate Beach, which is +the newer, summer section, and find the way to the burial ground, which, +after the one in Plymouth, is the oldest in the State. Possibly there +will be others at the burial ground, for ancestor worshipers are not +confined to China, and every year there springs up a new crop of +genealogists to kneel before the moss-grown headstones and, with truly +admirable patience, decipher names and dates, half obliterated by the +finger of time. One does not wonder that their descendants are so eager +to trace their connection back to those men of Kent, whose sturdy title +rings so bravely down the centuries. To be sure, what is left to trace +is very slight in most cases, and quite without any savor of +personality. Too often it is merely brief and dry recital of dates and +number of progeny, and names of the same. Few have left anything so +quaint as the words of Walter Briggs, who settled there in 1651 and from +whom Briggs Harbor was named. His will contains this thoughtful +provision: "For my wife Francis, one third of my estate during her life, +also a gentle horse or mare, and Jemmy the negur shall catch it for +her." + +The good people who came later (1634) from Plymouth and Boston and took +up their difficult colonial life under the pastorate of Mr. Lathrop, +seem to have done their best to make "Satuit" (as it was first called, +from the Indians, meaning "cold brook") conform as nearly as possible to +the other pioneer settlements, even to the point of discovering witches +here. But religion and fasting were not able to accomplish what the +ubiquitous summer influx has, happily, also failed to effect. Scituate +remains different. + +Perhaps it was those men of Kent who gave it its indestructibly romantic +bias; perhaps it is the jealousy of the ever-encroaching sea. The gray +geese flying over the iridescent moss gleaming upon the pebbled beaches, +the solitary lantern on the point are all parts of that differentness. +And those who love her best are glad that it is so. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +MARSHFIELD, THE HOME OF DANIEL WEBSTER + +[Illustration] + + Ye marshes, how candid and simple and nothing-withholding and free! + Ye publish yourselves to the sky and offer yourselves to the sea! + Tolerant plains, that suffer the sea and the rains and the sun, + Ye spread and span like the catholic man who hath mightily won + God out of knowledge, and good out of infinite pain, + And sight out of blindness, and purity out of a stain. + + +It was these mighty marshes--this ample sweep of grass, of sea and +sky--this vast earthly and heavenly spaciousness that must forever stand +to all New Englanders as a background to the powerful personality who +chose it as his own home. Daniel Webster, when his eyes first turned to +this infinite reach of largeness, instinctively knew it as the place +where his splendid senses would find satisfaction, and his splendid mind +would soar into an even loftier freedom. Webster loved Marshfield with +an intensity that made it peculiarly his own. Lanier, in language more +intricate and tropical, exclaimed of his "dim sweet" woods: "Ye held me +fast in your heart, and I held you fast in mine." Webster wielded the +vital union between his nature and that of the land not only by profound +sentiment, but by a vigorous physical grappling with the soil. + +Is it that vivid natures unconsciously seek an environment +characteristic of them? Or are they, perhaps, inevitably forced to +create such an environment wherever they find themselves? Both facts +seem true in this case. This wide world of marsh and sea is not only +beautifully expressive of one who plunged himself into a rich communion +with the earth, with her full harvests and blooded cattle, with her +fruitful brooks and lakes; but it is still, after more than half a +century, vibrant with the spirit of the man who dwelt there. + +We of another generation--and a generation before whom so many +portentous events and figures have passed--find it hard to realize the +tremendous magnetism and brilliancy of a man who has been so long dead, +or properly to estimate the high historical significance of such a life. +The human attribute which is the most immediately impelling in direct +intercourse--personality--is the most elusive to preserve. If Webster's +claim to remembrance rested solely upon that attribute, he would still +be worthy of enduring fame. But his gifts flowered at a spectacular +climax of national affairs and won thereby spectacular prominence. That +these gifts were to lose something of their pristine repute before the +end infuses, from a dramatic point of view, a contrasted and heightened +luster to the period of their highest glory. + +Let us, casual travelers of a later and more careless day, walk now +together over the place which is the indestructible memorial of a great +man, and putting aside the measuring-stick of criticism--the sign of +small natures--try to live for an hour in the atmosphere which was the +breath of life to one who, if he failed greatly, also succeeded greatly, +and whose noble achievement it was not only to express, but to vivify a +love for the Union which, in its hour of supreme trial, became its +triumphant force. + +Could we go back--not quite a hundred years--a little off the direct +route to Plymouth, on a site overlooking the broad marshes of Green +Harbor and the sea, where there now stands a boulder erected in 1914 by +the Boston University Law School Association, we would find a +comfortable, rambling house, distinguished among its New England +neighbors by an easy and delightful hospitality--the kind of hospitality +we call "Southern." There are many people in the house, on the veranda +and lawns: a hostess of gentle mien and manners; children attractive in +the spontaneity of those who continually and happily associate with +their elders; several house guests (yonder is Audubon the great +naturalist, here is an office-seeker from Boston, and that chap over +there, so very much at home, can be no other than Peter Harvey, +Webster's fond biographer). Callers there are, also, as is shown by the +line of chaises and saddle horses waiting outside, and old Captain +Thomas and his wife, from whom the place was bought, and who still +retain their original quarters, move in and out like people who consider +themselves part of the family. It is a heterogeneous collection, yet by +no means an awkward one, and every one is chatting with every one else +with great amiability. It is late afternoon: the master of the house has +been away all day, and now his guests and his family are glancing in the +direction from which he may be expected. For although every one is +comfortable and properly entertained, yet the absence of the host +creates an inexpressible emptiness; it is as if everything were +quiescent--hardly breathing--merely waiting until he comes. Suddenly the +atmosphere changes; it is charged with a strong vibrant quality; +everything--all eyes, all interest--is instantly focused on the figure +which has appeared among them. He is in fisherman's clothes--this +newcomer--attired with a brave eye for the picturesque, in soft hat and +flowing tie; but there are no fisherman's clothes, no, nor any other +cloakings which can conceal the resilient dignity of his bearing, his +impressive build, and magnificent, kingly head. Sydney Smith called +Webster a cathedral; and surely there must have been something in those +enormous, burning eyes, that craglike brow, that smote even the most +superficial observer into an admiration which was almost awe. + +Many men--perhaps even the majority--whatever their genius in the outer +world, in their own houses are either relegated to--or choose--the +inconspicuous rôle of mere masculine appendages. But here we have a man +who is superbly the host: he knows and welcomes every guest and caller; +he personally supervises the disposal of their baggage and the selection +of their chambers; he himself has ordered the dinner--mutton which he +has raised, fish which he has caught--and it is being cooked by Monica, +the Southern slave whose freedom he purchased for her. He carves at +table, priding himself on his dispatch and nicety, and keeps an eye on +the needs of every one at the long board. Everything, every one in the +house is irresistibly drawn about this magnetic center which dominates +by its innate power of personality more than by any deliberate +intention. His children worship him; his wife idolizes him; each man and +woman on the place regards him with admiring affection. And in such +congenial atmosphere he expands, is genial, kindly, delightful. But +devoted as he is to his home, his family, and his friends, and charming +as he shows himself with them, yet it is not until we see him striding +over the farm which he has bought that we see the Daniel Webster who is +destined to live most graphically in the memories of those who like to +think of great men in those intimate moments which are most personally +characteristic of them. + +We must rise early in the morning if we would accompany him on his day's +round. He himself is up at sunrise, for the sunrise is to him signal to +new life. As he once wrote: "Among all our good people not one in a +thousand sees the sun rise once a year. They know nothing of the +morning. Their idea of it is that part of the day which comes along +after a cup of coffee and a beefsteak or a piece of toast. With them +morning is not a new issuing of light, a new bursting forth of the sun, +a new waking up of all that has life from a sort of temporary death, to +behold again the works of God, the heavens and the earth.... The first +faint streak of light, the earliest purpling of the east which the lark +springs up to greet, and the deeper and deeper coloring into orange and +red, till at length the 'glorious sun is seen, regent of the day'--this +they never enjoy, for they never see it." + +So four o'clock finds Webster up and dressed and bound for the little +study in his garden (the only building spared by the fire which +destroyed the house in 1878) and beginning his correspondence. If he has +no secretary he writes himself, and by time breakfast is announced +twenty letters, all franked and sealed, are ready to be posted. + +"Now," he says, smiling benignantly down the long breakfast table of +family and friends, "my day's work is done--I have nothing to do but +fish." + +Although this is, indeed, his favorite sport, and there is hardly a +brook or lake or pond within a radius of twenty miles which does not +bear the charmed legend of having been one of his favorite fishing +grounds, he does not spend his days in amusement, like the typical +country gentleman. Farming to him, the son of a yeoman, is no mere +possession of a fine estate, but the actual participation in ploughing, +planting, and haying. His full animal spirits find relief in such labor. +We cannot think of any similar example of such prodigious mental and +physical energy. Macaulay was a great parliamentary orator, but he was +the most conventional of city men; Burke and Chatham had no strength for +such strenuousness after their professional toil. But Webster loved to +know and to put his hand to every detail of farming and stock-raising. +When he first came to Marshfield the soil was thin and sandy. It was he +who instituted scientific farming in the region, teaching the natives +how to fertilize with kelp which was easily obtainable from the sea, and +also with the plentiful small herring or menhaden. He taught them the +proper care of the soil, and the rotation of crops. This passionate love +of the earth was an integral part of the man. As the force of his mind +drew its power, not from mere rhetorical facility, but from fundamental +principles, so his magnificent body, like that of the fabled Antæus, +seemed to draw perennial potency from contact with the earth. To acquire +land--he owned nearly eighteen hundred acres at the time of his +death--and to cultivate it to the highest possible degree of +productiveness was his intense delight. The farm which he purchased from +Captain Thomas grew to an estate of two or three dozen buildings, +outhouses, tenant houses, a dairyman's cottage, fisherman's house, +agricultural offices, and several large barns. We can imagine that he +shows us all of these things--explaining every detail with enthusiasm +and accuracy, occasionally digressing upon the habits of birds or fish, +the influence of tides and currents, the changes of sky and wind. All +natural laws are fascinating to him--inspiring his imagination and +uplifting his spirit--and it is these things, never politics or +business, which he discusses in his hours of freedom. He himself +supervises the planting and harvesting and slaughtering here and on his +other farm at Franklin--the family homestead--even when obliged to be +absent, or even when temporarily residing in Washington and hard pressed +with the cares of his office as Secretary of State. + +Those painters who include a parrot in the portrait of some fine +frivolous lady do so to heighten their interpretation of character. We +all betray our natures, by the creatures we instinctively gather about +us. One might know that Jefferson at Monticello would select high-bred +saddle horses as his companions; that Cardinal Richelieu would find no +pet so soothing, so alluring, as a soft-stepping cat; that Charles I +would select the long-haired spaniel. So it is entirely in the picture +that of all the beasts brought under human yoke, that great oxen, slow, +solemn, strong, would appeal to the man whose searching eyes were never +at rest except when they swept a wide horizon; whose mind found its +deepest satisfaction in noble languages, the giant monuments of +literature and art, and whose soul best stretched its wings beside the +limitless sea and under the limitless sky. Webster was fond of all +animal life; he felt himself part of its free movement. Guinea hens, +peacocks, ducks, flocks of tamed wild geese, dogs, horses--these were +all part of the Marshfield place, but there was within the breast of the +owner a special responsiveness to great herds of cattle, and especially +fine oxen, the embodiment of massive power. So fond was he of these +favorite beasts of his, that often on his arrival home he would fling +his bag into the hall without even entering the house, and hasten to the +barn to see that they were properly tied up for the night. As he once +said to his little son, as they both stood by the stalls and he was +feeding the oxen with ears of corn from an unhusked pile lying on the +barn floor: "I would rather be here than in the Senate," adding, with +his famous smile, "I think it is better company." So we may be sure as +we walk in our retrospect about the farm with him--he never speaks of it +as an "estate" but always as a farm--he will linger longest where the +Devon oxen, the Alderneys, Herefordshire, and Ayrshire are grazing, and +that the eyes which Carlyle likened to anthracite furnaces will glow and +soften. Twenty years from now he will gaze out upon his oxen once again +from the window before which he has asked to be carried, as he lies +waiting for death. Weariness, disease, and disappointment have weakened +the elasticity of his spirit, and as they pass--his beloved oxen, +slowly, solemnly--what procession of the years passes with them! Years +of full living, of generous living; of deep emotions; of glory; years of +ambition; of bereavement; of grief. It is all to pass--these happy days +at Marshfield; the wife he so fondly cared for; the children he so +deeply cherished. Sycophants are to fill, in a measure, the place of +friends, the money which now flows in so freely is to entangle and +ensnare him; the lofty aspiration which now inspires him is to +degenerate into a presidential ambition which will eat into his soul. +But to-day let us, as long as we may, see him as he is in the height of +his powers. Let us walk with him under the trees which he planted. Those +large elms, gracefully silhouetted against the house, were placed there +with his own hands at the birth of his son Edward and his daughter +Julia, and he always refers to them gently as "brother" and "sister." To +plant a tree to mark an event was one of his picturesque customs--an +unconscious desire, perhaps, to project himself into the future. I am +quite sure, as we accompany him, he will expatiate on the improvement in +the soil which he has effected; that he will point out eagerly not only +the domestic but the wild animals about the place; and that he will +stand for a few moments on the high bluff overlooking the sea and the +marshes and let the wind blow through his dark hair. He is carefully +dressed--he always dresses to fit the occasion--and to-day, as he stands +in his long boots reaching to the knee and adorned with a tassel, his +bell-crowned beaver hat in his hand, and in his tight pantaloons and +well-cut coat--a magnificent specimen of virile manhood--the words of +Lanier, although written at a later date, and about marshes far more +lush than these New England ones, beat upon our ears: + +[Illustration] + + "Oh, what is abroad in the marsh and the terminal sea? + Somehow my soul seems suddenly free + From the weighing of fate and the sad discussion of sin, + By the length and the breadth and the sweep of the marshes of Glynn." + +On the way back he will show us the place where three of his favorite +horses are buried, for he does not sell the old horses who have done him +good service, but has them buried "with the honors of war"--that is, +standing upright, with their halters and shoes on. Above one of them he +has placed the epitaph: + + "Siste Viator! + Viator te major his sistit." + +I do not know if, as we return to the house where already a fresh group +of visitors has arrived, he will pause by a corner of the yard set off +by an iron fence. He has chosen this spot as the place where he shall +lie, and here, in time, are to repose under the wide and simple vault +of sky the wife and children whose going before is to bring such +desolation. It is a place supremely fitting for that ample spirit which +knew for its own the nobility of large spaces, and the grandeur of +repose. + +The life of Daniel Webster is one of the most dramatic and touching of +any of our great men. He was an orator of such solid thought and chaste +eloquence that even now, without the advantage of the marvelously rich +and flexible voice and the commanding presence that made each word burn +like a fire, even without this incalculable personal interpretation, his +speeches remain as a permanent part of our literature, and will so long +as English oratory is read. He was a brilliant lawyer--the foremost of +his day--and his statesmanship was of equal rank. In private life he was +a peculiarly devoted and tender son, husband, father, and friend. That +he should have become saddened by domestic losses and somewhat vitiated +by flattery were, perhaps, inevitable. He was bitterly condemned--more +bitterly by his contemporaries than by those who now study his words and +work--for lowering his high standard in regard to slavery. It is +impossible to refute the accusation, at the end of his life, of a +carelessness approaching unscrupulousness in money matters. His personal +failings, which were those of a man of exceptional vitality, have been +heavily--too heavily--emphasized. He ate and drank and spent money +lavishly; he had a fine library; he loved handsome plate and good +service and good living. He was generous; he was kind. That he was +susceptible to adulation and, after the death of his first wife, drifted +into associations less admirable than those of his earlier years, are +the dark threads of a woof underrunning a majestic warp. He adored his +country with a fervor that savors of the heroic, and when he said, +"There are no Alleghanies in my politics," he spoke the truth. The +intense passion for the soil which animated him at Marshfield was only a +fragment of that higher passion for his country--feeling never tainted +by sectionalism or local prejudice. It was this profound love for the +Union, coupled with his surpassing gift of eloquence in expressing that +love and inspiring it in all who heard him, that distinguishes him for +all time. + +There are other memorable things about Marshfield. Governor Edward +Winslow, who was sent to England to represent the Plymouth and +Massachusetts Bay Colonies, and whose son Josiah was the first native +Governor of the Colony, may both be called Marshfield men. Peregrine +White, the first white child born in this country, lies in the Winslow +Burying Ground. One of the most singular changes on our coast occurred +in this vicinity when in one night the "Portland Breeze" closed up the +mouth of the South River and four miles up the beach opened up the mouth +of the North River, making an entrance three quarters of a mile wide +between Third and Fourth Cliff. + +These and many other men and events of Marshfield are properly given a +place in the history of New England, but the special glory of this spot +will always be that Daniel Webster chose to live, chose to die, and +chose to be buried under the vast vault of her skyey spaces, within the +sound of her eternal sea. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +DUXBURY HOMES + +[Illustration] + + +There are certain places whose happy fortune seems to be that they are +always specially loved and specially sought by the children of men. From +that memorable date in 1630 when a little group of the Plymouth +colonists asked permission to locate across the bay at "Duxberie" until +now, when the summer colony alone has far surpassed that of the original +settlers, this section of the coast--with its lovely six-mile beach, its +high bluffs, and its pleasant hills and pasture lands, upon which are +found quite a southern flora, unique in this northern latitude--has been +thoroughly frequented and enjoyed. + +There is no more graphic index to the caliber of a people than the +houses which they build, and the first house above all others which we +must associate with this spot is the Standish cottage, built at the foot +of Captain's Hill by Alexander Standish, the son of Myles, partly from +materials from his father's house, which was burned down, but whose +cellar is still visible. This long, low, gambrel-roofed structure, with +a broad chimney showing the date of 1666, was a long way ahead of the +first log cabins erected by the Pilgrims--farther than most of us +realize, accustomed as we are to glass instead of oiled paper in +windows; to shingles, and not thatch for roofs. It is fitting that this +ancient and charming dwelling should be associated with one of the most +romantic, most striking, names in the Plymouth Colony. There are few +more picturesque personalities in our early history than Myles Standish. +Small in stature, fiery in spirit, a terror to the Indians, and a strong +arm to the Pilgrims, there is no doubt that his determination to live in +Duxbury--which he named for Duxborough Hall, his ancestral home in +Lancashire--went far in obtaining for it a separate incorporation and a +separate church. This was the first definite offshoot from the Plymouth +Colony, and was accompanied by the usual maternal fears. While he could +not forbid them going to Duxbury to settle, yet, when they asked for a +separate incorporation and church, Bradford granted it most unwillingly. +He voiced the general sentiment when he wrote that such a separation +presaged the ruin of the church "& will provoke y^e Lord's displeasure +against them." + +However, such unkind predictions in no wise bothered the sturdy little +group who moved over to the new location, needing room for their cattle +and their gardens, and most of all a sense of freedom from the +restrictions of the mother colony. The son of Elder Brewster went, and +in time the Elder himself, and so did John Alden and his wife Priscilla, +whose courtship has been so well told by Longfellow that it needs no +further embellishing here. On the grassy knoll where John and Priscilla +built their home in 1631, their grandson built the cottage which now +stands--the property of the Alden Kindred Association. John Alden seems +to have been an attractive young fellow--it is easy to see why Priscilla +Mullins preferred him to the swart, truculent widower--but from our +point of view John Alden's chief claim to fame is that he was a friend +of Myles Standish. + +Let us, as we pay our respects to Duxbury, pause for a moment and recall +some of the courageous adventures, some of the brave traits and some of +the tender ones, which make up our memory of this doughty military +commander. In the first place, we must remember that he was never a +member of the church of the Pilgrims: there is even a question if he +were not--like the rest of his family in Lancashire--a Roman Catholic; +and this immediately places him in a position of peculiar distinction. +From the first his mission was not along ecclesiastical lines, but along +military and civil ones. The early histories are full of his intrepid +deeds: there was never an expedition too dangerous or too difficult to +daunt him. He would attack with the utmost daring the hardest or the +humblest task. He was absolutely loyal to the interest of the Colony, +and during that first dreadful winter when he was among the very few who +were not stricken with sickness, he tended the others day and night, +"unceasing in his loving care." As in many audacious characters this +sweeter side of his nature does not seem to have been fully appreciated +by his contemporaries, and we have the letter in which Robinson, that +"most learned, polished and modest spirit," writes to Bradford, and +warns him to have care about Standish. He loves him right well, and is +persuaded that God has given him to them in mercy and for much good, if +he is used aright; but he fears that there may be wanting in him "that +tenderness of the life of man (made after God's image) which is meet." +This warning doubtless flattered Standish, but Robinson's later +criticism of his methods at Weymouth hurt the little captain cruelly. He +seems to have cherished an intense affection for the Leyden pastor, +such as valorous natures often feel for meditative ones, and that +Robinson died before he--Standish--could justify himself was a deep +grief to the soldier to whom mere physical hardships were as nothing. We +do not know a great deal about this relationship between the two men: in +this as in so many cases the intimate stories of these men and women, +"also their love, and their hatred, and their envy is now perished." But +we do know that thirty years later when the gallant captain lay dying he +wrote in his will: "I give three pounds to Mercy Robinson, whom I +tenderly love for her grandfather's sake." Surely one feels the touching +eloquence of this brief sentence the fitting close of a life not only +heroic in action, but deeply sensitive in sentiment. + +He died on his farm in Duxbury in 1656 when he was seventy-three, and +the Myles Standish Monument on Captain's Hill, three hundred and ten +feet above the bay, is no more conspicuous than his knightly and tender +life among the people he elected to serve. His two wives, and also +Priscilla and John Alden, for whom he entertained such lively love and +equally lively fury, all are buried here--the Captain's last home +fittingly marked by four cannon and a sturdy boulder. + +Not only for Standish and Alden is Duxbury famous. The beloved William +Brewster himself moved to this new settlement, and up to a few years ago +the traces of the whitewood trees which gave the name of "Eagle's Nest" +to his house could be distinguished. One son--Love--lived with the +venerable elder, who was a widower, and his other son Jonathan owned the +neighboring farm. In the sight of the Plymouth Colony--their first home +in the new land--the three men often worked together, cutting trees and +planting. + +Others of the original Mayflower company came too, leaving traces of +themselves in such names as Blackfriars Brook, Billingsgate, and +Houndsditch--names which they brought from Old England. + +The homes which these pioneers so laboriously and so lovingly +wrought--what were they? How did they compare with the modern home and +household? In Mr. Sheldon's "History of Deerfield" we find such a +charming and vivid picture of home life in the early days--and one that +applies with equal accuracy to Duxbury--that we cannot do better than +copy it here: + +"The ample kitchen was the center of the family life, social and +industrial. Here around the rough table, seated on rude stools or +benches, all partook of the plain and sometimes stinted fare. A glance +at the family gathered here after nightfall on a winter's day may prove +of interest. + +"After a supper of bean porridge or hasty pudding and milk of which all +partake in common from a great pewter basin, or wooden bowl, with spoons +of wood, horn or pewter; after a reverent reading of the Bible, and +fervent supplications to the Most High for prayer and guidance; after +the watch was set on the tall mount, and the vigilant sentinel began +pacing his lonely beat, the shutters were closed and barred, and with a +sense of security the occupations of the long winter evening began. +Here was a picture of industry enjoined alike by the law of the land and +the stern necessities of the settlers. All were busy. Idleness was a +crime. On the settle, or a low armchair, in the most sheltered nook, sat +the revered grandam--as a term of endearment called granny--in red +woolen gown, and white linen cap, her gray hair and wrinkled face +reflecting the bright firelight, the long stocking growing under her +busy needles, while she watched the youngling of the flock in the cradle +by her side. The good wife, in linsey-woolsey short-gown and red +petticoat steps lightly back and forth in calf pumps beside the great +wheel, or poising gracefully on the right foot, the left hand extended +with the roll or bat, while with a wheel finger in the other, she gives +the wheel a few swift turns for a final twist to the long-drawn thread +of wool or tow. The continuous buzz of the flax wheels, harmonizing with +the spasmodic hum of the big wheel, shows that the girls are preparing a +stock of linen against their wedding day. Less active and more fitful +rattled the quill wheel, where the younger children are filling quills +for the morrow's weaving. + +"Craftsmen are still scarce, and the yeoman must depend largely on his +own skill and resources. The grandsire, and the goodman, his son, in +blue woolen frocks, buckskin breeches, long stockings, and clouted +brogans with pewter buckles, and the older boys in shirts of brown tow, +waistcoat and breeches of butternut-colored woolen homespun, surrounded +by piles of white hickory shavings, are whittling out with keen Barlow +jack-knives implements for home use: ox-bows and bow-pins, axe-helves, +rakestales, forkstales, handles for spades and billhooks, wooden +shovels, flail staff and swingle, swingling knives, or pokes and hog +yokes for unruly cattle and swine. The more ingenious, perhaps, are +fashioning buckets or powdering tubs, or weaving skeps, baskets or +snowshoes. Some, it may be, sit astride the wooden shovel, shelling corn +on its iron-shod edge, while others are pounding it into samp or hoiminy +in the great wooden mortar. + +"There are no lamps or candles, but the red light from the burning pine +knots on the hearth glows over all, repeating, in fantastic pantomime on +the brown walls and closed shutters, the varied activities around it. +These are occasionally brought into higher relief by the white flashes, +as the boys throw handfuls of hickory shavings onto the forestick, or +punch the back log with the long iron peel, while wishing they had as +'many shillings as sparks go up the chimney.' Then, the smoke-stained +joists and boards of the ceiling with the twisted rings of pumpkin +strings or crimson peppers and festoons of apple, drying on poles hung +beneath; the men's hats, the crook-necked squashes, the skeins of thread +and yarn hanging in bunches on the wainscot; the sheen of the pewter +plates and basins, standing in rows on the shelves of the dresser; the +trusty firelock with powder horn, bandolier, and bullet pouch, hanging +on the summertree, and the bright brass warming-pan behind the bedroom +door--all stand revealed more clearly for an instant, showing the +provident care for the comfort and safety of the household. Dimly seen +in the corners of the room are baskets in which are packed hands of flax +from the barn, where, under the flaxbrake, the swingling knives and the +coarse hackle, the shives and swingling tow have been removed by the +men; to-morrow the more deft manipulations of the women will prepare +these bunches of fiber for the little wheel, and granny will card the +tow into bats, to be spun into tow yarn on the big wheel. All quaff the +sparkling cider or foaming beer from the briskly circulating pewter mug, +which the last out of bed in the morning must replenish from the barrel +in the cellar." + + * * * * * + +One notices the frequent reference to beer in these old chronicles. The +tea, over which the colonists were to take such a dramatic stand in a +hundred years, had not yet been introduced into England, and neither had +coffee. Forks had not yet made their appearance. In this admirable +picture Mr. Sheldon does not mention one of the evening industries +which was peculiarly characteristic of the Plymouth Colony. This was +the making of clapboards, which with sassafras and beaver skins, +constituted for many years the principal cargo sent back to England from +the Colony. Another point--the size of the families. The mother of +Governor William Phips had twenty-one sons and five daughters, and the +Reverend John Sherman had six children by his first wife and twenty by +his second. These were not uncommon figures in the early life of New +England; and with so many numbers within itself the home life was a +center for a very complete and variegated industrial life. Surely it is +a long cry from these kitchen fireplaces--so large that often a horse +had to be driven into the kitchen dragging the huge back log--these +immense families, to the kitchenette and one-child family of to-day! + +This, then, was the old Duxbury: the Duxbury of long, cold winters, +privations, and austerity. Down by the shore to-day is the new +Duxbury--a Duxbury of automobiles, of business men's trains, of gay +society at Powder Point, where in the winter is the well-known boys' +school--a Duxbury of summer cottages, white and green along the shore, +green and brown under the pines. Of these summer homes many are new: the +Wright estate is one of the finest on the South Shore, and the pleasant, +spacious dwelling distinguished by its handsome hedge of English privet +formerly belonged to Fanny Davenport, the actress. Others are old +houses, very tastefully, almost affectionately remodeled by those for +whom the things of the past have a special lure. These remodeled +cottages are, perhaps, the prettiest of all. Those very ancient +landmarks, sagging into pathetic disrepair, present a sorrowful, albeit +an artistic, silhouette against the sky. But these "new-old" cottages, +with ruffled muslin curtains at the small-paned, antique windows, brave +with a shining knocker on the green-painted front door, and gay with +old-fashioned gardens to the side or in the rear--these are a delight to +all, and an honor to both past and present. + +Surely the fair town of Duxbury, which so smilingly enticed the +Pilgrims across the bay to enjoy her sunny beach and rolling pasture +lands, must be happy to-day as she was then to feel her ground so deeply +tilled, and still to be so daintily adorned with homes and gardens and +with laughing life. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +KINGSTON AND ITS MANUSCRIPTS + +[Illustration] + + +On a charming eminence at two crossroads, delicately dappled by fine elm +shade and clasped by an antique grapevine, rests the old Bradford house. +From the main road half a mile away you will see only the slanting roof, +half concealed by rolling pasture land, but if you will trouble to turn +off from the main road, and if you will not be daunted by the +unsavoriness of the immediate neighborhood, you will find it quite worth +your while. The house presents only a casual side to the street--one +fancies it does not take much interest in its upstart neighbors--but +imagination makes us believe that it regards with brooding tenderness +the lovely tidal river which winds away through the marshes to the sea. +Interesting as the house is for its architectural features and for its +delightful location--despite the nearness of the passing train--yet it +is on neither of these points that its fame rests. + +In this house, built in 1674, and once belonging to Major John Bradford, +the grandson of the Governor, was preserved for many years one of the +most valuable American manuscripts in existence, and one fated to the +most romantic adventures in the annals of Lost and Found. + +Bradford's "History of the Plymouth Plantation" is our sole source of +authentic information for the period 1606-46. It is the basis for all +historical study of the early life of the Pilgrims in this country, and +when we look at the quiet roof of the Bradford house to-day and realize +how narrowly the papers--for they remained in manuscript form for two +hundred years--escaped being lost forever, our minds travel again over +the often told story. + +The manuscript, penned in Governor Bradford's fine old hand, in a folio +with a parchment back, and with some childish scribblings by little +Mercy Bradford on the cover, passed at the Governor's death to his son, +and at his death to his son. It reposed in the old house at which we are +now looking until 1728, doubtless regarded as something valuable, but +not in the least appreciated at its full and peculiar worth. When Major +John Bradford lent it to the Reverend Thomas Prince to assist him in his +"Chronological History of New England," he was merely doing what he had +done many times before. In these days of burglar-proof safes and fire +protection it makes us shiver to think of this priceless holograph +passed from hand to hand in such a casual manner. But it seems to have +escaped any mishap under Dr. Prince, who deposited it eventually in the +library of the Old South Church. Here it remained for half a century, +still in manuscript form and frequently referred to by scholars. Thomas +Hutchinson used it in compiling his "History of Massachusetts Bay," and +Mather used it also. At the time of the Revolution the Old South was +looted, and this document (along with many others) disappeared +absolutely. No trace whatever could be found of it: the most exhaustive +search was in vain, and scholars and historians mourned for a loss that +was irreparable. And then, after half a century, after the search had +been entirely abandoned, it was discovered, quite by chance, by one who +fortunately knew its value, tucked into the Library of Fulham Palace in +London. After due rejoicing on the American side and due deliberation on +the English side of the water, it was very properly and very politely +returned to this country in 1897. Now it rests after its career of +infinite hazard, in a case in the Boston State House, elaborately +protected from fire and theft, from any accidental or premeditated harm, +and Kingston must content itself with a copy in Pilgrim Hall at +Plymouth. + +Kingston's history commences with a manuscript and continues in the same +form. If you would know the legends, the traditions, the events which +mark this ancient town, you will have to turn to records, diaries, +memoranda, memorial addresses and sermons, many of them never published. + +It is rather odd that this serene old place, discovered only two or +three days after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, is so devoid +of a printed career. As soon as the Pilgrims had explored the spot, they +put themselves on record as having "a great liking to plant in it" +instead of in Plymouth. But they decided against it because it lay too +far from their fishing and was "so encompassed with woods," that they +feared danger from the savages. It was very soon settled, however, and +remained as the north end of Plymouth for a hundred and six years, until +1726. Governor Bradford writes, in regard to its colonization: + +"Y^e people of y^e plantation begane to grow in their outward estate ... +and as their stocks increased and y^e increase vendible, ther was no +longer any holding them togeather, but now they must of necessitoe goe +to their great lots: they could not otherwise keep catle; and having +oxen grown they must have land for plowing and tillage. And no man now +thought he could live except he had catle and a great deal of ground to +keep them: all striving to increase their stocks. By which means they +were scattered all over y^e bay, quickly, and y^e towne, in which they +had lived compactly till now [1632] was left very thine, and in a short +time almost desolate." + +Governor Bradford seems to deplore this moving out of Plymouth, but as a +matter of fact he was among the first to go, and his estate on Jones +River comprised such a goodly portion of what is now Kingston that when +he died he was the richest man in the Colony! A boulder marks the place +which he, with that unerring eye for a fine view which distinguished the +early settlers, chose for his estate. From here one catches a glimpse of +water, open fields, trees, the Myles Standish Monument to the left, the +sound of the passing automobiles behind. The distant smokestacks would +be unfamiliar to Governor Bradford's eye, but the fragrant Kingston air +which permeates it all would greet him as sweetly to-day as it did +three hundred years ago. + +Governor Bradford, who was Governor for thirty-seven years, was a man of +remarkable erudition. Cotton Mather says of him: "The Dutch tongue was +become almost as vernacular to him as the English; the French tongue he +could also manage; the Latin and the Greek he had mastered; but the +Hebrew he most of all studied." Therefore if the curious spelling of his +history strikes us as unscholarly, we must remember that at that time +there was no fixed standard for English orthography. Queen Elizabeth +employed seven different spellings for the word "sovereign" and +Leicester rendered his own name in eight different ways. It was by no +means a mark of illiteracy to spell not only unlike your neighbor, but +unlike yourself on the line previous. + +But it is more than quaint diction and fantastic spelling which +fascinates us as we turn over, not only the leaves of Bradford's famous +history, but the pile of fading records of various kinds of this once +prosperous shipbuilding town. The records of Kingston are valuable, not +only because they tell the tale of this particular spot, but because +they are delightfully typical of all the South Shore towns. The +yellowing diaries mention crude offenses, crude chastisements; give +scraps of genealogies as broken as the families themselves are now +broken and scattered; lament over one daughter of the Puritans who took +the veil in a Roman Catholic convent; sternly relate, in Rabelaisian +frankness, dark sins, punished with mediæval justice. In fact, these +righteous early colonists seemed to find a genuine satisfaction in +devising punishments, and in putting them into practice. We read that +the stocks (also called "bilbaos" because they were formerly +manufactured in Bilbao, in Spain) were first occupied by the man who had +made them, as the court decided that his charge for the work was +excessive! There were wooden cages in which criminals were confined and +exposed to public view; whipping-posts; cleft sticks for profane +tongues. Drunkenness was punished by disfranchisement; the blasphemer +and the heretics were branded with a hot iron. + +Let us look at some of these old records, not all of them as ferocious +as this, but interesting for the minutiæ which they preserve and which +makes it possible for us to reconstruct something of that atmosphere of +the past. It was ninety-six years after the settlement at Plymouth that +Kingston made its first request for a separation. It was not granted for +almost a decade, but from then on the ecclesiastical records furnish us +with a great deal of intimate and chatty material. For instance, we +learn in 1719 that Isaac Holmes was to have "20 shillings for sweeping, +opening and shutting of the doors and casements of the meeting house for +1 year," which throws some light upon sextons' salaries! + +The minute directions as to the placing of the pews in the meeting-house +(1720) contain a pungent element of personality. Major John Bradford is +"next to the pulpit stairs"; Elisha Bradford on the left "as you go in"; +Benjamin Eaton's place is "between minister's stairs and west door"; +while Peter West is ingloriously, and for what reason we know not, +relegated to the gallery "in the front, next to the stairs, behind the +women." + +It is significant to note (1728) that seats are built at each end above +the galleries for the Indians and negroes. + +Fish laws, rewards for killing wild cats, bickerings with the minister, +and brief mention of the death of many women at an early age--after +having given birth to an incredible number of children--fill up pages +and pages. + +The eye rests upon a resolution passed (1771) to "allow Benjamin Cook +the sum of 8 shillings for a coffin, and liquor at the funeral of James +Howland." They might not believe in prayers for the dead in those days, +but there was evidently no reason why the living should not receive some +cheer! + +How is this for the minister's salary? The Reverend Doctor Willis (1780) +is to receive eighty pounds a year, to be paid partly in Indian corn, +rye, pork, and beef. Ten cords of wood yearly are allowed him "until he +have a family, then twenty cords, are to be allowed, the said wood to +be delivered at his door." + +Mr. Levi Bradford agrees to make the whipping-post and stocks for nine +shillings, if the town will find the iron (1790). + +The wage paid for a day's labor on the highway (1791) was as follows: +For a day's labor by a man, 2 shillings, 8 pence; for a yoke of oxen, 2 +shillings; for a horse, 1 shilling, 6 pence; for a cart, 1 shilling, 4 +pence. One notes the prices are for an eight-hour day. + +However, the high cost of living began to make itself felt even then. +How else account for the statement (1796) that Mr. Parris, the +schoolmaster, has been allowed fifty shillings in addition to his salary +"considering the increase in the price of provisions"? + +There seems to have been a great celebration on the occasion of raising +the second meetinghouse in Kingston (1798). One old account reads: +"Booths were erected on the field opposite, and all kinds of liquor and +refreshment were sold freely." After the frame was up a procession was +formed of those who were employed in the raising, consisting of +carpenters, sailors, blacksmiths, etc., each taking some implement of +his trade such as axes, rules, squares, tackles and ropes. They walked +to the Great Bridge and back to the temporary building that had been +used for worship (the Quail Trap) while the new one was being planned. +Here they all had punch and an "hour or so of jollity." + +If the women's lives were conspicuously short, it was not so with the +men. Ebenezer Cobb, who died in 1801 in the one hundred and eighth year +of his age, had lived in no less than three centuries, having seen six +years in the seventeenth, the whole of the eighteenth, and a year of the +nineteenth. + +The minister's tax is separated from the other town taxes in 1812--thus +even in this little village is reflected the great movement of +separation of Church and State. In 1851 when we read of a Unitarian +church being built we realize that the Puritan régime is over in New +England. + +Thus with the assistance of the Pelegs and Hezekiahs, the Zadocks, +Ichabods, and Zenases--names which for some absurd and irreverent reason +suggest a picture puzzle--we manage to piece together scraps of the +Kingston of long ago. + +We must confess to some relief at the inevitable conclusion that such +study brings--namely, that the early settlers were not the unblemished +prigs and paragons tradition has so fondly branded them. They seem to +have been human enough--erring enough, if we take these records penned +by themselves. However, for any such iconoclastic observation it is +reassuring to have the judgment of so careful a historian as Charles +Francis Adams. He says: + +"That the earlier generations of Massachusetts were either more +law-abiding or more self-restrained than the later is a proposition +which accords neither with tradition nor with the reason of things. The +habits of those days were simpler than those of the present: they were +also essentially grosser...." + +He then gives a dozen pages or so of hitherto unpublished church +records, gathered from as many typical Massachusetts towns, which throw +an undeniable and unflattering light on the social habits of that early +period. As explicit and public confession before the church congregation +was enforced, these church records contain startlingly graphic +statements of drunkenness, blasphemy, stealing, and immorality in all +its various phases. + +There are countless church records which duplicate this one of the +ordination of a Massachusetts pastor in 1729: "6 Barrels and a half of +Cyder, 28 gallons of wine, 2 gallons of Brandy, and 4 of rum, loaf +sugar, lime juice and pipes," all, presumably, consumed at the time and +on the spot of the ordination. Even the most pessimistic must admit that +long before our prohibition era we had traveled far beyond such +practices. + +The immorality seems to have been the natural reaction from morbid +spiritual excitement induced by religious revivals. Poor Governor +Bradford never grasped this, and we find him lamenting (1642): +"Marvilous it may be to see and consider how some kind of wickedness did +grow and break forth here in a land where the same was much witnessed +against, and so narrowly looked on and severely punished when it was +known." + +We hear the same plaint from Jonathan Edwards a century later. + +It is well to honor the Pilgrims for their many stanch and admirable +qualities, but it is only fair to recall that the morbidity of their +religion made them less healthy-minded than we, and that many of their +practices, such as the well-recognized custom of "bundling," were +indications of a people holding far lower moral standards than ours. + +The old sermons, diaries, biographies, and records lie on dusty shelves +now, and few pause to read them, and in Kingston no one yet has gathered +them into a local history. There are other records traced, not in sand, +but on the soil that may also be read by any who pass. Some remnants of +the trenches and terraces dug by the quota of Arcadian refugees who +fell to Kingston's share after the pathetic flight from Nova Scotia may +still be seen--claimed by some to be the first irrigation attempt in +America. + +The old "Massachusetts Payth" which follows the road more or less +closely beyond Kingston is traced with difficulty and uncertainty in +Kingston itself, but there is another highway as clear to-day as it was +three hundred years ago. And this is the lovely tidal river, named after +the master of the Mayflower, up which used to come and go not only many +ships of commerce, but, in the evenings after life had become less +austere, boatloads of merry-makers from Plymouth and Duxbury to attend +the balls given at what was originally the King's Town. + +It has carried much traffic in its day, that river which now winds so +gracefully down to the sea, and which we see so well from the yard of +the old Bradford house. Down it floated the vessels made by Kingston +men, and out of it was dug much bog iron for the use of Washington's +artillery. + +Monk's Hill--which the old records call Mont's Hill Chase, a name +supposed to have been applied to a hunt in England--could tell a story +too, if one had ears to hear. The highest land in Kingston, during the +Revolution it was one of the points where a beacon fire was lighted to +alarm the town in case of invasion by the enemy. + +Kingston is not without history, although its manuscripts lie long +untouched upon library shelves, and its historic soil is tramped over by +unheeding feet. That the famous manuscript which was its greatest +historical contribution has been taken away from it, is no loss in the +truest sense of the word, for this monumental work, which belongs to no +one place, but to the country as a whole, is properly preserved at the +State House. + +Kingston seems amenable to this arrangement, just as she seems entirely +willing that Plymouth should claim the first century of her career. When +one is sure of one's heritage and beauty, one does not clamor for +recognition; one does not even demand a printed history. It is quality, +not quantity, that counts, and even if nothing more is ever written in +or about this dear old town, Kingston will have made a distinguished +contribution to American history and literature. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +PLYMOUTH + +[Illustration] + + +One of the favorite pictures of New Englanders, and one which hangs in +innumerable dining-rooms and halls, is by Boughton, the popular American +artist, and is named "The Return of the Mayflower." I suppose thousands +of New England children have gazed wonderingly at this picture, which, +contrary to the modern canons of art, "tells a story," and many of those +naïve minds have puzzled as to how those poor Pilgrims, who had no tea +or coffee or milk or starch, managed to appear so well fed and so +contented, and so marvelously neat and clean. The inexhaustible bag +which inevitably appeared at crucial moments in the career of "Swiss +Family Robinson" is nowhere mentioned in the early chronicles of the +Plymouth Plantation, and the precise manner in which a small vessel of a +hundred and eighty tons, carrying a hundred passengers, and all the +innumerable cradles, chairs, and highboys which have since flooded the +museums as "genuine relics" of that first voyage, could also have +brought sufficient washboards, soap, and flatirons to have kept the +charming costumes so immaculate is a mystery which will probably never +be solved--especially since the number of relics appears to increase +instead of diminish with the passage of time. + +However, that is a mere trifle. Mr. Boughton, in catching this touching +and dramatic moment in the history of the Plymouth Colony, has rendered +a graphic service to us all, and if we could stand upon the little +plateau on which this man and maid are standing, and could look out with +them--we should see--what should we see? + +We may, indeed, stand upon the little plateau--possibly it is no other +than the base of Cole's Hill, that pathetic spot on which the dead were +buried those first sad months, the ground above being leveled and +planted with corn lest the Indians should count the number of the +lost--and look out upon that selfsame harbor, but the sight which meets +our eyes will be a very different one from that which met theirs. Let +us, if we can, for the space of half an hour or so, imagine that we are +standing beside this Pilgrim man and maid, on the day on which Mr. +Boughton portrayed them. + +Instead of 1920 it is 1621. It is the 5th of April: the winter of +terrifying sicknesses and loss has passed; of the hundred souls which +left England the autumn previously more than a half have died. The +Mayflower which brought them all over, and which has remained in the +harbor all winter, is now, having made repairs and taking advantage of +the more clement weather, trimming her sails for the thirty-one days' +return voyage to England. They may return with her, if they wish, any +or all of the sturdy little band; they may leave the small, smoky log +cabins; the scanty fare of corn and fish; the harassing fear of the +Indians; they may leave the privations, the cramped quarters, and return +to civilized life--to friends and relatives, to blooming English +hedgerows and orderly English churches. But no one--no, not a single one +returns! They have thrown in their lot with the new country--the new +life. Their nearest civilized neighbors are the French of Nova Scotia, +five hundred miles to the north, and the English of Virginia five +hundred miles to the south. But they are undaunted. And yet--who can +doubt that as they gaze out upon the familiar sails--the last banner +between themselves and their ancestral home, and as they see them +sailing out and out until they sink below the verge of sea and sky, the +tears "rise in the heart and gather to the eyes" in "thinking of the +days that are no more." + +Three hundred years ago! The same harbor now as then, with the highland +of Cape Cod dimly outlined in the gray eastern horizon; the bluffs of +Manomet nearer on the right; opposite them, on the left, Duxbury Beach +comes down, and ends in the promontory which holds the Gurnet Lights. +Clarke's Island--already so named--lies as it does to-day, but save for +these main topographical outlines the Plymouth at which we are looking +in our imagination would be quite unrecognizable to us. + +There is a little row of houses--seven of them--that is all. Log cabins, +two-roomed, of the crudest build, thatched with wildgrass, the chinks +between the logs filled with clay, the floors made of split logs; +lighted at night with pieces of pitch pine. Each lot measures three rods +long and a rod and a half wide, and they run on either side of the +single street (the first laid out in New England, and ever afterward to +be known as Leyden Street), which, in its turn, is parallel to the Town +Brook. There is no glass in these cabin windows: oiled paper suffices; +the household implements are of the fewest. The most primitive modern +camping expedition is replete with luxuries of which this colony knows +nothing. They have no cattle of any kind, which means no milk or +butter; they have no poultry or eggs. Twenty-six acres of cultivated +ground--twenty-one of corn, the other five of wheat, rye, and +barley--have been quite enough for the twenty-one men and six boys (all +who were well enough to work) to handle, but it is not a great deal to +feed them all. At one end of the street stands the common house, twenty +feet square, where the church services are held; the store-house is near +the head of the pier; and at the top of what is now Burial Hill is the +timber fort, twenty by twenty, built the January before by Myles +Standish. In April, 1621, this is all there is to what is now the +prosperous town of Plymouth. + +And yet--not entirely. There are a few things left in the Plymouth of +to-day which were in the Plymouth of three hundred years ago. If our man +and maid should turn into Pilgrim Hall their eyes would fall upon some +of the selfsame objects which were familiar sights to them in 1621. +Those sturdy oaken chairs of Governor Carver, Elder Brewster, and +Edward Winslow; the square, hooded wooden cradle brought over by Dr. +Samuel Fuller; and the well-preserved reed one which rocked Peregrine +White, and whose quaint stanchness suggests the same Dutch influence +which characterizes the spraddling octagonal windmills--they would +quickly recognize all of these. Some of the books, too, chiefly +religious, some in classic tongues, William Bradford's Geneva Bible +printed in 1592, and others bearing the mark of 1615, would be well +known to them, although we must not take it for granted that the +lady--or the man either--can read. Well-worn the Bibles are, however, +and we need not think that lack of learning prevented any of the +Pilgrims from imbibing both the letter and spirit of the Book. Those who +could write were masters of a fine, flowing script that shames our +modern scrawl, as is well testified by the Patent of the Plymouth +Colony--the oldest state document in New England--as well as by the +final will and various deeds of Peregrine White, and many others. The +small, stiff baby shoes which encased the infant feet of Josiah +Winslow, the son of Governor Winslow and destined to be Governor +himself, are of a pattern familiar to our man and maid, as are the now +tarnished swords of Carver, Brewster, and Standish. Probably they have +puzzled, as we are still doing, over the Kufic or Arabic inscriptions on +the last. The monster kettle and generous pewter plate brought over by +the doughty Captain would be too well known to them to attract their +attention, as would be the various tankards and goblets, and the +beautiful mortar and pestle brought over by Winslow. But the two-tined +fork they would regard with curiosity, for forks were not used, even in +England, until 1650. The teapots, too, which look antiquated enough to +us, would fill them with wonder, for tea was practically unknown in both +colony and mother country until 1657. Those fragments of rude +agricultural implements which we treasure would not interest our man and +maid for whom they are ordinary sights, and neither would they regard +with the same historical interest that moves us the bits of stone from +the Scrooby Manor in England, the bricks from the old pier at Delft +Haven in Holland, or the piece of carved pew-back from the old church at +Scrooby. Possibly our Pilgrim maid is one of the few who can write, and +if so, her fingers have doubtless fashioned a sampler as exquisite as +that of Lora Standish, whose meek docility and patient workmanship are +forever preserved in her cross-stitched words. + +From all around the walls of Pilgrim Hall look down fine, stern old +portraits, real and imaginary, of the early colonists. Modern critics +may bicker over the authenticity of the white bull on which Priscilla +Alden is taking her wedding trip; they may quarrel over the fidelity of +the models and paintings of the Mayflower, and antiquarians may +diligently unearth bits of bone to substantiate their pet theories. Our +man and maid could tell us all, but, alas, their voices are so far away +we cannot hear them. They will never speak the words which will settle +any of the oft-disputed points, and, unfortunately, they will leave us +forever to argue about the truth of the famous Plymouth Rock. + +To present the well-worn story of Plymouth Rock from an angle calculated +to rouse even a semblance of fresh interest is comparable to offering a +well-fed man a piece of bread, and expecting him to be excited over it +as a novelty. Bread is the staff of life, to be sure, but it is also +accepted as matter of course in the average diet, and the story of +Plymouth Rock is part and parcel of every school-book and guide-book in +the country. The distinguished, if somewhat irreverent, visitor, who, +after being reduced to partial paralysis by the oft-repeated tale, +ejaculated fervently that he wished the rock had landed on the Pilgrims +instead of the Pilgrims on the rock, voiced the first original remark +about this historic relic which has refreshed our ears for many years. +However, as Americans we are thoroughly imbued with the theory on which +our advertising is based. Although it would seem that every housekeeper +in the land had been kept fully informed for forty years of the +advantages incident to the use of a certain soap, the manufacturers +still persist in reciting these benefits. And why? Because new +housekeepers come into existence with each new day. So, if there be any +man who comes to Plymouth who does not know the story of Plymouth Rock, +it is here set down for him, as accurately and briefly as possible. + +This rock--which is an oval, glacial boulder of about seven tons--was +innocently rearing its massive, hoary head from the water one day in +December, 1620, as it had done for several thousand years previously in +unmolested oblivion. While engaged in this ponderous but harmless +occupation it was sighted by a boatful of men and women--the first who +had ever chosen to land on this particular part of the coast. The rock +presented a moderately dry footing, and they sailed up to it, and a +charming young woman, attired, according to our amiable painter, in the +cleanest and freshest of aprons and the most demure of caps, set a +daintily shod foot upon it and leaped lightly to shore. This was Mary +Chilton, and she was promptly followed by an equally trig young +man--John Alden. Thus commenced the founding of Plymouth Colony, and +thus was sown the seed of innumerable pictures, poems, stories, and +sermons. + +Now the Pilgrims themselves, in none of their various accounts, ever +mention the incident of the landing described above, or the rock. In +fact they are so entirely silent about it that historians--besides +discrediting the pretty part about Mary Chilton and John Alden, in the +brusque fashion characteristic of historians--have pooh-poohed the whole +story, arguing that the rock was altogether too far away from the land +to be a logical stepping-place, and referring to the only authentic +record of that first landing, which merely reads: "They sounded y^e +harbor & founde it fitt for shipping, and marched into y^e land & found +diverse cornfeilds & little running brooks, a place fitt for situation: +at least it was y^e best they could find." The Pilgrims, then, were +quite oblivious of the rock, the historians are entirely skeptical +concerning it, and the following generation so indifferent to the +tradition which was gradually formulating, that in the course of events +it was half-covered with a wharf, and used as a doorstep to a warehouse. + +This was an ignominious position for a magnificent free boulder which +had been a part of the untrammeled sea and land for centuries, but this +lowly occupation was infinitely less trying than the fate which was +awaiting. At the time the wharf was suggested, the idea that the rock +was the actual landing-place of the first colonists had gained such +momentum that a party was formed in its defense. An aged man, Thomas +Faunce, was produced. He was ninety-five and confined to an armchair. He +had not been born until twenty-six years after the landing of the +Pilgrims; his father, whom he quoted as declaring this to be the +original rock and identical landing-place, had not even come over in the +Mayflower, but in the Anne. However, this venerable Canute, carried to +the water's edge in his armchair, in the presence of many witnesses, +assured them and all posterity that this was the genuine, undeniable +landing-place of the Pilgrims. And from that moment the belief was so +firmly set in the American mind that no power could possibly dislodge +it. In accordance with this suddenly acquired respect, it was decided to +move the huge bulk to the more conspicuous location of the Town Square. +When it was lifted from its prehistoric bed, it broke, and this was +hailed as a propitious omen of the coming separation of the Colonies +from the mother country. Only the upper half was dragged up to the Town +Square--a process which took twenty yoke of oxen and was accompanied by +wild huzzahing. There the poor, broken thing lay in the sun, at the +bottom of the Liberty Pole on which was flying, "Liberty or Death." But +its career as a public feature had only begun. It remained in the square +until 1834, and then on July 4 it was decided to drag it to a still more +conspicuous place. So with a formal procession, it was again hoisted and +hauled and set down in front of the entrance porch of Pilgrim Hall, +where it lay like a captive mammoth animal for curious folk to gaze at. +Here it was granted almost half a century of undisturbed if not secluded +slumber. But the end was not yet. In 1880 it was once more laid hold of +and carted back to its original setting, and welded without ceremony, to +the part from which it had been sundered. Now all of this seems quite +enough--more than enough--of pitiless publicity, for one old rock whose +only offense had been to be lifting its head above the water on a +December day in 1620. But no--just as the mind of man takes a singular +satisfaction in gazing at mummies preserved in human semblance in the +unearthly stillness of the catacombs, so the once massive boulder--now +carefully mended--was placed upon the neatest of concrete bases, and +over it was reared, from the designs of Hammatt Billings, the ugliest +granite canopy imaginable--in which canopy, to complete the grisly +atmosphere of the catacombs, were placed certain human bones found in an +exploration of Cole's Hill. Bleak and homeless the old rock now lies +passively in forlorn state under its atrocious shelter, behind a strong +iron grating, and any of a dozen glib street urchins, in syllables +flavored with Cork, or Genoese, or Polish accents, will, for a penny, +relate the facts substantially as I have stated them.[2] + +It is easy to be unsympathetic in regard to any form of fetishism which +we do not share. And while the bare fact remains that we are not at all +sure that the Pilgrims landed on this rock, and we are entirely sure +that its present location and setting possess no romantic allurement, +yet bare facts are not the whole truth, and even when correct they are +often the superficial and not the fundamental part of the truth. Those +hundreds--those thousands--of earnest-eyed men and women who have stood +beside this rock with tears in their eyes, and emotions too deep for +words in their hearts, "believing where they cannot prove," have not +only interpreted the vital significance of the place, but, by their very +emotion, have sanctified it. + +It really makes little difference whether the testimony of Thomas Faunce +was strictly accurate or not; it really makes little difference that the +Hammatt Billings canopy is indeed dreadful. Plymouth Rock has come to +symbolize the corner-stone of the United States as a nation, and symbols +are the most beautiful and the most enduring expression of any national +or human experience. + +It is estimated that over one hundred thousand visitors come to Plymouth +annually. They all go to see the Rock; most of them clamber up to the +quaint Burial Hill and read a few of the oldest inscriptions; they +glance at the National Monument to the forefathers, bearing the largest +granite figure in the world, and they take a turn through Pilgrim Hall. +But there is one place they often forget to see, and that is the harbor +itself. + +We began our tour through Plymouth through the eyes of a Pilgrim man and +maid watching the departing Mayflower. It was the Mayflower, battered +and beaten, her sails blackened and mended, her leaks hastily caulked, +which was the first vessel to sail into Plymouth Harbor--a harbor so +joyfully described as being a "most hopeful place" with "innumerable +store of fowl and excellent good ... in fashion like a sickel or fish +hook." + +[Illustration] + +All that first dreadful winter, while the Pilgrims were struggling to +make roofs to cover their heads, while, with weeping hearts, they buried +their dead, and when, according to the good and indestructible instincts +of life, which persist in spite of every calamity, they planted seed for +the coming spring--all this while the Mayflower lay at anchor in the +harbor. Every morning they could see her there; any hour of the day they +could glance out at her; while they slept they were conscious of her +presence. And just so long as she was there, just so long could they see +a tangible connection between themselves and the life, which, although +already strangely far away, was, nevertheless, the nearest and the +dearest existence they had known. And then in April, the familiar +vessel, whose outlines were as much a part of the seascape as the Gurnet +or the bluffs of Manomet, vanished: vanished as completely as if she had +never been. The water which parted under her departing keel flowed +together. There was no sign on earth or sea or in the sky of that last +link between the little group of colonists and their home land. They +were as much alone as Enoch Arden on his desert isle. Can we imagine the +emptiness, the illimitable loneliness of that bay? One small shallop +down by the pier--that was the only visible connection between +themselves and England! + +I do not believe that we can really appreciate their sense of complete +severance--their sense of utter isolation. And I do not believe that we +can appreciate the wild thrill of excitement, the sudden gush of +freshly established connection that ran through the colony, when, seven +months later--the following November--a ship sailed into the harbor. It +was the Fortune bringing with her news and letters from home--word from +that other world--and bringing also thirty-five new colonists, among +them William Brewster's eldest son and Robert Cushman. Probably the +greetings were so joyful, the messages so eagerly sought, the flutter of +welcome so great that it was not until several days had passed that they +realized that the chief word which Thomas Weston (the London merchant +who was the head of the company which had financed the expedition) had +sent them was one of reproof. The Mayflower had brought no profitable +cargo back to England, he complained, an omission which was "wonderful +and worthily distasted." While he admitted that they had labored under +adverse circumstances, he unkindly added that a quarter of the time they +had spent in discoursing and arguing and consulting could have +profitably been spent in other ways. That the first official word from +home should be one of such cruel reprimand struck the colonists--who had +so wistfully waited for a cheering message--very hard. Half frozen, half +starved, sick, depressed, they had been forced to struggle so +desperately to maintain even a foothold on the ladder of existence, that +it had not been humanly possible for them to fulfill their pledge to the +Company. Bradford's letter back to Weston--dignified, touching--is +sufficient vindication. When the Fortune returned she "was laden with +good clapboards, as full as she could stowe, and two hogsheads of beaver +and other skins," besides sassafras--a cargo valued at about five +hundred pounds. In spite of the fact that this cargo was promptly stolen +by a French cruiser off the English coast, it nevertheless marks the +foundation of the fur and lumber trade in New England. Although this +first visitor brought with her a patent of their lands (a document still +preserved in Pilgrim Hall, with the signatures and seals of the Duke of +Lenox, the Marquis of Hamilton, the Earl of Warwick, and Sir Ferdinando +Gorges), yet to us, reading history in the perspective of three hundred +years, the disagreeable impression of Weston's letter outweighs the +satisfaction for the patent. When the Fortune sailed away it was like +the departure of a rich, fault-finding aunt, who suddenly descends upon +a household of poor relations, bringing presents, to be sure, but with +such cutting disapproval on her lips that it mars the entire pleasure of +her visit. + +The harbor was once more empty. I suppose that in time the Pilgrims half +forgot, half forgave, the sting of Weston's reproof. Again they gazed +out and waited for a sail; again England seemed very far away. So, +doubtless, in the spring, when a shallop appeared from a fishing vessel, +they all eagerly hurried down to greet it. But if the Fortune had been +like a rich and disagreeable aunt, this new visitation was like an +influx of small, unruly cousins. And such hungry cousins! Weston had +sent seven men to stay with them until arrangements could be made for +another settlement. New Englanders are often criticized for their lack +of hospitality, and in this first historic case of unexpected guests the +larder was practically bare. Crops were sown, to be sure, but not yet +green; the provisions in the store-house were gone; it was not the +season for wild fowl; although there were bass in the outer harbor and +cod in the bay there was neither tackle nor nets to take them. However, +the seven men were admitted, and given shellfish like the rest--and very +little beside. + +At this point the Pilgrims looked with less favorable eyes upon +newcomers into the harbor, and when shortly after two ships appeared +bringing sixty more men from Weston, consternation reigned. These +emigrants were supposed to get their own food from their own vessels and +merely lodge on shore, but they proved a lawless set and stole so much +green corn that it seriously reduced the next year's supply. After six +weeks, however, these uninvited guests took themselves off to +Wessagusset (now Weymouth) leaving their sick behind, and only the +briefest of "thank you's." + +The next caller was the Plantation. She anchored only long enough to +offer some sorely needed provisions at such extortionate prices that the +colonists could not buy them. Another slap in the face! + +Obviously, none of these visitors had proved very satisfactory. It had +been entertaining under difficulties, and if the entertainers had hoped +for the "angels unawares," they had been decidedly disappointed. +Therefore it is easy to believe that they took fresh courage and sincere +delight when, in July, 1623, the Anne and the Little James arrived--no +strangers, for they brought with them additional stores, and best of +all, good friends and close kinsfolk from the church at Leyden. Yes, the +Pilgrims were delighted, but, alas, tradition has it that when they +pressed forward in glad greeting to their old acquaintances, these +latter started back, nonplussed--aghast! Like Mr. Boughton they had +fondly pictured an ideal rustic community, in which the happy, carefree +colonists reveled in all the beauty of picturesque and snowy collars and +cuffs in Arden-like freedom. Instead they saw a row of rough log cabins +and a group of work-worn, shabby men and women, men and women whose +faces were lined with exposure, and whose backs were bent with toil, and +who, for their most hospitable feast, had only a bit of shellfish and +water to offer. Many of the newcomers promptly burst into tears, and +begged to return to England immediately. Poor Pilgrims! Rebuffed--and so +unflatteringly--with each arriving maritime guest, who can doubt that +there was born in them at that moment the constitutional dislike for +unexpected company which has characterized New England ever since? + +However, in a comparatively short time the colonists who had been +brought over in the Anne and the Little James--those who stayed, for +some did return at once--adjusted themselves to the new life. Many +married--both Myles Standish and Governor Bradford found wives among +them; and now the Plymouth Colony may be said to have fairly started. + +Just as a trail which is first a mere thread leading to some +out-of-the-way cabin becomes a path and then a road, and in due time a +wide thoroughfare, so the way across the Atlantic from Old England to +New became more charted--more traveled. At first there was only one boat +and one net for fishing. In five years there was a fleet of fifty +fishing vessels. Ten years later we have note of ten foreign vessels in +the harbor in a single week. And to-day, if the Pilgrim man and maid +whom we joined at the beginning of our reminiscences could gaze out over +the harbor, they would see it as full of masts as a cornfield is of +stalks. Every kind of boat finds its way in and out; and not only +pleasure craft: Plymouth Harbor is second only to Boston among the +Massachusetts ports of entry, receiving annual foreign imports valued at +over $7,000,000. Into the harbor, where once a single shallop was the +only visible sign of man's dominion over the water, now sail great +vessels from Yucatan and the Philippines, bringing sisal and manila for +the largest cordage company in the whole country--a company with an +employees' list of two thousand names, and an annual output of +$10,000,000. Furthermore, the flats in the harbor are planted with +clams, which (through the utilization of shells for poultry feeding, and +by means of canning for bouillon) yield a profit of from five hundred to +eight hundred dollars an acre. + +No, our Pilgrim man and maid would not recognize, in this Plymouth of +factories and industries, the place where once stood the row of log +cabins, with oiled-paper windows. And yet, after all, it is not the +prosperous town of to-day, but the rude settlement of yesterday, which +chiefly lives in the hearts of the American people. And it lives, not +because of its economic importance, but because of its unique +sentimental value. As John Fiske so admirably states: "Historically +their enterprise [that of the Pilgrims at Plymouth] is interesting not +so much for what it achieved as for what it suggested. Of itself the +Plymouth Colony could hardly have become a wealthy and powerful state. +Its growth was extremely slow. After ten years its numbers were but +three hundred. In 1643, when the exodus had come to an end and the New +England Confederacy was formed, the population of Plymouth was but three +thousand. In an established community, indeed, such a rate of increase +would be rapid, but was not sufficient to raise in New England a power +which could overcome Indians and Dutchmen and Frenchmen and assert its +will in opposition to the Crown. It is when we view the founding of +Plymouth in relation to what came afterward, that it assumes the +importance which belongs to the beginning of a new era." + +For this reason the permanent position of Plymouth in our history is +forever assured. Old age, which may diminish the joys of youth, +preserves inviolate memories which nothing can destroy. The place whose +quiet fame is made is surer of the future than the one which is on the +brink of fabulous glory. It is impossible to overestimate the +significance of this spot. + +The Old Coast Road--the oldest in New England--began here and pushed its +tortuous way up to Boston along the route we have so lightly followed. +Inheritors of a nation which these pioneers strove manfully, +worshipfully, to found, need we be ashamed of deep emotion as we stand +here, on this shore, where they landed three hundred years ago? + +[Illustration] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] It is hoped that by the summer of 1921 a beautiful and dignified +portico of granite will be raised as a final and permanent memorial over +the rock, which will be moved for the last time--lowered to as near its +original bed as possible. This work, which has been taken in charge by +the National Society of Colonial Dames of America will be executed by +McKim, Mead & White. The General Society of Mayflower Descendants are +also working for the redemption of the first Pilgrim burial place on +Cole's Hill. The Pilgrim Society is to assume the perpetual care of both +memorial and lot. + + +THE END + +_The Riverside Press_ + +CAMBRIDGE. MASSACHUSETTS + +U. S. A. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD COAST ROAD *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. + +START: FULL LICENSE + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the +person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph +1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the +Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when +you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work +on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: + + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and + most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no + restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it + under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this + eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the + United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where + you are located before using this eBook. + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format +other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain +Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +provided that: + +* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation." + +* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm + works. + +* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + +* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at +www.gutenberg.org + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without +widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular +state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org + +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + diff --git a/21895-0.zip b/21895-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffee45f --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-0.zip diff --git a/21895-h.zip b/21895-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aea23b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h.zip diff --git a/21895-h/21895-h.htm b/21895-h/21895-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..518c229 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/21895-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4481 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Old Coast Road, by Agnes Rothery</title> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> +<style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + .notes {background-color: #eeeeee; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + + </style> +</head> +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Old Coast Road, by Agnes Rothery</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Old Coast Road<br /> +From Boston to Plymouth</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Agnes Rothery</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Illustrator: Louis H. Ruyl</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: June 21, 2007 [eBook #21895]<br /> +[Most recently updated: July 27, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: David Garcia, Josephine Paolucci, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD COAST ROAD ***</div> + +<div class="fig" style="width:45%;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</div> + +<p class="notes">Transcriber's note:<br /> +<br /> +Minor typographical errors have been corrected.<br /> +<br /> +Footnotes have been moved to the end of each chapter.</p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>THE OLD COAST ROAD</h1> + +<h2><i>From Boston to Plymouth</i></h2> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>AGNES EDWARDS</h3> + +<h4>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY</h4> + +<h4>LOUIS H. RUYL</h4> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<img src="images/image01.jpg" width="250" height="144" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<p> </p> + +<h4>BOSTON AND NEW YORK </h4> + +<h4>HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY</h4> + +<h5><i>The Riverside Press Cambridge</i></h5> + +<h5>1920</h5> + + +<h5>COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY AGNES EDWARDS PRATT</h5> + +<h5>ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</h5> + +<p><a name="frontispiece" id="frontispiece"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 395px;"> +<img src="images/image03.jpg" width="395" height="500" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE OLD COAST ROAD</h2> + +<h3><i>From Boston to Plymouth</i></h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Boston: A Foreword</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>I. <span class="smcap">Dorchester Heights and the Old Coast Road</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>II. <span class="smcap">Milton and the Blue Hills</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>III. <span class="smcap">Shipbuilding at Quincy</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>IV. <span class="smcap">The Romance of Weymouth</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>V. <span class="smcap">Ecclesiastical Hingham</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>VI. <span class="smcap">Cohasset Ledges and Marshes</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>VII. <span class="smcap">The Scituate Shore</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>VIII. <span class="smcap">Marshfield, the Home of Daniel Webster</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>IX.<span class="smcap"> Duxbury Homes</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_142">142</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>X. <span class="smcap">Kingston and its Manuscripts</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>XI. <span class="smcap">Plymouth</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Bit of Commercial Street in Weymouth</span></td><td align='right'><i><a href="#frontispiece">Frontispiece</a></i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The State House from Park Street</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Map of the South Shore</span></td><td align='right'><i>facing</i> <a href="#facing_pg1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Dorchester Bay</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Off for Plymouth by the Old Coast Road</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Great Blue Hill</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Milton Estates</span></td><td align='right'><i>facing</i> <a href="#facing_pg21">20</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Fore River Shipyard</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Adams Houses in Quincy</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Weymouth Water-Front</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Rattling along the Old Coast Road</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Lincoln House in Hingham</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Old Ship Meeting-House</span></td><td align='right'><i>facing</i> <a href="#facing_pg_77">76</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Interior of the New North Church in Hingham, with its Slave Galleries</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Cohasset Ledges and Minot's Ledge Light</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Modern Cohasset</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Drying Sea-Moss at Scituate Harbor</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Fourth Cliff, Scituate</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_122">122</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Webster House</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Marshfield Meadows</span></td><td align='right'><i>facing</i> <a href="#facing_pg137">136</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Duxbury Cottage</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_142">142</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Bay View to Duxbury Beach</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Standish Monument as seen from Kingston</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Old Records</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_174">174</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Memorial Building for the Town of Plymouth, designed by Little and Russell, Architects</span></td><td align='right'>175</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">View from Steps of Burial Hill, Plymouth, showing the Town Square, Leyden Street, the Church of the Pilgrimage, the First Church, and, in the Distance, the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown</span></td><td align='right'><i>facing</i> <a href="#Page_192">192</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Clark's Island, Plymouth</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_203">203</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/image09.jpg" width="350" height="302" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<h2>BOSTON: A FOREWORD</h2> + +<p>To love Boston or to laugh at Boston—it all depends on whether or not +you are a Bostonian. Perhaps the happiest attitude—and the most +intelligent—is tinged with both amusement and affection: amusement at +the undeviating ceremonial of baked beans on Saturday night and fish +balls on Sunday morning; at the Boston bag (not so ubiquitous now as +formerly); at the indefatigable consumption<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> of lectures; at the +Bostonese pronunciation; affection for the honorable traditions, noble +buildings, distinguished men and women. Boston is an old city—one must +remember that it was settled almost three centuries ago—and old cities, +like old people, become tenacious of their idiosyncrasies, admitting +their inconsistencies and prejudices with complacency, wisely aware that +age has bestowed on them a special value, which is automatically +increased with the passage of time.</p> + +<p>To tell the story of an old city is like cutting down through the +various layers of a fruity layer cake. When you turn the slice over, you +see that every piece is a cross-section. So almost every locality and +phase of this venerable metropolis could be studied, and really should +be studied, according to its historical strata: Colonial, Provincial, +Revolutionary, economic, and literary. All of these periods have piled +up their associations one upon the other, and all of them must be +somewhat understood if one would sincerely comprehend what has aptly +been called not a city, but a "state of mind."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is as impossible for the casual sojourner to grasp the significance +of the multifarious historical and literary events which have transpired +here as for a few pages to outline them. Wherever one stands in Boston +suggests the church of San Clemente in Rome, where, you remember, there +are three churches built one upon the other. However, those who would +take the lovely journey from Boston to Plymouth needs must make some +survey, no matter how superficial, of their starting-place. And perhaps +the best spot from which to begin is the Common.</p> + +<p>This pleasantly rolling expanse, which was set aside as long ago as +1640, with the decree that "there shall be no land granted either for +houseplott or garden out of y^e open land or common field," has been +unbrokenly maintained ever since, and as far as acreage goes (it +approximates fifty acres) could still fulfill its original use of +pasturing cows, a practice which was continued until 1830. It was here +that John Hancock's cattle grazed—he who lived in such magnificence on +the hill, and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> whose side yard the State House was built—and once, +when preparations for an official banquet were halted by shortage of +milk, tradition has it that he ordered his servants to hasten out on the +Common and milk every cow there, regardless of ownership. Tradition also +tells us that the little boy Ralph Waldo Emerson tended his mother's cow +here; and finally both traditions and existing law declare that yonder +one-story building opening upon Mount Vernon Street, and possessing an +oddly wide door, must forever keep that door of sufficient width to let +the cows pass through to the Common.</p> + +<p>Let us stand upon the steps of the State House and look out over the +Common. To our right, near the intersection of Boylston and Tremont +Streets, lies the half-forgotten, almost obliterated Central Burying +Ground, the final resting-place of Gilbert Stuart, the famous American +painter. At the left points the spire of Park Street Church, notable not +for its age, for it is only a little over a century old, but for its +charming beauty, and by the fact that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span> William Lloyd Garrison delivered +his first address here, and here "America" was sung in public for the +first time. It was the windiness of this corner which was responsible +for Tom Appleton's suggestion (he was the brother-in-law of Longfellow) +that a shorn lamb be tethered here.</p> + +<p>The graceful spire of Park Street Church serves not only as a landmark, +but is also a most fitting terminal to a street of many associations. It +is on Park Street that the publishing house of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. +(now Houghton Mifflin Company) has had its offices for forty years, and +the bookstores and the antique shops tucked quaintly down a few steps +below the level of the sidewalk have much of the flavor of a bit of +London.</p> + +<p>Still standing on the State House steps, facing the Common, you are also +facing what has been called the noblest monument in Boston and the most +successfully placed one in America. It is Saint-Gaudens's bronze relief +of Colonel Robert G. Shaw commanding his colored regiment, and if you +see no other sculpture<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span> in a city which has its full quota you must see +this memorial, spirited in execution, spiritual in its conception of a +mighty moment.</p> + +<p>If we had time to linger we could not do better than to follow Beacon +Street to the left, pausing at the Athenæum, a library of such dignity +and beauty that one instinctively, and properly, thinks of it as an +institution rather than a mere building. To enjoy the Athenæum one must +be a "proprietor" and own a "share," which entitles one not only to the +use of the scholarly volumes in scholarly seclusion, but also in the +afternoon to entrance to an alcove where tea is served for three +pennies. Perhaps here, as well as any other place, you may see a +characteristic assortment of what are fondly called "Boston types." +There is the professor from Cambridge, a gentleman with a pointed beard +and a noticeably cultivated enunciation; one from Wellesley—this, a +lady—with that keen and paradoxically impractical expression which +marks pure intellectuality; an alert matron, plainly, almost shabbily, +dressed (aristocratic Boston still scorns sartorial smartness);<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span> a very +well-bred young girl with bone spectacles; a student, shabby, like the +Back Bay matron, but for another reason; a writer; a business man whose +hobby is Washingtonia. These, all of them, you may enjoy along with your +cup of tea for three cents, if—and here is the crux—you can only be +admitted in the first place. And if you are admitted, do not fail to +look out of the rear windows upon the ancient Granary Burying Ground, +where rest the ashes of Hancock, Sewall, Faneuil, Samuel Adams, Otis, +Revere, and many more notables. If you have a penchant for graveyards, +this one, entered from Tremont Street, is more than worthy of further +study.</p> + +<p>This is one of the many things we could enjoyably do if we had time, but +whether we have time or not we must pay our respects to the State House +(one does not call it the Capitol in Boston, as in other cities), the +prominence of whose golden dome is not unsuggestive, to those who recall +it, of Saint Botolph's beacon tower in Boston, England, for which this +city was named. The State House is a distinctively<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span> American building, +and Bulfinch, the great American architect, did an excellent thing when +he designed it. The dome was originally covered with plates of copper +rolled by no other than that expert silversmith and robust patriot, Paul +Revere—he whose midnight ride has been recited by so many generations +of school-children, and whose exquisite flagons, cups, ladles, and sugar +tongs not only compared with the best Continental work of that period, +but have set a name and standard for American craftsmanship ever since.</p> + +<p>If you should walk up and down the chessboard of Beacon Hill—taking the +knight's move occasionally across the narrow cross-streets—you could +not help treading the very squares which were familiar to the feet of +that generation of authors which has permanently stamped American +literature. At 55 Beacon Street, down near the foot of the hill and +facing the Common, still stands the handsome, swell-front, buff-brick +house where Prescott, the historian, lived. On Mount Vernon Street<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</a></span> +(which runs parallel to Beacon, and which, with its dignified beauty, +won the approval of that connoisseur of beautiful streets—Henry James) +one can pick out successively the numbers 59, 76, 83, 84, the first and +last being homes of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and the other two +distinguished by the residence of William Ellery Channing and Margaret +Deland. Pinckney Street runs parallel with Mount Vernon, and the small, +narrow house at number 20 was one of the homes of the Alcott family. It +seems delightfully fitting that Louisburg Square—that very exclusive +and very English spot which probably retains more of the quaint +atmosphere and customs of an aristocratic past than any other single +area in the city—should have been the home of the well-beloved William +Dean Howells. One also likes to recall that Jenny Lind was married at +number 20. Chestnut Street—which after a period of social obscurity is +again coming into its own—possesses Julia Ward Howe's house at number +13, that of Motley the historian at 16, and of Parkman at 50. In this +hasty map we have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</a></span> gone up and down the hill, but the cross-street, +Charles, although not so attractive, is nevertheless as rich in literary +associations as any in Boston. Here lived, for a short time, at 164, +Oliver Wendell Holmes, and at 131—also for a short time—Thomas Bailey +Aldrich. It is, however, at 148, that we should longest pause. This, for +many rich years, was the home of James T. Fields, that delightful man of +letters who was the friend of many men of letters; he who entertained +Dickens and Thackeray, and practically every foreign writer of note who +visited this country; he who encouraged Hawthorne to the completion of +the "Scarlet Letter," and he, who, as an appreciative critic, publisher, +and editor, probably did more to elevate, inspire, and sustain the +general literary tone of the city than any other single person. In these +stirring days facile American genius springs up, like brush fires, from +coast to coast. Novels pour in from the West, the Middle West, the +South. To superficial outsiders it may seem as if Boston might be +hard-pressed to keep her laurels green, but Boston<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[Pg xix]</a></span> herself has no +fears. Her present may not shine with so unique a brilliance as her +past, but her past gains in luster with each succeeding year. Nothing +can ever take from Boston her high literary prestige.</p> + +<p>While we are still on Beacon Hill we can look out, not only upon the +past, but upon the future. Those white domes and pillars gleaming like +Greek temples across the blue Charles, are the new buildings of the +Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and surely Greek temples were +never lovelier, nor dedicated to more earnest pursuit of things not +mundane. Quite as beautiful and quite as Grecian as the Technology +buildings is the noble marble group of the School of Medicine of Harvard +University, out by the Fenlands—that section of the city which is +rapidly becoming a students' quarter, with its Simmons College, the New +England Conservatory of Music, art schools, gymnasiums, private and +technical schools of all descriptions, and its body of over 12,000 +students. Harvard is, of course, across the river in Cambridge, and +preparatory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[Pg xx]</a></span> schools and colleges dot the suburbs in every direction, +upholding the cultural traditions of a city which has proved itself +peculiarly fitted to educational interests.</p> + +<p>All this time we have, like <i>bona-fide</i> Bostonians, stayed on Beacon +Hill, and merely looked out at the rest of the city. And perhaps this is +as typical a thing as we could have done. Beacon Hill was the center of +original Boston, when the Back Bay was merely a marsh, and long after +the marsh was filled in and streets were laid out and handsome +residences lined them, Beacon Hill looked down scornfully at the new +section and murmured that it was built upon the discarded hoopskirts and +umbrellas of the true Bostonians. Even when almost every one was crowded +off the Hill and the Back Bay became the more aristocratic section of +the two, there were still enough of the original inhabitants left to +scorn these upstart social pretensions. And now Beacon Hill is again +coming back into her own: the fine old houses are being carefully, +almost worshipfully restored, probably never again to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[Pg xxi]</a></span> lose their +rightful place in the general life of the city.</p> + +<p>But if Beacon Hill was conservative in regard to the Back Bay, that +district, in its turn, showed an equal unprogressiveness in regard to +the Esplanade. To the stranger in Boston, delighting in that magnificent +walk along the Charles River Embankment, with the arching spans of the +Cambridge and Harvard bridges on one side, and the homes of wealth and +mellow refinement on the other—a walk which for invigorating beauty +compares with any in the cities of men—it seems incredible that when +this promenade was laid out a few years ago, the householders along the +water's edge absolutely refused to turn their front windows away from +Beacon Street. Furthermore, they ignored the fact that their back yards +and back windows presented an unbecoming face to such an incomparably +lovely promenade, and the inevitable household rearrangement—by which +the drawing-rooms were placed in the rear—was literally years in +process of achievement. But such conservatism is one of Boston's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[Pg xxii]</a></span> +idiosyncrasies, which we must accept like the wind and the flat A.</p> + +<p>Present-day Bostonians are proud—and properly so—of their Copley +Square, with its Public Library, rich with the mural paintings of Puvis +de Chavannes, with Abbey's "Quest of the Holy Grail," and Sargent's +"Frieze of the Prophets"; with its well-loved Trinity Church and with +much excellent sculpture by Bela Pratt. Copley Square is the cultural +center of modern Boston. The famous Lowell lectures—established about +seventy-five years ago as free gifts to the people—are enthusiastically +attended by audiences as Bostonese as one could hope to congregate; and +in all sorts of queer nests in this vicinity are Theosophical +reading-rooms, small halls where Buddhism is studied or New Thought +taught, and half a hundred very new or very old philosophies, religions, +fads, fashions, reforms, and isms find shelter. It is easy to linger in +Copley Square: indeed, hundreds and hundreds of men and +women—principally women—come from all over the United States for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">[Pg xxiii]</a></span> +sole purpose of spending a few months or a season in this very place, +enjoying the lectures, concerts, and art exhibitions which are so easily +and freely accessible. But in this bird's-eye flight across the +historical and geographical map of a city that tempts one to many +pleasant delays, we must hover for a brief moment over the South and the +North Ends.</p> + +<p>Skipping back, then, almost three centuries, but not traveling far as +distance goes, the stranger in Boston cannot do better than to find his +way from Copley Square to the Old South Church on Washington +Street—that venerable building whose desecration by the British troops +in 1775 the citizens found it so hard ever to forgive. It was here that +Benjamin Franklin was baptized in 1706; here that Joseph Warren made a +dramatic entry to the pulpit by way of the window in order to denounce +the British soldiers; and here that momentous meetings were held in the +heaving days before the Revolution. The Old South Church Burying Ground +is now called the King's Chapel Burying Ground, and King's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxiv" id="Page_xxiv">[Pg xxiv]</a></span> Chapel +itself—a quaint, dusky building, suggestive of a London chapel—is only +a few blocks away. Across its doorsill have not only stepped the Royal +Governors of pre-Revolutionary days, but Washington, General Gage, the +indestructibly romantic figures of Sir Harry Frankland and Agnes +Surriage; the funeral processions of General Warren and Charles Sumner. +The organ, which came from England in 1756, is said to have been +selected by Handel at the request of King George, and along the walls of +the original King's Chapel were hung the escutcheons of the Kings of +England and of the Royal Governors.</p> + +<p>The Old State House is in this vicinity and is worthy—as are, indeed, +both the Old South Church and King's Chapel—of careful architectural +study and enjoyment. There are portraits, pictures, relics, and rooms +within, and without the beautifully quaint lines and truly lovely +details of the façade infuse a perpetual charm into the atmosphere of +the city. It was directly in front of this building that the Boston +Massacre took place in 1770, and from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxv" id="Page_xxv">[Pg xxv]</a></span> this second-story balcony that +the repeal of the Stamp Act was read, and ten years later the full text +of the Declaration of Independence.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the next most interesting building in this section of old Boston +is Faneuil Hall, the "Cradle of Liberty" whose dignified, old-fashioned +proportions were not lost—thanks to Bulfinch—when it was enlarged. A +gift of a public-spirited citizen, this building has served in a double +capacity for a hundred and seventy-seven years, having public +market-stalls below and a large hall above—a hall which is never +rented, but used freely by the people whenever they wish to discuss +public affairs. It would be impossible to enumerate the notable speakers +and meetings which have rendered this hall famous, from General Gage +down to Daniel Webster, Theodore Roosevelt, and Marshal Joffre.</p> + +<p>If you are fond of water sights and smells you can step from Faneuil +Hall down to a region permeated with the flavor of salt and the sound of +shipping, a region of both ancient<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxvi" id="Page_xxvi">[Pg xxvi]</a></span> tradition and present activity. Here +is India Wharf, its seven-story yellow-brick building once so +tremendously significant of Boston's shipping prosperity; Long Wharf, so +named because when it was built it was the longest in the country, and +bore a battery at its end; Central Wharf, with its row of venerable +stone warehouses; T Wharf, immensely picturesque with its congestion of +craft of all descriptions; Commercial Wharf, where full-rigged sailing +vessels which traded with China and India and the Cape of Good Hope were +wont to anchor a hundred years ago. All this region is crammed with the +paraphernalia of a typical water-front: curious little shops where +sailors' supplies are sold; airy lofts where sails are cut and stitched +and repaired; fish stores of all descriptions; sailors' haunts, awaiting +the pen of an American Thomas Burke. The old Custom House where +Hawthorne unwillingly plodded through his enforced routine is here, and +near it the new Custom House rears its tower four hundred and +ninety-eight feet above the sidewalk, a beacon from both land and sea.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxvii" id="Page_xxvii">[Pg xxvii]</a></span></p> + +<p>The North End of Boston has not fared as well as the South End. The sons +of Abraham and immigrants from Italy have appropriated the streets, +dwellings, churches, and shops of the entire region, and even Christ +Church (the famous Old North Church) has a Chiesa Italiana on its +grounds. There are many touches to stir the memory in this Old North +Church. The chime of eight bells naïvely stating, "We are the first ring +of bells cast for the British Empire in North America"; the pew with the +inscription that is set apart for the use of the "Gentlemen of Bay of +Honduras"—visiting merchants who contributed the spire to the church in +1740; vaults beneath the church, forbidden now to visitors, where lie +the bones of many Revolutionary heroes; a unique collection of +vellum-covered books, and a few highly precious pieces of ancient +furniture. The most conspicuous item about the church, of course, is +that from its tower were hung the signal lanterns of Paul Revere, +destined to shine imperishably down the ever-lengthening aisles of +American history.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxviii" id="Page_xxviii">[Pg xxviii]</a></span></p> + +<p>Before we press on to Bunker Hill—for that is our final destination—we +should cast a glance at Copp's Hill Burying Ground, that hillside refuge +where one can turn either back to the annals of the past or look out +over the roof-tops and narrow streets to the present and the future. If +you chose the latter, you can see easily Boston Harbor and Charlestown +Navy Yard—that navy yard which has outstripped even its spectacular +traditions by its stirring achievements in the Great War. "Old +Ironsides" will lie here forever in the well-earned serenity of a secure +old age, and it is probable that another visitor, the Kronprinzessin +Cecilie, although lost under the name of the Mount Vernon and a coat of +gray paint, will be long preserved in maritime memory.</p> + +<p>The plain shaft of Bunker Hill Monument, standing to mark the spot where +the Americans lost a battle that was, in reality, a victory, is like a +blank mirror, reflecting only that which one presents to it. According +to your historical knowledge and your emotional grasp Bunker Hill +Monument is significant.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxix" id="Page_xxix">[Pg xxix]</a></span></p> + +<p>Skimming thus over the many-storied city, in a sort of literary +airplane, it has been possible to point out only a few of the most +conspicuous places and towers. The Common lies like a tiny pocket +handkerchief of path-marked green at the foot of crowded Beacon Hill; +the white Esplanade curves beside the blue Charles; the Back Bay is only +a checkerboard of streets, alphabetically arranged; Copley Square is +hardly distinguishable. The spires of the Old South Church, King's +Chapel, the Old State House, and Faneuil Hall punctuate the South End; +the North Church, the North End. The new Custom House Tower and Bunker +Hill Monument seem hardly more than the minarets of a child's toy +village.</p> + +<p>The writer, as a pilot over this particular city, alights and resigns, +commending for more detailed study, and for delightful guidance, Robert +Shackleton's "Book of Boston." Let us now leave the city and set out in +a more leisurely fashion on our way to Plymouth.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE OLD COAST ROAD</h2> + +<h3><i>From Boston to Plymouth</i></h3> +<p><a name="facing_pg1" id="facing_pg1"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 352px;"> +<img src="images/image032.jpg" width="352" height="500" alt="The South Shore of MASSACHUSETTS BAY" title="" /> +<span class="caption">The South Shore of MASSACHUSETTS BAY</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE OLD COAST ROAD</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/image033.jpg" width="350" height="161" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>DORCHESTER HEIGHTS AND THE OLD COAST ROAD</h3> + +<p>The very earliest of the great roads in New England was the Old Coast +Road, connecting Boston with Plymouth—capitals of separate colonies. Do +we, casually accepting the fruit of three hundred years of toil on this +continent—do we, accustomed to smooth highways and swift and easy +transportation, realize the significance of such a road?</p> + +<p>A road is the symbol of the civilization which has produced it. The main +passageway<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> from the shore of the Yellow Sea to the capital of Korea, +although it has been pressed for centuries immemorial by myriads of +human feet, has never been more than a bridle path. On the other hand, +wherever the great Roman Empire stepped, it engineered mighty +thoroughfares which are a marvel to this day. A road is the thread on +which the beads of history are strung; the beads of peace as well as +those of war. Thrilling as is the progress of aerial navigation, with +its infinite possibilities of human intercourse, yet surely, when the +entire history of man is unrolled, the moment of the conception of +building a wide and permanent road, instead of merely using a trail, +will rank as equally dramatic. The first stone laid by the first Roman +(they to whom the idea of road-building was original) will be recognized +as significant as the quiver of the wings of the first airplane.</p> + +<p>Let us follow the old road from Boston to Plymouth: follow it, not with +undue exactitude, and rather too hastily, as is the modern way, but +comfortably, as is also the modern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> way, picking up what bits of quaint +lore and half-forgotten history we most easily may.</p> + +<p>I think that as we start down this historic highway, we shall +encounter—if our mood be the proper one in which to undertake such a +journey—a curious procession coming down the years to meet us. We shall +not call them ghosts, for they are not phantoms severed from earth, but, +rather, the permanent possessors of the highway which they helped +create.</p> + +<p>We shall meet the Indian first, running lightly on straight, moccasined +feet, along the trail from which he has burned, from time to time, the +underbrush. He does not go by land when he can go by water, but in this +case there are both land and water to meet, for many are the streams, +and they are unbridged as yet. With rhythmic lope, more beautiful than +the stride of any civilized limbs, and with a sure divination of the +best route, he chooses the trail which will ultimately be the highway of +the vast army of pale-faces. Speed on, O solitary Indian—to vanish down +the narrow trail of your treading as you are destined, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> time, to +vanish forever from the vision of New England!... Behind the red runner +plod two stern-faced Pilgrims, pushing their way up from Plymouth toward +the newer settlement at Massachusetts Bay. They come slowly and +laboriously on foot, their guns cocked, eyes and ears alert, wading the +streams without complaint or comment. They keep together, for no one is +allowed to travel over this Old Coast Road single, "nor without some +arms, though two or three together." The path they take follows almost +exactly the trail of the Indian, seeking the fords, avoiding the +morasses, clinging to the uplands, and skirting the rough, wooded +heights.... After them—almost a decade after—we see a man on +horseback, with his wife on a pillion behind him. They carry their own +provisions and those for the beast, now and then dismounting to lead the +horse over difficult ground, and now and then blazing a tree to help +them in their return journey—mute testimony to the cruder senses of the +white man to whom woodcraft never becomes instinctive.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> The fact that +this couple possesses a horse presages great changes in New England. +Ferries will be established; tolls levied, bridges thrown across the +streams which now the horses swim, or cross by having their front feet +in one canoe ferry and their hind feet in another—the canoes being +lashed together. As yet we see no vehicle of any kind, except an +occasional sedan chair. (The first one of these of which we have +knowledge was presented to Governor Winthrop as a portion of a capture +from a Spanish galleon.) However, these are not common. In 1631 Governor +Endicott of Salem wrote that he could not get to Boston to visit +Governor Winthrop as he was not well enough to wade the streams. The +next year we read of Governor Winthrop surmounting the difficulty when +he goes to visit Governor Bradford, by being carried on the backs of +Indians across the fords. (It took him two days to make the journey.)</p> + +<p>It is not strange that we see no wheeled vehicles. In 1672 there were +only six stage-coaches in the whole of Great Britain, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> they were the +occasion of a pamphlet protesting that they encouraged too much travel! +At this time Boston had one private coach. Although one swallow may not +make a summer, one stage-coach marks the beginning of a new era. The age +of walking and horseback riding approaches its end; gates and bars +disappear, the crooked farm lanes are gradually straightened; and in +come a motley procession of chaises, sulkies, and two-wheeled +carts—two-wheeled carts, not four. There are sleds and sleighs for +winter, but the four-wheeled wagon was little used in New England until +the turn of the century. And then they were emphatically objected to +because of the wear and tear on the roads! In 1669 Boston enacted that +all carts "within y^e necke of Boston shall be and goe without shod +wheels." This provision is entirely comprehensible, when we remember +that there was no idea of systematic road repair. No tax was imposed for +keeping the roads in order, and at certain seasons of the year every +able-bodied man labored on the highways, bringing his own oxen, cart, +and tools.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> + +<p>But as the Old Coast Road, which was made a public highway in 1639, +becomes a genuine turnpike—so chartered in 1803—the good old coaching +days are ushered in with the sound of a horn, and handsome equipages +with well-groomed, well-harnessed horses ply swiftly back and forth. +Genial inns, with swinging pictorial signboards (for many a traveler +cannot read), spring up along the way, and the post is installed.</p> + +<p>But even with fair roads and regular coaching service, New England, +separated by her fixed topographical outlines, remains provincial. It is +not until the coming of the railroad, in the middle of the nineteenth +century, that the hills are overcome, and she ceases to be an +exclusively coastwise community and becomes an integral factor in the +economic development of the whole United States.</p> + +<p>Thus, then, from a thin thread of a trail barely wide enough for one +moccasined foot to step before the other, to a broad, leveled +thoroughfare, so wide that three or even four automobiles may ride +abreast, and so clean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> that at the end of an all-day's journey one's +face is hardly dusty, does the history of the Old Coast Road unroll +itself. We who contemplate making the trip ensconced in the upholstered +comfort of a machine rolling on air-filled tires, will, perhaps, be less +petulant of some strip of roughened macadam, less bewildered by the +characteristic windings, if we recall something of the first +back-breaking cart that—not so very long ago—crashed over the stony +road, and toilsomely worked its way from devious lane to lane.</p> + +<p>Before we start down the Old Coast Road it may be enlightening to get a +bird's-eye glimpse of it actually as we have historically, and for such +a glimpse there is no better place than on the topmost balcony of the +Soldier's Monument on Dorchester Heights. The trip to Dorchester +Heights, in South Boston, is, through whatever environs one approaches +it, far from attractive. This section of the city, endowed with +extraordinary natural beauty and advantage of both land and water, and +irrevocably and brilliantly graven upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> annals of American history, +has been allowed to lose its ancient prestige and to sink low indeed in +the social scale.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless it is to Dorchester Heights that we, as travelers down the +Old Coast Road, and as skimmers over the quickly turning pages of our +early New England history, must go, and having once arrived at that +lovely green eminence, whitely pointed with a marble shaft of quite +unusual excellence, we must grieve once more that this truly glorious +spot, with its unparalleled view far down the many-islanded harbor to +the east and far over the famous city to the west, is not more +frequented, more enjoyed, more honored.</p> + +<p>If you find your way up the hill, into the monument, and up the stairs +out to the balcony, probably you will encounter no other tourist. Only +when you reach the top and emerge into the blue upper air you will meet +those friendly winged visitors who frequent all spires—Saint Mark's in +Venice or the Soldier's Monument in South Boston—the pigeons! Yes, the +pigeons have discovered the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> charm of this lofty loveliness, and +whenever the caretaker turns away his vigilant eye, they haste to build +their nests on balcony or stair. They alone of Boston's residents enjoy +to the full that of which too many Bostonians ignore the existence. Will +you read the inscriptions first and recall the events which have raised +this special hill to an historic eminence equal to its topographical +one? Or will you look out first, on all sides and see the harbor, the +city and country as it is to-day? Both surveys will be brief; perhaps we +will begin with the latter.</p> + +<p>Before us, to the wide east, lies Boston Harbor, decked with islands so +various, so fascinating in contour and legend, that more than one volume +has been written about them and not yet an adequate one. From the point +of view of history these islands are pulsating with life. From Castle +Island (on the left) which was selected as far back as 1634 to be a +bulwark of the port, and which, with its Fort Independence, was where +many of our Civil War soldiers received their training, to the outline +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> Squantum (on the right), where in October, 1917, there lay a marsh, +and where, ten months later, the destroyer Delphy was launched from a +shipyard that was a miracle of modern engineering—every mile of visible +land is instinct with war-time associations.</p> + +<p>But history is more than battles and forts and the paraphernalia of war; +history is economic development as well. And from this same balcony we +can pick out Thompson's, Rainsford, and Deer Island, set aside for huge +corrective institutions—a graphic example of a nation's progress in its +treatment of the wayward and the weak.</p> + +<p>But if history is more than wars, it is also more than institutions. If +it is the record of man's daily life, the pleasures he works for, then +again we are standing in an unparalleled spot to look down upon its +present-day manifestations. From City Point with its Aquarium, from the +Marine Park with its long pleasure pier, to Nantasket with its flawless +beach, this is the summer playground of unnumbered hosts. Boaters, +bathers, picnickers—all find<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> their way here, where not only the cool +breezes sweep their city-heated cheeks, but the forever bewitching +passage of vessels in and out, furnishes endless entertainment. They +know well, these laughing pleasure-seekers, crowding the piers and boats +and wharves and beaches, where to come for refreshment, and now and +then, in the history of the harbor, a solitary individual has taken +advantage of the romantic charm which is the unique heritage of every +island, and has built his home and lived, at least some portion of his +days, upon one.</p> + +<p>Apple Island, that most perfectly shaped little fleck of land of ten +acres, was the home of a Mr. March, an Englishman who settled there with +his family, and lived there happily until his death, being buried at +last upon its western slope. The fine old elms which adorned it are gone +now, as have the fine old associations. No one followed Mr. March's +example, and Apple Island is now merely another excursion point.</p> + +<p>On Calf Island, another ten-acre fragment, one of America's popular +actresses, Julia Arthur,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> has her home. Thus, here and there, one +stumbles upon individuals or small communities who have chosen to live +out in the harbor. But one cannot help wondering how such beauty spots +have escaped being more loved and lived upon by men and women who +recognize the romantic lure which only an island can possess.</p> + +<p>Of course the advantage of these positions has been utilized, if not for +dwellings. Government buildings, warehouses, and the great sewage plant +all find convenient foothold here. The excursionists have ferreted out +whatever beaches and groves there may be. One need not regret that the +harbor is not appreciated, but only that it has not been developed along +æsthetic as well as useful lines.</p> + +<p>We have been looking at the east, which is the harbor view. If we look +to the west we see the city of Boston: the white tower of the Custom +House; the gold dome of the State House; the sheds of the great South +Station; the blue line of the Charles River. Here is the place to come +if one would see a living map of the city<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> and its environs. Standing +here we realize how truly Boston is a maritime city, and standing here +we also realize how it is that Dorchester Heights won its fame.</p> + +<p>It was in the winter of 1776, when the British, under Lord Howe, were +occupying Boston, and had fortified every place which seemed important. +By some curious oversight—which seems incredible to us as we actually +stand upon the top of this conspicuous hill—they forgot this spot.</p> + +<p>When Washington saw what they had not seen—how this unique position +commanded both the city and the harbor—he knew that his opportunity had +come. He had no adequate cannon or siege guns, and the story of how +Henry Knox—afterward General Knox—obtained these from Ticonderoga and +brought them on, in the face of terrific difficulties of weather and +terrain, is one that for bravery and brains will never fail to thrill. +On the night of March 4, the Americans, keeping up a cannonading to +throw the British off guard, and to cover up the sound of the moving,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +managed to get two thousand Continental troops and four hundred carts of +fascines and intrenching tools up on the hill. That same night, with the +aid of the moonlight, they threw up two redoubts—performing a task, +which, as Lord Howe exclaimed in dismay the following morning, was "more +in one night than my whole army could have done in a month."</p> + +<p>The occupation of the heights was a magnificent <i>coup</i>. The moment the +British saw what had been done, they realized that they had lost the +fight. However, Lord Percy hurried to make an attack, but the weather +made it impossible, and by the time the weather cleared the Americans +were so strongly intrenched that it was futile to attack. Washington, +although having been granted permission by Congress to attack Boston, +wished to save the loyal city if possible. Therefore, he and Howe made +an agreement by which Howe was to evacuate and Washington was to refrain +from using his guns. After almost two weeks of preparation for +departure, on March 17 the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> British fleet, as the gilded letters on the +white marble panel tell us, in the words of Charles W. Eliot:</p> + +<p class="center"> +Carrying 11,000 effective men<br /> +And 1000 refugees<br /> +Dropped down to Nantasket Roads<br /> +And thenceforth<br /> +Boston was free<br /> +A strong British force<br /> +Had been expelled<br /> +From one of the United American colonies +</p> + +<p>The white marble panel, with its gold letters and the other inscriptions +on the hill, tell the whole story to whoever cares to read, only +omitting to mention that the thousand self-condemned Boston refugees who +sailed away with the British fleet were bound for Halifax, and that that +was the beginning of the opprobrious term: "Go to Halifax."</p> + +<p>That the battle was won without bloodshed in no way minimizes the +verdict of history that "no single event had a greater general effect on +the course of the war than the expulsion of the British from the New +England capital." And surely this same verdict justifies the perpetual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +distinction of this unique and beautiful hill.</p> + +<p>This, then, is the story of Dorchester Heights—a story whose glory will +wax rather than wane in the years, and centuries, to come. Let us be +glad that out of the reek of the modern city congestion this green hill +has been preserved and this white marble monument erected. Perhaps you +see it now with different, more sympathetic eyes than when you first +looked out from the balcony platform. Before us lies the water with its +multifarious islands, bays, promontories, and coves, some of which we +shall now explore. Behind us lies the city which we shall now leave. The +Old Coast Road—the oldest in New England—winds from Boston to +Plymouth, along yonder southern horizon. More history than one person +can pleasantly relate, or one can comfortably listen to, lies packed +along this ancient turnpike: incidents closer set than the tombs along +the Appian Way. We will not try to hear them all. Neither will we follow +the original road too closely, for we seek the beautiful pleasure drive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +of to-day more than the historic highway of long ago.</p> + +<p>Boston was made the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1632. +Plymouth was a capital a decade before. It is to Plymouth that we now +set out.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<img src="images/image050.jpg" width="250" height="111" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/image51.jpg" width="350" height="129" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<h2><a name="Chapter_II" id="Chapter_II"></a>Chapter II</h2> + +<h3>MILTON AND THE BLUE HILLS</h3> + +<p>Milton—a town of dignity and distinction! A town of enterprise and +character! Ever since the first water-power mill in this country; the +first powder mill in this country; the first chocolate mill in this +country, and thus through a whole line of "first" things—the first +violoncello, the first pianoforte, the first artificial spring leg, and +the first railroad to see the light of day saw it in this grand old +town—the name of Milton has been synonymous with initiative and men and +women of character.</p> + +<p>Few people to-day think of Milton in terms of industrial repute, but, +rather, as a place of estates, too aristocratic to be fashionable, of +historic houses, and of charming walks and drives<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> and views. Many of +the old families who have given the town its prestige still live in +their ancestral manors, and many of the families who have moved there in +recent years are of such sort as will heighten the fame of the famous +town. As the stranger passes through Milton he is captivated by glimpses +of ancient homesteads, settling behind their white Colonial fences +topped with white Colonial urns, half hidden by their antique trees with +an air of comfortable ease; of new houses, elegant and yet informal; of +cottages with low roofs; of well-bred children playing on the wide, +green lawns under the supervision of white-uniformed nurses; of old +hedges, old walls, old trees; new roads, old drives, new gardens, and +old gardens—everything well placed, well tended, everything presenting +that indescribable atmosphere of well-established prosperity that scorns +show; of breeding that neither parades nor conceals its quality. +Yes—this is Milton; this is modern Milton. Boston society receives some +of its most prominent contributions from this patrician source. But +modern Milton is something more than this, as old Milton was something +more than this.</p> +<p><a name="facing_pg21" id="facing_pg21"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 432px;"> +<img src="images/image53.jpg" width="432" height="500" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<p>For Milton, from this day of its birth, and countless centuries before +its birth as a town, has lived under the lofty domination of the Blue +Hills, that range of diaphanous and yet intense blue, that swims forever +against the sky, that marches forever around the horizon. The rounded +summits of the Blue Hills, to which the eye is irresistibly attracted +before entering the town which principally claims them, are the +worn-down stumps of ancient mountains, and although so leveled by the +process of the ages, they are still the highest land near the coast from +Maine to Mexico. These eighteen or twenty skyey crests form the southern +boundary of the so-called Boston Basin, and are the most prominent +feature of the southern coast. From them the Massachuset tribe about the +Bay derived its name, signifying "Near the Great Hills," which name was +changed by the English to Massachusetts, and applied to both bay and +colony. Although its Indian name has been taken from this lovely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> range, +the loveliness remains. All the surrounding country shimmers under the +mysterious bloom of these heights, so vast that everything else is +dwarfed beside them, and yet so curiously airy that they seem to +perpetually ripple against the sky. The Great Blue Hill, especially—the +one which bears an observatory on its summit—swims above one's head. It +seems to have a singular way of moving from point to point as one +motors, and although one may be forced to admit that this may be due +more to the winding roads than to the illusiveness of the hill, still +the buoyant effect is the same.</p> + +<p>Ruskin declares somewhere, with his quaint and characteristic mixture of +positiveness and idealism, that "inhabitants of granite countries have a +force and healthiness of character about them that clearly distinguishes +them from the inhabitants of less pure districts." Perhaps he was right, +for surely here where the succeeding generations have all lived in the +atmosphere of the marching Blue Hill, each has through its own fair +name, done honor to the fair names which have preceded it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> + +<p>One of the very first to be attracted by the lofty and yet lovely appeal +of this region was Governor Thomas Hutchinson, the last of the Royal +Governors Massachusetts was to know. It was about the middle of the +eighteenth century that this gentleman, of whom John Adams wrote, "He +had been admired, revered, and almost adored," chose as the spot for his +house the height above the Neponset River. If we follow the old country +Heigh Waye to the top of Unquity (now Milton) Hill, we will find the +place he chose, although the house he built has gone and another stands +in its place. Fairly near the road, it overlooked a rolling green meadow +(a meadow which, by the gift of John Murray Forbes, will always be kept +open), with a flat green marsh at its feet and the wide flat twist of +the Neponset River winding through it, for all the world like a +decorative panel by Puvis de Chavannes. One can see a bit of the North +Shore and Boston Harbor from here. This is the view that the Governor so +admired, and tradition tells us that when he was forced to return to +England he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> walked on foot down the hill, shaking hands with his +neighbors, patriot and Tory alike, with tears in his eyes as he left +behind him the garden and the trees he had planted, and the house where +he had so happily lived. Although the view from the front of the house +is exquisite, the view from the back holds even more intimate +attraction. Here is the old, old garden, and although the ephemeral +blossoms of the present springtime shine brightly forth, the box, full +twenty feet high, speaks of another epoch. Foxgloves lean against the +"pleached alley," and roses clamber on a wall that doubtless bore the +weight of their first progenitors.</p> + +<p>Another governor who chose to live in Milton was Jonathan Belcher, but +one fancies it was the grandness rather than the sweetness of the scene +which attracted this rather spectacular person. The Belcher house still +exists, as does the portrait of its master, in his wig and velvet coat +and waistcoat, trimmed with richest gold lace at the neck and wrists. +Small-clothes and gold knee and shoe buckles complete the picture of one +who, when his mansion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> was planned, insisted upon an avenue fifty feet +wide, and so nicely graded that visitors on entering from the street +might see the gleam of his gold knee buckles as he stood on the distant +porch. The avenue, however, was never completed, as Belcher was +appointed governor of, and transferred to, New Jersey shortly after.</p> + +<p>Two other men of note, who, since the days of our years are but +threescore and ten, chose that their days without number should be spent +in the town they loved, were Wendell Phillips and Rimmer the sculptor, +who are both buried at Milton.</p> + +<p>Not only notable personages, but notable events have been engendered +under the shadow of these hills. The Suffolk Resolves, which were the +prelude of the Declaration of Independence, were adopted at the Vose +House, which still stands, square and unadorned, easy of access from the +sidewalk, as is suitable for a home of democracy. The first piano ever +made in this country received its conception and was brought to +fulfillment in the Crehore house, which, although still sagging a bit, +is by no means out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> of commission. And Wilde's Tavern, where was formed +the public opinion in a day when the forming of public opinion was of +preëminent importance, still retains, in its broad, hospitable lines, +some shred of its ancient charm.</p> + +<p>Milton is full of history. From the Revolutionary days, when the +cannonading at Bunker Hill shook the foundations of the houses, but not +the nerves of the Milton ladies, down to the year 1919, when the Fourth +Liberty Loan of $2,955,250 was subscribed from a population of 9000, all +the various vicissitudes of peace and war have been sustained on the +high level that one might expect from men and women nobly nurtured by +the strength of the hills.</p> + +<p>How much of its success Milton attributes to its location—for one +joins, indeed, a distinguished fellowship when one builds upon a hill, +or on several hills, as Roman as well as Bostonian history +testifies—can only be guessed by its tribute in the form of the Blue +Hills Reservation. This State recreation park and forest reserve of +about four thousand acres—a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> labyrinth of idyllic footpaths and leafy +trails, of twisting drives and walks that open out upon superb vistas, +is now the property of the people of Massachusetts. The granite quarry +man—far more interested in the value of the stone that underlay the +wooded slopes than in Ruskin's theory of its purifying effect upon the +inhabitants—had already obtained a footing here, when, under the able +leadership of Charles Francis Adams, the whole region was taken over by +the State in 1894.</p> + +<p>As you pass through the Reservation—and if you are taking even the most +cursory glimpse of Milton you must include some portion of this +park—you will pass the open space where in the early days, when Milton +country life was modeled upon English country life more closely than +now, Malcolm Forbes raced upon his private track the horses he himself +had bred. The race-track with its judges' stands is still there, but +there are no more horse-races, although the Forbes family still holds a +conspicuous place in all the social as well as the philanthropic +enterprises of the countryside. You may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> see, too, a solitary figure +with a scientist's stoop, or a tutor with a group of boys, making a +first-hand study of a region which is full of interest to the geologist.</p> + +<p>Circling thus around the base of the Great Blue Hill and irresistibly +drawn closer and closer to it as by a magnet, one is impelled to make +the ascent to the top—an easy ascent with its destination clearly +marked by the Rotch Meteorological Observatory erected in 1884 by the +late A. Lawrence Rotch of Milton, who bequeathed funds for its +maintenance. It is now connected with Harvard University.</p> + +<p>Once at the top the eye is overwhelmed by a circuit of more than a +hundred and fifty miles! It is almost too immense at first—almost as +barren as an empty expanse of rolling green sea. But as the eye grows +accustomed to the stretching distances, objects both near and far begin +to appear. And soon, if the day is clear, buildings may be identified in +more than one hundred and twenty-five villages. We are six hundred and +thirty-five feet above the sea, on the highest coastland from +Agamenticus, near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> York, Maine, to the Rio Grande, and the panorama thus +unrolled is truly magnificent. Facing northerly we can easily +distinguish Cambridge, Somerville, and Malden, and far beyond the hills +of Andover and Georgetown. A little to the east, Boston with its gilded +dome; then the harbor with its islands, headlands, and fortifications. +Beyond that are distinctly visible various points on the North Shore, as +far as Eastern Point Lighthouse in Gloucester. Forty miles to the +northeast appear the twin lighthouses on Thatcher's Island, seeming, +from here, to be standing, not on the land, but out in the ocean. Nearer +and more distinct is Boston Light—a sentinel at the entrance to the +harbor, while beyond it stretches Massachusetts Bay. Turning nearly east +the eye, passing over Chickatawbut Hill—three miles off and second in +height of the Blue Hills—follows the beautiful curve of Nantasket +Beach, and the pointing finger of Minot's Light. Facing nearly south, +the long ridge of Manomet Hill in Plymouth, thirty-three miles away, +stands clear against the sky, while twenty-six miles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> away, in Duxbury, +one sees the Myles Standish Monument. Directly south rises the smoke of +the city of Fall River; to the westerly, Woonsocket, and continuing to +the west, Mount Wachusett in Princeton. Far to the right of Wachusett, +nearly over the dome of the Dedham Courthouse, rounds up Watatic in +Ashburnham, and northwest a dozen peaks of southern New Hampshire. At +the right of Watatic and far beyond it is the Grand Monadnock in +Jaffrey, 3170 feet above the sea and sixty-seven and a half miles away. +On the right of Grand Monadnock is a group of nearer summits: Mount +Kidder, exactly northwest; Spofford and Temple Mountains; then appears +the remarkable Pack-Monadnock, near Peterboro, with its two equal +summits. The next group to the right is in Lyndeboro. At the right of +Lyndeboro, and nearly over the Readville railroad stations, is Joe +English Hill, and to complete the round, nearly north-northwest are the +summits of the Uncanoonuc Mountains, fifty-nine miles away.</p> + +<p>This, then, is the Great Blue Hill of Milton.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> Those who are familiar +with the State of Massachusetts—and New England—can stand here and +pick out a hundred distinguishing landmarks, and those who have never +been here before may find an unparalleled opportunity to see the whole +region at one sweep of the eye.</p> + +<p>From the point of view of topography the summit of Great Blue Hill is +the place to reach. But for the sense of mysterious beauty, for snatches +of pictures one will never forget, the little vistas which open on the +upward or the downward trail, framed by hanging boughs or encircled by a +half frame of stone and hillside—these are, perhaps, more lovely. The +hill itself, seen from a distance, floating lightly like a vast blue +ball against a vaster sky, is dreamily suggestive in a way which the +actual view, superb as it is, is not. One remembers Stevenson's +observation, that sometimes to travel hopefully is better than to +arrive. So let us come down, for, after all, "Love is of the valley." +Down again to the old town of Milton. We have not half begun to wander +over it: not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> half begun to hear the pleasant stories it has to tell. +When one is as old as this—for Milton was discovered by a band from +Plymouth who came up the Neponset River in 1621—one has many tales to +tell.</p> + +<p>Of all the towns along the South Shore there are few whose feet are so +firmly emplanted in the economic history of the past and present as is +Milton. That peculiar odor of sweetness which drifts to us with a turn +of the wind, comes from a chocolate mill whose trade-mark of a +neat-handed maid with her little tray is known all over the civilized +world. And those mills stand upon the site of the first grist mill in +New England to be run by water power. This was in 1634, and one likes to +picture the sturdy colonists trailing into town, their packs upon their +backs, like children in kindergarten games, to have their grain ground. +Israel Stoughton was the name of the man who established this first +mill—a name perpetuated in the near-by town of Stoughton.</p> + +<p>All ground is historic ground in Milton. That rollicking group of +schoolboys yonder belongs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> to an academy, which, handsome and +flourishing as it is to-day, was founded as long ago as 1787. That seems +long ago, but there was a school in Milton before that: a school held in +the first meeting-house. Nothing is left of this quaint structure but a +small bronze bas-relief, set against a stone wall, near its original +site. This early church and early school was a log cabin with a thatched +roof and latticed windows, if one may believe the relief, but men of +brains and character were taught there lessons which stood them and the +colony in good stead. One fancies the students' roving eyes may have +occasionally strayed down the Indian trail directly opposite the old +site—a trail which, although now attained to the proud rank of a lane, +Churchill's Lane, still invites one down its tangled green way along the +gray stone wall. Yes, every step of ground has its tradition here. +Yonder railroad track marks the spot where the very first tie in the +country was laid, and laid for no less significant purpose than to +facilitate the carrying of granite blocks for Bunker Hill Monument from +their quarry to the harbor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<p>Granite from the hills—the hills which swim forever against the sky and +march forever above the distant horizon. Again we are drawn back to the +irresistible magnet of those mighty monitors. Yes, wherever one goes in +Milton, either on foot to-day or back through the chapters of three +centuries ago, the Blue Hills dominate every event, and the Great Blue +Hill floats above them all.</p> + +<p>"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help," +chants the psalmist. Ah, well, no one can say it better than +that—except the hills themselves, which, with gentle majesty, look down +affectionately upon the town at their feet.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<img src="images/image068.jpg" width="250" height="104" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/image069.jpg" width="350" height="191" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>SHIPBUILDING AT QUINCY</h3> + +<p>The first man-made craft which floated on the waters of what is now Fore +River was probably a little dugout, a crude boat made by an Indian, who +burned out the center of a pine log which he had felled by girdling with +fire. After he had burned out as much as he could, he scraped out the +rest with a stone tool called a "celt." The whole operation probably +took one Indian three weeks. The Rivadavia which slid down the ways of +the Fore River Shipbuilding Corporation in August, 1914, weighed 13,400 +tons and had engaged the labor of 2000 men for fifty months.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>Between these two extremes flutter all the great sisterhood of shallops, +sloops, pinks, schooners, snows, the almost obsolete batteau and +periagua, the gundelow with its picturesque lateen sail, and all the +winged host that are now merely names in New England's maritime history.</p> + +<p>We may not give in this limited space an account of the various vessels +which have sailed down the green-sea aisles the last three hundred +years. But of the very first, "a great and strong shallop" built by the +Plymouth settlers for fishing, we must make brief mention, and of the +Blessing of the Bay, the first seaworthy native craft to be built and +launched on these shores—the pioneer of all New England commerce. Built +by Governor Winthrop, he notes of her in his journal on August 31, 1631, +that "the bark being of thirty tons went to sea." That is all he says, +but from that significant moment the building of ships went on +"gallantly," as was indeed to be expected in a country whose chief +industry was fishing and which was so admirably surrounded by natural<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +bays and harbors. In 1665 we hear of the Great and General Court of +Massachusetts—which distinctive term is still applied to the +Massachusetts Legislature—forbidding the cutting of any trees suitable +for masts. The broad arrow of the King was marked on all white pines, +twenty-four inches in diameter, three feet from the ground. Big ships +and little ships swarmed into existence, and every South Shore town made +shipbuilding history. The ketch, a two-masted vessel carrying from +fifteen to twenty tons, carried on most of the coasting traffic, and +occasionally ventured on a foreign voyage. When we recall that the best +and cheapest ships of the latter half of the seventeenth century were +built here in the new country, we realize that shipyards, ports, docks, +proper laws and regulations, and the invigorating progress which marks +any thriving industry flourished bravely up and down the whole New +England coast.</p> + +<p>It is rather inspiring to stand here on the bridge which spans the Fore +River, and picture that first crude dugout being paddled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> along by the +steady stroke of the red man, and then to look at the river to-day. +Every traveler through Quincy is familiar with the aerial network of +steel scaffolding criss-crossing the sky, with the roofs of shops and +offices and glimpses of vessels visible along the water-front. But few +travelers realize that these are merely the superficial features of a +shipyard which under the urge of the Great War delivered to the Navy, in +1918, eighteen completed destroyers, which was as many as all the other +yards in the country put together delivered during this time. A shipyard +which cut the time of building destroyers from anywhere between eighteen +and thirty-two months to an average of six months and a half; a shipyard +which made the world's record of one hundred and seventy-four days from +the laying of the keel to the delivering of a destroyer.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to grasp the meaning of these figures. Difficult, even +after one has obtained entrance into this city within a city, and seen +with his own eyes twenty thousand men toiling like Trojans. Seen a +riveting crew which can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> drive more than twenty-eight hundred rivets in +nine hours; battleships that weigh thirty thousand tons; a plate yard +piled with steel plates and steel bars worth two million dollars; cranes +that can lift from five tons up to others of one hundred tons capacity; +single buildings a thousand feet long and eighty feet high.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the enormousness of the plant is best comprehended, not when we +mechanically repeat that it covers eighty acres and comprises eighty +buildings, and that four full-sized steam locomotives run up and down +its yard, but when we see how many of the intimate things of daily +living have sprung up here as little trees spring up between huge +stones. For the Fore River Plant is more than an industrial +organization. It is a social center, an economic entity. It has its band +and glee club, ball team and monthly magazine. There are refreshment +stands, and a bathing cove; a brand-new village of four hundred and +thirty-eight brand-new houses; dormitories which accommodate nearly a +thousand men and possess every convenience and even luxuries. The men +work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> hard here, but they are well paid for their work, as the many +motor-cycles and automobiles waiting for them at night testify. It is a +scene of incredible industry, but also of incredible completeness.</p> + +<p>To look down upon the village and the yard from the throbbing roof of +the steel mill, seven hundred and seventy feet long and a hundred and +eighty-eight wide, is a thrilling sight. Within the yard, confined on +three sides by its high fences and buildings and on the fourth by +Weymouth Fore River, one sees, far below, locomotives moving up and down +on their tracks; great cranes stalking long-leggedly back and forth; +smoke from foundry, blacksmith shop, and boiler shop; men hurrying to +and fro. Whistles blow, and whole buildings tremble. The smoke and the +grayness might make it a gloomy scene if it were not for the red sides +of the immense submarines gleaming in their wide slips to the water. +Everywhere one sees the long gray sides of freighters, destroyers, +merchant ships, and oil tankers heaving like the mailed ribs of sea +animals basking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> on the shore. Practically every single operation, from +the most stupendous to the most delicate, necessary for the complete +construction of these vessels, is carried on in this yard. The eighty +acres look small when we realize the extent and variety of the work +achieved within its limits.</p> + +<p>Yes, the solitary Indian, working with fire and celt on his dugout, +would not recognize this once familiar haunt, nor would he know the +purpose of these vast vessels without sail or paddle. And yet, were this +same Indian standing on the roof with us, he would see a wide stream of +water he knew well, and he would see, too, above the smoke of the +furnace, shop, and boiler room, the friendly green of the trees.</p> + +<p>Perhaps there is nothing which makes us realize the magical rapidity of +growth so much as to look from this steel city and to see the woods +close by. For instead of being surrounded by the sordid congestion of an +industrial center, the Fore River Shipyard is in the midst of +practically open country.</p> + +<p>While we are speaking of rapidity we must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> look over toward the Victory +Plant at Squantum, that miraculous marsh which was drained with such +expedition that just twelve months from the day ground was broken for +its foundation, it launched its first ship, and less than two years +after completed its entire contract. Surely never in the history of +shipbuilding have brain and brawn worked so brilliantly together!</p> + +<p>In this way, then, the history of the ships that have sailed the seven +seas has been built up at Quincy—a dramatic history and one instinct +with the beauty which is part of gliding canoe and white sails, and +part, too, of the huge smooth-slipping monsters of a modern day, sleek +and swift as leviathans. But all the while the building of these ships +has been going on, there has been slowly rising within the selfsame +radius another ship, vaster, more inspiring, calling forth initiative +even more intense, idealism even more profound—the Ship of State.</p> + +<p>We who journey to-day over the smooth or troubled waters of national or +international<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> affairs are no more conscious of the infinite toil and +labors which have gone into the intricate making of the vessel that +carries us, than are travelers conscious of the cogs and screws, the +engines and all the elaboration of detail which compose an ocean liner. +Like them we sometimes grumble at meals or prices, at some discourtesy +or incompetence, but we take it for granted that the engine is in +commission, that the bottom is whole and the chart correct. The great +Ship of State of this country may occasionally run into rough weather, +but Americans believe that, in the last analysis, she is honestly built. +And it is to Quincy that we owe a large initial part of this building.</p> + +<p>It is astonishing to enumerate the notable public men, who have been +influential in establishing our national policy, who have come from +Quincy. There is no town in this entire country which can equal the +record. What other town ever produced two Presidents of the United +States, an Ambassador to Great Britain, a Governor of the Commonwealth, +a Mayor of Boston, two presidents of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> Harvard University, and judges, +chief justices, statesmen, and orators in such quantity and of such +quality? Truly this group of eminent men of brilliance, integrity, and +public feeling is unique in our history. To read the biographies of +Quincy's great men would comprise a studious winter's employment, but +we, passing through the historic city, may hold up our fragment of a +mirror and catch a bit of the procession.</p> + +<p>First and foremost, of course, will come President John Adams, he who, +both before and after his term of high office, toiled terrifically in +the public cause, being at the time of his election to Congress a member +of ninety committees and a chairman of twenty-five! We see him as the +portraits have taught us to see him, with strong, serious +face,—austere, but not harsh,—velvet coat, white ruffles, and white +curls. He stands before us as the undisputed founder of what is now +recognized as American diplomacy. Straightforward, sound to the core, +unswerving, veracious, exemplifying in every act the candor of the +Puritan,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> so congruous with the new simple life of a nation of common +people. I think we shall like best to study him as he stands at the door +of the little house in which he was born, and which, with its pitch +roof, its antique door and eaves, is still preserved, close to the +street, for public scrutiny.</p> + +<p>Next to President John Adams comes his son, John Quincy Adams, also a +President of the United States. Spending much of his time abroad, the +experience of those diplomatic years is graven upon features more subtly +refined than those of his sire. But for all his foreign residence, he +was, like his father, a Puritan in its most exalted sense; like him +toiled all his life in public service, dying in the harness when rising +to address the Speaker of the House. Him, too, we see best, standing at +the door of his birthplace, a small cottage a stone's throw from the +other cottage, separated only by a turnstile. Fresh white curtains hang +in the small-paned windows; the grass is neatly trimmed, and like its +quaint companion it is now open to the public and worth the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> tourist's +call. Both these venerable cottages have inner walls, one of burnt, the +other of unburnt brick; and both are unusual in having no boards on the +outer walls, but merely clapboards fastened directly on to the studding +with wrought-iron nails.</p> + +<p>Still another Adams follows, Charles Francis Adams. Although a little +boy when he first comes into public view, a little boy occupying the +conspicuous place as child of one President and grandchild of another, +yet he was to win renown and honor on his own account as Ambassador to +England during the critical period of our Civil War. America remembers +him best in this position. His firm old face with its white chin +whiskers is a worthy portrait in the ancestral gallery.</p> + +<p>Although the political history of this country may conclude its +reference to the Adamses with these three famous figures, yet all New +Englanders and all readers of biography would be reluctant to turn from +this remarkable family without mention of the sons of Charles Francis +Adams, two of whom have written,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> beside valuable historical works, +autobiographies so entertaining and so truly valuable for their +contemporaneous portraits as to win a place of survival in our permanent +literature.</p> + +<p>A member of the Adams family still lives in the comfortable home where +the three first and most famous members all celebrated their golden +weddings. This broad-fronted and hospitable house, built in 1730 by +Leonard Vassal, a West India planter, for his summer residence, with its +library finished in panels of solid mahogany, was confiscated when its +Royalist owner fled at the outbreak of the Revolution, and John Adams +acquired the property and left the pitch-roofed cottage down the street. +The home of two Presidents, what tales it could tell of notable +gatherings! One must read the autobiography of Charles Francis Adams and +"The Education of Henry Adams" to appreciate the charm of the succeeding +mistresses of the noble homestead, and to enjoy in retrospect its many +illustrious visitors.</p> + +<p>To have produced one family like the Adamses would surely be sufficient +distinction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> for any one place, but the Adams family forms merely one +unit in Quincy's unique procession of great men.</p> + +<p>The Quincy family, for which the town was named, and which at an early +date intermarried with the Adamses, presents an almost parallel +distinction. The first Colonel Quincy, he who lived like an English +squire, a trifle irascible, to be sure, but a dignified and commanding +figure withal, had fourteen children by his first wife and three by his +second, so the family started off with the advantage of numbers as well +as of blood. At the Quincy mansion house were born statesmen, judges, +and captains of war. The "Dorothy Q." of Holmes's poem first saw the +light in it, and the Dorothy who became the bride of the dashing John +Hancock blossomed into womanhood in it. Here were entertained times +without number Sir Harry Vane, quaint Judge Sewall, Benjamin Franklin, +and that couple who gleam through the annals of New England history in a +never-fading flame of romance, Sir Harry Frankland and beautiful Agnes +Surriage. The Quincy mansion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> which was built about 1635 by William +Coddington of Boston and occupied by him until he was exiled for his +religious opinions, was bought by Edmund Quincy. His grandson, who bore +his name, enlarged the house, and lived in it until his death when it +descended to his son Edmund, the eminent jurist and father of Dorothy. +The old-fashioned furniture, utensils and pictures, the broad hall, fine +old stairway with carved balustrades, and foreign wall-paper supposed to +have been hung in honor of the approaching marriage of Dorothy to John +Hancock, are still preserved in their original place. Of the Quincy +family, whose sedate jest it was that the estate descended from 'Siah to +'Siah, so frequent was the name "Josiah," the best known is perhaps the +Josiah Quincy who was Mayor of Boston for six years and president of +Harvard for sixteen. The portrait of his long, thin face is part of +every New England history, and his busy, serene life, "compacted of +Roman and Puritan virtues," is still upheld to all American children as +a model of high citizenship.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> + +<p>But not even the long line of the Quincy family completes the list of +the town's great men. Henry Hope, one of the most brilliant financiers +of his generation, and founder of a European banking house second only +to that of the Rothchilds, was a native of Quincy. John Hull—who, as +every school-child knows, on the day of his daughter's marriage to Judge +Sewall, placed her in one of his weighing scales, and heaped enough new +pine-tree shillings into the other to balance, and then presented both +to the bridegroom—held the first grant of land in the present town of +Braintree (which originally included Quincy, Randolph, and Holbrook).</p> + +<p>From the picturesque union of John Hull's bouncing daughter Betsy and +Judge Sewall sprang the extraordinary family of Sewalls which has given +three chief justices to Massachusetts, and one to Canada, and has been +distinguished in every generation for the talents and virtues of its +members. In passing, we may note that it was this same John Hull who +named Point Judith for his wife, little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> dreaming what a <i>bête noir</i> the +place would prove to mariners in the years to come.</p> + +<p>There is another Quincy man whom it is pleasant to recall, and that is +Henry Flynt, a whimsical and scholarly old bachelor, who was a tutor at +Harvard for no less than fifty-three years, the one fixed element in the +flow of fourteen college generations. One of the most accomplished +scholars of his day, his influence on the young men with whom he came in +contact was stimulating to a degree, and they loved to repeat bits of +his famous repartee. A favorite which has come down to us was on an +occasion when Whitefield the revivalist declared in a theological +discussion: "It is my opinion that Dr. Tillotson is now in hell for his +heresy." To which Tutor Flynt retorted dryly: "It is my opinion that you +will not meet him there."</p> + +<p>The procession of Quincy's great men which we have been watching winds +its way, as human processions are apt to do, to the old graveyard. Most +of the original settlers are buried here, although not a few were buried +on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> their own land, according to the common custom. Probably this +ancient burying ground, with its oldest headstone of 1663, has never +been particularly attractive. The Puritans did not decorate their +graveyards in any way. Fearing that prayers or sermons would encourage +the "superstitions" of the Roman Catholic Church, they shunned any +ritual over the dead or beautifying of their last resting-place. +However, neglected as the spot was, the old stone church, whose golden +belfry is such a familiar and pleasant landmark to all the neighboring +countryside, still keeps its face turned steadfastly toward it. The +congested traffic of the city square presses about its portico, but +those who knew and loved it best lie quietly within the shadow of its +gray walls. Under the portico lies President John Adams, and "at his +side sleeps until the trump shall sound, Abigail, his beloved and only +wife." In the second chamber is placed the dust of his illustrious son, +with "His partner for fifty years, Louisa Catherine"—she of whom Henry +Adams wrote, "her refined figure; her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> gentle voice and manner; her +vague effect of not belonging there, but to Washington or Europe, like +her furniture and writing-desk with little glass doors above and little +eighteenth-century volumes in old binding."</p> + +<p>It has been called the "church of statesmen," this dignified building, +and so, indeed, might Quincy itself be called the "city of statesmen." +It would be extremely interesting to study the reasons for Quincy's +peculiar productiveness of noble public characters. The town was settled +(as Braintree) exclusively by people from Devonshire and Lincolnshire +and Essex. The laws of the Massachusetts Colony forbade Irish +immigration—probably more for religious than racial reasons. On reading +the ancient petition for the incorporation of the town one is struck by +the fact that practically every single name of the one hundred and fifty +signers is English in origin, the few which were not having been +anglicized. All of these facts point to a homogeneous stock, with the +same language, traditions, and social customs. Obviously there is a +connection between the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> governmental genius displayed by Quincy's sons +and the singular purity of the original English stock.</p> + +<p>Little did Wampatuck, the son of Chickatawbut, realize what he was doing +when he parted with his Braintree lands for twenty-one pounds and ten +shillings. The Indian deed is still preserved, with the following words +on its back: "In the 17th reign of Charles 2. Braintry Indian Deeds. +Given 1665. Aug. 10: Take great care of it."</p> + +<p>Little did the Indian chief realize that the surrounding waters were to +float hulks as mighty as a city; that the hills were to furnish granite +for buildings and monuments without number; and that men were to be born +there who would shape the greatest Ship of State the world has ever +known. And yet, if he had known, possibly he would have accepted the +twenty-one pounds and ten shillings just the same, and departed quietly. +For the ships that were to be built would never have pleased him as well +as his own canoe; the granite buildings would have stifled him; and the +zealous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> Adamses and the high-minded Quincys and Sewalls and all the +rest would have bored him horribly. Probably the only item in the whole +history of Quincy which would have appealed to Wampatuck in the least +would have been the floating down on a raft of the old Hollis Street +Church of Boston, to become the Union Church of Weymouth and Braintree +in 1810. This and the similar transportation of the Bowditch house from +Beacon Street in Boston to Quincy a couple of years later would have +fascinated the red man, as the recital of the feat fascinates us to-day.</p> + +<p>Those who care to learn more of Quincy will do well to read the +autobiography of Charles Francis Adams and "The Education of Henry +Adams." Those who care more for places than for descriptions of them may +wander at will, finding beneath the surface of the modern city many +landmarks of the old city which underlies it. They may see the +scaffolding of the great shipyards latticing themselves against the sky, +and the granite quarries against the hills. They may see the little +cottages and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> great houses made famous by those who have passed over +their thresholds; they may linger in the old burial ground and trace out +the epitaphs under the portico of the golden-belfried church. But after +they have touched and handled all of these things, they will not +understand Quincy unless they look beyond and recognize her greatest +contribution to this country—the noble statesmen who so bravely and +intelligently toiled to construct America's Ship of State.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<img src="images/image090.jpg" width="250" height="106" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/image091.jpg" width="350" height="190" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THE ROMANCE OF WEYMOUTH</h3> +<p>The paintings of John Constable, idyllic in their quietness, dewy in +their serenity—how many travelers, how many lovers of art, superficial +or profound, yearly seek out these paintings in the South Kensington +Museum or the Louvre, and stand before them wrapt in gentle ecstasy?</p> + +<p>The quality of Constable's pictures delineates in luminous softness a +peculiarly lovely side of English rural life, but one need not travel to +England or France to see this loveliness. Weymouth, that rambling +stretch of towns and hamlets, of summer colony and suburb, possesses in +certain areas bits of rural<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> landscape as serene, as dewy, as +idyllically tranquil as Constable at his best.</p> + +<p>Comparatively few people in New England, or out of it, know Weymouth +well. Every one has heard of it, for it is next in age to the town of +Plymouth itself, and every one who travels to the South Shore passes +some section of it, for it extends lengthily—north and south, east and +west—being the only town in Massachusetts to retain its original +boundaries. And numbers of people are familiar with certain parts of it, +for there are half a score of villages in the township, some of them +summer settlements, some of them animated by an all-the-year-round life. +But compared with the other towns along this historic route, Weymouth as +a whole is little known and little appreciated. And yet the history of +Weymouth is not without amusing and edifying elements, and the scenery +of Weymouth is worthy of the détour that strangers rarely make.</p> + +<p>"Old Spain" is the romantic name for an uninteresting part of the +township, and, conversely, Commercial Street is the uninteresting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> name +for a romantic part. It is along a highway stigmatized by such a name +that one gets the glimpses of a Constable country: glimpses of rolling +meadows, of fertile groves, of cattle grazing in elm-shaded pastures, of +a road winding contentedly among simple, ancient cottages, and quiet, +thrifty farms. These are the homes which belong, and have belonged for +generations, to people who are neither rich nor poor; cozy, quaint, +suggesting in an odd way the thatched-roof cottages of England. Not that +all of Weymouth's homes are of this order. The Asa Webb Cowing house, +which terminates Commercial Street within a stone's throw of the square +of the town of Weymouth, is one of the very finest examples of the +Colonial architecture in this country. The exquisite tracery and carving +over and above the front door, and the white imported marble window +lintels spin an elaborate and marvelously fine lacework of white over +the handsome red-brick façade. Although it is, alas, falling somewhat +into disrepair, perfect proportion and gemlike workmanship still stamp +the venerable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> mansion as one of patrician heritage. There are other +excellent examples of architecture in Weymouth, but the Cowing house +must always be the star, both because of its extraordinary beauty and +conspicuous position. Yes, if you want a characteristic glimpse of +Weymouth, you cannot do better than to begin in front of this landmark, +and drive down Commercial Street. Here for several smiling miles there +is nothing—no ugly building large or small, no ruthless invasion of +modernity to mar the mood of happy simplicity. Her beauty of beach, of +sky, of river, Weymouth shares with other South Shore towns. Her +perfection of idyllic rusticity is hers alone.</p> + +<p>Just as Weymouth's scenery is unlike that of her neighbors, so her +history projects itself from an entirely different angle from theirs. +While they were conceived by zealous, God-fearing men and women honestly +seeking to establish homes in a new country, Weymouth was inadvertently +born through the misconduct of a set of adventurers. Not every one who +came to America in those significant early<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> years came impelled by lofty +motives. There were scapegraces, bad boys, rogues, mercenaries, and +schemers; and perhaps it is entirely logical that the winning natural +loveliness of this place should have lured to her men who were not of +the caliber to face more exposed, less fertile sections, and men to whom +beauty made an especial appeal.</p> + +<p>The Indians early found Wessagusset, as they called it, an important +rendezvous, as it was accessible by land and sea, and there were +probably temporary camps there previous to 1620, formed by fishermen and +traders who visited the New England coast to traffic with the natives. +But it was not until the arrival of Thomas Weston in 1622 that +Weymouth's history really begins. And then it begins in a topsy-turvy +way, so unlike Puritan New England that it makes us rub our eyes, +wondering if it is really true.</p> + +<p>This Thomas Weston, who was a merchant adventurer of London, took it +into his head to establish a colony in the new country entirely +different from the Plymouth Colony. He had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> been an agent of the +Pilgrims in their negotiations with the Plymouth Company, and when he +broke off the connection it was to start a settlement which should +combine all of the advantages, with none of the disadvantages, of the +Plymouth Colony. First of all, it was to be a trading community pure and +simple, with its object frankly to make money. Second, it was to be +composed of men without families and familiar with hardship. And third, +there was no religious motive or bond. That such an unidealistic +enterprise should not flourish on American soil is worth noting. The +disorderly, thriftless rabble, picked up from the London streets, soon +got into trouble with the Indians and with neighboring colonists, and +finally, undone by the results of their own improvidence and +misbehavior, wailed that they "wanted to go back to London," to which +end the Plymouth settlers willingly aided them, glad to get them out of +the country. Thus ended the first inauspicious settlement of Weymouth.</p> + +<p>The second, which was undertaken shortly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> after by Robert Gorges, broke +up the following spring, leaving only a few remnants behind. Sir +Ferdinando Gorges, who was not a Spaniard as his name suggests, but a +picturesque Elizabethan and a kinsman of Sir Walter Raleigh, essayed +(through his son Robert) an experimental government along practically +the same commercial lines as had Weston, and his failure was as speedy +and complete as Weston's had been.</p> + +<p>A third attempt, while hardly more successful, furnishes one of the +gayest and prettiest episodes in the whole history of New England. +Across the somber procession of earnest-faced men and women, across the +psalm-singing and the praying, across the incredible toil of the +pioneers at Plymouth now flashes the brightly costumed and +pleasure-loving courtier, Thomas Morton. An agent of Gorges, Morton with +thirty followers floated into Wessagusset to found a Royalist and +Episcopalian settlement. This Episcopalian bias was quite enough to +account for Bradford's disparaging description of him as a "kind of +petie-fogie of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> Furnifells Inn," and explains why the early historians +never made any fuller or more favorable record than absolutely necessary +of these neighbors of theirs, although the churchman Samuel Maverick +admits that Morton was a "gentleman of good qualitee."</p> + +<p>But it was for worse sins than his connection with the Established +Church that Morton's name became synonymous with scandal throughout the +whole Colony. In the very midst of the dun-colored atmosphere of +Puritanism, in the very heart of the pious pioneer settlement this +audacious scamp set up, according to Bradford, "a schoole of atheisme, +and his men did quaff strong waters and comport themselves as if they +had anew revived and celebrated the feasts of y^e Roman Goddess Flora, +or the beastly practises of y^e madd Bachanalians." The charge of +atheism in this case seems based on the fact that Morton used the Book +of Common Prayer, but as for the rest, there is no question that this +band of silken merry-makers imported many of the carnival customs and +hereditary pastimes of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> Old England to the stern young New England; that +they fraternized with the Indians, shared their strong waters with them, +and taught them the use of firearms; and that Merrymount became indeed a +scene of wildest revelry.</p> + +<p>The site of Merrymount had originally been selected by Captain Wollaston +for a trading post. Imbued with the same mercenary motive which had +proved fatal in the case of Weston and Gorges, Captain Wollaston, whose +name is perpetuated in Mount Wollaston, brought with him in 1625 a gang +of indented white servants. Finding his system of industry ill suited to +the climate, he carried his men to Virginia, where he sold them. When he +left, Morton took possession of the place and dubbed it "Ma-re-mount." +And then began the pranks which shook the Colony to its foundations. +Picture to yourself a band of sworn triflers, dedicated to the wildest +philosophy of pleasure, teaching bears to dance, playing blind-man's +buff, holding juggling and boxing matches, and dancing. According to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +Hawthorne, on the eve of Saint John they felled whole acres of forests +to make bonfires, and crowned themselves with flowers and threw the +blossoms into the flames. At harvest-time they hilariously wasted their +scanty store of Indian corn by making an image with the sheaves, and +wreathing it with the painted garlands of autumn foliage. They crowned +the King of Christmas and bent the knee to the Lord of Misrule! Such +fantastic foolery is inconceivable in a Puritan community, and the +Maypole which was its emblem was the most inconceivable of all. This +"flower-decked abomination," ornamented with white birch bark, banners, +and blossoms, was the center of the tipsy jollity of Merrymount. As +Morton explains: "A goodly pine tree of eighty foote was reared up, with +a peare of bucks horns nayled on somewhere near to the top of it: where +it stood as a faire sea mark for directions how to find out the way to +mine host of Ma-re-mount." Around this famous, or infamous, pole Morton +and his band frolicked with the Indians on May Day in 1627. As the +indignant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> historian writes: "Unleashed pagans from the purlieus of the +gross court of King James, danced about the Idoll of Merry Mount, +joining hands with the lasses in beaver coats, and singing their ribald +songs."</p> + +<p>It doesn't look quite so heinous to us, this Maypole dancing, as it did +to the outraged Puritans. In fact, the story of Morton and Merrymount is +one of the few glistening threads in the somber weaving of those early +days. But the New England soil was not prepared at that time to support +any such exotic, and Myles Standish was sent to disperse the frivolous +band, and to order Morton back to England, which he did, after a +scrimmage which Morton relates with great vivacity and doubtful veracity +in his "New English Canaan."</p> + +<p>This "New English Canaan," by the way, had a rather singular career. +Morton tells in it many amusing stories, and one of them was destined to +a remarkable perpetuity in English literature. The story deals with the +Wessagusset settlers promising to hang one of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> own members who had +been caught stealing—this hanging in order to appease the Indians. +Morton gravely states that instead of hanging the real culprit, who was +young and lusty, they hanged, in his place, another, old and sick. In +his quaint diction: "You all agree that one must die, and one shall die, +this young man's cloathes we will take off and put upon one that is old +and impotent, a sickly person that cannot escape death, such is the +disease on him confirmed, that die hee must. Put the young man's +cloathes on this man, and let the sick person be hanged in the other's +steade. Amen sayes one, and so sayes many more." This absurd notion of +vicarious atonement, spun purely from Morton's imagination, appealed to +Samuel Butler as worthy of further elaboration. Morton's "New English +Canaan" appeared in 1632. About thirty years later the second part of +the famous English satire "Hudibras" appeared, embodying Morton's idea +in altered but recognizable form, in what was the most popular English +book of the day. This satire, appearing when the reaction against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +Puritanism was at its height, was accepted and solemnly deposited at the +door of the good people of Boston and Plymouth! And thus it was that +Morton's fabricated tale of the Weymouth hanging passed into genuine +history along with the "blue laws" of Connecticut. One cannot help +believing that the mischievous perpetrator of the fable laughed up his +sleeve at its result, and one cannot resist the thought that he was +probably delighted to have the scandal attached to those righteous +neighbors of his who had run him out of his dear Ma-re-mount.</p> + +<p>However, driven out he was: the Maypole about which the revelers had +danced was hewed down by the stern zealots who believed in dancing about +only one pole, and that the whipping-post. Merrymount was deserted.</p> + +<p>Certainly Weymouth, the honey spot which attracted not industrious bees, +but only drones, was having a hard time getting settled! It was not +until the Reverend Joseph Hull received permission from the General +Court to settle here with twenty-one families, from Weymouth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> England, +that the town was at last shepherded into the Puritan fold.</p> + +<p>These settlers, of good English stock and with the earnest ideals of +pioneers, soon brought the community into good repute, and its +subsequent life was as respectable and uneventful as that of a reformed +<i>roué</i>. In fact there is practically no more history for Weymouth. There +are certainly no more raids upon merry-makers; no more calls from the +cricket colony which had sung all summer on the banks of the river to +the ant colony which had providently toiled on the shore of the bay; no +more experimental governments; no more scandal. The men and women of the +next five generations were a poor, hard-working race, rising early and +toiling late. The men worked in the fields, tending the flocks, planting +and gathering the harvest. The women worked in the houses, in the +dairies and kitchens, at the spinning-wheel and washtub. The privations +and loneliness, which are part of every struggling colony, were +augmented here, where the houses did not cluster about the church and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +burial ground, but were scattered and far away. This peculiarity of +settlement meant much in days where there was no newspaper, no system of +public transportation, no regular post, and Europe was months removed. A +few of the young men went with the fishing fleet to Cape Sable, or +sailed on trading vessels to the West Indies or Spain, but it is +doubtful if any Weymouth-born woman ever laid eyes on the mother country +during the first hundred and fifty years.</p> + +<p>The records of the town are painfully dull. They are taken up by small +domestic matters: the regulations for cattle; running boundary lines, +locating highways, improving the town common, fixing fines for roving +swine or agreeing to the division of a whale found on the shore. There +was more or less bickering over the salary of the town clerk, who was to +receive thirty-three pounds and fourteen shillings yearly to keep "A +free school and teach all children and servants sent him to read and +write and cast accounts."</p> + +<p>Added to the isolation and pettiness of town<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> affairs, the winters seem +to have been longer, the snows deeper, the frosts more severe in those +days. We have records of the harbor freezing over in November, and "in +March the winter's snow, though much reduced, still lay on a level with +the fences, nor was it until April that the ice broke up in Fore River." +They were difficult—those days ushered in by the Reverend Joseph Hull. +Through long nights and cold winters and an endless round of joyless +living, Weymouth expiated well for the sins of her youth. Even as late +as 1767 we read of the daughter of Parson Smith, of Weymouth—now the +wife of John Adams, of Quincy—scrubbing the floor of her own +bed-chamber the afternoon before her son—destined to become President +of the United States, as his father was before him—was born.</p> + +<p>But the English stock brought in by the Reverend Hull was good stock. We +may not envy the ladies scrubbing their own floors or the men walking to +Boston, but many of the best families of this country are proud to trace +their origin back to Weymouth. Maine, New<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> Hampshire, and Vermont; then +New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut attracted men from Weymouth. +Later the Middle West and the Far West called them. In fact for over a +century the town hardly raised its number of population, so energetic +was the youth it produced.</p> + +<p>As happens with lamentable frequency, when Weymouth ceased to be naughty +she also ceased to be interesting. After poring over the dull pages of +the town history, one is sometimes tempted to wonder if, perhaps, the +irreverent Morton did not, for all his sins, divine a deeper meaning in +this spot than the respectable ones who came after him. One cannot read +the "New English Canaan" without regretting a little that this +happy-natured fellow was so unceremoniously bustled out of the country. +Whatever Morton's discrepancies may have been, his response to beauty +was lively and true: whatever his morals, his prose is delightful. All +the town records and memorial addresses of all the good folk subsequent +contain no such tribute to Weymouth, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> paint no picture so true of +that which is still best in her, as these loving words of the erstwhile +master of Merrymount.</p> + +<p>"And when I had more seriously considered the bewty of the place, with +all her fair endowments, I did not think that in all the knowne world it +could be paralel'd. For so many goodly groves of trees: dainty fine +round rising hillocks: delicate faire large plaines: sweete crystal +fountains, and clear running streams, that twine in fine meanders +through the meads, making so sweet a murmuring noise to heare, as would +even lull the senses with delight asleep, so pleasantly doe they glide +upon the pebble stones, jetting most jocundly where they doe meet; and +hand in hand run down to Neptune's court, to pay the yearly tribute +which they owe to him as soveraigne Lord of all the Springs."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<img src="images/image108.jpg" width="250" height="91" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/image109.jpg" width="350" height="214" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>ECCLESIASTICAL HINGHAM</h3> +<p>Should you walk along the highway from Quincy to Hingham on a Sunday +morning you would be passed by many automobiles, for the Old Coast Road +is now one of the great pleasure highways of New England. Many of the +cars are moderately priced affairs, the tonneau well filled with +children of miscellaneous ages, and enlivened by a family dog or +two—for this is the way that the average American household spends its +modern Sabbath holiday. Now and then a limousine, exquisite in +workmanship within and without, driven by a chauffeur in livery and +tenanted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> by a single languid occupant, rolls noiselessly past. A +strange procession, indeed, for a road originally marked by the +moccasined feet of Indians, and widened gradually by the toilsome +journeyings of rough Colonial carts and coaches.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to say which feature of the steadily moving travel would +most forcibly strike the original Puritan settlers of the town: the fact +that even the common man—the poor man—could own such a vehicle of +speed and ease, or the fact that America—such a short time ago a +wilderness—could produce, not as the finest flower on its tree of +evolution, but certainly as its most exotic, the plutocrat who lives in +a palace with fifty servants to do his bidding, and the fine lady whose +sole exercise of her mental and physical functions consists in allowing +her maid to dress her. Yes, New England has changed amazingly in the +revolutions of three centuries, and here, under the shadow of this +square plain building—Hingham's Old Ship Church—while we pause to +watch the Sunday pageant of 1920, we can most easily call back the +Sabbath rites, and the ideals which created those rites, three centuries +ago.</p> + +<p><a name="facing_pg_77" id="facing_pg_77"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/image111.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is the year of 1681. This wooden meeting-house, with the truncated +pyramidal roof and belfry (to serve as a lookout station), has just been +built. A stage ahead, architecturally, of the log meeting-house with +clay-filled chinks, thatched roof, oiled-paper windows, earthen floor, +and a stage behind the charming steeple style made popular by Sir +Christopher Wren, and now multiplied in countless graceful examples all +over New England, the Old Ship is entirely unconscious of the +distinction which is awaiting it—the distinction of being the oldest +house for public worship in the United States which still stands on its +original site, and which is still used for its original purpose. In the +year 1681 it is merely the new meeting-house of the little hamlet of +Hingham. The people are very proud of their new building. The timbers +have been hewn with the broad-axe out of solid white pine (the marks are +still visible, particularly in those rafters of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> roof open to the +attic). The belfry is precisely in the center of the four-sided pitched +roof. To be sure this necessitates ringing the bell from one of the +pews, but a little later the bellringer will stand above, and through a +pane of glass let into the ceiling he will be able to see when the +minister enters the pulpit. The original backless benches were replaced +by box pews with narrow seats like shelves, hung on hinges around three +sides, but part of the original pulpit remains and a few of the box +pews. In 1681 the interior, like the exterior, is sternly bare. No +paint, no decorations, no colored windows, no organ, or anything which +could even remotely suggest the color, the beauty, the formalism of the +churches of England. The unceiled roof shows the rafters whose arched +timbers remind one that ships' carpenters have built this house of God.</p> + +<p>This, then, is the meeting-house of 1681. What of the services conducted +there?</p> + +<p>In the first place, they are well attended. And why not, since in 1635 +the General Court decreed that no dwelling should be placed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> more than +half a mile away from the meeting-house of any new "plantation"—thus +eliminating the excuse of too great distance? Every one is expected, +nay, commanded, to come to church. In fact, after the tolling of the +last bell, the houses may all be searched—each ten families is under an +inspector—if there is any question of delinquents hiding in them. And +so in twos and threes, often the man trudging ahead with his gun and the +woman carrying her baby while the smaller children cling to her skirts, +sometimes man and woman and a child or two on horseback, no matter how +wild the storm, how swollen the streams, how deep the whirling +snow—they all come to church: old folk and infants as well as adults +and children. The congregation either waits for the minister and his +wife outside the door, or stands until he has entered the pulpit. Once +inside they are seated with the most meticulous exactness, according to +rank, age, sex, and wealth. The small boys are separated from their +families and kept in order by tithing-men who allow no wandering eyes or +whispered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> words. The deacons are in the "fore" seats; the elderly +people are sometimes given chairs at the end of the "pues"; and the +slaves and Indians are in the rear. To seat one's self in the wrong +"pue" is an offense punishable by a fine.</p> + +<p>"Here is the church, and here are the people," as the old rhyme has it. +What then of the services? That they are interminable we know. The +tithing-man or clerk may turn the brass-bound hourglass by the side of +the pulpit two and three times during the sermon, and once or twice +during the prayer. Interminable, and, also, to the modern Sunday +observer, unendurable. How many of us of this softer age can contemplate +without a shiver the vision of people sitting hour after hour in an +absolutely unheated building? (The Old Ship was not heated until 1822.) +The only relief from the chill and stiffness comes during the prayer +when the congregation stands: kneeling, of course, would savor too +strongly of idolatry and the Church of Rome. They stand, too, while the +psalms and hymns are lined out, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> as they sing them, very uncertainly +and very incorrectly. This performance alone sometimes takes an hour, as +there is no organ, nor notes, and only a few copies of the Bay Psalm +Book, of which, by the way, a copy now would be worth many times its +weight in gold.</p> + +<p>After the morning service there is a noon intermission, in which the +half-frozen congregation stirs around, eats cold luncheons brought in +baskets, and then returns to the next session. One must not for an +instant, however, consider these noon hours as recreational. There is no +idle talk or play. The sermon is discussed and the children forbidden to +romp or laugh. One sometimes wonders how the little things had any +impulse to laugh in such an abysmal atmosphere, but apparently the +Puritan boys and girls were entirely normal and even wholesomely +mischievous—as proved by the constantly required services of the +tithing-man.</p> + +<p>These external trappings of the service sound depressing enough, but if +the message received within these chilly walls is cheering, maybe we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +can forget or ignore the physical discomforts. But is the message +cheering? Hell, damnation, eternal tortures, painful theological +hair-splittings, harrowing self-examinations, and humiliating public +confessions—this is what they gather on the narrow wooden benches to +listen to hour after hour, searching their souls for sin with an almost +frenzied eagerness. And yet, forlorn and tedious as the bleak service +appears to us, there is no doubt that these stern-faced men and women +wrenched an almost mystical inspiration from it; that a weird +fascination emanated from this morbid dwelling on sin and punishment, +appealing to the emotions quite as vividly—although through a different +channel—as the most elaborate ceremonial. When the soul is wrought to a +certain pitch each hardship is merely an added opportunity to prove its +faith. It was this high pitch, attained and sustained by our Puritan +fathers, which produced a dramatic and sometimes terrible blend of +personality.</p> + +<p>It has become the modern fashion somewhat to belittle Puritanism. It is +easy to emphasize<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> its absurdities, to ridicule the almost fanatical +fervor which goaded men to harshness and inconsistency. The fact remains +that a tremendous selective force was needed to tear the Puritans away +from the mother church and the mother country and fortify them in their +struggle in a new land. It was religious zeal which furnished this +motive power. Different implements and differently directed force are +needed to extract the diamond from the earth, from the implements and +force needed to polish and cut the same diamond. So different phases of +religious development are called forth by progressive phases of +development. It has been said about the New England conscience: "It +fostered a condition of life and type of character doubtless never again +possible in the world's history. Having done its work, having founded +soundly and peopled strongly an exceptional region, the New England +conscience had no further necessity for being. Those whom it now +tortures with its hot pincers of doubt and self-reproach are sacrificed +to a cause long since won."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Puritans themselves grew away from many of their excessive +severities. But as they gained bodily strength from their conflict with +the elements, so they gained a certain moral stamina by their +self-imposed religious observance. And this moral stamina has marked New +England ever since, and marked her to her glory.</p> + +<p>One cannot speak of Hingham churches—indeed, one cannot speak of +Hingham—without admiring mention of the New North Church. This +building, of exquisite proportions and finish, within and without, built +by Bulfinch in 1806, is one of the most flawless examples of its type on +the South Shore. You will appreciate the cream-colored paint, the buff +walls, the quaint box pews of oiled wood, with handrails gleaming from +the touch of many generations, with wooden buttons and protruding hinges +proclaiming an ancient fashion; but the unique feature of the New North +Church is its slave galleries. These two small galleries, between the +roof and the choir loft, held for thirty years, in diminishing numbers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +negroes and Indians. The last occupant was a black Lucretia, who, after +being freed, was invited to sit downstairs with her master and mistress, +which she did, and which she continued to do until her death, not so +very long ago.</p> + +<p>Hingham, its Main Street—alas for the original name of "Bachelors +Rowe"—arched by a double row of superb elms on either side, is +incalculably rich in old houses, old traditions, old families. Even +motoring through, too quickly as motorists must, one cannot help being +struck by the substantial dignity of the place, by the well-kept +prosperity of the houses, large and small, which fringe the fine old +highway. Ever since the days when the three Misses Barker kept loyal to +George IV, claiming the King as their liege lord fifty years after the +Declaration of Independence, the town has preserved a Cranford-like +charm. And why not, when the very house is still handsomely preserved, +where the nameless nobleman, Francis Le Baron, was concealed between the +floors, and, as we are told in Mrs. Austen's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> novel, very properly +capped the climax by marrying his brave little protector, Molly Wilder? +Why not, when the Lincoln family, ancestors of Abraham, has been +identified with the town since its settlement? The house of +Major-General Benjamin Lincoln, who received the sword of Cornwallis at +Yorktown, is still occupied by his descendants, its neat fence, many +windows, two chimneys, and its two stories and a half proclaiming it a +dwelling of repute. Near by, descendants of Samuel Lincoln, the ancestor +of Abraham, occupy part of another roomy ancient homestead. The +Wampatuck Club, named after the Indian chief who granted the original +deeds of the town, has found quarters in an extremely interesting house +dating from 1680. In the spacious living-room are seventeen panels, on +the walls and in the doors, painted with charming old-fashioned skill by +John Hazlitt, the brother of the English essayist. The Reverend Daniel +Shute house, built in 1746, is practically intact with its paneled rooms +and wall-paper a hundred years old. Hingham's famous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> elms shade the +house where Parson Ebenezer Gay lived out his long pastorate of +sixty-nine years and nine months, and the Garrison house, built before +1640, sheltered, in its prime, nine generations of the same family. The +Rainbow Roof house, so called from the delicious curve in its roof, is +one of Hingham's prettiest two-hundred-year-old cottages, and Miss Susan +B. Willard's cottage is one of the oldest in the United States. Derby +Academy, founded almost two centuries and a half ago by Madam Derby, +still maintains its social and scholarly prestige through all the +educational turmoil of the twentieth century. One likes to associate +Hingham with Massachusetts's stanch and sturdy "war governor," for it +was here that John Albion Andrew, who proved himself so truly one of our +great men during the Civil War, courted Eliza Jones Hersey, and here +that the happy years of their early married life were spent. Later, +another governor, John D. Long, was for many years a mighty figure in +the town.</p> + +<p>With its ancient churches and institutions,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> its pensive graveyards and +lovely elms, its ancestral houses and hidden gardens, Hingham typifies +what is quaintest and best in New England towns. Possibly the dappling +of the elms, possibly the shadow of the Old Ship Church, is a bit deeper +here than in the other South Shore towns. However it may seem to its +inhabitants, to the stranger everything in Hingham is tinctured by the +remembrance of the stern old ecclesiasticism. Even the number of +historic forts seems a proper part of those righteous days, for when did +religion and warfare not go hand in hand? During the trouble with King +Philip the town had three forts, one at Fort Hill, one at the Cemetery, +and one "on the plain about a mile from the harbor"; and the sites may +still be identified.</p> + +<p>Not that Hingham history is exclusively religious or martial. Her little +harbor once held seventy sail of fishing vessels, and between 1815 and +1826, 165,000 barrels of mackerel were landed on their salty decks. For +fifty years (between 1811 and 1860) the Rapid sailed as a packet between +this town and Boston,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> making the trip on one memorable occasion in +sixty-seven minutes. We read that in the War of 1812 she was carried up +the Weymouth River and covered, masts and hull, with green bushes so +that the marauding British cruisers might not find her, and as we read +we find ourselves remembering that <i>camouflage</i> is new only in name.</p> + +<p>How entirely fitting it seems that a town of such venerable houses and +venerable legends should be presided over by a church which is the +oldest of its kind in the country!</p> + +<p>Hingham changes. There is a Roman Catholic Church in the very heart of +that one-time Puritan stronghold: the New North is Unitarian, and +Episcopalians, Baptists, and Second Adventists have settled down +comfortably where once they would have been run out of town. Poor old +Puritans, how grieved and scandalized they would be to stand, as we are +standing now, and watch the procession of passing automobilists! Would +it seem all lost to them, we wonder, the religious ideal for which they +struggled, or would they realize<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> that their sowing had brought forth +richer fruit than they could guess? It has all changed, since Puritan +days, and yet, perhaps, in no other place in New England does the hand +of the past lie so visibly upon the community. You cannot lift your eyes +but they rest upon some building raised two centuries and more ago; the +shade which ripples under your feet is cast by elms planted by that very +hand of the past. Even your voice repeats the words which those old +patriarchs, well versed in Biblical lore, chose for their neighborhood +names. Accord Pond and Glad Tidings Plain might have been lifted from +some Pilgrim's Progress, while the near-by Sea of Galilee and Jerusalem +Road are from the Good Book itself.</p> + +<p>"Which way to Egypt?" Is this an echo from that time when the Bible was +the corner-stone of Church and State, of home and school?</p> + +<p>"What's the best road to Jericho Beach?" Surely it is some grave-faced +shade who calls: or is it a peal from the chimes in the Memorial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> Bell +Tower—chimes reminiscent of old Hingham, in England? No, it is only the +shouted question of the motorist, gay and prosperous, flying on his +Sunday holiday through ancient Hingham town.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<img src="images/image127.jpg" width="250" height="171" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/image128.jpg" width="350" height="190" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>COHASSET LEDGES AND MARSHES<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h3> +<p>A sickle-shaped shore—wild, superb! Tawny ledges tumbling out to sea, +rearing massive heads to search, across three thousand miles of water, +for another shore. For it is Spain and Portugal which lie directly +yonder, and the same tumultuous sea that crashes and swirls against +Cohasset's crags laps also on those sunnier, warmer sands.</p> + +<p>Back inland, from the bold brown coast which gives Cohasset her +Riviera-like fame, lie marshes, liquefying into mirrors at high tide, +melting into lush green at low tide.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> + +<p>Between the ledges and the marshes winds Jerusalem Road, bearing a +continual stream of sight-seers and fringed with estates hidden from the +sight-seers; estates with terraces dashed by spindrift, with curving +stairways hewn in sheer rock down to the water, with wind-twisted +savins, and flowers whose bright bloom is heightened by the tang of +salt. For too many a passing traveler Cohasset is known only as the most +fashionable resort on the South Shore. But Cohasset's story is a longer +one than that, and far more profound.</p> + +<p>Cohasset is founded upon a rock, and the making of that rock is so +honestly and minutely recorded by nature that even those who take alarm +at the word "geology" may read this record with ease. These rocky ledges +that stare so proudly across the sea underlie, also, every inch of soil, +and are of the same kind everywhere—granite. Granite is a rock which is +formed under immense pressure and in the presence of confined moisture, +needing a weight of fifteen thousand pounds upon every inch. Therefore, +wherever granite is found we know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> that it has not been formed by +deposit, like limestone and sandstone and slate and other sedimentary +rocks, but at a prodigious depth under the solid ground, and by slow +crystallizing of molten substances. There must have been from two to +five miles of other rock lying upon the stuff that crystallized into +granite. A wrinkling in the skin of the earth exposed the granite, a +wrinkling so gradual that doubtless if generations of men had lived on +top of the wrinkle they would have sworn it did not move. But move it +did, and the superimposed rock must have been worn off at a rate of less +than a hundredth part of an inch every year in order to lose two or +three miles of it in twenty-five million years. As the granite was +wrinkled up by the movement of the earth's crust, certain cracks opened +and filled with lava, forming dikes. The geologist to-day can glance at +these dikes and tell the period of their formation as casually as a +jockey looking at a horse's mouth can tell his age. He could also tell +of the "faulting," or slipping down, of adjacent masses of solid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> rock, +which has occurred often enough to carve the characteristic Cohasset +coast.</p> + +<p>The making of the rock bottom is a story which extends over millions of +years: the making of the soil extends over thousands. The gigantic +glacier which once formed all over the northern part of North America, +and which remained upon it most of the time until about seven thousand +years ago, ground up the rock like a huge mill and heaped its grist into +hills and plains and meadows. The marks of it are as easy to see as +finger prints in putty. There are scratches on the underlying rock in +every part of the town, pointing in the southerly direction in which the +glacier moved. The gravel and clay belts of the town have all been +stretched out in the same direction as the scratches, and many are the +boulders which were combed out of the moving glacier by the peaks of the +ledges, and are now poised, like the famous Tipping Rock, just where the +glacier left them when it melted. Few towns in America possess greater +geological interest or a wider variety of glacial phenomena than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +Cohasset—all of which may be studied more fully with the aid of E. +Victor Bigelow's "Narrative History of the Town of Cohasset, +Massachusetts," and William O. Crosby's "Geology of the Boston Basin."</p> + +<p>This, then, is briefly the first part of Cohasset's ledges. The second +part deals with human events, including many shipwrecks and disasters, +and more than one romantic episode. Perhaps this human section is best +begun with Captain John Smith.</p> + +<p>Captain John Smith was born too early. If ever a hero was brought into +the world to adorn the moving-picture screen, that hero of the "iron +collar," of piratical capture, of wedlock with an Indian princess, was +the man. Failing of this high calling he did some serviceable work in +discovering and describing many of the inlets on the coast of New +England. Among these inlets Cohasset acted her part as hostess to the +famous navigator and staged a small and vivid encounter with the +aborigines. The date of this presentation was in 1614; the scenario may +be found in Smith's own diary.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> Smith and a party of eight or more +sailors made the trip between the ledges in a small rowboat. It is +believed that they landed somewhere near Hominy Point. Their landing was +not carried out without some misadventure, however, for in some way this +party of explorers angered the Indians with whom they came in contact, +and the result was an attack from bow and arrow. The town of Cohasset, +in commemorating this encounter by a tablet, has inscribed upon the +tablet Smith's own words:</p> + +<p>"We found the people on those parts very kind, but in their fury no less +valiant: and at Quonhaset falling out there with but one of them, he +with three others crossed the harbour in a cannow to certain rocks +whereby we must pass, and there let flie their arrowes for our shot, +till we were out of danger, yet one of them was slaine, and the other +shot through the thigh."</p> + +<p>History follows fast along the ledges: history of gallant deeds and +gallant defense during the days of the Revolution and the War of 1812;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +deeds of disaster along the coast and one especial deed of great +engineering skill.</p> + +<p>The beauty and the tragedy of Cohasset are caught in large measure upon +these jagged rocks. The splinters and wrecks of two and a half centuries +have strewn the beaches, and many a corpse, far from its native land, +has been found, wrapped in a shroud of seaweed upon the sand, and has +been lowered by alien hands into a forever unmarked grave. Quite +naturally the business of "wrecking"—that is, saving the pieces—came +to be the trade of a number of Cohasset citizens, and so expert did +Cohasset divers and seamen become that they were in demand all over the +world. One of the most interesting salvage enterprises concerned a +Spanish frigate, sunk off the coast of Venezuela. Many thousand dollars +in silver coin were covered by fifty feet of water, and it was Captain +Tower, of Cohasset, with a crew of Cohasset divers and seamen, who set +sail for the spot in a schooner bearing the substantial name of Eliza +Ann. The Spanish Government, having no faith in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> the enterprise, agreed +to claim only two and one half per cent of what was removed. The first +year the wreckers got fourteen thousand dollars, and the second they had +reached seven thousand, when the Spaniards became so jealous of their +skill that they had to flee for their lives (taking the seven thousand, +however). The clumsy diving-bell method was the only one known at that +time, but when, twenty years later, the Spaniards had to swallow their +chagrin and send again for the same wrecking party to assist them on the +same task, modern diving suits were in use and more money was +recovered—no mean triumph for the crew of the Eliza Ann!</p> + +<p>As the wrecks along the Cohasset coast were principally caused by the +dangerous reefs spreading in either direction from what is known as +Minot's Ledge, the necessity of a lighthouse on that spot was early +evident, and the erecting of the present Minot's Light is one of the +most romantic engineering enterprises of our coast history. The original +structure was snapped off like a pikestaff in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> great storm of 1851, +and the present one of Quincy granite is the first of its kind in +America to be built on a ledge awash at high tide and with no adjacent +dry land. The tremendous difficulties were finally overcome, although in +the year 1855 the work could be pursued for only a hundred and thirty +hours, and the following year for only a hundred and fifty-seven. To +read of the erection of this remarkable lighthouse reminds one of the +building of Solomon's temple. The stone was selected with the utmost +care, and the Quincy cutters declared that such chiseling had never +before left the hand of man. Then every single block for the lower +portion was meticulously cut, dovetailed, and set in position on +Government Island in Cohasset Harbor. The old base, exquisitely laid, +where they were thus set up is still visible, as smooth as a billiard +table, although grass-covered. In addition to the flawless cutting and +joining of the blocks, the ledge itself was cut into a succession of +levels suitable to bear a stone foundation—work which was possible only +at certain times of the tide and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> seasons of the year. The cutting of +each stone so that it exactly fitted its neighbor, above, below, and at +either side, and precisely conformed to the next inner row upon the same +level, was nothing short of a marvel. A miniature of the light—the +building of which took two winters, and which was on the scale of an +inch to a foot—was in the United States Government Building at the +Chicago Exposition, and is stone for stone a counterpart of the granite +tower in the Atlantic. Although this is an achievement which belongs in +a sense to the whole United States, yet it must always seem, to those +who followed it most closely, as belonging peculiarly to Cohasset. A +famous Cohasset rigger made the model for the derrick which was used to +raise the stones; the massive granite blocks were teamed by one whose +proud boast it was that he had never had occasion to shift a stone +twice; a Cohasset man captained the first vessel to carry the stone to +the ledge, and another assisted in the selection of the stone.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to turn one's eyes away from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> the spectacular beauty of +the Cohasset shore, but magnificent as these ledges are, and glittering +with infinite romance, yet, rather curiously, it is on the limpid +surface of the marshes that we read the most significant episodes of +Colonial and pioneer life.</p> + +<p>One of the needs which the early settlers were quick to feel was open +land which would serve as pasturage for their cattle. With forests +pressing down upon them from the rear, and a barrier of granite in front +of them, the problem of grazing-lands was important. The Hingham +settlement at Bare Cove (Cohasset was part of Hingham originally) found +the solution in the acres of open marshland which stretched to the east. +Cohasset to-day may ask where so much grazing-land lay within her +borders. By comparison with the old maps and surveying figures, we find +that many acres, now covered with the water of Little Harbor and lying +within the sandbar at Pleasant Beach, are counted as old grazing-lands. +These, with the sweep of what is now the "Glades," furnished abundant +pasturage for neighboring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> cattle and brought the Hingham settlers +quickly to Cohasset meadows. Thus it happens that the first history of +Cohasset is the history of this common pasturage—"Commons," as it was +known in the old histories. Although Hingham was early divided up among +the pioneers, the marshes were kept undivided for the use of the whole +settlement. As a record of 1650 puts it: "It was ordered that any +townsman shall have the liberty to put swine to Conohasset without yokes +or rings, upon the town's common land."</p> + +<p>But the Massachusetts Bay Colony was hard-headed as well as pious, and +several naïve hints creep into the early records of sharers of the +Commons who were shrewdly eyeing the salt land of Cohasset. A real +estate transfer of 1640 has this potential flavor: "Half the lot at +Conehasset, if any fall by lot, and half the commons which belong to +said lot." And again, four years later, Henry Tuttle sold to John +Fearing "what right he had to the Division of Conihassett Meadows." The +first land to come under the measuring chain and wooden stake<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> of +surveyors was about the margin of Little Harbor about the middle of the +seventeenth century. After that the rest of the township was not long in +being parceled out. One of the curious methods of land division was in +the Beechwood district. The apportionment seems to have had the +characteristics of ribbon cake. Sections of differing desirability—to +meet the demands of justice and natural conditions—were measured out in +long strips, a mile long and twenty-five feet wide. Many an old stone +wall marking this early grant is still to be seen in the woods. Could +anything but the indomitable spirit of those English settlers and the +strong feeling for land ownership have built walls of carted stone about +enclosures a mile long and twenty-five feet wide?</p> + +<p>Having effected a division of land in Cohasset, families soon began to +settle away from the mother town of Hingham, and after a prolonged +period of government at arm's length, with all its attendant +discomforts, the long, bitter struggle resolved itself into Cohasset's +final separation from Hingham, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> its development from a precinct into +an independent township.</p> + +<p>While the marshes to the north were the cause of Cohasset being first +visited, settled, and made into a township, yet the marshes to the south +hold an even more vital historical interest. These southern marshes, +bordering Bound Brook and stretching away to Bassing Beach, were visited +by haymakers as were those to the north. But these haymakers did not +come from the same township, nor were they under the same local +government. The obscure little stream which to-day lies between Scituate +Harbor and Cohasset marks the line of two conflicting grants—the +Plymouth Colony and the Massachusetts Bay Colony.</p> + +<p>In the early days of New England royal grants from the throne or patents +from colonial councils in London were deemed necessary before settling +in the wilderness. The strong, inherited respect for landed estates must +have given such charters their value, as it is hard for us to see now +how any one in England could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> have prevented the pioneers from settling +where they pleased. The various patents and grants of the two colonies +(indefinite as they seem to us now, as some granted "up to" a hundred +acres to each emigrant without defining any boundaries) brought the two +colonies face to face at Bound Brook. The result was a dispute over the +harvesting of salt hay.</p> + +<p>All boundary streams attract to themselves a certain amount of fame—the +Rio Grande, the Saint Lawrence, and the Rhine. But surely the little +stream of Bound Brook, which was finally taken as the line of division +between two colonies of such historical importance as the Plymouth and +the Massachusetts Bay, is worth more than a superficial attention. The +dispute lasted many years and occasioned the appointing of numerous +commissioners from both sides. That the salt grass of Bassing Beach +should have assumed such importance reveals again the sensitiveness to +land values of men who had so recently left England. The settling of the +dispute was not referred back to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> England, but was settled by the +colonists themselves.</p> + +<p>The author of the "Narrative History of Cohasset" calls this an event of +only less historical importance than that of the pact drawn up in the +cabin of the Mayflower. He declares that the confederation of states had +its inception there, and adds: "The appointment for this joint +commission for the settlement of this intercolonial difficulty was the +first step of federation that culminated in the Colonial Congress and +then blossomed into the United States." We to-day, to whom the salt +grass of Cohasset is little more than a fringe about the two harbors, +may find it difficult to agree fully with such a sweeping statement, but +certainly this spot and boundary line should always be associated with +the respect for property which has ennobled the Anglo-Saxon race.</p> + +<p>Between the marshes, which were of such high importance in those early +days, and the ledges which have been the cause and the scene of so many +Cohasset adventures, twists Jerusalem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> Road, the brilliant beauty of +which has been so often—but never too often—remarked. This was the +main road from Hingham for many years, and it took full three hours of +barbarous jolting in two-wheeled, springless ox carts to make the trip. +Even if a man had a horse the journey was cruelly tedious, for there +were only a few stretches where the horse could go faster than a +walk—and the way was pock-marked with boulders and mudholes. With no +stage-coach before 1815, and being off the highway between Plymouth and +Boston, it is small wonder that the early Cohasset folk either walked or +went by sea to Hingham and thence to Boston.</p> + +<p>It has been suggested that the "keeper of young cattle at Coneyhassett," +who drove his herd over from Hingham, was moved either by piety or +sarcasm to give the trail its present arresting name. However, as the +herdsman did not take this route, but the back road through Turkey +Meadows, it is more probable that some visitors, who detected a +resemblance between this section of the country and the Holy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> Land, were +responsible for the christening of this road and also of the Sea of +Galilee—which last has almost dropped into disuse. There does not seem +to be any particular suggestion of the land of the Pharaohs and +present-day Egypt, but tradition explains that as follows: Old Squire +Perce had accumulated a store of grain in case of drought, and when the +drought came and the men hurried to him to buy corn, he greeted them +with "Well, boys, so you've come down to Egypt to buy corn." Another +proof, if one were needed, of the Biblical familiarity of those days.</p> + +<p>It is hard to stop writing about Cohasset. There are so many bits of +history tucked into every ledge and cranny of her shore. The green in +front of the old white meeting-house—one of the prettiest and most +perfect meeting-houses on the South Shore—has been pressed by the feet +of men assembling for six wars. It makes Cohasset seem venerable, +indeed, when one thinks of the march of American history. But to the +tawny ledges, tumbling out to sea, these three hundred years are as but +a day; for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> the story of the stones, like the story of the stars, is +measured in terms of milliards. To such immemorial keepers of the coast +the life of man is a brief tale that is soon told, and fades as swiftly +as the fading leaf.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<img src="images/image146.jpg" width="250" height="116" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> For much of this chapter I am indebted to my friend Alice +C. Hyde.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/image147.jpg" width="350" height="225" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE SCITUATE SHORE</h3> + +<p>Scituate is different: different from Cohasset, with its superbly bold +coast and its fashionable folk; different from Hingham, with its air of +settled inland dignity. Scituate has a quaintness, a casualness, the +indescribable air of a land's-end spot. The fine houses in Scituate are +refreshingly free from pretension; the winds that have twisted the trees +into Rackham-like grotesques have blown away falsity and formality.</p> + +<p>Scituate life has always been along the shore. It is from the shore that +coot-shooting used to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> furnish a livelihood to many a Scituate man, and +still lures the huntsmen in the fine fall weather. It is the peculiar +formation of the shore which has developed a small, clinker-built boat, +and made the town famous for day fishing. It is along the shore that the +unique and picturesque mossing industry is still carried on, and along +the shore that the well-known colony of literary folk have settled.</p> + +<p>Scituate's history is really a fishing history, for as early as 1633 a +fishing station was established here, and in course of time the North +River, winding twenty miles through green meadows to the sea, was once +the scene of more shipbuilding than any other river in New England.</p> + +<p>There is nothing more indicative of the Yankees' shrewd practicality +than the early settlers' instant appreciation of the financial and +economic potentialities of the fishing-trade. The Spaniard sought for +gold in the new country, or contented himself with the fluctuating fur +trade with its demoralizing slack seasons. But the New Englander +promptly applied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> himself to the mundane pursuit of cod and mackerel. +Everybody fished. As John Smith, in his "Description of New England," +says: "Young boyes and girles, salvages or any other, be they never such +idlers, may turne, carry, and returne fish without shame or either great +pain: he is very idle that is past twelve years of age and cannot doe so +much: and shee is very old that cannot spin a thread to catch them."</p> + +<p>It began when Squanto the Indian showed the amazed colonists how he +could tread the eels out of the mud with his feet and catch them with +his hands. This was convenient, to be sure, but the colonists did not +long content themselves with such primitive methods. They sent to +England for cod hooks and lines; mackerel hooks and lines; herring nets +and seines; shark hooks, bass nets, squid lines, and eel pots; and in a +short time they had established a trade which meant more money than the +gold mines of Guiana or Potosi. The modern financier who makes a fortune +from the invention of a collar button or the sale of countless penny<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +packages of gum is the lineal descendant of that first thrifty New +Englander who did not scorn the humble cod because it was cheap and +plentiful (you remember how these same cod "pestered" the ships of +Gosnold in 1602), but set to work with the quiet initiative which has +distinguished New Englanders ever since, first to catch, then to barter, +and finally to sell his wares to all the world. For cheap as all fish +was—twopence for a twelve-pound cod, salmon less than a penny a pound, +and shad, when it was finally considered fit to eat at all, at two fish +for a penny—yet, when all the world is ready to buy and the supply is +inexhaustible, tremendous profits are possible. The many fast days of +the Roman Catholic Church abroad opened an immense demand, and in a +short time quantities of various kinds of fish (Josselyn in 1672 +enumerates over two hundred caught in New England waters) were dried and +salted and sent to England.</p> + +<p>This constant and steadily increasing trade radically affected the whole +economic structure and history of New England for two centuries.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> Ships +and all the shipyard industries; the farm, on which fish was used not +only as a medium of exchange, but also as a valuable fertilizer; the +home, where the many operations of curing and salting were carried +on—all of those were developed directly by the growth of this +particular trade. Laws were made and continually revised regarding the +fisheries and safeguarding their rights in every conceivable fashion; +ship carpenters were exempt from military service, and many special +exemptions were extended to fishermen under the general statutes.</p> + +<p>The oyster is now a dish for the epicure and the lobster for the +millionaire. But in the old days when oysters a foot long were not +uncommon, and lobsters sometimes grew to six feet, every one had all he +wanted, and sometimes more than he wanted, of these delicacies. The +stranger in New England may notice how certain customs still prevail, +such as the Friday night fish dinner and the Sunday morning fish-cakes; +and also that New Englanders as a whole have a rather fastidious taste +in regard to the preparation of both salt- and fresh-water<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> products. +The food of any region is characteristic of that region, and to travel +along the Old Coast Road and not partake of one of the delicious fish +dinners, is as absurd as it would be to omit rice from a menu in China +or roast beef from an English dinner.</p> + +<p>While the fishing trade was highly important in all the South Shore +towns, yet it was especially so in Scituate. In 1770 more than thirty +vessels, principally for mackerel, were fitted out in this one village, +and these vessels not infrequently took a thousand barrels in a season. +In winter they were used for Southern coasting, carrying lumber and fish +and returning with grain and flour. The reason why fishing was so +persistently and exclusively followed in this particular spot is not +hard to seek. The sea yielded a far more profitable and ready crop than +the land, and, besides, had a jealous way of nibbling away at the land +wherever it could. It is estimated that it wastes away from twelve to +fourteen inches of Fourth Cliff every year.</p> + +<p>But in spite of the sea's readily accessible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> crop it was natural that +the "men of Kent" who settled the town should demand some portion of dry +land as well. These men of Kent were not mermen, able to live in and on +the water indefinitely, but decidedly gallant fellows, rather more +courtly than their neighbors, and more polished than the race which +succeeded them. Gilson, Vassal, Hatherly, Cudworth, Tilden, Hoar, +Foster, Stedman, and Hinckley had all been accustomed to the elegancies +of life in England as their names testify. The first land they used was +on the cliffs, for it had already been improved by Indian planting; then +the salt marshes, covered with a natural crop of grass, and then the +mellow intervales near the river. When the sea was forced to the +regretful realization that she could not monopolize the entire attention +of her fellows, she was persuaded to yield up some very excellent +fertilizer in the way of seaweed. But she still nags away at the cliffs +and shore, and proclaims with every flaunting wave and ripple that it is +the water, not the land, which makes Scituate what it is.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p> + +<p>And, after all, the sea is right. It is along the shore that one sees +Scituate most truly. Here the characteristic industry of mossing is +still carried on in primitive fashion. The mossers work from dories, +gathering with long-handled rakes the seaweed from the rocks and ledges +along the shore. They bring it in, a heavy, dark, inert mass, all sleek +and dripping, and spread it out to dry in the sun. As it lies there, +neatly arranged on beds of smoothest pebbles, the sun bleaches it. One +can easily differentiate the different days' haul, for the moss which is +just spread out is almost black and that of yesterday is a dark purple. +It shimmers from purple into lavender; the lavender into something like +rose; and by the time of the final washing and bleaching it lies in fine +light white crinkles, almost like wool. It is a pretty sight, and the +neatness and dispatch of the mossers make the odd sea-flower gardens +attractive patches on the beach. Sometimes a family working together +will make as much as a thousand dollars in a season gathering and +preparing the moss. One wonders if all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> people in the world could +eat enough blancmange to consume this salty product, and is relieved to +be reminded that the moss is also used for brewing and dyeing.</p> + +<p>It is really a pity to see Scituate only from a motor. There is real +atmosphere to the place, which is worth breathing, but it takes more +time to breathe in an atmosphere than merely to "take the air." Should +you decide to ramble about the ancient town you will surely find your +way to Scituate Point. The old stone lighthouse, over a century old, is +no longer used, and the oil lantern, hung nightly out at the end of the +romantic promontory, seems a return to days of long ago. You will also +see the place where, in the stirring Revolutionary days, little Abigail +and Rebecca Bates, with fife and drum marched up and down, close to the +shore and yet hidden from sight, playing so furiously that their +"martial music and other noises" scared away the enemy and saved the +town from invasion. You will go to Second Cliff where are the summer +homes of many literary people, and you will pass<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> through Egypt, +catching what glimpse you can of the stables and offices, paddocks and +cottages of the immense estate of Dreamwold. And of course you will have +pointed out to you the birthplace of Samuel Woodworth, whose sole claim +to remembrance is his poem of the "Old Oaken Bucket." The well-sweep is +still where he saw it, when, as editor of the <i>New York Mirror</i>, it +suddenly flashed before his reminiscent vision, but the old oaken bucket +itself has been removed to a museum.</p> + +<p>After you have done all these things, you will, if you are wise, forsake +Scituate Harbor, which is the old section, and Scituate Beach, which is +the newer, summer section, and find the way to the burial ground, which, +after the one in Plymouth, is the oldest in the State. Possibly there +will be others at the burial ground, for ancestor worshipers are not +confined to China, and every year there springs up a new crop of +genealogists to kneel before the moss-grown headstones and, with truly +admirable patience, decipher names and dates, half obliterated by the +finger of time. One<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> does not wonder that their descendants are so eager +to trace their connection back to those men of Kent, whose sturdy title +rings so bravely down the centuries. To be sure, what is left to trace +is very slight in most cases, and quite without any savor of +personality. Too often it is merely brief and dry recital of dates and +number of progeny, and names of the same. Few have left anything so +quaint as the words of Walter Briggs, who settled there in 1651 and from +whom Briggs Harbor was named. His will contains this thoughtful +provision: "For my wife Francis, one third of my estate during her life, +also a gentle horse or mare, and Jemmy the negur shall catch it for +her."</p> + +<p>The good people who came later (1634) from Plymouth and Boston and took +up their difficult colonial life under the pastorate of Mr. Lathrop, +seem to have done their best to make "Satuit" (as it was first called, +from the Indians, meaning "cold brook") conform as nearly as possible to +the other pioneer settlements, even to the point of discovering witches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +here. But religion and fasting were not able to accomplish what the +ubiquitous summer influx has, happily, also failed to effect. Scituate +remains different.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it was those men of Kent who gave it its indestructibly romantic +bias; perhaps it is the jealousy of the ever-encroaching sea. The gray +geese flying over the iridescent moss gleaming upon the pebbled beaches, +the solitary lantern on the point are all parts of that differentness. +And those who love her best are glad that it is so.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<img src="images/image158.jpg" width="250" height="112" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/image159.jpg" width="350" height="166" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>MARSHFIELD, THE HOME OF DANIEL WEBSTER</h3> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye marshes, how candid and simple and nothing-withholding and free!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye publish yourselves to the sky and offer yourselves to the sea!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tolerant plains, that suffer the sea and the rains and the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye spread and span like the catholic man who hath mightily won<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God out of knowledge, and good out of infinite pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sight out of blindness, and purity out of a stain.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>It was these mighty marshes—this ample sweep of grass, of sea and +sky—this vast earthly and heavenly spaciousness that must forever stand +to all New Englanders as a background to the powerful personality who +chose it as his own home. Daniel Webster, when his eyes first turned to +this infinite reach of largeness, instinctively knew it as the place +where his splendid senses would find satisfaction, and his splendid mind +would soar into an even loftier freedom. Webster loved Marshfield<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> with +an intensity that made it peculiarly his own. Lanier, in language more +intricate and tropical, exclaimed of his "dim sweet" woods: "Ye held me +fast in your heart, and I held you fast in mine." Webster wielded the +vital union between his nature and that of the land not only by profound +sentiment, but by a vigorous physical grappling with the soil.</p> + +<p>Is it that vivid natures unconsciously seek an environment +characteristic of them? Or are they, perhaps, inevitably forced to +create such an environment wherever they find themselves? Both facts +seem true in this case. This wide world of marsh and sea is not only +beautifully expressive of one who plunged himself into a rich communion +with the earth, with her full harvests and blooded cattle, with her +fruitful brooks and lakes; but it is still, after more than half a +century, vibrant with the spirit of the man who dwelt there.</p> + +<p>We of another generation—and a generation before whom so many +portentous events and figures have passed—find it hard to realize the +tremendous magnetism and brilliancy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> of a man who has been so long dead, +or properly to estimate the high historical significance of such a life. +The human attribute which is the most immediately impelling in direct +intercourse—personality—is the most elusive to preserve. If Webster's +claim to remembrance rested solely upon that attribute, he would still +be worthy of enduring fame. But his gifts flowered at a spectacular +climax of national affairs and won thereby spectacular prominence. That +these gifts were to lose something of their pristine repute before the +end infuses, from a dramatic point of view, a contrasted and heightened +luster to the period of their highest glory.</p> + +<p>Let us, casual travelers of a later and more careless day, walk now +together over the place which is the indestructible memorial of a great +man, and putting aside the measuring-stick of criticism—the sign of +small natures—try to live for an hour in the atmosphere which was the +breath of life to one who, if he failed greatly, also succeeded greatly, +and whose noble achievement it was not only to express, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> to vivify a +love for the Union which, in its hour of supreme trial, became its +triumphant force.</p> + +<p>Could we go back—not quite a hundred years—a little off the direct +route to Plymouth, on a site overlooking the broad marshes of Green +Harbor and the sea, where there now stands a boulder erected in 1914 by +the Boston University Law School Association, we would find a +comfortable, rambling house, distinguished among its New England +neighbors by an easy and delightful hospitality—the kind of hospitality +we call "Southern." There are many people in the house, on the veranda +and lawns: a hostess of gentle mien and manners; children attractive in +the spontaneity of those who continually and happily associate with +their elders; several house guests (yonder is Audubon the great +naturalist, here is an office-seeker from Boston, and that chap over +there, so very much at home, can be no other than Peter Harvey, +Webster's fond biographer). Callers there are, also, as is shown by the +line of chaises and saddle horses waiting outside, and old Captain +Thomas and his wife,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> from whom the place was bought, and who still +retain their original quarters, move in and out like people who consider +themselves part of the family. It is a heterogeneous collection, yet by +no means an awkward one, and every one is chatting with every one else +with great amiability. It is late afternoon: the master of the house has +been away all day, and now his guests and his family are glancing in the +direction from which he may be expected. For although every one is +comfortable and properly entertained, yet the absence of the host +creates an inexpressible emptiness; it is as if everything were +quiescent—hardly breathing—merely waiting until he comes. Suddenly the +atmosphere changes; it is charged with a strong vibrant quality; +everything—all eyes, all interest—is instantly focused on the figure +which has appeared among them. He is in fisherman's clothes—this +newcomer—attired with a brave eye for the picturesque, in soft hat and +flowing tie; but there are no fisherman's clothes, no, nor any other +cloakings which can conceal the resilient dignity of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> bearing, his +impressive build, and magnificent, kingly head. Sydney Smith called +Webster a cathedral; and surely there must have been something in those +enormous, burning eyes, that craglike brow, that smote even the most +superficial observer into an admiration which was almost awe.</p> + +<p>Many men—perhaps even the majority—whatever their genius in the outer +world, in their own houses are either relegated to—or choose—the +inconspicuous rôle of mere masculine appendages. But here we have a man +who is superbly the host: he knows and welcomes every guest and caller; +he personally supervises the disposal of their baggage and the selection +of their chambers; he himself has ordered the dinner—mutton which he +has raised, fish which he has caught—and it is being cooked by Monica, +the Southern slave whose freedom he purchased for her. He carves at +table, priding himself on his dispatch and nicety, and keeps an eye on +the needs of every one at the long board. Everything, every one in the +house is irresistibly drawn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> about this magnetic center which dominates +by its innate power of personality more than by any deliberate +intention. His children worship him; his wife idolizes him; each man and +woman on the place regards him with admiring affection. And in such +congenial atmosphere he expands, is genial, kindly, delightful. But +devoted as he is to his home, his family, and his friends, and charming +as he shows himself with them, yet it is not until we see him striding +over the farm which he has bought that we see the Daniel Webster who is +destined to live most graphically in the memories of those who like to +think of great men in those intimate moments which are most personally +characteristic of them.</p> + +<p>We must rise early in the morning if we would accompany him on his day's +round. He himself is up at sunrise, for the sunrise is to him signal to +new life. As he once wrote: "Among all our good people not one in a +thousand sees the sun rise once a year. They know nothing of the +morning. Their idea of it is that part of the day which comes along<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +after a cup of coffee and a beefsteak or a piece of toast. With them +morning is not a new issuing of light, a new bursting forth of the sun, +a new waking up of all that has life from a sort of temporary death, to +behold again the works of God, the heavens and the earth.... The first +faint streak of light, the earliest purpling of the east which the lark +springs up to greet, and the deeper and deeper coloring into orange and +red, till at length the 'glorious sun is seen, regent of the day'—this +they never enjoy, for they never see it."</p> + +<p>So four o'clock finds Webster up and dressed and bound for the little +study in his garden (the only building spared by the fire which +destroyed the house in 1878) and beginning his correspondence. If he has +no secretary he writes himself, and by time breakfast is announced +twenty letters, all franked and sealed, are ready to be posted.</p> + +<p>"Now," he says, smiling benignantly down the long breakfast table of +family and friends, "my day's work is done—I have nothing to do but +fish."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> + +<p>Although this is, indeed, his favorite sport, and there is hardly a +brook or lake or pond within a radius of twenty miles which does not +bear the charmed legend of having been one of his favorite fishing +grounds, he does not spend his days in amusement, like the typical +country gentleman. Farming to him, the son of a yeoman, is no mere +possession of a fine estate, but the actual participation in ploughing, +planting, and haying. His full animal spirits find relief in such labor. +We cannot think of any similar example of such prodigious mental and +physical energy. Macaulay was a great parliamentary orator, but he was +the most conventional of city men; Burke and Chatham had no strength for +such strenuousness after their professional toil. But Webster loved to +know and to put his hand to every detail of farming and stock-raising. +When he first came to Marshfield the soil was thin and sandy. It was he +who instituted scientific farming in the region, teaching the natives +how to fertilize with kelp which was easily obtainable from the sea, and +also with the plentiful small<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> herring or menhaden. He taught them the +proper care of the soil, and the rotation of crops. This passionate love +of the earth was an integral part of the man. As the force of his mind +drew its power, not from mere rhetorical facility, but from fundamental +principles, so his magnificent body, like that of the fabled Antæus, +seemed to draw perennial potency from contact with the earth. To acquire +land—he owned nearly eighteen hundred acres at the time of his +death—and to cultivate it to the highest possible degree of +productiveness was his intense delight. The farm which he purchased from +Captain Thomas grew to an estate of two or three dozen buildings, +outhouses, tenant houses, a dairyman's cottage, fisherman's house, +agricultural offices, and several large barns. We can imagine that he +shows us all of these things—explaining every detail with enthusiasm +and accuracy, occasionally digressing upon the habits of birds or fish, +the influence of tides and currents, the changes of sky and wind. All +natural laws are fascinating to him—inspiring his imagination<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> and +uplifting his spirit—and it is these things, never politics or +business, which he discusses in his hours of freedom. He himself +supervises the planting and harvesting and slaughtering here and on his +other farm at Franklin—the family homestead—even when obliged to be +absent, or even when temporarily residing in Washington and hard pressed +with the cares of his office as Secretary of State.</p> + +<p>Those painters who include a parrot in the portrait of some fine +frivolous lady do so to heighten their interpretation of character. We +all betray our natures, by the creatures we instinctively gather about +us. One might know that Jefferson at Monticello would select high-bred +saddle horses as his companions; that Cardinal Richelieu would find no +pet so soothing, so alluring, as a soft-stepping cat; that Charles I +would select the long-haired spaniel. So it is entirely in the picture +that of all the beasts brought under human yoke, that great oxen, slow, +solemn, strong, would appeal to the man whose searching eyes were never +at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> rest except when they swept a wide horizon; whose mind found its +deepest satisfaction in noble languages, the giant monuments of +literature and art, and whose soul best stretched its wings beside the +limitless sea and under the limitless sky. Webster was fond of all +animal life; he felt himself part of its free movement. Guinea hens, +peacocks, ducks, flocks of tamed wild geese, dogs, horses—these were +all part of the Marshfield place, but there was within the breast of the +owner a special responsiveness to great herds of cattle, and especially +fine oxen, the embodiment of massive power. So fond was he of these +favorite beasts of his, that often on his arrival home he would fling +his bag into the hall without even entering the house, and hasten to the +barn to see that they were properly tied up for the night. As he once +said to his little son, as they both stood by the stalls and he was +feeding the oxen with ears of corn from an unhusked pile lying on the +barn floor: "I would rather be here than in the Senate," adding, with +his famous smile, "I think it is better company." So we may be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> sure as +we walk in our retrospect about the farm with him—he never speaks of it +as an "estate" but always as a farm—he will linger longest where the +Devon oxen, the Alderneys, Herefordshire, and Ayrshire are grazing, and +that the eyes which Carlyle likened to anthracite furnaces will glow and +soften. Twenty years from now he will gaze out upon his oxen once again +from the window before which he has asked to be carried, as he lies +waiting for death. Weariness, disease, and disappointment have weakened +the elasticity of his spirit, and as they pass—his beloved oxen, +slowly, solemnly—what procession of the years passes with them! Years +of full living, of generous living; of deep emotions; of glory; years of +ambition; of bereavement; of grief. It is all to pass—these happy days +at Marshfield; the wife he so fondly cared for; the children he so +deeply cherished. Sycophants are to fill, in a measure, the place of +friends, the money which now flows in so freely is to entangle and +ensnare him; the lofty aspiration which now inspires him is to +degenerate into a presidential<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> ambition which will eat into his soul. +But to-day let us, as long as we may, see him as he is in the height of +his powers. Let us walk with him under the trees which he planted. Those +large elms, gracefully silhouetted against the house, were placed there +with his own hands at the birth of his son Edward and his daughter +Julia, and he always refers to them gently as "brother" and "sister." To +plant a tree to mark an event was one of his picturesque customs—an +unconscious desire, perhaps, to project himself into the future. I am +quite sure, as we accompany him, he will expatiate on the improvement in +the soil which he has effected; that he will point out eagerly not only +the domestic but the wild animals about the place; and that he will +stand for a few moments on the high bluff overlooking the sea and the +marshes and let the wind blow through his dark hair. He is carefully +dressed—he always dresses to fit the occasion—and to-day, as he stands +in his long boots reaching to the knee and adorned with a tassel, his +bell-crowned beaver hat in his hand, and in his tight pantaloons and +well-cut coat—a magnificent specimen of virile manhood—the words of +Lanier, although written at a later date, and about marshes far more +lush than these New England ones, beat upon our ears:</p> +<p><a name="facing_pg137" id="facing_pg137"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image173.jpg" width="500" height="299" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Oh, what is abroad in the marsh and the terminal sea?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Somehow my soul seems suddenly free<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the weighing of fate and the sad discussion of sin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the length and the breadth and the sweep of the marshes of Glynn."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>On the way back he will show us the place where three of his favorite +horses are buried, for he does not sell the old horses who have done him +good service, but has them buried "with the honors of war"—that is, +standing upright, with their halters and shoes on. Above one of them he +has placed the epitaph:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Siste Viator!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Viator te major his sistit."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I do not know if, as we return to the house where already a fresh group +of visitors has arrived, he will pause by a corner of the yard set off +by an iron fence. He has chosen this spot as the place where he shall +lie, and here, in time,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> are to repose under the wide and simple vault +of sky the wife and children whose going before is to bring such +desolation. It is a place supremely fitting for that ample spirit which +knew for its own the nobility of large spaces, and the grandeur of +repose.</p> + +<p>The life of Daniel Webster is one of the most dramatic and touching of +any of our great men. He was an orator of such solid thought and chaste +eloquence that even now, without the advantage of the marvelously rich +and flexible voice and the commanding presence that made each word burn +like a fire, even without this incalculable personal interpretation, his +speeches remain as a permanent part of our literature, and will so long +as English oratory is read. He was a brilliant lawyer—the foremost of +his day—and his statesmanship was of equal rank. In private life he was +a peculiarly devoted and tender son, husband, father, and friend. That +he should have become saddened by domestic losses and somewhat vitiated +by flattery were, perhaps, inevitable. He was bitterly condemned—more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +bitterly by his contemporaries than by those who now study his words and +work—for lowering his high standard in regard to slavery. It is +impossible to refute the accusation, at the end of his life, of a +carelessness approaching unscrupulousness in money matters. His personal +failings, which were those of a man of exceptional vitality, have been +heavily—too heavily—emphasized. He ate and drank and spent money +lavishly; he had a fine library; he loved handsome plate and good +service and good living. He was generous; he was kind. That he was +susceptible to adulation and, after the death of his first wife, drifted +into associations less admirable than those of his earlier years, are +the dark threads of a woof underrunning a majestic warp. He adored his +country with a fervor that savors of the heroic, and when he said, +"There are no Alleghanies in my politics," he spoke the truth. The +intense passion for the soil which animated him at Marshfield was only a +fragment of that higher passion for his country—feeling never tainted +by sectionalism or local<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> prejudice. It was this profound love for the +Union, coupled with his surpassing gift of eloquence in expressing that +love and inspiring it in all who heard him, that distinguishes him for +all time.</p> + +<p>There are other memorable things about Marshfield. Governor Edward +Winslow, who was sent to England to represent the Plymouth and +Massachusetts Bay Colonies, and whose son Josiah was the first native +Governor of the Colony, may both be called Marshfield men. Peregrine +White, the first white child born in this country, lies in the Winslow +Burying Ground. One of the most singular changes on our coast occurred +in this vicinity when in one night the "Portland Breeze" closed up the +mouth of the South River and four miles up the beach opened up the mouth +of the North River, making an entrance three quarters of a mile wide +between Third and Fourth Cliff.</p> + +<p>These and many other men and events of Marshfield are properly given a +place in the history of New England, but the special glory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> of this spot +will always be that Daniel Webster chose to live, chose to die, and +chose to be buried under the vast vault of her skyey spaces, within the +sound of her eternal sea.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<img src="images/image179.jpg" width="250" height="104" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/image180.jpg" width="350" height="182" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>DUXBURY HOMES</h3> + +<p>There are certain places whose happy fortune seems to be that they are +always specially loved and specially sought by the children of men. From +that memorable date in 1630 when a little group of the Plymouth +colonists asked permission to locate across the bay at "Duxberie" until +now, when the summer colony alone has far surpassed that of the original +settlers, this section of the coast—with its lovely six-mile beach, its +high bluffs, and its pleasant hills and pasture lands, upon which are +found quite a southern flora, unique in this northern latitude—has been +thoroughly frequented and enjoyed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> + +<p>There is no more graphic index to the caliber of a people than the +houses which they build, and the first house above all others which we +must associate with this spot is the Standish cottage, built at the foot +of Captain's Hill by Alexander Standish, the son of Myles, partly from +materials from his father's house, which was burned down, but whose +cellar is still visible. This long, low, gambrel-roofed structure, with +a broad chimney showing the date of 1666, was a long way ahead of the +first log cabins erected by the Pilgrims—farther than most of us +realize, accustomed as we are to glass instead of oiled paper in +windows; to shingles, and not thatch for roofs. It is fitting that this +ancient and charming dwelling should be associated with one of the most +romantic, most striking, names in the Plymouth Colony. There are few +more picturesque personalities in our early history than Myles Standish. +Small in stature, fiery in spirit, a terror to the Indians, and a strong +arm to the Pilgrims, there is no doubt that his determination to live in +Duxbury—which he named for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> Duxborough Hall, his ancestral home in +Lancashire—went far in obtaining for it a separate incorporation and a +separate church. This was the first definite offshoot from the Plymouth +Colony, and was accompanied by the usual maternal fears. While he could +not forbid them going to Duxbury to settle, yet, when they asked for a +separate incorporation and church, Bradford granted it most unwillingly. +He voiced the general sentiment when he wrote that such a separation +presaged the ruin of the church "& will provoke y^e Lord's displeasure +against them."</p> + +<p>However, such unkind predictions in no wise bothered the sturdy little +group who moved over to the new location, needing room for their cattle +and their gardens, and most of all a sense of freedom from the +restrictions of the mother colony. The son of Elder Brewster went, and +in time the Elder himself, and so did John Alden and his wife Priscilla, +whose courtship has been so well told by Longfellow that it needs no +further embellishing here. On the grassy knoll where John and Priscilla<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +built their home in 1631, their grandson built the cottage which now +stands—the property of the Alden Kindred Association. John Alden seems +to have been an attractive young fellow—it is easy to see why Priscilla +Mullins preferred him to the swart, truculent widower—but from our +point of view John Alden's chief claim to fame is that he was a friend +of Myles Standish.</p> + +<p>Let us, as we pay our respects to Duxbury, pause for a moment and recall +some of the courageous adventures, some of the brave traits and some of +the tender ones, which make up our memory of this doughty military +commander. In the first place, we must remember that he was never a +member of the church of the Pilgrims: there is even a question if he +were not—like the rest of his family in Lancashire—a Roman Catholic; +and this immediately places him in a position of peculiar distinction. +From the first his mission was not along ecclesiastical lines, but along +military and civil ones. The early histories are full of his intrepid +deeds: there was never an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> expedition too dangerous or too difficult to +daunt him. He would attack with the utmost daring the hardest or the +humblest task. He was absolutely loyal to the interest of the Colony, +and during that first dreadful winter when he was among the very few who +were not stricken with sickness, he tended the others day and night, +"unceasing in his loving care." As in many audacious characters this +sweeter side of his nature does not seem to have been fully appreciated +by his contemporaries, and we have the letter in which Robinson, that +"most learned, polished and modest spirit," writes to Bradford, and +warns him to have care about Standish. He loves him right well, and is +persuaded that God has given him to them in mercy and for much good, if +he is used aright; but he fears that there may be wanting in him "that +tenderness of the life of man (made after God's image) which is meet." +This warning doubtless flattered Standish, but Robinson's later +criticism of his methods at Weymouth hurt the little captain cruelly. He +seems to have cherished an intense affection for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> the Leyden pastor, +such as valorous natures often feel for meditative ones, and that +Robinson died before he—Standish—could justify himself was a deep +grief to the soldier to whom mere physical hardships were as nothing. We +do not know a great deal about this relationship between the two men: in +this as in so many cases the intimate stories of these men and women, +"also their love, and their hatred, and their envy is now perished." But +we do know that thirty years later when the gallant captain lay dying he +wrote in his will: "I give three pounds to Mercy Robinson, whom I +tenderly love for her grandfather's sake." Surely one feels the touching +eloquence of this brief sentence the fitting close of a life not only +heroic in action, but deeply sensitive in sentiment.</p> + +<p>He died on his farm in Duxbury in 1656 when he was seventy-three, and +the Myles Standish Monument on Captain's Hill, three hundred and ten +feet above the bay, is no more conspicuous than his knightly and tender +life among the people he elected to serve. His two wives, and also +Priscilla and John<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> Alden, for whom he entertained such lively love and +equally lively fury, all are buried here—the Captain's last home +fittingly marked by four cannon and a sturdy boulder.</p> + +<p>Not only for Standish and Alden is Duxbury famous. The beloved William +Brewster himself moved to this new settlement, and up to a few years ago +the traces of the whitewood trees which gave the name of "Eagle's Nest" +to his house could be distinguished. One son—Love—lived with the +venerable elder, who was a widower, and his other son Jonathan owned the +neighboring farm. In the sight of the Plymouth Colony—their first home +in the new land—the three men often worked together, cutting trees and +planting.</p> + +<p>Others of the original Mayflower company came too, leaving traces of +themselves in such names as Blackfriars Brook, Billingsgate, and +Houndsditch—names which they brought from Old England.</p> + +<p>The homes which these pioneers so laboriously and so lovingly +wrought—what were they? How did they compare with the modern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> home and +household? In Mr. Sheldon's "History of Deerfield" we find such a +charming and vivid picture of home life in the early days—and one that +applies with equal accuracy to Duxbury—that we cannot do better than +copy it here:</p> + +<p>"The ample kitchen was the center of the family life, social and +industrial. Here around the rough table, seated on rude stools or +benches, all partook of the plain and sometimes stinted fare. A glance +at the family gathered here after nightfall on a winter's day may prove +of interest.</p> + +<p>"After a supper of bean porridge or hasty pudding and milk of which all +partake in common from a great pewter basin, or wooden bowl, with spoons +of wood, horn or pewter; after a reverent reading of the Bible, and +fervent supplications to the Most High for prayer and guidance; after +the watch was set on the tall mount, and the vigilant sentinel began +pacing his lonely beat, the shutters were closed and barred, and with a +sense of security the occupations of the long winter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> evening began. +Here was a picture of industry enjoined alike by the law of the land and +the stern necessities of the settlers. All were busy. Idleness was a +crime. On the settle, or a low armchair, in the most sheltered nook, sat +the revered grandam—as a term of endearment called granny—in red +woolen gown, and white linen cap, her gray hair and wrinkled face +reflecting the bright firelight, the long stocking growing under her +busy needles, while she watched the youngling of the flock in the cradle +by her side. The good wife, in linsey-woolsey short-gown and red +petticoat steps lightly back and forth in calf pumps beside the great +wheel, or poising gracefully on the right foot, the left hand extended +with the roll or bat, while with a wheel finger in the other, she gives +the wheel a few swift turns for a final twist to the long-drawn thread +of wool or tow. The continuous buzz of the flax wheels, harmonizing with +the spasmodic hum of the big wheel, shows that the girls are preparing a +stock of linen against their wedding day. Less active and more fitful +rattled the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> quill wheel, where the younger children are filling quills +for the morrow's weaving.</p> + +<p>"Craftsmen are still scarce, and the yeoman must depend largely on his +own skill and resources. The grandsire, and the goodman, his son, in +blue woolen frocks, buckskin breeches, long stockings, and clouted +brogans with pewter buckles, and the older boys in shirts of brown tow, +waistcoat and breeches of butternut-colored woolen homespun, surrounded +by piles of white hickory shavings, are whittling out with keen Barlow +jack-knives implements for home use: ox-bows and bow-pins, axe-helves, +rakestales, forkstales, handles for spades and billhooks, wooden +shovels, flail staff and swingle, swingling knives, or pokes and hog +yokes for unruly cattle and swine. The more ingenious, perhaps, are +fashioning buckets or powdering tubs, or weaving skeps, baskets or +snowshoes. Some, it may be, sit astride the wooden shovel, shelling corn +on its iron-shod edge, while others are pounding it into samp or hoiminy +in the great wooden mortar.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> + +<p>"There are no lamps or candles, but the red light from the burning pine +knots on the hearth glows over all, repeating, in fantastic pantomime on +the brown walls and closed shutters, the varied activities around it. +These are occasionally brought into higher relief by the white flashes, +as the boys throw handfuls of hickory shavings onto the forestick, or +punch the back log with the long iron peel, while wishing they had as +'many shillings as sparks go up the chimney.' Then, the smoke-stained +joists and boards of the ceiling with the twisted rings of pumpkin +strings or crimson peppers and festoons of apple, drying on poles hung +beneath; the men's hats, the crook-necked squashes, the skeins of thread +and yarn hanging in bunches on the wainscot; the sheen of the pewter +plates and basins, standing in rows on the shelves of the dresser; the +trusty firelock with powder horn, bandolier, and bullet pouch, hanging +on the summertree, and the bright brass warming-pan behind the bedroom +door—all stand revealed more clearly for an instant, showing the +provident<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> care for the comfort and safety of the household. Dimly seen +in the corners of the room are baskets in which are packed hands of flax +from the barn, where, under the flaxbrake, the swingling knives and the +coarse hackle, the shives and swingling tow have been removed by the +men; to-morrow the more deft manipulations of the women will prepare +these bunches of fiber for the little wheel, and granny will card the +tow into bats, to be spun into tow yarn on the big wheel. All quaff the +sparkling cider or foaming beer from the briskly circulating pewter mug, +which the last out of bed in the morning must replenish from the barrel +in the cellar."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>One notices the frequent reference to beer in these old chronicles. The +tea, over which the colonists were to take such a dramatic stand in a +hundred years, had not yet been introduced into England, and neither had +coffee. Forks had not yet made their appearance. In this admirable +picture Mr. Sheldon does not mention one of the evening industries +which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> was peculiarly characteristic of the Plymouth Colony. This was +the making of clapboards, which with sassafras and beaver skins, +constituted for many years the principal cargo sent back to England from +the Colony. Another point—the size of the families. The mother of +Governor William Phips had twenty-one sons and five daughters, and the +Reverend John Sherman had six children by his first wife and twenty by +his second. These were not uncommon figures in the early life of New +England; and with so many numbers within itself the home life was a +center for a very complete and variegated industrial life. Surely it is +a long cry from these kitchen fireplaces—so large that often a horse +had to be driven into the kitchen dragging the huge back log—these +immense families, to the kitchenette and one-child family of to-day!</p> + +<p>This, then, was the old Duxbury: the Duxbury of long, cold winters, +privations, and austerity. Down by the shore to-day is the new +Duxbury—a Duxbury of automobiles, of business men's trains, of gay +society at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> Powder Point, where in the winter is the well-known boys' +school—a Duxbury of summer cottages, white and green along the shore, +green and brown under the pines. Of these summer homes many are new: the +Wright estate is one of the finest on the South Shore, and the pleasant, +spacious dwelling distinguished by its handsome hedge of English privet +formerly belonged to Fanny Davenport, the actress. Others are old +houses, very tastefully, almost affectionately remodeled by those for +whom the things of the past have a special lure. These remodeled +cottages are, perhaps, the prettiest of all. Those very ancient +landmarks, sagging into pathetic disrepair, present a sorrowful, albeit +an artistic, silhouette against the sky. But these "new-old" cottages, +with ruffled muslin curtains at the small-paned, antique windows, brave +with a shining knocker on the green-painted front door, and gay with +old-fashioned gardens to the side or in the rear—these are a delight to +all, and an honor to both past and present.</p> + +<p>Surely the fair town of Duxbury, which so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> smilingly enticed the +Pilgrims across the bay to enjoy her sunny beach and rolling pasture +lands, must be happy to-day as she was then to feel her ground so deeply +tilled, and still to be so daintily adorned with homes and gardens and +with laughing life.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<img src="images/image194.jpg" width="250" height="109" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/image195.jpg" width="350" height="168" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>KINGSTON AND ITS MANUSCRIPTS</h3> + +<p>On a charming eminence at two crossroads, delicately dappled by fine elm +shade and clasped by an antique grapevine, rests the old Bradford house. +From the main road half a mile away you will see only the slanting roof, +half concealed by rolling pasture land, but if you will trouble to turn +off from the main road, and if you will not be daunted by the +unsavoriness of the immediate neighborhood, you will find it quite worth +your while. The house presents only a casual side to the street—one +fancies it does not take much interest in its upstart neighbors—but +imagination makes us believe that it regards with brooding tenderness +the lovely tidal river<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> which winds away through the marshes to the sea. +Interesting as the house is for its architectural features and for its +delightful location—despite the nearness of the passing train—yet it +is on neither of these points that its fame rests.</p> + +<p>In this house, built in 1674, and once belonging to Major John Bradford, +the grandson of the Governor, was preserved for many years one of the +most valuable American manuscripts in existence, and one fated to the +most romantic adventures in the annals of Lost and Found.</p> + +<p>Bradford's "History of the Plymouth Plantation" is our sole source of +authentic information for the period 1606-46. It is the basis for all +historical study of the early life of the Pilgrims in this country, and +when we look at the quiet roof of the Bradford house to-day and realize +how narrowly the papers—for they remained in manuscript form for two +hundred years—escaped being lost forever, our minds travel again over +the often told story.</p> + +<p>The manuscript, penned in Governor Bradford's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> fine old hand, in a folio +with a parchment back, and with some childish scribblings by little +Mercy Bradford on the cover, passed at the Governor's death to his son, +and at his death to his son. It reposed in the old house at which we are +now looking until 1728, doubtless regarded as something valuable, but +not in the least appreciated at its full and peculiar worth. When Major +John Bradford lent it to the Reverend Thomas Prince to assist him in his +"Chronological History of New England," he was merely doing what he had +done many times before. In these days of burglar-proof safes and fire +protection it makes us shiver to think of this priceless holograph +passed from hand to hand in such a casual manner. But it seems to have +escaped any mishap under Dr. Prince, who deposited it eventually in the +library of the Old South Church. Here it remained for half a century, +still in manuscript form and frequently referred to by scholars. Thomas +Hutchinson used it in compiling his "History of Massachusetts Bay," and +Mather used it also. At the time of the Revolution the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> Old South was +looted, and this document (along with many others) disappeared +absolutely. No trace whatever could be found of it: the most exhaustive +search was in vain, and scholars and historians mourned for a loss that +was irreparable. And then, after half a century, after the search had +been entirely abandoned, it was discovered, quite by chance, by one who +fortunately knew its value, tucked into the Library of Fulham Palace in +London. After due rejoicing on the American side and due deliberation on +the English side of the water, it was very properly and very politely +returned to this country in 1897. Now it rests after its career of +infinite hazard, in a case in the Boston State House, elaborately +protected from fire and theft, from any accidental or premeditated harm, +and Kingston must content itself with a copy in Pilgrim Hall at +Plymouth.</p> + +<p>Kingston's history commences with a manuscript and continues in the same +form. If you would know the legends, the traditions, the events which +mark this ancient town, you will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> have to turn to records, diaries, +memoranda, memorial addresses and sermons, many of them never published.</p> + +<p>It is rather odd that this serene old place, discovered only two or +three days after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, is so devoid +of a printed career. As soon as the Pilgrims had explored the spot, they +put themselves on record as having "a great liking to plant in it" +instead of in Plymouth. But they decided against it because it lay too +far from their fishing and was "so encompassed with woods," that they +feared danger from the savages. It was very soon settled, however, and +remained as the north end of Plymouth for a hundred and six years, until +1726. Governor Bradford writes, in regard to its colonization:</p> + +<p>"Y^e people of y^e plantation begane to grow in their outward estate ... +and as their stocks increased and y^e increase vendible, ther was no +longer any holding them togeather, but now they must of necessitoe goe +to their great lots: they could not otherwise keep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> catle; and having +oxen grown they must have land for plowing and tillage. And no man now +thought he could live except he had catle and a great deal of ground to +keep them: all striving to increase their stocks. By which means they +were scattered all over y^e bay, quickly, and y^e towne, in which they +had lived compactly till now [1632] was left very thine, and in a short +time almost desolate."</p> + +<p>Governor Bradford seems to deplore this moving out of Plymouth, but as a +matter of fact he was among the first to go, and his estate on Jones +River comprised such a goodly portion of what is now Kingston that when +he died he was the richest man in the Colony! A boulder marks the place +which he, with that unerring eye for a fine view which distinguished the +early settlers, chose for his estate. From here one catches a glimpse of +water, open fields, trees, the Myles Standish Monument to the left, the +sound of the passing automobiles behind. The distant smokestacks would +be unfamiliar to Governor Bradford's eye, but the fragrant Kingston air +which permeates it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> all would greet him as sweetly to-day as it did +three hundred years ago.</p> + +<p>Governor Bradford, who was Governor for thirty-seven years, was a man of +remarkable erudition. Cotton Mather says of him: "The Dutch tongue was +become almost as vernacular to him as the English; the French tongue he +could also manage; the Latin and the Greek he had mastered; but the +Hebrew he most of all studied." Therefore if the curious spelling of his +history strikes us as unscholarly, we must remember that at that time +there was no fixed standard for English orthography. Queen Elizabeth +employed seven different spellings for the word "sovereign" and +Leicester rendered his own name in eight different ways. It was by no +means a mark of illiteracy to spell not only unlike your neighbor, but +unlike yourself on the line previous.</p> + +<p>But it is more than quaint diction and fantastic spelling which +fascinates us as we turn over, not only the leaves of Bradford's famous +history, but the pile of fading records of various kinds of this once +prosperous shipbuilding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> town. The records of Kingston are valuable, not +only because they tell the tale of this particular spot, but because +they are delightfully typical of all the South Shore towns. The +yellowing diaries mention crude offenses, crude chastisements; give +scraps of genealogies as broken as the families themselves are now +broken and scattered; lament over one daughter of the Puritans who took +the veil in a Roman Catholic convent; sternly relate, in Rabelaisian +frankness, dark sins, punished with mediæval justice. In fact, these +righteous early colonists seemed to find a genuine satisfaction in +devising punishments, and in putting them into practice. We read that +the stocks (also called "bilbaos" because they were formerly +manufactured in Bilbao, in Spain) were first occupied by the man who had +made them, as the court decided that his charge for the work was +excessive! There were wooden cages in which criminals were confined and +exposed to public view; whipping-posts; cleft sticks for profane +tongues. Drunkenness was punished by disfranchisement; the blasphemer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +and the heretics were branded with a hot iron.</p> + +<p>Let us look at some of these old records, not all of them as ferocious +as this, but interesting for the minutiæ which they preserve and which +makes it possible for us to reconstruct something of that atmosphere of +the past. It was ninety-six years after the settlement at Plymouth that +Kingston made its first request for a separation. It was not granted for +almost a decade, but from then on the ecclesiastical records furnish us +with a great deal of intimate and chatty material. For instance, we +learn in 1719 that Isaac Holmes was to have "20 shillings for sweeping, +opening and shutting of the doors and casements of the meeting house for +1 year," which throws some light upon sextons' salaries!</p> + +<p>The minute directions as to the placing of the pews in the meeting-house +(1720) contain a pungent element of personality. Major John Bradford is +"next to the pulpit stairs"; Elisha Bradford on the left "as you go in"; +Benjamin Eaton's place is "between minister's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> stairs and west door"; +while Peter West is ingloriously, and for what reason we know not, +relegated to the gallery "in the front, next to the stairs, behind the +women."</p> + +<p>It is significant to note (1728) that seats are built at each end above +the galleries for the Indians and negroes.</p> + +<p>Fish laws, rewards for killing wild cats, bickerings with the minister, +and brief mention of the death of many women at an early age—after +having given birth to an incredible number of children—fill up pages +and pages.</p> + +<p>The eye rests upon a resolution passed (1771) to "allow Benjamin Cook +the sum of 8 shillings for a coffin, and liquor at the funeral of James +Howland." They might not believe in prayers for the dead in those days, +but there was evidently no reason why the living should not receive some +cheer!</p> + +<p>How is this for the minister's salary? The Reverend Doctor Willis (1780) +is to receive eighty pounds a year, to be paid partly in Indian corn, +rye, pork, and beef. Ten cords of wood yearly are allowed him "until he +have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> a family, then twenty cords, are to be allowed, the said wood to +be delivered at his door."</p> + +<p>Mr. Levi Bradford agrees to make the whipping-post and stocks for nine +shillings, if the town will find the iron (1790).</p> + +<p>The wage paid for a day's labor on the highway (1791) was as follows: +For a day's labor by a man, 2 shillings, 8 pence; for a yoke of oxen, 2 +shillings; for a horse, 1 shilling, 6 pence; for a cart, 1 shilling, 4 +pence. One notes the prices are for an eight-hour day.</p> + +<p>However, the high cost of living began to make itself felt even then. +How else account for the statement (1796) that Mr. Parris, the +schoolmaster, has been allowed fifty shillings in addition to his salary +"considering the increase in the price of provisions"?</p> + +<p>There seems to have been a great celebration on the occasion of raising +the second meetinghouse in Kingston (1798). One old account reads: +"Booths were erected on the field opposite, and all kinds of liquor and +refreshment were sold freely." After the frame was up a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> procession was +formed of those who were employed in the raising, consisting of +carpenters, sailors, blacksmiths, etc., each taking some implement of +his trade such as axes, rules, squares, tackles and ropes. They walked +to the Great Bridge and back to the temporary building that had been +used for worship (the Quail Trap) while the new one was being planned. +Here they all had punch and an "hour or so of jollity."</p> + +<p>If the women's lives were conspicuously short, it was not so with the +men. Ebenezer Cobb, who died in 1801 in the one hundred and eighth year +of his age, had lived in no less than three centuries, having seen six +years in the seventeenth, the whole of the eighteenth, and a year of the +nineteenth.</p> + +<p>The minister's tax is separated from the other town taxes in 1812—thus +even in this little village is reflected the great movement of +separation of Church and State. In 1851 when we read of a Unitarian +church being built we realize that the Puritan régime is over in New +England.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> + +<p>Thus with the assistance of the Pelegs and Hezekiahs, the Zadocks, +Ichabods, and Zenases—names which for some absurd and irreverent reason +suggest a picture puzzle—we manage to piece together scraps of the +Kingston of long ago.</p> + +<p>We must confess to some relief at the inevitable conclusion that such +study brings—namely, that the early settlers were not the unblemished +prigs and paragons tradition has so fondly branded them. They seem to +have been human enough—erring enough, if we take these records penned +by themselves. However, for any such iconoclastic observation it is +reassuring to have the judgment of so careful a historian as Charles +Francis Adams. He says:</p> + +<p>"That the earlier generations of Massachusetts were either more +law-abiding or more self-restrained than the later is a proposition +which accords neither with tradition nor with the reason of things. The +habits of those days were simpler than those of the present: they were +also essentially grosser...."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p> + +<p>He then gives a dozen pages or so of hitherto unpublished church +records, gathered from as many typical Massachusetts towns, which throw +an undeniable and unflattering light on the social habits of that early +period. As explicit and public confession before the church congregation +was enforced, these church records contain startlingly graphic +statements of drunkenness, blasphemy, stealing, and immorality in all +its various phases.</p> + +<p>There are countless church records which duplicate this one of the +ordination of a Massachusetts pastor in 1729: "6 Barrels and a half of +Cyder, 28 gallons of wine, 2 gallons of Brandy, and 4 of rum, loaf +sugar, lime juice and pipes," all, presumably, consumed at the time and +on the spot of the ordination. Even the most pessimistic must admit that +long before our prohibition era we had traveled far beyond such +practices.</p> + +<p>The immorality seems to have been the natural reaction from morbid +spiritual excitement induced by religious revivals. Poor Governor +Bradford never grasped this, and we find<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> him lamenting (1642): +"Marvilous it may be to see and consider how some kind of wickedness did +grow and break forth here in a land where the same was much witnessed +against, and so narrowly looked on and severely punished when it was +known."</p> + +<p>We hear the same plaint from Jonathan Edwards a century later.</p> + +<p>It is well to honor the Pilgrims for their many stanch and admirable +qualities, but it is only fair to recall that the morbidity of their +religion made them less healthy-minded than we, and that many of their +practices, such as the well-recognized custom of "bundling," were +indications of a people holding far lower moral standards than ours.</p> + +<p>The old sermons, diaries, biographies, and records lie on dusty shelves +now, and few pause to read them, and in Kingston no one yet has gathered +them into a local history. There are other records traced, not in sand, +but on the soil that may also be read by any who pass. Some remnants of +the trenches and terraces dug by the quota of Arcadian refugees who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +fell to Kingston's share after the pathetic flight from Nova Scotia may +still be seen—claimed by some to be the first irrigation attempt in +America.</p> + +<p>The old "Massachusetts Payth" which follows the road more or less +closely beyond Kingston is traced with difficulty and uncertainty in +Kingston itself, but there is another highway as clear to-day as it was +three hundred years ago. And this is the lovely tidal river, named after +the master of the Mayflower, up which used to come and go not only many +ships of commerce, but, in the evenings after life had become less +austere, boatloads of merry-makers from Plymouth and Duxbury to attend +the balls given at what was originally the King's Town.</p> + +<p>It has carried much traffic in its day, that river which now winds so +gracefully down to the sea, and which we see so well from the yard of +the old Bradford house. Down it floated the vessels made by Kingston +men, and out of it was dug much bog iron for the use of Washington's +artillery.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> + +<p>Monk's Hill—which the old records call Mont's Hill Chase, a name +supposed to have been applied to a hunt in England—could tell a story +too, if one had ears to hear. The highest land in Kingston, during the +Revolution it was one of the points where a beacon fire was lighted to +alarm the town in case of invasion by the enemy.</p> + +<p>Kingston is not without history, although its manuscripts lie long +untouched upon library shelves, and its historic soil is tramped over by +unheeding feet. That the famous manuscript which was its greatest +historical contribution has been taken away from it, is no loss in the +truest sense of the word, for this monumental work, which belongs to no +one place, but to the country as a whole, is properly preserved at the +State House.</p> + +<p>Kingston seems amenable to this arrangement, just as she seems entirely +willing that Plymouth should claim the first century of her career. When +one is sure of one's heritage and beauty, one does not clamor for +recognition; one does not even demand a printed history.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> It is quality, +not quantity, that counts, and even if nothing more is ever written in +or about this dear old town, Kingston will have made a distinguished +contribution to American history and literature.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<img src="images/image212.jpg" width="250" height="100" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/image213.jpg" width="350" height="212" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>PLYMOUTH</h3> + +<p>One of the favorite pictures of New Englanders, and one which hangs in +innumerable dining-rooms and halls, is by Boughton, the popular American +artist, and is named "The Return of the Mayflower." I suppose thousands +of New England children have gazed wonderingly at this picture, which, +contrary to the modern canons of art, "tells a story," and many of those +naïve minds have puzzled as to how those poor Pilgrims, who had no tea +or coffee or milk or starch, managed to appear so well fed and so +contented, and so marvelously neat and clean. The inexhaustible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> bag +which inevitably appeared at crucial moments in the career of "Swiss +Family Robinson" is nowhere mentioned in the early chronicles of the +Plymouth Plantation, and the precise manner in which a small vessel of a +hundred and eighty tons, carrying a hundred passengers, and all the +innumerable cradles, chairs, and highboys which have since flooded the +museums as "genuine relics" of that first voyage, could also have +brought sufficient washboards, soap, and flatirons to have kept the +charming costumes so immaculate is a mystery which will probably never +be solved—especially since the number of relics appears to increase +instead of diminish with the passage of time.</p> + +<p>However, that is a mere trifle. Mr. Boughton, in catching this touching +and dramatic moment in the history of the Plymouth Colony, has rendered +a graphic service to us all, and if we could stand upon the little +plateau on which this man and maid are standing, and could look out with +them—we should see—what should we see?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p> + +<p>We may, indeed, stand upon the little plateau—possibly it is no other +than the base of Cole's Hill, that pathetic spot on which the dead were +buried those first sad months, the ground above being leveled and +planted with corn lest the Indians should count the number of the +lost—and look out upon that selfsame harbor, but the sight which meets +our eyes will be a very different one from that which met theirs. Let +us, if we can, for the space of half an hour or so, imagine that we are +standing beside this Pilgrim man and maid, on the day on which Mr. +Boughton portrayed them.</p> + +<p>Instead of 1920 it is 1621. It is the 5th of April: the winter of +terrifying sicknesses and loss has passed; of the hundred souls which +left England the autumn previously more than a half have died. The +Mayflower which brought them all over, and which has remained in the +harbor all winter, is now, having made repairs and taking advantage of +the more clement weather, trimming her sails for the thirty-one days' +return voyage to England. They may return with her, if they wish,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> any +or all of the sturdy little band; they may leave the small, smoky log +cabins; the scanty fare of corn and fish; the harassing fear of the +Indians; they may leave the privations, the cramped quarters, and return +to civilized life—to friends and relatives, to blooming English +hedgerows and orderly English churches. But no one—no, not a single one +returns! They have thrown in their lot with the new country—the new +life. Their nearest civilized neighbors are the French of Nova Scotia, +five hundred miles to the north, and the English of Virginia five +hundred miles to the south. But they are undaunted. And yet—who can +doubt that as they gaze out upon the familiar sails—the last banner +between themselves and their ancestral home, and as they see them +sailing out and out until they sink below the verge of sea and sky, the +tears "rise in the heart and gather to the eyes" in "thinking of the +days that are no more."</p> + +<p>Three hundred years ago! The same harbor now as then, with the highland +of Cape Cod dimly outlined in the gray eastern horizon;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> the bluffs of +Manomet nearer on the right; opposite them, on the left, Duxbury Beach +comes down, and ends in the promontory which holds the Gurnet Lights. +Clarke's Island—already so named—lies as it does to-day, but save for +these main topographical outlines the Plymouth at which we are looking +in our imagination would be quite unrecognizable to us.</p> + +<p>There is a little row of houses—seven of them—that is all. Log cabins, +two-roomed, of the crudest build, thatched with wildgrass, the chinks +between the logs filled with clay, the floors made of split logs; +lighted at night with pieces of pitch pine. Each lot measures three rods +long and a rod and a half wide, and they run on either side of the +single street (the first laid out in New England, and ever afterward to +be known as Leyden Street), which, in its turn, is parallel to the Town +Brook. There is no glass in these cabin windows: oiled paper suffices; +the household implements are of the fewest. The most primitive modern +camping expedition is replete with luxuries of which this colony knows +nothing. They have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> no cattle of any kind, which means no milk or +butter; they have no poultry or eggs. Twenty-six acres of cultivated +ground—twenty-one of corn, the other five of wheat, rye, and +barley—have been quite enough for the twenty-one men and six boys (all +who were well enough to work) to handle, but it is not a great deal to +feed them all. At one end of the street stands the common house, twenty +feet square, where the church services are held; the store-house is near +the head of the pier; and at the top of what is now Burial Hill is the +timber fort, twenty by twenty, built the January before by Myles +Standish. In April, 1621, this is all there is to what is now the +prosperous town of Plymouth.</p> + +<p>And yet—not entirely. There are a few things left in the Plymouth of +to-day which were in the Plymouth of three hundred years ago. If our man +and maid should turn into Pilgrim Hall their eyes would fall upon some +of the selfsame objects which were familiar sights to them in 1621. +Those sturdy oaken chairs of Governor Carver, Elder Brewster, and +Edward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> Winslow; the square, hooded wooden cradle brought over by Dr. +Samuel Fuller; and the well-preserved reed one which rocked Peregrine +White, and whose quaint stanchness suggests the same Dutch influence +which characterizes the spraddling octagonal windmills—they would +quickly recognize all of these. Some of the books, too, chiefly +religious, some in classic tongues, William Bradford's Geneva Bible +printed in 1592, and others bearing the mark of 1615, would be well +known to them, although we must not take it for granted that the +lady—or the man either—can read. Well-worn the Bibles are, however, +and we need not think that lack of learning prevented any of the +Pilgrims from imbibing both the letter and spirit of the Book. Those who +could write were masters of a fine, flowing script that shames our +modern scrawl, as is well testified by the Patent of the Plymouth +Colony—the oldest state document in New England—as well as by the +final will and various deeds of Peregrine White, and many others. The +small, stiff baby shoes which encased<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> the infant feet of Josiah +Winslow, the son of Governor Winslow and destined to be Governor +himself, are of a pattern familiar to our man and maid, as are the now +tarnished swords of Carver, Brewster, and Standish. Probably they have +puzzled, as we are still doing, over the Kufic or Arabic inscriptions on +the last. The monster kettle and generous pewter plate brought over by +the doughty Captain would be too well known to them to attract their +attention, as would be the various tankards and goblets, and the +beautiful mortar and pestle brought over by Winslow. But the two-tined +fork they would regard with curiosity, for forks were not used, even in +England, until 1650. The teapots, too, which look antiquated enough to +us, would fill them with wonder, for tea was practically unknown in both +colony and mother country until 1657. Those fragments of rude +agricultural implements which we treasure would not interest our man and +maid for whom they are ordinary sights, and neither would they regard +with the same historical interest that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> moves us the bits of stone from +the Scrooby Manor in England, the bricks from the old pier at Delft +Haven in Holland, or the piece of carved pew-back from the old church at +Scrooby. Possibly our Pilgrim maid is one of the few who can write, and +if so, her fingers have doubtless fashioned a sampler as exquisite as +that of Lora Standish, whose meek docility and patient workmanship are +forever preserved in her cross-stitched words.</p> + +<p>From all around the walls of Pilgrim Hall look down fine, stern old +portraits, real and imaginary, of the early colonists. Modern critics +may bicker over the authenticity of the white bull on which Priscilla +Alden is taking her wedding trip; they may quarrel over the fidelity of +the models and paintings of the Mayflower, and antiquarians may +diligently unearth bits of bone to substantiate their pet theories. Our +man and maid could tell us all, but, alas, their voices are so far away +we cannot hear them. They will never speak the words which will settle +any of the oft-disputed points, and, unfortunately, they will leave us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +forever to argue about the truth of the famous Plymouth Rock.</p> + +<p>To present the well-worn story of Plymouth Rock from an angle calculated +to rouse even a semblance of fresh interest is comparable to offering a +well-fed man a piece of bread, and expecting him to be excited over it +as a novelty. Bread is the staff of life, to be sure, but it is also +accepted as matter of course in the average diet, and the story of +Plymouth Rock is part and parcel of every school-book and guide-book in +the country. The distinguished, if somewhat irreverent, visitor, who, +after being reduced to partial paralysis by the oft-repeated tale, +ejaculated fervently that he wished the rock had landed on the Pilgrims +instead of the Pilgrims on the rock, voiced the first original remark +about this historic relic which has refreshed our ears for many years. +However, as Americans we are thoroughly imbued with the theory on which +our advertising is based. Although it would seem that every housekeeper +in the land had been kept fully informed for forty years of the +advantages<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> incident to the use of a certain soap, the manufacturers +still persist in reciting these benefits. And why? Because new +housekeepers come into existence with each new day. So, if there be any +man who comes to Plymouth who does not know the story of Plymouth Rock, +it is here set down for him, as accurately and briefly as possible.</p> + +<p>This rock—which is an oval, glacial boulder of about seven tons—was +innocently rearing its massive, hoary head from the water one day in +December, 1620, as it had done for several thousand years previously in +unmolested oblivion. While engaged in this ponderous but harmless +occupation it was sighted by a boatful of men and women—the first who +had ever chosen to land on this particular part of the coast. The rock +presented a moderately dry footing, and they sailed up to it, and a +charming young woman, attired, according to our amiable painter, in the +cleanest and freshest of aprons and the most demure of caps, set a +daintily shod foot upon it and leaped lightly to shore. This was Mary +Chilton, and she was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> promptly followed by an equally trig young +man—John Alden. Thus commenced the founding of Plymouth Colony, and +thus was sown the seed of innumerable pictures, poems, stories, and +sermons.</p> + +<p>Now the Pilgrims themselves, in none of their various accounts, ever +mention the incident of the landing described above, or the rock. In +fact they are so entirely silent about it that historians—besides +discrediting the pretty part about Mary Chilton and John Alden, in the +brusque fashion characteristic of historians—have pooh-poohed the whole +story, arguing that the rock was altogether too far away from the land +to be a logical stepping-place, and referring to the only authentic +record of that first landing, which merely reads: "They sounded y^e +harbor & founde it fitt for shipping, and marched into y^e land & found +diverse cornfeilds & little running brooks, a place fitt for situation: +at least it was y^e best they could find." The Pilgrims, then, were +quite oblivious of the rock, the historians are entirely skeptical +concerning it, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> following generation so indifferent to the +tradition which was gradually formulating, that in the course of events +it was half-covered with a wharf, and used as a doorstep to a warehouse.</p> + +<p>This was an ignominious position for a magnificent free boulder which +had been a part of the untrammeled sea and land for centuries, but this +lowly occupation was infinitely less trying than the fate which was +awaiting. At the time the wharf was suggested, the idea that the rock +was the actual landing-place of the first colonists had gained such +momentum that a party was formed in its defense. An aged man, Thomas +Faunce, was produced. He was ninety-five and confined to an armchair. He +had not been born until twenty-six years after the landing of the +Pilgrims; his father, whom he quoted as declaring this to be the +original rock and identical landing-place, had not even come over in the +Mayflower, but in the Anne. However, this venerable Canute, carried to +the water's edge in his armchair, in the presence of many witnesses,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +assured them and all posterity that this was the genuine, undeniable +landing-place of the Pilgrims. And from that moment the belief was so +firmly set in the American mind that no power could possibly dislodge +it. In accordance with this suddenly acquired respect, it was decided to +move the huge bulk to the more conspicuous location of the Town Square. +When it was lifted from its prehistoric bed, it broke, and this was +hailed as a propitious omen of the coming separation of the Colonies +from the mother country. Only the upper half was dragged up to the Town +Square—a process which took twenty yoke of oxen and was accompanied by +wild huzzahing. There the poor, broken thing lay in the sun, at the +bottom of the Liberty Pole on which was flying, "Liberty or Death." But +its career as a public feature had only begun. It remained in the square +until 1834, and then on July 4 it was decided to drag it to a still more +conspicuous place. So with a formal procession, it was again hoisted and +hauled and set down in front of the entrance porch of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> Pilgrim Hall, +where it lay like a captive mammoth animal for curious folk to gaze at. +Here it was granted almost half a century of undisturbed if not secluded +slumber. But the end was not yet. In 1880 it was once more laid hold of +and carted back to its original setting, and welded without ceremony, to +the part from which it had been sundered. Now all of this seems quite +enough—more than enough—of pitiless publicity, for one old rock whose +only offense had been to be lifting its head above the water on a +December day in 1620. But no—just as the mind of man takes a singular +satisfaction in gazing at mummies preserved in human semblance in the +unearthly stillness of the catacombs, so the once massive boulder—now +carefully mended—was placed upon the neatest of concrete bases, and +over it was reared, from the designs of Hammatt Billings, the ugliest +granite canopy imaginable—in which canopy, to complete the grisly +atmosphere of the catacombs, were placed certain human bones found in an +exploration of Cole's Hill. Bleak and homeless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> the old rock now lies +passively in forlorn state under its atrocious shelter, behind a strong +iron grating, and any of a dozen glib street urchins, in syllables +flavored with Cork, or Genoese, or Polish accents, will, for a penny, +relate the facts substantially as I have stated them.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>It is easy to be unsympathetic in regard to any form of fetishism which +we do not share. And while the bare fact remains that we are not at all +sure that the Pilgrims landed on this rock, and we are entirely sure +that its present location and setting possess no romantic allurement, +yet bare facts are not the whole truth, and even when correct they are +often the superficial and not the fundamental<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> part of the truth. Those +hundreds—those thousands—of earnest-eyed men and women who have stood +beside this rock with tears in their eyes, and emotions too deep for +words in their hearts, "believing where they cannot prove," have not +only interpreted the vital significance of the place, but, by their very +emotion, have sanctified it.</p> + +<p>It really makes little difference whether the testimony of Thomas Faunce +was strictly accurate or not; it really makes little difference that the +Hammatt Billings canopy is indeed dreadful. Plymouth Rock has come to +symbolize the corner-stone of the United States as a nation, and symbols +are the most beautiful and the most enduring expression of any national +or human experience.</p> + +<p>It is estimated that over one hundred thousand visitors come to Plymouth +annually. They all go to see the Rock; most of them clamber up to the +quaint Burial Hill and read a few of the oldest inscriptions; they +glance at the National Monument to the forefathers, bearing the largest +granite figure in the world,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> and they take a turn through Pilgrim Hall. +But there is one place they often forget to see, and that is the harbor +itself.</p> + +<p>We began our tour through Plymouth through the eyes of a Pilgrim man and +maid watching the departing Mayflower. It was the Mayflower, battered +and beaten, her sails blackened and mended, her leaks hastily caulked, +which was the first vessel to sail into Plymouth Harbor—a harbor so +joyfully described as being a "most hopeful place" with "innumerable +store of fowl and excellent good ... in fashion like a sickel or fish +hook."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 430px;"> +<img src="images/image231.jpg" width="430" height="500" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p> + +<p>All that first dreadful winter, while the Pilgrims were struggling to +make roofs to cover their heads, while, with weeping hearts, they buried +their dead, and when, according to the good and indestructible instincts +of life, which persist in spite of every calamity, they planted seed for +the coming spring—all this while the Mayflower lay at anchor in the +harbor. Every morning they could see her there; any hour of the day they +could glance out at her; while they slept they were conscious of her +presence. And just so long as she was there, just so long could they see +a tangible connection between themselves and the life, which, although +already strangely far away, was, nevertheless, the nearest and the +dearest existence they had known. And then in April, the familiar +vessel, whose outlines were as much a part of the seascape as the Gurnet +or the bluffs of Manomet, vanished: vanished as completely as if she had +never been. The water which parted under her departing keel flowed +together. There was no sign on earth or sea or in the sky of that last +link between the little group of colonists and their home land. They +were as much alone as Enoch Arden on his desert isle. Can we imagine the +emptiness, the illimitable loneliness of that bay? One small shallop +down by the pier—that was the only visible connection between +themselves and England!</p> + +<p>I do not believe that we can really appreciate their sense of complete +severance—their sense of utter isolation. And I do not believe that we +can appreciate the wild thrill of excitement, the sudden gush of +freshly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> established connection that ran through the colony, when, seven +months later—the following November—a ship sailed into the harbor. It +was the Fortune bringing with her news and letters from home—word from +that other world—and bringing also thirty-five new colonists, among +them William Brewster's eldest son and Robert Cushman. Probably the +greetings were so joyful, the messages so eagerly sought, the flutter of +welcome so great that it was not until several days had passed that they +realized that the chief word which Thomas Weston (the London merchant +who was the head of the company which had financed the expedition) had +sent them was one of reproof. The Mayflower had brought no profitable +cargo back to England, he complained, an omission which was "wonderful +and worthily distasted." While he admitted that they had labored under +adverse circumstances, he unkindly added that a quarter of the time they +had spent in discoursing and arguing and consulting could have +profitably been spent in other ways. That the first official<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> word from +home should be one of such cruel reprimand struck the colonists—who had +so wistfully waited for a cheering message—very hard. Half frozen, half +starved, sick, depressed, they had been forced to struggle so +desperately to maintain even a foothold on the ladder of existence, that +it had not been humanly possible for them to fulfill their pledge to the +Company. Bradford's letter back to Weston—dignified, touching—is +sufficient vindication. When the Fortune returned she "was laden with +good clapboards, as full as she could stowe, and two hogsheads of beaver +and other skins," besides sassafras—a cargo valued at about five +hundred pounds. In spite of the fact that this cargo was promptly stolen +by a French cruiser off the English coast, it nevertheless marks the +foundation of the fur and lumber trade in New England. Although this +first visitor brought with her a patent of their lands (a document still +preserved in Pilgrim Hall, with the signatures and seals of the Duke of +Lenox, the Marquis of Hamilton, the Earl of Warwick, and Sir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> Ferdinando +Gorges), yet to us, reading history in the perspective of three hundred +years, the disagreeable impression of Weston's letter outweighs the +satisfaction for the patent. When the Fortune sailed away it was like +the departure of a rich, fault-finding aunt, who suddenly descends upon +a household of poor relations, bringing presents, to be sure, but with +such cutting disapproval on her lips that it mars the entire pleasure of +her visit.</p> + +<p>The harbor was once more empty. I suppose that in time the Pilgrims half +forgot, half forgave, the sting of Weston's reproof. Again they gazed +out and waited for a sail; again England seemed very far away. So, +doubtless, in the spring, when a shallop appeared from a fishing vessel, +they all eagerly hurried down to greet it. But if the Fortune had been +like a rich and disagreeable aunt, this new visitation was like an +influx of small, unruly cousins. And such hungry cousins! Weston had +sent seven men to stay with them until arrangements could be made for +another settlement. New Englanders are often criticized for their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> lack +of hospitality, and in this first historic case of unexpected guests the +larder was practically bare. Crops were sown, to be sure, but not yet +green; the provisions in the store-house were gone; it was not the +season for wild fowl; although there were bass in the outer harbor and +cod in the bay there was neither tackle nor nets to take them. However, +the seven men were admitted, and given shellfish like the rest—and very +little beside.</p> + +<p>At this point the Pilgrims looked with less favorable eyes upon +newcomers into the harbor, and when shortly after two ships appeared +bringing sixty more men from Weston, consternation reigned. These +emigrants were supposed to get their own food from their own vessels and +merely lodge on shore, but they proved a lawless set and stole so much +green corn that it seriously reduced the next year's supply. After six +weeks, however, these uninvited guests took themselves off to +Wessagusset (now Weymouth) leaving their sick behind, and only the +briefest of "thank you's."</p> + +<p>The next caller was the Plantation. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> anchored only long enough to +offer some sorely needed provisions at such extortionate prices that the +colonists could not buy them. Another slap in the face!</p> + +<p>Obviously, none of these visitors had proved very satisfactory. It had +been entertaining under difficulties, and if the entertainers had hoped +for the "angels unawares," they had been decidedly disappointed. +Therefore it is easy to believe that they took fresh courage and sincere +delight when, in July, 1623, the Anne and the Little James arrived—no +strangers, for they brought with them additional stores, and best of +all, good friends and close kinsfolk from the church at Leyden. Yes, the +Pilgrims were delighted, but, alas, tradition has it that when they +pressed forward in glad greeting to their old acquaintances, these +latter started back, nonplussed—aghast! Like Mr. Boughton they had +fondly pictured an ideal rustic community, in which the happy, carefree +colonists reveled in all the beauty of picturesque and snowy collars and +cuffs in Arden-like freedom. Instead they saw a row of rough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> log cabins +and a group of work-worn, shabby men and women, men and women whose +faces were lined with exposure, and whose backs were bent with toil, and +who, for their most hospitable feast, had only a bit of shellfish and +water to offer. Many of the newcomers promptly burst into tears, and +begged to return to England immediately. Poor Pilgrims! Rebuffed—and so +unflatteringly—with each arriving maritime guest, who can doubt that +there was born in them at that moment the constitutional dislike for +unexpected company which has characterized New England ever since?</p> + +<p>However, in a comparatively short time the colonists who had been +brought over in the Anne and the Little James—those who stayed, for +some did return at once—adjusted themselves to the new life. Many +married—both Myles Standish and Governor Bradford found wives among +them; and now the Plymouth Colony may be said to have fairly started.</p> + +<p>Just as a trail which is first a mere thread<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> leading to some +out-of-the-way cabin becomes a path and then a road, and in due time a +wide thoroughfare, so the way across the Atlantic from Old England to +New became more charted—more traveled. At first there was only one boat +and one net for fishing. In five years there was a fleet of fifty +fishing vessels. Ten years later we have note of ten foreign vessels in +the harbor in a single week. And to-day, if the Pilgrim man and maid +whom we joined at the beginning of our reminiscences could gaze out over +the harbor, they would see it as full of masts as a cornfield is of +stalks. Every kind of boat finds its way in and out; and not only +pleasure craft: Plymouth Harbor is second only to Boston among the +Massachusetts ports of entry, receiving annual foreign imports valued at +over $7,000,000. Into the harbor, where once a single shallop was the +only visible sign of man's dominion over the water, now sail great +vessels from Yucatan and the Philippines, bringing sisal and manila for +the largest cordage company in the whole country—a company with an +employees' list of two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> thousand names, and an annual output of +$10,000,000. Furthermore, the flats in the harbor are planted with +clams, which (through the utilization of shells for poultry feeding, and +by means of canning for bouillon) yield a profit of from five hundred to +eight hundred dollars an acre.</p> + +<p>No, our Pilgrim man and maid would not recognize, in this Plymouth of +factories and industries, the place where once stood the row of log +cabins, with oiled-paper windows. And yet, after all, it is not the +prosperous town of to-day, but the rude settlement of yesterday, which +chiefly lives in the hearts of the American people. And it lives, not +because of its economic importance, but because of its unique +sentimental value. As John Fiske so admirably states: "Historically +their enterprise [that of the Pilgrims at Plymouth] is interesting not +so much for what it achieved as for what it suggested. Of itself the +Plymouth Colony could hardly have become a wealthy and powerful state. +Its growth was extremely slow. After ten years its numbers were but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +three hundred. In 1643, when the exodus had come to an end and the New +England Confederacy was formed, the population of Plymouth was but three +thousand. In an established community, indeed, such a rate of increase +would be rapid, but was not sufficient to raise in New England a power +which could overcome Indians and Dutchmen and Frenchmen and assert its +will in opposition to the Crown. It is when we view the founding of +Plymouth in relation to what came afterward, that it assumes the +importance which belongs to the beginning of a new era."</p> + +<p>For this reason the permanent position of Plymouth in our history is +forever assured. Old age, which may diminish the joys of youth, +preserves inviolate memories which nothing can destroy. The place whose +quiet fame is made is surer of the future than the one which is on the +brink of fabulous glory. It is impossible to overestimate the +significance of this spot.</p> + +<p>The Old Coast Road—the oldest in New England—began here and pushed its +tortuous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> way up to Boston along the route we have so lightly followed. +Inheritors of a nation which these pioneers strove manfully, +worshipfully, to found, need we be ashamed of deep emotion as we stand +here, on this shore, where they landed three hundred years ago?</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> It is hoped that by the summer of 1921 a beautiful and +dignified portico of granite will be raised as a final and permanent +memorial over the rock, which will be moved for the last time—lowered +to as near its original bed as possible. This work, which has been taken +in charge by the National Society of Colonial Dames of America will be +executed by McKim, Mead & White. The General Society of Mayflower +Descendants are also working for the redemption of the first Pilgrim +burial place on Cole's Hill. The Pilgrim Society is to assume the +perpetual care of both memorial and lot.</p></div> +</div> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<img src="images/image243.jpg" width="250" height="83" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + +<h3>THE END</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>The Riverside Press</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">CAMBRIDGE. MASSACHUSETTS<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">U. S. A.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD COAST ROAD ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. +</div> + +<div style='margin:0.83em 0; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE<br /> +<span style='font-size:smaller'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br /> +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</span> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person +or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the +Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when +you share it without charge with others. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work +on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: +</div> + +<blockquote> + <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most + other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions + whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms + of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online + at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you + are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws + of the country where you are located before using this eBook. + </div> +</blockquote> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg™ License. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format +other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain +Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +provided that: +</div> + +<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'> + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation.” + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ + works. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. + </div> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread +public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state +visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. +</div> + +</div> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/21895-h/images/cover.jpg b/21895-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ec55e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image01.jpg b/21895-h/images/image01.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..22d9909 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image01.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image03.jpg b/21895-h/images/image03.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e0192c --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image03.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image032.jpg b/21895-h/images/image032.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..122134b --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image032.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image033.jpg b/21895-h/images/image033.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..220ff76 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image033.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image050.jpg b/21895-h/images/image050.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bbe4c5f --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image050.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image068.jpg b/21895-h/images/image068.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c1ec72f --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image068.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image069.jpg b/21895-h/images/image069.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..be912e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image069.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image09.jpg b/21895-h/images/image09.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..da75f00 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image09.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image090.jpg b/21895-h/images/image090.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f966f99 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image090.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image091.jpg b/21895-h/images/image091.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0918f09 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image091.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image108.jpg b/21895-h/images/image108.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..21bfa84 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image108.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image109.jpg b/21895-h/images/image109.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..105d8d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image109.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image111.jpg b/21895-h/images/image111.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4553f82 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image111.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image127.jpg b/21895-h/images/image127.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..65b22b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image127.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image128.jpg b/21895-h/images/image128.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d2ead30 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image128.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image146.jpg b/21895-h/images/image146.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0483395 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image146.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image147.jpg b/21895-h/images/image147.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b78dc76 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image147.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image158.jpg b/21895-h/images/image158.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..54c3794 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image158.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image159.jpg b/21895-h/images/image159.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..71ab1e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image159.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image173.jpg b/21895-h/images/image173.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e83950 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image173.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image179.jpg b/21895-h/images/image179.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0343ad3 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image179.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image180.jpg b/21895-h/images/image180.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b84a875 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image180.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image194.jpg b/21895-h/images/image194.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..63e3493 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image194.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image195.jpg b/21895-h/images/image195.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8ac037d --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image195.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image212.jpg b/21895-h/images/image212.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e0b7e6b --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image212.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image213.jpg b/21895-h/images/image213.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..af0d307 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image213.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image231.jpg b/21895-h/images/image231.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4a0ab1 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image231.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image243.jpg b/21895-h/images/image243.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e599dac --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image243.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image51.jpg b/21895-h/images/image51.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0a3392 --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image51.jpg diff --git a/21895-h/images/image53.jpg b/21895-h/images/image53.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3fb1a4e --- /dev/null +++ b/21895-h/images/image53.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4703e92 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #21895 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21895) diff --git a/old/21895-8.txt b/old/21895-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee86d72 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/21895-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4292 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Old Coast Road, by Agnes Rothery, +Illustrated by Louis H. Ruyl + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Old Coast Road + From Boston to Plymouth + + +Author: Agnes Rothery + + + +Release Date: June 21, 2007 [eBook #21895] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD COAST ROAD*** + + +E-text prepared by David Garcia, Josephine Paolucci, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 21895-h.htm or 21895-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/8/9/21895/21895-h/21895-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/8/9/21895/21895-h.zip) + + +Transcriber's note: + + Minor typographical errors have been corrected. + + Carats (^) designate a superscript (example: y^e, in + which the "e" is a superscript). + + Footnotes have been moved to the end of each chapter. + + + + + +THE OLD COAST ROAD + +From Boston to Plymouth + +by + +AGNES EDWARDS + +With Illustrations by Louis H. Ruyl + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + +Boston and New York Houghton Mifflin Company +The Riverside Press Cambridge +1920 + +Copyright, 1920, by Agnes Edwards Pratt +All Rights Reserved + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +THE OLD COAST ROAD + +_From Boston to Plymouth_ + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +BOSTON: A FOREWORD ix + +I. DORCHESTER HEIGHTS AND THE OLD COAST +ROAD 1 + +II. MILTON AND THE BLUE HILLS 19 + +III. SHIPBUILDING AT QUINCY 35 + +IV. THE ROMANCE OF WEYMOUTH 57 + +V. ECCLESIASTICAL HINGHAM 75 + +VI. COHASSET LEDGES AND MARSHES 92 + +VII. THE SCITUATE SHORE 111 + +VIII. MARSHFIELD, THE HOME OF DANIEL WEBSTER 123 + +IX. DUXBURY HOMES 142 + +X. KINGSTON AND ITS MANUSCRIPTS 157 + +XI. PLYMOUTH 175 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + +A BIT OF COMMERCIAL STREET IN WEYMOUTH Frontispiece + +THE STATE HOUSE FROM PARK STREET ix + +MAP OF THE SOUTH SHORE _facing_ 1 + +DORCHESTER BAY 1 + +OFF FOR PLYMOUTH BY THE OLD COAST ROAD 18 + +GREAT BLUE HILL 19 + +MILTON ESTATES _facing_ 20 + +THE FORE RIVER SHIPYARD 35 + +THE ADAMS HOUSES IN QUINCY 56 + +THE WEYMOUTH WATER-FRONT 57 + +RATTLING ALONG THE OLD COAST ROAD 74 + +THE LINCOLN HOUSE IN HINGHAM 75 + +THE OLD SHIP MEETING-HOUSE _facing_ 76 + +INTERIOR OF THE NEW NORTH CHURCH IN HINGHAM, +WITH ITS SLAVE GALLERIES 91 + +COHASSET LEDGES AND MINOT'S LEDGE LIGHT 92 + +MODERN COHASSET 110 + +DRYING SEA-MOSS AT SCITUATE HARBOR 111 + +FOURTH CLIFF, SCITUATE 122 + +THE WEBSTER HOUSE 123 + +MARSHFIELD MEADOWS _facing_ 136 + +A DUXBURY COTTAGE 142 + +A BAY VIEW TO DUXBURY BEACH 156 + +THE STANDISH MONUMENT AS SEEN FROM KINGSTON 157 + +OLD RECORDS 174 + +THE MEMORIAL BUILDING FOR THE TOWN OF +PLYMOUTH, DESIGNED BY LITTLE AND RUSSELL, +ARCHITECTS 175 + +VIEW FROM STEPS OF BURIAL HILL, PLYMOUTH, +SHOWING THE TOWN SQUARE, LEYDEN STREET, +THE CHURCH OF THE PILGRIMAGE, THE FIRST +CHURCH, AND, IN THE DISTANCE, THE PILGRIM +MONUMENT IN PROVINCETOWN _facing_ 192 + +CLARK'S ISLAND, PLYMOUTH 203 + + + + +BOSTON: A FOREWORD + +[Illustration] + + +To love Boston or to laugh at Boston--it all depends on whether or not +you are a Bostonian. Perhaps the happiest attitude--and the most +intelligent--is tinged with both amusement and affection: amusement at +the undeviating ceremonial of baked beans on Saturday night and fish +balls on Sunday morning; at the Boston bag (not so ubiquitous now as +formerly); at the indefatigable consumption of lectures; at the +Bostonese pronunciation; affection for the honorable traditions, noble +buildings, distinguished men and women. Boston is an old city--one must +remember that it was settled almost three centuries ago--and old cities, +like old people, become tenacious of their idiosyncrasies, admitting +their inconsistencies and prejudices with complacency, wisely aware that +age has bestowed on them a special value, which is automatically +increased with the passage of time. + +To tell the story of an old city is like cutting down through the +various layers of a fruity layer cake. When you turn the slice over, you +see that every piece is a cross-section. So almost every locality and +phase of this venerable metropolis could be studied, and really should +be studied, according to its historical strata: Colonial, Provincial, +Revolutionary, economic, and literary. All of these periods have piled +up their associations one upon the other, and all of them must be +somewhat understood if one would sincerely comprehend what has aptly +been called not a city, but a "state of mind." + +It is as impossible for the casual sojourner to grasp the significance +of the multifarious historical and literary events which have transpired +here as for a few pages to outline them. Wherever one stands in Boston +suggests the church of San Clemente in Rome, where, you remember, there +are three churches built one upon the other. However, those who would +take the lovely journey from Boston to Plymouth needs must make some +survey, no matter how superficial, of their starting-place. And perhaps +the best spot from which to begin is the Common. + +This pleasantly rolling expanse, which was set aside as long ago as +1640, with the decree that "there shall be no land granted either for +houseplott or garden out of y^e open land or common field," has been +unbrokenly maintained ever since, and as far as acreage goes (it +approximates fifty acres) could still fulfill its original use of +pasturing cows, a practice which was continued until 1830. It was here +that John Hancock's cattle grazed--he who lived in such magnificence on +the hill, and in whose side yard the State House was built--and once, +when preparations for an official banquet were halted by shortage of +milk, tradition has it that he ordered his servants to hasten out on the +Common and milk every cow there, regardless of ownership. Tradition also +tells us that the little boy Ralph Waldo Emerson tended his mother's cow +here; and finally both traditions and existing law declare that yonder +one-story building opening upon Mount Vernon Street, and possessing an +oddly wide door, must forever keep that door of sufficient width to let +the cows pass through to the Common. + +Let us stand upon the steps of the State House and look out over the +Common. To our right, near the intersection of Boylston and Tremont +Streets, lies the half-forgotten, almost obliterated Central Burying +Ground, the final resting-place of Gilbert Stuart, the famous American +painter. At the left points the spire of Park Street Church, notable not +for its age, for it is only a little over a century old, but for its +charming beauty, and by the fact that William Lloyd Garrison delivered +his first address here, and here "America" was sung in public for the +first time. It was the windiness of this corner which was responsible +for Tom Appleton's suggestion (he was the brother-in-law of Longfellow) +that a shorn lamb be tethered here. + +The graceful spire of Park Street Church serves not only as a landmark, +but is also a most fitting terminal to a street of many associations. It +is on Park Street that the publishing house of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. +(now Houghton Mifflin Company) has had its offices for forty years, and +the bookstores and the antique shops tucked quaintly down a few steps +below the level of the sidewalk have much of the flavor of a bit of +London. + +Still standing on the State House steps, facing the Common, you are also +facing what has been called the noblest monument in Boston and the most +successfully placed one in America. It is Saint-Gaudens's bronze relief +of Colonel Robert G. Shaw commanding his colored regiment, and if you +see no other sculpture in a city which has its full quota you must see +this memorial, spirited in execution, spiritual in its conception of a +mighty moment. + +If we had time to linger we could not do better than to follow Beacon +Street to the left, pausing at the Athenæum, a library of such dignity +and beauty that one instinctively, and properly, thinks of it as an +institution rather than a mere building. To enjoy the Athenæum one must +be a "proprietor" and own a "share," which entitles one not only to the +use of the scholarly volumes in scholarly seclusion, but also in the +afternoon to entrance to an alcove where tea is served for three +pennies. Perhaps here, as well as any other place, you may see a +characteristic assortment of what are fondly called "Boston types." +There is the professor from Cambridge, a gentleman with a pointed beard +and a noticeably cultivated enunciation; one from Wellesley--this, a +lady--with that keen and paradoxically impractical expression which +marks pure intellectuality; an alert matron, plainly, almost shabbily, +dressed (aristocratic Boston still scorns sartorial smartness); a very +well-bred young girl with bone spectacles; a student, shabby, like the +Back Bay matron, but for another reason; a writer; a business man whose +hobby is Washingtonia. These, all of them, you may enjoy along with your +cup of tea for three cents, if--and here is the crux--you can only be +admitted in the first place. And if you are admitted, do not fail to +look out of the rear windows upon the ancient Granary Burying Ground, +where rest the ashes of Hancock, Sewall, Faneuil, Samuel Adams, Otis, +Revere, and many more notables. If you have a penchant for graveyards, +this one, entered from Tremont Street, is more than worthy of further +study. + +This is one of the many things we could enjoyably do if we had time, but +whether we have time or not we must pay our respects to the State House +(one does not call it the Capitol in Boston, as in other cities), the +prominence of whose golden dome is not unsuggestive, to those who recall +it, of Saint Botolph's beacon tower in Boston, England, for which this +city was named. The State House is a distinctively American building, +and Bulfinch, the great American architect, did an excellent thing when +he designed it. The dome was originally covered with plates of copper +rolled by no other than that expert silversmith and robust patriot, Paul +Revere--he whose midnight ride has been recited by so many generations +of school-children, and whose exquisite flagons, cups, ladles, and sugar +tongs not only compared with the best Continental work of that period, +but have set a name and standard for American craftsmanship ever since. + +If you should walk up and down the chessboard of Beacon Hill--taking the +knight's move occasionally across the narrow cross-streets--you could +not help treading the very squares which were familiar to the feet of +that generation of authors which has permanently stamped American +literature. At 55 Beacon Street, down near the foot of the hill and +facing the Common, still stands the handsome, swell-front, buff-brick +house where Prescott, the historian, lived. On Mount Vernon Street +(which runs parallel to Beacon, and which, with its dignified beauty, +won the approval of that connoisseur of beautiful streets--Henry James) +one can pick out successively the numbers 59, 76, 83, 84, the first and +last being homes of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and the other two +distinguished by the residence of William Ellery Channing and Margaret +Deland. Pinckney Street runs parallel with Mount Vernon, and the small, +narrow house at number 20 was one of the homes of the Alcott family. It +seems delightfully fitting that Louisburg Square--that very exclusive +and very English spot which probably retains more of the quaint +atmosphere and customs of an aristocratic past than any other single +area in the city--should have been the home of the well-beloved William +Dean Howells. One also likes to recall that Jenny Lind was married at +number 20. Chestnut Street--which after a period of social obscurity is +again coming into its own--possesses Julia Ward Howe's house at number +13, that of Motley the historian at 16, and of Parkman at 50. In this +hasty map we have gone up and down the hill, but the cross-street, +Charles, although not so attractive, is nevertheless as rich in literary +associations as any in Boston. Here lived, for a short time, at 164, +Oliver Wendell Holmes, and at 131--also for a short time--Thomas Bailey +Aldrich. It is, however, at 148, that we should longest pause. This, for +many rich years, was the home of James T. Fields, that delightful man of +letters who was the friend of many men of letters; he who entertained +Dickens and Thackeray, and practically every foreign writer of note who +visited this country; he who encouraged Hawthorne to the completion of +the "Scarlet Letter," and he, who, as an appreciative critic, publisher, +and editor, probably did more to elevate, inspire, and sustain the +general literary tone of the city than any other single person. In these +stirring days facile American genius springs up, like brush fires, from +coast to coast. Novels pour in from the West, the Middle West, the +South. To superficial outsiders it may seem as if Boston might be +hard-pressed to keep her laurels green, but Boston herself has no +fears. Her present may not shine with so unique a brilliance as her +past, but her past gains in luster with each succeeding year. Nothing +can ever take from Boston her high literary prestige. + +While we are still on Beacon Hill we can look out, not only upon the +past, but upon the future. Those white domes and pillars gleaming like +Greek temples across the blue Charles, are the new buildings of the +Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and surely Greek temples were +never lovelier, nor dedicated to more earnest pursuit of things not +mundane. Quite as beautiful and quite as Grecian as the Technology +buildings is the noble marble group of the School of Medicine of Harvard +University, out by the Fenlands--that section of the city which is +rapidly becoming a students' quarter, with its Simmons College, the New +England Conservatory of Music, art schools, gymnasiums, private and +technical schools of all descriptions, and its body of over 12,000 +students. Harvard is, of course, across the river in Cambridge, and +preparatory schools and colleges dot the suburbs in every direction, +upholding the cultural traditions of a city which has proved itself +peculiarly fitted to educational interests. + +All this time we have, like _bona-fide_ Bostonians, stayed on Beacon +Hill, and merely looked out at the rest of the city. And perhaps this is +as typical a thing as we could have done. Beacon Hill was the center of +original Boston, when the Back Bay was merely a marsh, and long after +the marsh was filled in and streets were laid out and handsome +residences lined them, Beacon Hill looked down scornfully at the new +section and murmured that it was built upon the discarded hoopskirts and +umbrellas of the true Bostonians. Even when almost every one was crowded +off the Hill and the Back Bay became the more aristocratic section of +the two, there were still enough of the original inhabitants left to +scorn these upstart social pretensions. And now Beacon Hill is again +coming back into her own: the fine old houses are being carefully, +almost worshipfully restored, probably never again to lose their +rightful place in the general life of the city. + +But if Beacon Hill was conservative in regard to the Back Bay, that +district, in its turn, showed an equal unprogressiveness in regard to +the Esplanade. To the stranger in Boston, delighting in that magnificent +walk along the Charles River Embankment, with the arching spans of the +Cambridge and Harvard bridges on one side, and the homes of wealth and +mellow refinement on the other--a walk which for invigorating beauty +compares with any in the cities of men--it seems incredible that when +this promenade was laid out a few years ago, the householders along the +water's edge absolutely refused to turn their front windows away from +Beacon Street. Furthermore, they ignored the fact that their back yards +and back windows presented an unbecoming face to such an incomparably +lovely promenade, and the inevitable household rearrangement--by which +the drawing-rooms were placed in the rear--was literally years in +process of achievement. But such conservatism is one of Boston's +idiosyncrasies, which we must accept like the wind and the flat A. + +Present-day Bostonians are proud--and properly so--of their Copley +Square, with its Public Library, rich with the mural paintings of Puvis +de Chavannes, with Abbey's "Quest of the Holy Grail," and Sargent's +"Frieze of the Prophets"; with its well-loved Trinity Church and with +much excellent sculpture by Bela Pratt. Copley Square is the cultural +center of modern Boston. The famous Lowell lectures--established about +seventy-five years ago as free gifts to the people--are enthusiastically +attended by audiences as Bostonese as one could hope to congregate; and +in all sorts of queer nests in this vicinity are Theosophical +reading-rooms, small halls where Buddhism is studied or New Thought +taught, and half a hundred very new or very old philosophies, religions, +fads, fashions, reforms, and isms find shelter. It is easy to linger in +Copley Square: indeed, hundreds and hundreds of men and +women--principally women--come from all over the United States for the +sole purpose of spending a few months or a season in this very place, +enjoying the lectures, concerts, and art exhibitions which are so easily +and freely accessible. But in this bird's-eye flight across the +historical and geographical map of a city that tempts one to many +pleasant delays, we must hover for a brief moment over the South and the +North Ends. + +Skipping back, then, almost three centuries, but not traveling far as +distance goes, the stranger in Boston cannot do better than to find his +way from Copley Square to the Old South Church on Washington +Street--that venerable building whose desecration by the British troops +in 1775 the citizens found it so hard ever to forgive. It was here that +Benjamin Franklin was baptized in 1706; here that Joseph Warren made a +dramatic entry to the pulpit by way of the window in order to denounce +the British soldiers; and here that momentous meetings were held in the +heaving days before the Revolution. The Old South Church Burying Ground +is now called the King's Chapel Burying Ground, and King's Chapel +itself--a quaint, dusky building, suggestive of a London chapel--is only +a few blocks away. Across its doorsill have not only stepped the Royal +Governors of pre-Revolutionary days, but Washington, General Gage, the +indestructibly romantic figures of Sir Harry Frankland and Agnes +Surriage; the funeral processions of General Warren and Charles Sumner. +The organ, which came from England in 1756, is said to have been +selected by Handel at the request of King George, and along the walls of +the original King's Chapel were hung the escutcheons of the Kings of +England and of the Royal Governors. + +The Old State House is in this vicinity and is worthy--as are, indeed, +both the Old South Church and King's Chapel--of careful architectural +study and enjoyment. There are portraits, pictures, relics, and rooms +within, and without the beautifully quaint lines and truly lovely +details of the façade infuse a perpetual charm into the atmosphere of +the city. It was directly in front of this building that the Boston +Massacre took place in 1770, and from this second-story balcony that +the repeal of the Stamp Act was read, and ten years later the full text +of the Declaration of Independence. + +Perhaps the next most interesting building in this section of old Boston +is Faneuil Hall, the "Cradle of Liberty" whose dignified, old-fashioned +proportions were not lost--thanks to Bulfinch--when it was enlarged. A +gift of a public-spirited citizen, this building has served in a double +capacity for a hundred and seventy-seven years, having public +market-stalls below and a large hall above--a hall which is never +rented, but used freely by the people whenever they wish to discuss +public affairs. It would be impossible to enumerate the notable speakers +and meetings which have rendered this hall famous, from General Gage +down to Daniel Webster, Theodore Roosevelt, and Marshal Joffre. + +If you are fond of water sights and smells you can step from Faneuil +Hall down to a region permeated with the flavor of salt and the sound of +shipping, a region of both ancient tradition and present activity. Here +is India Wharf, its seven-story yellow-brick building once so +tremendously significant of Boston's shipping prosperity; Long Wharf, so +named because when it was built it was the longest in the country, and +bore a battery at its end; Central Wharf, with its row of venerable +stone warehouses; T Wharf, immensely picturesque with its congestion of +craft of all descriptions; Commercial Wharf, where full-rigged sailing +vessels which traded with China and India and the Cape of Good Hope were +wont to anchor a hundred years ago. All this region is crammed with the +paraphernalia of a typical water-front: curious little shops where +sailors' supplies are sold; airy lofts where sails are cut and stitched +and repaired; fish stores of all descriptions; sailors' haunts, awaiting +the pen of an American Thomas Burke. The old Custom House where +Hawthorne unwillingly plodded through his enforced routine is here, and +near it the new Custom House rears its tower four hundred and +ninety-eight feet above the sidewalk, a beacon from both land and sea. + +The North End of Boston has not fared as well as the South End. The sons +of Abraham and immigrants from Italy have appropriated the streets, +dwellings, churches, and shops of the entire region, and even Christ +Church (the famous Old North Church) has a Chiesa Italiana on its +grounds. There are many touches to stir the memory in this Old North +Church. The chime of eight bells naïvely stating, "We are the first ring +of bells cast for the British Empire in North America"; the pew with the +inscription that is set apart for the use of the "Gentlemen of Bay of +Honduras"--visiting merchants who contributed the spire to the church in +1740; vaults beneath the church, forbidden now to visitors, where lie +the bones of many Revolutionary heroes; a unique collection of +vellum-covered books, and a few highly precious pieces of ancient +furniture. The most conspicuous item about the church, of course, is +that from its tower were hung the signal lanterns of Paul Revere, +destined to shine imperishably down the ever-lengthening aisles of +American history. + +Before we press on to Bunker Hill--for that is our final destination--we +should cast a glance at Copp's Hill Burying Ground, that hillside refuge +where one can turn either back to the annals of the past or look out +over the roof-tops and narrow streets to the present and the future. If +you chose the latter, you can see easily Boston Harbor and Charlestown +Navy Yard--that navy yard which has outstripped even its spectacular +traditions by its stirring achievements in the Great War. "Old +Ironsides" will lie here forever in the well-earned serenity of a secure +old age, and it is probable that another visitor, the Kronprinzessin +Cecilie, although lost under the name of the Mount Vernon and a coat of +gray paint, will be long preserved in maritime memory. + +The plain shaft of Bunker Hill Monument, standing to mark the spot where +the Americans lost a battle that was, in reality, a victory, is like a +blank mirror, reflecting only that which one presents to it. According +to your historical knowledge and your emotional grasp Bunker Hill +Monument is significant. + +Skimming thus over the many-storied city, in a sort of literary +airplane, it has been possible to point out only a few of the most +conspicuous places and towers. The Common lies like a tiny pocket +handkerchief of path-marked green at the foot of crowded Beacon Hill; +the white Esplanade curves beside the blue Charles; the Back Bay is only +a checkerboard of streets, alphabetically arranged; Copley Square is +hardly distinguishable. The spires of the Old South Church, King's +Chapel, the Old State House, and Faneuil Hall punctuate the South End; +the North Church, the North End. The new Custom House Tower and Bunker +Hill Monument seem hardly more than the minarets of a child's toy +village. + +The writer, as a pilot over this particular city, alights and resigns, +commending for more detailed study, and for delightful guidance, Robert +Shackleton's "Book of Boston." Let us now leave the city and set out in +a more leisurely fashion on our way to Plymouth. + + + + +THE OLD COAST ROAD + +_From Boston to Plymouth_ + +[Illustration: THE SOUTH SHORE OFMASSACHUSETTS BAY] + + + + +THE OLD COAST ROAD + + + + +CHAPTER I + +DORCHESTER HEIGHTS AND THE OLD COAST ROAD + +[Illustration] + + +The very earliest of the great roads in New England was the Old Coast +Road, connecting Boston with Plymouth--capitals of separate colonies. Do +we, casually accepting the fruit of three hundred years of toil on this +continent--do we, accustomed to smooth highways and swift and easy +transportation, realize the significance of such a road? + +A road is the symbol of the civilization which has produced it. The main +passageway from the shore of the Yellow Sea to the capital of Korea, +although it has been pressed for centuries immemorial by myriads of +human feet, has never been more than a bridle path. On the other hand, +wherever the great Roman Empire stepped, it engineered mighty +thoroughfares which are a marvel to this day. A road is the thread on +which the beads of history are strung; the beads of peace as well as +those of war. Thrilling as is the progress of aerial navigation, with +its infinite possibilities of human intercourse, yet surely, when the +entire history of man is unrolled, the moment of the conception of +building a wide and permanent road, instead of merely using a trail, +will rank as equally dramatic. The first stone laid by the first Roman +(they to whom the idea of road-building was original) will be recognized +as significant as the quiver of the wings of the first airplane. + +Let us follow the old road from Boston to Plymouth: follow it, not with +undue exactitude, and rather too hastily, as is the modern way, but +comfortably, as is also the modern way, picking up what bits of quaint +lore and half-forgotten history we most easily may. + +I think that as we start down this historic highway, we shall +encounter--if our mood be the proper one in which to undertake such a +journey--a curious procession coming down the years to meet us. We shall +not call them ghosts, for they are not phantoms severed from earth, but, +rather, the permanent possessors of the highway which they helped +create. + +We shall meet the Indian first, running lightly on straight, moccasined +feet, along the trail from which he has burned, from time to time, the +underbrush. He does not go by land when he can go by water, but in this +case there are both land and water to meet, for many are the streams, +and they are unbridged as yet. With rhythmic lope, more beautiful than +the stride of any civilized limbs, and with a sure divination of the +best route, he chooses the trail which will ultimately be the highway of +the vast army of pale-faces. Speed on, O solitary Indian--to vanish down +the narrow trail of your treading as you are destined, in time, to +vanish forever from the vision of New England!... Behind the red runner +plod two stern-faced Pilgrims, pushing their way up from Plymouth toward +the newer settlement at Massachusetts Bay. They come slowly and +laboriously on foot, their guns cocked, eyes and ears alert, wading the +streams without complaint or comment. They keep together, for no one is +allowed to travel over this Old Coast Road single, "nor without some +arms, though two or three together." The path they take follows almost +exactly the trail of the Indian, seeking the fords, avoiding the +morasses, clinging to the uplands, and skirting the rough, wooded +heights.... After them--almost a decade after--we see a man on +horseback, with his wife on a pillion behind him. They carry their own +provisions and those for the beast, now and then dismounting to lead the +horse over difficult ground, and now and then blazing a tree to help +them in their return journey--mute testimony to the cruder senses of the +white man to whom woodcraft never becomes instinctive. The fact that +this couple possesses a horse presages great changes in New England. +Ferries will be established; tolls levied, bridges thrown across the +streams which now the horses swim, or cross by having their front feet +in one canoe ferry and their hind feet in another--the canoes being +lashed together. As yet we see no vehicle of any kind, except an +occasional sedan chair. (The first one of these of which we have +knowledge was presented to Governor Winthrop as a portion of a capture +from a Spanish galleon.) However, these are not common. In 1631 Governor +Endicott of Salem wrote that he could not get to Boston to visit +Governor Winthrop as he was not well enough to wade the streams. The +next year we read of Governor Winthrop surmounting the difficulty when +he goes to visit Governor Bradford, by being carried on the backs of +Indians across the fords. (It took him two days to make the journey.) + +It is not strange that we see no wheeled vehicles. In 1672 there were +only six stage-coaches in the whole of Great Britain, and they were the +occasion of a pamphlet protesting that they encouraged too much travel! +At this time Boston had one private coach. Although one swallow may not +make a summer, one stage-coach marks the beginning of a new era. The age +of walking and horseback riding approaches its end; gates and bars +disappear, the crooked farm lanes are gradually straightened; and in +come a motley procession of chaises, sulkies, and two-wheeled +carts--two-wheeled carts, not four. There are sleds and sleighs for +winter, but the four-wheeled wagon was little used in New England until +the turn of the century. And then they were emphatically objected to +because of the wear and tear on the roads! In 1669 Boston enacted that +all carts "within y^e necke of Boston shall be and goe without shod +wheels." This provision is entirely comprehensible, when we remember +that there was no idea of systematic road repair. No tax was imposed for +keeping the roads in order, and at certain seasons of the year every +able-bodied man labored on the highways, bringing his own oxen, cart, +and tools. + +But as the Old Coast Road, which was made a public highway in 1639, +becomes a genuine turnpike--so chartered in 1803--the good old coaching +days are ushered in with the sound of a horn, and handsome equipages +with well-groomed, well-harnessed horses ply swiftly back and forth. +Genial inns, with swinging pictorial signboards (for many a traveler +cannot read), spring up along the way, and the post is installed. + +But even with fair roads and regular coaching service, New England, +separated by her fixed topographical outlines, remains provincial. It is +not until the coming of the railroad, in the middle of the nineteenth +century, that the hills are overcome, and she ceases to be an +exclusively coastwise community and becomes an integral factor in the +economic development of the whole United States. + +Thus, then, from a thin thread of a trail barely wide enough for one +moccasined foot to step before the other, to a broad, leveled +thoroughfare, so wide that three or even four automobiles may ride +abreast, and so clean that at the end of an all-day's journey one's +face is hardly dusty, does the history of the Old Coast Road unroll +itself. We who contemplate making the trip ensconced in the upholstered +comfort of a machine rolling on air-filled tires, will, perhaps, be less +petulant of some strip of roughened macadam, less bewildered by the +characteristic windings, if we recall something of the first +back-breaking cart that--not so very long ago--crashed over the stony +road, and toilsomely worked its way from devious lane to lane. + +Before we start down the Old Coast Road it may be enlightening to get a +bird's-eye glimpse of it actually as we have historically, and for such +a glimpse there is no better place than on the topmost balcony of the +Soldier's Monument on Dorchester Heights. The trip to Dorchester +Heights, in South Boston, is, through whatever environs one approaches +it, far from attractive. This section of the city, endowed with +extraordinary natural beauty and advantage of both land and water, and +irrevocably and brilliantly graven upon the annals of American history, +has been allowed to lose its ancient prestige and to sink low indeed in +the social scale. + +Nevertheless it is to Dorchester Heights that we, as travelers down the +Old Coast Road, and as skimmers over the quickly turning pages of our +early New England history, must go, and having once arrived at that +lovely green eminence, whitely pointed with a marble shaft of quite +unusual excellence, we must grieve once more that this truly glorious +spot, with its unparalleled view far down the many-islanded harbor to +the east and far over the famous city to the west, is not more +frequented, more enjoyed, more honored. + +If you find your way up the hill, into the monument, and up the stairs +out to the balcony, probably you will encounter no other tourist. Only +when you reach the top and emerge into the blue upper air you will meet +those friendly winged visitors who frequent all spires--Saint Mark's in +Venice or the Soldier's Monument in South Boston--the pigeons! Yes, the +pigeons have discovered the charm of this lofty loveliness, and +whenever the caretaker turns away his vigilant eye, they haste to build +their nests on balcony or stair. They alone of Boston's residents enjoy +to the full that of which too many Bostonians ignore the existence. Will +you read the inscriptions first and recall the events which have raised +this special hill to an historic eminence equal to its topographical +one? Or will you look out first, on all sides and see the harbor, the +city and country as it is to-day? Both surveys will be brief; perhaps we +will begin with the latter. + +Before us, to the wide east, lies Boston Harbor, decked with islands so +various, so fascinating in contour and legend, that more than one volume +has been written about them and not yet an adequate one. From the point +of view of history these islands are pulsating with life. From Castle +Island (on the left) which was selected as far back as 1634 to be a +bulwark of the port, and which, with its Fort Independence, was where +many of our Civil War soldiers received their training, to the outline +of Squantum (on the right), where in October, 1917, there lay a marsh, +and where, ten months later, the destroyer Delphy was launched from a +shipyard that was a miracle of modern engineering--every mile of visible +land is instinct with war-time associations. + +But history is more than battles and forts and the paraphernalia of war; +history is economic development as well. And from this same balcony we +can pick out Thompson's, Rainsford, and Deer Island, set aside for huge +corrective institutions--a graphic example of a nation's progress in its +treatment of the wayward and the weak. + +But if history is more than wars, it is also more than institutions. If +it is the record of man's daily life, the pleasures he works for, then +again we are standing in an unparalleled spot to look down upon its +present-day manifestations. From City Point with its Aquarium, from the +Marine Park with its long pleasure pier, to Nantasket with its flawless +beach, this is the summer playground of unnumbered hosts. Boaters, +bathers, picnickers--all find their way here, where not only the cool +breezes sweep their city-heated cheeks, but the forever bewitching +passage of vessels in and out, furnishes endless entertainment. They +know well, these laughing pleasure-seekers, crowding the piers and boats +and wharves and beaches, where to come for refreshment, and now and +then, in the history of the harbor, a solitary individual has taken +advantage of the romantic charm which is the unique heritage of every +island, and has built his home and lived, at least some portion of his +days, upon one. + +Apple Island, that most perfectly shaped little fleck of land of ten +acres, was the home of a Mr. March, an Englishman who settled there with +his family, and lived there happily until his death, being buried at +last upon its western slope. The fine old elms which adorned it are gone +now, as have the fine old associations. No one followed Mr. March's +example, and Apple Island is now merely another excursion point. + +On Calf Island, another ten-acre fragment, one of America's popular +actresses, Julia Arthur, has her home. Thus, here and there, one +stumbles upon individuals or small communities who have chosen to live +out in the harbor. But one cannot help wondering how such beauty spots +have escaped being more loved and lived upon by men and women who +recognize the romantic lure which only an island can possess. + +Of course the advantage of these positions has been utilized, if not for +dwellings. Government buildings, warehouses, and the great sewage plant +all find convenient foothold here. The excursionists have ferreted out +whatever beaches and groves there may be. One need not regret that the +harbor is not appreciated, but only that it has not been developed along +æsthetic as well as useful lines. + +We have been looking at the east, which is the harbor view. If we look +to the west we see the city of Boston: the white tower of the Custom +House; the gold dome of the State House; the sheds of the great South +Station; the blue line of the Charles River. Here is the place to come +if one would see a living map of the city and its environs. Standing +here we realize how truly Boston is a maritime city, and standing here +we also realize how it is that Dorchester Heights won its fame. + +It was in the winter of 1776, when the British, under Lord Howe, were +occupying Boston, and had fortified every place which seemed important. +By some curious oversight--which seems incredible to us as we actually +stand upon the top of this conspicuous hill--they forgot this spot. + +When Washington saw what they had not seen--how this unique position +commanded both the city and the harbor--he knew that his opportunity had +come. He had no adequate cannon or siege guns, and the story of how +Henry Knox--afterward General Knox--obtained these from Ticonderoga and +brought them on, in the face of terrific difficulties of weather and +terrain, is one that for bravery and brains will never fail to thrill. +On the night of March 4, the Americans, keeping up a cannonading to +throw the British off guard, and to cover up the sound of the moving, +managed to get two thousand Continental troops and four hundred carts of +fascines and intrenching tools up on the hill. That same night, with the +aid of the moonlight, they threw up two redoubts--performing a task, +which, as Lord Howe exclaimed in dismay the following morning, was "more +in one night than my whole army could have done in a month." + +The occupation of the heights was a magnificent _coup_. The moment the +British saw what had been done, they realized that they had lost the +fight. However, Lord Percy hurried to make an attack, but the weather +made it impossible, and by the time the weather cleared the Americans +were so strongly intrenched that it was futile to attack. Washington, +although having been granted permission by Congress to attack Boston, +wished to save the loyal city if possible. Therefore, he and Howe made +an agreement by which Howe was to evacuate and Washington was to refrain +from using his guns. After almost two weeks of preparation for +departure, on March 17 the British fleet, as the gilded letters on the +white marble panel tell us, in the words of Charles W. Eliot: + + Carrying 11,000 effective men + And 1000 refugees + Dropped down to Nantasket Roads + And thenceforth + Boston was free + A strong British force + Had been expelled + From one of the United American colonies + +The white marble panel, with its gold letters and the other inscriptions +on the hill, tell the whole story to whoever cares to read, only +omitting to mention that the thousand self-condemned Boston refugees who +sailed away with the British fleet were bound for Halifax, and that that +was the beginning of the opprobrious term: "Go to Halifax." + +That the battle was won without bloodshed in no way minimizes the +verdict of history that "no single event had a greater general effect on +the course of the war than the expulsion of the British from the New +England capital." And surely this same verdict justifies the perpetual +distinction of this unique and beautiful hill. + +This, then, is the story of Dorchester Heights--a story whose glory will +wax rather than wane in the years, and centuries, to come. Let us be +glad that out of the reek of the modern city congestion this green hill +has been preserved and this white marble monument erected. Perhaps you +see it now with different, more sympathetic eyes than when you first +looked out from the balcony platform. Before us lies the water with its +multifarious islands, bays, promontories, and coves, some of which we +shall now explore. Behind us lies the city which we shall now leave. The +Old Coast Road--the oldest in New England--winds from Boston to +Plymouth, along yonder southern horizon. More history than one person +can pleasantly relate, or one can comfortably listen to, lies packed +along this ancient turnpike: incidents closer set than the tombs along +the Appian Way. We will not try to hear them all. Neither will we follow +the original road too closely, for we seek the beautiful pleasure drive +of to-day more than the historic highway of long ago. + +Boston was made the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1632. +Plymouth was a capital a decade before. It is to Plymouth that we now +set out. + +[Illustration] + + + + +Chapter II + +MILTON AND THE BLUE HILLS + +[Illustration] + + +Milton--a town of dignity and distinction! A town of enterprise and +character! Ever since the first water-power mill in this country; the +first powder mill in this country; the first chocolate mill in this +country, and thus through a whole line of "first" things--the first +violoncello, the first pianoforte, the first artificial spring leg, and +the first railroad to see the light of day saw it in this grand old +town--the name of Milton has been synonymous with initiative and men and +women of character. + +Few people to-day think of Milton in terms of industrial repute, but, +rather, as a place of estates, too aristocratic to be fashionable, of +historic houses, and of charming walks and drives and views. Many of +the old families who have given the town its prestige still live in +their ancestral manors, and many of the families who have moved there in +recent years are of such sort as will heighten the fame of the famous +town. As the stranger passes through Milton he is captivated by glimpses +of ancient homesteads, settling behind their white Colonial fences +topped with white Colonial urns, half hidden by their antique trees with +an air of comfortable ease; of new houses, elegant and yet informal; of +cottages with low roofs; of well-bred children playing on the wide, +green lawns under the supervision of white-uniformed nurses; of old +hedges, old walls, old trees; new roads, old drives, new gardens, and +old gardens--everything well placed, well tended, everything presenting +that indescribable atmosphere of well-established prosperity that scorns +show; of breeding that neither parades nor conceals its quality. +Yes--this is Milton; this is modern Milton. Boston society receives some +of its most prominent contributions from this patrician source. But +modern Milton is something more than this, as old Milton was something +more than this. + +[Illustration] + +For Milton, from this day of its birth, and countless centuries before +its birth as a town, has lived under the lofty domination of the Blue +Hills, that range of diaphanous and yet intense blue, that swims forever +against the sky, that marches forever around the horizon. The rounded +summits of the Blue Hills, to which the eye is irresistibly attracted +before entering the town which principally claims them, are the +worn-down stumps of ancient mountains, and although so leveled by the +process of the ages, they are still the highest land near the coast from +Maine to Mexico. These eighteen or twenty skyey crests form the southern +boundary of the so-called Boston Basin, and are the most prominent +feature of the southern coast. From them the Massachuset tribe about the +Bay derived its name, signifying "Near the Great Hills," which name was +changed by the English to Massachusetts, and applied to both bay and +colony. Although its Indian name has been taken from this lovely range, +the loveliness remains. All the surrounding country shimmers under the +mysterious bloom of these heights, so vast that everything else is +dwarfed beside them, and yet so curiously airy that they seem to +perpetually ripple against the sky. The Great Blue Hill, especially--the +one which bears an observatory on its summit--swims above one's head. It +seems to have a singular way of moving from point to point as one +motors, and although one may be forced to admit that this may be due +more to the winding roads than to the illusiveness of the hill, still +the buoyant effect is the same. + +Ruskin declares somewhere, with his quaint and characteristic mixture of +positiveness and idealism, that "inhabitants of granite countries have a +force and healthiness of character about them that clearly distinguishes +them from the inhabitants of less pure districts." Perhaps he was right, +for surely here where the succeeding generations have all lived in the +atmosphere of the marching Blue Hill, each has through its own fair +name, done honor to the fair names which have preceded it. + +One of the very first to be attracted by the lofty and yet lovely appeal +of this region was Governor Thomas Hutchinson, the last of the Royal +Governors Massachusetts was to know. It was about the middle of the +eighteenth century that this gentleman, of whom John Adams wrote, "He +had been admired, revered, and almost adored," chose as the spot for his +house the height above the Neponset River. If we follow the old country +Heigh Waye to the top of Unquity (now Milton) Hill, we will find the +place he chose, although the house he built has gone and another stands +in its place. Fairly near the road, it overlooked a rolling green meadow +(a meadow which, by the gift of John Murray Forbes, will always be kept +open), with a flat green marsh at its feet and the wide flat twist of +the Neponset River winding through it, for all the world like a +decorative panel by Puvis de Chavannes. One can see a bit of the North +Shore and Boston Harbor from here. This is the view that the Governor so +admired, and tradition tells us that when he was forced to return to +England he walked on foot down the hill, shaking hands with his +neighbors, patriot and Tory alike, with tears in his eyes as he left +behind him the garden and the trees he had planted, and the house where +he had so happily lived. Although the view from the front of the house +is exquisite, the view from the back holds even more intimate +attraction. Here is the old, old garden, and although the ephemeral +blossoms of the present springtime shine brightly forth, the box, full +twenty feet high, speaks of another epoch. Foxgloves lean against the +"pleached alley," and roses clamber on a wall that doubtless bore the +weight of their first progenitors. + +Another governor who chose to live in Milton was Jonathan Belcher, but +one fancies it was the grandness rather than the sweetness of the scene +which attracted this rather spectacular person. The Belcher house still +exists, as does the portrait of its master, in his wig and velvet coat +and waistcoat, trimmed with richest gold lace at the neck and wrists. +Small-clothes and gold knee and shoe buckles complete the picture of one +who, when his mansion was planned, insisted upon an avenue fifty feet +wide, and so nicely graded that visitors on entering from the street +might see the gleam of his gold knee buckles as he stood on the distant +porch. The avenue, however, was never completed, as Belcher was +appointed governor of, and transferred to, New Jersey shortly after. + +Two other men of note, who, since the days of our years are but +threescore and ten, chose that their days without number should be spent +in the town they loved, were Wendell Phillips and Rimmer the sculptor, +who are both buried at Milton. + +Not only notable personages, but notable events have been engendered +under the shadow of these hills. The Suffolk Resolves, which were the +prelude of the Declaration of Independence, were adopted at the Vose +House, which still stands, square and unadorned, easy of access from the +sidewalk, as is suitable for a home of democracy. The first piano ever +made in this country received its conception and was brought to +fulfillment in the Crehore house, which, although still sagging a bit, +is by no means out of commission. And Wilde's Tavern, where was formed +the public opinion in a day when the forming of public opinion was of +preëminent importance, still retains, in its broad, hospitable lines, +some shred of its ancient charm. + +Milton is full of history. From the Revolutionary days, when the +cannonading at Bunker Hill shook the foundations of the houses, but not +the nerves of the Milton ladies, down to the year 1919, when the Fourth +Liberty Loan of $2,955,250 was subscribed from a population of 9000, all +the various vicissitudes of peace and war have been sustained on the +high level that one might expect from men and women nobly nurtured by +the strength of the hills. + +How much of its success Milton attributes to its location--for one +joins, indeed, a distinguished fellowship when one builds upon a hill, +or on several hills, as Roman as well as Bostonian history +testifies--can only be guessed by its tribute in the form of the Blue +Hills Reservation. This State recreation park and forest reserve of +about four thousand acres--a labyrinth of idyllic footpaths and leafy +trails, of twisting drives and walks that open out upon superb vistas, +is now the property of the people of Massachusetts. The granite quarry +man--far more interested in the value of the stone that underlay the +wooded slopes than in Ruskin's theory of its purifying effect upon the +inhabitants--had already obtained a footing here, when, under the able +leadership of Charles Francis Adams, the whole region was taken over by +the State in 1894. + +As you pass through the Reservation--and if you are taking even the most +cursory glimpse of Milton you must include some portion of this +park--you will pass the open space where in the early days, when Milton +country life was modeled upon English country life more closely than +now, Malcolm Forbes raced upon his private track the horses he himself +had bred. The race-track with its judges' stands is still there, but +there are no more horse-races, although the Forbes family still holds a +conspicuous place in all the social as well as the philanthropic +enterprises of the countryside. You may see, too, a solitary figure +with a scientist's stoop, or a tutor with a group of boys, making a +first-hand study of a region which is full of interest to the geologist. + +Circling thus around the base of the Great Blue Hill and irresistibly +drawn closer and closer to it as by a magnet, one is impelled to make +the ascent to the top--an easy ascent with its destination clearly +marked by the Rotch Meteorological Observatory erected in 1884 by the +late A. Lawrence Rotch of Milton, who bequeathed funds for its +maintenance. It is now connected with Harvard University. + +Once at the top the eye is overwhelmed by a circuit of more than a +hundred and fifty miles! It is almost too immense at first--almost as +barren as an empty expanse of rolling green sea. But as the eye grows +accustomed to the stretching distances, objects both near and far begin +to appear. And soon, if the day is clear, buildings may be identified in +more than one hundred and twenty-five villages. We are six hundred and +thirty-five feet above the sea, on the highest coastland from +Agamenticus, near York, Maine, to the Rio Grande, and the panorama thus +unrolled is truly magnificent. Facing northerly we can easily +distinguish Cambridge, Somerville, and Malden, and far beyond the hills +of Andover and Georgetown. A little to the east, Boston with its gilded +dome; then the harbor with its islands, headlands, and fortifications. +Beyond that are distinctly visible various points on the North Shore, as +far as Eastern Point Lighthouse in Gloucester. Forty miles to the +northeast appear the twin lighthouses on Thatcher's Island, seeming, +from here, to be standing, not on the land, but out in the ocean. Nearer +and more distinct is Boston Light--a sentinel at the entrance to the +harbor, while beyond it stretches Massachusetts Bay. Turning nearly east +the eye, passing over Chickatawbut Hill--three miles off and second in +height of the Blue Hills--follows the beautiful curve of Nantasket +Beach, and the pointing finger of Minot's Light. Facing nearly south, +the long ridge of Manomet Hill in Plymouth, thirty-three miles away, +stands clear against the sky, while twenty-six miles away, in Duxbury, +one sees the Myles Standish Monument. Directly south rises the smoke of +the city of Fall River; to the westerly, Woonsocket, and continuing to +the west, Mount Wachusett in Princeton. Far to the right of Wachusett, +nearly over the dome of the Dedham Courthouse, rounds up Watatic in +Ashburnham, and northwest a dozen peaks of southern New Hampshire. At +the right of Watatic and far beyond it is the Grand Monadnock in +Jaffrey, 3170 feet above the sea and sixty-seven and a half miles away. +On the right of Grand Monadnock is a group of nearer summits: Mount +Kidder, exactly northwest; Spofford and Temple Mountains; then appears +the remarkable Pack-Monadnock, near Peterboro, with its two equal +summits. The next group to the right is in Lyndeboro. At the right of +Lyndeboro, and nearly over the Readville railroad stations, is Joe +English Hill, and to complete the round, nearly north-northwest are the +summits of the Uncanoonuc Mountains, fifty-nine miles away. + +This, then, is the Great Blue Hill of Milton. Those who are familiar +with the State of Massachusetts--and New England--can stand here and +pick out a hundred distinguishing landmarks, and those who have never +been here before may find an unparalleled opportunity to see the whole +region at one sweep of the eye. + +From the point of view of topography the summit of Great Blue Hill is +the place to reach. But for the sense of mysterious beauty, for snatches +of pictures one will never forget, the little vistas which open on the +upward or the downward trail, framed by hanging boughs or encircled by a +half frame of stone and hillside--these are, perhaps, more lovely. The +hill itself, seen from a distance, floating lightly like a vast blue +ball against a vaster sky, is dreamily suggestive in a way which the +actual view, superb as it is, is not. One remembers Stevenson's +observation, that sometimes to travel hopefully is better than to +arrive. So let us come down, for, after all, "Love is of the valley." +Down again to the old town of Milton. We have not half begun to wander +over it: not half begun to hear the pleasant stories it has to tell. +When one is as old as this--for Milton was discovered by a band from +Plymouth who came up the Neponset River in 1621--one has many tales to +tell. + +Of all the towns along the South Shore there are few whose feet are so +firmly emplanted in the economic history of the past and present as is +Milton. That peculiar odor of sweetness which drifts to us with a turn +of the wind, comes from a chocolate mill whose trade-mark of a +neat-handed maid with her little tray is known all over the civilized +world. And those mills stand upon the site of the first grist mill in +New England to be run by water power. This was in 1634, and one likes to +picture the sturdy colonists trailing into town, their packs upon their +backs, like children in kindergarten games, to have their grain ground. +Israel Stoughton was the name of the man who established this first +mill--a name perpetuated in the near-by town of Stoughton. + +All ground is historic ground in Milton. That rollicking group of +schoolboys yonder belongs to an academy, which, handsome and +flourishing as it is to-day, was founded as long ago as 1787. That seems +long ago, but there was a school in Milton before that: a school held in +the first meeting-house. Nothing is left of this quaint structure but a +small bronze bas-relief, set against a stone wall, near its original +site. This early church and early school was a log cabin with a thatched +roof and latticed windows, if one may believe the relief, but men of +brains and character were taught there lessons which stood them and the +colony in good stead. One fancies the students' roving eyes may have +occasionally strayed down the Indian trail directly opposite the old +site--a trail which, although now attained to the proud rank of a lane, +Churchill's Lane, still invites one down its tangled green way along the +gray stone wall. Yes, every step of ground has its tradition here. +Yonder railroad track marks the spot where the very first tie in the +country was laid, and laid for no less significant purpose than to +facilitate the carrying of granite blocks for Bunker Hill Monument from +their quarry to the harbor. + +Granite from the hills--the hills which swim forever against the sky and +march forever above the distant horizon. Again we are drawn back to the +irresistible magnet of those mighty monitors. Yes, wherever one goes in +Milton, either on foot to-day or back through the chapters of three +centuries ago, the Blue Hills dominate every event, and the Great Blue +Hill floats above them all. + +"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help," +chants the psalmist. Ah, well, no one can say it better than +that--except the hills themselves, which, with gentle majesty, look down +affectionately upon the town at their feet. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SHIPBUILDING AT QUINCY + +[Illustration] + + +The first man-made craft which floated on the waters of what is now Fore +River was probably a little dugout, a crude boat made by an Indian, who +burned out the center of a pine log which he had felled by girdling with +fire. After he had burned out as much as he could, he scraped out the +rest with a stone tool called a "celt." The whole operation probably +took one Indian three weeks. The Rivadavia which slid down the ways of +the Fore River Shipbuilding Corporation in August, 1914, weighed 13,400 +tons and had engaged the labor of 2000 men for fifty months. + +Between these two extremes flutter all the great sisterhood of shallops, +sloops, pinks, schooners, snows, the almost obsolete batteau and +periagua, the gundelow with its picturesque lateen sail, and all the +winged host that are now merely names in New England's maritime history. + +We may not give in this limited space an account of the various vessels +which have sailed down the green-sea aisles the last three hundred +years. But of the very first, "a great and strong shallop" built by the +Plymouth settlers for fishing, we must make brief mention, and of the +Blessing of the Bay, the first seaworthy native craft to be built and +launched on these shores--the pioneer of all New England commerce. Built +by Governor Winthrop, he notes of her in his journal on August 31, 1631, +that "the bark being of thirty tons went to sea." That is all he says, +but from that significant moment the building of ships went on +"gallantly," as was indeed to be expected in a country whose chief +industry was fishing and which was so admirably surrounded by natural +bays and harbors. In 1665 we hear of the Great and General Court of +Massachusetts--which distinctive term is still applied to the +Massachusetts Legislature--forbidding the cutting of any trees suitable +for masts. The broad arrow of the King was marked on all white pines, +twenty-four inches in diameter, three feet from the ground. Big ships +and little ships swarmed into existence, and every South Shore town made +shipbuilding history. The ketch, a two-masted vessel carrying from +fifteen to twenty tons, carried on most of the coasting traffic, and +occasionally ventured on a foreign voyage. When we recall that the best +and cheapest ships of the latter half of the seventeenth century were +built here in the new country, we realize that shipyards, ports, docks, +proper laws and regulations, and the invigorating progress which marks +any thriving industry flourished bravely up and down the whole New +England coast. + +It is rather inspiring to stand here on the bridge which spans the Fore +River, and picture that first crude dugout being paddled along by the +steady stroke of the red man, and then to look at the river to-day. +Every traveler through Quincy is familiar with the aerial network of +steel scaffolding criss-crossing the sky, with the roofs of shops and +offices and glimpses of vessels visible along the water-front. But few +travelers realize that these are merely the superficial features of a +shipyard which under the urge of the Great War delivered to the Navy, in +1918, eighteen completed destroyers, which was as many as all the other +yards in the country put together delivered during this time. A shipyard +which cut the time of building destroyers from anywhere between eighteen +and thirty-two months to an average of six months and a half; a shipyard +which made the world's record of one hundred and seventy-four days from +the laying of the keel to the delivering of a destroyer. + +It is difficult to grasp the meaning of these figures. Difficult, even +after one has obtained entrance into this city within a city, and seen +with his own eyes twenty thousand men toiling like Trojans. Seen a +riveting crew which can drive more than twenty-eight hundred rivets in +nine hours; battleships that weigh thirty thousand tons; a plate yard +piled with steel plates and steel bars worth two million dollars; cranes +that can lift from five tons up to others of one hundred tons capacity; +single buildings a thousand feet long and eighty feet high. + +Perhaps the enormousness of the plant is best comprehended, not when we +mechanically repeat that it covers eighty acres and comprises eighty +buildings, and that four full-sized steam locomotives run up and down +its yard, but when we see how many of the intimate things of daily +living have sprung up here as little trees spring up between huge +stones. For the Fore River Plant is more than an industrial +organization. It is a social center, an economic entity. It has its band +and glee club, ball team and monthly magazine. There are refreshment +stands, and a bathing cove; a brand-new village of four hundred and +thirty-eight brand-new houses; dormitories which accommodate nearly a +thousand men and possess every convenience and even luxuries. The men +work hard here, but they are well paid for their work, as the many +motor-cycles and automobiles waiting for them at night testify. It is a +scene of incredible industry, but also of incredible completeness. + +To look down upon the village and the yard from the throbbing roof of +the steel mill, seven hundred and seventy feet long and a hundred and +eighty-eight wide, is a thrilling sight. Within the yard, confined on +three sides by its high fences and buildings and on the fourth by +Weymouth Fore River, one sees, far below, locomotives moving up and down +on their tracks; great cranes stalking long-leggedly back and forth; +smoke from foundry, blacksmith shop, and boiler shop; men hurrying to +and fro. Whistles blow, and whole buildings tremble. The smoke and the +grayness might make it a gloomy scene if it were not for the red sides +of the immense submarines gleaming in their wide slips to the water. +Everywhere one sees the long gray sides of freighters, destroyers, +merchant ships, and oil tankers heaving like the mailed ribs of sea +animals basking on the shore. Practically every single operation, from +the most stupendous to the most delicate, necessary for the complete +construction of these vessels, is carried on in this yard. The eighty +acres look small when we realize the extent and variety of the work +achieved within its limits. + +Yes, the solitary Indian, working with fire and celt on his dugout, +would not recognize this once familiar haunt, nor would he know the +purpose of these vast vessels without sail or paddle. And yet, were this +same Indian standing on the roof with us, he would see a wide stream of +water he knew well, and he would see, too, above the smoke of the +furnace, shop, and boiler room, the friendly green of the trees. + +Perhaps there is nothing which makes us realize the magical rapidity of +growth so much as to look from this steel city and to see the woods +close by. For instead of being surrounded by the sordid congestion of an +industrial center, the Fore River Shipyard is in the midst of +practically open country. + +While we are speaking of rapidity we must look over toward the Victory +Plant at Squantum, that miraculous marsh which was drained with such +expedition that just twelve months from the day ground was broken for +its foundation, it launched its first ship, and less than two years +after completed its entire contract. Surely never in the history of +shipbuilding have brain and brawn worked so brilliantly together! + +In this way, then, the history of the ships that have sailed the seven +seas has been built up at Quincy--a dramatic history and one instinct +with the beauty which is part of gliding canoe and white sails, and +part, too, of the huge smooth-slipping monsters of a modern day, sleek +and swift as leviathans. But all the while the building of these ships +has been going on, there has been slowly rising within the selfsame +radius another ship, vaster, more inspiring, calling forth initiative +even more intense, idealism even more profound--the Ship of State. + +We who journey to-day over the smooth or troubled waters of national or +international affairs are no more conscious of the infinite toil and +labors which have gone into the intricate making of the vessel that +carries us, than are travelers conscious of the cogs and screws, the +engines and all the elaboration of detail which compose an ocean liner. +Like them we sometimes grumble at meals or prices, at some discourtesy +or incompetence, but we take it for granted that the engine is in +commission, that the bottom is whole and the chart correct. The great +Ship of State of this country may occasionally run into rough weather, +but Americans believe that, in the last analysis, she is honestly built. +And it is to Quincy that we owe a large initial part of this building. + +It is astonishing to enumerate the notable public men, who have been +influential in establishing our national policy, who have come from +Quincy. There is no town in this entire country which can equal the +record. What other town ever produced two Presidents of the United +States, an Ambassador to Great Britain, a Governor of the Commonwealth, +a Mayor of Boston, two presidents of Harvard University, and judges, +chief justices, statesmen, and orators in such quantity and of such +quality? Truly this group of eminent men of brilliance, integrity, and +public feeling is unique in our history. To read the biographies of +Quincy's great men would comprise a studious winter's employment, but +we, passing through the historic city, may hold up our fragment of a +mirror and catch a bit of the procession. + +First and foremost, of course, will come President John Adams, he who, +both before and after his term of high office, toiled terrifically in +the public cause, being at the time of his election to Congress a member +of ninety committees and a chairman of twenty-five! We see him as the +portraits have taught us to see him, with strong, serious +face,--austere, but not harsh,--velvet coat, white ruffles, and white +curls. He stands before us as the undisputed founder of what is now +recognized as American diplomacy. Straightforward, sound to the core, +unswerving, veracious, exemplifying in every act the candor of the +Puritan, so congruous with the new simple life of a nation of common +people. I think we shall like best to study him as he stands at the door +of the little house in which he was born, and which, with its pitch +roof, its antique door and eaves, is still preserved, close to the +street, for public scrutiny. + +Next to President John Adams comes his son, John Quincy Adams, also a +President of the United States. Spending much of his time abroad, the +experience of those diplomatic years is graven upon features more subtly +refined than those of his sire. But for all his foreign residence, he +was, like his father, a Puritan in its most exalted sense; like him +toiled all his life in public service, dying in the harness when rising +to address the Speaker of the House. Him, too, we see best, standing at +the door of his birthplace, a small cottage a stone's throw from the +other cottage, separated only by a turnstile. Fresh white curtains hang +in the small-paned windows; the grass is neatly trimmed, and like its +quaint companion it is now open to the public and worth the tourist's +call. Both these venerable cottages have inner walls, one of burnt, the +other of unburnt brick; and both are unusual in having no boards on the +outer walls, but merely clapboards fastened directly on to the studding +with wrought-iron nails. + +Still another Adams follows, Charles Francis Adams. Although a little +boy when he first comes into public view, a little boy occupying the +conspicuous place as child of one President and grandchild of another, +yet he was to win renown and honor on his own account as Ambassador to +England during the critical period of our Civil War. America remembers +him best in this position. His firm old face with its white chin +whiskers is a worthy portrait in the ancestral gallery. + +Although the political history of this country may conclude its +reference to the Adamses with these three famous figures, yet all New +Englanders and all readers of biography would be reluctant to turn from +this remarkable family without mention of the sons of Charles Francis +Adams, two of whom have written, beside valuable historical works, +autobiographies so entertaining and so truly valuable for their +contemporaneous portraits as to win a place of survival in our permanent +literature. + +A member of the Adams family still lives in the comfortable home where +the three first and most famous members all celebrated their golden +weddings. This broad-fronted and hospitable house, built in 1730 by +Leonard Vassal, a West India planter, for his summer residence, with its +library finished in panels of solid mahogany, was confiscated when its +Royalist owner fled at the outbreak of the Revolution, and John Adams +acquired the property and left the pitch-roofed cottage down the street. +The home of two Presidents, what tales it could tell of notable +gatherings! One must read the autobiography of Charles Francis Adams and +"The Education of Henry Adams" to appreciate the charm of the succeeding +mistresses of the noble homestead, and to enjoy in retrospect its many +illustrious visitors. + +To have produced one family like the Adamses would surely be sufficient +distinction for any one place, but the Adams family forms merely one +unit in Quincy's unique procession of great men. + +The Quincy family, for which the town was named, and which at an early +date intermarried with the Adamses, presents an almost parallel +distinction. The first Colonel Quincy, he who lived like an English +squire, a trifle irascible, to be sure, but a dignified and commanding +figure withal, had fourteen children by his first wife and three by his +second, so the family started off with the advantage of numbers as well +as of blood. At the Quincy mansion house were born statesmen, judges, +and captains of war. The "Dorothy Q." of Holmes's poem first saw the +light in it, and the Dorothy who became the bride of the dashing John +Hancock blossomed into womanhood in it. Here were entertained times +without number Sir Harry Vane, quaint Judge Sewall, Benjamin Franklin, +and that couple who gleam through the annals of New England history in a +never-fading flame of romance, Sir Harry Frankland and beautiful Agnes +Surriage. The Quincy mansion, which was built about 1635 by William +Coddington of Boston and occupied by him until he was exiled for his +religious opinions, was bought by Edmund Quincy. His grandson, who bore +his name, enlarged the house, and lived in it until his death when it +descended to his son Edmund, the eminent jurist and father of Dorothy. +The old-fashioned furniture, utensils and pictures, the broad hall, fine +old stairway with carved balustrades, and foreign wall-paper supposed to +have been hung in honor of the approaching marriage of Dorothy to John +Hancock, are still preserved in their original place. Of the Quincy +family, whose sedate jest it was that the estate descended from 'Siah to +'Siah, so frequent was the name "Josiah," the best known is perhaps the +Josiah Quincy who was Mayor of Boston for six years and president of +Harvard for sixteen. The portrait of his long, thin face is part of +every New England history, and his busy, serene life, "compacted of +Roman and Puritan virtues," is still upheld to all American children as +a model of high citizenship. + +But not even the long line of the Quincy family completes the list of +the town's great men. Henry Hope, one of the most brilliant financiers +of his generation, and founder of a European banking house second only +to that of the Rothchilds, was a native of Quincy. John Hull--who, as +every school-child knows, on the day of his daughter's marriage to Judge +Sewall, placed her in one of his weighing scales, and heaped enough new +pine-tree shillings into the other to balance, and then presented both +to the bridegroom--held the first grant of land in the present town of +Braintree (which originally included Quincy, Randolph, and Holbrook). + +From the picturesque union of John Hull's bouncing daughter Betsy and +Judge Sewall sprang the extraordinary family of Sewalls which has given +three chief justices to Massachusetts, and one to Canada, and has been +distinguished in every generation for the talents and virtues of its +members. In passing, we may note that it was this same John Hull who +named Point Judith for his wife, little dreaming what a _bête noir_ the +place would prove to mariners in the years to come. + +There is another Quincy man whom it is pleasant to recall, and that is +Henry Flynt, a whimsical and scholarly old bachelor, who was a tutor at +Harvard for no less than fifty-three years, the one fixed element in the +flow of fourteen college generations. One of the most accomplished +scholars of his day, his influence on the young men with whom he came in +contact was stimulating to a degree, and they loved to repeat bits of +his famous repartee. A favorite which has come down to us was on an +occasion when Whitefield the revivalist declared in a theological +discussion: "It is my opinion that Dr. Tillotson is now in hell for his +heresy." To which Tutor Flynt retorted dryly: "It is my opinion that you +will not meet him there." + +The procession of Quincy's great men which we have been watching winds +its way, as human processions are apt to do, to the old graveyard. Most +of the original settlers are buried here, although not a few were buried +on their own land, according to the common custom. Probably this +ancient burying ground, with its oldest headstone of 1663, has never +been particularly attractive. The Puritans did not decorate their +graveyards in any way. Fearing that prayers or sermons would encourage +the "superstitions" of the Roman Catholic Church, they shunned any +ritual over the dead or beautifying of their last resting-place. +However, neglected as the spot was, the old stone church, whose golden +belfry is such a familiar and pleasant landmark to all the neighboring +countryside, still keeps its face turned steadfastly toward it. The +congested traffic of the city square presses about its portico, but +those who knew and loved it best lie quietly within the shadow of its +gray walls. Under the portico lies President John Adams, and "at his +side sleeps until the trump shall sound, Abigail, his beloved and only +wife." In the second chamber is placed the dust of his illustrious son, +with "His partner for fifty years, Louisa Catherine"--she of whom Henry +Adams wrote, "her refined figure; her gentle voice and manner; her +vague effect of not belonging there, but to Washington or Europe, like +her furniture and writing-desk with little glass doors above and little +eighteenth-century volumes in old binding." + +It has been called the "church of statesmen," this dignified building, +and so, indeed, might Quincy itself be called the "city of statesmen." +It would be extremely interesting to study the reasons for Quincy's +peculiar productiveness of noble public characters. The town was settled +(as Braintree) exclusively by people from Devonshire and Lincolnshire +and Essex. The laws of the Massachusetts Colony forbade Irish +immigration--probably more for religious than racial reasons. On reading +the ancient petition for the incorporation of the town one is struck by +the fact that practically every single name of the one hundred and fifty +signers is English in origin, the few which were not having been +anglicized. All of these facts point to a homogeneous stock, with the +same language, traditions, and social customs. Obviously there is a +connection between the governmental genius displayed by Quincy's sons +and the singular purity of the original English stock. + +Little did Wampatuck, the son of Chickatawbut, realize what he was doing +when he parted with his Braintree lands for twenty-one pounds and ten +shillings. The Indian deed is still preserved, with the following words +on its back: "In the 17th reign of Charles 2. Braintry Indian Deeds. +Given 1665. Aug. 10: Take great care of it." + +Little did the Indian chief realize that the surrounding waters were to +float hulks as mighty as a city; that the hills were to furnish granite +for buildings and monuments without number; and that men were to be born +there who would shape the greatest Ship of State the world has ever +known. And yet, if he had known, possibly he would have accepted the +twenty-one pounds and ten shillings just the same, and departed quietly. +For the ships that were to be built would never have pleased him as well +as his own canoe; the granite buildings would have stifled him; and the +zealous Adamses and the high-minded Quincys and Sewalls and all the +rest would have bored him horribly. Probably the only item in the whole +history of Quincy which would have appealed to Wampatuck in the least +would have been the floating down on a raft of the old Hollis Street +Church of Boston, to become the Union Church of Weymouth and Braintree +in 1810. This and the similar transportation of the Bowditch house from +Beacon Street in Boston to Quincy a couple of years later would have +fascinated the red man, as the recital of the feat fascinates us to-day. + +Those who care to learn more of Quincy will do well to read the +autobiography of Charles Francis Adams and "The Education of Henry +Adams." Those who care more for places than for descriptions of them may +wander at will, finding beneath the surface of the modern city many +landmarks of the old city which underlies it. They may see the +scaffolding of the great shipyards latticing themselves against the sky, +and the granite quarries against the hills. They may see the little +cottages and the great houses made famous by those who have passed over +their thresholds; they may linger in the old burial ground and trace out +the epitaphs under the portico of the golden-belfried church. But after +they have touched and handled all of these things, they will not +understand Quincy unless they look beyond and recognize her greatest +contribution to this country--the noble statesmen who so bravely and +intelligently toiled to construct America's Ship of State. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE ROMANCE OF WEYMOUTH + +[Illustration] + + +The paintings of John Constable, idyllic in their quietness, dewy in +their serenity--how many travelers, how many lovers of art, superficial +or profound, yearly seek out these paintings in the South Kensington +Museum or the Louvre, and stand before them wrapt in gentle ecstasy? + +The quality of Constable's pictures delineates in luminous softness a +peculiarly lovely side of English rural life, but one need not travel to +England or France to see this loveliness. Weymouth, that rambling +stretch of towns and hamlets, of summer colony and suburb, possesses in +certain areas bits of rural landscape as serene, as dewy, as +idyllically tranquil as Constable at his best. + +Comparatively few people in New England, or out of it, know Weymouth +well. Every one has heard of it, for it is next in age to the town of +Plymouth itself, and every one who travels to the South Shore passes +some section of it, for it extends lengthily--north and south, east and +west--being the only town in Massachusetts to retain its original +boundaries. And numbers of people are familiar with certain parts of it, +for there are half a score of villages in the township, some of them +summer settlements, some of them animated by an all-the-year-round life. +But compared with the other towns along this historic route, Weymouth as +a whole is little known and little appreciated. And yet the history of +Weymouth is not without amusing and edifying elements, and the scenery +of Weymouth is worthy of the détour that strangers rarely make. + +"Old Spain" is the romantic name for an uninteresting part of the +township, and, conversely, Commercial Street is the uninteresting name +for a romantic part. It is along a highway stigmatized by such a name +that one gets the glimpses of a Constable country: glimpses of rolling +meadows, of fertile groves, of cattle grazing in elm-shaded pastures, of +a road winding contentedly among simple, ancient cottages, and quiet, +thrifty farms. These are the homes which belong, and have belonged for +generations, to people who are neither rich nor poor; cozy, quaint, +suggesting in an odd way the thatched-roof cottages of England. Not that +all of Weymouth's homes are of this order. The Asa Webb Cowing house, +which terminates Commercial Street within a stone's throw of the square +of the town of Weymouth, is one of the very finest examples of the +Colonial architecture in this country. The exquisite tracery and carving +over and above the front door, and the white imported marble window +lintels spin an elaborate and marvelously fine lacework of white over +the handsome red-brick façade. Although it is, alas, falling somewhat +into disrepair, perfect proportion and gemlike workmanship still stamp +the venerable mansion as one of patrician heritage. There are other +excellent examples of architecture in Weymouth, but the Cowing house +must always be the star, both because of its extraordinary beauty and +conspicuous position. Yes, if you want a characteristic glimpse of +Weymouth, you cannot do better than to begin in front of this landmark, +and drive down Commercial Street. Here for several smiling miles there +is nothing--no ugly building large or small, no ruthless invasion of +modernity to mar the mood of happy simplicity. Her beauty of beach, of +sky, of river, Weymouth shares with other South Shore towns. Her +perfection of idyllic rusticity is hers alone. + +Just as Weymouth's scenery is unlike that of her neighbors, so her +history projects itself from an entirely different angle from theirs. +While they were conceived by zealous, God-fearing men and women honestly +seeking to establish homes in a new country, Weymouth was inadvertently +born through the misconduct of a set of adventurers. Not every one who +came to America in those significant early years came impelled by lofty +motives. There were scapegraces, bad boys, rogues, mercenaries, and +schemers; and perhaps it is entirely logical that the winning natural +loveliness of this place should have lured to her men who were not of +the caliber to face more exposed, less fertile sections, and men to whom +beauty made an especial appeal. + +The Indians early found Wessagusset, as they called it, an important +rendezvous, as it was accessible by land and sea, and there were +probably temporary camps there previous to 1620, formed by fishermen and +traders who visited the New England coast to traffic with the natives. +But it was not until the arrival of Thomas Weston in 1622 that +Weymouth's history really begins. And then it begins in a topsy-turvy +way, so unlike Puritan New England that it makes us rub our eyes, +wondering if it is really true. + +This Thomas Weston, who was a merchant adventurer of London, took it +into his head to establish a colony in the new country entirely +different from the Plymouth Colony. He had been an agent of the +Pilgrims in their negotiations with the Plymouth Company, and when he +broke off the connection it was to start a settlement which should +combine all of the advantages, with none of the disadvantages, of the +Plymouth Colony. First of all, it was to be a trading community pure and +simple, with its object frankly to make money. Second, it was to be +composed of men without families and familiar with hardship. And third, +there was no religious motive or bond. That such an unidealistic +enterprise should not flourish on American soil is worth noting. The +disorderly, thriftless rabble, picked up from the London streets, soon +got into trouble with the Indians and with neighboring colonists, and +finally, undone by the results of their own improvidence and +misbehavior, wailed that they "wanted to go back to London," to which +end the Plymouth settlers willingly aided them, glad to get them out of +the country. Thus ended the first inauspicious settlement of Weymouth. + +The second, which was undertaken shortly after by Robert Gorges, broke +up the following spring, leaving only a few remnants behind. Sir +Ferdinando Gorges, who was not a Spaniard as his name suggests, but a +picturesque Elizabethan and a kinsman of Sir Walter Raleigh, essayed +(through his son Robert) an experimental government along practically +the same commercial lines as had Weston, and his failure was as speedy +and complete as Weston's had been. + +A third attempt, while hardly more successful, furnishes one of the +gayest and prettiest episodes in the whole history of New England. +Across the somber procession of earnest-faced men and women, across the +psalm-singing and the praying, across the incredible toil of the +pioneers at Plymouth now flashes the brightly costumed and +pleasure-loving courtier, Thomas Morton. An agent of Gorges, Morton with +thirty followers floated into Wessagusset to found a Royalist and +Episcopalian settlement. This Episcopalian bias was quite enough to +account for Bradford's disparaging description of him as a "kind of +petie-fogie of Furnifells Inn," and explains why the early historians +never made any fuller or more favorable record than absolutely necessary +of these neighbors of theirs, although the churchman Samuel Maverick +admits that Morton was a "gentleman of good qualitee." + +But it was for worse sins than his connection with the Established +Church that Morton's name became synonymous with scandal throughout the +whole Colony. In the very midst of the dun-colored atmosphere of +Puritanism, in the very heart of the pious pioneer settlement this +audacious scamp set up, according to Bradford, "a schoole of atheisme, +and his men did quaff strong waters and comport themselves as if they +had anew revived and celebrated the feasts of y^e Roman Goddess Flora, +or the beastly practises of y^e madd Bachanalians." The charge of +atheism in this case seems based on the fact that Morton used the Book +of Common Prayer, but as for the rest, there is no question that this +band of silken merry-makers imported many of the carnival customs and +hereditary pastimes of Old England to the stern young New England; that +they fraternized with the Indians, shared their strong waters with them, +and taught them the use of firearms; and that Merrymount became indeed a +scene of wildest revelry. + +The site of Merrymount had originally been selected by Captain Wollaston +for a trading post. Imbued with the same mercenary motive which had +proved fatal in the case of Weston and Gorges, Captain Wollaston, whose +name is perpetuated in Mount Wollaston, brought with him in 1625 a gang +of indented white servants. Finding his system of industry ill suited to +the climate, he carried his men to Virginia, where he sold them. When he +left, Morton took possession of the place and dubbed it "Ma-re-mount." +And then began the pranks which shook the Colony to its foundations. +Picture to yourself a band of sworn triflers, dedicated to the wildest +philosophy of pleasure, teaching bears to dance, playing blind-man's +buff, holding juggling and boxing matches, and dancing. According to +Hawthorne, on the eve of Saint John they felled whole acres of forests +to make bonfires, and crowned themselves with flowers and threw the +blossoms into the flames. At harvest-time they hilariously wasted their +scanty store of Indian corn by making an image with the sheaves, and +wreathing it with the painted garlands of autumn foliage. They crowned +the King of Christmas and bent the knee to the Lord of Misrule! Such +fantastic foolery is inconceivable in a Puritan community, and the +Maypole which was its emblem was the most inconceivable of all. This +"flower-decked abomination," ornamented with white birch bark, banners, +and blossoms, was the center of the tipsy jollity of Merrymount. As +Morton explains: "A goodly pine tree of eighty foote was reared up, with +a peare of bucks horns nayled on somewhere near to the top of it: where +it stood as a faire sea mark for directions how to find out the way to +mine host of Ma-re-mount." Around this famous, or infamous, pole Morton +and his band frolicked with the Indians on May Day in 1627. As the +indignant historian writes: "Unleashed pagans from the purlieus of the +gross court of King James, danced about the Idoll of Merry Mount, +joining hands with the lasses in beaver coats, and singing their ribald +songs." + +It doesn't look quite so heinous to us, this Maypole dancing, as it did +to the outraged Puritans. In fact, the story of Morton and Merrymount is +one of the few glistening threads in the somber weaving of those early +days. But the New England soil was not prepared at that time to support +any such exotic, and Myles Standish was sent to disperse the frivolous +band, and to order Morton back to England, which he did, after a +scrimmage which Morton relates with great vivacity and doubtful veracity +in his "New English Canaan." + +This "New English Canaan," by the way, had a rather singular career. +Morton tells in it many amusing stories, and one of them was destined to +a remarkable perpetuity in English literature. The story deals with the +Wessagusset settlers promising to hang one of their own members who had +been caught stealing--this hanging in order to appease the Indians. +Morton gravely states that instead of hanging the real culprit, who was +young and lusty, they hanged, in his place, another, old and sick. In +his quaint diction: "You all agree that one must die, and one shall die, +this young man's cloathes we will take off and put upon one that is old +and impotent, a sickly person that cannot escape death, such is the +disease on him confirmed, that die hee must. Put the young man's +cloathes on this man, and let the sick person be hanged in the other's +steade. Amen sayes one, and so sayes many more." This absurd notion of +vicarious atonement, spun purely from Morton's imagination, appealed to +Samuel Butler as worthy of further elaboration. Morton's "New English +Canaan" appeared in 1632. About thirty years later the second part of +the famous English satire "Hudibras" appeared, embodying Morton's idea +in altered but recognizable form, in what was the most popular English +book of the day. This satire, appearing when the reaction against +Puritanism was at its height, was accepted and solemnly deposited at the +door of the good people of Boston and Plymouth! And thus it was that +Morton's fabricated tale of the Weymouth hanging passed into genuine +history along with the "blue laws" of Connecticut. One cannot help +believing that the mischievous perpetrator of the fable laughed up his +sleeve at its result, and one cannot resist the thought that he was +probably delighted to have the scandal attached to those righteous +neighbors of his who had run him out of his dear Ma-re-mount. + +However, driven out he was: the Maypole about which the revelers had +danced was hewed down by the stern zealots who believed in dancing about +only one pole, and that the whipping-post. Merrymount was deserted. + +Certainly Weymouth, the honey spot which attracted not industrious bees, +but only drones, was having a hard time getting settled! It was not +until the Reverend Joseph Hull received permission from the General +Court to settle here with twenty-one families, from Weymouth, England, +that the town was at last shepherded into the Puritan fold. + +These settlers, of good English stock and with the earnest ideals of +pioneers, soon brought the community into good repute, and its +subsequent life was as respectable and uneventful as that of a reformed +_roué_. In fact there is practically no more history for Weymouth. There +are certainly no more raids upon merry-makers; no more calls from the +cricket colony which had sung all summer on the banks of the river to +the ant colony which had providently toiled on the shore of the bay; no +more experimental governments; no more scandal. The men and women of the +next five generations were a poor, hard-working race, rising early and +toiling late. The men worked in the fields, tending the flocks, planting +and gathering the harvest. The women worked in the houses, in the +dairies and kitchens, at the spinning-wheel and washtub. The privations +and loneliness, which are part of every struggling colony, were +augmented here, where the houses did not cluster about the church and +burial ground, but were scattered and far away. This peculiarity of +settlement meant much in days where there was no newspaper, no system of +public transportation, no regular post, and Europe was months removed. A +few of the young men went with the fishing fleet to Cape Sable, or +sailed on trading vessels to the West Indies or Spain, but it is +doubtful if any Weymouth-born woman ever laid eyes on the mother country +during the first hundred and fifty years. + +The records of the town are painfully dull. They are taken up by small +domestic matters: the regulations for cattle; running boundary lines, +locating highways, improving the town common, fixing fines for roving +swine or agreeing to the division of a whale found on the shore. There +was more or less bickering over the salary of the town clerk, who was to +receive thirty-three pounds and fourteen shillings yearly to keep "A +free school and teach all children and servants sent him to read and +write and cast accounts." + +Added to the isolation and pettiness of town affairs, the winters seem +to have been longer, the snows deeper, the frosts more severe in those +days. We have records of the harbor freezing over in November, and "in +March the winter's snow, though much reduced, still lay on a level with +the fences, nor was it until April that the ice broke up in Fore River." +They were difficult--those days ushered in by the Reverend Joseph Hull. +Through long nights and cold winters and an endless round of joyless +living, Weymouth expiated well for the sins of her youth. Even as late +as 1767 we read of the daughter of Parson Smith, of Weymouth--now the +wife of John Adams, of Quincy--scrubbing the floor of her own +bed-chamber the afternoon before her son--destined to become President +of the United States, as his father was before him--was born. + +But the English stock brought in by the Reverend Hull was good stock. We +may not envy the ladies scrubbing their own floors or the men walking to +Boston, but many of the best families of this country are proud to trace +their origin back to Weymouth. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont; then +New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut attracted men from Weymouth. +Later the Middle West and the Far West called them. In fact for over a +century the town hardly raised its number of population, so energetic +was the youth it produced. + +As happens with lamentable frequency, when Weymouth ceased to be naughty +she also ceased to be interesting. After poring over the dull pages of +the town history, one is sometimes tempted to wonder if, perhaps, the +irreverent Morton did not, for all his sins, divine a deeper meaning in +this spot than the respectable ones who came after him. One cannot read +the "New English Canaan" without regretting a little that this +happy-natured fellow was so unceremoniously bustled out of the country. +Whatever Morton's discrepancies may have been, his response to beauty +was lively and true: whatever his morals, his prose is delightful. All +the town records and memorial addresses of all the good folk subsequent +contain no such tribute to Weymouth, and paint no picture so true of +that which is still best in her, as these loving words of the erstwhile +master of Merrymount. + +"And when I had more seriously considered the bewty of the place, with +all her fair endowments, I did not think that in all the knowne world it +could be paralel'd. For so many goodly groves of trees: dainty fine +round rising hillocks: delicate faire large plaines: sweete crystal +fountains, and clear running streams, that twine in fine meanders +through the meads, making so sweet a murmuring noise to heare, as would +even lull the senses with delight asleep, so pleasantly doe they glide +upon the pebble stones, jetting most jocundly where they doe meet; and +hand in hand run down to Neptune's court, to pay the yearly tribute +which they owe to him as soveraigne Lord of all the Springs." + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ECCLESIASTICAL HINGHAM + +[Illustration] + + +Should you walk along the highway from Quincy to Hingham on a Sunday +morning you would be passed by many automobiles, for the Old Coast Road +is now one of the great pleasure highways of New England. Many of the +cars are moderately priced affairs, the tonneau well filled with +children of miscellaneous ages, and enlivened by a family dog or +two--for this is the way that the average American household spends its +modern Sabbath holiday. Now and then a limousine, exquisite in +workmanship within and without, driven by a chauffeur in livery and +tenanted by a single languid occupant, rolls noiselessly past. A +strange procession, indeed, for a road originally marked by the +moccasined feet of Indians, and widened gradually by the toilsome +journeyings of rough Colonial carts and coaches. + +It is difficult to say which feature of the steadily moving travel would +most forcibly strike the original Puritan settlers of the town: the fact +that even the common man--the poor man--could own such a vehicle of +speed and ease, or the fact that America--such a short time ago a +wilderness--could produce, not as the finest flower on its tree of +evolution, but certainly as its most exotic, the plutocrat who lives in +a palace with fifty servants to do his bidding, and the fine lady whose +sole exercise of her mental and physical functions consists in allowing +her maid to dress her. Yes, New England has changed amazingly in the +revolutions of three centuries, and here, under the shadow of this +square plain building--Hingham's Old Ship Church--while we pause to +watch the Sunday pageant of 1920, we can most easily call back the +Sabbath rites, and the ideals which created those rites, three centuries +ago. + +[Illustration] + +It is the year of 1681. This wooden meeting-house, with the truncated +pyramidal roof and belfry (to serve as a lookout station), has just been +built. A stage ahead, architecturally, of the log meeting-house with +clay-filled chinks, thatched roof, oiled-paper windows, earthen floor, +and a stage behind the charming steeple style made popular by Sir +Christopher Wren, and now multiplied in countless graceful examples all +over New England, the Old Ship is entirely unconscious of the +distinction which is awaiting it--the distinction of being the oldest +house for public worship in the United States which still stands on its +original site, and which is still used for its original purpose. In the +year 1681 it is merely the new meeting-house of the little hamlet of +Hingham. The people are very proud of their new building. The timbers +have been hewn with the broad-axe out of solid white pine (the marks are +still visible, particularly in those rafters of the roof open to the +attic). The belfry is precisely in the center of the four-sided pitched +roof. To be sure this necessitates ringing the bell from one of the +pews, but a little later the bellringer will stand above, and through a +pane of glass let into the ceiling he will be able to see when the +minister enters the pulpit. The original backless benches were replaced +by box pews with narrow seats like shelves, hung on hinges around three +sides, but part of the original pulpit remains and a few of the box +pews. In 1681 the interior, like the exterior, is sternly bare. No +paint, no decorations, no colored windows, no organ, or anything which +could even remotely suggest the color, the beauty, the formalism of the +churches of England. The unceiled roof shows the rafters whose arched +timbers remind one that ships' carpenters have built this house of God. + +This, then, is the meeting-house of 1681. What of the services conducted +there? + +In the first place, they are well attended. And why not, since in 1635 +the General Court decreed that no dwelling should be placed more than +half a mile away from the meeting-house of any new "plantation"--thus +eliminating the excuse of too great distance? Every one is expected, +nay, commanded, to come to church. In fact, after the tolling of the +last bell, the houses may all be searched--each ten families is under an +inspector--if there is any question of delinquents hiding in them. And +so in twos and threes, often the man trudging ahead with his gun and the +woman carrying her baby while the smaller children cling to her skirts, +sometimes man and woman and a child or two on horseback, no matter how +wild the storm, how swollen the streams, how deep the whirling +snow--they all come to church: old folk and infants as well as adults +and children. The congregation either waits for the minister and his +wife outside the door, or stands until he has entered the pulpit. Once +inside they are seated with the most meticulous exactness, according to +rank, age, sex, and wealth. The small boys are separated from their +families and kept in order by tithing-men who allow no wandering eyes or +whispered words. The deacons are in the "fore" seats; the elderly +people are sometimes given chairs at the end of the "pues"; and the +slaves and Indians are in the rear. To seat one's self in the wrong +"pue" is an offense punishable by a fine. + +"Here is the church, and here are the people," as the old rhyme has it. +What then of the services? That they are interminable we know. The +tithing-man or clerk may turn the brass-bound hourglass by the side of +the pulpit two and three times during the sermon, and once or twice +during the prayer. Interminable, and, also, to the modern Sunday +observer, unendurable. How many of us of this softer age can contemplate +without a shiver the vision of people sitting hour after hour in an +absolutely unheated building? (The Old Ship was not heated until 1822.) +The only relief from the chill and stiffness comes during the prayer +when the congregation stands: kneeling, of course, would savor too +strongly of idolatry and the Church of Rome. They stand, too, while the +psalms and hymns are lined out, and as they sing them, very uncertainly +and very incorrectly. This performance alone sometimes takes an hour, as +there is no organ, nor notes, and only a few copies of the Bay Psalm +Book, of which, by the way, a copy now would be worth many times its +weight in gold. + +After the morning service there is a noon intermission, in which the +half-frozen congregation stirs around, eats cold luncheons brought in +baskets, and then returns to the next session. One must not for an +instant, however, consider these noon hours as recreational. There is no +idle talk or play. The sermon is discussed and the children forbidden to +romp or laugh. One sometimes wonders how the little things had any +impulse to laugh in such an abysmal atmosphere, but apparently the +Puritan boys and girls were entirely normal and even wholesomely +mischievous--as proved by the constantly required services of the +tithing-man. + +These external trappings of the service sound depressing enough, but if +the message received within these chilly walls is cheering, maybe we +can forget or ignore the physical discomforts. But is the message +cheering? Hell, damnation, eternal tortures, painful theological +hair-splittings, harrowing self-examinations, and humiliating public +confessions--this is what they gather on the narrow wooden benches to +listen to hour after hour, searching their souls for sin with an almost +frenzied eagerness. And yet, forlorn and tedious as the bleak service +appears to us, there is no doubt that these stern-faced men and women +wrenched an almost mystical inspiration from it; that a weird +fascination emanated from this morbid dwelling on sin and punishment, +appealing to the emotions quite as vividly--although through a different +channel--as the most elaborate ceremonial. When the soul is wrought to a +certain pitch each hardship is merely an added opportunity to prove its +faith. It was this high pitch, attained and sustained by our Puritan +fathers, which produced a dramatic and sometimes terrible blend of +personality. + +It has become the modern fashion somewhat to belittle Puritanism. It is +easy to emphasize its absurdities, to ridicule the almost fanatical +fervor which goaded men to harshness and inconsistency. The fact remains +that a tremendous selective force was needed to tear the Puritans away +from the mother church and the mother country and fortify them in their +struggle in a new land. It was religious zeal which furnished this +motive power. Different implements and differently directed force are +needed to extract the diamond from the earth, from the implements and +force needed to polish and cut the same diamond. So different phases of +religious development are called forth by progressive phases of +development. It has been said about the New England conscience: "It +fostered a condition of life and type of character doubtless never again +possible in the world's history. Having done its work, having founded +soundly and peopled strongly an exceptional region, the New England +conscience had no further necessity for being. Those whom it now +tortures with its hot pincers of doubt and self-reproach are sacrificed +to a cause long since won." + +The Puritans themselves grew away from many of their excessive +severities. But as they gained bodily strength from their conflict with +the elements, so they gained a certain moral stamina by their +self-imposed religious observance. And this moral stamina has marked New +England ever since, and marked her to her glory. + +One cannot speak of Hingham churches--indeed, one cannot speak of +Hingham--without admiring mention of the New North Church. This +building, of exquisite proportions and finish, within and without, built +by Bulfinch in 1806, is one of the most flawless examples of its type on +the South Shore. You will appreciate the cream-colored paint, the buff +walls, the quaint box pews of oiled wood, with handrails gleaming from +the touch of many generations, with wooden buttons and protruding hinges +proclaiming an ancient fashion; but the unique feature of the New North +Church is its slave galleries. These two small galleries, between the +roof and the choir loft, held for thirty years, in diminishing numbers, +negroes and Indians. The last occupant was a black Lucretia, who, after +being freed, was invited to sit downstairs with her master and mistress, +which she did, and which she continued to do until her death, not so +very long ago. + +Hingham, its Main Street--alas for the original name of "Bachelors +Rowe"--arched by a double row of superb elms on either side, is +incalculably rich in old houses, old traditions, old families. Even +motoring through, too quickly as motorists must, one cannot help being +struck by the substantial dignity of the place, by the well-kept +prosperity of the houses, large and small, which fringe the fine old +highway. Ever since the days when the three Misses Barker kept loyal to +George IV, claiming the King as their liege lord fifty years after the +Declaration of Independence, the town has preserved a Cranford-like +charm. And why not, when the very house is still handsomely preserved, +where the nameless nobleman, Francis Le Baron, was concealed between the +floors, and, as we are told in Mrs. Austen's novel, very properly +capped the climax by marrying his brave little protector, Molly Wilder? +Why not, when the Lincoln family, ancestors of Abraham, has been +identified with the town since its settlement? The house of +Major-General Benjamin Lincoln, who received the sword of Cornwallis at +Yorktown, is still occupied by his descendants, its neat fence, many +windows, two chimneys, and its two stories and a half proclaiming it a +dwelling of repute. Near by, descendants of Samuel Lincoln, the ancestor +of Abraham, occupy part of another roomy ancient homestead. The +Wampatuck Club, named after the Indian chief who granted the original +deeds of the town, has found quarters in an extremely interesting house +dating from 1680. In the spacious living-room are seventeen panels, on +the walls and in the doors, painted with charming old-fashioned skill by +John Hazlitt, the brother of the English essayist. The Reverend Daniel +Shute house, built in 1746, is practically intact with its paneled rooms +and wall-paper a hundred years old. Hingham's famous elms shade the +house where Parson Ebenezer Gay lived out his long pastorate of +sixty-nine years and nine months, and the Garrison house, built before +1640, sheltered, in its prime, nine generations of the same family. The +Rainbow Roof house, so called from the delicious curve in its roof, is +one of Hingham's prettiest two-hundred-year-old cottages, and Miss Susan +B. Willard's cottage is one of the oldest in the United States. Derby +Academy, founded almost two centuries and a half ago by Madam Derby, +still maintains its social and scholarly prestige through all the +educational turmoil of the twentieth century. One likes to associate +Hingham with Massachusetts's stanch and sturdy "war governor," for it +was here that John Albion Andrew, who proved himself so truly one of our +great men during the Civil War, courted Eliza Jones Hersey, and here +that the happy years of their early married life were spent. Later, +another governor, John D. Long, was for many years a mighty figure in +the town. + +With its ancient churches and institutions, its pensive graveyards and +lovely elms, its ancestral houses and hidden gardens, Hingham typifies +what is quaintest and best in New England towns. Possibly the dappling +of the elms, possibly the shadow of the Old Ship Church, is a bit deeper +here than in the other South Shore towns. However it may seem to its +inhabitants, to the stranger everything in Hingham is tinctured by the +remembrance of the stern old ecclesiasticism. Even the number of +historic forts seems a proper part of those righteous days, for when did +religion and warfare not go hand in hand? During the trouble with King +Philip the town had three forts, one at Fort Hill, one at the Cemetery, +and one "on the plain about a mile from the harbor"; and the sites may +still be identified. + +Not that Hingham history is exclusively religious or martial. Her little +harbor once held seventy sail of fishing vessels, and between 1815 and +1826, 165,000 barrels of mackerel were landed on their salty decks. For +fifty years (between 1811 and 1860) the Rapid sailed as a packet between +this town and Boston, making the trip on one memorable occasion in +sixty-seven minutes. We read that in the War of 1812 she was carried up +the Weymouth River and covered, masts and hull, with green bushes so +that the marauding British cruisers might not find her, and as we read +we find ourselves remembering that _camouflage_ is new only in name. + +How entirely fitting it seems that a town of such venerable houses and +venerable legends should be presided over by a church which is the +oldest of its kind in the country! + +Hingham changes. There is a Roman Catholic Church in the very heart of +that one-time Puritan stronghold: the New North is Unitarian, and +Episcopalians, Baptists, and Second Adventists have settled down +comfortably where once they would have been run out of town. Poor old +Puritans, how grieved and scandalized they would be to stand, as we are +standing now, and watch the procession of passing automobilists! Would +it seem all lost to them, we wonder, the religious ideal for which they +struggled, or would they realize that their sowing had brought forth +richer fruit than they could guess? It has all changed, since Puritan +days, and yet, perhaps, in no other place in New England does the hand +of the past lie so visibly upon the community. You cannot lift your eyes +but they rest upon some building raised two centuries and more ago; the +shade which ripples under your feet is cast by elms planted by that very +hand of the past. Even your voice repeats the words which those old +patriarchs, well versed in Biblical lore, chose for their neighborhood +names. Accord Pond and Glad Tidings Plain might have been lifted from +some Pilgrim's Progress, while the near-by Sea of Galilee and Jerusalem +Road are from the Good Book itself. + +"Which way to Egypt?" Is this an echo from that time when the Bible was +the corner-stone of Church and State, of home and school? + +"What's the best road to Jericho Beach?" Surely it is some grave-faced +shade who calls: or is it a peal from the chimes in the Memorial Bell +Tower--chimes reminiscent of old Hingham, in England? No, it is only the +shouted question of the motorist, gay and prosperous, flying on his +Sunday holiday through ancient Hingham town. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +COHASSET LEDGES AND MARSHES[1] + +[Illustration] + + +A sickle-shaped shore--wild, superb! Tawny ledges tumbling out to sea, +rearing massive heads to search, across three thousand miles of water, +for another shore. For it is Spain and Portugal which lie directly +yonder, and the same tumultuous sea that crashes and swirls against +Cohasset's crags laps also on those sunnier, warmer sands. + +Back inland, from the bold brown coast which gives Cohasset her +Riviera-like fame, lie marshes, liquefying into mirrors at high tide, +melting into lush green at low tide. + +Between the ledges and the marshes winds Jerusalem Road, bearing a +continual stream of sight-seers and fringed with estates hidden from the +sight-seers; estates with terraces dashed by spindrift, with curving +stairways hewn in sheer rock down to the water, with wind-twisted +savins, and flowers whose bright bloom is heightened by the tang of +salt. For too many a passing traveler Cohasset is known only as the most +fashionable resort on the South Shore. But Cohasset's story is a longer +one than that, and far more profound. + +Cohasset is founded upon a rock, and the making of that rock is so +honestly and minutely recorded by nature that even those who take alarm +at the word "geology" may read this record with ease. These rocky ledges +that stare so proudly across the sea underlie, also, every inch of soil, +and are of the same kind everywhere--granite. Granite is a rock which is +formed under immense pressure and in the presence of confined moisture, +needing a weight of fifteen thousand pounds upon every inch. Therefore, +wherever granite is found we know that it has not been formed by +deposit, like limestone and sandstone and slate and other sedimentary +rocks, but at a prodigious depth under the solid ground, and by slow +crystallizing of molten substances. There must have been from two to +five miles of other rock lying upon the stuff that crystallized into +granite. A wrinkling in the skin of the earth exposed the granite, a +wrinkling so gradual that doubtless if generations of men had lived on +top of the wrinkle they would have sworn it did not move. But move it +did, and the superimposed rock must have been worn off at a rate of less +than a hundredth part of an inch every year in order to lose two or +three miles of it in twenty-five million years. As the granite was +wrinkled up by the movement of the earth's crust, certain cracks opened +and filled with lava, forming dikes. The geologist to-day can glance at +these dikes and tell the period of their formation as casually as a +jockey looking at a horse's mouth can tell his age. He could also tell +of the "faulting," or slipping down, of adjacent masses of solid rock, +which has occurred often enough to carve the characteristic Cohasset +coast. + +The making of the rock bottom is a story which extends over millions of +years: the making of the soil extends over thousands. The gigantic +glacier which once formed all over the northern part of North America, +and which remained upon it most of the time until about seven thousand +years ago, ground up the rock like a huge mill and heaped its grist into +hills and plains and meadows. The marks of it are as easy to see as +finger prints in putty. There are scratches on the underlying rock in +every part of the town, pointing in the southerly direction in which the +glacier moved. The gravel and clay belts of the town have all been +stretched out in the same direction as the scratches, and many are the +boulders which were combed out of the moving glacier by the peaks of the +ledges, and are now poised, like the famous Tipping Rock, just where the +glacier left them when it melted. Few towns in America possess greater +geological interest or a wider variety of glacial phenomena than +Cohasset--all of which may be studied more fully with the aid of E. +Victor Bigelow's "Narrative History of the Town of Cohasset, +Massachusetts," and William O. Crosby's "Geology of the Boston Basin." + +This, then, is briefly the first part of Cohasset's ledges. The second +part deals with human events, including many shipwrecks and disasters, +and more than one romantic episode. Perhaps this human section is best +begun with Captain John Smith. + +Captain John Smith was born too early. If ever a hero was brought into +the world to adorn the moving-picture screen, that hero of the "iron +collar," of piratical capture, of wedlock with an Indian princess, was +the man. Failing of this high calling he did some serviceable work in +discovering and describing many of the inlets on the coast of New +England. Among these inlets Cohasset acted her part as hostess to the +famous navigator and staged a small and vivid encounter with the +aborigines. The date of this presentation was in 1614; the scenario may +be found in Smith's own diary. Smith and a party of eight or more +sailors made the trip between the ledges in a small rowboat. It is +believed that they landed somewhere near Hominy Point. Their landing was +not carried out without some misadventure, however, for in some way this +party of explorers angered the Indians with whom they came in contact, +and the result was an attack from bow and arrow. The town of Cohasset, +in commemorating this encounter by a tablet, has inscribed upon the +tablet Smith's own words: + +"We found the people on those parts very kind, but in their fury no less +valiant: and at Quonhaset falling out there with but one of them, he +with three others crossed the harbour in a cannow to certain rocks +whereby we must pass, and there let flie their arrowes for our shot, +till we were out of danger, yet one of them was slaine, and the other +shot through the thigh." + +History follows fast along the ledges: history of gallant deeds and +gallant defense during the days of the Revolution and the War of 1812; +deeds of disaster along the coast and one especial deed of great +engineering skill. + +The beauty and the tragedy of Cohasset are caught in large measure upon +these jagged rocks. The splinters and wrecks of two and a half centuries +have strewn the beaches, and many a corpse, far from its native land, +has been found, wrapped in a shroud of seaweed upon the sand, and has +been lowered by alien hands into a forever unmarked grave. Quite +naturally the business of "wrecking"--that is, saving the pieces--came +to be the trade of a number of Cohasset citizens, and so expert did +Cohasset divers and seamen become that they were in demand all over the +world. One of the most interesting salvage enterprises concerned a +Spanish frigate, sunk off the coast of Venezuela. Many thousand dollars +in silver coin were covered by fifty feet of water, and it was Captain +Tower, of Cohasset, with a crew of Cohasset divers and seamen, who set +sail for the spot in a schooner bearing the substantial name of Eliza +Ann. The Spanish Government, having no faith in the enterprise, agreed +to claim only two and one half per cent of what was removed. The first +year the wreckers got fourteen thousand dollars, and the second they had +reached seven thousand, when the Spaniards became so jealous of their +skill that they had to flee for their lives (taking the seven thousand, +however). The clumsy diving-bell method was the only one known at that +time, but when, twenty years later, the Spaniards had to swallow their +chagrin and send again for the same wrecking party to assist them on the +same task, modern diving suits were in use and more money was +recovered--no mean triumph for the crew of the Eliza Ann! + +As the wrecks along the Cohasset coast were principally caused by the +dangerous reefs spreading in either direction from what is known as +Minot's Ledge, the necessity of a lighthouse on that spot was early +evident, and the erecting of the present Minot's Light is one of the +most romantic engineering enterprises of our coast history. The original +structure was snapped off like a pikestaff in the great storm of 1851, +and the present one of Quincy granite is the first of its kind in +America to be built on a ledge awash at high tide and with no adjacent +dry land. The tremendous difficulties were finally overcome, although in +the year 1855 the work could be pursued for only a hundred and thirty +hours, and the following year for only a hundred and fifty-seven. To +read of the erection of this remarkable lighthouse reminds one of the +building of Solomon's temple. The stone was selected with the utmost +care, and the Quincy cutters declared that such chiseling had never +before left the hand of man. Then every single block for the lower +portion was meticulously cut, dovetailed, and set in position on +Government Island in Cohasset Harbor. The old base, exquisitely laid, +where they were thus set up is still visible, as smooth as a billiard +table, although grass-covered. In addition to the flawless cutting and +joining of the blocks, the ledge itself was cut into a succession of +levels suitable to bear a stone foundation--work which was possible only +at certain times of the tide and seasons of the year. The cutting of +each stone so that it exactly fitted its neighbor, above, below, and at +either side, and precisely conformed to the next inner row upon the same +level, was nothing short of a marvel. A miniature of the light--the +building of which took two winters, and which was on the scale of an +inch to a foot--was in the United States Government Building at the +Chicago Exposition, and is stone for stone a counterpart of the granite +tower in the Atlantic. Although this is an achievement which belongs in +a sense to the whole United States, yet it must always seem, to those +who followed it most closely, as belonging peculiarly to Cohasset. A +famous Cohasset rigger made the model for the derrick which was used to +raise the stones; the massive granite blocks were teamed by one whose +proud boast it was that he had never had occasion to shift a stone +twice; a Cohasset man captained the first vessel to carry the stone to +the ledge, and another assisted in the selection of the stone. + +It is difficult to turn one's eyes away from the spectacular beauty of +the Cohasset shore, but magnificent as these ledges are, and glittering +with infinite romance, yet, rather curiously, it is on the limpid +surface of the marshes that we read the most significant episodes of +Colonial and pioneer life. + +One of the needs which the early settlers were quick to feel was open +land which would serve as pasturage for their cattle. With forests +pressing down upon them from the rear, and a barrier of granite in front +of them, the problem of grazing-lands was important. The Hingham +settlement at Bare Cove (Cohasset was part of Hingham originally) found +the solution in the acres of open marshland which stretched to the east. +Cohasset to-day may ask where so much grazing-land lay within her +borders. By comparison with the old maps and surveying figures, we find +that many acres, now covered with the water of Little Harbor and lying +within the sandbar at Pleasant Beach, are counted as old grazing-lands. +These, with the sweep of what is now the "Glades," furnished abundant +pasturage for neighboring cattle and brought the Hingham settlers +quickly to Cohasset meadows. Thus it happens that the first history of +Cohasset is the history of this common pasturage--"Commons," as it was +known in the old histories. Although Hingham was early divided up among +the pioneers, the marshes were kept undivided for the use of the whole +settlement. As a record of 1650 puts it: "It was ordered that any +townsman shall have the liberty to put swine to Conohasset without yokes +or rings, upon the town's common land." + +But the Massachusetts Bay Colony was hard-headed as well as pious, and +several naïve hints creep into the early records of sharers of the +Commons who were shrewdly eyeing the salt land of Cohasset. A real +estate transfer of 1640 has this potential flavor: "Half the lot at +Conehasset, if any fall by lot, and half the commons which belong to +said lot." And again, four years later, Henry Tuttle sold to John +Fearing "what right he had to the Division of Conihassett Meadows." The +first land to come under the measuring chain and wooden stake of +surveyors was about the margin of Little Harbor about the middle of the +seventeenth century. After that the rest of the township was not long in +being parceled out. One of the curious methods of land division was in +the Beechwood district. The apportionment seems to have had the +characteristics of ribbon cake. Sections of differing desirability--to +meet the demands of justice and natural conditions--were measured out in +long strips, a mile long and twenty-five feet wide. Many an old stone +wall marking this early grant is still to be seen in the woods. Could +anything but the indomitable spirit of those English settlers and the +strong feeling for land ownership have built walls of carted stone about +enclosures a mile long and twenty-five feet wide? + +Having effected a division of land in Cohasset, families soon began to +settle away from the mother town of Hingham, and after a prolonged +period of government at arm's length, with all its attendant +discomforts, the long, bitter struggle resolved itself into Cohasset's +final separation from Hingham, and its development from a precinct into +an independent township. + +While the marshes to the north were the cause of Cohasset being first +visited, settled, and made into a township, yet the marshes to the south +hold an even more vital historical interest. These southern marshes, +bordering Bound Brook and stretching away to Bassing Beach, were visited +by haymakers as were those to the north. But these haymakers did not +come from the same township, nor were they under the same local +government. The obscure little stream which to-day lies between Scituate +Harbor and Cohasset marks the line of two conflicting grants--the +Plymouth Colony and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. + +In the early days of New England royal grants from the throne or patents +from colonial councils in London were deemed necessary before settling +in the wilderness. The strong, inherited respect for landed estates must +have given such charters their value, as it is hard for us to see now +how any one in England could have prevented the pioneers from settling +where they pleased. The various patents and grants of the two colonies +(indefinite as they seem to us now, as some granted "up to" a hundred +acres to each emigrant without defining any boundaries) brought the two +colonies face to face at Bound Brook. The result was a dispute over the +harvesting of salt hay. + +All boundary streams attract to themselves a certain amount of fame--the +Rio Grande, the Saint Lawrence, and the Rhine. But surely the little +stream of Bound Brook, which was finally taken as the line of division +between two colonies of such historical importance as the Plymouth and +the Massachusetts Bay, is worth more than a superficial attention. The +dispute lasted many years and occasioned the appointing of numerous +commissioners from both sides. That the salt grass of Bassing Beach +should have assumed such importance reveals again the sensitiveness to +land values of men who had so recently left England. The settling of the +dispute was not referred back to England, but was settled by the +colonists themselves. + +The author of the "Narrative History of Cohasset" calls this an event of +only less historical importance than that of the pact drawn up in the +cabin of the Mayflower. He declares that the confederation of states had +its inception there, and adds: "The appointment for this joint +commission for the settlement of this intercolonial difficulty was the +first step of federation that culminated in the Colonial Congress and +then blossomed into the United States." We to-day, to whom the salt +grass of Cohasset is little more than a fringe about the two harbors, +may find it difficult to agree fully with such a sweeping statement, but +certainly this spot and boundary line should always be associated with +the respect for property which has ennobled the Anglo-Saxon race. + +Between the marshes, which were of such high importance in those early +days, and the ledges which have been the cause and the scene of so many +Cohasset adventures, twists Jerusalem Road, the brilliant beauty of +which has been so often--but never too often--remarked. This was the +main road from Hingham for many years, and it took full three hours of +barbarous jolting in two-wheeled, springless ox carts to make the trip. +Even if a man had a horse the journey was cruelly tedious, for there +were only a few stretches where the horse could go faster than a +walk--and the way was pock-marked with boulders and mudholes. With no +stage-coach before 1815, and being off the highway between Plymouth and +Boston, it is small wonder that the early Cohasset folk either walked or +went by sea to Hingham and thence to Boston. + +It has been suggested that the "keeper of young cattle at Coneyhassett," +who drove his herd over from Hingham, was moved either by piety or +sarcasm to give the trail its present arresting name. However, as the +herdsman did not take this route, but the back road through Turkey +Meadows, it is more probable that some visitors, who detected a +resemblance between this section of the country and the Holy Land, were +responsible for the christening of this road and also of the Sea of +Galilee--which last has almost dropped into disuse. There does not seem +to be any particular suggestion of the land of the Pharaohs and +present-day Egypt, but tradition explains that as follows: Old Squire +Perce had accumulated a store of grain in case of drought, and when the +drought came and the men hurried to him to buy corn, he greeted them +with "Well, boys, so you've come down to Egypt to buy corn." Another +proof, if one were needed, of the Biblical familiarity of those days. + +It is hard to stop writing about Cohasset. There are so many bits of +history tucked into every ledge and cranny of her shore. The green in +front of the old white meeting-house--one of the prettiest and most +perfect meeting-houses on the South Shore--has been pressed by the feet +of men assembling for six wars. It makes Cohasset seem venerable, +indeed, when one thinks of the march of American history. But to the +tawny ledges, tumbling out to sea, these three hundred years are as but +a day; for the story of the stones, like the story of the stars, is +measured in terms of milliards. To such immemorial keepers of the coast +the life of man is a brief tale that is soon told, and fades as swiftly +as the fading leaf. + +[Illustration] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] For much of this chapter I am indebted to my friend Alice C. Hyde. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE SCITUATE SHORE + +[Illustration] + + +Scituate is different: different from Cohasset, with its superbly bold +coast and its fashionable folk; different from Hingham, with its air of +settled inland dignity. Scituate has a quaintness, a casualness, the +indescribable air of a land's-end spot. The fine houses in Scituate are +refreshingly free from pretension; the winds that have twisted the trees +into Rackham-like grotesques have blown away falsity and formality. + +Scituate life has always been along the shore. It is from the shore that +coot-shooting used to furnish a livelihood to many a Scituate man, and +still lures the huntsmen in the fine fall weather. It is the peculiar +formation of the shore which has developed a small, clinker-built boat, +and made the town famous for day fishing. It is along the shore that the +unique and picturesque mossing industry is still carried on, and along +the shore that the well-known colony of literary folk have settled. + +Scituate's history is really a fishing history, for as early as 1633 a +fishing station was established here, and in course of time the North +River, winding twenty miles through green meadows to the sea, was once +the scene of more shipbuilding than any other river in New England. + +There is nothing more indicative of the Yankees' shrewd practicality +than the early settlers' instant appreciation of the financial and +economic potentialities of the fishing-trade. The Spaniard sought for +gold in the new country, or contented himself with the fluctuating fur +trade with its demoralizing slack seasons. But the New Englander +promptly applied himself to the mundane pursuit of cod and mackerel. +Everybody fished. As John Smith, in his "Description of New England," +says: "Young boyes and girles, salvages or any other, be they never such +idlers, may turne, carry, and returne fish without shame or either great +pain: he is very idle that is past twelve years of age and cannot doe so +much: and shee is very old that cannot spin a thread to catch them." + +It began when Squanto the Indian showed the amazed colonists how he +could tread the eels out of the mud with his feet and catch them with +his hands. This was convenient, to be sure, but the colonists did not +long content themselves with such primitive methods. They sent to +England for cod hooks and lines; mackerel hooks and lines; herring nets +and seines; shark hooks, bass nets, squid lines, and eel pots; and in a +short time they had established a trade which meant more money than the +gold mines of Guiana or Potosi. The modern financier who makes a fortune +from the invention of a collar button or the sale of countless penny +packages of gum is the lineal descendant of that first thrifty New +Englander who did not scorn the humble cod because it was cheap and +plentiful (you remember how these same cod "pestered" the ships of +Gosnold in 1602), but set to work with the quiet initiative which has +distinguished New Englanders ever since, first to catch, then to barter, +and finally to sell his wares to all the world. For cheap as all fish +was--twopence for a twelve-pound cod, salmon less than a penny a pound, +and shad, when it was finally considered fit to eat at all, at two fish +for a penny--yet, when all the world is ready to buy and the supply is +inexhaustible, tremendous profits are possible. The many fast days of +the Roman Catholic Church abroad opened an immense demand, and in a +short time quantities of various kinds of fish (Josselyn in 1672 +enumerates over two hundred caught in New England waters) were dried and +salted and sent to England. + +This constant and steadily increasing trade radically affected the whole +economic structure and history of New England for two centuries. Ships +and all the shipyard industries; the farm, on which fish was used not +only as a medium of exchange, but also as a valuable fertilizer; the +home, where the many operations of curing and salting were carried +on--all of those were developed directly by the growth of this +particular trade. Laws were made and continually revised regarding the +fisheries and safeguarding their rights in every conceivable fashion; +ship carpenters were exempt from military service, and many special +exemptions were extended to fishermen under the general statutes. + +The oyster is now a dish for the epicure and the lobster for the +millionaire. But in the old days when oysters a foot long were not +uncommon, and lobsters sometimes grew to six feet, every one had all he +wanted, and sometimes more than he wanted, of these delicacies. The +stranger in New England may notice how certain customs still prevail, +such as the Friday night fish dinner and the Sunday morning fish-cakes; +and also that New Englanders as a whole have a rather fastidious taste +in regard to the preparation of both salt- and fresh-water products. +The food of any region is characteristic of that region, and to travel +along the Old Coast Road and not partake of one of the delicious fish +dinners, is as absurd as it would be to omit rice from a menu in China +or roast beef from an English dinner. + +While the fishing trade was highly important in all the South Shore +towns, yet it was especially so in Scituate. In 1770 more than thirty +vessels, principally for mackerel, were fitted out in this one village, +and these vessels not infrequently took a thousand barrels in a season. +In winter they were used for Southern coasting, carrying lumber and fish +and returning with grain and flour. The reason why fishing was so +persistently and exclusively followed in this particular spot is not +hard to seek. The sea yielded a far more profitable and ready crop than +the land, and, besides, had a jealous way of nibbling away at the land +wherever it could. It is estimated that it wastes away from twelve to +fourteen inches of Fourth Cliff every year. + +But in spite of the sea's readily accessible crop it was natural that +the "men of Kent" who settled the town should demand some portion of dry +land as well. These men of Kent were not mermen, able to live in and on +the water indefinitely, but decidedly gallant fellows, rather more +courtly than their neighbors, and more polished than the race which +succeeded them. Gilson, Vassal, Hatherly, Cudworth, Tilden, Hoar, +Foster, Stedman, and Hinckley had all been accustomed to the elegancies +of life in England as their names testify. The first land they used was +on the cliffs, for it had already been improved by Indian planting; then +the salt marshes, covered with a natural crop of grass, and then the +mellow intervales near the river. When the sea was forced to the +regretful realization that she could not monopolize the entire attention +of her fellows, she was persuaded to yield up some very excellent +fertilizer in the way of seaweed. But she still nags away at the cliffs +and shore, and proclaims with every flaunting wave and ripple that it is +the water, not the land, which makes Scituate what it is. + +And, after all, the sea is right. It is along the shore that one sees +Scituate most truly. Here the characteristic industry of mossing is +still carried on in primitive fashion. The mossers work from dories, +gathering with long-handled rakes the seaweed from the rocks and ledges +along the shore. They bring it in, a heavy, dark, inert mass, all sleek +and dripping, and spread it out to dry in the sun. As it lies there, +neatly arranged on beds of smoothest pebbles, the sun bleaches it. One +can easily differentiate the different days' haul, for the moss which is +just spread out is almost black and that of yesterday is a dark purple. +It shimmers from purple into lavender; the lavender into something like +rose; and by the time of the final washing and bleaching it lies in fine +light white crinkles, almost like wool. It is a pretty sight, and the +neatness and dispatch of the mossers make the odd sea-flower gardens +attractive patches on the beach. Sometimes a family working together +will make as much as a thousand dollars in a season gathering and +preparing the moss. One wonders if all the people in the world could +eat enough blancmange to consume this salty product, and is relieved to +be reminded that the moss is also used for brewing and dyeing. + +It is really a pity to see Scituate only from a motor. There is real +atmosphere to the place, which is worth breathing, but it takes more +time to breathe in an atmosphere than merely to "take the air." Should +you decide to ramble about the ancient town you will surely find your +way to Scituate Point. The old stone lighthouse, over a century old, is +no longer used, and the oil lantern, hung nightly out at the end of the +romantic promontory, seems a return to days of long ago. You will also +see the place where, in the stirring Revolutionary days, little Abigail +and Rebecca Bates, with fife and drum marched up and down, close to the +shore and yet hidden from sight, playing so furiously that their +"martial music and other noises" scared away the enemy and saved the +town from invasion. You will go to Second Cliff where are the summer +homes of many literary people, and you will pass through Egypt, +catching what glimpse you can of the stables and offices, paddocks and +cottages of the immense estate of Dreamwold. And of course you will have +pointed out to you the birthplace of Samuel Woodworth, whose sole claim +to remembrance is his poem of the "Old Oaken Bucket." The well-sweep is +still where he saw it, when, as editor of the _New York Mirror_, it +suddenly flashed before his reminiscent vision, but the old oaken bucket +itself has been removed to a museum. + +After you have done all these things, you will, if you are wise, forsake +Scituate Harbor, which is the old section, and Scituate Beach, which is +the newer, summer section, and find the way to the burial ground, which, +after the one in Plymouth, is the oldest in the State. Possibly there +will be others at the burial ground, for ancestor worshipers are not +confined to China, and every year there springs up a new crop of +genealogists to kneel before the moss-grown headstones and, with truly +admirable patience, decipher names and dates, half obliterated by the +finger of time. One does not wonder that their descendants are so eager +to trace their connection back to those men of Kent, whose sturdy title +rings so bravely down the centuries. To be sure, what is left to trace +is very slight in most cases, and quite without any savor of +personality. Too often it is merely brief and dry recital of dates and +number of progeny, and names of the same. Few have left anything so +quaint as the words of Walter Briggs, who settled there in 1651 and from +whom Briggs Harbor was named. His will contains this thoughtful +provision: "For my wife Francis, one third of my estate during her life, +also a gentle horse or mare, and Jemmy the negur shall catch it for +her." + +The good people who came later (1634) from Plymouth and Boston and took +up their difficult colonial life under the pastorate of Mr. Lathrop, +seem to have done their best to make "Satuit" (as it was first called, +from the Indians, meaning "cold brook") conform as nearly as possible to +the other pioneer settlements, even to the point of discovering witches +here. But religion and fasting were not able to accomplish what the +ubiquitous summer influx has, happily, also failed to effect. Scituate +remains different. + +Perhaps it was those men of Kent who gave it its indestructibly romantic +bias; perhaps it is the jealousy of the ever-encroaching sea. The gray +geese flying over the iridescent moss gleaming upon the pebbled beaches, +the solitary lantern on the point are all parts of that differentness. +And those who love her best are glad that it is so. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +MARSHFIELD, THE HOME OF DANIEL WEBSTER + +[Illustration] + + Ye marshes, how candid and simple and nothing-withholding and free! + Ye publish yourselves to the sky and offer yourselves to the sea! + Tolerant plains, that suffer the sea and the rains and the sun, + Ye spread and span like the catholic man who hath mightily won + God out of knowledge, and good out of infinite pain, + And sight out of blindness, and purity out of a stain. + + +It was these mighty marshes--this ample sweep of grass, of sea and +sky--this vast earthly and heavenly spaciousness that must forever stand +to all New Englanders as a background to the powerful personality who +chose it as his own home. Daniel Webster, when his eyes first turned to +this infinite reach of largeness, instinctively knew it as the place +where his splendid senses would find satisfaction, and his splendid mind +would soar into an even loftier freedom. Webster loved Marshfield with +an intensity that made it peculiarly his own. Lanier, in language more +intricate and tropical, exclaimed of his "dim sweet" woods: "Ye held me +fast in your heart, and I held you fast in mine." Webster wielded the +vital union between his nature and that of the land not only by profound +sentiment, but by a vigorous physical grappling with the soil. + +Is it that vivid natures unconsciously seek an environment +characteristic of them? Or are they, perhaps, inevitably forced to +create such an environment wherever they find themselves? Both facts +seem true in this case. This wide world of marsh and sea is not only +beautifully expressive of one who plunged himself into a rich communion +with the earth, with her full harvests and blooded cattle, with her +fruitful brooks and lakes; but it is still, after more than half a +century, vibrant with the spirit of the man who dwelt there. + +We of another generation--and a generation before whom so many +portentous events and figures have passed--find it hard to realize the +tremendous magnetism and brilliancy of a man who has been so long dead, +or properly to estimate the high historical significance of such a life. +The human attribute which is the most immediately impelling in direct +intercourse--personality--is the most elusive to preserve. If Webster's +claim to remembrance rested solely upon that attribute, he would still +be worthy of enduring fame. But his gifts flowered at a spectacular +climax of national affairs and won thereby spectacular prominence. That +these gifts were to lose something of their pristine repute before the +end infuses, from a dramatic point of view, a contrasted and heightened +luster to the period of their highest glory. + +Let us, casual travelers of a later and more careless day, walk now +together over the place which is the indestructible memorial of a great +man, and putting aside the measuring-stick of criticism--the sign of +small natures--try to live for an hour in the atmosphere which was the +breath of life to one who, if he failed greatly, also succeeded greatly, +and whose noble achievement it was not only to express, but to vivify a +love for the Union which, in its hour of supreme trial, became its +triumphant force. + +Could we go back--not quite a hundred years--a little off the direct +route to Plymouth, on a site overlooking the broad marshes of Green +Harbor and the sea, where there now stands a boulder erected in 1914 by +the Boston University Law School Association, we would find a +comfortable, rambling house, distinguished among its New England +neighbors by an easy and delightful hospitality--the kind of hospitality +we call "Southern." There are many people in the house, on the veranda +and lawns: a hostess of gentle mien and manners; children attractive in +the spontaneity of those who continually and happily associate with +their elders; several house guests (yonder is Audubon the great +naturalist, here is an office-seeker from Boston, and that chap over +there, so very much at home, can be no other than Peter Harvey, +Webster's fond biographer). Callers there are, also, as is shown by the +line of chaises and saddle horses waiting outside, and old Captain +Thomas and his wife, from whom the place was bought, and who still +retain their original quarters, move in and out like people who consider +themselves part of the family. It is a heterogeneous collection, yet by +no means an awkward one, and every one is chatting with every one else +with great amiability. It is late afternoon: the master of the house has +been away all day, and now his guests and his family are glancing in the +direction from which he may be expected. For although every one is +comfortable and properly entertained, yet the absence of the host +creates an inexpressible emptiness; it is as if everything were +quiescent--hardly breathing--merely waiting until he comes. Suddenly the +atmosphere changes; it is charged with a strong vibrant quality; +everything--all eyes, all interest--is instantly focused on the figure +which has appeared among them. He is in fisherman's clothes--this +newcomer--attired with a brave eye for the picturesque, in soft hat and +flowing tie; but there are no fisherman's clothes, no, nor any other +cloakings which can conceal the resilient dignity of his bearing, his +impressive build, and magnificent, kingly head. Sydney Smith called +Webster a cathedral; and surely there must have been something in those +enormous, burning eyes, that craglike brow, that smote even the most +superficial observer into an admiration which was almost awe. + +Many men--perhaps even the majority--whatever their genius in the outer +world, in their own houses are either relegated to--or choose--the +inconspicuous rôle of mere masculine appendages. But here we have a man +who is superbly the host: he knows and welcomes every guest and caller; +he personally supervises the disposal of their baggage and the selection +of their chambers; he himself has ordered the dinner--mutton which he +has raised, fish which he has caught--and it is being cooked by Monica, +the Southern slave whose freedom he purchased for her. He carves at +table, priding himself on his dispatch and nicety, and keeps an eye on +the needs of every one at the long board. Everything, every one in the +house is irresistibly drawn about this magnetic center which dominates +by its innate power of personality more than by any deliberate +intention. His children worship him; his wife idolizes him; each man and +woman on the place regards him with admiring affection. And in such +congenial atmosphere he expands, is genial, kindly, delightful. But +devoted as he is to his home, his family, and his friends, and charming +as he shows himself with them, yet it is not until we see him striding +over the farm which he has bought that we see the Daniel Webster who is +destined to live most graphically in the memories of those who like to +think of great men in those intimate moments which are most personally +characteristic of them. + +We must rise early in the morning if we would accompany him on his day's +round. He himself is up at sunrise, for the sunrise is to him signal to +new life. As he once wrote: "Among all our good people not one in a +thousand sees the sun rise once a year. They know nothing of the +morning. Their idea of it is that part of the day which comes along +after a cup of coffee and a beefsteak or a piece of toast. With them +morning is not a new issuing of light, a new bursting forth of the sun, +a new waking up of all that has life from a sort of temporary death, to +behold again the works of God, the heavens and the earth.... The first +faint streak of light, the earliest purpling of the east which the lark +springs up to greet, and the deeper and deeper coloring into orange and +red, till at length the 'glorious sun is seen, regent of the day'--this +they never enjoy, for they never see it." + +So four o'clock finds Webster up and dressed and bound for the little +study in his garden (the only building spared by the fire which +destroyed the house in 1878) and beginning his correspondence. If he has +no secretary he writes himself, and by time breakfast is announced +twenty letters, all franked and sealed, are ready to be posted. + +"Now," he says, smiling benignantly down the long breakfast table of +family and friends, "my day's work is done--I have nothing to do but +fish." + +Although this is, indeed, his favorite sport, and there is hardly a +brook or lake or pond within a radius of twenty miles which does not +bear the charmed legend of having been one of his favorite fishing +grounds, he does not spend his days in amusement, like the typical +country gentleman. Farming to him, the son of a yeoman, is no mere +possession of a fine estate, but the actual participation in ploughing, +planting, and haying. His full animal spirits find relief in such labor. +We cannot think of any similar example of such prodigious mental and +physical energy. Macaulay was a great parliamentary orator, but he was +the most conventional of city men; Burke and Chatham had no strength for +such strenuousness after their professional toil. But Webster loved to +know and to put his hand to every detail of farming and stock-raising. +When he first came to Marshfield the soil was thin and sandy. It was he +who instituted scientific farming in the region, teaching the natives +how to fertilize with kelp which was easily obtainable from the sea, and +also with the plentiful small herring or menhaden. He taught them the +proper care of the soil, and the rotation of crops. This passionate love +of the earth was an integral part of the man. As the force of his mind +drew its power, not from mere rhetorical facility, but from fundamental +principles, so his magnificent body, like that of the fabled Antæus, +seemed to draw perennial potency from contact with the earth. To acquire +land--he owned nearly eighteen hundred acres at the time of his +death--and to cultivate it to the highest possible degree of +productiveness was his intense delight. The farm which he purchased from +Captain Thomas grew to an estate of two or three dozen buildings, +outhouses, tenant houses, a dairyman's cottage, fisherman's house, +agricultural offices, and several large barns. We can imagine that he +shows us all of these things--explaining every detail with enthusiasm +and accuracy, occasionally digressing upon the habits of birds or fish, +the influence of tides and currents, the changes of sky and wind. All +natural laws are fascinating to him--inspiring his imagination and +uplifting his spirit--and it is these things, never politics or +business, which he discusses in his hours of freedom. He himself +supervises the planting and harvesting and slaughtering here and on his +other farm at Franklin--the family homestead--even when obliged to be +absent, or even when temporarily residing in Washington and hard pressed +with the cares of his office as Secretary of State. + +Those painters who include a parrot in the portrait of some fine +frivolous lady do so to heighten their interpretation of character. We +all betray our natures, by the creatures we instinctively gather about +us. One might know that Jefferson at Monticello would select high-bred +saddle horses as his companions; that Cardinal Richelieu would find no +pet so soothing, so alluring, as a soft-stepping cat; that Charles I +would select the long-haired spaniel. So it is entirely in the picture +that of all the beasts brought under human yoke, that great oxen, slow, +solemn, strong, would appeal to the man whose searching eyes were never +at rest except when they swept a wide horizon; whose mind found its +deepest satisfaction in noble languages, the giant monuments of +literature and art, and whose soul best stretched its wings beside the +limitless sea and under the limitless sky. Webster was fond of all +animal life; he felt himself part of its free movement. Guinea hens, +peacocks, ducks, flocks of tamed wild geese, dogs, horses--these were +all part of the Marshfield place, but there was within the breast of the +owner a special responsiveness to great herds of cattle, and especially +fine oxen, the embodiment of massive power. So fond was he of these +favorite beasts of his, that often on his arrival home he would fling +his bag into the hall without even entering the house, and hasten to the +barn to see that they were properly tied up for the night. As he once +said to his little son, as they both stood by the stalls and he was +feeding the oxen with ears of corn from an unhusked pile lying on the +barn floor: "I would rather be here than in the Senate," adding, with +his famous smile, "I think it is better company." So we may be sure as +we walk in our retrospect about the farm with him--he never speaks of it +as an "estate" but always as a farm--he will linger longest where the +Devon oxen, the Alderneys, Herefordshire, and Ayrshire are grazing, and +that the eyes which Carlyle likened to anthracite furnaces will glow and +soften. Twenty years from now he will gaze out upon his oxen once again +from the window before which he has asked to be carried, as he lies +waiting for death. Weariness, disease, and disappointment have weakened +the elasticity of his spirit, and as they pass--his beloved oxen, +slowly, solemnly--what procession of the years passes with them! Years +of full living, of generous living; of deep emotions; of glory; years of +ambition; of bereavement; of grief. It is all to pass--these happy days +at Marshfield; the wife he so fondly cared for; the children he so +deeply cherished. Sycophants are to fill, in a measure, the place of +friends, the money which now flows in so freely is to entangle and +ensnare him; the lofty aspiration which now inspires him is to +degenerate into a presidential ambition which will eat into his soul. +But to-day let us, as long as we may, see him as he is in the height of +his powers. Let us walk with him under the trees which he planted. Those +large elms, gracefully silhouetted against the house, were placed there +with his own hands at the birth of his son Edward and his daughter +Julia, and he always refers to them gently as "brother" and "sister." To +plant a tree to mark an event was one of his picturesque customs--an +unconscious desire, perhaps, to project himself into the future. I am +quite sure, as we accompany him, he will expatiate on the improvement in +the soil which he has effected; that he will point out eagerly not only +the domestic but the wild animals about the place; and that he will +stand for a few moments on the high bluff overlooking the sea and the +marshes and let the wind blow through his dark hair. He is carefully +dressed--he always dresses to fit the occasion--and to-day, as he stands +in his long boots reaching to the knee and adorned with a tassel, his +bell-crowned beaver hat in his hand, and in his tight pantaloons and +well-cut coat--a magnificent specimen of virile manhood--the words of +Lanier, although written at a later date, and about marshes far more +lush than these New England ones, beat upon our ears: + +[Illustration] + + "Oh, what is abroad in the marsh and the terminal sea? + Somehow my soul seems suddenly free + From the weighing of fate and the sad discussion of sin, + By the length and the breadth and the sweep of the marshes of Glynn." + +On the way back he will show us the place where three of his favorite +horses are buried, for he does not sell the old horses who have done him +good service, but has them buried "with the honors of war"--that is, +standing upright, with their halters and shoes on. Above one of them he +has placed the epitaph: + + "Siste Viator! + Viator te major his sistit." + +I do not know if, as we return to the house where already a fresh group +of visitors has arrived, he will pause by a corner of the yard set off +by an iron fence. He has chosen this spot as the place where he shall +lie, and here, in time, are to repose under the wide and simple vault +of sky the wife and children whose going before is to bring such +desolation. It is a place supremely fitting for that ample spirit which +knew for its own the nobility of large spaces, and the grandeur of +repose. + +The life of Daniel Webster is one of the most dramatic and touching of +any of our great men. He was an orator of such solid thought and chaste +eloquence that even now, without the advantage of the marvelously rich +and flexible voice and the commanding presence that made each word burn +like a fire, even without this incalculable personal interpretation, his +speeches remain as a permanent part of our literature, and will so long +as English oratory is read. He was a brilliant lawyer--the foremost of +his day--and his statesmanship was of equal rank. In private life he was +a peculiarly devoted and tender son, husband, father, and friend. That +he should have become saddened by domestic losses and somewhat vitiated +by flattery were, perhaps, inevitable. He was bitterly condemned--more +bitterly by his contemporaries than by those who now study his words and +work--for lowering his high standard in regard to slavery. It is +impossible to refute the accusation, at the end of his life, of a +carelessness approaching unscrupulousness in money matters. His personal +failings, which were those of a man of exceptional vitality, have been +heavily--too heavily--emphasized. He ate and drank and spent money +lavishly; he had a fine library; he loved handsome plate and good +service and good living. He was generous; he was kind. That he was +susceptible to adulation and, after the death of his first wife, drifted +into associations less admirable than those of his earlier years, are +the dark threads of a woof underrunning a majestic warp. He adored his +country with a fervor that savors of the heroic, and when he said, +"There are no Alleghanies in my politics," he spoke the truth. The +intense passion for the soil which animated him at Marshfield was only a +fragment of that higher passion for his country--feeling never tainted +by sectionalism or local prejudice. It was this profound love for the +Union, coupled with his surpassing gift of eloquence in expressing that +love and inspiring it in all who heard him, that distinguishes him for +all time. + +There are other memorable things about Marshfield. Governor Edward +Winslow, who was sent to England to represent the Plymouth and +Massachusetts Bay Colonies, and whose son Josiah was the first native +Governor of the Colony, may both be called Marshfield men. Peregrine +White, the first white child born in this country, lies in the Winslow +Burying Ground. One of the most singular changes on our coast occurred +in this vicinity when in one night the "Portland Breeze" closed up the +mouth of the South River and four miles up the beach opened up the mouth +of the North River, making an entrance three quarters of a mile wide +between Third and Fourth Cliff. + +These and many other men and events of Marshfield are properly given a +place in the history of New England, but the special glory of this spot +will always be that Daniel Webster chose to live, chose to die, and +chose to be buried under the vast vault of her skyey spaces, within the +sound of her eternal sea. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +DUXBURY HOMES + +[Illustration] + + +There are certain places whose happy fortune seems to be that they are +always specially loved and specially sought by the children of men. From +that memorable date in 1630 when a little group of the Plymouth +colonists asked permission to locate across the bay at "Duxberie" until +now, when the summer colony alone has far surpassed that of the original +settlers, this section of the coast--with its lovely six-mile beach, its +high bluffs, and its pleasant hills and pasture lands, upon which are +found quite a southern flora, unique in this northern latitude--has been +thoroughly frequented and enjoyed. + +There is no more graphic index to the caliber of a people than the +houses which they build, and the first house above all others which we +must associate with this spot is the Standish cottage, built at the foot +of Captain's Hill by Alexander Standish, the son of Myles, partly from +materials from his father's house, which was burned down, but whose +cellar is still visible. This long, low, gambrel-roofed structure, with +a broad chimney showing the date of 1666, was a long way ahead of the +first log cabins erected by the Pilgrims--farther than most of us +realize, accustomed as we are to glass instead of oiled paper in +windows; to shingles, and not thatch for roofs. It is fitting that this +ancient and charming dwelling should be associated with one of the most +romantic, most striking, names in the Plymouth Colony. There are few +more picturesque personalities in our early history than Myles Standish. +Small in stature, fiery in spirit, a terror to the Indians, and a strong +arm to the Pilgrims, there is no doubt that his determination to live in +Duxbury--which he named for Duxborough Hall, his ancestral home in +Lancashire--went far in obtaining for it a separate incorporation and a +separate church. This was the first definite offshoot from the Plymouth +Colony, and was accompanied by the usual maternal fears. While he could +not forbid them going to Duxbury to settle, yet, when they asked for a +separate incorporation and church, Bradford granted it most unwillingly. +He voiced the general sentiment when he wrote that such a separation +presaged the ruin of the church "& will provoke y^e Lord's displeasure +against them." + +However, such unkind predictions in no wise bothered the sturdy little +group who moved over to the new location, needing room for their cattle +and their gardens, and most of all a sense of freedom from the +restrictions of the mother colony. The son of Elder Brewster went, and +in time the Elder himself, and so did John Alden and his wife Priscilla, +whose courtship has been so well told by Longfellow that it needs no +further embellishing here. On the grassy knoll where John and Priscilla +built their home in 1631, their grandson built the cottage which now +stands--the property of the Alden Kindred Association. John Alden seems +to have been an attractive young fellow--it is easy to see why Priscilla +Mullins preferred him to the swart, truculent widower--but from our +point of view John Alden's chief claim to fame is that he was a friend +of Myles Standish. + +Let us, as we pay our respects to Duxbury, pause for a moment and recall +some of the courageous adventures, some of the brave traits and some of +the tender ones, which make up our memory of this doughty military +commander. In the first place, we must remember that he was never a +member of the church of the Pilgrims: there is even a question if he +were not--like the rest of his family in Lancashire--a Roman Catholic; +and this immediately places him in a position of peculiar distinction. +From the first his mission was not along ecclesiastical lines, but along +military and civil ones. The early histories are full of his intrepid +deeds: there was never an expedition too dangerous or too difficult to +daunt him. He would attack with the utmost daring the hardest or the +humblest task. He was absolutely loyal to the interest of the Colony, +and during that first dreadful winter when he was among the very few who +were not stricken with sickness, he tended the others day and night, +"unceasing in his loving care." As in many audacious characters this +sweeter side of his nature does not seem to have been fully appreciated +by his contemporaries, and we have the letter in which Robinson, that +"most learned, polished and modest spirit," writes to Bradford, and +warns him to have care about Standish. He loves him right well, and is +persuaded that God has given him to them in mercy and for much good, if +he is used aright; but he fears that there may be wanting in him "that +tenderness of the life of man (made after God's image) which is meet." +This warning doubtless flattered Standish, but Robinson's later +criticism of his methods at Weymouth hurt the little captain cruelly. He +seems to have cherished an intense affection for the Leyden pastor, +such as valorous natures often feel for meditative ones, and that +Robinson died before he--Standish--could justify himself was a deep +grief to the soldier to whom mere physical hardships were as nothing. We +do not know a great deal about this relationship between the two men: in +this as in so many cases the intimate stories of these men and women, +"also their love, and their hatred, and their envy is now perished." But +we do know that thirty years later when the gallant captain lay dying he +wrote in his will: "I give three pounds to Mercy Robinson, whom I +tenderly love for her grandfather's sake." Surely one feels the touching +eloquence of this brief sentence the fitting close of a life not only +heroic in action, but deeply sensitive in sentiment. + +He died on his farm in Duxbury in 1656 when he was seventy-three, and +the Myles Standish Monument on Captain's Hill, three hundred and ten +feet above the bay, is no more conspicuous than his knightly and tender +life among the people he elected to serve. His two wives, and also +Priscilla and John Alden, for whom he entertained such lively love and +equally lively fury, all are buried here--the Captain's last home +fittingly marked by four cannon and a sturdy boulder. + +Not only for Standish and Alden is Duxbury famous. The beloved William +Brewster himself moved to this new settlement, and up to a few years ago +the traces of the whitewood trees which gave the name of "Eagle's Nest" +to his house could be distinguished. One son--Love--lived with the +venerable elder, who was a widower, and his other son Jonathan owned the +neighboring farm. In the sight of the Plymouth Colony--their first home +in the new land--the three men often worked together, cutting trees and +planting. + +Others of the original Mayflower company came too, leaving traces of +themselves in such names as Blackfriars Brook, Billingsgate, and +Houndsditch--names which they brought from Old England. + +The homes which these pioneers so laboriously and so lovingly +wrought--what were they? How did they compare with the modern home and +household? In Mr. Sheldon's "History of Deerfield" we find such a +charming and vivid picture of home life in the early days--and one that +applies with equal accuracy to Duxbury--that we cannot do better than +copy it here: + +"The ample kitchen was the center of the family life, social and +industrial. Here around the rough table, seated on rude stools or +benches, all partook of the plain and sometimes stinted fare. A glance +at the family gathered here after nightfall on a winter's day may prove +of interest. + +"After a supper of bean porridge or hasty pudding and milk of which all +partake in common from a great pewter basin, or wooden bowl, with spoons +of wood, horn or pewter; after a reverent reading of the Bible, and +fervent supplications to the Most High for prayer and guidance; after +the watch was set on the tall mount, and the vigilant sentinel began +pacing his lonely beat, the shutters were closed and barred, and with a +sense of security the occupations of the long winter evening began. +Here was a picture of industry enjoined alike by the law of the land and +the stern necessities of the settlers. All were busy. Idleness was a +crime. On the settle, or a low armchair, in the most sheltered nook, sat +the revered grandam--as a term of endearment called granny--in red +woolen gown, and white linen cap, her gray hair and wrinkled face +reflecting the bright firelight, the long stocking growing under her +busy needles, while she watched the youngling of the flock in the cradle +by her side. The good wife, in linsey-woolsey short-gown and red +petticoat steps lightly back and forth in calf pumps beside the great +wheel, or poising gracefully on the right foot, the left hand extended +with the roll or bat, while with a wheel finger in the other, she gives +the wheel a few swift turns for a final twist to the long-drawn thread +of wool or tow. The continuous buzz of the flax wheels, harmonizing with +the spasmodic hum of the big wheel, shows that the girls are preparing a +stock of linen against their wedding day. Less active and more fitful +rattled the quill wheel, where the younger children are filling quills +for the morrow's weaving. + +"Craftsmen are still scarce, and the yeoman must depend largely on his +own skill and resources. The grandsire, and the goodman, his son, in +blue woolen frocks, buckskin breeches, long stockings, and clouted +brogans with pewter buckles, and the older boys in shirts of brown tow, +waistcoat and breeches of butternut-colored woolen homespun, surrounded +by piles of white hickory shavings, are whittling out with keen Barlow +jack-knives implements for home use: ox-bows and bow-pins, axe-helves, +rakestales, forkstales, handles for spades and billhooks, wooden +shovels, flail staff and swingle, swingling knives, or pokes and hog +yokes for unruly cattle and swine. The more ingenious, perhaps, are +fashioning buckets or powdering tubs, or weaving skeps, baskets or +snowshoes. Some, it may be, sit astride the wooden shovel, shelling corn +on its iron-shod edge, while others are pounding it into samp or hoiminy +in the great wooden mortar. + +"There are no lamps or candles, but the red light from the burning pine +knots on the hearth glows over all, repeating, in fantastic pantomime on +the brown walls and closed shutters, the varied activities around it. +These are occasionally brought into higher relief by the white flashes, +as the boys throw handfuls of hickory shavings onto the forestick, or +punch the back log with the long iron peel, while wishing they had as +'many shillings as sparks go up the chimney.' Then, the smoke-stained +joists and boards of the ceiling with the twisted rings of pumpkin +strings or crimson peppers and festoons of apple, drying on poles hung +beneath; the men's hats, the crook-necked squashes, the skeins of thread +and yarn hanging in bunches on the wainscot; the sheen of the pewter +plates and basins, standing in rows on the shelves of the dresser; the +trusty firelock with powder horn, bandolier, and bullet pouch, hanging +on the summertree, and the bright brass warming-pan behind the bedroom +door--all stand revealed more clearly for an instant, showing the +provident care for the comfort and safety of the household. Dimly seen +in the corners of the room are baskets in which are packed hands of flax +from the barn, where, under the flaxbrake, the swingling knives and the +coarse hackle, the shives and swingling tow have been removed by the +men; to-morrow the more deft manipulations of the women will prepare +these bunches of fiber for the little wheel, and granny will card the +tow into bats, to be spun into tow yarn on the big wheel. All quaff the +sparkling cider or foaming beer from the briskly circulating pewter mug, +which the last out of bed in the morning must replenish from the barrel +in the cellar." + + * * * * * + +One notices the frequent reference to beer in these old chronicles. The +tea, over which the colonists were to take such a dramatic stand in a +hundred years, had not yet been introduced into England, and neither had +coffee. Forks had not yet made their appearance. In this admirable +picture Mr. Sheldon does not mention one of the evening industries +which was peculiarly characteristic of the Plymouth Colony. This was +the making of clapboards, which with sassafras and beaver skins, +constituted for many years the principal cargo sent back to England from +the Colony. Another point--the size of the families. The mother of +Governor William Phips had twenty-one sons and five daughters, and the +Reverend John Sherman had six children by his first wife and twenty by +his second. These were not uncommon figures in the early life of New +England; and with so many numbers within itself the home life was a +center for a very complete and variegated industrial life. Surely it is +a long cry from these kitchen fireplaces--so large that often a horse +had to be driven into the kitchen dragging the huge back log--these +immense families, to the kitchenette and one-child family of to-day! + +This, then, was the old Duxbury: the Duxbury of long, cold winters, +privations, and austerity. Down by the shore to-day is the new +Duxbury--a Duxbury of automobiles, of business men's trains, of gay +society at Powder Point, where in the winter is the well-known boys' +school--a Duxbury of summer cottages, white and green along the shore, +green and brown under the pines. Of these summer homes many are new: the +Wright estate is one of the finest on the South Shore, and the pleasant, +spacious dwelling distinguished by its handsome hedge of English privet +formerly belonged to Fanny Davenport, the actress. Others are old +houses, very tastefully, almost affectionately remodeled by those for +whom the things of the past have a special lure. These remodeled +cottages are, perhaps, the prettiest of all. Those very ancient +landmarks, sagging into pathetic disrepair, present a sorrowful, albeit +an artistic, silhouette against the sky. But these "new-old" cottages, +with ruffled muslin curtains at the small-paned, antique windows, brave +with a shining knocker on the green-painted front door, and gay with +old-fashioned gardens to the side or in the rear--these are a delight to +all, and an honor to both past and present. + +Surely the fair town of Duxbury, which so smilingly enticed the +Pilgrims across the bay to enjoy her sunny beach and rolling pasture +lands, must be happy to-day as she was then to feel her ground so deeply +tilled, and still to be so daintily adorned with homes and gardens and +with laughing life. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +KINGSTON AND ITS MANUSCRIPTS + +[Illustration] + + +On a charming eminence at two crossroads, delicately dappled by fine elm +shade and clasped by an antique grapevine, rests the old Bradford house. +From the main road half a mile away you will see only the slanting roof, +half concealed by rolling pasture land, but if you will trouble to turn +off from the main road, and if you will not be daunted by the +unsavoriness of the immediate neighborhood, you will find it quite worth +your while. The house presents only a casual side to the street--one +fancies it does not take much interest in its upstart neighbors--but +imagination makes us believe that it regards with brooding tenderness +the lovely tidal river which winds away through the marshes to the sea. +Interesting as the house is for its architectural features and for its +delightful location--despite the nearness of the passing train--yet it +is on neither of these points that its fame rests. + +In this house, built in 1674, and once belonging to Major John Bradford, +the grandson of the Governor, was preserved for many years one of the +most valuable American manuscripts in existence, and one fated to the +most romantic adventures in the annals of Lost and Found. + +Bradford's "History of the Plymouth Plantation" is our sole source of +authentic information for the period 1606-46. It is the basis for all +historical study of the early life of the Pilgrims in this country, and +when we look at the quiet roof of the Bradford house to-day and realize +how narrowly the papers--for they remained in manuscript form for two +hundred years--escaped being lost forever, our minds travel again over +the often told story. + +The manuscript, penned in Governor Bradford's fine old hand, in a folio +with a parchment back, and with some childish scribblings by little +Mercy Bradford on the cover, passed at the Governor's death to his son, +and at his death to his son. It reposed in the old house at which we are +now looking until 1728, doubtless regarded as something valuable, but +not in the least appreciated at its full and peculiar worth. When Major +John Bradford lent it to the Reverend Thomas Prince to assist him in his +"Chronological History of New England," he was merely doing what he had +done many times before. In these days of burglar-proof safes and fire +protection it makes us shiver to think of this priceless holograph +passed from hand to hand in such a casual manner. But it seems to have +escaped any mishap under Dr. Prince, who deposited it eventually in the +library of the Old South Church. Here it remained for half a century, +still in manuscript form and frequently referred to by scholars. Thomas +Hutchinson used it in compiling his "History of Massachusetts Bay," and +Mather used it also. At the time of the Revolution the Old South was +looted, and this document (along with many others) disappeared +absolutely. No trace whatever could be found of it: the most exhaustive +search was in vain, and scholars and historians mourned for a loss that +was irreparable. And then, after half a century, after the search had +been entirely abandoned, it was discovered, quite by chance, by one who +fortunately knew its value, tucked into the Library of Fulham Palace in +London. After due rejoicing on the American side and due deliberation on +the English side of the water, it was very properly and very politely +returned to this country in 1897. Now it rests after its career of +infinite hazard, in a case in the Boston State House, elaborately +protected from fire and theft, from any accidental or premeditated harm, +and Kingston must content itself with a copy in Pilgrim Hall at +Plymouth. + +Kingston's history commences with a manuscript and continues in the same +form. If you would know the legends, the traditions, the events which +mark this ancient town, you will have to turn to records, diaries, +memoranda, memorial addresses and sermons, many of them never published. + +It is rather odd that this serene old place, discovered only two or +three days after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, is so devoid +of a printed career. As soon as the Pilgrims had explored the spot, they +put themselves on record as having "a great liking to plant in it" +instead of in Plymouth. But they decided against it because it lay too +far from their fishing and was "so encompassed with woods," that they +feared danger from the savages. It was very soon settled, however, and +remained as the north end of Plymouth for a hundred and six years, until +1726. Governor Bradford writes, in regard to its colonization: + +"Y^e people of y^e plantation begane to grow in their outward estate ... +and as their stocks increased and y^e increase vendible, ther was no +longer any holding them togeather, but now they must of necessitoe goe +to their great lots: they could not otherwise keep catle; and having +oxen grown they must have land for plowing and tillage. And no man now +thought he could live except he had catle and a great deal of ground to +keep them: all striving to increase their stocks. By which means they +were scattered all over y^e bay, quickly, and y^e towne, in which they +had lived compactly till now [1632] was left very thine, and in a short +time almost desolate." + +Governor Bradford seems to deplore this moving out of Plymouth, but as a +matter of fact he was among the first to go, and his estate on Jones +River comprised such a goodly portion of what is now Kingston that when +he died he was the richest man in the Colony! A boulder marks the place +which he, with that unerring eye for a fine view which distinguished the +early settlers, chose for his estate. From here one catches a glimpse of +water, open fields, trees, the Myles Standish Monument to the left, the +sound of the passing automobiles behind. The distant smokestacks would +be unfamiliar to Governor Bradford's eye, but the fragrant Kingston air +which permeates it all would greet him as sweetly to-day as it did +three hundred years ago. + +Governor Bradford, who was Governor for thirty-seven years, was a man of +remarkable erudition. Cotton Mather says of him: "The Dutch tongue was +become almost as vernacular to him as the English; the French tongue he +could also manage; the Latin and the Greek he had mastered; but the +Hebrew he most of all studied." Therefore if the curious spelling of his +history strikes us as unscholarly, we must remember that at that time +there was no fixed standard for English orthography. Queen Elizabeth +employed seven different spellings for the word "sovereign" and +Leicester rendered his own name in eight different ways. It was by no +means a mark of illiteracy to spell not only unlike your neighbor, but +unlike yourself on the line previous. + +But it is more than quaint diction and fantastic spelling which +fascinates us as we turn over, not only the leaves of Bradford's famous +history, but the pile of fading records of various kinds of this once +prosperous shipbuilding town. The records of Kingston are valuable, not +only because they tell the tale of this particular spot, but because +they are delightfully typical of all the South Shore towns. The +yellowing diaries mention crude offenses, crude chastisements; give +scraps of genealogies as broken as the families themselves are now +broken and scattered; lament over one daughter of the Puritans who took +the veil in a Roman Catholic convent; sternly relate, in Rabelaisian +frankness, dark sins, punished with mediæval justice. In fact, these +righteous early colonists seemed to find a genuine satisfaction in +devising punishments, and in putting them into practice. We read that +the stocks (also called "bilbaos" because they were formerly +manufactured in Bilbao, in Spain) were first occupied by the man who had +made them, as the court decided that his charge for the work was +excessive! There were wooden cages in which criminals were confined and +exposed to public view; whipping-posts; cleft sticks for profane +tongues. Drunkenness was punished by disfranchisement; the blasphemer +and the heretics were branded with a hot iron. + +Let us look at some of these old records, not all of them as ferocious +as this, but interesting for the minutiæ which they preserve and which +makes it possible for us to reconstruct something of that atmosphere of +the past. It was ninety-six years after the settlement at Plymouth that +Kingston made its first request for a separation. It was not granted for +almost a decade, but from then on the ecclesiastical records furnish us +with a great deal of intimate and chatty material. For instance, we +learn in 1719 that Isaac Holmes was to have "20 shillings for sweeping, +opening and shutting of the doors and casements of the meeting house for +1 year," which throws some light upon sextons' salaries! + +The minute directions as to the placing of the pews in the meeting-house +(1720) contain a pungent element of personality. Major John Bradford is +"next to the pulpit stairs"; Elisha Bradford on the left "as you go in"; +Benjamin Eaton's place is "between minister's stairs and west door"; +while Peter West is ingloriously, and for what reason we know not, +relegated to the gallery "in the front, next to the stairs, behind the +women." + +It is significant to note (1728) that seats are built at each end above +the galleries for the Indians and negroes. + +Fish laws, rewards for killing wild cats, bickerings with the minister, +and brief mention of the death of many women at an early age--after +having given birth to an incredible number of children--fill up pages +and pages. + +The eye rests upon a resolution passed (1771) to "allow Benjamin Cook +the sum of 8 shillings for a coffin, and liquor at the funeral of James +Howland." They might not believe in prayers for the dead in those days, +but there was evidently no reason why the living should not receive some +cheer! + +How is this for the minister's salary? The Reverend Doctor Willis (1780) +is to receive eighty pounds a year, to be paid partly in Indian corn, +rye, pork, and beef. Ten cords of wood yearly are allowed him "until he +have a family, then twenty cords, are to be allowed, the said wood to +be delivered at his door." + +Mr. Levi Bradford agrees to make the whipping-post and stocks for nine +shillings, if the town will find the iron (1790). + +The wage paid for a day's labor on the highway (1791) was as follows: +For a day's labor by a man, 2 shillings, 8 pence; for a yoke of oxen, 2 +shillings; for a horse, 1 shilling, 6 pence; for a cart, 1 shilling, 4 +pence. One notes the prices are for an eight-hour day. + +However, the high cost of living began to make itself felt even then. +How else account for the statement (1796) that Mr. Parris, the +schoolmaster, has been allowed fifty shillings in addition to his salary +"considering the increase in the price of provisions"? + +There seems to have been a great celebration on the occasion of raising +the second meetinghouse in Kingston (1798). One old account reads: +"Booths were erected on the field opposite, and all kinds of liquor and +refreshment were sold freely." After the frame was up a procession was +formed of those who were employed in the raising, consisting of +carpenters, sailors, blacksmiths, etc., each taking some implement of +his trade such as axes, rules, squares, tackles and ropes. They walked +to the Great Bridge and back to the temporary building that had been +used for worship (the Quail Trap) while the new one was being planned. +Here they all had punch and an "hour or so of jollity." + +If the women's lives were conspicuously short, it was not so with the +men. Ebenezer Cobb, who died in 1801 in the one hundred and eighth year +of his age, had lived in no less than three centuries, having seen six +years in the seventeenth, the whole of the eighteenth, and a year of the +nineteenth. + +The minister's tax is separated from the other town taxes in 1812--thus +even in this little village is reflected the great movement of +separation of Church and State. In 1851 when we read of a Unitarian +church being built we realize that the Puritan régime is over in New +England. + +Thus with the assistance of the Pelegs and Hezekiahs, the Zadocks, +Ichabods, and Zenases--names which for some absurd and irreverent reason +suggest a picture puzzle--we manage to piece together scraps of the +Kingston of long ago. + +We must confess to some relief at the inevitable conclusion that such +study brings--namely, that the early settlers were not the unblemished +prigs and paragons tradition has so fondly branded them. They seem to +have been human enough--erring enough, if we take these records penned +by themselves. However, for any such iconoclastic observation it is +reassuring to have the judgment of so careful a historian as Charles +Francis Adams. He says: + +"That the earlier generations of Massachusetts were either more +law-abiding or more self-restrained than the later is a proposition +which accords neither with tradition nor with the reason of things. The +habits of those days were simpler than those of the present: they were +also essentially grosser...." + +He then gives a dozen pages or so of hitherto unpublished church +records, gathered from as many typical Massachusetts towns, which throw +an undeniable and unflattering light on the social habits of that early +period. As explicit and public confession before the church congregation +was enforced, these church records contain startlingly graphic +statements of drunkenness, blasphemy, stealing, and immorality in all +its various phases. + +There are countless church records which duplicate this one of the +ordination of a Massachusetts pastor in 1729: "6 Barrels and a half of +Cyder, 28 gallons of wine, 2 gallons of Brandy, and 4 of rum, loaf +sugar, lime juice and pipes," all, presumably, consumed at the time and +on the spot of the ordination. Even the most pessimistic must admit that +long before our prohibition era we had traveled far beyond such +practices. + +The immorality seems to have been the natural reaction from morbid +spiritual excitement induced by religious revivals. Poor Governor +Bradford never grasped this, and we find him lamenting (1642): +"Marvilous it may be to see and consider how some kind of wickedness did +grow and break forth here in a land where the same was much witnessed +against, and so narrowly looked on and severely punished when it was +known." + +We hear the same plaint from Jonathan Edwards a century later. + +It is well to honor the Pilgrims for their many stanch and admirable +qualities, but it is only fair to recall that the morbidity of their +religion made them less healthy-minded than we, and that many of their +practices, such as the well-recognized custom of "bundling," were +indications of a people holding far lower moral standards than ours. + +The old sermons, diaries, biographies, and records lie on dusty shelves +now, and few pause to read them, and in Kingston no one yet has gathered +them into a local history. There are other records traced, not in sand, +but on the soil that may also be read by any who pass. Some remnants of +the trenches and terraces dug by the quota of Arcadian refugees who +fell to Kingston's share after the pathetic flight from Nova Scotia may +still be seen--claimed by some to be the first irrigation attempt in +America. + +The old "Massachusetts Payth" which follows the road more or less +closely beyond Kingston is traced with difficulty and uncertainty in +Kingston itself, but there is another highway as clear to-day as it was +three hundred years ago. And this is the lovely tidal river, named after +the master of the Mayflower, up which used to come and go not only many +ships of commerce, but, in the evenings after life had become less +austere, boatloads of merry-makers from Plymouth and Duxbury to attend +the balls given at what was originally the King's Town. + +It has carried much traffic in its day, that river which now winds so +gracefully down to the sea, and which we see so well from the yard of +the old Bradford house. Down it floated the vessels made by Kingston +men, and out of it was dug much bog iron for the use of Washington's +artillery. + +Monk's Hill--which the old records call Mont's Hill Chase, a name +supposed to have been applied to a hunt in England--could tell a story +too, if one had ears to hear. The highest land in Kingston, during the +Revolution it was one of the points where a beacon fire was lighted to +alarm the town in case of invasion by the enemy. + +Kingston is not without history, although its manuscripts lie long +untouched upon library shelves, and its historic soil is tramped over by +unheeding feet. That the famous manuscript which was its greatest +historical contribution has been taken away from it, is no loss in the +truest sense of the word, for this monumental work, which belongs to no +one place, but to the country as a whole, is properly preserved at the +State House. + +Kingston seems amenable to this arrangement, just as she seems entirely +willing that Plymouth should claim the first century of her career. When +one is sure of one's heritage and beauty, one does not clamor for +recognition; one does not even demand a printed history. It is quality, +not quantity, that counts, and even if nothing more is ever written in +or about this dear old town, Kingston will have made a distinguished +contribution to American history and literature. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +PLYMOUTH + +[Illustration] + + +One of the favorite pictures of New Englanders, and one which hangs in +innumerable dining-rooms and halls, is by Boughton, the popular American +artist, and is named "The Return of the Mayflower." I suppose thousands +of New England children have gazed wonderingly at this picture, which, +contrary to the modern canons of art, "tells a story," and many of those +naïve minds have puzzled as to how those poor Pilgrims, who had no tea +or coffee or milk or starch, managed to appear so well fed and so +contented, and so marvelously neat and clean. The inexhaustible bag +which inevitably appeared at crucial moments in the career of "Swiss +Family Robinson" is nowhere mentioned in the early chronicles of the +Plymouth Plantation, and the precise manner in which a small vessel of a +hundred and eighty tons, carrying a hundred passengers, and all the +innumerable cradles, chairs, and highboys which have since flooded the +museums as "genuine relics" of that first voyage, could also have +brought sufficient washboards, soap, and flatirons to have kept the +charming costumes so immaculate is a mystery which will probably never +be solved--especially since the number of relics appears to increase +instead of diminish with the passage of time. + +However, that is a mere trifle. Mr. Boughton, in catching this touching +and dramatic moment in the history of the Plymouth Colony, has rendered +a graphic service to us all, and if we could stand upon the little +plateau on which this man and maid are standing, and could look out with +them--we should see--what should we see? + +We may, indeed, stand upon the little plateau--possibly it is no other +than the base of Cole's Hill, that pathetic spot on which the dead were +buried those first sad months, the ground above being leveled and +planted with corn lest the Indians should count the number of the +lost--and look out upon that selfsame harbor, but the sight which meets +our eyes will be a very different one from that which met theirs. Let +us, if we can, for the space of half an hour or so, imagine that we are +standing beside this Pilgrim man and maid, on the day on which Mr. +Boughton portrayed them. + +Instead of 1920 it is 1621. It is the 5th of April: the winter of +terrifying sicknesses and loss has passed; of the hundred souls which +left England the autumn previously more than a half have died. The +Mayflower which brought them all over, and which has remained in the +harbor all winter, is now, having made repairs and taking advantage of +the more clement weather, trimming her sails for the thirty-one days' +return voyage to England. They may return with her, if they wish, any +or all of the sturdy little band; they may leave the small, smoky log +cabins; the scanty fare of corn and fish; the harassing fear of the +Indians; they may leave the privations, the cramped quarters, and return +to civilized life--to friends and relatives, to blooming English +hedgerows and orderly English churches. But no one--no, not a single one +returns! They have thrown in their lot with the new country--the new +life. Their nearest civilized neighbors are the French of Nova Scotia, +five hundred miles to the north, and the English of Virginia five +hundred miles to the south. But they are undaunted. And yet--who can +doubt that as they gaze out upon the familiar sails--the last banner +between themselves and their ancestral home, and as they see them +sailing out and out until they sink below the verge of sea and sky, the +tears "rise in the heart and gather to the eyes" in "thinking of the +days that are no more." + +Three hundred years ago! The same harbor now as then, with the highland +of Cape Cod dimly outlined in the gray eastern horizon; the bluffs of +Manomet nearer on the right; opposite them, on the left, Duxbury Beach +comes down, and ends in the promontory which holds the Gurnet Lights. +Clarke's Island--already so named--lies as it does to-day, but save for +these main topographical outlines the Plymouth at which we are looking +in our imagination would be quite unrecognizable to us. + +There is a little row of houses--seven of them--that is all. Log cabins, +two-roomed, of the crudest build, thatched with wildgrass, the chinks +between the logs filled with clay, the floors made of split logs; +lighted at night with pieces of pitch pine. Each lot measures three rods +long and a rod and a half wide, and they run on either side of the +single street (the first laid out in New England, and ever afterward to +be known as Leyden Street), which, in its turn, is parallel to the Town +Brook. There is no glass in these cabin windows: oiled paper suffices; +the household implements are of the fewest. The most primitive modern +camping expedition is replete with luxuries of which this colony knows +nothing. They have no cattle of any kind, which means no milk or +butter; they have no poultry or eggs. Twenty-six acres of cultivated +ground--twenty-one of corn, the other five of wheat, rye, and +barley--have been quite enough for the twenty-one men and six boys (all +who were well enough to work) to handle, but it is not a great deal to +feed them all. At one end of the street stands the common house, twenty +feet square, where the church services are held; the store-house is near +the head of the pier; and at the top of what is now Burial Hill is the +timber fort, twenty by twenty, built the January before by Myles +Standish. In April, 1621, this is all there is to what is now the +prosperous town of Plymouth. + +And yet--not entirely. There are a few things left in the Plymouth of +to-day which were in the Plymouth of three hundred years ago. If our man +and maid should turn into Pilgrim Hall their eyes would fall upon some +of the selfsame objects which were familiar sights to them in 1621. +Those sturdy oaken chairs of Governor Carver, Elder Brewster, and +Edward Winslow; the square, hooded wooden cradle brought over by Dr. +Samuel Fuller; and the well-preserved reed one which rocked Peregrine +White, and whose quaint stanchness suggests the same Dutch influence +which characterizes the spraddling octagonal windmills--they would +quickly recognize all of these. Some of the books, too, chiefly +religious, some in classic tongues, William Bradford's Geneva Bible +printed in 1592, and others bearing the mark of 1615, would be well +known to them, although we must not take it for granted that the +lady--or the man either--can read. Well-worn the Bibles are, however, +and we need not think that lack of learning prevented any of the +Pilgrims from imbibing both the letter and spirit of the Book. Those who +could write were masters of a fine, flowing script that shames our +modern scrawl, as is well testified by the Patent of the Plymouth +Colony--the oldest state document in New England--as well as by the +final will and various deeds of Peregrine White, and many others. The +small, stiff baby shoes which encased the infant feet of Josiah +Winslow, the son of Governor Winslow and destined to be Governor +himself, are of a pattern familiar to our man and maid, as are the now +tarnished swords of Carver, Brewster, and Standish. Probably they have +puzzled, as we are still doing, over the Kufic or Arabic inscriptions on +the last. The monster kettle and generous pewter plate brought over by +the doughty Captain would be too well known to them to attract their +attention, as would be the various tankards and goblets, and the +beautiful mortar and pestle brought over by Winslow. But the two-tined +fork they would regard with curiosity, for forks were not used, even in +England, until 1650. The teapots, too, which look antiquated enough to +us, would fill them with wonder, for tea was practically unknown in both +colony and mother country until 1657. Those fragments of rude +agricultural implements which we treasure would not interest our man and +maid for whom they are ordinary sights, and neither would they regard +with the same historical interest that moves us the bits of stone from +the Scrooby Manor in England, the bricks from the old pier at Delft +Haven in Holland, or the piece of carved pew-back from the old church at +Scrooby. Possibly our Pilgrim maid is one of the few who can write, and +if so, her fingers have doubtless fashioned a sampler as exquisite as +that of Lora Standish, whose meek docility and patient workmanship are +forever preserved in her cross-stitched words. + +From all around the walls of Pilgrim Hall look down fine, stern old +portraits, real and imaginary, of the early colonists. Modern critics +may bicker over the authenticity of the white bull on which Priscilla +Alden is taking her wedding trip; they may quarrel over the fidelity of +the models and paintings of the Mayflower, and antiquarians may +diligently unearth bits of bone to substantiate their pet theories. Our +man and maid could tell us all, but, alas, their voices are so far away +we cannot hear them. They will never speak the words which will settle +any of the oft-disputed points, and, unfortunately, they will leave us +forever to argue about the truth of the famous Plymouth Rock. + +To present the well-worn story of Plymouth Rock from an angle calculated +to rouse even a semblance of fresh interest is comparable to offering a +well-fed man a piece of bread, and expecting him to be excited over it +as a novelty. Bread is the staff of life, to be sure, but it is also +accepted as matter of course in the average diet, and the story of +Plymouth Rock is part and parcel of every school-book and guide-book in +the country. The distinguished, if somewhat irreverent, visitor, who, +after being reduced to partial paralysis by the oft-repeated tale, +ejaculated fervently that he wished the rock had landed on the Pilgrims +instead of the Pilgrims on the rock, voiced the first original remark +about this historic relic which has refreshed our ears for many years. +However, as Americans we are thoroughly imbued with the theory on which +our advertising is based. Although it would seem that every housekeeper +in the land had been kept fully informed for forty years of the +advantages incident to the use of a certain soap, the manufacturers +still persist in reciting these benefits. And why? Because new +housekeepers come into existence with each new day. So, if there be any +man who comes to Plymouth who does not know the story of Plymouth Rock, +it is here set down for him, as accurately and briefly as possible. + +This rock--which is an oval, glacial boulder of about seven tons--was +innocently rearing its massive, hoary head from the water one day in +December, 1620, as it had done for several thousand years previously in +unmolested oblivion. While engaged in this ponderous but harmless +occupation it was sighted by a boatful of men and women--the first who +had ever chosen to land on this particular part of the coast. The rock +presented a moderately dry footing, and they sailed up to it, and a +charming young woman, attired, according to our amiable painter, in the +cleanest and freshest of aprons and the most demure of caps, set a +daintily shod foot upon it and leaped lightly to shore. This was Mary +Chilton, and she was promptly followed by an equally trig young +man--John Alden. Thus commenced the founding of Plymouth Colony, and +thus was sown the seed of innumerable pictures, poems, stories, and +sermons. + +Now the Pilgrims themselves, in none of their various accounts, ever +mention the incident of the landing described above, or the rock. In +fact they are so entirely silent about it that historians--besides +discrediting the pretty part about Mary Chilton and John Alden, in the +brusque fashion characteristic of historians--have pooh-poohed the whole +story, arguing that the rock was altogether too far away from the land +to be a logical stepping-place, and referring to the only authentic +record of that first landing, which merely reads: "They sounded y^e +harbor & founde it fitt for shipping, and marched into y^e land & found +diverse cornfeilds & little running brooks, a place fitt for situation: +at least it was y^e best they could find." The Pilgrims, then, were +quite oblivious of the rock, the historians are entirely skeptical +concerning it, and the following generation so indifferent to the +tradition which was gradually formulating, that in the course of events +it was half-covered with a wharf, and used as a doorstep to a warehouse. + +This was an ignominious position for a magnificent free boulder which +had been a part of the untrammeled sea and land for centuries, but this +lowly occupation was infinitely less trying than the fate which was +awaiting. At the time the wharf was suggested, the idea that the rock +was the actual landing-place of the first colonists had gained such +momentum that a party was formed in its defense. An aged man, Thomas +Faunce, was produced. He was ninety-five and confined to an armchair. He +had not been born until twenty-six years after the landing of the +Pilgrims; his father, whom he quoted as declaring this to be the +original rock and identical landing-place, had not even come over in the +Mayflower, but in the Anne. However, this venerable Canute, carried to +the water's edge in his armchair, in the presence of many witnesses, +assured them and all posterity that this was the genuine, undeniable +landing-place of the Pilgrims. And from that moment the belief was so +firmly set in the American mind that no power could possibly dislodge +it. In accordance with this suddenly acquired respect, it was decided to +move the huge bulk to the more conspicuous location of the Town Square. +When it was lifted from its prehistoric bed, it broke, and this was +hailed as a propitious omen of the coming separation of the Colonies +from the mother country. Only the upper half was dragged up to the Town +Square--a process which took twenty yoke of oxen and was accompanied by +wild huzzahing. There the poor, broken thing lay in the sun, at the +bottom of the Liberty Pole on which was flying, "Liberty or Death." But +its career as a public feature had only begun. It remained in the square +until 1834, and then on July 4 it was decided to drag it to a still more +conspicuous place. So with a formal procession, it was again hoisted and +hauled and set down in front of the entrance porch of Pilgrim Hall, +where it lay like a captive mammoth animal for curious folk to gaze at. +Here it was granted almost half a century of undisturbed if not secluded +slumber. But the end was not yet. In 1880 it was once more laid hold of +and carted back to its original setting, and welded without ceremony, to +the part from which it had been sundered. Now all of this seems quite +enough--more than enough--of pitiless publicity, for one old rock whose +only offense had been to be lifting its head above the water on a +December day in 1620. But no--just as the mind of man takes a singular +satisfaction in gazing at mummies preserved in human semblance in the +unearthly stillness of the catacombs, so the once massive boulder--now +carefully mended--was placed upon the neatest of concrete bases, and +over it was reared, from the designs of Hammatt Billings, the ugliest +granite canopy imaginable--in which canopy, to complete the grisly +atmosphere of the catacombs, were placed certain human bones found in an +exploration of Cole's Hill. Bleak and homeless the old rock now lies +passively in forlorn state under its atrocious shelter, behind a strong +iron grating, and any of a dozen glib street urchins, in syllables +flavored with Cork, or Genoese, or Polish accents, will, for a penny, +relate the facts substantially as I have stated them.[2] + +It is easy to be unsympathetic in regard to any form of fetishism which +we do not share. And while the bare fact remains that we are not at all +sure that the Pilgrims landed on this rock, and we are entirely sure +that its present location and setting possess no romantic allurement, +yet bare facts are not the whole truth, and even when correct they are +often the superficial and not the fundamental part of the truth. Those +hundreds--those thousands--of earnest-eyed men and women who have stood +beside this rock with tears in their eyes, and emotions too deep for +words in their hearts, "believing where they cannot prove," have not +only interpreted the vital significance of the place, but, by their very +emotion, have sanctified it. + +It really makes little difference whether the testimony of Thomas Faunce +was strictly accurate or not; it really makes little difference that the +Hammatt Billings canopy is indeed dreadful. Plymouth Rock has come to +symbolize the corner-stone of the United States as a nation, and symbols +are the most beautiful and the most enduring expression of any national +or human experience. + +It is estimated that over one hundred thousand visitors come to Plymouth +annually. They all go to see the Rock; most of them clamber up to the +quaint Burial Hill and read a few of the oldest inscriptions; they +glance at the National Monument to the forefathers, bearing the largest +granite figure in the world, and they take a turn through Pilgrim Hall. +But there is one place they often forget to see, and that is the harbor +itself. + +We began our tour through Plymouth through the eyes of a Pilgrim man and +maid watching the departing Mayflower. It was the Mayflower, battered +and beaten, her sails blackened and mended, her leaks hastily caulked, +which was the first vessel to sail into Plymouth Harbor--a harbor so +joyfully described as being a "most hopeful place" with "innumerable +store of fowl and excellent good ... in fashion like a sickel or fish +hook." + +[Illustration] + +All that first dreadful winter, while the Pilgrims were struggling to +make roofs to cover their heads, while, with weeping hearts, they buried +their dead, and when, according to the good and indestructible instincts +of life, which persist in spite of every calamity, they planted seed for +the coming spring--all this while the Mayflower lay at anchor in the +harbor. Every morning they could see her there; any hour of the day they +could glance out at her; while they slept they were conscious of her +presence. And just so long as she was there, just so long could they see +a tangible connection between themselves and the life, which, although +already strangely far away, was, nevertheless, the nearest and the +dearest existence they had known. And then in April, the familiar +vessel, whose outlines were as much a part of the seascape as the Gurnet +or the bluffs of Manomet, vanished: vanished as completely as if she had +never been. The water which parted under her departing keel flowed +together. There was no sign on earth or sea or in the sky of that last +link between the little group of colonists and their home land. They +were as much alone as Enoch Arden on his desert isle. Can we imagine the +emptiness, the illimitable loneliness of that bay? One small shallop +down by the pier--that was the only visible connection between +themselves and England! + +I do not believe that we can really appreciate their sense of complete +severance--their sense of utter isolation. And I do not believe that we +can appreciate the wild thrill of excitement, the sudden gush of +freshly established connection that ran through the colony, when, seven +months later--the following November--a ship sailed into the harbor. It +was the Fortune bringing with her news and letters from home--word from +that other world--and bringing also thirty-five new colonists, among +them William Brewster's eldest son and Robert Cushman. Probably the +greetings were so joyful, the messages so eagerly sought, the flutter of +welcome so great that it was not until several days had passed that they +realized that the chief word which Thomas Weston (the London merchant +who was the head of the company which had financed the expedition) had +sent them was one of reproof. The Mayflower had brought no profitable +cargo back to England, he complained, an omission which was "wonderful +and worthily distasted." While he admitted that they had labored under +adverse circumstances, he unkindly added that a quarter of the time they +had spent in discoursing and arguing and consulting could have +profitably been spent in other ways. That the first official word from +home should be one of such cruel reprimand struck the colonists--who had +so wistfully waited for a cheering message--very hard. Half frozen, half +starved, sick, depressed, they had been forced to struggle so +desperately to maintain even a foothold on the ladder of existence, that +it had not been humanly possible for them to fulfill their pledge to the +Company. Bradford's letter back to Weston--dignified, touching--is +sufficient vindication. When the Fortune returned she "was laden with +good clapboards, as full as she could stowe, and two hogsheads of beaver +and other skins," besides sassafras--a cargo valued at about five +hundred pounds. In spite of the fact that this cargo was promptly stolen +by a French cruiser off the English coast, it nevertheless marks the +foundation of the fur and lumber trade in New England. Although this +first visitor brought with her a patent of their lands (a document still +preserved in Pilgrim Hall, with the signatures and seals of the Duke of +Lenox, the Marquis of Hamilton, the Earl of Warwick, and Sir Ferdinando +Gorges), yet to us, reading history in the perspective of three hundred +years, the disagreeable impression of Weston's letter outweighs the +satisfaction for the patent. When the Fortune sailed away it was like +the departure of a rich, fault-finding aunt, who suddenly descends upon +a household of poor relations, bringing presents, to be sure, but with +such cutting disapproval on her lips that it mars the entire pleasure of +her visit. + +The harbor was once more empty. I suppose that in time the Pilgrims half +forgot, half forgave, the sting of Weston's reproof. Again they gazed +out and waited for a sail; again England seemed very far away. So, +doubtless, in the spring, when a shallop appeared from a fishing vessel, +they all eagerly hurried down to greet it. But if the Fortune had been +like a rich and disagreeable aunt, this new visitation was like an +influx of small, unruly cousins. And such hungry cousins! Weston had +sent seven men to stay with them until arrangements could be made for +another settlement. New Englanders are often criticized for their lack +of hospitality, and in this first historic case of unexpected guests the +larder was practically bare. Crops were sown, to be sure, but not yet +green; the provisions in the store-house were gone; it was not the +season for wild fowl; although there were bass in the outer harbor and +cod in the bay there was neither tackle nor nets to take them. However, +the seven men were admitted, and given shellfish like the rest--and very +little beside. + +At this point the Pilgrims looked with less favorable eyes upon +newcomers into the harbor, and when shortly after two ships appeared +bringing sixty more men from Weston, consternation reigned. These +emigrants were supposed to get their own food from their own vessels and +merely lodge on shore, but they proved a lawless set and stole so much +green corn that it seriously reduced the next year's supply. After six +weeks, however, these uninvited guests took themselves off to +Wessagusset (now Weymouth) leaving their sick behind, and only the +briefest of "thank you's." + +The next caller was the Plantation. She anchored only long enough to +offer some sorely needed provisions at such extortionate prices that the +colonists could not buy them. Another slap in the face! + +Obviously, none of these visitors had proved very satisfactory. It had +been entertaining under difficulties, and if the entertainers had hoped +for the "angels unawares," they had been decidedly disappointed. +Therefore it is easy to believe that they took fresh courage and sincere +delight when, in July, 1623, the Anne and the Little James arrived--no +strangers, for they brought with them additional stores, and best of +all, good friends and close kinsfolk from the church at Leyden. Yes, the +Pilgrims were delighted, but, alas, tradition has it that when they +pressed forward in glad greeting to their old acquaintances, these +latter started back, nonplussed--aghast! Like Mr. Boughton they had +fondly pictured an ideal rustic community, in which the happy, carefree +colonists reveled in all the beauty of picturesque and snowy collars and +cuffs in Arden-like freedom. Instead they saw a row of rough log cabins +and a group of work-worn, shabby men and women, men and women whose +faces were lined with exposure, and whose backs were bent with toil, and +who, for their most hospitable feast, had only a bit of shellfish and +water to offer. Many of the newcomers promptly burst into tears, and +begged to return to England immediately. Poor Pilgrims! Rebuffed--and so +unflatteringly--with each arriving maritime guest, who can doubt that +there was born in them at that moment the constitutional dislike for +unexpected company which has characterized New England ever since? + +However, in a comparatively short time the colonists who had been +brought over in the Anne and the Little James--those who stayed, for +some did return at once--adjusted themselves to the new life. Many +married--both Myles Standish and Governor Bradford found wives among +them; and now the Plymouth Colony may be said to have fairly started. + +Just as a trail which is first a mere thread leading to some +out-of-the-way cabin becomes a path and then a road, and in due time a +wide thoroughfare, so the way across the Atlantic from Old England to +New became more charted--more traveled. At first there was only one boat +and one net for fishing. In five years there was a fleet of fifty +fishing vessels. Ten years later we have note of ten foreign vessels in +the harbor in a single week. And to-day, if the Pilgrim man and maid +whom we joined at the beginning of our reminiscences could gaze out over +the harbor, they would see it as full of masts as a cornfield is of +stalks. Every kind of boat finds its way in and out; and not only +pleasure craft: Plymouth Harbor is second only to Boston among the +Massachusetts ports of entry, receiving annual foreign imports valued at +over $7,000,000. Into the harbor, where once a single shallop was the +only visible sign of man's dominion over the water, now sail great +vessels from Yucatan and the Philippines, bringing sisal and manila for +the largest cordage company in the whole country--a company with an +employees' list of two thousand names, and an annual output of +$10,000,000. Furthermore, the flats in the harbor are planted with +clams, which (through the utilization of shells for poultry feeding, and +by means of canning for bouillon) yield a profit of from five hundred to +eight hundred dollars an acre. + +No, our Pilgrim man and maid would not recognize, in this Plymouth of +factories and industries, the place where once stood the row of log +cabins, with oiled-paper windows. And yet, after all, it is not the +prosperous town of to-day, but the rude settlement of yesterday, which +chiefly lives in the hearts of the American people. And it lives, not +because of its economic importance, but because of its unique +sentimental value. As John Fiske so admirably states: "Historically +their enterprise [that of the Pilgrims at Plymouth] is interesting not +so much for what it achieved as for what it suggested. Of itself the +Plymouth Colony could hardly have become a wealthy and powerful state. +Its growth was extremely slow. After ten years its numbers were but +three hundred. In 1643, when the exodus had come to an end and the New +England Confederacy was formed, the population of Plymouth was but three +thousand. In an established community, indeed, such a rate of increase +would be rapid, but was not sufficient to raise in New England a power +which could overcome Indians and Dutchmen and Frenchmen and assert its +will in opposition to the Crown. It is when we view the founding of +Plymouth in relation to what came afterward, that it assumes the +importance which belongs to the beginning of a new era." + +For this reason the permanent position of Plymouth in our history is +forever assured. Old age, which may diminish the joys of youth, +preserves inviolate memories which nothing can destroy. The place whose +quiet fame is made is surer of the future than the one which is on the +brink of fabulous glory. It is impossible to overestimate the +significance of this spot. + +The Old Coast Road--the oldest in New England--began here and pushed its +tortuous way up to Boston along the route we have so lightly followed. +Inheritors of a nation which these pioneers strove manfully, +worshipfully, to found, need we be ashamed of deep emotion as we stand +here, on this shore, where they landed three hundred years ago? + +[Illustration] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] It is hoped that by the summer of 1921 a beautiful and dignified +portico of granite will be raised as a final and permanent memorial over +the rock, which will be moved for the last time--lowered to as near its +original bed as possible. This work, which has been taken in charge by +the National Society of Colonial Dames of America will be executed by +McKim, Mead & White. The General Society of Mayflower Descendants are +also working for the redemption of the first Pilgrim burial place on +Cole's Hill. The Pilgrim Society is to assume the perpetual care of both +memorial and lot. + + +THE END + +_The Riverside Press_ + +CAMBRIDGE. MASSACHUSETTS + +U. S. A. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD COAST ROAD*** + + +******* This file should be named 21895-8.txt or 21895-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/8/9/21895 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/old/21895-8.zip b/old/21895-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d89eeb0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/21895-8.zip diff --git a/old/21895.txt b/old/21895.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a12c373 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/21895.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4292 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Old Coast Road, by Agnes Rothery, +Illustrated by Louis H. Ruyl + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Old Coast Road + From Boston to Plymouth + + +Author: Agnes Rothery + + + +Release Date: June 21, 2007 [eBook #21895] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD COAST ROAD*** + + +E-text prepared by David Garcia, Josephine Paolucci, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 21895-h.htm or 21895-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/8/9/21895/21895-h/21895-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/8/9/21895/21895-h.zip) + + +Transcriber's note: + + Minor typographical errors have been corrected. + + Carats (^) designate a superscript (example: y^e, in + which the "e" is a superscript). + + Footnotes have been moved to the end of each chapter. + + + + + +THE OLD COAST ROAD + +From Boston to Plymouth + +by + +AGNES EDWARDS + +With Illustrations by Louis H. Ruyl + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + +Boston and New York Houghton Mifflin Company +The Riverside Press Cambridge +1920 + +Copyright, 1920, by Agnes Edwards Pratt +All Rights Reserved + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +THE OLD COAST ROAD + +_From Boston to Plymouth_ + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +BOSTON: A FOREWORD ix + +I. DORCHESTER HEIGHTS AND THE OLD COAST +ROAD 1 + +II. MILTON AND THE BLUE HILLS 19 + +III. SHIPBUILDING AT QUINCY 35 + +IV. THE ROMANCE OF WEYMOUTH 57 + +V. ECCLESIASTICAL HINGHAM 75 + +VI. COHASSET LEDGES AND MARSHES 92 + +VII. THE SCITUATE SHORE 111 + +VIII. MARSHFIELD, THE HOME OF DANIEL WEBSTER 123 + +IX. DUXBURY HOMES 142 + +X. KINGSTON AND ITS MANUSCRIPTS 157 + +XI. PLYMOUTH 175 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + +A BIT OF COMMERCIAL STREET IN WEYMOUTH Frontispiece + +THE STATE HOUSE FROM PARK STREET ix + +MAP OF THE SOUTH SHORE _facing_ 1 + +DORCHESTER BAY 1 + +OFF FOR PLYMOUTH BY THE OLD COAST ROAD 18 + +GREAT BLUE HILL 19 + +MILTON ESTATES _facing_ 20 + +THE FORE RIVER SHIPYARD 35 + +THE ADAMS HOUSES IN QUINCY 56 + +THE WEYMOUTH WATER-FRONT 57 + +RATTLING ALONG THE OLD COAST ROAD 74 + +THE LINCOLN HOUSE IN HINGHAM 75 + +THE OLD SHIP MEETING-HOUSE _facing_ 76 + +INTERIOR OF THE NEW NORTH CHURCH IN HINGHAM, +WITH ITS SLAVE GALLERIES 91 + +COHASSET LEDGES AND MINOT'S LEDGE LIGHT 92 + +MODERN COHASSET 110 + +DRYING SEA-MOSS AT SCITUATE HARBOR 111 + +FOURTH CLIFF, SCITUATE 122 + +THE WEBSTER HOUSE 123 + +MARSHFIELD MEADOWS _facing_ 136 + +A DUXBURY COTTAGE 142 + +A BAY VIEW TO DUXBURY BEACH 156 + +THE STANDISH MONUMENT AS SEEN FROM KINGSTON 157 + +OLD RECORDS 174 + +THE MEMORIAL BUILDING FOR THE TOWN OF +PLYMOUTH, DESIGNED BY LITTLE AND RUSSELL, +ARCHITECTS 175 + +VIEW FROM STEPS OF BURIAL HILL, PLYMOUTH, +SHOWING THE TOWN SQUARE, LEYDEN STREET, +THE CHURCH OF THE PILGRIMAGE, THE FIRST +CHURCH, AND, IN THE DISTANCE, THE PILGRIM +MONUMENT IN PROVINCETOWN _facing_ 192 + +CLARK'S ISLAND, PLYMOUTH 203 + + + + +BOSTON: A FOREWORD + +[Illustration] + + +To love Boston or to laugh at Boston--it all depends on whether or not +you are a Bostonian. Perhaps the happiest attitude--and the most +intelligent--is tinged with both amusement and affection: amusement at +the undeviating ceremonial of baked beans on Saturday night and fish +balls on Sunday morning; at the Boston bag (not so ubiquitous now as +formerly); at the indefatigable consumption of lectures; at the +Bostonese pronunciation; affection for the honorable traditions, noble +buildings, distinguished men and women. Boston is an old city--one must +remember that it was settled almost three centuries ago--and old cities, +like old people, become tenacious of their idiosyncrasies, admitting +their inconsistencies and prejudices with complacency, wisely aware that +age has bestowed on them a special value, which is automatically +increased with the passage of time. + +To tell the story of an old city is like cutting down through the +various layers of a fruity layer cake. When you turn the slice over, you +see that every piece is a cross-section. So almost every locality and +phase of this venerable metropolis could be studied, and really should +be studied, according to its historical strata: Colonial, Provincial, +Revolutionary, economic, and literary. All of these periods have piled +up their associations one upon the other, and all of them must be +somewhat understood if one would sincerely comprehend what has aptly +been called not a city, but a "state of mind." + +It is as impossible for the casual sojourner to grasp the significance +of the multifarious historical and literary events which have transpired +here as for a few pages to outline them. Wherever one stands in Boston +suggests the church of San Clemente in Rome, where, you remember, there +are three churches built one upon the other. However, those who would +take the lovely journey from Boston to Plymouth needs must make some +survey, no matter how superficial, of their starting-place. And perhaps +the best spot from which to begin is the Common. + +This pleasantly rolling expanse, which was set aside as long ago as +1640, with the decree that "there shall be no land granted either for +houseplott or garden out of y^e open land or common field," has been +unbrokenly maintained ever since, and as far as acreage goes (it +approximates fifty acres) could still fulfill its original use of +pasturing cows, a practice which was continued until 1830. It was here +that John Hancock's cattle grazed--he who lived in such magnificence on +the hill, and in whose side yard the State House was built--and once, +when preparations for an official banquet were halted by shortage of +milk, tradition has it that he ordered his servants to hasten out on the +Common and milk every cow there, regardless of ownership. Tradition also +tells us that the little boy Ralph Waldo Emerson tended his mother's cow +here; and finally both traditions and existing law declare that yonder +one-story building opening upon Mount Vernon Street, and possessing an +oddly wide door, must forever keep that door of sufficient width to let +the cows pass through to the Common. + +Let us stand upon the steps of the State House and look out over the +Common. To our right, near the intersection of Boylston and Tremont +Streets, lies the half-forgotten, almost obliterated Central Burying +Ground, the final resting-place of Gilbert Stuart, the famous American +painter. At the left points the spire of Park Street Church, notable not +for its age, for it is only a little over a century old, but for its +charming beauty, and by the fact that William Lloyd Garrison delivered +his first address here, and here "America" was sung in public for the +first time. It was the windiness of this corner which was responsible +for Tom Appleton's suggestion (he was the brother-in-law of Longfellow) +that a shorn lamb be tethered here. + +The graceful spire of Park Street Church serves not only as a landmark, +but is also a most fitting terminal to a street of many associations. It +is on Park Street that the publishing house of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. +(now Houghton Mifflin Company) has had its offices for forty years, and +the bookstores and the antique shops tucked quaintly down a few steps +below the level of the sidewalk have much of the flavor of a bit of +London. + +Still standing on the State House steps, facing the Common, you are also +facing what has been called the noblest monument in Boston and the most +successfully placed one in America. It is Saint-Gaudens's bronze relief +of Colonel Robert G. Shaw commanding his colored regiment, and if you +see no other sculpture in a city which has its full quota you must see +this memorial, spirited in execution, spiritual in its conception of a +mighty moment. + +If we had time to linger we could not do better than to follow Beacon +Street to the left, pausing at the Athenaeum, a library of such dignity +and beauty that one instinctively, and properly, thinks of it as an +institution rather than a mere building. To enjoy the Athenaeum one must +be a "proprietor" and own a "share," which entitles one not only to the +use of the scholarly volumes in scholarly seclusion, but also in the +afternoon to entrance to an alcove where tea is served for three +pennies. Perhaps here, as well as any other place, you may see a +characteristic assortment of what are fondly called "Boston types." +There is the professor from Cambridge, a gentleman with a pointed beard +and a noticeably cultivated enunciation; one from Wellesley--this, a +lady--with that keen and paradoxically impractical expression which +marks pure intellectuality; an alert matron, plainly, almost shabbily, +dressed (aristocratic Boston still scorns sartorial smartness); a very +well-bred young girl with bone spectacles; a student, shabby, like the +Back Bay matron, but for another reason; a writer; a business man whose +hobby is Washingtonia. These, all of them, you may enjoy along with your +cup of tea for three cents, if--and here is the crux--you can only be +admitted in the first place. And if you are admitted, do not fail to +look out of the rear windows upon the ancient Granary Burying Ground, +where rest the ashes of Hancock, Sewall, Faneuil, Samuel Adams, Otis, +Revere, and many more notables. If you have a penchant for graveyards, +this one, entered from Tremont Street, is more than worthy of further +study. + +This is one of the many things we could enjoyably do if we had time, but +whether we have time or not we must pay our respects to the State House +(one does not call it the Capitol in Boston, as in other cities), the +prominence of whose golden dome is not unsuggestive, to those who recall +it, of Saint Botolph's beacon tower in Boston, England, for which this +city was named. The State House is a distinctively American building, +and Bulfinch, the great American architect, did an excellent thing when +he designed it. The dome was originally covered with plates of copper +rolled by no other than that expert silversmith and robust patriot, Paul +Revere--he whose midnight ride has been recited by so many generations +of school-children, and whose exquisite flagons, cups, ladles, and sugar +tongs not only compared with the best Continental work of that period, +but have set a name and standard for American craftsmanship ever since. + +If you should walk up and down the chessboard of Beacon Hill--taking the +knight's move occasionally across the narrow cross-streets--you could +not help treading the very squares which were familiar to the feet of +that generation of authors which has permanently stamped American +literature. At 55 Beacon Street, down near the foot of the hill and +facing the Common, still stands the handsome, swell-front, buff-brick +house where Prescott, the historian, lived. On Mount Vernon Street +(which runs parallel to Beacon, and which, with its dignified beauty, +won the approval of that connoisseur of beautiful streets--Henry James) +one can pick out successively the numbers 59, 76, 83, 84, the first and +last being homes of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and the other two +distinguished by the residence of William Ellery Channing and Margaret +Deland. Pinckney Street runs parallel with Mount Vernon, and the small, +narrow house at number 20 was one of the homes of the Alcott family. It +seems delightfully fitting that Louisburg Square--that very exclusive +and very English spot which probably retains more of the quaint +atmosphere and customs of an aristocratic past than any other single +area in the city--should have been the home of the well-beloved William +Dean Howells. One also likes to recall that Jenny Lind was married at +number 20. Chestnut Street--which after a period of social obscurity is +again coming into its own--possesses Julia Ward Howe's house at number +13, that of Motley the historian at 16, and of Parkman at 50. In this +hasty map we have gone up and down the hill, but the cross-street, +Charles, although not so attractive, is nevertheless as rich in literary +associations as any in Boston. Here lived, for a short time, at 164, +Oliver Wendell Holmes, and at 131--also for a short time--Thomas Bailey +Aldrich. It is, however, at 148, that we should longest pause. This, for +many rich years, was the home of James T. Fields, that delightful man of +letters who was the friend of many men of letters; he who entertained +Dickens and Thackeray, and practically every foreign writer of note who +visited this country; he who encouraged Hawthorne to the completion of +the "Scarlet Letter," and he, who, as an appreciative critic, publisher, +and editor, probably did more to elevate, inspire, and sustain the +general literary tone of the city than any other single person. In these +stirring days facile American genius springs up, like brush fires, from +coast to coast. Novels pour in from the West, the Middle West, the +South. To superficial outsiders it may seem as if Boston might be +hard-pressed to keep her laurels green, but Boston herself has no +fears. Her present may not shine with so unique a brilliance as her +past, but her past gains in luster with each succeeding year. Nothing +can ever take from Boston her high literary prestige. + +While we are still on Beacon Hill we can look out, not only upon the +past, but upon the future. Those white domes and pillars gleaming like +Greek temples across the blue Charles, are the new buildings of the +Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and surely Greek temples were +never lovelier, nor dedicated to more earnest pursuit of things not +mundane. Quite as beautiful and quite as Grecian as the Technology +buildings is the noble marble group of the School of Medicine of Harvard +University, out by the Fenlands--that section of the city which is +rapidly becoming a students' quarter, with its Simmons College, the New +England Conservatory of Music, art schools, gymnasiums, private and +technical schools of all descriptions, and its body of over 12,000 +students. Harvard is, of course, across the river in Cambridge, and +preparatory schools and colleges dot the suburbs in every direction, +upholding the cultural traditions of a city which has proved itself +peculiarly fitted to educational interests. + +All this time we have, like _bona-fide_ Bostonians, stayed on Beacon +Hill, and merely looked out at the rest of the city. And perhaps this is +as typical a thing as we could have done. Beacon Hill was the center of +original Boston, when the Back Bay was merely a marsh, and long after +the marsh was filled in and streets were laid out and handsome +residences lined them, Beacon Hill looked down scornfully at the new +section and murmured that it was built upon the discarded hoopskirts and +umbrellas of the true Bostonians. Even when almost every one was crowded +off the Hill and the Back Bay became the more aristocratic section of +the two, there were still enough of the original inhabitants left to +scorn these upstart social pretensions. And now Beacon Hill is again +coming back into her own: the fine old houses are being carefully, +almost worshipfully restored, probably never again to lose their +rightful place in the general life of the city. + +But if Beacon Hill was conservative in regard to the Back Bay, that +district, in its turn, showed an equal unprogressiveness in regard to +the Esplanade. To the stranger in Boston, delighting in that magnificent +walk along the Charles River Embankment, with the arching spans of the +Cambridge and Harvard bridges on one side, and the homes of wealth and +mellow refinement on the other--a walk which for invigorating beauty +compares with any in the cities of men--it seems incredible that when +this promenade was laid out a few years ago, the householders along the +water's edge absolutely refused to turn their front windows away from +Beacon Street. Furthermore, they ignored the fact that their back yards +and back windows presented an unbecoming face to such an incomparably +lovely promenade, and the inevitable household rearrangement--by which +the drawing-rooms were placed in the rear--was literally years in +process of achievement. But such conservatism is one of Boston's +idiosyncrasies, which we must accept like the wind and the flat A. + +Present-day Bostonians are proud--and properly so--of their Copley +Square, with its Public Library, rich with the mural paintings of Puvis +de Chavannes, with Abbey's "Quest of the Holy Grail," and Sargent's +"Frieze of the Prophets"; with its well-loved Trinity Church and with +much excellent sculpture by Bela Pratt. Copley Square is the cultural +center of modern Boston. The famous Lowell lectures--established about +seventy-five years ago as free gifts to the people--are enthusiastically +attended by audiences as Bostonese as one could hope to congregate; and +in all sorts of queer nests in this vicinity are Theosophical +reading-rooms, small halls where Buddhism is studied or New Thought +taught, and half a hundred very new or very old philosophies, religions, +fads, fashions, reforms, and isms find shelter. It is easy to linger in +Copley Square: indeed, hundreds and hundreds of men and +women--principally women--come from all over the United States for the +sole purpose of spending a few months or a season in this very place, +enjoying the lectures, concerts, and art exhibitions which are so easily +and freely accessible. But in this bird's-eye flight across the +historical and geographical map of a city that tempts one to many +pleasant delays, we must hover for a brief moment over the South and the +North Ends. + +Skipping back, then, almost three centuries, but not traveling far as +distance goes, the stranger in Boston cannot do better than to find his +way from Copley Square to the Old South Church on Washington +Street--that venerable building whose desecration by the British troops +in 1775 the citizens found it so hard ever to forgive. It was here that +Benjamin Franklin was baptized in 1706; here that Joseph Warren made a +dramatic entry to the pulpit by way of the window in order to denounce +the British soldiers; and here that momentous meetings were held in the +heaving days before the Revolution. The Old South Church Burying Ground +is now called the King's Chapel Burying Ground, and King's Chapel +itself--a quaint, dusky building, suggestive of a London chapel--is only +a few blocks away. Across its doorsill have not only stepped the Royal +Governors of pre-Revolutionary days, but Washington, General Gage, the +indestructibly romantic figures of Sir Harry Frankland and Agnes +Surriage; the funeral processions of General Warren and Charles Sumner. +The organ, which came from England in 1756, is said to have been +selected by Handel at the request of King George, and along the walls of +the original King's Chapel were hung the escutcheons of the Kings of +England and of the Royal Governors. + +The Old State House is in this vicinity and is worthy--as are, indeed, +both the Old South Church and King's Chapel--of careful architectural +study and enjoyment. There are portraits, pictures, relics, and rooms +within, and without the beautifully quaint lines and truly lovely +details of the facade infuse a perpetual charm into the atmosphere of +the city. It was directly in front of this building that the Boston +Massacre took place in 1770, and from this second-story balcony that +the repeal of the Stamp Act was read, and ten years later the full text +of the Declaration of Independence. + +Perhaps the next most interesting building in this section of old Boston +is Faneuil Hall, the "Cradle of Liberty" whose dignified, old-fashioned +proportions were not lost--thanks to Bulfinch--when it was enlarged. A +gift of a public-spirited citizen, this building has served in a double +capacity for a hundred and seventy-seven years, having public +market-stalls below and a large hall above--a hall which is never +rented, but used freely by the people whenever they wish to discuss +public affairs. It would be impossible to enumerate the notable speakers +and meetings which have rendered this hall famous, from General Gage +down to Daniel Webster, Theodore Roosevelt, and Marshal Joffre. + +If you are fond of water sights and smells you can step from Faneuil +Hall down to a region permeated with the flavor of salt and the sound of +shipping, a region of both ancient tradition and present activity. Here +is India Wharf, its seven-story yellow-brick building once so +tremendously significant of Boston's shipping prosperity; Long Wharf, so +named because when it was built it was the longest in the country, and +bore a battery at its end; Central Wharf, with its row of venerable +stone warehouses; T Wharf, immensely picturesque with its congestion of +craft of all descriptions; Commercial Wharf, where full-rigged sailing +vessels which traded with China and India and the Cape of Good Hope were +wont to anchor a hundred years ago. All this region is crammed with the +paraphernalia of a typical water-front: curious little shops where +sailors' supplies are sold; airy lofts where sails are cut and stitched +and repaired; fish stores of all descriptions; sailors' haunts, awaiting +the pen of an American Thomas Burke. The old Custom House where +Hawthorne unwillingly plodded through his enforced routine is here, and +near it the new Custom House rears its tower four hundred and +ninety-eight feet above the sidewalk, a beacon from both land and sea. + +The North End of Boston has not fared as well as the South End. The sons +of Abraham and immigrants from Italy have appropriated the streets, +dwellings, churches, and shops of the entire region, and even Christ +Church (the famous Old North Church) has a Chiesa Italiana on its +grounds. There are many touches to stir the memory in this Old North +Church. The chime of eight bells naively stating, "We are the first ring +of bells cast for the British Empire in North America"; the pew with the +inscription that is set apart for the use of the "Gentlemen of Bay of +Honduras"--visiting merchants who contributed the spire to the church in +1740; vaults beneath the church, forbidden now to visitors, where lie +the bones of many Revolutionary heroes; a unique collection of +vellum-covered books, and a few highly precious pieces of ancient +furniture. The most conspicuous item about the church, of course, is +that from its tower were hung the signal lanterns of Paul Revere, +destined to shine imperishably down the ever-lengthening aisles of +American history. + +Before we press on to Bunker Hill--for that is our final destination--we +should cast a glance at Copp's Hill Burying Ground, that hillside refuge +where one can turn either back to the annals of the past or look out +over the roof-tops and narrow streets to the present and the future. If +you chose the latter, you can see easily Boston Harbor and Charlestown +Navy Yard--that navy yard which has outstripped even its spectacular +traditions by its stirring achievements in the Great War. "Old +Ironsides" will lie here forever in the well-earned serenity of a secure +old age, and it is probable that another visitor, the Kronprinzessin +Cecilie, although lost under the name of the Mount Vernon and a coat of +gray paint, will be long preserved in maritime memory. + +The plain shaft of Bunker Hill Monument, standing to mark the spot where +the Americans lost a battle that was, in reality, a victory, is like a +blank mirror, reflecting only that which one presents to it. According +to your historical knowledge and your emotional grasp Bunker Hill +Monument is significant. + +Skimming thus over the many-storied city, in a sort of literary +airplane, it has been possible to point out only a few of the most +conspicuous places and towers. The Common lies like a tiny pocket +handkerchief of path-marked green at the foot of crowded Beacon Hill; +the white Esplanade curves beside the blue Charles; the Back Bay is only +a checkerboard of streets, alphabetically arranged; Copley Square is +hardly distinguishable. The spires of the Old South Church, King's +Chapel, the Old State House, and Faneuil Hall punctuate the South End; +the North Church, the North End. The new Custom House Tower and Bunker +Hill Monument seem hardly more than the minarets of a child's toy +village. + +The writer, as a pilot over this particular city, alights and resigns, +commending for more detailed study, and for delightful guidance, Robert +Shackleton's "Book of Boston." Let us now leave the city and set out in +a more leisurely fashion on our way to Plymouth. + + + + +THE OLD COAST ROAD + +_From Boston to Plymouth_ + +[Illustration: THE SOUTH SHORE OFMASSACHUSETTS BAY] + + + + +THE OLD COAST ROAD + + + + +CHAPTER I + +DORCHESTER HEIGHTS AND THE OLD COAST ROAD + +[Illustration] + + +The very earliest of the great roads in New England was the Old Coast +Road, connecting Boston with Plymouth--capitals of separate colonies. Do +we, casually accepting the fruit of three hundred years of toil on this +continent--do we, accustomed to smooth highways and swift and easy +transportation, realize the significance of such a road? + +A road is the symbol of the civilization which has produced it. The main +passageway from the shore of the Yellow Sea to the capital of Korea, +although it has been pressed for centuries immemorial by myriads of +human feet, has never been more than a bridle path. On the other hand, +wherever the great Roman Empire stepped, it engineered mighty +thoroughfares which are a marvel to this day. A road is the thread on +which the beads of history are strung; the beads of peace as well as +those of war. Thrilling as is the progress of aerial navigation, with +its infinite possibilities of human intercourse, yet surely, when the +entire history of man is unrolled, the moment of the conception of +building a wide and permanent road, instead of merely using a trail, +will rank as equally dramatic. The first stone laid by the first Roman +(they to whom the idea of road-building was original) will be recognized +as significant as the quiver of the wings of the first airplane. + +Let us follow the old road from Boston to Plymouth: follow it, not with +undue exactitude, and rather too hastily, as is the modern way, but +comfortably, as is also the modern way, picking up what bits of quaint +lore and half-forgotten history we most easily may. + +I think that as we start down this historic highway, we shall +encounter--if our mood be the proper one in which to undertake such a +journey--a curious procession coming down the years to meet us. We shall +not call them ghosts, for they are not phantoms severed from earth, but, +rather, the permanent possessors of the highway which they helped +create. + +We shall meet the Indian first, running lightly on straight, moccasined +feet, along the trail from which he has burned, from time to time, the +underbrush. He does not go by land when he can go by water, but in this +case there are both land and water to meet, for many are the streams, +and they are unbridged as yet. With rhythmic lope, more beautiful than +the stride of any civilized limbs, and with a sure divination of the +best route, he chooses the trail which will ultimately be the highway of +the vast army of pale-faces. Speed on, O solitary Indian--to vanish down +the narrow trail of your treading as you are destined, in time, to +vanish forever from the vision of New England!... Behind the red runner +plod two stern-faced Pilgrims, pushing their way up from Plymouth toward +the newer settlement at Massachusetts Bay. They come slowly and +laboriously on foot, their guns cocked, eyes and ears alert, wading the +streams without complaint or comment. They keep together, for no one is +allowed to travel over this Old Coast Road single, "nor without some +arms, though two or three together." The path they take follows almost +exactly the trail of the Indian, seeking the fords, avoiding the +morasses, clinging to the uplands, and skirting the rough, wooded +heights.... After them--almost a decade after--we see a man on +horseback, with his wife on a pillion behind him. They carry their own +provisions and those for the beast, now and then dismounting to lead the +horse over difficult ground, and now and then blazing a tree to help +them in their return journey--mute testimony to the cruder senses of the +white man to whom woodcraft never becomes instinctive. The fact that +this couple possesses a horse presages great changes in New England. +Ferries will be established; tolls levied, bridges thrown across the +streams which now the horses swim, or cross by having their front feet +in one canoe ferry and their hind feet in another--the canoes being +lashed together. As yet we see no vehicle of any kind, except an +occasional sedan chair. (The first one of these of which we have +knowledge was presented to Governor Winthrop as a portion of a capture +from a Spanish galleon.) However, these are not common. In 1631 Governor +Endicott of Salem wrote that he could not get to Boston to visit +Governor Winthrop as he was not well enough to wade the streams. The +next year we read of Governor Winthrop surmounting the difficulty when +he goes to visit Governor Bradford, by being carried on the backs of +Indians across the fords. (It took him two days to make the journey.) + +It is not strange that we see no wheeled vehicles. In 1672 there were +only six stage-coaches in the whole of Great Britain, and they were the +occasion of a pamphlet protesting that they encouraged too much travel! +At this time Boston had one private coach. Although one swallow may not +make a summer, one stage-coach marks the beginning of a new era. The age +of walking and horseback riding approaches its end; gates and bars +disappear, the crooked farm lanes are gradually straightened; and in +come a motley procession of chaises, sulkies, and two-wheeled +carts--two-wheeled carts, not four. There are sleds and sleighs for +winter, but the four-wheeled wagon was little used in New England until +the turn of the century. And then they were emphatically objected to +because of the wear and tear on the roads! In 1669 Boston enacted that +all carts "within y^e necke of Boston shall be and goe without shod +wheels." This provision is entirely comprehensible, when we remember +that there was no idea of systematic road repair. No tax was imposed for +keeping the roads in order, and at certain seasons of the year every +able-bodied man labored on the highways, bringing his own oxen, cart, +and tools. + +But as the Old Coast Road, which was made a public highway in 1639, +becomes a genuine turnpike--so chartered in 1803--the good old coaching +days are ushered in with the sound of a horn, and handsome equipages +with well-groomed, well-harnessed horses ply swiftly back and forth. +Genial inns, with swinging pictorial signboards (for many a traveler +cannot read), spring up along the way, and the post is installed. + +But even with fair roads and regular coaching service, New England, +separated by her fixed topographical outlines, remains provincial. It is +not until the coming of the railroad, in the middle of the nineteenth +century, that the hills are overcome, and she ceases to be an +exclusively coastwise community and becomes an integral factor in the +economic development of the whole United States. + +Thus, then, from a thin thread of a trail barely wide enough for one +moccasined foot to step before the other, to a broad, leveled +thoroughfare, so wide that three or even four automobiles may ride +abreast, and so clean that at the end of an all-day's journey one's +face is hardly dusty, does the history of the Old Coast Road unroll +itself. We who contemplate making the trip ensconced in the upholstered +comfort of a machine rolling on air-filled tires, will, perhaps, be less +petulant of some strip of roughened macadam, less bewildered by the +characteristic windings, if we recall something of the first +back-breaking cart that--not so very long ago--crashed over the stony +road, and toilsomely worked its way from devious lane to lane. + +Before we start down the Old Coast Road it may be enlightening to get a +bird's-eye glimpse of it actually as we have historically, and for such +a glimpse there is no better place than on the topmost balcony of the +Soldier's Monument on Dorchester Heights. The trip to Dorchester +Heights, in South Boston, is, through whatever environs one approaches +it, far from attractive. This section of the city, endowed with +extraordinary natural beauty and advantage of both land and water, and +irrevocably and brilliantly graven upon the annals of American history, +has been allowed to lose its ancient prestige and to sink low indeed in +the social scale. + +Nevertheless it is to Dorchester Heights that we, as travelers down the +Old Coast Road, and as skimmers over the quickly turning pages of our +early New England history, must go, and having once arrived at that +lovely green eminence, whitely pointed with a marble shaft of quite +unusual excellence, we must grieve once more that this truly glorious +spot, with its unparalleled view far down the many-islanded harbor to +the east and far over the famous city to the west, is not more +frequented, more enjoyed, more honored. + +If you find your way up the hill, into the monument, and up the stairs +out to the balcony, probably you will encounter no other tourist. Only +when you reach the top and emerge into the blue upper air you will meet +those friendly winged visitors who frequent all spires--Saint Mark's in +Venice or the Soldier's Monument in South Boston--the pigeons! Yes, the +pigeons have discovered the charm of this lofty loveliness, and +whenever the caretaker turns away his vigilant eye, they haste to build +their nests on balcony or stair. They alone of Boston's residents enjoy +to the full that of which too many Bostonians ignore the existence. Will +you read the inscriptions first and recall the events which have raised +this special hill to an historic eminence equal to its topographical +one? Or will you look out first, on all sides and see the harbor, the +city and country as it is to-day? Both surveys will be brief; perhaps we +will begin with the latter. + +Before us, to the wide east, lies Boston Harbor, decked with islands so +various, so fascinating in contour and legend, that more than one volume +has been written about them and not yet an adequate one. From the point +of view of history these islands are pulsating with life. From Castle +Island (on the left) which was selected as far back as 1634 to be a +bulwark of the port, and which, with its Fort Independence, was where +many of our Civil War soldiers received their training, to the outline +of Squantum (on the right), where in October, 1917, there lay a marsh, +and where, ten months later, the destroyer Delphy was launched from a +shipyard that was a miracle of modern engineering--every mile of visible +land is instinct with war-time associations. + +But history is more than battles and forts and the paraphernalia of war; +history is economic development as well. And from this same balcony we +can pick out Thompson's, Rainsford, and Deer Island, set aside for huge +corrective institutions--a graphic example of a nation's progress in its +treatment of the wayward and the weak. + +But if history is more than wars, it is also more than institutions. If +it is the record of man's daily life, the pleasures he works for, then +again we are standing in an unparalleled spot to look down upon its +present-day manifestations. From City Point with its Aquarium, from the +Marine Park with its long pleasure pier, to Nantasket with its flawless +beach, this is the summer playground of unnumbered hosts. Boaters, +bathers, picnickers--all find their way here, where not only the cool +breezes sweep their city-heated cheeks, but the forever bewitching +passage of vessels in and out, furnishes endless entertainment. They +know well, these laughing pleasure-seekers, crowding the piers and boats +and wharves and beaches, where to come for refreshment, and now and +then, in the history of the harbor, a solitary individual has taken +advantage of the romantic charm which is the unique heritage of every +island, and has built his home and lived, at least some portion of his +days, upon one. + +Apple Island, that most perfectly shaped little fleck of land of ten +acres, was the home of a Mr. March, an Englishman who settled there with +his family, and lived there happily until his death, being buried at +last upon its western slope. The fine old elms which adorned it are gone +now, as have the fine old associations. No one followed Mr. March's +example, and Apple Island is now merely another excursion point. + +On Calf Island, another ten-acre fragment, one of America's popular +actresses, Julia Arthur, has her home. Thus, here and there, one +stumbles upon individuals or small communities who have chosen to live +out in the harbor. But one cannot help wondering how such beauty spots +have escaped being more loved and lived upon by men and women who +recognize the romantic lure which only an island can possess. + +Of course the advantage of these positions has been utilized, if not for +dwellings. Government buildings, warehouses, and the great sewage plant +all find convenient foothold here. The excursionists have ferreted out +whatever beaches and groves there may be. One need not regret that the +harbor is not appreciated, but only that it has not been developed along +aesthetic as well as useful lines. + +We have been looking at the east, which is the harbor view. If we look +to the west we see the city of Boston: the white tower of the Custom +House; the gold dome of the State House; the sheds of the great South +Station; the blue line of the Charles River. Here is the place to come +if one would see a living map of the city and its environs. Standing +here we realize how truly Boston is a maritime city, and standing here +we also realize how it is that Dorchester Heights won its fame. + +It was in the winter of 1776, when the British, under Lord Howe, were +occupying Boston, and had fortified every place which seemed important. +By some curious oversight--which seems incredible to us as we actually +stand upon the top of this conspicuous hill--they forgot this spot. + +When Washington saw what they had not seen--how this unique position +commanded both the city and the harbor--he knew that his opportunity had +come. He had no adequate cannon or siege guns, and the story of how +Henry Knox--afterward General Knox--obtained these from Ticonderoga and +brought them on, in the face of terrific difficulties of weather and +terrain, is one that for bravery and brains will never fail to thrill. +On the night of March 4, the Americans, keeping up a cannonading to +throw the British off guard, and to cover up the sound of the moving, +managed to get two thousand Continental troops and four hundred carts of +fascines and intrenching tools up on the hill. That same night, with the +aid of the moonlight, they threw up two redoubts--performing a task, +which, as Lord Howe exclaimed in dismay the following morning, was "more +in one night than my whole army could have done in a month." + +The occupation of the heights was a magnificent _coup_. The moment the +British saw what had been done, they realized that they had lost the +fight. However, Lord Percy hurried to make an attack, but the weather +made it impossible, and by the time the weather cleared the Americans +were so strongly intrenched that it was futile to attack. Washington, +although having been granted permission by Congress to attack Boston, +wished to save the loyal city if possible. Therefore, he and Howe made +an agreement by which Howe was to evacuate and Washington was to refrain +from using his guns. After almost two weeks of preparation for +departure, on March 17 the British fleet, as the gilded letters on the +white marble panel tell us, in the words of Charles W. Eliot: + + Carrying 11,000 effective men + And 1000 refugees + Dropped down to Nantasket Roads + And thenceforth + Boston was free + A strong British force + Had been expelled + From one of the United American colonies + +The white marble panel, with its gold letters and the other inscriptions +on the hill, tell the whole story to whoever cares to read, only +omitting to mention that the thousand self-condemned Boston refugees who +sailed away with the British fleet were bound for Halifax, and that that +was the beginning of the opprobrious term: "Go to Halifax." + +That the battle was won without bloodshed in no way minimizes the +verdict of history that "no single event had a greater general effect on +the course of the war than the expulsion of the British from the New +England capital." And surely this same verdict justifies the perpetual +distinction of this unique and beautiful hill. + +This, then, is the story of Dorchester Heights--a story whose glory will +wax rather than wane in the years, and centuries, to come. Let us be +glad that out of the reek of the modern city congestion this green hill +has been preserved and this white marble monument erected. Perhaps you +see it now with different, more sympathetic eyes than when you first +looked out from the balcony platform. Before us lies the water with its +multifarious islands, bays, promontories, and coves, some of which we +shall now explore. Behind us lies the city which we shall now leave. The +Old Coast Road--the oldest in New England--winds from Boston to +Plymouth, along yonder southern horizon. More history than one person +can pleasantly relate, or one can comfortably listen to, lies packed +along this ancient turnpike: incidents closer set than the tombs along +the Appian Way. We will not try to hear them all. Neither will we follow +the original road too closely, for we seek the beautiful pleasure drive +of to-day more than the historic highway of long ago. + +Boston was made the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1632. +Plymouth was a capital a decade before. It is to Plymouth that we now +set out. + +[Illustration] + + + + +Chapter II + +MILTON AND THE BLUE HILLS + +[Illustration] + + +Milton--a town of dignity and distinction! A town of enterprise and +character! Ever since the first water-power mill in this country; the +first powder mill in this country; the first chocolate mill in this +country, and thus through a whole line of "first" things--the first +violoncello, the first pianoforte, the first artificial spring leg, and +the first railroad to see the light of day saw it in this grand old +town--the name of Milton has been synonymous with initiative and men and +women of character. + +Few people to-day think of Milton in terms of industrial repute, but, +rather, as a place of estates, too aristocratic to be fashionable, of +historic houses, and of charming walks and drives and views. Many of +the old families who have given the town its prestige still live in +their ancestral manors, and many of the families who have moved there in +recent years are of such sort as will heighten the fame of the famous +town. As the stranger passes through Milton he is captivated by glimpses +of ancient homesteads, settling behind their white Colonial fences +topped with white Colonial urns, half hidden by their antique trees with +an air of comfortable ease; of new houses, elegant and yet informal; of +cottages with low roofs; of well-bred children playing on the wide, +green lawns under the supervision of white-uniformed nurses; of old +hedges, old walls, old trees; new roads, old drives, new gardens, and +old gardens--everything well placed, well tended, everything presenting +that indescribable atmosphere of well-established prosperity that scorns +show; of breeding that neither parades nor conceals its quality. +Yes--this is Milton; this is modern Milton. Boston society receives some +of its most prominent contributions from this patrician source. But +modern Milton is something more than this, as old Milton was something +more than this. + +[Illustration] + +For Milton, from this day of its birth, and countless centuries before +its birth as a town, has lived under the lofty domination of the Blue +Hills, that range of diaphanous and yet intense blue, that swims forever +against the sky, that marches forever around the horizon. The rounded +summits of the Blue Hills, to which the eye is irresistibly attracted +before entering the town which principally claims them, are the +worn-down stumps of ancient mountains, and although so leveled by the +process of the ages, they are still the highest land near the coast from +Maine to Mexico. These eighteen or twenty skyey crests form the southern +boundary of the so-called Boston Basin, and are the most prominent +feature of the southern coast. From them the Massachuset tribe about the +Bay derived its name, signifying "Near the Great Hills," which name was +changed by the English to Massachusetts, and applied to both bay and +colony. Although its Indian name has been taken from this lovely range, +the loveliness remains. All the surrounding country shimmers under the +mysterious bloom of these heights, so vast that everything else is +dwarfed beside them, and yet so curiously airy that they seem to +perpetually ripple against the sky. The Great Blue Hill, especially--the +one which bears an observatory on its summit--swims above one's head. It +seems to have a singular way of moving from point to point as one +motors, and although one may be forced to admit that this may be due +more to the winding roads than to the illusiveness of the hill, still +the buoyant effect is the same. + +Ruskin declares somewhere, with his quaint and characteristic mixture of +positiveness and idealism, that "inhabitants of granite countries have a +force and healthiness of character about them that clearly distinguishes +them from the inhabitants of less pure districts." Perhaps he was right, +for surely here where the succeeding generations have all lived in the +atmosphere of the marching Blue Hill, each has through its own fair +name, done honor to the fair names which have preceded it. + +One of the very first to be attracted by the lofty and yet lovely appeal +of this region was Governor Thomas Hutchinson, the last of the Royal +Governors Massachusetts was to know. It was about the middle of the +eighteenth century that this gentleman, of whom John Adams wrote, "He +had been admired, revered, and almost adored," chose as the spot for his +house the height above the Neponset River. If we follow the old country +Heigh Waye to the top of Unquity (now Milton) Hill, we will find the +place he chose, although the house he built has gone and another stands +in its place. Fairly near the road, it overlooked a rolling green meadow +(a meadow which, by the gift of John Murray Forbes, will always be kept +open), with a flat green marsh at its feet and the wide flat twist of +the Neponset River winding through it, for all the world like a +decorative panel by Puvis de Chavannes. One can see a bit of the North +Shore and Boston Harbor from here. This is the view that the Governor so +admired, and tradition tells us that when he was forced to return to +England he walked on foot down the hill, shaking hands with his +neighbors, patriot and Tory alike, with tears in his eyes as he left +behind him the garden and the trees he had planted, and the house where +he had so happily lived. Although the view from the front of the house +is exquisite, the view from the back holds even more intimate +attraction. Here is the old, old garden, and although the ephemeral +blossoms of the present springtime shine brightly forth, the box, full +twenty feet high, speaks of another epoch. Foxgloves lean against the +"pleached alley," and roses clamber on a wall that doubtless bore the +weight of their first progenitors. + +Another governor who chose to live in Milton was Jonathan Belcher, but +one fancies it was the grandness rather than the sweetness of the scene +which attracted this rather spectacular person. The Belcher house still +exists, as does the portrait of its master, in his wig and velvet coat +and waistcoat, trimmed with richest gold lace at the neck and wrists. +Small-clothes and gold knee and shoe buckles complete the picture of one +who, when his mansion was planned, insisted upon an avenue fifty feet +wide, and so nicely graded that visitors on entering from the street +might see the gleam of his gold knee buckles as he stood on the distant +porch. The avenue, however, was never completed, as Belcher was +appointed governor of, and transferred to, New Jersey shortly after. + +Two other men of note, who, since the days of our years are but +threescore and ten, chose that their days without number should be spent +in the town they loved, were Wendell Phillips and Rimmer the sculptor, +who are both buried at Milton. + +Not only notable personages, but notable events have been engendered +under the shadow of these hills. The Suffolk Resolves, which were the +prelude of the Declaration of Independence, were adopted at the Vose +House, which still stands, square and unadorned, easy of access from the +sidewalk, as is suitable for a home of democracy. The first piano ever +made in this country received its conception and was brought to +fulfillment in the Crehore house, which, although still sagging a bit, +is by no means out of commission. And Wilde's Tavern, where was formed +the public opinion in a day when the forming of public opinion was of +preeminent importance, still retains, in its broad, hospitable lines, +some shred of its ancient charm. + +Milton is full of history. From the Revolutionary days, when the +cannonading at Bunker Hill shook the foundations of the houses, but not +the nerves of the Milton ladies, down to the year 1919, when the Fourth +Liberty Loan of $2,955,250 was subscribed from a population of 9000, all +the various vicissitudes of peace and war have been sustained on the +high level that one might expect from men and women nobly nurtured by +the strength of the hills. + +How much of its success Milton attributes to its location--for one +joins, indeed, a distinguished fellowship when one builds upon a hill, +or on several hills, as Roman as well as Bostonian history +testifies--can only be guessed by its tribute in the form of the Blue +Hills Reservation. This State recreation park and forest reserve of +about four thousand acres--a labyrinth of idyllic footpaths and leafy +trails, of twisting drives and walks that open out upon superb vistas, +is now the property of the people of Massachusetts. The granite quarry +man--far more interested in the value of the stone that underlay the +wooded slopes than in Ruskin's theory of its purifying effect upon the +inhabitants--had already obtained a footing here, when, under the able +leadership of Charles Francis Adams, the whole region was taken over by +the State in 1894. + +As you pass through the Reservation--and if you are taking even the most +cursory glimpse of Milton you must include some portion of this +park--you will pass the open space where in the early days, when Milton +country life was modeled upon English country life more closely than +now, Malcolm Forbes raced upon his private track the horses he himself +had bred. The race-track with its judges' stands is still there, but +there are no more horse-races, although the Forbes family still holds a +conspicuous place in all the social as well as the philanthropic +enterprises of the countryside. You may see, too, a solitary figure +with a scientist's stoop, or a tutor with a group of boys, making a +first-hand study of a region which is full of interest to the geologist. + +Circling thus around the base of the Great Blue Hill and irresistibly +drawn closer and closer to it as by a magnet, one is impelled to make +the ascent to the top--an easy ascent with its destination clearly +marked by the Rotch Meteorological Observatory erected in 1884 by the +late A. Lawrence Rotch of Milton, who bequeathed funds for its +maintenance. It is now connected with Harvard University. + +Once at the top the eye is overwhelmed by a circuit of more than a +hundred and fifty miles! It is almost too immense at first--almost as +barren as an empty expanse of rolling green sea. But as the eye grows +accustomed to the stretching distances, objects both near and far begin +to appear. And soon, if the day is clear, buildings may be identified in +more than one hundred and twenty-five villages. We are six hundred and +thirty-five feet above the sea, on the highest coastland from +Agamenticus, near York, Maine, to the Rio Grande, and the panorama thus +unrolled is truly magnificent. Facing northerly we can easily +distinguish Cambridge, Somerville, and Malden, and far beyond the hills +of Andover and Georgetown. A little to the east, Boston with its gilded +dome; then the harbor with its islands, headlands, and fortifications. +Beyond that are distinctly visible various points on the North Shore, as +far as Eastern Point Lighthouse in Gloucester. Forty miles to the +northeast appear the twin lighthouses on Thatcher's Island, seeming, +from here, to be standing, not on the land, but out in the ocean. Nearer +and more distinct is Boston Light--a sentinel at the entrance to the +harbor, while beyond it stretches Massachusetts Bay. Turning nearly east +the eye, passing over Chickatawbut Hill--three miles off and second in +height of the Blue Hills--follows the beautiful curve of Nantasket +Beach, and the pointing finger of Minot's Light. Facing nearly south, +the long ridge of Manomet Hill in Plymouth, thirty-three miles away, +stands clear against the sky, while twenty-six miles away, in Duxbury, +one sees the Myles Standish Monument. Directly south rises the smoke of +the city of Fall River; to the westerly, Woonsocket, and continuing to +the west, Mount Wachusett in Princeton. Far to the right of Wachusett, +nearly over the dome of the Dedham Courthouse, rounds up Watatic in +Ashburnham, and northwest a dozen peaks of southern New Hampshire. At +the right of Watatic and far beyond it is the Grand Monadnock in +Jaffrey, 3170 feet above the sea and sixty-seven and a half miles away. +On the right of Grand Monadnock is a group of nearer summits: Mount +Kidder, exactly northwest; Spofford and Temple Mountains; then appears +the remarkable Pack-Monadnock, near Peterboro, with its two equal +summits. The next group to the right is in Lyndeboro. At the right of +Lyndeboro, and nearly over the Readville railroad stations, is Joe +English Hill, and to complete the round, nearly north-northwest are the +summits of the Uncanoonuc Mountains, fifty-nine miles away. + +This, then, is the Great Blue Hill of Milton. Those who are familiar +with the State of Massachusetts--and New England--can stand here and +pick out a hundred distinguishing landmarks, and those who have never +been here before may find an unparalleled opportunity to see the whole +region at one sweep of the eye. + +From the point of view of topography the summit of Great Blue Hill is +the place to reach. But for the sense of mysterious beauty, for snatches +of pictures one will never forget, the little vistas which open on the +upward or the downward trail, framed by hanging boughs or encircled by a +half frame of stone and hillside--these are, perhaps, more lovely. The +hill itself, seen from a distance, floating lightly like a vast blue +ball against a vaster sky, is dreamily suggestive in a way which the +actual view, superb as it is, is not. One remembers Stevenson's +observation, that sometimes to travel hopefully is better than to +arrive. So let us come down, for, after all, "Love is of the valley." +Down again to the old town of Milton. We have not half begun to wander +over it: not half begun to hear the pleasant stories it has to tell. +When one is as old as this--for Milton was discovered by a band from +Plymouth who came up the Neponset River in 1621--one has many tales to +tell. + +Of all the towns along the South Shore there are few whose feet are so +firmly emplanted in the economic history of the past and present as is +Milton. That peculiar odor of sweetness which drifts to us with a turn +of the wind, comes from a chocolate mill whose trade-mark of a +neat-handed maid with her little tray is known all over the civilized +world. And those mills stand upon the site of the first grist mill in +New England to be run by water power. This was in 1634, and one likes to +picture the sturdy colonists trailing into town, their packs upon their +backs, like children in kindergarten games, to have their grain ground. +Israel Stoughton was the name of the man who established this first +mill--a name perpetuated in the near-by town of Stoughton. + +All ground is historic ground in Milton. That rollicking group of +schoolboys yonder belongs to an academy, which, handsome and +flourishing as it is to-day, was founded as long ago as 1787. That seems +long ago, but there was a school in Milton before that: a school held in +the first meeting-house. Nothing is left of this quaint structure but a +small bronze bas-relief, set against a stone wall, near its original +site. This early church and early school was a log cabin with a thatched +roof and latticed windows, if one may believe the relief, but men of +brains and character were taught there lessons which stood them and the +colony in good stead. One fancies the students' roving eyes may have +occasionally strayed down the Indian trail directly opposite the old +site--a trail which, although now attained to the proud rank of a lane, +Churchill's Lane, still invites one down its tangled green way along the +gray stone wall. Yes, every step of ground has its tradition here. +Yonder railroad track marks the spot where the very first tie in the +country was laid, and laid for no less significant purpose than to +facilitate the carrying of granite blocks for Bunker Hill Monument from +their quarry to the harbor. + +Granite from the hills--the hills which swim forever against the sky and +march forever above the distant horizon. Again we are drawn back to the +irresistible magnet of those mighty monitors. Yes, wherever one goes in +Milton, either on foot to-day or back through the chapters of three +centuries ago, the Blue Hills dominate every event, and the Great Blue +Hill floats above them all. + +"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help," +chants the psalmist. Ah, well, no one can say it better than +that--except the hills themselves, which, with gentle majesty, look down +affectionately upon the town at their feet. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SHIPBUILDING AT QUINCY + +[Illustration] + + +The first man-made craft which floated on the waters of what is now Fore +River was probably a little dugout, a crude boat made by an Indian, who +burned out the center of a pine log which he had felled by girdling with +fire. After he had burned out as much as he could, he scraped out the +rest with a stone tool called a "celt." The whole operation probably +took one Indian three weeks. The Rivadavia which slid down the ways of +the Fore River Shipbuilding Corporation in August, 1914, weighed 13,400 +tons and had engaged the labor of 2000 men for fifty months. + +Between these two extremes flutter all the great sisterhood of shallops, +sloops, pinks, schooners, snows, the almost obsolete batteau and +periagua, the gundelow with its picturesque lateen sail, and all the +winged host that are now merely names in New England's maritime history. + +We may not give in this limited space an account of the various vessels +which have sailed down the green-sea aisles the last three hundred +years. But of the very first, "a great and strong shallop" built by the +Plymouth settlers for fishing, we must make brief mention, and of the +Blessing of the Bay, the first seaworthy native craft to be built and +launched on these shores--the pioneer of all New England commerce. Built +by Governor Winthrop, he notes of her in his journal on August 31, 1631, +that "the bark being of thirty tons went to sea." That is all he says, +but from that significant moment the building of ships went on +"gallantly," as was indeed to be expected in a country whose chief +industry was fishing and which was so admirably surrounded by natural +bays and harbors. In 1665 we hear of the Great and General Court of +Massachusetts--which distinctive term is still applied to the +Massachusetts Legislature--forbidding the cutting of any trees suitable +for masts. The broad arrow of the King was marked on all white pines, +twenty-four inches in diameter, three feet from the ground. Big ships +and little ships swarmed into existence, and every South Shore town made +shipbuilding history. The ketch, a two-masted vessel carrying from +fifteen to twenty tons, carried on most of the coasting traffic, and +occasionally ventured on a foreign voyage. When we recall that the best +and cheapest ships of the latter half of the seventeenth century were +built here in the new country, we realize that shipyards, ports, docks, +proper laws and regulations, and the invigorating progress which marks +any thriving industry flourished bravely up and down the whole New +England coast. + +It is rather inspiring to stand here on the bridge which spans the Fore +River, and picture that first crude dugout being paddled along by the +steady stroke of the red man, and then to look at the river to-day. +Every traveler through Quincy is familiar with the aerial network of +steel scaffolding criss-crossing the sky, with the roofs of shops and +offices and glimpses of vessels visible along the water-front. But few +travelers realize that these are merely the superficial features of a +shipyard which under the urge of the Great War delivered to the Navy, in +1918, eighteen completed destroyers, which was as many as all the other +yards in the country put together delivered during this time. A shipyard +which cut the time of building destroyers from anywhere between eighteen +and thirty-two months to an average of six months and a half; a shipyard +which made the world's record of one hundred and seventy-four days from +the laying of the keel to the delivering of a destroyer. + +It is difficult to grasp the meaning of these figures. Difficult, even +after one has obtained entrance into this city within a city, and seen +with his own eyes twenty thousand men toiling like Trojans. Seen a +riveting crew which can drive more than twenty-eight hundred rivets in +nine hours; battleships that weigh thirty thousand tons; a plate yard +piled with steel plates and steel bars worth two million dollars; cranes +that can lift from five tons up to others of one hundred tons capacity; +single buildings a thousand feet long and eighty feet high. + +Perhaps the enormousness of the plant is best comprehended, not when we +mechanically repeat that it covers eighty acres and comprises eighty +buildings, and that four full-sized steam locomotives run up and down +its yard, but when we see how many of the intimate things of daily +living have sprung up here as little trees spring up between huge +stones. For the Fore River Plant is more than an industrial +organization. It is a social center, an economic entity. It has its band +and glee club, ball team and monthly magazine. There are refreshment +stands, and a bathing cove; a brand-new village of four hundred and +thirty-eight brand-new houses; dormitories which accommodate nearly a +thousand men and possess every convenience and even luxuries. The men +work hard here, but they are well paid for their work, as the many +motor-cycles and automobiles waiting for them at night testify. It is a +scene of incredible industry, but also of incredible completeness. + +To look down upon the village and the yard from the throbbing roof of +the steel mill, seven hundred and seventy feet long and a hundred and +eighty-eight wide, is a thrilling sight. Within the yard, confined on +three sides by its high fences and buildings and on the fourth by +Weymouth Fore River, one sees, far below, locomotives moving up and down +on their tracks; great cranes stalking long-leggedly back and forth; +smoke from foundry, blacksmith shop, and boiler shop; men hurrying to +and fro. Whistles blow, and whole buildings tremble. The smoke and the +grayness might make it a gloomy scene if it were not for the red sides +of the immense submarines gleaming in their wide slips to the water. +Everywhere one sees the long gray sides of freighters, destroyers, +merchant ships, and oil tankers heaving like the mailed ribs of sea +animals basking on the shore. Practically every single operation, from +the most stupendous to the most delicate, necessary for the complete +construction of these vessels, is carried on in this yard. The eighty +acres look small when we realize the extent and variety of the work +achieved within its limits. + +Yes, the solitary Indian, working with fire and celt on his dugout, +would not recognize this once familiar haunt, nor would he know the +purpose of these vast vessels without sail or paddle. And yet, were this +same Indian standing on the roof with us, he would see a wide stream of +water he knew well, and he would see, too, above the smoke of the +furnace, shop, and boiler room, the friendly green of the trees. + +Perhaps there is nothing which makes us realize the magical rapidity of +growth so much as to look from this steel city and to see the woods +close by. For instead of being surrounded by the sordid congestion of an +industrial center, the Fore River Shipyard is in the midst of +practically open country. + +While we are speaking of rapidity we must look over toward the Victory +Plant at Squantum, that miraculous marsh which was drained with such +expedition that just twelve months from the day ground was broken for +its foundation, it launched its first ship, and less than two years +after completed its entire contract. Surely never in the history of +shipbuilding have brain and brawn worked so brilliantly together! + +In this way, then, the history of the ships that have sailed the seven +seas has been built up at Quincy--a dramatic history and one instinct +with the beauty which is part of gliding canoe and white sails, and +part, too, of the huge smooth-slipping monsters of a modern day, sleek +and swift as leviathans. But all the while the building of these ships +has been going on, there has been slowly rising within the selfsame +radius another ship, vaster, more inspiring, calling forth initiative +even more intense, idealism even more profound--the Ship of State. + +We who journey to-day over the smooth or troubled waters of national or +international affairs are no more conscious of the infinite toil and +labors which have gone into the intricate making of the vessel that +carries us, than are travelers conscious of the cogs and screws, the +engines and all the elaboration of detail which compose an ocean liner. +Like them we sometimes grumble at meals or prices, at some discourtesy +or incompetence, but we take it for granted that the engine is in +commission, that the bottom is whole and the chart correct. The great +Ship of State of this country may occasionally run into rough weather, +but Americans believe that, in the last analysis, she is honestly built. +And it is to Quincy that we owe a large initial part of this building. + +It is astonishing to enumerate the notable public men, who have been +influential in establishing our national policy, who have come from +Quincy. There is no town in this entire country which can equal the +record. What other town ever produced two Presidents of the United +States, an Ambassador to Great Britain, a Governor of the Commonwealth, +a Mayor of Boston, two presidents of Harvard University, and judges, +chief justices, statesmen, and orators in such quantity and of such +quality? Truly this group of eminent men of brilliance, integrity, and +public feeling is unique in our history. To read the biographies of +Quincy's great men would comprise a studious winter's employment, but +we, passing through the historic city, may hold up our fragment of a +mirror and catch a bit of the procession. + +First and foremost, of course, will come President John Adams, he who, +both before and after his term of high office, toiled terrifically in +the public cause, being at the time of his election to Congress a member +of ninety committees and a chairman of twenty-five! We see him as the +portraits have taught us to see him, with strong, serious +face,--austere, but not harsh,--velvet coat, white ruffles, and white +curls. He stands before us as the undisputed founder of what is now +recognized as American diplomacy. Straightforward, sound to the core, +unswerving, veracious, exemplifying in every act the candor of the +Puritan, so congruous with the new simple life of a nation of common +people. I think we shall like best to study him as he stands at the door +of the little house in which he was born, and which, with its pitch +roof, its antique door and eaves, is still preserved, close to the +street, for public scrutiny. + +Next to President John Adams comes his son, John Quincy Adams, also a +President of the United States. Spending much of his time abroad, the +experience of those diplomatic years is graven upon features more subtly +refined than those of his sire. But for all his foreign residence, he +was, like his father, a Puritan in its most exalted sense; like him +toiled all his life in public service, dying in the harness when rising +to address the Speaker of the House. Him, too, we see best, standing at +the door of his birthplace, a small cottage a stone's throw from the +other cottage, separated only by a turnstile. Fresh white curtains hang +in the small-paned windows; the grass is neatly trimmed, and like its +quaint companion it is now open to the public and worth the tourist's +call. Both these venerable cottages have inner walls, one of burnt, the +other of unburnt brick; and both are unusual in having no boards on the +outer walls, but merely clapboards fastened directly on to the studding +with wrought-iron nails. + +Still another Adams follows, Charles Francis Adams. Although a little +boy when he first comes into public view, a little boy occupying the +conspicuous place as child of one President and grandchild of another, +yet he was to win renown and honor on his own account as Ambassador to +England during the critical period of our Civil War. America remembers +him best in this position. His firm old face with its white chin +whiskers is a worthy portrait in the ancestral gallery. + +Although the political history of this country may conclude its +reference to the Adamses with these three famous figures, yet all New +Englanders and all readers of biography would be reluctant to turn from +this remarkable family without mention of the sons of Charles Francis +Adams, two of whom have written, beside valuable historical works, +autobiographies so entertaining and so truly valuable for their +contemporaneous portraits as to win a place of survival in our permanent +literature. + +A member of the Adams family still lives in the comfortable home where +the three first and most famous members all celebrated their golden +weddings. This broad-fronted and hospitable house, built in 1730 by +Leonard Vassal, a West India planter, for his summer residence, with its +library finished in panels of solid mahogany, was confiscated when its +Royalist owner fled at the outbreak of the Revolution, and John Adams +acquired the property and left the pitch-roofed cottage down the street. +The home of two Presidents, what tales it could tell of notable +gatherings! One must read the autobiography of Charles Francis Adams and +"The Education of Henry Adams" to appreciate the charm of the succeeding +mistresses of the noble homestead, and to enjoy in retrospect its many +illustrious visitors. + +To have produced one family like the Adamses would surely be sufficient +distinction for any one place, but the Adams family forms merely one +unit in Quincy's unique procession of great men. + +The Quincy family, for which the town was named, and which at an early +date intermarried with the Adamses, presents an almost parallel +distinction. The first Colonel Quincy, he who lived like an English +squire, a trifle irascible, to be sure, but a dignified and commanding +figure withal, had fourteen children by his first wife and three by his +second, so the family started off with the advantage of numbers as well +as of blood. At the Quincy mansion house were born statesmen, judges, +and captains of war. The "Dorothy Q." of Holmes's poem first saw the +light in it, and the Dorothy who became the bride of the dashing John +Hancock blossomed into womanhood in it. Here were entertained times +without number Sir Harry Vane, quaint Judge Sewall, Benjamin Franklin, +and that couple who gleam through the annals of New England history in a +never-fading flame of romance, Sir Harry Frankland and beautiful Agnes +Surriage. The Quincy mansion, which was built about 1635 by William +Coddington of Boston and occupied by him until he was exiled for his +religious opinions, was bought by Edmund Quincy. His grandson, who bore +his name, enlarged the house, and lived in it until his death when it +descended to his son Edmund, the eminent jurist and father of Dorothy. +The old-fashioned furniture, utensils and pictures, the broad hall, fine +old stairway with carved balustrades, and foreign wall-paper supposed to +have been hung in honor of the approaching marriage of Dorothy to John +Hancock, are still preserved in their original place. Of the Quincy +family, whose sedate jest it was that the estate descended from 'Siah to +'Siah, so frequent was the name "Josiah," the best known is perhaps the +Josiah Quincy who was Mayor of Boston for six years and president of +Harvard for sixteen. The portrait of his long, thin face is part of +every New England history, and his busy, serene life, "compacted of +Roman and Puritan virtues," is still upheld to all American children as +a model of high citizenship. + +But not even the long line of the Quincy family completes the list of +the town's great men. Henry Hope, one of the most brilliant financiers +of his generation, and founder of a European banking house second only +to that of the Rothchilds, was a native of Quincy. John Hull--who, as +every school-child knows, on the day of his daughter's marriage to Judge +Sewall, placed her in one of his weighing scales, and heaped enough new +pine-tree shillings into the other to balance, and then presented both +to the bridegroom--held the first grant of land in the present town of +Braintree (which originally included Quincy, Randolph, and Holbrook). + +From the picturesque union of John Hull's bouncing daughter Betsy and +Judge Sewall sprang the extraordinary family of Sewalls which has given +three chief justices to Massachusetts, and one to Canada, and has been +distinguished in every generation for the talents and virtues of its +members. In passing, we may note that it was this same John Hull who +named Point Judith for his wife, little dreaming what a _bete noir_ the +place would prove to mariners in the years to come. + +There is another Quincy man whom it is pleasant to recall, and that is +Henry Flynt, a whimsical and scholarly old bachelor, who was a tutor at +Harvard for no less than fifty-three years, the one fixed element in the +flow of fourteen college generations. One of the most accomplished +scholars of his day, his influence on the young men with whom he came in +contact was stimulating to a degree, and they loved to repeat bits of +his famous repartee. A favorite which has come down to us was on an +occasion when Whitefield the revivalist declared in a theological +discussion: "It is my opinion that Dr. Tillotson is now in hell for his +heresy." To which Tutor Flynt retorted dryly: "It is my opinion that you +will not meet him there." + +The procession of Quincy's great men which we have been watching winds +its way, as human processions are apt to do, to the old graveyard. Most +of the original settlers are buried here, although not a few were buried +on their own land, according to the common custom. Probably this +ancient burying ground, with its oldest headstone of 1663, has never +been particularly attractive. The Puritans did not decorate their +graveyards in any way. Fearing that prayers or sermons would encourage +the "superstitions" of the Roman Catholic Church, they shunned any +ritual over the dead or beautifying of their last resting-place. +However, neglected as the spot was, the old stone church, whose golden +belfry is such a familiar and pleasant landmark to all the neighboring +countryside, still keeps its face turned steadfastly toward it. The +congested traffic of the city square presses about its portico, but +those who knew and loved it best lie quietly within the shadow of its +gray walls. Under the portico lies President John Adams, and "at his +side sleeps until the trump shall sound, Abigail, his beloved and only +wife." In the second chamber is placed the dust of his illustrious son, +with "His partner for fifty years, Louisa Catherine"--she of whom Henry +Adams wrote, "her refined figure; her gentle voice and manner; her +vague effect of not belonging there, but to Washington or Europe, like +her furniture and writing-desk with little glass doors above and little +eighteenth-century volumes in old binding." + +It has been called the "church of statesmen," this dignified building, +and so, indeed, might Quincy itself be called the "city of statesmen." +It would be extremely interesting to study the reasons for Quincy's +peculiar productiveness of noble public characters. The town was settled +(as Braintree) exclusively by people from Devonshire and Lincolnshire +and Essex. The laws of the Massachusetts Colony forbade Irish +immigration--probably more for religious than racial reasons. On reading +the ancient petition for the incorporation of the town one is struck by +the fact that practically every single name of the one hundred and fifty +signers is English in origin, the few which were not having been +anglicized. All of these facts point to a homogeneous stock, with the +same language, traditions, and social customs. Obviously there is a +connection between the governmental genius displayed by Quincy's sons +and the singular purity of the original English stock. + +Little did Wampatuck, the son of Chickatawbut, realize what he was doing +when he parted with his Braintree lands for twenty-one pounds and ten +shillings. The Indian deed is still preserved, with the following words +on its back: "In the 17th reign of Charles 2. Braintry Indian Deeds. +Given 1665. Aug. 10: Take great care of it." + +Little did the Indian chief realize that the surrounding waters were to +float hulks as mighty as a city; that the hills were to furnish granite +for buildings and monuments without number; and that men were to be born +there who would shape the greatest Ship of State the world has ever +known. And yet, if he had known, possibly he would have accepted the +twenty-one pounds and ten shillings just the same, and departed quietly. +For the ships that were to be built would never have pleased him as well +as his own canoe; the granite buildings would have stifled him; and the +zealous Adamses and the high-minded Quincys and Sewalls and all the +rest would have bored him horribly. Probably the only item in the whole +history of Quincy which would have appealed to Wampatuck in the least +would have been the floating down on a raft of the old Hollis Street +Church of Boston, to become the Union Church of Weymouth and Braintree +in 1810. This and the similar transportation of the Bowditch house from +Beacon Street in Boston to Quincy a couple of years later would have +fascinated the red man, as the recital of the feat fascinates us to-day. + +Those who care to learn more of Quincy will do well to read the +autobiography of Charles Francis Adams and "The Education of Henry +Adams." Those who care more for places than for descriptions of them may +wander at will, finding beneath the surface of the modern city many +landmarks of the old city which underlies it. They may see the +scaffolding of the great shipyards latticing themselves against the sky, +and the granite quarries against the hills. They may see the little +cottages and the great houses made famous by those who have passed over +their thresholds; they may linger in the old burial ground and trace out +the epitaphs under the portico of the golden-belfried church. But after +they have touched and handled all of these things, they will not +understand Quincy unless they look beyond and recognize her greatest +contribution to this country--the noble statesmen who so bravely and +intelligently toiled to construct America's Ship of State. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE ROMANCE OF WEYMOUTH + +[Illustration] + + +The paintings of John Constable, idyllic in their quietness, dewy in +their serenity--how many travelers, how many lovers of art, superficial +or profound, yearly seek out these paintings in the South Kensington +Museum or the Louvre, and stand before them wrapt in gentle ecstasy? + +The quality of Constable's pictures delineates in luminous softness a +peculiarly lovely side of English rural life, but one need not travel to +England or France to see this loveliness. Weymouth, that rambling +stretch of towns and hamlets, of summer colony and suburb, possesses in +certain areas bits of rural landscape as serene, as dewy, as +idyllically tranquil as Constable at his best. + +Comparatively few people in New England, or out of it, know Weymouth +well. Every one has heard of it, for it is next in age to the town of +Plymouth itself, and every one who travels to the South Shore passes +some section of it, for it extends lengthily--north and south, east and +west--being the only town in Massachusetts to retain its original +boundaries. And numbers of people are familiar with certain parts of it, +for there are half a score of villages in the township, some of them +summer settlements, some of them animated by an all-the-year-round life. +But compared with the other towns along this historic route, Weymouth as +a whole is little known and little appreciated. And yet the history of +Weymouth is not without amusing and edifying elements, and the scenery +of Weymouth is worthy of the detour that strangers rarely make. + +"Old Spain" is the romantic name for an uninteresting part of the +township, and, conversely, Commercial Street is the uninteresting name +for a romantic part. It is along a highway stigmatized by such a name +that one gets the glimpses of a Constable country: glimpses of rolling +meadows, of fertile groves, of cattle grazing in elm-shaded pastures, of +a road winding contentedly among simple, ancient cottages, and quiet, +thrifty farms. These are the homes which belong, and have belonged for +generations, to people who are neither rich nor poor; cozy, quaint, +suggesting in an odd way the thatched-roof cottages of England. Not that +all of Weymouth's homes are of this order. The Asa Webb Cowing house, +which terminates Commercial Street within a stone's throw of the square +of the town of Weymouth, is one of the very finest examples of the +Colonial architecture in this country. The exquisite tracery and carving +over and above the front door, and the white imported marble window +lintels spin an elaborate and marvelously fine lacework of white over +the handsome red-brick facade. Although it is, alas, falling somewhat +into disrepair, perfect proportion and gemlike workmanship still stamp +the venerable mansion as one of patrician heritage. There are other +excellent examples of architecture in Weymouth, but the Cowing house +must always be the star, both because of its extraordinary beauty and +conspicuous position. Yes, if you want a characteristic glimpse of +Weymouth, you cannot do better than to begin in front of this landmark, +and drive down Commercial Street. Here for several smiling miles there +is nothing--no ugly building large or small, no ruthless invasion of +modernity to mar the mood of happy simplicity. Her beauty of beach, of +sky, of river, Weymouth shares with other South Shore towns. Her +perfection of idyllic rusticity is hers alone. + +Just as Weymouth's scenery is unlike that of her neighbors, so her +history projects itself from an entirely different angle from theirs. +While they were conceived by zealous, God-fearing men and women honestly +seeking to establish homes in a new country, Weymouth was inadvertently +born through the misconduct of a set of adventurers. Not every one who +came to America in those significant early years came impelled by lofty +motives. There were scapegraces, bad boys, rogues, mercenaries, and +schemers; and perhaps it is entirely logical that the winning natural +loveliness of this place should have lured to her men who were not of +the caliber to face more exposed, less fertile sections, and men to whom +beauty made an especial appeal. + +The Indians early found Wessagusset, as they called it, an important +rendezvous, as it was accessible by land and sea, and there were +probably temporary camps there previous to 1620, formed by fishermen and +traders who visited the New England coast to traffic with the natives. +But it was not until the arrival of Thomas Weston in 1622 that +Weymouth's history really begins. And then it begins in a topsy-turvy +way, so unlike Puritan New England that it makes us rub our eyes, +wondering if it is really true. + +This Thomas Weston, who was a merchant adventurer of London, took it +into his head to establish a colony in the new country entirely +different from the Plymouth Colony. He had been an agent of the +Pilgrims in their negotiations with the Plymouth Company, and when he +broke off the connection it was to start a settlement which should +combine all of the advantages, with none of the disadvantages, of the +Plymouth Colony. First of all, it was to be a trading community pure and +simple, with its object frankly to make money. Second, it was to be +composed of men without families and familiar with hardship. And third, +there was no religious motive or bond. That such an unidealistic +enterprise should not flourish on American soil is worth noting. The +disorderly, thriftless rabble, picked up from the London streets, soon +got into trouble with the Indians and with neighboring colonists, and +finally, undone by the results of their own improvidence and +misbehavior, wailed that they "wanted to go back to London," to which +end the Plymouth settlers willingly aided them, glad to get them out of +the country. Thus ended the first inauspicious settlement of Weymouth. + +The second, which was undertaken shortly after by Robert Gorges, broke +up the following spring, leaving only a few remnants behind. Sir +Ferdinando Gorges, who was not a Spaniard as his name suggests, but a +picturesque Elizabethan and a kinsman of Sir Walter Raleigh, essayed +(through his son Robert) an experimental government along practically +the same commercial lines as had Weston, and his failure was as speedy +and complete as Weston's had been. + +A third attempt, while hardly more successful, furnishes one of the +gayest and prettiest episodes in the whole history of New England. +Across the somber procession of earnest-faced men and women, across the +psalm-singing and the praying, across the incredible toil of the +pioneers at Plymouth now flashes the brightly costumed and +pleasure-loving courtier, Thomas Morton. An agent of Gorges, Morton with +thirty followers floated into Wessagusset to found a Royalist and +Episcopalian settlement. This Episcopalian bias was quite enough to +account for Bradford's disparaging description of him as a "kind of +petie-fogie of Furnifells Inn," and explains why the early historians +never made any fuller or more favorable record than absolutely necessary +of these neighbors of theirs, although the churchman Samuel Maverick +admits that Morton was a "gentleman of good qualitee." + +But it was for worse sins than his connection with the Established +Church that Morton's name became synonymous with scandal throughout the +whole Colony. In the very midst of the dun-colored atmosphere of +Puritanism, in the very heart of the pious pioneer settlement this +audacious scamp set up, according to Bradford, "a schoole of atheisme, +and his men did quaff strong waters and comport themselves as if they +had anew revived and celebrated the feasts of y^e Roman Goddess Flora, +or the beastly practises of y^e madd Bachanalians." The charge of +atheism in this case seems based on the fact that Morton used the Book +of Common Prayer, but as for the rest, there is no question that this +band of silken merry-makers imported many of the carnival customs and +hereditary pastimes of Old England to the stern young New England; that +they fraternized with the Indians, shared their strong waters with them, +and taught them the use of firearms; and that Merrymount became indeed a +scene of wildest revelry. + +The site of Merrymount had originally been selected by Captain Wollaston +for a trading post. Imbued with the same mercenary motive which had +proved fatal in the case of Weston and Gorges, Captain Wollaston, whose +name is perpetuated in Mount Wollaston, brought with him in 1625 a gang +of indented white servants. Finding his system of industry ill suited to +the climate, he carried his men to Virginia, where he sold them. When he +left, Morton took possession of the place and dubbed it "Ma-re-mount." +And then began the pranks which shook the Colony to its foundations. +Picture to yourself a band of sworn triflers, dedicated to the wildest +philosophy of pleasure, teaching bears to dance, playing blind-man's +buff, holding juggling and boxing matches, and dancing. According to +Hawthorne, on the eve of Saint John they felled whole acres of forests +to make bonfires, and crowned themselves with flowers and threw the +blossoms into the flames. At harvest-time they hilariously wasted their +scanty store of Indian corn by making an image with the sheaves, and +wreathing it with the painted garlands of autumn foliage. They crowned +the King of Christmas and bent the knee to the Lord of Misrule! Such +fantastic foolery is inconceivable in a Puritan community, and the +Maypole which was its emblem was the most inconceivable of all. This +"flower-decked abomination," ornamented with white birch bark, banners, +and blossoms, was the center of the tipsy jollity of Merrymount. As +Morton explains: "A goodly pine tree of eighty foote was reared up, with +a peare of bucks horns nayled on somewhere near to the top of it: where +it stood as a faire sea mark for directions how to find out the way to +mine host of Ma-re-mount." Around this famous, or infamous, pole Morton +and his band frolicked with the Indians on May Day in 1627. As the +indignant historian writes: "Unleashed pagans from the purlieus of the +gross court of King James, danced about the Idoll of Merry Mount, +joining hands with the lasses in beaver coats, and singing their ribald +songs." + +It doesn't look quite so heinous to us, this Maypole dancing, as it did +to the outraged Puritans. In fact, the story of Morton and Merrymount is +one of the few glistening threads in the somber weaving of those early +days. But the New England soil was not prepared at that time to support +any such exotic, and Myles Standish was sent to disperse the frivolous +band, and to order Morton back to England, which he did, after a +scrimmage which Morton relates with great vivacity and doubtful veracity +in his "New English Canaan." + +This "New English Canaan," by the way, had a rather singular career. +Morton tells in it many amusing stories, and one of them was destined to +a remarkable perpetuity in English literature. The story deals with the +Wessagusset settlers promising to hang one of their own members who had +been caught stealing--this hanging in order to appease the Indians. +Morton gravely states that instead of hanging the real culprit, who was +young and lusty, they hanged, in his place, another, old and sick. In +his quaint diction: "You all agree that one must die, and one shall die, +this young man's cloathes we will take off and put upon one that is old +and impotent, a sickly person that cannot escape death, such is the +disease on him confirmed, that die hee must. Put the young man's +cloathes on this man, and let the sick person be hanged in the other's +steade. Amen sayes one, and so sayes many more." This absurd notion of +vicarious atonement, spun purely from Morton's imagination, appealed to +Samuel Butler as worthy of further elaboration. Morton's "New English +Canaan" appeared in 1632. About thirty years later the second part of +the famous English satire "Hudibras" appeared, embodying Morton's idea +in altered but recognizable form, in what was the most popular English +book of the day. This satire, appearing when the reaction against +Puritanism was at its height, was accepted and solemnly deposited at the +door of the good people of Boston and Plymouth! And thus it was that +Morton's fabricated tale of the Weymouth hanging passed into genuine +history along with the "blue laws" of Connecticut. One cannot help +believing that the mischievous perpetrator of the fable laughed up his +sleeve at its result, and one cannot resist the thought that he was +probably delighted to have the scandal attached to those righteous +neighbors of his who had run him out of his dear Ma-re-mount. + +However, driven out he was: the Maypole about which the revelers had +danced was hewed down by the stern zealots who believed in dancing about +only one pole, and that the whipping-post. Merrymount was deserted. + +Certainly Weymouth, the honey spot which attracted not industrious bees, +but only drones, was having a hard time getting settled! It was not +until the Reverend Joseph Hull received permission from the General +Court to settle here with twenty-one families, from Weymouth, England, +that the town was at last shepherded into the Puritan fold. + +These settlers, of good English stock and with the earnest ideals of +pioneers, soon brought the community into good repute, and its +subsequent life was as respectable and uneventful as that of a reformed +_roue_. In fact there is practically no more history for Weymouth. There +are certainly no more raids upon merry-makers; no more calls from the +cricket colony which had sung all summer on the banks of the river to +the ant colony which had providently toiled on the shore of the bay; no +more experimental governments; no more scandal. The men and women of the +next five generations were a poor, hard-working race, rising early and +toiling late. The men worked in the fields, tending the flocks, planting +and gathering the harvest. The women worked in the houses, in the +dairies and kitchens, at the spinning-wheel and washtub. The privations +and loneliness, which are part of every struggling colony, were +augmented here, where the houses did not cluster about the church and +burial ground, but were scattered and far away. This peculiarity of +settlement meant much in days where there was no newspaper, no system of +public transportation, no regular post, and Europe was months removed. A +few of the young men went with the fishing fleet to Cape Sable, or +sailed on trading vessels to the West Indies or Spain, but it is +doubtful if any Weymouth-born woman ever laid eyes on the mother country +during the first hundred and fifty years. + +The records of the town are painfully dull. They are taken up by small +domestic matters: the regulations for cattle; running boundary lines, +locating highways, improving the town common, fixing fines for roving +swine or agreeing to the division of a whale found on the shore. There +was more or less bickering over the salary of the town clerk, who was to +receive thirty-three pounds and fourteen shillings yearly to keep "A +free school and teach all children and servants sent him to read and +write and cast accounts." + +Added to the isolation and pettiness of town affairs, the winters seem +to have been longer, the snows deeper, the frosts more severe in those +days. We have records of the harbor freezing over in November, and "in +March the winter's snow, though much reduced, still lay on a level with +the fences, nor was it until April that the ice broke up in Fore River." +They were difficult--those days ushered in by the Reverend Joseph Hull. +Through long nights and cold winters and an endless round of joyless +living, Weymouth expiated well for the sins of her youth. Even as late +as 1767 we read of the daughter of Parson Smith, of Weymouth--now the +wife of John Adams, of Quincy--scrubbing the floor of her own +bed-chamber the afternoon before her son--destined to become President +of the United States, as his father was before him--was born. + +But the English stock brought in by the Reverend Hull was good stock. We +may not envy the ladies scrubbing their own floors or the men walking to +Boston, but many of the best families of this country are proud to trace +their origin back to Weymouth. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont; then +New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut attracted men from Weymouth. +Later the Middle West and the Far West called them. In fact for over a +century the town hardly raised its number of population, so energetic +was the youth it produced. + +As happens with lamentable frequency, when Weymouth ceased to be naughty +she also ceased to be interesting. After poring over the dull pages of +the town history, one is sometimes tempted to wonder if, perhaps, the +irreverent Morton did not, for all his sins, divine a deeper meaning in +this spot than the respectable ones who came after him. One cannot read +the "New English Canaan" without regretting a little that this +happy-natured fellow was so unceremoniously bustled out of the country. +Whatever Morton's discrepancies may have been, his response to beauty +was lively and true: whatever his morals, his prose is delightful. All +the town records and memorial addresses of all the good folk subsequent +contain no such tribute to Weymouth, and paint no picture so true of +that which is still best in her, as these loving words of the erstwhile +master of Merrymount. + +"And when I had more seriously considered the bewty of the place, with +all her fair endowments, I did not think that in all the knowne world it +could be paralel'd. For so many goodly groves of trees: dainty fine +round rising hillocks: delicate faire large plaines: sweete crystal +fountains, and clear running streams, that twine in fine meanders +through the meads, making so sweet a murmuring noise to heare, as would +even lull the senses with delight asleep, so pleasantly doe they glide +upon the pebble stones, jetting most jocundly where they doe meet; and +hand in hand run down to Neptune's court, to pay the yearly tribute +which they owe to him as soveraigne Lord of all the Springs." + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ECCLESIASTICAL HINGHAM + +[Illustration] + + +Should you walk along the highway from Quincy to Hingham on a Sunday +morning you would be passed by many automobiles, for the Old Coast Road +is now one of the great pleasure highways of New England. Many of the +cars are moderately priced affairs, the tonneau well filled with +children of miscellaneous ages, and enlivened by a family dog or +two--for this is the way that the average American household spends its +modern Sabbath holiday. Now and then a limousine, exquisite in +workmanship within and without, driven by a chauffeur in livery and +tenanted by a single languid occupant, rolls noiselessly past. A +strange procession, indeed, for a road originally marked by the +moccasined feet of Indians, and widened gradually by the toilsome +journeyings of rough Colonial carts and coaches. + +It is difficult to say which feature of the steadily moving travel would +most forcibly strike the original Puritan settlers of the town: the fact +that even the common man--the poor man--could own such a vehicle of +speed and ease, or the fact that America--such a short time ago a +wilderness--could produce, not as the finest flower on its tree of +evolution, but certainly as its most exotic, the plutocrat who lives in +a palace with fifty servants to do his bidding, and the fine lady whose +sole exercise of her mental and physical functions consists in allowing +her maid to dress her. Yes, New England has changed amazingly in the +revolutions of three centuries, and here, under the shadow of this +square plain building--Hingham's Old Ship Church--while we pause to +watch the Sunday pageant of 1920, we can most easily call back the +Sabbath rites, and the ideals which created those rites, three centuries +ago. + +[Illustration] + +It is the year of 1681. This wooden meeting-house, with the truncated +pyramidal roof and belfry (to serve as a lookout station), has just been +built. A stage ahead, architecturally, of the log meeting-house with +clay-filled chinks, thatched roof, oiled-paper windows, earthen floor, +and a stage behind the charming steeple style made popular by Sir +Christopher Wren, and now multiplied in countless graceful examples all +over New England, the Old Ship is entirely unconscious of the +distinction which is awaiting it--the distinction of being the oldest +house for public worship in the United States which still stands on its +original site, and which is still used for its original purpose. In the +year 1681 it is merely the new meeting-house of the little hamlet of +Hingham. The people are very proud of their new building. The timbers +have been hewn with the broad-axe out of solid white pine (the marks are +still visible, particularly in those rafters of the roof open to the +attic). The belfry is precisely in the center of the four-sided pitched +roof. To be sure this necessitates ringing the bell from one of the +pews, but a little later the bellringer will stand above, and through a +pane of glass let into the ceiling he will be able to see when the +minister enters the pulpit. The original backless benches were replaced +by box pews with narrow seats like shelves, hung on hinges around three +sides, but part of the original pulpit remains and a few of the box +pews. In 1681 the interior, like the exterior, is sternly bare. No +paint, no decorations, no colored windows, no organ, or anything which +could even remotely suggest the color, the beauty, the formalism of the +churches of England. The unceiled roof shows the rafters whose arched +timbers remind one that ships' carpenters have built this house of God. + +This, then, is the meeting-house of 1681. What of the services conducted +there? + +In the first place, they are well attended. And why not, since in 1635 +the General Court decreed that no dwelling should be placed more than +half a mile away from the meeting-house of any new "plantation"--thus +eliminating the excuse of too great distance? Every one is expected, +nay, commanded, to come to church. In fact, after the tolling of the +last bell, the houses may all be searched--each ten families is under an +inspector--if there is any question of delinquents hiding in them. And +so in twos and threes, often the man trudging ahead with his gun and the +woman carrying her baby while the smaller children cling to her skirts, +sometimes man and woman and a child or two on horseback, no matter how +wild the storm, how swollen the streams, how deep the whirling +snow--they all come to church: old folk and infants as well as adults +and children. The congregation either waits for the minister and his +wife outside the door, or stands until he has entered the pulpit. Once +inside they are seated with the most meticulous exactness, according to +rank, age, sex, and wealth. The small boys are separated from their +families and kept in order by tithing-men who allow no wandering eyes or +whispered words. The deacons are in the "fore" seats; the elderly +people are sometimes given chairs at the end of the "pues"; and the +slaves and Indians are in the rear. To seat one's self in the wrong +"pue" is an offense punishable by a fine. + +"Here is the church, and here are the people," as the old rhyme has it. +What then of the services? That they are interminable we know. The +tithing-man or clerk may turn the brass-bound hourglass by the side of +the pulpit two and three times during the sermon, and once or twice +during the prayer. Interminable, and, also, to the modern Sunday +observer, unendurable. How many of us of this softer age can contemplate +without a shiver the vision of people sitting hour after hour in an +absolutely unheated building? (The Old Ship was not heated until 1822.) +The only relief from the chill and stiffness comes during the prayer +when the congregation stands: kneeling, of course, would savor too +strongly of idolatry and the Church of Rome. They stand, too, while the +psalms and hymns are lined out, and as they sing them, very uncertainly +and very incorrectly. This performance alone sometimes takes an hour, as +there is no organ, nor notes, and only a few copies of the Bay Psalm +Book, of which, by the way, a copy now would be worth many times its +weight in gold. + +After the morning service there is a noon intermission, in which the +half-frozen congregation stirs around, eats cold luncheons brought in +baskets, and then returns to the next session. One must not for an +instant, however, consider these noon hours as recreational. There is no +idle talk or play. The sermon is discussed and the children forbidden to +romp or laugh. One sometimes wonders how the little things had any +impulse to laugh in such an abysmal atmosphere, but apparently the +Puritan boys and girls were entirely normal and even wholesomely +mischievous--as proved by the constantly required services of the +tithing-man. + +These external trappings of the service sound depressing enough, but if +the message received within these chilly walls is cheering, maybe we +can forget or ignore the physical discomforts. But is the message +cheering? Hell, damnation, eternal tortures, painful theological +hair-splittings, harrowing self-examinations, and humiliating public +confessions--this is what they gather on the narrow wooden benches to +listen to hour after hour, searching their souls for sin with an almost +frenzied eagerness. And yet, forlorn and tedious as the bleak service +appears to us, there is no doubt that these stern-faced men and women +wrenched an almost mystical inspiration from it; that a weird +fascination emanated from this morbid dwelling on sin and punishment, +appealing to the emotions quite as vividly--although through a different +channel--as the most elaborate ceremonial. When the soul is wrought to a +certain pitch each hardship is merely an added opportunity to prove its +faith. It was this high pitch, attained and sustained by our Puritan +fathers, which produced a dramatic and sometimes terrible blend of +personality. + +It has become the modern fashion somewhat to belittle Puritanism. It is +easy to emphasize its absurdities, to ridicule the almost fanatical +fervor which goaded men to harshness and inconsistency. The fact remains +that a tremendous selective force was needed to tear the Puritans away +from the mother church and the mother country and fortify them in their +struggle in a new land. It was religious zeal which furnished this +motive power. Different implements and differently directed force are +needed to extract the diamond from the earth, from the implements and +force needed to polish and cut the same diamond. So different phases of +religious development are called forth by progressive phases of +development. It has been said about the New England conscience: "It +fostered a condition of life and type of character doubtless never again +possible in the world's history. Having done its work, having founded +soundly and peopled strongly an exceptional region, the New England +conscience had no further necessity for being. Those whom it now +tortures with its hot pincers of doubt and self-reproach are sacrificed +to a cause long since won." + +The Puritans themselves grew away from many of their excessive +severities. But as they gained bodily strength from their conflict with +the elements, so they gained a certain moral stamina by their +self-imposed religious observance. And this moral stamina has marked New +England ever since, and marked her to her glory. + +One cannot speak of Hingham churches--indeed, one cannot speak of +Hingham--without admiring mention of the New North Church. This +building, of exquisite proportions and finish, within and without, built +by Bulfinch in 1806, is one of the most flawless examples of its type on +the South Shore. You will appreciate the cream-colored paint, the buff +walls, the quaint box pews of oiled wood, with handrails gleaming from +the touch of many generations, with wooden buttons and protruding hinges +proclaiming an ancient fashion; but the unique feature of the New North +Church is its slave galleries. These two small galleries, between the +roof and the choir loft, held for thirty years, in diminishing numbers, +negroes and Indians. The last occupant was a black Lucretia, who, after +being freed, was invited to sit downstairs with her master and mistress, +which she did, and which she continued to do until her death, not so +very long ago. + +Hingham, its Main Street--alas for the original name of "Bachelors +Rowe"--arched by a double row of superb elms on either side, is +incalculably rich in old houses, old traditions, old families. Even +motoring through, too quickly as motorists must, one cannot help being +struck by the substantial dignity of the place, by the well-kept +prosperity of the houses, large and small, which fringe the fine old +highway. Ever since the days when the three Misses Barker kept loyal to +George IV, claiming the King as their liege lord fifty years after the +Declaration of Independence, the town has preserved a Cranford-like +charm. And why not, when the very house is still handsomely preserved, +where the nameless nobleman, Francis Le Baron, was concealed between the +floors, and, as we are told in Mrs. Austen's novel, very properly +capped the climax by marrying his brave little protector, Molly Wilder? +Why not, when the Lincoln family, ancestors of Abraham, has been +identified with the town since its settlement? The house of +Major-General Benjamin Lincoln, who received the sword of Cornwallis at +Yorktown, is still occupied by his descendants, its neat fence, many +windows, two chimneys, and its two stories and a half proclaiming it a +dwelling of repute. Near by, descendants of Samuel Lincoln, the ancestor +of Abraham, occupy part of another roomy ancient homestead. The +Wampatuck Club, named after the Indian chief who granted the original +deeds of the town, has found quarters in an extremely interesting house +dating from 1680. In the spacious living-room are seventeen panels, on +the walls and in the doors, painted with charming old-fashioned skill by +John Hazlitt, the brother of the English essayist. The Reverend Daniel +Shute house, built in 1746, is practically intact with its paneled rooms +and wall-paper a hundred years old. Hingham's famous elms shade the +house where Parson Ebenezer Gay lived out his long pastorate of +sixty-nine years and nine months, and the Garrison house, built before +1640, sheltered, in its prime, nine generations of the same family. The +Rainbow Roof house, so called from the delicious curve in its roof, is +one of Hingham's prettiest two-hundred-year-old cottages, and Miss Susan +B. Willard's cottage is one of the oldest in the United States. Derby +Academy, founded almost two centuries and a half ago by Madam Derby, +still maintains its social and scholarly prestige through all the +educational turmoil of the twentieth century. One likes to associate +Hingham with Massachusetts's stanch and sturdy "war governor," for it +was here that John Albion Andrew, who proved himself so truly one of our +great men during the Civil War, courted Eliza Jones Hersey, and here +that the happy years of their early married life were spent. Later, +another governor, John D. Long, was for many years a mighty figure in +the town. + +With its ancient churches and institutions, its pensive graveyards and +lovely elms, its ancestral houses and hidden gardens, Hingham typifies +what is quaintest and best in New England towns. Possibly the dappling +of the elms, possibly the shadow of the Old Ship Church, is a bit deeper +here than in the other South Shore towns. However it may seem to its +inhabitants, to the stranger everything in Hingham is tinctured by the +remembrance of the stern old ecclesiasticism. Even the number of +historic forts seems a proper part of those righteous days, for when did +religion and warfare not go hand in hand? During the trouble with King +Philip the town had three forts, one at Fort Hill, one at the Cemetery, +and one "on the plain about a mile from the harbor"; and the sites may +still be identified. + +Not that Hingham history is exclusively religious or martial. Her little +harbor once held seventy sail of fishing vessels, and between 1815 and +1826, 165,000 barrels of mackerel were landed on their salty decks. For +fifty years (between 1811 and 1860) the Rapid sailed as a packet between +this town and Boston, making the trip on one memorable occasion in +sixty-seven minutes. We read that in the War of 1812 she was carried up +the Weymouth River and covered, masts and hull, with green bushes so +that the marauding British cruisers might not find her, and as we read +we find ourselves remembering that _camouflage_ is new only in name. + +How entirely fitting it seems that a town of such venerable houses and +venerable legends should be presided over by a church which is the +oldest of its kind in the country! + +Hingham changes. There is a Roman Catholic Church in the very heart of +that one-time Puritan stronghold: the New North is Unitarian, and +Episcopalians, Baptists, and Second Adventists have settled down +comfortably where once they would have been run out of town. Poor old +Puritans, how grieved and scandalized they would be to stand, as we are +standing now, and watch the procession of passing automobilists! Would +it seem all lost to them, we wonder, the religious ideal for which they +struggled, or would they realize that their sowing had brought forth +richer fruit than they could guess? It has all changed, since Puritan +days, and yet, perhaps, in no other place in New England does the hand +of the past lie so visibly upon the community. You cannot lift your eyes +but they rest upon some building raised two centuries and more ago; the +shade which ripples under your feet is cast by elms planted by that very +hand of the past. Even your voice repeats the words which those old +patriarchs, well versed in Biblical lore, chose for their neighborhood +names. Accord Pond and Glad Tidings Plain might have been lifted from +some Pilgrim's Progress, while the near-by Sea of Galilee and Jerusalem +Road are from the Good Book itself. + +"Which way to Egypt?" Is this an echo from that time when the Bible was +the corner-stone of Church and State, of home and school? + +"What's the best road to Jericho Beach?" Surely it is some grave-faced +shade who calls: or is it a peal from the chimes in the Memorial Bell +Tower--chimes reminiscent of old Hingham, in England? No, it is only the +shouted question of the motorist, gay and prosperous, flying on his +Sunday holiday through ancient Hingham town. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +COHASSET LEDGES AND MARSHES[1] + +[Illustration] + + +A sickle-shaped shore--wild, superb! Tawny ledges tumbling out to sea, +rearing massive heads to search, across three thousand miles of water, +for another shore. For it is Spain and Portugal which lie directly +yonder, and the same tumultuous sea that crashes and swirls against +Cohasset's crags laps also on those sunnier, warmer sands. + +Back inland, from the bold brown coast which gives Cohasset her +Riviera-like fame, lie marshes, liquefying into mirrors at high tide, +melting into lush green at low tide. + +Between the ledges and the marshes winds Jerusalem Road, bearing a +continual stream of sight-seers and fringed with estates hidden from the +sight-seers; estates with terraces dashed by spindrift, with curving +stairways hewn in sheer rock down to the water, with wind-twisted +savins, and flowers whose bright bloom is heightened by the tang of +salt. For too many a passing traveler Cohasset is known only as the most +fashionable resort on the South Shore. But Cohasset's story is a longer +one than that, and far more profound. + +Cohasset is founded upon a rock, and the making of that rock is so +honestly and minutely recorded by nature that even those who take alarm +at the word "geology" may read this record with ease. These rocky ledges +that stare so proudly across the sea underlie, also, every inch of soil, +and are of the same kind everywhere--granite. Granite is a rock which is +formed under immense pressure and in the presence of confined moisture, +needing a weight of fifteen thousand pounds upon every inch. Therefore, +wherever granite is found we know that it has not been formed by +deposit, like limestone and sandstone and slate and other sedimentary +rocks, but at a prodigious depth under the solid ground, and by slow +crystallizing of molten substances. There must have been from two to +five miles of other rock lying upon the stuff that crystallized into +granite. A wrinkling in the skin of the earth exposed the granite, a +wrinkling so gradual that doubtless if generations of men had lived on +top of the wrinkle they would have sworn it did not move. But move it +did, and the superimposed rock must have been worn off at a rate of less +than a hundredth part of an inch every year in order to lose two or +three miles of it in twenty-five million years. As the granite was +wrinkled up by the movement of the earth's crust, certain cracks opened +and filled with lava, forming dikes. The geologist to-day can glance at +these dikes and tell the period of their formation as casually as a +jockey looking at a horse's mouth can tell his age. He could also tell +of the "faulting," or slipping down, of adjacent masses of solid rock, +which has occurred often enough to carve the characteristic Cohasset +coast. + +The making of the rock bottom is a story which extends over millions of +years: the making of the soil extends over thousands. The gigantic +glacier which once formed all over the northern part of North America, +and which remained upon it most of the time until about seven thousand +years ago, ground up the rock like a huge mill and heaped its grist into +hills and plains and meadows. The marks of it are as easy to see as +finger prints in putty. There are scratches on the underlying rock in +every part of the town, pointing in the southerly direction in which the +glacier moved. The gravel and clay belts of the town have all been +stretched out in the same direction as the scratches, and many are the +boulders which were combed out of the moving glacier by the peaks of the +ledges, and are now poised, like the famous Tipping Rock, just where the +glacier left them when it melted. Few towns in America possess greater +geological interest or a wider variety of glacial phenomena than +Cohasset--all of which may be studied more fully with the aid of E. +Victor Bigelow's "Narrative History of the Town of Cohasset, +Massachusetts," and William O. Crosby's "Geology of the Boston Basin." + +This, then, is briefly the first part of Cohasset's ledges. The second +part deals with human events, including many shipwrecks and disasters, +and more than one romantic episode. Perhaps this human section is best +begun with Captain John Smith. + +Captain John Smith was born too early. If ever a hero was brought into +the world to adorn the moving-picture screen, that hero of the "iron +collar," of piratical capture, of wedlock with an Indian princess, was +the man. Failing of this high calling he did some serviceable work in +discovering and describing many of the inlets on the coast of New +England. Among these inlets Cohasset acted her part as hostess to the +famous navigator and staged a small and vivid encounter with the +aborigines. The date of this presentation was in 1614; the scenario may +be found in Smith's own diary. Smith and a party of eight or more +sailors made the trip between the ledges in a small rowboat. It is +believed that they landed somewhere near Hominy Point. Their landing was +not carried out without some misadventure, however, for in some way this +party of explorers angered the Indians with whom they came in contact, +and the result was an attack from bow and arrow. The town of Cohasset, +in commemorating this encounter by a tablet, has inscribed upon the +tablet Smith's own words: + +"We found the people on those parts very kind, but in their fury no less +valiant: and at Quonhaset falling out there with but one of them, he +with three others crossed the harbour in a cannow to certain rocks +whereby we must pass, and there let flie their arrowes for our shot, +till we were out of danger, yet one of them was slaine, and the other +shot through the thigh." + +History follows fast along the ledges: history of gallant deeds and +gallant defense during the days of the Revolution and the War of 1812; +deeds of disaster along the coast and one especial deed of great +engineering skill. + +The beauty and the tragedy of Cohasset are caught in large measure upon +these jagged rocks. The splinters and wrecks of two and a half centuries +have strewn the beaches, and many a corpse, far from its native land, +has been found, wrapped in a shroud of seaweed upon the sand, and has +been lowered by alien hands into a forever unmarked grave. Quite +naturally the business of "wrecking"--that is, saving the pieces--came +to be the trade of a number of Cohasset citizens, and so expert did +Cohasset divers and seamen become that they were in demand all over the +world. One of the most interesting salvage enterprises concerned a +Spanish frigate, sunk off the coast of Venezuela. Many thousand dollars +in silver coin were covered by fifty feet of water, and it was Captain +Tower, of Cohasset, with a crew of Cohasset divers and seamen, who set +sail for the spot in a schooner bearing the substantial name of Eliza +Ann. The Spanish Government, having no faith in the enterprise, agreed +to claim only two and one half per cent of what was removed. The first +year the wreckers got fourteen thousand dollars, and the second they had +reached seven thousand, when the Spaniards became so jealous of their +skill that they had to flee for their lives (taking the seven thousand, +however). The clumsy diving-bell method was the only one known at that +time, but when, twenty years later, the Spaniards had to swallow their +chagrin and send again for the same wrecking party to assist them on the +same task, modern diving suits were in use and more money was +recovered--no mean triumph for the crew of the Eliza Ann! + +As the wrecks along the Cohasset coast were principally caused by the +dangerous reefs spreading in either direction from what is known as +Minot's Ledge, the necessity of a lighthouse on that spot was early +evident, and the erecting of the present Minot's Light is one of the +most romantic engineering enterprises of our coast history. The original +structure was snapped off like a pikestaff in the great storm of 1851, +and the present one of Quincy granite is the first of its kind in +America to be built on a ledge awash at high tide and with no adjacent +dry land. The tremendous difficulties were finally overcome, although in +the year 1855 the work could be pursued for only a hundred and thirty +hours, and the following year for only a hundred and fifty-seven. To +read of the erection of this remarkable lighthouse reminds one of the +building of Solomon's temple. The stone was selected with the utmost +care, and the Quincy cutters declared that such chiseling had never +before left the hand of man. Then every single block for the lower +portion was meticulously cut, dovetailed, and set in position on +Government Island in Cohasset Harbor. The old base, exquisitely laid, +where they were thus set up is still visible, as smooth as a billiard +table, although grass-covered. In addition to the flawless cutting and +joining of the blocks, the ledge itself was cut into a succession of +levels suitable to bear a stone foundation--work which was possible only +at certain times of the tide and seasons of the year. The cutting of +each stone so that it exactly fitted its neighbor, above, below, and at +either side, and precisely conformed to the next inner row upon the same +level, was nothing short of a marvel. A miniature of the light--the +building of which took two winters, and which was on the scale of an +inch to a foot--was in the United States Government Building at the +Chicago Exposition, and is stone for stone a counterpart of the granite +tower in the Atlantic. Although this is an achievement which belongs in +a sense to the whole United States, yet it must always seem, to those +who followed it most closely, as belonging peculiarly to Cohasset. A +famous Cohasset rigger made the model for the derrick which was used to +raise the stones; the massive granite blocks were teamed by one whose +proud boast it was that he had never had occasion to shift a stone +twice; a Cohasset man captained the first vessel to carry the stone to +the ledge, and another assisted in the selection of the stone. + +It is difficult to turn one's eyes away from the spectacular beauty of +the Cohasset shore, but magnificent as these ledges are, and glittering +with infinite romance, yet, rather curiously, it is on the limpid +surface of the marshes that we read the most significant episodes of +Colonial and pioneer life. + +One of the needs which the early settlers were quick to feel was open +land which would serve as pasturage for their cattle. With forests +pressing down upon them from the rear, and a barrier of granite in front +of them, the problem of grazing-lands was important. The Hingham +settlement at Bare Cove (Cohasset was part of Hingham originally) found +the solution in the acres of open marshland which stretched to the east. +Cohasset to-day may ask where so much grazing-land lay within her +borders. By comparison with the old maps and surveying figures, we find +that many acres, now covered with the water of Little Harbor and lying +within the sandbar at Pleasant Beach, are counted as old grazing-lands. +These, with the sweep of what is now the "Glades," furnished abundant +pasturage for neighboring cattle and brought the Hingham settlers +quickly to Cohasset meadows. Thus it happens that the first history of +Cohasset is the history of this common pasturage--"Commons," as it was +known in the old histories. Although Hingham was early divided up among +the pioneers, the marshes were kept undivided for the use of the whole +settlement. As a record of 1650 puts it: "It was ordered that any +townsman shall have the liberty to put swine to Conohasset without yokes +or rings, upon the town's common land." + +But the Massachusetts Bay Colony was hard-headed as well as pious, and +several naive hints creep into the early records of sharers of the +Commons who were shrewdly eyeing the salt land of Cohasset. A real +estate transfer of 1640 has this potential flavor: "Half the lot at +Conehasset, if any fall by lot, and half the commons which belong to +said lot." And again, four years later, Henry Tuttle sold to John +Fearing "what right he had to the Division of Conihassett Meadows." The +first land to come under the measuring chain and wooden stake of +surveyors was about the margin of Little Harbor about the middle of the +seventeenth century. After that the rest of the township was not long in +being parceled out. One of the curious methods of land division was in +the Beechwood district. The apportionment seems to have had the +characteristics of ribbon cake. Sections of differing desirability--to +meet the demands of justice and natural conditions--were measured out in +long strips, a mile long and twenty-five feet wide. Many an old stone +wall marking this early grant is still to be seen in the woods. Could +anything but the indomitable spirit of those English settlers and the +strong feeling for land ownership have built walls of carted stone about +enclosures a mile long and twenty-five feet wide? + +Having effected a division of land in Cohasset, families soon began to +settle away from the mother town of Hingham, and after a prolonged +period of government at arm's length, with all its attendant +discomforts, the long, bitter struggle resolved itself into Cohasset's +final separation from Hingham, and its development from a precinct into +an independent township. + +While the marshes to the north were the cause of Cohasset being first +visited, settled, and made into a township, yet the marshes to the south +hold an even more vital historical interest. These southern marshes, +bordering Bound Brook and stretching away to Bassing Beach, were visited +by haymakers as were those to the north. But these haymakers did not +come from the same township, nor were they under the same local +government. The obscure little stream which to-day lies between Scituate +Harbor and Cohasset marks the line of two conflicting grants--the +Plymouth Colony and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. + +In the early days of New England royal grants from the throne or patents +from colonial councils in London were deemed necessary before settling +in the wilderness. The strong, inherited respect for landed estates must +have given such charters their value, as it is hard for us to see now +how any one in England could have prevented the pioneers from settling +where they pleased. The various patents and grants of the two colonies +(indefinite as they seem to us now, as some granted "up to" a hundred +acres to each emigrant without defining any boundaries) brought the two +colonies face to face at Bound Brook. The result was a dispute over the +harvesting of salt hay. + +All boundary streams attract to themselves a certain amount of fame--the +Rio Grande, the Saint Lawrence, and the Rhine. But surely the little +stream of Bound Brook, which was finally taken as the line of division +between two colonies of such historical importance as the Plymouth and +the Massachusetts Bay, is worth more than a superficial attention. The +dispute lasted many years and occasioned the appointing of numerous +commissioners from both sides. That the salt grass of Bassing Beach +should have assumed such importance reveals again the sensitiveness to +land values of men who had so recently left England. The settling of the +dispute was not referred back to England, but was settled by the +colonists themselves. + +The author of the "Narrative History of Cohasset" calls this an event of +only less historical importance than that of the pact drawn up in the +cabin of the Mayflower. He declares that the confederation of states had +its inception there, and adds: "The appointment for this joint +commission for the settlement of this intercolonial difficulty was the +first step of federation that culminated in the Colonial Congress and +then blossomed into the United States." We to-day, to whom the salt +grass of Cohasset is little more than a fringe about the two harbors, +may find it difficult to agree fully with such a sweeping statement, but +certainly this spot and boundary line should always be associated with +the respect for property which has ennobled the Anglo-Saxon race. + +Between the marshes, which were of such high importance in those early +days, and the ledges which have been the cause and the scene of so many +Cohasset adventures, twists Jerusalem Road, the brilliant beauty of +which has been so often--but never too often--remarked. This was the +main road from Hingham for many years, and it took full three hours of +barbarous jolting in two-wheeled, springless ox carts to make the trip. +Even if a man had a horse the journey was cruelly tedious, for there +were only a few stretches where the horse could go faster than a +walk--and the way was pock-marked with boulders and mudholes. With no +stage-coach before 1815, and being off the highway between Plymouth and +Boston, it is small wonder that the early Cohasset folk either walked or +went by sea to Hingham and thence to Boston. + +It has been suggested that the "keeper of young cattle at Coneyhassett," +who drove his herd over from Hingham, was moved either by piety or +sarcasm to give the trail its present arresting name. However, as the +herdsman did not take this route, but the back road through Turkey +Meadows, it is more probable that some visitors, who detected a +resemblance between this section of the country and the Holy Land, were +responsible for the christening of this road and also of the Sea of +Galilee--which last has almost dropped into disuse. There does not seem +to be any particular suggestion of the land of the Pharaohs and +present-day Egypt, but tradition explains that as follows: Old Squire +Perce had accumulated a store of grain in case of drought, and when the +drought came and the men hurried to him to buy corn, he greeted them +with "Well, boys, so you've come down to Egypt to buy corn." Another +proof, if one were needed, of the Biblical familiarity of those days. + +It is hard to stop writing about Cohasset. There are so many bits of +history tucked into every ledge and cranny of her shore. The green in +front of the old white meeting-house--one of the prettiest and most +perfect meeting-houses on the South Shore--has been pressed by the feet +of men assembling for six wars. It makes Cohasset seem venerable, +indeed, when one thinks of the march of American history. But to the +tawny ledges, tumbling out to sea, these three hundred years are as but +a day; for the story of the stones, like the story of the stars, is +measured in terms of milliards. To such immemorial keepers of the coast +the life of man is a brief tale that is soon told, and fades as swiftly +as the fading leaf. + +[Illustration] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] For much of this chapter I am indebted to my friend Alice C. Hyde. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE SCITUATE SHORE + +[Illustration] + + +Scituate is different: different from Cohasset, with its superbly bold +coast and its fashionable folk; different from Hingham, with its air of +settled inland dignity. Scituate has a quaintness, a casualness, the +indescribable air of a land's-end spot. The fine houses in Scituate are +refreshingly free from pretension; the winds that have twisted the trees +into Rackham-like grotesques have blown away falsity and formality. + +Scituate life has always been along the shore. It is from the shore that +coot-shooting used to furnish a livelihood to many a Scituate man, and +still lures the huntsmen in the fine fall weather. It is the peculiar +formation of the shore which has developed a small, clinker-built boat, +and made the town famous for day fishing. It is along the shore that the +unique and picturesque mossing industry is still carried on, and along +the shore that the well-known colony of literary folk have settled. + +Scituate's history is really a fishing history, for as early as 1633 a +fishing station was established here, and in course of time the North +River, winding twenty miles through green meadows to the sea, was once +the scene of more shipbuilding than any other river in New England. + +There is nothing more indicative of the Yankees' shrewd practicality +than the early settlers' instant appreciation of the financial and +economic potentialities of the fishing-trade. The Spaniard sought for +gold in the new country, or contented himself with the fluctuating fur +trade with its demoralizing slack seasons. But the New Englander +promptly applied himself to the mundane pursuit of cod and mackerel. +Everybody fished. As John Smith, in his "Description of New England," +says: "Young boyes and girles, salvages or any other, be they never such +idlers, may turne, carry, and returne fish without shame or either great +pain: he is very idle that is past twelve years of age and cannot doe so +much: and shee is very old that cannot spin a thread to catch them." + +It began when Squanto the Indian showed the amazed colonists how he +could tread the eels out of the mud with his feet and catch them with +his hands. This was convenient, to be sure, but the colonists did not +long content themselves with such primitive methods. They sent to +England for cod hooks and lines; mackerel hooks and lines; herring nets +and seines; shark hooks, bass nets, squid lines, and eel pots; and in a +short time they had established a trade which meant more money than the +gold mines of Guiana or Potosi. The modern financier who makes a fortune +from the invention of a collar button or the sale of countless penny +packages of gum is the lineal descendant of that first thrifty New +Englander who did not scorn the humble cod because it was cheap and +plentiful (you remember how these same cod "pestered" the ships of +Gosnold in 1602), but set to work with the quiet initiative which has +distinguished New Englanders ever since, first to catch, then to barter, +and finally to sell his wares to all the world. For cheap as all fish +was--twopence for a twelve-pound cod, salmon less than a penny a pound, +and shad, when it was finally considered fit to eat at all, at two fish +for a penny--yet, when all the world is ready to buy and the supply is +inexhaustible, tremendous profits are possible. The many fast days of +the Roman Catholic Church abroad opened an immense demand, and in a +short time quantities of various kinds of fish (Josselyn in 1672 +enumerates over two hundred caught in New England waters) were dried and +salted and sent to England. + +This constant and steadily increasing trade radically affected the whole +economic structure and history of New England for two centuries. Ships +and all the shipyard industries; the farm, on which fish was used not +only as a medium of exchange, but also as a valuable fertilizer; the +home, where the many operations of curing and salting were carried +on--all of those were developed directly by the growth of this +particular trade. Laws were made and continually revised regarding the +fisheries and safeguarding their rights in every conceivable fashion; +ship carpenters were exempt from military service, and many special +exemptions were extended to fishermen under the general statutes. + +The oyster is now a dish for the epicure and the lobster for the +millionaire. But in the old days when oysters a foot long were not +uncommon, and lobsters sometimes grew to six feet, every one had all he +wanted, and sometimes more than he wanted, of these delicacies. The +stranger in New England may notice how certain customs still prevail, +such as the Friday night fish dinner and the Sunday morning fish-cakes; +and also that New Englanders as a whole have a rather fastidious taste +in regard to the preparation of both salt- and fresh-water products. +The food of any region is characteristic of that region, and to travel +along the Old Coast Road and not partake of one of the delicious fish +dinners, is as absurd as it would be to omit rice from a menu in China +or roast beef from an English dinner. + +While the fishing trade was highly important in all the South Shore +towns, yet it was especially so in Scituate. In 1770 more than thirty +vessels, principally for mackerel, were fitted out in this one village, +and these vessels not infrequently took a thousand barrels in a season. +In winter they were used for Southern coasting, carrying lumber and fish +and returning with grain and flour. The reason why fishing was so +persistently and exclusively followed in this particular spot is not +hard to seek. The sea yielded a far more profitable and ready crop than +the land, and, besides, had a jealous way of nibbling away at the land +wherever it could. It is estimated that it wastes away from twelve to +fourteen inches of Fourth Cliff every year. + +But in spite of the sea's readily accessible crop it was natural that +the "men of Kent" who settled the town should demand some portion of dry +land as well. These men of Kent were not mermen, able to live in and on +the water indefinitely, but decidedly gallant fellows, rather more +courtly than their neighbors, and more polished than the race which +succeeded them. Gilson, Vassal, Hatherly, Cudworth, Tilden, Hoar, +Foster, Stedman, and Hinckley had all been accustomed to the elegancies +of life in England as their names testify. The first land they used was +on the cliffs, for it had already been improved by Indian planting; then +the salt marshes, covered with a natural crop of grass, and then the +mellow intervales near the river. When the sea was forced to the +regretful realization that she could not monopolize the entire attention +of her fellows, she was persuaded to yield up some very excellent +fertilizer in the way of seaweed. But she still nags away at the cliffs +and shore, and proclaims with every flaunting wave and ripple that it is +the water, not the land, which makes Scituate what it is. + +And, after all, the sea is right. It is along the shore that one sees +Scituate most truly. Here the characteristic industry of mossing is +still carried on in primitive fashion. The mossers work from dories, +gathering with long-handled rakes the seaweed from the rocks and ledges +along the shore. They bring it in, a heavy, dark, inert mass, all sleek +and dripping, and spread it out to dry in the sun. As it lies there, +neatly arranged on beds of smoothest pebbles, the sun bleaches it. One +can easily differentiate the different days' haul, for the moss which is +just spread out is almost black and that of yesterday is a dark purple. +It shimmers from purple into lavender; the lavender into something like +rose; and by the time of the final washing and bleaching it lies in fine +light white crinkles, almost like wool. It is a pretty sight, and the +neatness and dispatch of the mossers make the odd sea-flower gardens +attractive patches on the beach. Sometimes a family working together +will make as much as a thousand dollars in a season gathering and +preparing the moss. One wonders if all the people in the world could +eat enough blancmange to consume this salty product, and is relieved to +be reminded that the moss is also used for brewing and dyeing. + +It is really a pity to see Scituate only from a motor. There is real +atmosphere to the place, which is worth breathing, but it takes more +time to breathe in an atmosphere than merely to "take the air." Should +you decide to ramble about the ancient town you will surely find your +way to Scituate Point. The old stone lighthouse, over a century old, is +no longer used, and the oil lantern, hung nightly out at the end of the +romantic promontory, seems a return to days of long ago. You will also +see the place where, in the stirring Revolutionary days, little Abigail +and Rebecca Bates, with fife and drum marched up and down, close to the +shore and yet hidden from sight, playing so furiously that their +"martial music and other noises" scared away the enemy and saved the +town from invasion. You will go to Second Cliff where are the summer +homes of many literary people, and you will pass through Egypt, +catching what glimpse you can of the stables and offices, paddocks and +cottages of the immense estate of Dreamwold. And of course you will have +pointed out to you the birthplace of Samuel Woodworth, whose sole claim +to remembrance is his poem of the "Old Oaken Bucket." The well-sweep is +still where he saw it, when, as editor of the _New York Mirror_, it +suddenly flashed before his reminiscent vision, but the old oaken bucket +itself has been removed to a museum. + +After you have done all these things, you will, if you are wise, forsake +Scituate Harbor, which is the old section, and Scituate Beach, which is +the newer, summer section, and find the way to the burial ground, which, +after the one in Plymouth, is the oldest in the State. Possibly there +will be others at the burial ground, for ancestor worshipers are not +confined to China, and every year there springs up a new crop of +genealogists to kneel before the moss-grown headstones and, with truly +admirable patience, decipher names and dates, half obliterated by the +finger of time. One does not wonder that their descendants are so eager +to trace their connection back to those men of Kent, whose sturdy title +rings so bravely down the centuries. To be sure, what is left to trace +is very slight in most cases, and quite without any savor of +personality. Too often it is merely brief and dry recital of dates and +number of progeny, and names of the same. Few have left anything so +quaint as the words of Walter Briggs, who settled there in 1651 and from +whom Briggs Harbor was named. His will contains this thoughtful +provision: "For my wife Francis, one third of my estate during her life, +also a gentle horse or mare, and Jemmy the negur shall catch it for +her." + +The good people who came later (1634) from Plymouth and Boston and took +up their difficult colonial life under the pastorate of Mr. Lathrop, +seem to have done their best to make "Satuit" (as it was first called, +from the Indians, meaning "cold brook") conform as nearly as possible to +the other pioneer settlements, even to the point of discovering witches +here. But religion and fasting were not able to accomplish what the +ubiquitous summer influx has, happily, also failed to effect. Scituate +remains different. + +Perhaps it was those men of Kent who gave it its indestructibly romantic +bias; perhaps it is the jealousy of the ever-encroaching sea. The gray +geese flying over the iridescent moss gleaming upon the pebbled beaches, +the solitary lantern on the point are all parts of that differentness. +And those who love her best are glad that it is so. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +MARSHFIELD, THE HOME OF DANIEL WEBSTER + +[Illustration] + + Ye marshes, how candid and simple and nothing-withholding and free! + Ye publish yourselves to the sky and offer yourselves to the sea! + Tolerant plains, that suffer the sea and the rains and the sun, + Ye spread and span like the catholic man who hath mightily won + God out of knowledge, and good out of infinite pain, + And sight out of blindness, and purity out of a stain. + + +It was these mighty marshes--this ample sweep of grass, of sea and +sky--this vast earthly and heavenly spaciousness that must forever stand +to all New Englanders as a background to the powerful personality who +chose it as his own home. Daniel Webster, when his eyes first turned to +this infinite reach of largeness, instinctively knew it as the place +where his splendid senses would find satisfaction, and his splendid mind +would soar into an even loftier freedom. Webster loved Marshfield with +an intensity that made it peculiarly his own. Lanier, in language more +intricate and tropical, exclaimed of his "dim sweet" woods: "Ye held me +fast in your heart, and I held you fast in mine." Webster wielded the +vital union between his nature and that of the land not only by profound +sentiment, but by a vigorous physical grappling with the soil. + +Is it that vivid natures unconsciously seek an environment +characteristic of them? Or are they, perhaps, inevitably forced to +create such an environment wherever they find themselves? Both facts +seem true in this case. This wide world of marsh and sea is not only +beautifully expressive of one who plunged himself into a rich communion +with the earth, with her full harvests and blooded cattle, with her +fruitful brooks and lakes; but it is still, after more than half a +century, vibrant with the spirit of the man who dwelt there. + +We of another generation--and a generation before whom so many +portentous events and figures have passed--find it hard to realize the +tremendous magnetism and brilliancy of a man who has been so long dead, +or properly to estimate the high historical significance of such a life. +The human attribute which is the most immediately impelling in direct +intercourse--personality--is the most elusive to preserve. If Webster's +claim to remembrance rested solely upon that attribute, he would still +be worthy of enduring fame. But his gifts flowered at a spectacular +climax of national affairs and won thereby spectacular prominence. That +these gifts were to lose something of their pristine repute before the +end infuses, from a dramatic point of view, a contrasted and heightened +luster to the period of their highest glory. + +Let us, casual travelers of a later and more careless day, walk now +together over the place which is the indestructible memorial of a great +man, and putting aside the measuring-stick of criticism--the sign of +small natures--try to live for an hour in the atmosphere which was the +breath of life to one who, if he failed greatly, also succeeded greatly, +and whose noble achievement it was not only to express, but to vivify a +love for the Union which, in its hour of supreme trial, became its +triumphant force. + +Could we go back--not quite a hundred years--a little off the direct +route to Plymouth, on a site overlooking the broad marshes of Green +Harbor and the sea, where there now stands a boulder erected in 1914 by +the Boston University Law School Association, we would find a +comfortable, rambling house, distinguished among its New England +neighbors by an easy and delightful hospitality--the kind of hospitality +we call "Southern." There are many people in the house, on the veranda +and lawns: a hostess of gentle mien and manners; children attractive in +the spontaneity of those who continually and happily associate with +their elders; several house guests (yonder is Audubon the great +naturalist, here is an office-seeker from Boston, and that chap over +there, so very much at home, can be no other than Peter Harvey, +Webster's fond biographer). Callers there are, also, as is shown by the +line of chaises and saddle horses waiting outside, and old Captain +Thomas and his wife, from whom the place was bought, and who still +retain their original quarters, move in and out like people who consider +themselves part of the family. It is a heterogeneous collection, yet by +no means an awkward one, and every one is chatting with every one else +with great amiability. It is late afternoon: the master of the house has +been away all day, and now his guests and his family are glancing in the +direction from which he may be expected. For although every one is +comfortable and properly entertained, yet the absence of the host +creates an inexpressible emptiness; it is as if everything were +quiescent--hardly breathing--merely waiting until he comes. Suddenly the +atmosphere changes; it is charged with a strong vibrant quality; +everything--all eyes, all interest--is instantly focused on the figure +which has appeared among them. He is in fisherman's clothes--this +newcomer--attired with a brave eye for the picturesque, in soft hat and +flowing tie; but there are no fisherman's clothes, no, nor any other +cloakings which can conceal the resilient dignity of his bearing, his +impressive build, and magnificent, kingly head. Sydney Smith called +Webster a cathedral; and surely there must have been something in those +enormous, burning eyes, that craglike brow, that smote even the most +superficial observer into an admiration which was almost awe. + +Many men--perhaps even the majority--whatever their genius in the outer +world, in their own houses are either relegated to--or choose--the +inconspicuous role of mere masculine appendages. But here we have a man +who is superbly the host: he knows and welcomes every guest and caller; +he personally supervises the disposal of their baggage and the selection +of their chambers; he himself has ordered the dinner--mutton which he +has raised, fish which he has caught--and it is being cooked by Monica, +the Southern slave whose freedom he purchased for her. He carves at +table, priding himself on his dispatch and nicety, and keeps an eye on +the needs of every one at the long board. Everything, every one in the +house is irresistibly drawn about this magnetic center which dominates +by its innate power of personality more than by any deliberate +intention. His children worship him; his wife idolizes him; each man and +woman on the place regards him with admiring affection. And in such +congenial atmosphere he expands, is genial, kindly, delightful. But +devoted as he is to his home, his family, and his friends, and charming +as he shows himself with them, yet it is not until we see him striding +over the farm which he has bought that we see the Daniel Webster who is +destined to live most graphically in the memories of those who like to +think of great men in those intimate moments which are most personally +characteristic of them. + +We must rise early in the morning if we would accompany him on his day's +round. He himself is up at sunrise, for the sunrise is to him signal to +new life. As he once wrote: "Among all our good people not one in a +thousand sees the sun rise once a year. They know nothing of the +morning. Their idea of it is that part of the day which comes along +after a cup of coffee and a beefsteak or a piece of toast. With them +morning is not a new issuing of light, a new bursting forth of the sun, +a new waking up of all that has life from a sort of temporary death, to +behold again the works of God, the heavens and the earth.... The first +faint streak of light, the earliest purpling of the east which the lark +springs up to greet, and the deeper and deeper coloring into orange and +red, till at length the 'glorious sun is seen, regent of the day'--this +they never enjoy, for they never see it." + +So four o'clock finds Webster up and dressed and bound for the little +study in his garden (the only building spared by the fire which +destroyed the house in 1878) and beginning his correspondence. If he has +no secretary he writes himself, and by time breakfast is announced +twenty letters, all franked and sealed, are ready to be posted. + +"Now," he says, smiling benignantly down the long breakfast table of +family and friends, "my day's work is done--I have nothing to do but +fish." + +Although this is, indeed, his favorite sport, and there is hardly a +brook or lake or pond within a radius of twenty miles which does not +bear the charmed legend of having been one of his favorite fishing +grounds, he does not spend his days in amusement, like the typical +country gentleman. Farming to him, the son of a yeoman, is no mere +possession of a fine estate, but the actual participation in ploughing, +planting, and haying. His full animal spirits find relief in such labor. +We cannot think of any similar example of such prodigious mental and +physical energy. Macaulay was a great parliamentary orator, but he was +the most conventional of city men; Burke and Chatham had no strength for +such strenuousness after their professional toil. But Webster loved to +know and to put his hand to every detail of farming and stock-raising. +When he first came to Marshfield the soil was thin and sandy. It was he +who instituted scientific farming in the region, teaching the natives +how to fertilize with kelp which was easily obtainable from the sea, and +also with the plentiful small herring or menhaden. He taught them the +proper care of the soil, and the rotation of crops. This passionate love +of the earth was an integral part of the man. As the force of his mind +drew its power, not from mere rhetorical facility, but from fundamental +principles, so his magnificent body, like that of the fabled Antaeus, +seemed to draw perennial potency from contact with the earth. To acquire +land--he owned nearly eighteen hundred acres at the time of his +death--and to cultivate it to the highest possible degree of +productiveness was his intense delight. The farm which he purchased from +Captain Thomas grew to an estate of two or three dozen buildings, +outhouses, tenant houses, a dairyman's cottage, fisherman's house, +agricultural offices, and several large barns. We can imagine that he +shows us all of these things--explaining every detail with enthusiasm +and accuracy, occasionally digressing upon the habits of birds or fish, +the influence of tides and currents, the changes of sky and wind. All +natural laws are fascinating to him--inspiring his imagination and +uplifting his spirit--and it is these things, never politics or +business, which he discusses in his hours of freedom. He himself +supervises the planting and harvesting and slaughtering here and on his +other farm at Franklin--the family homestead--even when obliged to be +absent, or even when temporarily residing in Washington and hard pressed +with the cares of his office as Secretary of State. + +Those painters who include a parrot in the portrait of some fine +frivolous lady do so to heighten their interpretation of character. We +all betray our natures, by the creatures we instinctively gather about +us. One might know that Jefferson at Monticello would select high-bred +saddle horses as his companions; that Cardinal Richelieu would find no +pet so soothing, so alluring, as a soft-stepping cat; that Charles I +would select the long-haired spaniel. So it is entirely in the picture +that of all the beasts brought under human yoke, that great oxen, slow, +solemn, strong, would appeal to the man whose searching eyes were never +at rest except when they swept a wide horizon; whose mind found its +deepest satisfaction in noble languages, the giant monuments of +literature and art, and whose soul best stretched its wings beside the +limitless sea and under the limitless sky. Webster was fond of all +animal life; he felt himself part of its free movement. Guinea hens, +peacocks, ducks, flocks of tamed wild geese, dogs, horses--these were +all part of the Marshfield place, but there was within the breast of the +owner a special responsiveness to great herds of cattle, and especially +fine oxen, the embodiment of massive power. So fond was he of these +favorite beasts of his, that often on his arrival home he would fling +his bag into the hall without even entering the house, and hasten to the +barn to see that they were properly tied up for the night. As he once +said to his little son, as they both stood by the stalls and he was +feeding the oxen with ears of corn from an unhusked pile lying on the +barn floor: "I would rather be here than in the Senate," adding, with +his famous smile, "I think it is better company." So we may be sure as +we walk in our retrospect about the farm with him--he never speaks of it +as an "estate" but always as a farm--he will linger longest where the +Devon oxen, the Alderneys, Herefordshire, and Ayrshire are grazing, and +that the eyes which Carlyle likened to anthracite furnaces will glow and +soften. Twenty years from now he will gaze out upon his oxen once again +from the window before which he has asked to be carried, as he lies +waiting for death. Weariness, disease, and disappointment have weakened +the elasticity of his spirit, and as they pass--his beloved oxen, +slowly, solemnly--what procession of the years passes with them! Years +of full living, of generous living; of deep emotions; of glory; years of +ambition; of bereavement; of grief. It is all to pass--these happy days +at Marshfield; the wife he so fondly cared for; the children he so +deeply cherished. Sycophants are to fill, in a measure, the place of +friends, the money which now flows in so freely is to entangle and +ensnare him; the lofty aspiration which now inspires him is to +degenerate into a presidential ambition which will eat into his soul. +But to-day let us, as long as we may, see him as he is in the height of +his powers. Let us walk with him under the trees which he planted. Those +large elms, gracefully silhouetted against the house, were placed there +with his own hands at the birth of his son Edward and his daughter +Julia, and he always refers to them gently as "brother" and "sister." To +plant a tree to mark an event was one of his picturesque customs--an +unconscious desire, perhaps, to project himself into the future. I am +quite sure, as we accompany him, he will expatiate on the improvement in +the soil which he has effected; that he will point out eagerly not only +the domestic but the wild animals about the place; and that he will +stand for a few moments on the high bluff overlooking the sea and the +marshes and let the wind blow through his dark hair. He is carefully +dressed--he always dresses to fit the occasion--and to-day, as he stands +in his long boots reaching to the knee and adorned with a tassel, his +bell-crowned beaver hat in his hand, and in his tight pantaloons and +well-cut coat--a magnificent specimen of virile manhood--the words of +Lanier, although written at a later date, and about marshes far more +lush than these New England ones, beat upon our ears: + +[Illustration] + + "Oh, what is abroad in the marsh and the terminal sea? + Somehow my soul seems suddenly free + From the weighing of fate and the sad discussion of sin, + By the length and the breadth and the sweep of the marshes of Glynn." + +On the way back he will show us the place where three of his favorite +horses are buried, for he does not sell the old horses who have done him +good service, but has them buried "with the honors of war"--that is, +standing upright, with their halters and shoes on. Above one of them he +has placed the epitaph: + + "Siste Viator! + Viator te major his sistit." + +I do not know if, as we return to the house where already a fresh group +of visitors has arrived, he will pause by a corner of the yard set off +by an iron fence. He has chosen this spot as the place where he shall +lie, and here, in time, are to repose under the wide and simple vault +of sky the wife and children whose going before is to bring such +desolation. It is a place supremely fitting for that ample spirit which +knew for its own the nobility of large spaces, and the grandeur of +repose. + +The life of Daniel Webster is one of the most dramatic and touching of +any of our great men. He was an orator of such solid thought and chaste +eloquence that even now, without the advantage of the marvelously rich +and flexible voice and the commanding presence that made each word burn +like a fire, even without this incalculable personal interpretation, his +speeches remain as a permanent part of our literature, and will so long +as English oratory is read. He was a brilliant lawyer--the foremost of +his day--and his statesmanship was of equal rank. In private life he was +a peculiarly devoted and tender son, husband, father, and friend. That +he should have become saddened by domestic losses and somewhat vitiated +by flattery were, perhaps, inevitable. He was bitterly condemned--more +bitterly by his contemporaries than by those who now study his words and +work--for lowering his high standard in regard to slavery. It is +impossible to refute the accusation, at the end of his life, of a +carelessness approaching unscrupulousness in money matters. His personal +failings, which were those of a man of exceptional vitality, have been +heavily--too heavily--emphasized. He ate and drank and spent money +lavishly; he had a fine library; he loved handsome plate and good +service and good living. He was generous; he was kind. That he was +susceptible to adulation and, after the death of his first wife, drifted +into associations less admirable than those of his earlier years, are +the dark threads of a woof underrunning a majestic warp. He adored his +country with a fervor that savors of the heroic, and when he said, +"There are no Alleghanies in my politics," he spoke the truth. The +intense passion for the soil which animated him at Marshfield was only a +fragment of that higher passion for his country--feeling never tainted +by sectionalism or local prejudice. It was this profound love for the +Union, coupled with his surpassing gift of eloquence in expressing that +love and inspiring it in all who heard him, that distinguishes him for +all time. + +There are other memorable things about Marshfield. Governor Edward +Winslow, who was sent to England to represent the Plymouth and +Massachusetts Bay Colonies, and whose son Josiah was the first native +Governor of the Colony, may both be called Marshfield men. Peregrine +White, the first white child born in this country, lies in the Winslow +Burying Ground. One of the most singular changes on our coast occurred +in this vicinity when in one night the "Portland Breeze" closed up the +mouth of the South River and four miles up the beach opened up the mouth +of the North River, making an entrance three quarters of a mile wide +between Third and Fourth Cliff. + +These and many other men and events of Marshfield are properly given a +place in the history of New England, but the special glory of this spot +will always be that Daniel Webster chose to live, chose to die, and +chose to be buried under the vast vault of her skyey spaces, within the +sound of her eternal sea. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +DUXBURY HOMES + +[Illustration] + + +There are certain places whose happy fortune seems to be that they are +always specially loved and specially sought by the children of men. From +that memorable date in 1630 when a little group of the Plymouth +colonists asked permission to locate across the bay at "Duxberie" until +now, when the summer colony alone has far surpassed that of the original +settlers, this section of the coast--with its lovely six-mile beach, its +high bluffs, and its pleasant hills and pasture lands, upon which are +found quite a southern flora, unique in this northern latitude--has been +thoroughly frequented and enjoyed. + +There is no more graphic index to the caliber of a people than the +houses which they build, and the first house above all others which we +must associate with this spot is the Standish cottage, built at the foot +of Captain's Hill by Alexander Standish, the son of Myles, partly from +materials from his father's house, which was burned down, but whose +cellar is still visible. This long, low, gambrel-roofed structure, with +a broad chimney showing the date of 1666, was a long way ahead of the +first log cabins erected by the Pilgrims--farther than most of us +realize, accustomed as we are to glass instead of oiled paper in +windows; to shingles, and not thatch for roofs. It is fitting that this +ancient and charming dwelling should be associated with one of the most +romantic, most striking, names in the Plymouth Colony. There are few +more picturesque personalities in our early history than Myles Standish. +Small in stature, fiery in spirit, a terror to the Indians, and a strong +arm to the Pilgrims, there is no doubt that his determination to live in +Duxbury--which he named for Duxborough Hall, his ancestral home in +Lancashire--went far in obtaining for it a separate incorporation and a +separate church. This was the first definite offshoot from the Plymouth +Colony, and was accompanied by the usual maternal fears. While he could +not forbid them going to Duxbury to settle, yet, when they asked for a +separate incorporation and church, Bradford granted it most unwillingly. +He voiced the general sentiment when he wrote that such a separation +presaged the ruin of the church "& will provoke y^e Lord's displeasure +against them." + +However, such unkind predictions in no wise bothered the sturdy little +group who moved over to the new location, needing room for their cattle +and their gardens, and most of all a sense of freedom from the +restrictions of the mother colony. The son of Elder Brewster went, and +in time the Elder himself, and so did John Alden and his wife Priscilla, +whose courtship has been so well told by Longfellow that it needs no +further embellishing here. On the grassy knoll where John and Priscilla +built their home in 1631, their grandson built the cottage which now +stands--the property of the Alden Kindred Association. John Alden seems +to have been an attractive young fellow--it is easy to see why Priscilla +Mullins preferred him to the swart, truculent widower--but from our +point of view John Alden's chief claim to fame is that he was a friend +of Myles Standish. + +Let us, as we pay our respects to Duxbury, pause for a moment and recall +some of the courageous adventures, some of the brave traits and some of +the tender ones, which make up our memory of this doughty military +commander. In the first place, we must remember that he was never a +member of the church of the Pilgrims: there is even a question if he +were not--like the rest of his family in Lancashire--a Roman Catholic; +and this immediately places him in a position of peculiar distinction. +From the first his mission was not along ecclesiastical lines, but along +military and civil ones. The early histories are full of his intrepid +deeds: there was never an expedition too dangerous or too difficult to +daunt him. He would attack with the utmost daring the hardest or the +humblest task. He was absolutely loyal to the interest of the Colony, +and during that first dreadful winter when he was among the very few who +were not stricken with sickness, he tended the others day and night, +"unceasing in his loving care." As in many audacious characters this +sweeter side of his nature does not seem to have been fully appreciated +by his contemporaries, and we have the letter in which Robinson, that +"most learned, polished and modest spirit," writes to Bradford, and +warns him to have care about Standish. He loves him right well, and is +persuaded that God has given him to them in mercy and for much good, if +he is used aright; but he fears that there may be wanting in him "that +tenderness of the life of man (made after God's image) which is meet." +This warning doubtless flattered Standish, but Robinson's later +criticism of his methods at Weymouth hurt the little captain cruelly. He +seems to have cherished an intense affection for the Leyden pastor, +such as valorous natures often feel for meditative ones, and that +Robinson died before he--Standish--could justify himself was a deep +grief to the soldier to whom mere physical hardships were as nothing. We +do not know a great deal about this relationship between the two men: in +this as in so many cases the intimate stories of these men and women, +"also their love, and their hatred, and their envy is now perished." But +we do know that thirty years later when the gallant captain lay dying he +wrote in his will: "I give three pounds to Mercy Robinson, whom I +tenderly love for her grandfather's sake." Surely one feels the touching +eloquence of this brief sentence the fitting close of a life not only +heroic in action, but deeply sensitive in sentiment. + +He died on his farm in Duxbury in 1656 when he was seventy-three, and +the Myles Standish Monument on Captain's Hill, three hundred and ten +feet above the bay, is no more conspicuous than his knightly and tender +life among the people he elected to serve. His two wives, and also +Priscilla and John Alden, for whom he entertained such lively love and +equally lively fury, all are buried here--the Captain's last home +fittingly marked by four cannon and a sturdy boulder. + +Not only for Standish and Alden is Duxbury famous. The beloved William +Brewster himself moved to this new settlement, and up to a few years ago +the traces of the whitewood trees which gave the name of "Eagle's Nest" +to his house could be distinguished. One son--Love--lived with the +venerable elder, who was a widower, and his other son Jonathan owned the +neighboring farm. In the sight of the Plymouth Colony--their first home +in the new land--the three men often worked together, cutting trees and +planting. + +Others of the original Mayflower company came too, leaving traces of +themselves in such names as Blackfriars Brook, Billingsgate, and +Houndsditch--names which they brought from Old England. + +The homes which these pioneers so laboriously and so lovingly +wrought--what were they? How did they compare with the modern home and +household? In Mr. Sheldon's "History of Deerfield" we find such a +charming and vivid picture of home life in the early days--and one that +applies with equal accuracy to Duxbury--that we cannot do better than +copy it here: + +"The ample kitchen was the center of the family life, social and +industrial. Here around the rough table, seated on rude stools or +benches, all partook of the plain and sometimes stinted fare. A glance +at the family gathered here after nightfall on a winter's day may prove +of interest. + +"After a supper of bean porridge or hasty pudding and milk of which all +partake in common from a great pewter basin, or wooden bowl, with spoons +of wood, horn or pewter; after a reverent reading of the Bible, and +fervent supplications to the Most High for prayer and guidance; after +the watch was set on the tall mount, and the vigilant sentinel began +pacing his lonely beat, the shutters were closed and barred, and with a +sense of security the occupations of the long winter evening began. +Here was a picture of industry enjoined alike by the law of the land and +the stern necessities of the settlers. All were busy. Idleness was a +crime. On the settle, or a low armchair, in the most sheltered nook, sat +the revered grandam--as a term of endearment called granny--in red +woolen gown, and white linen cap, her gray hair and wrinkled face +reflecting the bright firelight, the long stocking growing under her +busy needles, while she watched the youngling of the flock in the cradle +by her side. The good wife, in linsey-woolsey short-gown and red +petticoat steps lightly back and forth in calf pumps beside the great +wheel, or poising gracefully on the right foot, the left hand extended +with the roll or bat, while with a wheel finger in the other, she gives +the wheel a few swift turns for a final twist to the long-drawn thread +of wool or tow. The continuous buzz of the flax wheels, harmonizing with +the spasmodic hum of the big wheel, shows that the girls are preparing a +stock of linen against their wedding day. Less active and more fitful +rattled the quill wheel, where the younger children are filling quills +for the morrow's weaving. + +"Craftsmen are still scarce, and the yeoman must depend largely on his +own skill and resources. The grandsire, and the goodman, his son, in +blue woolen frocks, buckskin breeches, long stockings, and clouted +brogans with pewter buckles, and the older boys in shirts of brown tow, +waistcoat and breeches of butternut-colored woolen homespun, surrounded +by piles of white hickory shavings, are whittling out with keen Barlow +jack-knives implements for home use: ox-bows and bow-pins, axe-helves, +rakestales, forkstales, handles for spades and billhooks, wooden +shovels, flail staff and swingle, swingling knives, or pokes and hog +yokes for unruly cattle and swine. The more ingenious, perhaps, are +fashioning buckets or powdering tubs, or weaving skeps, baskets or +snowshoes. Some, it may be, sit astride the wooden shovel, shelling corn +on its iron-shod edge, while others are pounding it into samp or hoiminy +in the great wooden mortar. + +"There are no lamps or candles, but the red light from the burning pine +knots on the hearth glows over all, repeating, in fantastic pantomime on +the brown walls and closed shutters, the varied activities around it. +These are occasionally brought into higher relief by the white flashes, +as the boys throw handfuls of hickory shavings onto the forestick, or +punch the back log with the long iron peel, while wishing they had as +'many shillings as sparks go up the chimney.' Then, the smoke-stained +joists and boards of the ceiling with the twisted rings of pumpkin +strings or crimson peppers and festoons of apple, drying on poles hung +beneath; the men's hats, the crook-necked squashes, the skeins of thread +and yarn hanging in bunches on the wainscot; the sheen of the pewter +plates and basins, standing in rows on the shelves of the dresser; the +trusty firelock with powder horn, bandolier, and bullet pouch, hanging +on the summertree, and the bright brass warming-pan behind the bedroom +door--all stand revealed more clearly for an instant, showing the +provident care for the comfort and safety of the household. Dimly seen +in the corners of the room are baskets in which are packed hands of flax +from the barn, where, under the flaxbrake, the swingling knives and the +coarse hackle, the shives and swingling tow have been removed by the +men; to-morrow the more deft manipulations of the women will prepare +these bunches of fiber for the little wheel, and granny will card the +tow into bats, to be spun into tow yarn on the big wheel. All quaff the +sparkling cider or foaming beer from the briskly circulating pewter mug, +which the last out of bed in the morning must replenish from the barrel +in the cellar." + + * * * * * + +One notices the frequent reference to beer in these old chronicles. The +tea, over which the colonists were to take such a dramatic stand in a +hundred years, had not yet been introduced into England, and neither had +coffee. Forks had not yet made their appearance. In this admirable +picture Mr. Sheldon does not mention one of the evening industries +which was peculiarly characteristic of the Plymouth Colony. This was +the making of clapboards, which with sassafras and beaver skins, +constituted for many years the principal cargo sent back to England from +the Colony. Another point--the size of the families. The mother of +Governor William Phips had twenty-one sons and five daughters, and the +Reverend John Sherman had six children by his first wife and twenty by +his second. These were not uncommon figures in the early life of New +England; and with so many numbers within itself the home life was a +center for a very complete and variegated industrial life. Surely it is +a long cry from these kitchen fireplaces--so large that often a horse +had to be driven into the kitchen dragging the huge back log--these +immense families, to the kitchenette and one-child family of to-day! + +This, then, was the old Duxbury: the Duxbury of long, cold winters, +privations, and austerity. Down by the shore to-day is the new +Duxbury--a Duxbury of automobiles, of business men's trains, of gay +society at Powder Point, where in the winter is the well-known boys' +school--a Duxbury of summer cottages, white and green along the shore, +green and brown under the pines. Of these summer homes many are new: the +Wright estate is one of the finest on the South Shore, and the pleasant, +spacious dwelling distinguished by its handsome hedge of English privet +formerly belonged to Fanny Davenport, the actress. Others are old +houses, very tastefully, almost affectionately remodeled by those for +whom the things of the past have a special lure. These remodeled +cottages are, perhaps, the prettiest of all. Those very ancient +landmarks, sagging into pathetic disrepair, present a sorrowful, albeit +an artistic, silhouette against the sky. But these "new-old" cottages, +with ruffled muslin curtains at the small-paned, antique windows, brave +with a shining knocker on the green-painted front door, and gay with +old-fashioned gardens to the side or in the rear--these are a delight to +all, and an honor to both past and present. + +Surely the fair town of Duxbury, which so smilingly enticed the +Pilgrims across the bay to enjoy her sunny beach and rolling pasture +lands, must be happy to-day as she was then to feel her ground so deeply +tilled, and still to be so daintily adorned with homes and gardens and +with laughing life. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +KINGSTON AND ITS MANUSCRIPTS + +[Illustration] + + +On a charming eminence at two crossroads, delicately dappled by fine elm +shade and clasped by an antique grapevine, rests the old Bradford house. +From the main road half a mile away you will see only the slanting roof, +half concealed by rolling pasture land, but if you will trouble to turn +off from the main road, and if you will not be daunted by the +unsavoriness of the immediate neighborhood, you will find it quite worth +your while. The house presents only a casual side to the street--one +fancies it does not take much interest in its upstart neighbors--but +imagination makes us believe that it regards with brooding tenderness +the lovely tidal river which winds away through the marshes to the sea. +Interesting as the house is for its architectural features and for its +delightful location--despite the nearness of the passing train--yet it +is on neither of these points that its fame rests. + +In this house, built in 1674, and once belonging to Major John Bradford, +the grandson of the Governor, was preserved for many years one of the +most valuable American manuscripts in existence, and one fated to the +most romantic adventures in the annals of Lost and Found. + +Bradford's "History of the Plymouth Plantation" is our sole source of +authentic information for the period 1606-46. It is the basis for all +historical study of the early life of the Pilgrims in this country, and +when we look at the quiet roof of the Bradford house to-day and realize +how narrowly the papers--for they remained in manuscript form for two +hundred years--escaped being lost forever, our minds travel again over +the often told story. + +The manuscript, penned in Governor Bradford's fine old hand, in a folio +with a parchment back, and with some childish scribblings by little +Mercy Bradford on the cover, passed at the Governor's death to his son, +and at his death to his son. It reposed in the old house at which we are +now looking until 1728, doubtless regarded as something valuable, but +not in the least appreciated at its full and peculiar worth. When Major +John Bradford lent it to the Reverend Thomas Prince to assist him in his +"Chronological History of New England," he was merely doing what he had +done many times before. In these days of burglar-proof safes and fire +protection it makes us shiver to think of this priceless holograph +passed from hand to hand in such a casual manner. But it seems to have +escaped any mishap under Dr. Prince, who deposited it eventually in the +library of the Old South Church. Here it remained for half a century, +still in manuscript form and frequently referred to by scholars. Thomas +Hutchinson used it in compiling his "History of Massachusetts Bay," and +Mather used it also. At the time of the Revolution the Old South was +looted, and this document (along with many others) disappeared +absolutely. No trace whatever could be found of it: the most exhaustive +search was in vain, and scholars and historians mourned for a loss that +was irreparable. And then, after half a century, after the search had +been entirely abandoned, it was discovered, quite by chance, by one who +fortunately knew its value, tucked into the Library of Fulham Palace in +London. After due rejoicing on the American side and due deliberation on +the English side of the water, it was very properly and very politely +returned to this country in 1897. Now it rests after its career of +infinite hazard, in a case in the Boston State House, elaborately +protected from fire and theft, from any accidental or premeditated harm, +and Kingston must content itself with a copy in Pilgrim Hall at +Plymouth. + +Kingston's history commences with a manuscript and continues in the same +form. If you would know the legends, the traditions, the events which +mark this ancient town, you will have to turn to records, diaries, +memoranda, memorial addresses and sermons, many of them never published. + +It is rather odd that this serene old place, discovered only two or +three days after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, is so devoid +of a printed career. As soon as the Pilgrims had explored the spot, they +put themselves on record as having "a great liking to plant in it" +instead of in Plymouth. But they decided against it because it lay too +far from their fishing and was "so encompassed with woods," that they +feared danger from the savages. It was very soon settled, however, and +remained as the north end of Plymouth for a hundred and six years, until +1726. Governor Bradford writes, in regard to its colonization: + +"Y^e people of y^e plantation begane to grow in their outward estate ... +and as their stocks increased and y^e increase vendible, ther was no +longer any holding them togeather, but now they must of necessitoe goe +to their great lots: they could not otherwise keep catle; and having +oxen grown they must have land for plowing and tillage. And no man now +thought he could live except he had catle and a great deal of ground to +keep them: all striving to increase their stocks. By which means they +were scattered all over y^e bay, quickly, and y^e towne, in which they +had lived compactly till now [1632] was left very thine, and in a short +time almost desolate." + +Governor Bradford seems to deplore this moving out of Plymouth, but as a +matter of fact he was among the first to go, and his estate on Jones +River comprised such a goodly portion of what is now Kingston that when +he died he was the richest man in the Colony! A boulder marks the place +which he, with that unerring eye for a fine view which distinguished the +early settlers, chose for his estate. From here one catches a glimpse of +water, open fields, trees, the Myles Standish Monument to the left, the +sound of the passing automobiles behind. The distant smokestacks would +be unfamiliar to Governor Bradford's eye, but the fragrant Kingston air +which permeates it all would greet him as sweetly to-day as it did +three hundred years ago. + +Governor Bradford, who was Governor for thirty-seven years, was a man of +remarkable erudition. Cotton Mather says of him: "The Dutch tongue was +become almost as vernacular to him as the English; the French tongue he +could also manage; the Latin and the Greek he had mastered; but the +Hebrew he most of all studied." Therefore if the curious spelling of his +history strikes us as unscholarly, we must remember that at that time +there was no fixed standard for English orthography. Queen Elizabeth +employed seven different spellings for the word "sovereign" and +Leicester rendered his own name in eight different ways. It was by no +means a mark of illiteracy to spell not only unlike your neighbor, but +unlike yourself on the line previous. + +But it is more than quaint diction and fantastic spelling which +fascinates us as we turn over, not only the leaves of Bradford's famous +history, but the pile of fading records of various kinds of this once +prosperous shipbuilding town. The records of Kingston are valuable, not +only because they tell the tale of this particular spot, but because +they are delightfully typical of all the South Shore towns. The +yellowing diaries mention crude offenses, crude chastisements; give +scraps of genealogies as broken as the families themselves are now +broken and scattered; lament over one daughter of the Puritans who took +the veil in a Roman Catholic convent; sternly relate, in Rabelaisian +frankness, dark sins, punished with mediaeval justice. In fact, these +righteous early colonists seemed to find a genuine satisfaction in +devising punishments, and in putting them into practice. We read that +the stocks (also called "bilbaos" because they were formerly +manufactured in Bilbao, in Spain) were first occupied by the man who had +made them, as the court decided that his charge for the work was +excessive! There were wooden cages in which criminals were confined and +exposed to public view; whipping-posts; cleft sticks for profane +tongues. Drunkenness was punished by disfranchisement; the blasphemer +and the heretics were branded with a hot iron. + +Let us look at some of these old records, not all of them as ferocious +as this, but interesting for the minutiae which they preserve and which +makes it possible for us to reconstruct something of that atmosphere of +the past. It was ninety-six years after the settlement at Plymouth that +Kingston made its first request for a separation. It was not granted for +almost a decade, but from then on the ecclesiastical records furnish us +with a great deal of intimate and chatty material. For instance, we +learn in 1719 that Isaac Holmes was to have "20 shillings for sweeping, +opening and shutting of the doors and casements of the meeting house for +1 year," which throws some light upon sextons' salaries! + +The minute directions as to the placing of the pews in the meeting-house +(1720) contain a pungent element of personality. Major John Bradford is +"next to the pulpit stairs"; Elisha Bradford on the left "as you go in"; +Benjamin Eaton's place is "between minister's stairs and west door"; +while Peter West is ingloriously, and for what reason we know not, +relegated to the gallery "in the front, next to the stairs, behind the +women." + +It is significant to note (1728) that seats are built at each end above +the galleries for the Indians and negroes. + +Fish laws, rewards for killing wild cats, bickerings with the minister, +and brief mention of the death of many women at an early age--after +having given birth to an incredible number of children--fill up pages +and pages. + +The eye rests upon a resolution passed (1771) to "allow Benjamin Cook +the sum of 8 shillings for a coffin, and liquor at the funeral of James +Howland." They might not believe in prayers for the dead in those days, +but there was evidently no reason why the living should not receive some +cheer! + +How is this for the minister's salary? The Reverend Doctor Willis (1780) +is to receive eighty pounds a year, to be paid partly in Indian corn, +rye, pork, and beef. Ten cords of wood yearly are allowed him "until he +have a family, then twenty cords, are to be allowed, the said wood to +be delivered at his door." + +Mr. Levi Bradford agrees to make the whipping-post and stocks for nine +shillings, if the town will find the iron (1790). + +The wage paid for a day's labor on the highway (1791) was as follows: +For a day's labor by a man, 2 shillings, 8 pence; for a yoke of oxen, 2 +shillings; for a horse, 1 shilling, 6 pence; for a cart, 1 shilling, 4 +pence. One notes the prices are for an eight-hour day. + +However, the high cost of living began to make itself felt even then. +How else account for the statement (1796) that Mr. Parris, the +schoolmaster, has been allowed fifty shillings in addition to his salary +"considering the increase in the price of provisions"? + +There seems to have been a great celebration on the occasion of raising +the second meetinghouse in Kingston (1798). One old account reads: +"Booths were erected on the field opposite, and all kinds of liquor and +refreshment were sold freely." After the frame was up a procession was +formed of those who were employed in the raising, consisting of +carpenters, sailors, blacksmiths, etc., each taking some implement of +his trade such as axes, rules, squares, tackles and ropes. They walked +to the Great Bridge and back to the temporary building that had been +used for worship (the Quail Trap) while the new one was being planned. +Here they all had punch and an "hour or so of jollity." + +If the women's lives were conspicuously short, it was not so with the +men. Ebenezer Cobb, who died in 1801 in the one hundred and eighth year +of his age, had lived in no less than three centuries, having seen six +years in the seventeenth, the whole of the eighteenth, and a year of the +nineteenth. + +The minister's tax is separated from the other town taxes in 1812--thus +even in this little village is reflected the great movement of +separation of Church and State. In 1851 when we read of a Unitarian +church being built we realize that the Puritan regime is over in New +England. + +Thus with the assistance of the Pelegs and Hezekiahs, the Zadocks, +Ichabods, and Zenases--names which for some absurd and irreverent reason +suggest a picture puzzle--we manage to piece together scraps of the +Kingston of long ago. + +We must confess to some relief at the inevitable conclusion that such +study brings--namely, that the early settlers were not the unblemished +prigs and paragons tradition has so fondly branded them. They seem to +have been human enough--erring enough, if we take these records penned +by themselves. However, for any such iconoclastic observation it is +reassuring to have the judgment of so careful a historian as Charles +Francis Adams. He says: + +"That the earlier generations of Massachusetts were either more +law-abiding or more self-restrained than the later is a proposition +which accords neither with tradition nor with the reason of things. The +habits of those days were simpler than those of the present: they were +also essentially grosser...." + +He then gives a dozen pages or so of hitherto unpublished church +records, gathered from as many typical Massachusetts towns, which throw +an undeniable and unflattering light on the social habits of that early +period. As explicit and public confession before the church congregation +was enforced, these church records contain startlingly graphic +statements of drunkenness, blasphemy, stealing, and immorality in all +its various phases. + +There are countless church records which duplicate this one of the +ordination of a Massachusetts pastor in 1729: "6 Barrels and a half of +Cyder, 28 gallons of wine, 2 gallons of Brandy, and 4 of rum, loaf +sugar, lime juice and pipes," all, presumably, consumed at the time and +on the spot of the ordination. Even the most pessimistic must admit that +long before our prohibition era we had traveled far beyond such +practices. + +The immorality seems to have been the natural reaction from morbid +spiritual excitement induced by religious revivals. Poor Governor +Bradford never grasped this, and we find him lamenting (1642): +"Marvilous it may be to see and consider how some kind of wickedness did +grow and break forth here in a land where the same was much witnessed +against, and so narrowly looked on and severely punished when it was +known." + +We hear the same plaint from Jonathan Edwards a century later. + +It is well to honor the Pilgrims for their many stanch and admirable +qualities, but it is only fair to recall that the morbidity of their +religion made them less healthy-minded than we, and that many of their +practices, such as the well-recognized custom of "bundling," were +indications of a people holding far lower moral standards than ours. + +The old sermons, diaries, biographies, and records lie on dusty shelves +now, and few pause to read them, and in Kingston no one yet has gathered +them into a local history. There are other records traced, not in sand, +but on the soil that may also be read by any who pass. Some remnants of +the trenches and terraces dug by the quota of Arcadian refugees who +fell to Kingston's share after the pathetic flight from Nova Scotia may +still be seen--claimed by some to be the first irrigation attempt in +America. + +The old "Massachusetts Payth" which follows the road more or less +closely beyond Kingston is traced with difficulty and uncertainty in +Kingston itself, but there is another highway as clear to-day as it was +three hundred years ago. And this is the lovely tidal river, named after +the master of the Mayflower, up which used to come and go not only many +ships of commerce, but, in the evenings after life had become less +austere, boatloads of merry-makers from Plymouth and Duxbury to attend +the balls given at what was originally the King's Town. + +It has carried much traffic in its day, that river which now winds so +gracefully down to the sea, and which we see so well from the yard of +the old Bradford house. Down it floated the vessels made by Kingston +men, and out of it was dug much bog iron for the use of Washington's +artillery. + +Monk's Hill--which the old records call Mont's Hill Chase, a name +supposed to have been applied to a hunt in England--could tell a story +too, if one had ears to hear. The highest land in Kingston, during the +Revolution it was one of the points where a beacon fire was lighted to +alarm the town in case of invasion by the enemy. + +Kingston is not without history, although its manuscripts lie long +untouched upon library shelves, and its historic soil is tramped over by +unheeding feet. That the famous manuscript which was its greatest +historical contribution has been taken away from it, is no loss in the +truest sense of the word, for this monumental work, which belongs to no +one place, but to the country as a whole, is properly preserved at the +State House. + +Kingston seems amenable to this arrangement, just as she seems entirely +willing that Plymouth should claim the first century of her career. When +one is sure of one's heritage and beauty, one does not clamor for +recognition; one does not even demand a printed history. It is quality, +not quantity, that counts, and even if nothing more is ever written in +or about this dear old town, Kingston will have made a distinguished +contribution to American history and literature. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +PLYMOUTH + +[Illustration] + + +One of the favorite pictures of New Englanders, and one which hangs in +innumerable dining-rooms and halls, is by Boughton, the popular American +artist, and is named "The Return of the Mayflower." I suppose thousands +of New England children have gazed wonderingly at this picture, which, +contrary to the modern canons of art, "tells a story," and many of those +naive minds have puzzled as to how those poor Pilgrims, who had no tea +or coffee or milk or starch, managed to appear so well fed and so +contented, and so marvelously neat and clean. The inexhaustible bag +which inevitably appeared at crucial moments in the career of "Swiss +Family Robinson" is nowhere mentioned in the early chronicles of the +Plymouth Plantation, and the precise manner in which a small vessel of a +hundred and eighty tons, carrying a hundred passengers, and all the +innumerable cradles, chairs, and highboys which have since flooded the +museums as "genuine relics" of that first voyage, could also have +brought sufficient washboards, soap, and flatirons to have kept the +charming costumes so immaculate is a mystery which will probably never +be solved--especially since the number of relics appears to increase +instead of diminish with the passage of time. + +However, that is a mere trifle. Mr. Boughton, in catching this touching +and dramatic moment in the history of the Plymouth Colony, has rendered +a graphic service to us all, and if we could stand upon the little +plateau on which this man and maid are standing, and could look out with +them--we should see--what should we see? + +We may, indeed, stand upon the little plateau--possibly it is no other +than the base of Cole's Hill, that pathetic spot on which the dead were +buried those first sad months, the ground above being leveled and +planted with corn lest the Indians should count the number of the +lost--and look out upon that selfsame harbor, but the sight which meets +our eyes will be a very different one from that which met theirs. Let +us, if we can, for the space of half an hour or so, imagine that we are +standing beside this Pilgrim man and maid, on the day on which Mr. +Boughton portrayed them. + +Instead of 1920 it is 1621. It is the 5th of April: the winter of +terrifying sicknesses and loss has passed; of the hundred souls which +left England the autumn previously more than a half have died. The +Mayflower which brought them all over, and which has remained in the +harbor all winter, is now, having made repairs and taking advantage of +the more clement weather, trimming her sails for the thirty-one days' +return voyage to England. They may return with her, if they wish, any +or all of the sturdy little band; they may leave the small, smoky log +cabins; the scanty fare of corn and fish; the harassing fear of the +Indians; they may leave the privations, the cramped quarters, and return +to civilized life--to friends and relatives, to blooming English +hedgerows and orderly English churches. But no one--no, not a single one +returns! They have thrown in their lot with the new country--the new +life. Their nearest civilized neighbors are the French of Nova Scotia, +five hundred miles to the north, and the English of Virginia five +hundred miles to the south. But they are undaunted. And yet--who can +doubt that as they gaze out upon the familiar sails--the last banner +between themselves and their ancestral home, and as they see them +sailing out and out until they sink below the verge of sea and sky, the +tears "rise in the heart and gather to the eyes" in "thinking of the +days that are no more." + +Three hundred years ago! The same harbor now as then, with the highland +of Cape Cod dimly outlined in the gray eastern horizon; the bluffs of +Manomet nearer on the right; opposite them, on the left, Duxbury Beach +comes down, and ends in the promontory which holds the Gurnet Lights. +Clarke's Island--already so named--lies as it does to-day, but save for +these main topographical outlines the Plymouth at which we are looking +in our imagination would be quite unrecognizable to us. + +There is a little row of houses--seven of them--that is all. Log cabins, +two-roomed, of the crudest build, thatched with wildgrass, the chinks +between the logs filled with clay, the floors made of split logs; +lighted at night with pieces of pitch pine. Each lot measures three rods +long and a rod and a half wide, and they run on either side of the +single street (the first laid out in New England, and ever afterward to +be known as Leyden Street), which, in its turn, is parallel to the Town +Brook. There is no glass in these cabin windows: oiled paper suffices; +the household implements are of the fewest. The most primitive modern +camping expedition is replete with luxuries of which this colony knows +nothing. They have no cattle of any kind, which means no milk or +butter; they have no poultry or eggs. Twenty-six acres of cultivated +ground--twenty-one of corn, the other five of wheat, rye, and +barley--have been quite enough for the twenty-one men and six boys (all +who were well enough to work) to handle, but it is not a great deal to +feed them all. At one end of the street stands the common house, twenty +feet square, where the church services are held; the store-house is near +the head of the pier; and at the top of what is now Burial Hill is the +timber fort, twenty by twenty, built the January before by Myles +Standish. In April, 1621, this is all there is to what is now the +prosperous town of Plymouth. + +And yet--not entirely. There are a few things left in the Plymouth of +to-day which were in the Plymouth of three hundred years ago. If our man +and maid should turn into Pilgrim Hall their eyes would fall upon some +of the selfsame objects which were familiar sights to them in 1621. +Those sturdy oaken chairs of Governor Carver, Elder Brewster, and +Edward Winslow; the square, hooded wooden cradle brought over by Dr. +Samuel Fuller; and the well-preserved reed one which rocked Peregrine +White, and whose quaint stanchness suggests the same Dutch influence +which characterizes the spraddling octagonal windmills--they would +quickly recognize all of these. Some of the books, too, chiefly +religious, some in classic tongues, William Bradford's Geneva Bible +printed in 1592, and others bearing the mark of 1615, would be well +known to them, although we must not take it for granted that the +lady--or the man either--can read. Well-worn the Bibles are, however, +and we need not think that lack of learning prevented any of the +Pilgrims from imbibing both the letter and spirit of the Book. Those who +could write were masters of a fine, flowing script that shames our +modern scrawl, as is well testified by the Patent of the Plymouth +Colony--the oldest state document in New England--as well as by the +final will and various deeds of Peregrine White, and many others. The +small, stiff baby shoes which encased the infant feet of Josiah +Winslow, the son of Governor Winslow and destined to be Governor +himself, are of a pattern familiar to our man and maid, as are the now +tarnished swords of Carver, Brewster, and Standish. Probably they have +puzzled, as we are still doing, over the Kufic or Arabic inscriptions on +the last. The monster kettle and generous pewter plate brought over by +the doughty Captain would be too well known to them to attract their +attention, as would be the various tankards and goblets, and the +beautiful mortar and pestle brought over by Winslow. But the two-tined +fork they would regard with curiosity, for forks were not used, even in +England, until 1650. The teapots, too, which look antiquated enough to +us, would fill them with wonder, for tea was practically unknown in both +colony and mother country until 1657. Those fragments of rude +agricultural implements which we treasure would not interest our man and +maid for whom they are ordinary sights, and neither would they regard +with the same historical interest that moves us the bits of stone from +the Scrooby Manor in England, the bricks from the old pier at Delft +Haven in Holland, or the piece of carved pew-back from the old church at +Scrooby. Possibly our Pilgrim maid is one of the few who can write, and +if so, her fingers have doubtless fashioned a sampler as exquisite as +that of Lora Standish, whose meek docility and patient workmanship are +forever preserved in her cross-stitched words. + +From all around the walls of Pilgrim Hall look down fine, stern old +portraits, real and imaginary, of the early colonists. Modern critics +may bicker over the authenticity of the white bull on which Priscilla +Alden is taking her wedding trip; they may quarrel over the fidelity of +the models and paintings of the Mayflower, and antiquarians may +diligently unearth bits of bone to substantiate their pet theories. Our +man and maid could tell us all, but, alas, their voices are so far away +we cannot hear them. They will never speak the words which will settle +any of the oft-disputed points, and, unfortunately, they will leave us +forever to argue about the truth of the famous Plymouth Rock. + +To present the well-worn story of Plymouth Rock from an angle calculated +to rouse even a semblance of fresh interest is comparable to offering a +well-fed man a piece of bread, and expecting him to be excited over it +as a novelty. Bread is the staff of life, to be sure, but it is also +accepted as matter of course in the average diet, and the story of +Plymouth Rock is part and parcel of every school-book and guide-book in +the country. The distinguished, if somewhat irreverent, visitor, who, +after being reduced to partial paralysis by the oft-repeated tale, +ejaculated fervently that he wished the rock had landed on the Pilgrims +instead of the Pilgrims on the rock, voiced the first original remark +about this historic relic which has refreshed our ears for many years. +However, as Americans we are thoroughly imbued with the theory on which +our advertising is based. Although it would seem that every housekeeper +in the land had been kept fully informed for forty years of the +advantages incident to the use of a certain soap, the manufacturers +still persist in reciting these benefits. And why? Because new +housekeepers come into existence with each new day. So, if there be any +man who comes to Plymouth who does not know the story of Plymouth Rock, +it is here set down for him, as accurately and briefly as possible. + +This rock--which is an oval, glacial boulder of about seven tons--was +innocently rearing its massive, hoary head from the water one day in +December, 1620, as it had done for several thousand years previously in +unmolested oblivion. While engaged in this ponderous but harmless +occupation it was sighted by a boatful of men and women--the first who +had ever chosen to land on this particular part of the coast. The rock +presented a moderately dry footing, and they sailed up to it, and a +charming young woman, attired, according to our amiable painter, in the +cleanest and freshest of aprons and the most demure of caps, set a +daintily shod foot upon it and leaped lightly to shore. This was Mary +Chilton, and she was promptly followed by an equally trig young +man--John Alden. Thus commenced the founding of Plymouth Colony, and +thus was sown the seed of innumerable pictures, poems, stories, and +sermons. + +Now the Pilgrims themselves, in none of their various accounts, ever +mention the incident of the landing described above, or the rock. In +fact they are so entirely silent about it that historians--besides +discrediting the pretty part about Mary Chilton and John Alden, in the +brusque fashion characteristic of historians--have pooh-poohed the whole +story, arguing that the rock was altogether too far away from the land +to be a logical stepping-place, and referring to the only authentic +record of that first landing, which merely reads: "They sounded y^e +harbor & founde it fitt for shipping, and marched into y^e land & found +diverse cornfeilds & little running brooks, a place fitt for situation: +at least it was y^e best they could find." The Pilgrims, then, were +quite oblivious of the rock, the historians are entirely skeptical +concerning it, and the following generation so indifferent to the +tradition which was gradually formulating, that in the course of events +it was half-covered with a wharf, and used as a doorstep to a warehouse. + +This was an ignominious position for a magnificent free boulder which +had been a part of the untrammeled sea and land for centuries, but this +lowly occupation was infinitely less trying than the fate which was +awaiting. At the time the wharf was suggested, the idea that the rock +was the actual landing-place of the first colonists had gained such +momentum that a party was formed in its defense. An aged man, Thomas +Faunce, was produced. He was ninety-five and confined to an armchair. He +had not been born until twenty-six years after the landing of the +Pilgrims; his father, whom he quoted as declaring this to be the +original rock and identical landing-place, had not even come over in the +Mayflower, but in the Anne. However, this venerable Canute, carried to +the water's edge in his armchair, in the presence of many witnesses, +assured them and all posterity that this was the genuine, undeniable +landing-place of the Pilgrims. And from that moment the belief was so +firmly set in the American mind that no power could possibly dislodge +it. In accordance with this suddenly acquired respect, it was decided to +move the huge bulk to the more conspicuous location of the Town Square. +When it was lifted from its prehistoric bed, it broke, and this was +hailed as a propitious omen of the coming separation of the Colonies +from the mother country. Only the upper half was dragged up to the Town +Square--a process which took twenty yoke of oxen and was accompanied by +wild huzzahing. There the poor, broken thing lay in the sun, at the +bottom of the Liberty Pole on which was flying, "Liberty or Death." But +its career as a public feature had only begun. It remained in the square +until 1834, and then on July 4 it was decided to drag it to a still more +conspicuous place. So with a formal procession, it was again hoisted and +hauled and set down in front of the entrance porch of Pilgrim Hall, +where it lay like a captive mammoth animal for curious folk to gaze at. +Here it was granted almost half a century of undisturbed if not secluded +slumber. But the end was not yet. In 1880 it was once more laid hold of +and carted back to its original setting, and welded without ceremony, to +the part from which it had been sundered. Now all of this seems quite +enough--more than enough--of pitiless publicity, for one old rock whose +only offense had been to be lifting its head above the water on a +December day in 1620. But no--just as the mind of man takes a singular +satisfaction in gazing at mummies preserved in human semblance in the +unearthly stillness of the catacombs, so the once massive boulder--now +carefully mended--was placed upon the neatest of concrete bases, and +over it was reared, from the designs of Hammatt Billings, the ugliest +granite canopy imaginable--in which canopy, to complete the grisly +atmosphere of the catacombs, were placed certain human bones found in an +exploration of Cole's Hill. Bleak and homeless the old rock now lies +passively in forlorn state under its atrocious shelter, behind a strong +iron grating, and any of a dozen glib street urchins, in syllables +flavored with Cork, or Genoese, or Polish accents, will, for a penny, +relate the facts substantially as I have stated them.[2] + +It is easy to be unsympathetic in regard to any form of fetishism which +we do not share. And while the bare fact remains that we are not at all +sure that the Pilgrims landed on this rock, and we are entirely sure +that its present location and setting possess no romantic allurement, +yet bare facts are not the whole truth, and even when correct they are +often the superficial and not the fundamental part of the truth. Those +hundreds--those thousands--of earnest-eyed men and women who have stood +beside this rock with tears in their eyes, and emotions too deep for +words in their hearts, "believing where they cannot prove," have not +only interpreted the vital significance of the place, but, by their very +emotion, have sanctified it. + +It really makes little difference whether the testimony of Thomas Faunce +was strictly accurate or not; it really makes little difference that the +Hammatt Billings canopy is indeed dreadful. Plymouth Rock has come to +symbolize the corner-stone of the United States as a nation, and symbols +are the most beautiful and the most enduring expression of any national +or human experience. + +It is estimated that over one hundred thousand visitors come to Plymouth +annually. They all go to see the Rock; most of them clamber up to the +quaint Burial Hill and read a few of the oldest inscriptions; they +glance at the National Monument to the forefathers, bearing the largest +granite figure in the world, and they take a turn through Pilgrim Hall. +But there is one place they often forget to see, and that is the harbor +itself. + +We began our tour through Plymouth through the eyes of a Pilgrim man and +maid watching the departing Mayflower. It was the Mayflower, battered +and beaten, her sails blackened and mended, her leaks hastily caulked, +which was the first vessel to sail into Plymouth Harbor--a harbor so +joyfully described as being a "most hopeful place" with "innumerable +store of fowl and excellent good ... in fashion like a sickel or fish +hook." + +[Illustration] + +All that first dreadful winter, while the Pilgrims were struggling to +make roofs to cover their heads, while, with weeping hearts, they buried +their dead, and when, according to the good and indestructible instincts +of life, which persist in spite of every calamity, they planted seed for +the coming spring--all this while the Mayflower lay at anchor in the +harbor. Every morning they could see her there; any hour of the day they +could glance out at her; while they slept they were conscious of her +presence. And just so long as she was there, just so long could they see +a tangible connection between themselves and the life, which, although +already strangely far away, was, nevertheless, the nearest and the +dearest existence they had known. And then in April, the familiar +vessel, whose outlines were as much a part of the seascape as the Gurnet +or the bluffs of Manomet, vanished: vanished as completely as if she had +never been. The water which parted under her departing keel flowed +together. There was no sign on earth or sea or in the sky of that last +link between the little group of colonists and their home land. They +were as much alone as Enoch Arden on his desert isle. Can we imagine the +emptiness, the illimitable loneliness of that bay? One small shallop +down by the pier--that was the only visible connection between +themselves and England! + +I do not believe that we can really appreciate their sense of complete +severance--their sense of utter isolation. And I do not believe that we +can appreciate the wild thrill of excitement, the sudden gush of +freshly established connection that ran through the colony, when, seven +months later--the following November--a ship sailed into the harbor. It +was the Fortune bringing with her news and letters from home--word from +that other world--and bringing also thirty-five new colonists, among +them William Brewster's eldest son and Robert Cushman. Probably the +greetings were so joyful, the messages so eagerly sought, the flutter of +welcome so great that it was not until several days had passed that they +realized that the chief word which Thomas Weston (the London merchant +who was the head of the company which had financed the expedition) had +sent them was one of reproof. The Mayflower had brought no profitable +cargo back to England, he complained, an omission which was "wonderful +and worthily distasted." While he admitted that they had labored under +adverse circumstances, he unkindly added that a quarter of the time they +had spent in discoursing and arguing and consulting could have +profitably been spent in other ways. That the first official word from +home should be one of such cruel reprimand struck the colonists--who had +so wistfully waited for a cheering message--very hard. Half frozen, half +starved, sick, depressed, they had been forced to struggle so +desperately to maintain even a foothold on the ladder of existence, that +it had not been humanly possible for them to fulfill their pledge to the +Company. Bradford's letter back to Weston--dignified, touching--is +sufficient vindication. When the Fortune returned she "was laden with +good clapboards, as full as she could stowe, and two hogsheads of beaver +and other skins," besides sassafras--a cargo valued at about five +hundred pounds. In spite of the fact that this cargo was promptly stolen +by a French cruiser off the English coast, it nevertheless marks the +foundation of the fur and lumber trade in New England. Although this +first visitor brought with her a patent of their lands (a document still +preserved in Pilgrim Hall, with the signatures and seals of the Duke of +Lenox, the Marquis of Hamilton, the Earl of Warwick, and Sir Ferdinando +Gorges), yet to us, reading history in the perspective of three hundred +years, the disagreeable impression of Weston's letter outweighs the +satisfaction for the patent. When the Fortune sailed away it was like +the departure of a rich, fault-finding aunt, who suddenly descends upon +a household of poor relations, bringing presents, to be sure, but with +such cutting disapproval on her lips that it mars the entire pleasure of +her visit. + +The harbor was once more empty. I suppose that in time the Pilgrims half +forgot, half forgave, the sting of Weston's reproof. Again they gazed +out and waited for a sail; again England seemed very far away. So, +doubtless, in the spring, when a shallop appeared from a fishing vessel, +they all eagerly hurried down to greet it. But if the Fortune had been +like a rich and disagreeable aunt, this new visitation was like an +influx of small, unruly cousins. And such hungry cousins! Weston had +sent seven men to stay with them until arrangements could be made for +another settlement. New Englanders are often criticized for their lack +of hospitality, and in this first historic case of unexpected guests the +larder was practically bare. Crops were sown, to be sure, but not yet +green; the provisions in the store-house were gone; it was not the +season for wild fowl; although there were bass in the outer harbor and +cod in the bay there was neither tackle nor nets to take them. However, +the seven men were admitted, and given shellfish like the rest--and very +little beside. + +At this point the Pilgrims looked with less favorable eyes upon +newcomers into the harbor, and when shortly after two ships appeared +bringing sixty more men from Weston, consternation reigned. These +emigrants were supposed to get their own food from their own vessels and +merely lodge on shore, but they proved a lawless set and stole so much +green corn that it seriously reduced the next year's supply. After six +weeks, however, these uninvited guests took themselves off to +Wessagusset (now Weymouth) leaving their sick behind, and only the +briefest of "thank you's." + +The next caller was the Plantation. She anchored only long enough to +offer some sorely needed provisions at such extortionate prices that the +colonists could not buy them. Another slap in the face! + +Obviously, none of these visitors had proved very satisfactory. It had +been entertaining under difficulties, and if the entertainers had hoped +for the "angels unawares," they had been decidedly disappointed. +Therefore it is easy to believe that they took fresh courage and sincere +delight when, in July, 1623, the Anne and the Little James arrived--no +strangers, for they brought with them additional stores, and best of +all, good friends and close kinsfolk from the church at Leyden. Yes, the +Pilgrims were delighted, but, alas, tradition has it that when they +pressed forward in glad greeting to their old acquaintances, these +latter started back, nonplussed--aghast! Like Mr. Boughton they had +fondly pictured an ideal rustic community, in which the happy, carefree +colonists reveled in all the beauty of picturesque and snowy collars and +cuffs in Arden-like freedom. Instead they saw a row of rough log cabins +and a group of work-worn, shabby men and women, men and women whose +faces were lined with exposure, and whose backs were bent with toil, and +who, for their most hospitable feast, had only a bit of shellfish and +water to offer. Many of the newcomers promptly burst into tears, and +begged to return to England immediately. Poor Pilgrims! Rebuffed--and so +unflatteringly--with each arriving maritime guest, who can doubt that +there was born in them at that moment the constitutional dislike for +unexpected company which has characterized New England ever since? + +However, in a comparatively short time the colonists who had been +brought over in the Anne and the Little James--those who stayed, for +some did return at once--adjusted themselves to the new life. Many +married--both Myles Standish and Governor Bradford found wives among +them; and now the Plymouth Colony may be said to have fairly started. + +Just as a trail which is first a mere thread leading to some +out-of-the-way cabin becomes a path and then a road, and in due time a +wide thoroughfare, so the way across the Atlantic from Old England to +New became more charted--more traveled. At first there was only one boat +and one net for fishing. In five years there was a fleet of fifty +fishing vessels. Ten years later we have note of ten foreign vessels in +the harbor in a single week. And to-day, if the Pilgrim man and maid +whom we joined at the beginning of our reminiscences could gaze out over +the harbor, they would see it as full of masts as a cornfield is of +stalks. Every kind of boat finds its way in and out; and not only +pleasure craft: Plymouth Harbor is second only to Boston among the +Massachusetts ports of entry, receiving annual foreign imports valued at +over $7,000,000. Into the harbor, where once a single shallop was the +only visible sign of man's dominion over the water, now sail great +vessels from Yucatan and the Philippines, bringing sisal and manila for +the largest cordage company in the whole country--a company with an +employees' list of two thousand names, and an annual output of +$10,000,000. Furthermore, the flats in the harbor are planted with +clams, which (through the utilization of shells for poultry feeding, and +by means of canning for bouillon) yield a profit of from five hundred to +eight hundred dollars an acre. + +No, our Pilgrim man and maid would not recognize, in this Plymouth of +factories and industries, the place where once stood the row of log +cabins, with oiled-paper windows. And yet, after all, it is not the +prosperous town of to-day, but the rude settlement of yesterday, which +chiefly lives in the hearts of the American people. And it lives, not +because of its economic importance, but because of its unique +sentimental value. As John Fiske so admirably states: "Historically +their enterprise [that of the Pilgrims at Plymouth] is interesting not +so much for what it achieved as for what it suggested. Of itself the +Plymouth Colony could hardly have become a wealthy and powerful state. +Its growth was extremely slow. After ten years its numbers were but +three hundred. In 1643, when the exodus had come to an end and the New +England Confederacy was formed, the population of Plymouth was but three +thousand. In an established community, indeed, such a rate of increase +would be rapid, but was not sufficient to raise in New England a power +which could overcome Indians and Dutchmen and Frenchmen and assert its +will in opposition to the Crown. It is when we view the founding of +Plymouth in relation to what came afterward, that it assumes the +importance which belongs to the beginning of a new era." + +For this reason the permanent position of Plymouth in our history is +forever assured. Old age, which may diminish the joys of youth, +preserves inviolate memories which nothing can destroy. The place whose +quiet fame is made is surer of the future than the one which is on the +brink of fabulous glory. It is impossible to overestimate the +significance of this spot. + +The Old Coast Road--the oldest in New England--began here and pushed its +tortuous way up to Boston along the route we have so lightly followed. +Inheritors of a nation which these pioneers strove manfully, +worshipfully, to found, need we be ashamed of deep emotion as we stand +here, on this shore, where they landed three hundred years ago? + +[Illustration] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] It is hoped that by the summer of 1921 a beautiful and dignified +portico of granite will be raised as a final and permanent memorial over +the rock, which will be moved for the last time--lowered to as near its +original bed as possible. This work, which has been taken in charge by +the National Society of Colonial Dames of America will be executed by +McKim, Mead & White. The General Society of Mayflower Descendants are +also working for the redemption of the first Pilgrim burial place on +Cole's Hill. The Pilgrim Society is to assume the perpetual care of both +memorial and lot. + + +THE END + +_The Riverside Press_ + +CAMBRIDGE. MASSACHUSETTS + +U. S. A. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD COAST ROAD*** + + +******* This file should be named 21895.txt or 21895.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/8/9/21895 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/old/21895.zip b/old/21895.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..efc8d01 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/21895.zip |
