Around the level plateau on which the monument stands, a wide view unrolls itself like a scroll of Pilgrim history. There lies the town of their founding; beyond it, the distant line of the ocean horizon seems almost as empty as when the Mayflower ploughed through the winter storms three hundred years ago. Her anchorage was inside the long, low strip of the beach, where she rode till the spring of 1621; a protection to the colonists, and a shelter for the women and children until houses could be built for them on shore. Beyond the point of the beach is Clark’s Island, where the exploring party from the Mayflower spent the first Sabbath in Plymouth history. Still beyond, Saquish, the Gurnet, and the line of the coast had been mapped and charted by Capt. John Smith in 1615 and were known to earlier voyagers, as well as to the Pilgrims. To the left stretch the Kingston shores where Elder Brewster, John Howland, and others soon took grants from the first colony. To Captain’s Hill, in Duxbury, Myles Standish retired after his long service, to spend the remainder of his life. His doughty figure on a granite pillar raised in his honor, looks across the bay to the statue of the Pilgrims’ Faith. At the right, rises the headland of the Manomet hills; among them were also many Pilgrim land grants and house holdings. Behind, toward the sunset, the lights of the town fade into miles of still sparsely settled woodland, the remains of the old unbroken forest. This site, well chosen by the Pilgrim Society, was acquired by them in fulfillment of the purpose expressed in their original charter of 1819: “to procure in the town of Plymouth a suitable lot, or plot of land for the erection of a monument to perpetuate the memory of the virtues, the enterprise, and unparalleled sufferings of their ancestors.” The erection of a monument upon this ground, became a national undertaking, and subscriptions came from all parts of the country. The donations were acknowledged by engraved certificates; those above a certain amount, with a small bronze replica of the monument. The original design by Hammatt Billings of Boston, was of huge size, but the pedestal was somewhat reduced when finally built. The figure of Faith is 36 ft. high, and the pedestal 45 ft. The corner stone was laid Aug. 2, 1859, and thirty years later the monument was completed. It was dedicated Aug. 1, 1889, with great enthusiasm, in the presence of many distinguished people. [Illustration] The First Church in Plymouth “The story of heroic adventure, fortitude, and endurance, of which this church is the permanent memorial, does not belong to one age or one country. It has become the treasured heritage of all congregations founded upon freedom and self-government.” --REV. JOHN CUCKSON _History of the First Church in Plymouth._