After Kamesit : $b A chronical of a local habitation and some names, with notes, maps and photographsDaley, Carroll F.
History
After Kamesit : $b A chronical of a local habitation and some names, with notes, maps and photographs
Daley, Carroll F.
Plymouth (Mass.) -- Description and travel; Plymouth (Mass.) -- History
“From Milton I was taken to Plymouth and introduced to the Plymouth
Rock, which--dare I say it?--was something of a disappointment. I
had imagined the disembarkation on it of the whole of the crew and
passengers of the _Mayflower I_, but doubt very much whether three--or
even two--of the Pilgrim Fathers, hanging around each others necks,
could have balanced on it with any degree of stability. How ever,
there it is--surrounded with its railing, facing lovely Cape Cod Bay,
and properly regarded with great veneration--one of the famous stones
of history. Plymouth, by the way was eagerly awaiting the arrival of
_Mayflower II_, which at that moment lay becalmed in the middle of the
Atlantic.
“Plymouth is naturally very conscious of its history, and in the Hall
of the Pilgrim Society is a most interesting collection of records,
pictures, furniture, clothes, books, etc. The most thrilling object
to me was a second edition (1592) of William Lambard’s _Eirenarcha_,
an early treatise on the office of Justices of the Peace. Bound in
brown calf, the book is embossed with the arms of William Cecil,
first Lord Burghley, to whom originally it first belonged. As the
catalogue states, Burghley was the colleague of William Davison,
Secretary to Queen Elizabeth I, and Davison, in turn, was the early
patron of William Brewster, one of the founders of Plymouth, Mass. It
was therefore, quite possibly William Brewster who brought this book
over in the Mayflower, where it has been known to have been for long
in the possession of the “Trial Justices” (Justices of the Peace) for
Plymouth. Be that as it may, we have here a concrete example of the way
in which this famous institution, which has worked so successfully in
the mother country since the 14th century, was carried with the flag
not only into this “remote, heathen and barbarous land” (as America is
described in Queen Elizabeth’s Letters Patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert),
but into all the three other continents, where, in a modified form it
has in many places survived, even since the flag has been withdrawn.
“About ten miles south of Plymouth, buried deep in vast woods, is
the summer residence of Mr. and Mrs. John Lord, whom I had met in
Northampshire, Mrs. Lord being sister to Squire Brudenell of Deene. I
spent a night with them in their tiny little house in a beautiful glade
of the forest, looking across a grassy slope to a large artificial lake
which is used to flood the cranberry bogs in frosty weather. We passed
some of these bogs as we came through the woods, for cranberry growing
and preserving is carried on extensively in this district, as it well
may be if 150 million people are to have cranberry sauce with their
roast turkey on Thanksgiving Day.”
[38] Page 129--The full impact of William Lambard’s _Eirenarcha_ and
the use of the Common Law by the Pilgrims is explained by C. C. Parnes
_Plymouth and the Common Law_, pp. 27-48.
=Transcriber’s Notes=
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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