On broad canvases are portrayed the tearful embarkation from Delfthaven,
the landing on this cheerless, frozen shore. Here are hung charming
pencil sketches of Scrooby and Austerfield, and many interesting
portraits: Dr. Thatcher, the venerable secretary of the Pilgrim Society,
and author of a charming history of Plymouth; the Rev. James Kendall,
for nearly threescore years the beloved minister of the First Church;
Gov. Edward Winslow and his son Josiah; Gen. John Winslow, who by royal
command in 1755 helped to drive from their homes the French Acadians;
Deacon Ephraim Spooner, whose “lining out” of the old hymns formed an
impressive part of “Anniversary Day”; Daniel Webster, who lived in
Marshfield, and whose glowing oration of 1820, in honor of the two
hundredth anniversary[66] of the landing of the Pilgrims, was
epoch-making in Plymouth annals.
Among the many priceless books and documents here we find the lately
acquired _Speculum Europæ_ (1605) by Sir Edwin Sandys, the active friend
of our Separatists in England;
[Illustration: THE “MAYFLOWER” IN PLYMOUTH HARBOR.
Copyright by A. S. Burbank.
FROM THE PAINTING BY W. F. HALSALL, IN PILGRIM HALL.]
two autographs of John Robinson render this volume of special interest.
A facsimile of the Bradford manuscript also is here, and a _Confutation
of the Rhemists Translation_, printed by Brewster in Leyden, in 1618.
Among the old Bibles worn by hands seeking for guidance and comfort is
one belonging to John Alden, dated 1620. Here also are a copy of Robert
Cushman’s memorable sermon on “The Danger of Self-love,” delivered by
him in Plymouth in 1621; one of the seven precious original copies of
_Mourt’s Relation_ the journal written by Bradford and Winslow in
1620-21, and so promptly printed in London in 1622; one of the four
copies of Eliot’s Indian Bible (1685); the Patent of 1621, granted our
colonists by the New England Company, and the oldest state paper in the
United States.
[Illustration: THE OLD COLONY SEAL.]
A large copy of the seal of the colony, in handsomely carved oak,
reminds us that the original seal was stolen in the days of Andros. Its
appropriate motto, “Patrum pietate ortum, filiorum virtute servandum,”
may be found
[Illustration: The landing of the FATHERS Plymouth Dec 22 1620
COPIED FROM AN OLD PAINTING ON GLASS.
CARVER
BRADFORD
STANDISH
BREWSTER
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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