So far as the bounds of Leyden street are concerned, there has been no change in my day except the widening mentioned in a previous chapter at its junction with Water street. The changes in houses have been numerous. The Turner house above the old blockmaker’s shop and Turner’s Hall, has been removed, and its site occupied by the Electric Light Co. Nearly in front of it, a little below, near the westerly end of the blacksmith’s shop of Southworth and Ichabod Shaw was a public well, on which the neighborhood relied for good drinking water. The aqueduct water delivered through wooden logs from questionable sources, led our people to depend largely on pumps or wells. These were scattered all over the town, either public or private, and even to the private wells householders were permitted free access. There were public wells at the foot of North street, and below the bank at the foot of Middle street, and there was the town pump at the foot of Spring hill. Besides these there were the county well, a well between the old Lothrop house and Judge Thomas’ house opposite the head of North street, another between John Gooding’s and Dr. Bartlett’s houses on Main street, another in the yard of Capt. Wm. Rogers on North street, another in the rear of Jacob Jackson’s house on what is now Winslow street, which was known as Jacob’s well, and there was still another near the sidewalk on Sandwich street, opposite the Green, between the Elkanah Bartlett and Rogers houses. The wells on North street and below Middle street were liable to be fouled by drains, and their water was not used for drinking or cooking. Before the introduction of South Pond water, the whalemen and fishermen filled their water casks at a pump in the yard of John Tribble’s paint shop on Water street. But the well in Leyden street was the one to which I was often sent when a boy with two pails and a hoop to get our daily supply.