The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, July 1884, No. 10Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
History
The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, July 1884, No. 10
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
Blackstone’s house, or cottage, in which he lived, together with the
nature of his improvements, was such as to authorize the belief that he
had resided there some seven or eight years. How he became possessed
of his lands here is not known; but it is certain he held a good title
to them, which was acknowledged by the settlers under Winthrop, who,
in course of time, bought his lands of him, and he removed out of the
jurisdiction of Massachusetts to the valley of the Blackstone River.
Of Blackstone’s personal history Nathan afterward read them this note, by
Mr. Charles F. Adams:
“He was in no respect an ordinary man. His presence in the
peninsula of Shawmut, in 1630, was made additionally inexplicable
from the fact that he was about the last person one would
ever have expected to find there. He was not a fisherman, nor
a trader, nor a refugee: he was a student, an observer, and
a recluse. A graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he had
received Episcopal ordination in England. In 1630 he was in his
thirty-fifth year. All this is extremely suggestive, for it
goes to make of him exactly the description of man who would
naturally be found in company with the scholarly and unobtrusive
Morell. Further, the probabilities would strongly point to him as
Winthrop’s authority where Winthrop, in 1631, speaks of a species
of weather record going back seven years since this bay was
planted by Englishmen.”
The Second Day.
As the various travelers told their times that evening, a certain plan
was laid out for the next day, in which the two ladies agreed to join.
And it was finally agreed that they should lunch down town with the
gentlemen, and should take the elevator at the “Equitable” Insurance
Company, so that the two mothers might have something to substitute for
the view the children had had from the State House.
This plan may be recommended to lady travelers. The view is not as
sweeping on the west as that from the State House. But, on other sides,
it is equally satisfactory. And you can go up by steam—a great matter
when you have passed forty years.
But before lunch Nathan took them to the head of State Street, to the
“Old State House.”
“This,” said he, “is what the Philadelphia girl called the State Street
Meeting House.”
He had brought them in in a Norfolk horse car, so that they saw the
building from the southern side. The lion on one side and the unicorn
on the other dance on their hind legs at the top, with the roof to
part them. Nathan was careful to show John and the rest that as they
looked up on the beasts they stood themselves on the very ground of the
“Boston Massacre” of March 5, 1770. The English troops were in a little
semi-circle on the north side of the street. Attuchs, the mulatto, and
the rest of the mob who stoned the troops and snowballed them were in
the street, or on the southern side. There were then no sidewalks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account