The Olden Time Series, Vol. 6: Literary Curiosities: Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, MassachusettsBrooks, Henry M. (Henry Mason)
History
The Olden Time Series, Vol. 6: Literary Curiosities: Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts
Brooks, Henry M. (Henry Mason)
Literary curiosa; New England -- Social life and customs
[A] This seems to have been a slip of the pen; the following is his own
calculation, made in 1823, and which from his great degree of
exaggeration falls short of half the actual amount. "If from my age of
20 to 80 years I have walked 5 miles a day, which is a moderate
calculation, I must have gone in that 60 years,
109,500 miles.
And in the first 20 & last 15 years, 38,325
In 95 years probably, Total, 147,825
[B] This prohibition could only have regard to the period of his life
time and was occasioned by that extreme modesty which always rendered it
painful to the Doctor to be held up to the public notice.
[C] These remarks refer to the period of Dr. Holyoke's residence in
Salem, preceding the revolution.
Dr. Holyoke during his whole life, it is said, was never fifty miles
distant from the spot where he was born. He was the first person to
receive the degree of M.D. from Harvard College; was the first president
of the Massachusetts Medical Society; and he made in the course of his
life three hundred and twenty-four thousand professional visits.
ANTIQUITY OF NURSERY RHYMES.--Many of these productions have
a very curious history, if it could only be traced. Some of
them probably owe their origin to names distinguished in our
literature; as Oliver Goldsmith, for instance, is believed
in his earlier days to have written such compositions. Dr.
E.F. Rimbault gives us the following particulars as to some
well-known favorites: "Sing a Song of Sixpence," is as old
as the sixteenth century. "Three Blind Mice" is found in a
music-book dated 1609. "The Frog and the Mouse" was licensed
in 1580. "Three Children Sliding on the Ice" dates from
1633. "London Bridge is Broken Down" is of unfathomed
antiquity. "Girls and Boys come out to play" is certainly
old as the reign of Charles II.; as is also "Lucy Locket
lost her Pocket," to the tune of which the American song of
"Yankee Doodle" was written. "Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, where
have you been?" is of the age of Queen Bess. "Little Jack
Horner" is older than the seventeenth century. "The Old
Woman Tossed in a Blanket" is of the reign of James II., to
which monarch it is supposed to allude.
_Salem Gazette._
* * * * *
Some British opinions of Benedict Arnold.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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