Old Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston E-Book

Samuel Adams Drake

• Herausgeber: Jazzybee Verlag
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 683

Beschreibung

There are thousands of people who have never seen (and are not likely ever to see) the interesting capital of Massachusetts, to whom, however, this volume will recommend itself, for various reasons. Boston is especially dear to us Americans and reading Mr. Drake's well-written volume is like reading the record of the sayings and doings of the colonialists.

Leseprobe

Old Landmarks And Historic Personages Of Boston

SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE

Old Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston, Samuel Adams Drake

Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck

86450 Altenmünster, Loschberg 9

Deutschland

Printed by Bookwire, Voltastraße 1, 60486 Frankfurt/M.

ISBN: 9783849663018

www.jazzybee-verlag.de

[email protected]

CONTENTS:

BETWEEN OURSELVES.1

INTRODUCTION.3

CHAPTER I. KING'S CHAPEL AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD.. 22

CHAPTER II. FROM THE ORANGE-TREE TO THE OLD BRICK.51

CHAPTER III. FROM THE OLD STATE HOUSE TO BOSTON PIER.66

CHAPTER IV. BRATTLE SQUARE AND THE TOWN DOCK.88

CHAPTER V. FROM BOSTON STONE TO THE NORTH BATTERY.105

CHAPTER VI. A VISIT TO THE OLD SHIPYARDS.130

CHAPTER VII. COPP'S HILL AND THE VICINITY.145

CHAPTER VIII. THE OLD SOUTH AND PROVINCE HOUSE.165

CHAPTER IX. FROM THE OLD SOUTH ROUND FORT HILL.183

CHAPTER X. A TOUR ROUND THE COMMON.212

CHAPTER XI. A TOUR ROUND THE COMMON CONTINUED.237

CHAPTER XII. VALLEY ACRE, THE BOWLING GREEN, AND WEST BOSTON.265

CHAPTER XIII. FROM CHURCH GREEN TO LIBERTY TREE.279

CHAPTER XIV. LIBERTY TREE AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD.291

CHAPTER XV. THE NECK AND THE FORTIFICATIONS.308

BETWEEN OURSELVES.

" Boast, Harry, that you are a true-born child, and that you are a true Bostonian. " — Colonel Jackson to General Knox in 1777.

MORE perhaps than the natives of any American city Bostonians have the feeling of "inhabitiveness and adhesiveness" abnormally developed. In whatever part of the world you may meet with him you can tell a Bostonian a mile off. But aside from the peculiar charm surrounding one's birthplace, common to all men, the Bostonian knows that his own is pre-eminently the historic city of America, and he feels that no small part of its world-wide renown has descended to him as his peculiar inheritance. That is all very well. But it is one thing to be proud of our history and to boast of it on all occasions, and quite another to remain indifferent to the threatened spoliation of what we lay claim to as our inalienable inheritance, our birthright. I mean the really historic buildings of Boston and what they stand for. This book is my appeal to the historical conscience. It is only at the price of perpetual vigilance that a few of these old edifices, known throughout the whole world, remain on their foundations at this hour. Boston would be a barren place indeed without its Faneuil Hall, its Old State House, Old South and Old North. It is to be hoped that we shall not soon repeat the inexcusable folly of the Hancock House. The frequent and capricious changing of street names is another rock of danger, besides being a source of endless confusion and annoyance to historians and property-owners alike. Mr. Lowell said truly that " we change our names as often as we can, to the great detriment of all historical association.'' Boston to-day is hardly more like the Boston of fifty years ago than a new growth resembles that which has replaced the original forest, after fire has swept over it. It then had a good deal of the "Indian-summer atmosphere of the past.'' What it will be like fifty years hence no man can say. In a hundred, of the old city perhaps not one stone will remain upon another. In truth, such surprising physical transformation as has been brought about, even within the last thirty years, by the Great Fire, the levelling of Fort Hill, the filling up of the Back Bay, the extension of Washington Street, and the improvements incident to the building of the great railway stations and Subway, strongly emphasizes the fact that in the very nature of things, nothing is, nothing can be permanent save the written record. Like every great city Boston is forever outgrowing its old garments and must be patched and pieced accordingly. But it is in the heart of the old city that we remark the greatest havoc. Scores of old buildings, rich in historical association, have given place to modern structures. Of a dozen ancient churches, not one now remains on its original site. The last remnants too of their congregations have silently emigrated to that newer region, where boys were wont to sail their boats in summer, and fishermen to catch smelts in winter. Moreover, a new generation has come upon the stage to whom the old conditions are unknown and hard to realize. To re-establish these conditions by present landmarks, so that it may continue to be a faithful guide to what is best worth seeing, as well as what is most worth remembering, in older Boston, a careful and thorough revision of Old Landmarks has been made and many new features introduced. No pains have been spared to make it a work of permanent value and interest. And as it was originally undertaken as a labor of love, so now, in its revised form, the book again is sent forth, in the spirit of the motto with which this Preface begins, with a hearty greeting to all true Bostonians and to all others, wherever born, who shall derive from the story of a great Past hope and inspiration for a still greater Future.

August, 1900.

INTRODUCTION.

AN old Boston divine says, " It would be no unprofitable thing for you to pass over the several streets and call to mind who lived here so many years ago." We learn from the poet Gay how to prepare for our rambles through the town: —

" How to walk clean by day, and safe by night;

How jostling crowds with prudence to decline.

When to assert the wall and when resign."

To see or not to see is the problem presented to him who walks the streets of town or village. What to one is a heap of ruins or a blank wall may to another become the abode of the greatest of our ancestors or the key to a remote period. A mound of earth becomes a battlement; a graveyard, a collection of scattered pages whereon we read the history of the times. Facts are proverbially dry, and we shall trouble the reader as little as possible with musty records or tedious chronology; but before we set out to explore and reconstruct, a brief glance at the material progress of Boston seems desirable. For a hundred years Boston must be considered as little more than a seashore village, straggling up its thicket-grown hillsides. The Indian cam-fire, the axe of Blackstone, the mattock and spade of Winthrop's band, — each have their story and their lesson. We shall pass each period in rapid review. Whether Myles Standish, " broad in the shoulders, deep-chested, with muscles and sinews of iron," was the first white man who stood on the beach of the peninsula is a matter merely of conjecture. Certain it is that in 1621 this redoubtable Puritan soldier, with ten companions, sailed from Plymouth and landed somewhere in what is now Boston Bay. They crossed the bay, " which is very large, and hath at least fifty islands in it "; and, after exploring the shores, decided " that better harbors for shipping there cannot be than here." They landed, hobnobbed with Obbatinewat, lord of the soil, feasted upon lobsters and boiled codfish, and departed, leaving no visible traces for us to pursue. This expedition was undertaken to secure the friendship of the " Massachusetts " Indians, — a result fully accomplished by Standish. The Indians told the Englishmen that two large rivers flowed into the bay, of which, however, they saw but one. This circumstance, indefinite as it is, justifies the opinion that Standish's party landed at Shawmut, the Indian name for our peninsula. If they had landed at Charlestown and ascended the heights there, as is supposed by some writers, they could hardly have escaped seeing both the Mystic and Charles, while at Shawmut they would probably have seen only the latter river. In William Blackstone, Episcopalian, we have the first white settler of the peninsula. The date of his settlement has been supposed to have been about 1626, although there is nothing conclusive on this point known to the writer. Here he was, however, in 1628, when we find him taxed by the Plymouth Colony twelve shillings, on account of the expenses incurred by the colony in the capture of Thomas Morton at Mount Wollaston.

The place where Blackstone located his dwelling has given rise to much controversy, but can be fixed with some degree of certainty. Like a sensible man, Blackstone chose the sunny southwest slope of Beacon Hill for his residence. The records show that in April, 1633, "it is agreed that William Blackstone shall have fifty acres set out for him near his house in Boston to enjoy forever." In the following year Blackstone sold the town all of his allotment except six acres, on part of which bis bouse then stood; the sale also including all his right in and to the peninsula, — a right thus, in some form, recognized by Winthrop and his associates. The price paid for the whole peninsula of Boston was £ 30, assessed upon the inhabitants of the town, some paying six shillings, and some more, according to their circumstances and condition. The Charlestown records locate Blackstone as " dwelling on the other side of Charles River, alone, to a place by the Indians called Shawmut, where he only had a cottage at a place not far off the place called Blackstone's Point "; this is also confirmed by Johnson, in his "Wonder Working Providence" printed in 1654. After the purchase by the town of Blackstone's forty-four acres, they laid out the " training field, which was ever since used for that purpose and the feeding of cattle." This was the origin of Boston Common. Two landmarks existed to fix the site of Blackstone's house, namely, the orchard planted by him, — the first in New England, — and his spring. The orchard is represented on the early maps; is mentioned in 1765 as still bearing fruit; and is named in the deeds, of subsequent possessors. The spring, which must have determined to some extent the location of the house, was probably near the junction of Beacon Street with Charles, although others existed in the neighborhood. The six acres which Mr. Blackstone reserved have been traced through Richard Pepys, an original possessor by a sufficiently clear connection, — supplied where broken by depositions, — to the Mount Vernon proprietors. Copley, the celebrated painter, was once an owner of Blackstone's six acres, which were bounded by the Common on the south and the river on the west. Blackstone was as singular a character as can be found in the annals of Boston. He is supposed to have come over with Robert Gorges in 1623. But what induced him to withdraw to such a distance from the settlements remains a mystery. By a coincidence, his namesake. Sir William Blackstone, the great commentator of the laws of England, wrote at a later period the following lines: — "As by some tyrant's stem command, A wretch forsakes his native land, In foreign climes condemned to roam. An endless exile from his home." The nature of Blackstone's claim to the peninsula is doubtful, though we have seen it recognized by Winthrop's company. Mather grumblingly alludes to it thus in his Magnalia: " There were also some godly Episcopalians; among whom has been reckoned Mr. Blackstone; who, by happening to sleep first in an old hovel upon a point of land there, laid claim to all the ground whereupon there now stands the Metropolis of the whole English America, until the inhabitants gave him satisfaction.'' This concedes only a squatter's title to Blackstone. He seems to have had a kind heart, capable of feeling for the sufferings of his fellowmen, for, hearing of the vicissitudes of Winthrop's infant settlement at Charlestown by disease and death, he invited them over to Shawmut in 1630. Water, the great desideratum of a settlement, was very scarce at Charlestown, and Blackstone " came and acquainted the Governor of an excellent spring there, withal inviting him and soliciting him thither." If seclusion was Blackstone's object, it gave way to his interest in the welfare of his fellow-colonists.

Upon Blackstone's advice the Charlestown settlers acted, and many removed to Shawmut by the end of August, 1630. In the first boatload that went over was Anne Pollard, who lived to be nearly, if not quite, one hundred and five years old. She herself related, when more than one hundred years of age, that she "came over in one of the first ships that arrived in Charlestown; that in a day or two after her arrival, on account of the water there being bad, a number of the young people, including herself, took the ship's boat to cross over to Boston; that as the boat drew up towards the shore, she (being then a romping girl) declared she would be the first to land, and accordingly, before any one, jumped from the bow of the boat on to the beach." According to this statement, which is based upon good authority, Anne Pollard was the first white female that trod upon the soil of Boston. Hudson's Point, now the head of Charlestown bridge, but formerly the site of the old ferry, was probably the place where Anne first left the impress of her foot. Her portrait, at the age of one hundred and three years, is in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and her deposition, at the age of eighty-nine years, was used to substantiate the location of Blackstone's house. In it she says that Mr. Blackstone, after his removal from Boston, frequently resorted to her husband's house, and that she never heard any controversy about the land, between her husband, Pepys, or Blackstone, but that it was always reputed to belong to the latter.

Blackstone, in 1634, removed to Rehoboth, not liking, we may conclude, the close proximity of his Puritan neighbors, of whom he is reported to have said, that he left England because of his dislike to the Lords Bishops, but now he would not be under the Lords Brethren.

In 1659 Blackstone was married to Mary Stevenson of Boston, widow, by Governor Endicott. He died in 1675, a short time before the breaking out of King Philip's War, during which his plantation was ravaged by the Indians, and his dwelling destroyed, with his papers and books, — a circumstance that has prevented, perhaps, the veil being lifted that shrouds his early history. It is said no trace of his grave exists; but he left his name to a noble river, and the city which he founded perpetuates it by a public square and street.

The settlers at Charlestown called Shawmut Trimountain, not, says Shaw, on account of the three principal hills, — subsequently Copp's, Beacon, and Fort, — but from the three peaks of Beacon Hill, which was then considered quite a high mountain, and is so spoken of by Wood, one of the early writers about Boston; the reader will know that Beacon and its two outlying spurs of Cotton (Pemberton) and Mt. Vernon are meant.

On the 7th of September, 1630 (old style), at a court held in Charlestown, it was ordered that Trimountain be called Boston. Many of the settlers had already taken up their residence there, and " thither the frame of the governor's house was carried, and people began to build their houses against winter." Clinging to the old associations of their native land, the settlers named their new home for old Boston in Lincolnshire, England, whence a number of members of the company had emigrated. The name itself owes its origin to Botolph, a pious old Saxon of the seventh century, afterwards canonized as the tutelar saint of mariners, and shows an ingenuity of corruption for which England is famed. Reciprocal courtesies have been exchanged between English Boston and her namesake. The former presented her charter in a frame of the wood of old Saint Botolph's church, which hangs in our City Hall, while Edward Everett, in the name of the descendants and admirers of John Cotton, gave $ 2,000 for the restoration of a chapel in St. Botolph's, and the erection therein of a monument to the memory of that much venerated divine, who had been vicar of St. Botolph's and afterwards minister of the First Church of Christ in Boston, New England.

Boston had three striking topographical features. First, its peninsular character, united by a narrow isthmus to the mainland; next, its three hills, of which the most westerly (Beacon) was the highest, all washed at their base by the sea; and lastly, corresponding to her hills, were three coves, of which the most easterly, enclosed by the headlands of Copp's and Fort Hill, became the Town Cove and Dock. Of the other coves, the one lying to the south of the Town Cove was embraced between the point of land near the foot of South Street, formerly known as Windmill Point, and the head of the bridge to South Boston; this bight of water was the South Cove. A third inlet on the northwest of the peninsula, lying between the two points of land from which now extend bridges to Charlestown and East Cambridge, became subsequently the Mill Pond, by the building of a causeway on substantially the present line of Causeway Street. Only the most salient features are here given; other interesting peculiarities will be alluded to in their places.

At high tides the sea swept across the narrow neck, and there is every reason to believe also covered the low ground now traversed by Blackstone Street. This would make, for the time being, two islands of Boston. The early names given to the streets on the waterfront described the sea margin, as Fore (North) Beach, and Back (now Salem) Streets.

In process of time these distinctive characteristics have all changed. Boston can no longer be called a peninsula; one of its summits, Fort Hill, has to-day no existence, while the others have been so shorn of their proportions and altitude as to present a very different view from any quarter of approach; as for the three coves, they have been converted into terra firma.

The area of original Boston has been variously estimated. By Shaw, at 700 acres; Dr. Morse, the geographer, placed it in 1800 at 700 acres, admitting that some accounts fix it as high as 1,000 acres, while Dr. Shurtleff says less than 1,000 acres.

There is good authority, however, for computing the original peninsula at not more than 625 acres of firm ground. To this has been added, by the filling of the Mill Pond, 50 acres; the South Cove, 75 acres (up to 1837); and by the filling of the Town Cove or Dock, and the building of new streets on the waterfront, enough had been reclaimed by 1852 to amount to 600 acres, — nearly the original area. Since that time the Back Bay improvement, which covers 680 acres, and Atlantic Avenue, which follows the old Barricado line, have added as much more to the ancient territory, so that we may safely consider her original limits trebled, without reference to what has been acquired by annexation.

At the time of the English settlement hostilities existed between the Massachusetts and the eastern Indians; the natives, who seldom neglected to provide for retreat in case of defeat, chose rather to locate their villages farther inland, at Mystic and elsewhere.

There is evidence, however, that Shawmut was either inhabited by the Indians at a very early period, or used as a place of sepulture by them. Dr. Mather related that three hundred skull bones had been dug up on Cotton (Pemberton) Hill when he was a youth, and tradition long ascribed to this locality a sort of Golgotha. To support this view there was found in April 1733, says the New England Journal, a number of skulls and larger human bones by workmen digging in a garden near Dr. Cooper's house on Cotton Hill. These remains were considered, at the time, to be those of the natives. Boston has been thoroughly excavated without finding any further material to confirm this belief.

The character of the first buildings was extremely rude. They were of wood, with thatched roofs, and chimneys built of pieces of wood placed crosswise, the interstices and outside covered with clay. Such was the economy of the times, that Governor Winthrop reproved his deputy, in 1632, "that he did not well to bestow so much cost about wainscotting and adorning his house in the beginning of a plantation, both in regard of the public charges, and for example." The answer was, that it was for the warmth of his house, and the charge was little, being but clapboards nailed to the walls in the form of wainscot.

It is comparatively recent that Boston began to be a city of brick and stone. A few solidly built structures were scattered here and there over a wide area; but the mass were of wood, in spite of some attempts made by the town to induce a safer and more durable style of architecture. A lady, entering Boston in 1795, remarks: "The ranges of wooden buildings all situated with one end towards the street, and the numerous chaises we met, drawn by one horse, the driver being placed on a low seat in front, appeared to me very singular." Another writer observes of the town in 1805: "The houses were most of them wood, seldom enlivened by paint, and closely resembling the old fashioned, dark-looking edifices still to be seen in Newport, R. I." At this time there was but one brick house in the whole of Tremont Street, and it was not until 1793 that the first block of brick buildings was erected in what is now Franklin Street. In 1803 the inflammable character of the town was thus described: —

"A pyre of shapeless structures crowds the spot,

Where taste, and all "but cheapness is forgot.

One little spark the funeral pile may fire,

And Boston, blazing, see itself expire."

Winthrop's company located chiefly within the space comprised between what are now Milk, Bromfield, Tremont, and Hanover Streets and the water. Pemberton Hill was also a favorite locality, as we shall have occasion to note. The North End, by removals and accessions, soon became also settled; that portion of the town lying north of Union Street being thus designated, while all south of that boundary was called the South End. A third geographical division, embracing the district lying to the west and north of Beacon Hill, and west and south of the Mill Pond, was known as New Boston, and also as West Boston, and finally as the "West End. These names have been retained, but the boundaries of all but the North End have been considered movable and would be difficult to follow.

The first settlers found Boston thinly wooded, whatever its original condition may have been. The timber lay mainly along the Neck, with clumps of trees here and there. The great elm on the Common is doubtless one of native growth, and before the Revolution of 1776 there was another almost equally large near the corner of what is now West and Tremont Streets. Traditions exist of the Indians having planted on the peninsula, clearing away the wood, as is their custom, by burning. There are old houses now standing at the North End, the timbers of which, some of them a foot square, are said to have been cut near Copp's Hill.

Water was abundant and good. Besides the spring or springs near Blackstone's house, mention is made in the early records of the "great spring" in what is now Spring Lane. The latter was filled up, but people now living have seen it bubbling out of the ground after heavy spring rains. Opinions are divided as to which spring Blackstone had reference, when he invited the thirsty Charlestown company to Shawmut, but the fact of Governor Winthrop having located by the side of the " great spring," and Isaac Johnson in the immediate vicinity, are significant. Other springs existed or were found in course of time on the Neck and elsewhere.

The settlement of Boston opens in the reign of Charles the First, and the dress, as well as the manners and customs of the people bear the impress of that time, with the distinction, that the religious sentiments of the settlers entered largely into both questions. The short cloak, doublet, and silk stockings were worn by people of condition, but the colors were subdued and sober, and the rapier, which King Charles's gallants were so ready to draw, was not much worn abroad, except on state occasions. Some, like Winthrop, wore the stiff, plaited ruff, containing a furlong of linen, and making the modern beholder sympathize with the pillory the unfortunate head is placed in, while others wore the broad falling collar in which we always see the great Protector. High crowned felt hats were worn out of doors, while the velvet skullcap was the favorite headdress within.

Myles Standish, whom we single out as a type of the Puritan soldier of those days, is described by Longfellow as " clad in doublet and hose, with boots of Cordovan leather"; glancing complacently at his arms on the wall, "cutlass and corslet of steel, and his trusty sword of Damascus," with its curved point and cavalier.

Arabic inscription. The manner of wearing the hair became very early an apple of discord. Those of the straitest sect, and it may be of the straightest hair, cut their locks in the short fashion of the roundheads; while others, to whom nature had, perhaps, been more lavish in this respect, wore their hair long. The wearing of veils by ladies when abroad was the subject of a crusade by Rev. John Cotton, though championed by Endicott.

In 1750 cocked-hats, wigs, and red cloaks were usually worn by gentlemen. Except among military men, boots were rarely seen. In winter, round coats were worn, made stiff with buckram, and coming down to the knees in front. Boys wore wigs and cocked hats until about 1790. Powder was worn by gentlemen until after 1800.

The toilets of ladies were elaborate, especially the hair, which was arranged on crape cushions so as to stand up high. Sometimes ladies were dressed the day before a party and slept in easychairs to keep their hair in condition. Hoops were indispensable in full dress until after 1790. The usual dinner hour was two o'clock. Drinking punch in the forenoon, in public houses, was the common practice. Wine was little used, convivial parties drinking punch or toddy.

The bearing of the townspeople in public was grave and austere. How could it be otherwise under the operation of such ordinances as the following. " No strangers were permitted to live within the town without giving bonds to save the town harmless from all damage and charge for entertaining them." " For galloping through the streets, except upon days of military exercise or any extraordinary case require," was two shillings fine. Football was prohibited in the streets. " No person shall take any tobacco publicly, under penalty of one shilling." "For entertaining foreigners," or receiving "inmates, servants, or journeymen coming for help in physic or surgery, without leave of the selectmen," was twenty shillings fine a week. The selectmen had authority, under the colony, to order parents to bind their children as apprentices, or put them out to service, and, if they refused, the town took the children from the charge of the parents.

Sobriety was strictly inculcated, though the sale of liquors was licensed. It is on record that, September 15, 1641, there was a training of twelve hundred men at Boston for two days, but no one drunk, nor an oath sworn. Officers were appointed, with long wands, to correct the inattentive or slumbering at church. To be absent from meeting was criminal, while to speak ill of the minister was to incur severe punishment. An instance is mentioned of a man being fined for kissing his wife in his own grounds; and do not the following instructions to the watch smack strongly of Dogberry's famous charge. The number being eight, they are " to walk two by two together; a youth joined with an older and more sober person." " If after ten o'clock they see lights, to inquire if there be warrantable cause; and if they hear any noise or disorder, wisely to demand the reason; if they are dancing and singing vainly, to admonish them to cease; if they do not discontinue, after moderate admonition, then the constable to take their names and acquaint the authorities therewith." " If they find young men and maidens, not of known fidelity, walking after ten o'clock, modestly to demand the cause; and if they appear ill-minded, to watch them narrowly, command them to go to their lodgings, and if they refuse, then to secure them till morning."

Negro slavery appears in Boston as early as 1638, when at least three were held by Maverick on Noddle's Island. In this year the ship Desire brought negroes here from the West Indies. In 1680, according to Judge Sewall, there were not above two hundred African slaves in the colony. An effort is on record in 1702 to put a stop to negroes being slaves, and to encourage the use of white servants, the representatives of the town being instructed to this purpose. Slavery seems, however, to have steadily increased in the colony, the traffic proving profitable, until at length it was as common to see negroes offered for sale in the public prints, as it ever was in the Southern colonies. In 1767 the town again moved, through its representatives for the abolition of slavery, to no effect. A Tory writer asserts that there were at this time two thousand slaves in Boston. During the troubles of 1768 the British officers were charged with inciting the slaves to insurrection, and blacks were held in servitude until after the Revolution.

But this was not all. It is but little known that white slavery was tolerated in the colony, and that the miserable dependents of feudal power were sold into servitude in England and transported to this country. Prisoners of war were thus disposed of under the great Cromwell, some of the captives of Dunbar having been shipped overseas to America. A shipload of Scotch prisoners was consigned 1651 to Thomas Kemble of Charlestown, the same who was afterwards resident of Boston. They were generally sold for a specific term of service, and used chiefly as farm, laborers. Many were sent to North Carolina, and indeed but few of the colonies were without them.

Among the early customs was that of the watchmen crying the time of night and giving an account of the weather as they went their rounds, a practice which prevailed for a hundred years. The British sentinels later gave the cry of " All 's well! " as they paced their beats. The ringing of the nine-o'clock bell was first ordered in 1649. The watchman's rattle was introduced about the time Boston became a city.

The government of the town was vested in nine selectmen, and is first found on the records, November 1643; but not until November 29, 1645, is the official statement recorded that John Winthrop and nine others were chosen selectmen. This continued to be the form of government until the city was incorporated, February 23, 1822. The first city government was organized on the first of May following, and John Phillips was the first, Josiah Quincy the second, and Harrison Gray Otis the third mayor. Steps were taken as early as 1708 to petition the General Court to have the town incorporated into a city or borough, and again in 1784, but without success.

In 1632 the Colonial legislature declared it to be " the fittest place for public meetings of any place in the Bay," since which time it has remained the capital of Massachusetts. Boston at first included within its government the islands of the harbor, — Muddy River (Brookline), "Winnisimet (Chelsea), Mount "Wollaston (Braintree), Randolph, and Quincy. She is now striving to recover portions of her ancient territory.

For a long time, the allotment of lands was the principal business of the town officers. In the limits of the peninsula the rule was, " two acres to plant on, and for every able youth one acre within the neck and Noddle's Island " (East Boston). In 1635 it was agreed, "no new allotments should be granted unto any new-comer, but such as may be likely to be received members of the congregation." The town regulated the price of cattle, commodities, victuals, and the wages of laborers, and none other were to be given or taken.

The spirit of intolerance which the fathers of Boston exhibited towards the Quakers, Anabaptists, Episcopalians, and other sects illustrates their view of religious liberty. Well did Dryden say: —

" Of all the tyrannies on human kind,

The worst is that which persecutes the mind;

Let us but weigh at what offence we strike,

'T is hut because we cannot think alike;

In punishing of this we overthrow

The laws of nations, and of nature too. "

It was an offence to harbor a Quaker; to attend a Quaker meeting was a fine of ten shillings, to preach, £ 5. When the Baptists first attempted to enter their meetinghouse in Stillman Street, they found the doors nailed up, and when they proceeded to worship in the open air, they were arrested and imprisoned. No one could be found to sell land for an Episcopal church, nor could they find a place to hold services in until Andros obtained the Old South for them by force. The criminal law decreed banishment to such as broached or maintained " damnable heresies," by which was meant such as did not agree with the views of the congregation.

The excessive severity of the following deserves notice. " Anyone denying the Scripture to be the word of God should pay not exceeding £ 50 to be severely whipped, not exceeding forty strokes, unless he publicly recants, in which case he shall not pay above £ 10, or be whipped in case he pay not the fine." The repetition of this offence was to be punished by banishment or death, as the court might determine. 'T is death for any child of sound understanding to curse or strike his parents, unless in his own defence."

There is a grim humor in the following decisions. In 1640 one Edward Palmer, for asking an excessive price for a pair of stocks, which he was hired to frame, had the privilege of sitting an hour in them himself. " Captain Stone is sentenced to pay £ 100 and prohibited coming within the patent without the governor's leave, upon pain of death, for calling Mr. Ludlow (a magistrate) a " Justass" We infer the punishment must have been inflicted more for the joke than the offence. "Catherine, wife of William Cornish, was found suspicious of incontinency, and seriously admonished to take heed." "Sergeant Perkins ordered to carry forty turfs to the fort for being drunk."According to Neal, the principal festival days were that of the annual election of magistrates at Boston, and Commencement at Cambridge. Business was then laid aside, and the people were as cheerful among their friends and neighbors as the English are at Christmas.

"They have a greater veneration for the evening of Saturday than for that of the Lord's Day itself; so that all business is laid aside by sunset or six o'clock on Saturday night. The Sabbath itself is kept with great strictness; nobody being to be seen in the streets in time of Divine service, except the constables, who are appointed to search all public houses; but in the evening they allow themselves great liberty and freedom."

This custom has prevailed up to a comparatively late period.

In those days the pulpit took the lead in matters temporal as well as of theology. Public questions were discussed in the pulpit, and news from a distance, of moment to the colony, was disseminated through it; the first newspaper was not attempted in Boston until 1690, and then only a single number was published. The whole field was open to the preacher, who might either confine himself to doctrinal points or preach a crusade against the savages. The attire of the ladies, the fashion of the hair, the drinking of healths, afterwards abolished by law, were all within the jurisdiction of the teacher of the people; the constituted authorities might make the laws, but the minister expounded them. The official proclamations were then, as now, affixed to the meeting-house door, which thus stood to the community as a vehicle of public intelligence.

Many intelligent travelers, both English and French, have recorded their impressions of Boston. Wood, who is accounted the earliest of these writers, says: —

"This harbor is made by a great company of islands, whose high cliffs shoulder out the boisterous seas; yet may easily deceive any unskillful pilot, presenting many fair openings and broad sounds which, afford too shallow water for ships, though navigable for boats and pinnaces. It is a safe and pleasant harbor within, having but one common and safe entrance, and that not very broad, there scarce being room for three ships to come in board and board at a time; but being once in, there is room for the anchorage of five hundred ships."

"Boston is two miles N. E. of Roxbury. His situation is very pleasant, being a peninsula hemmed in on the south side by the bay of Roxbury, and on the north side with Charles River, the marshes on the back side being not half a quarter of a mile over; so that a little fencing will secure their cattle from the wolves; it being a neck, and bare of wood, they are not troubled with these great annoyances, wolves, rattlesnakes, and mosquitoes. This neck of land is not above four miles in compass, in form almost square, having on the south side a great broad hill, whereon is planted a fort which can command any ship as she sails into the harbor. On the north side is another hill equal in bigness, whereon stands a windmill. To the northwest is a high mountain, with three little rising hills on the top of it, wherefore it is called the Tramount. This town, although it be neither the greatest nor the richest, yet is the most noted and frequented, being the centre of the plantations where the monthly courts are kept."

John Jossleyn arrived at Boston July 1663. He says: —

"It is in longitude 315 degrees, and 42 degrees 30 minutes of north latitude. The buildings are handsome, joining one to the other as in London, with many large streets, most of them paved with pebble; in the high street, toward the Common, there are fair buildings, some of stone; the town is not divided into parishes, yet they have three fair meeting-houses."

Edward Johnson says: —

"The form of this town is like a heart, naturally situated for fortifications, having two hills on the frontier part thereof next the sea, the one well-fortified on the superficies thereof, with store of great artillery well mounted. The other hath a very strong battery built of whole timber and filled with earth; betwixt these two strong arms lies a cove or bay, on which the chief part of this town is built, overtopped with a third hill; all these, like overtopping towers, keep a constant watch to see the approach of foreign dangers, being furnished with a beacon and loud babbling guns to give notice to all the sister towns. The chief edifice of this city-like town is crowded on the sea-banks and wharfed out with great labor and cost; the buildings beautiful and large, some fairly set forth with brick, tile, stone, and slate, and orderly placed with seemly streets, whose continual enlargement presageth some sumptuous city."

M. l'Abbé Robin, who accompanied the army of Count Rochambeau, published a small work in 1781, in which a good description of Boston is given. Says M. l'Abbé: —

"The high, regular buildings, intermingled with steeples, appeared to us more like a long-established town of the Continent than a recent colony. A fine mole, or pier, projects into the harbor about two thousand feet, and shops and warehouses line its whole length. It communicates at right angles with the principal street of the town, which is long and wide, curving round towards the water; on this street are many fine houses of two and three stories. The appearance of the buildings seems strange to European eyes; being built entirely of wood, they have not the dull and heavy appearance which belongs to those of our continental cities; they are regular and well-lighted, with frames well joined, and the outside covered with slight, thinly planed boards, overlapping each other somewhat like the tiles upon our roofs. The exterior is painted generally of a grayish color, which gives an agreeable aspect to the view."

M. l'Abbé states that codfish was the principal article of commerce with the Bostonians; that they preferred Madeira, Malaga, or Oporto to French wines, but their ordinary beverage was rum, distilled from molasses. Some credit attaches to this statement, when we remember that Boston had half a dozen still-houses in 1722, and a score when the Abbe was writing. " Piety," continues the acute Frenchman, " is not the only motive which brings a crowd of ladies into their church. They show themselves there clothed in silk, and sometimes decked with superb feathers. Their hair is raised upon supports, in imitation of those worn by the French ladies some years since. They have less grace, less freedom, than the French ladies, but more dignity."

"Their shoon of velvet, and their muilis!

In kirk they are not content of stuilis,

The sermon when they sit to heir,

But carries cusheons like vain fulis;

And all for newfangleness of geir."

The Abbe, alluding to the strict observance of the Sabbath, naively says: "A countryman of mine, lodging at the same inn with me, took it into his head one Sunday to play a little upon his flute; but the neighborhood became so incensed that our landlord was obliged to acquaint him of their uneasiness." Another French writer remarked of Newport, which he thought Boston resembled, " This is the only place I ever visited where they build old houses." M. le Compte Segur and the Marquis Chastellux have written about Boston, but there is little to add to what is already given.

The first volume of the Town Records begins September 1634, and the first entries are said to be in the handwriting of Governor Winthrop. An unknown number of leaves have been torn out or destroyed, and, as the first business of the town was the allotment of land to the inhabitants, the loss is irreparable, and has proved such to those who have had occasion to trace the titles of property. The city authorities should see that this volume, the sole repository of many facts in the early history of Boston, should be printed at once, and thus preserved from destruction. Several later volumes of the records are missing, and for many years, while William Cooper was Town Clerk, no record exists of the births or deaths. A manuscript volume called the "Book of Possessions," is in the City Clerk's office, compiled, it is thought, as early as 1634, by order of the General Court. There are two hundred and forty-five names in this " Doomsday Book," as it has been termed, but all of them were not original settlers.

The general growth and progress of the New England metropolis has been steady and remarkable. The early settlers having built wholly of wood, were not long exempt from destructive fires. In 1654 occurred what was known as "the great fire," but its locality is not given. This was succeeded by another in 1676, at the North End, which consumed forty-five dwellings, the North Church, and several warehouses, within the space enclosed by Richmond, Hanover, and Clark Streets. After this fire a fire-engine was imported from England, but another great fire in 1678, near the Town Dock, destroyed eighty dwelling-houses and seventy warehouses, entailing a loss of £ 200,000.

With extraordinary energy these losses were repaired, and the townspeople, admonished by their disasters, built their houses with more regard to safety, — many building of stone and brick, — while more efficient means were obtained for controlling the devouring element. The town was divided into four quarters, patrolled by a watch detailed from the foot-companies. Six hand-engines, four barrels of powder, and two crooks were assigned each quarter. This appears to have been the beginning of a fire department.

The first fire-engine made in Boston was built by David Wheeler, a blacksmith in Newbury, now Washington Street. It was tried at a fire August 21, 1765 and found to perform extremely well.

The data from which to estimate the population of the town in the first decade of its settlement is very meagre. In 1639 the Bay mustered a thousand soldiers in Boston, but they were of course drawn from all the towns. For the first seventy years after its settlement Boston did not probably contain over seven thousand people. In 1717 it was reckoned at only twelve thousand. A hundred years after the settlement it contained fifteen thousand, with seventeen hundred dwellings; in 1752 there were seventeen thousand five hundred, — a decrease of five hundred in the previous ten years, accounted for by the wars with the Indians and French, in which Boston sustained severe losses. In 1765 the number of people had fallen below sixteen thousand, with sixteen hundred and seventy-six houses. During the siege in 1775-76 the town was nearly depopulated, but few remaining who could get away. An enumeration made in July 1775, before the last permission was given to leave the town, showed only six thousand five hundred and seventy-three inhabitants, the troops with their women and children numbering thirteen thousand six hundred. At the peace of 1783 there were only about twelve thousand inhabitants. By the first census of 1791 the number of people was a little over eighteen thousand, with two thousand three hundred and seventy-six houses.

From this period the increase has been steady and rapid. In 1800 there were twenty-five thousand; 1820, forty-three thousand; 1840, eighty-five thousand; 1860, one hundred and seventy-seven thousand, and in 1870, the latest census, two hundred and fifty thousand.

The division of the town into eight wards is mentioned as early as the great fire of 1678 79. In 1715 these wards were named North, Fleet, Bridge, Creek, King's, Change, Pond, and South. In 1735 the number of wards was increased to twelve, corresponding with the number of companies in the Boston regiment, one of which was attached to each ward for service at fires. Besides the military there was also a civil division, an overseer of the poor, a fire-ward, a constable, and a scavenger, belonging to each ward. In 1792 the number of military wards was nine, the regiment having been reduced to that number of companies; the civil division continued to be twelve. The first four of these wards, and the greater part of the fifth, were in the North End; the seventh was at the West End; while the rest, with a part of the fifth, were in the South End, as it was then bounded. The present number is sixteen, just double the original number.

The paving of the public thoroughfares seems to have begun at a very early period. Jossleyn, describing Boston in 1663, says most of the streets " are paved with pebble," meaning the smooth round stones from the beach. It was not the practice at first to pave the whole width of a street, but only a strip in the middle; the Neck was so paved. In the same manner the sidewalks were paved with cobblestones, bricks, or flags, of only width enough for a single passenger; in some instances, where flag-stones were used, the remaining space was filled with cobble-stones. It is probable that the first paving was done in a fragmentary way before 1700, but in 1703-04 the town voted £100 for this purpose, "as the selectmen shall judge most needful, having particular regard to the highway nigh old Mrs. Stoddard's house." An order for paving 42 rods of Orange Street was made in 1715. From this time sums were regularly voted, and the foundation laid for the most cleanly city in America.

As to sidewalks, a lady who came to Boston in 1795 from New York, and was much struck with the quaint appearance of the town, writes: —

"There were no brick sidewalks, except in a part of the Mam Street (Washington) near the Old South, then called Cornhill. The streets were paved with pebbles; and, except when driven on one side by carts and carriages, everyone walked in the middle of the street, where the pavement was the smoothest."

It is not believed that there was a sidewalk in Boston until after the Revolution. At this time State Street was without any, the pavement reaching across the street from house to house.

It is probable that those inhabitants whose business or pleasure took them from home after dark must for a long time have lighted their own way through the devious lanes and byways of the town. We can imagine the feelings of a pair of fond lovers who, taking an evening stroll, are bid by the captain of the watch to "Stand! " while he throws the rays of a dark lantern upon the faces of the shrinking swain and his mistress. Yet, although streetlamps were said to have been used as early as 1774, until 1792 there seems to have been no action on the town's part towards lighting the streets, when we read that the "gentlemen selectmen propose to light the town," early in January of that year, " and to continue the same until the sum subscribed is expended." Those gentlemen that proposed to furnish lamps were requested to have them " fixed " by a certain day, so that the lamplighter may have time to prepare them for lighting. To the public spirit of the citizens, then, is due the first shedding of light upon the gloomy ways of the town. Gas was not used to illuminate the streets until 1834, though the works at Copp's Hill were erected in 1828. In December of that year gas was first used in the city.

The springs which supplied the older inhabitants gave place to wells, and these in their turn gave way to the demand for an abundant supply of pure water for the whole town. Wells had to be sunk a depth varying from fifteen feet on the low ground to one hundred and twenty feet on the elevated portions, and the water was usually brackish and more or less impregnated with salt. Water was therefore introduced from Jamaica Pond, in West Roxbury, by a company incorporated in 1795. The pipes used were logs, of which about forty miles were laid. The trenches were only three to three and a half feet in depth, which did not prevent freezing in severe weather, while the smallness of the pipe, — four-inch mains, — rendered the supply limited.

Under the administration of Mayor Quincy the subject of a new supply of water was agitated. In 1825 a great fire occurred in Kilby Street, destroying fifty stores, and the want of water as a means for the subduing of fires became evident. Twenty years were spent in controversy before action was taken, but in August 1846, ground was broken at Lake Cochituate by John Quincy Adams and Josiah Quincy, Jr. In October 1848, the work was completed, but the growth of Boston has rendered this source insufficient in less than twenty years, and the waters of Sudbury River are to be made tributary.

Boston has enlarged her territory by the annexation of Dorchester Neck (South Boston), in 1804; Washington Village in 1855; Roxbury, in 1868; and Dorchester, in 1870. East Boston (Noddle's Island), though forming a part of Boston since 1637, had neither streets nor local regulations until the incorporation of the East Boston Company; public officers first set foot upon the island in 1833. There was then but one house in the whole of that now populous ward, comprising six hundred and sixty acres. South Boston, when annexed, had only ten families on an area of five hundred and seventy acres, and but nineteen voters. There being at this time no bridge, the inhabitants were obliged to come to Boston via the Neck. The building of a bridge was the condition of annexation. South Boston was taken from the territory of Dorchester. Roxbury, itself a city, brought a large accession to Boston, to which it had long been joined in fact. Dorchester, settled a few months earlier than Boston, has become a ward of the metropolis. These two towns brought an increase to the population of about forty thousand, and a territory of nearly seven thousand acres.

Communication between Boston and the surrounding towns was at first wholly by the Neck. The people of Chelsea thus had a circuit of at least a dozen miles, and a day's journey before them, to go to town and return. There was a ferry established at Charlestown and Winnisimmet (Chelsea) as early as 1635, — five years after the settlement of Boston. "We find by the records that Thomas Marshall " was chosen by generall consent for ye keeping of a Terry from ye Mylne Point vnto Charlestown and Wynneseemitt, for a single p'son sixpence, and for two, sixpence; and for every one above ye number of two, two pence apiece." Ships' boats were first used, then scows, and this continued to be the only means of transit until 1786. Tour years previous to this the Marquis Chastellux states that he was one hour making the voyage from Winnisimmet in a scow filled with cattle, sheep, etc. Seven tacks were required to bring them safely to land.

A bridge to Cambridge was agitated as long ago as 1739. The obstruction to the passage of ferryboats by ice was a serious inconvenience. Charles River Bridge, from the Old Ferry landing to Charlestown, was the first constructed. The first pier was laid on the 14th June, 1785, and the bridge thrown open for travel in little more than a year. This was considered at the time the greatest enterprise ever undertaken in America, and its successful completion was celebrated by a public procession, consisting of both branches of the Legislature, the proprietors and artisans of the bridge, military and civic societies. Salutes were fired from the Castle, Copp's and Breed's Hill. This was only eleven years after the battle of Bunker Hill. Thomas Russell was first president of the corporation.

West Boston Bridge, to Cambridge, was opened in November 1793. Dover Street, or Boston South Bridge, was next opened in the summer of 1805. Cragie's, or, as it used to be called, Canal Bridge, from the Middlesex Canal, was next completed in August 1809, from what was then known as Barton's Point, on the Boston side, to Lechmere's Point in Cambridge. By a bridge thrown across from Lechmere's Point to Charlestown, the long detour around Charlestown Neck was avoided. The Western Avenue, or Mill Dam, as it was long called, was opened with great ceremony July 1821. The South Boston Bridge, from what was respectively Windmill and Wheeler's Point, at the foot of Federal Street, to South Boston, was completed in 1828, and shortened the journey into Boston, by way of the Neck, about a mile. Warren Bridge met with great opposition from the proprietors of Charles River Bridge, but was opened as a public highway December 1828. This completes the list of the older avenues of travel to the mainland; but we have now a magnificent iron structure to South Boston, recently erected, while the numerous railway bridges spanning the river enable the city to stretch its Briareus-like arms in every direction for traffic.

Coaches are first mentioned as being in use in Boston in 1668-69. Captain Anthony Howard appears to have owned one in 1687, for he was fined twenty shillings that year "for setting a coach-house two feet into ye streete at ye N. End of ye Towne." In 1798 there were 98 chaises and 47 coaches, chariots, phaetons, &c. in all Boston. In October 1631, Governor Winthrop went on foot to Lynn and Salem, and until there were roads it is obvious there was little use for wheeled vehicles, even for such as could afford them. In 1750 there were only a few carriages, and these, chariots and coaches. Four-wheeled chaises were in use in families of distinction. The first public coach or hack used in Boston was set up in 1712 by Jonathan Wardell, at the sign of the Orange Tree, head of Hanover Street. One was also set up by Adino Paddock, in 1762, who called it the "Burling Coach," from its London prototype. Paddock was a coachmaker by trade; we shall have occasion to notice him in these pages. The next public vehicle was a small post chaise, drawn by a pair of gray horses, and stood at the head of State Street, about 1790. Gentlemen and ladies who attended balls and parties in those times had to walk, unless they could get a cast in a friend's carriage.

Coaches for public conveyance were first established in 1763, when one was put on the route between Boston and Portsmouth, N. H. Bartholemew Stavers was the "undertaker," and his headquarters were at the sign of the Lighthouse, at the North End. The "Portsmouth Flying Stage Coach," as he styled his carriage, carried six inside passengers, each paying thirteen shillings and sixpence sterling, to Portsmouth. The stage and horses were kept at Charlestown, to save the trouble of ferriage, and set out every Friday morning, putting up at the inns along the road. Returning, the stage left Portsmouth every Tuesday morning. Stavers gave notice "that as this was a convenient and genteel way of travelling, and greatly cheaper than hiring carriages or horses, he hoped ladies and gentlemen would encourage the same." A stage was put on the route to Marblehead in 1769, by Edward Wade. His carriage was a post-chaise, suited for ladies and gentlemen, and he himself might be "spoken with at the widow Trefry's in Fish (North) Street."

Railways were early under discussion by the people of Boston, but no decisive steps were taken until 1825. The first road chartered in the State was the Experiment Railroad at Quincy. Next came the Lowell, incorporated in 1830, followed by the "Worcester, Providence, and others. The Lowell was the first opened for public travel, in June 1835, closely followed by the Worcester in July of the same year; the Providence was also opened in 1835, with a single track. The Maine was opened from Wilmington to Andover in 1836; to South Berwick, 1843. The Eastern comes next, in 1838, in which year it was opened to Salem. George Peabody was the first president. The Old Colony began operating in November 1845, the Fitchburg in 1845, and the Hartford and Erie in 1849, under the name of the Norfolk County Road. It is a curious fact, that every one of the eight railway stations in Boston stands on ground reclaimed from the sea.

We have taken the reader through the settlement, physical features, and successive phases of the growth of the Old Town, and now that we are about to commence our rambles together, we warn him to be prepared for changes that will make it difficult and often impossible to fix localities accurately. For fifty years our men of progress have been pulling down the old and building up the new city. Few of its original features are left except, in the North End.

CHAPTER I. KING'S CHAPEL AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

WE choose King's Chapel for our point of departure, as well from its central position as from the fact that its vicinage is probably the oldest ground built upon in Boston, Blackstone's lot alone excepted.

The exterior of King's Chapel does not present any remarkable architectural features. It has an air of solidity and massiveness that seems to bespeak the intention of its builders that it should remain where it was placed. This purpose is likely to be set at naught by the proposed removal of the Chapel northwardly, to widen School Street. So improbable an idea never entered the heads of the founders; but we make nothing nowadays of taking up blocks of brick or stone bodily and moving them whither we list.

King's Chapel is the fifth in the order of Boston churches. The architect was Peter Harrison, of Newport, E. L, and the plan embraced a steeple, which Mr. Harrison thought essential to his general design, and would have a " beautiful effect." For want of funds, however, the steeple was never built. Governor Shirley laid the cornerstone on the 11th of August 1749, and after giving the workmen £ 20 (old tenor) to drink his health, went into the old church, which was still standing, where a service appropriate to the occasion was held by Rev. Mr. Caner, the rector.

Mr. Harrison bad been requested to present drawings with both a double and single tier of windows. Two rows were adopted, the lower ones giving that prince of punsters, Mather Byles, an opportunity of saying that he had heard of the canons of the church but had never seen the portholes before.

The stone for the chapel came from Braintree, and was taken from the surface of the ground, no quarries being then opened. The rough appearance of the stone is due to the limited knowledge of the art of dressing it which then prevailed.

Greenwood's little work on King's Chapel gives the following facts. It was first erected of wood in the year 1688, enlarged in 1710, and, being found in the year 1741 in a state of considerable decay, it was proposed to rebuild it of stone. A subscription for this purpose was set on foot, and Peter Faneuil (of Faneuil Hall memory) was chosen treasurer of the building fund. The building was to be of stone and was to cost £ 25,000 (old tenor). It was not to be commenced until £ 10,000 were subscribed.

Among the first subscribers were Governor William Shirley, Sir Charles Henry Frankland, and Peter Faneuil. The Governor gave £100; Sir H. Frankland, £50; Faneuil, £200 sterling. Faneuil died in 1742, and the matter was for some time laid aside, but was revived by Mr. Caner in 1747. A new subscription was drawn up. Governor Shirley increased his gift to £200, and Sir H. Frankland to £150 sterling. For the subscription of Peter Faneuil the society was obliged to sue his brother Benjamin, who was also his executor, and recovered it after a vexatious suit at law.

The new chapel was built so as to enclose the old church, in which services continued to be held, in spite of its ruinous condition, until March 1753, when the society was obliged to remove to Trinity. The congregation having applied for the use of the Old South on Christmas day, a verbal answer was returned granting the request on condition "that the house should not be decorated with spruce," etc.