USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Old landmarks and historic fields of Middlesex > Part 23
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CAMBRIDGE CAMP.
The lines to Old Ironsides, to which allusion has been made, were composed in this old house when the poet was twenty years old. They were written in pencil, and first printed in the " Boston Daily Advertiser." Genuine wrath at the pro- posed breaking up of the old frigate impelled the young poet's burning lines : -
" And one who listened to the tale of shame, Whose heart still answered to that sacred name, Whose eye still followed o'er his country's tides Thy glorious flag, our brave Old Ironsides !
From yon lone attic on a summer's morn, Thus mocked the spoilers with his school-boy scorn."
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CHAPTER XII.
CAMBRIDGE COMMON AND LANDMARKS.
"The country of our fathers ! May its spirit keep it safe and its justice keep it free !"
P URSUING our circuit of the Common, "on hospitable thoughts intent," we ought briefly to pause before the whilom abode of Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse. This house may justly claim to be one of the most ancient now remaining in Cambridge, having about it the marks of great age. The strong family resemblance which the dwellings of the period to which this belongs bear to each other renders a minute description of an individual specimen applicable to the greater number.
Here are still some relies of the " American Jenner," and some that belonged to an even older inhabitant than he. In one apartment is a clock surmounted by the symbolic cow. At the head of the staircase, in an upper hall, is another clock, with an inscription which shows it to have been presented, in 1790, to Dr. Waterhouse, by Peter Oliver, former chief justice of the province. The old timekeeper requests its possessor to wind it on Christmas and on the 4th of July. There is also a crayon portrait of the Doctor's mother, done by Allston when an undergraduate at Harvard. The features of Henry Ware, another inhabitant of the house, look benignly down from a canvas on the wall. Some other articles may have belonged to William Vassall, who owned and occupied the house, probably as a summer residence, before the war. Still another occupant was the Rev. Winwood Serjeant, rector of Christ Church.
Dr. Waterhouse is best remembered through his labors to introduce in this country vaccination, the discovery of Jenner, which encountered as large a share of ridicule and opposition as inoculation had formerly experienced. Several persons are still living who were vaccinated by Dr. Waterhouse.
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At one time the old barracks at Sewall's Point (Brookline) were used as a small-pox hospital. This was in the day of inoculation, when it was the fashion to send to a friend such missives as the following : -
" I wish Lucy was here to have the small-pox. I wish you would persuade her to come here and have it. You can't think how light they have it."
The visitor will find some relics of the siege, at the State Arsenal on Garden Street, in several pieces of artillery mounted on sea-coast carriages and arranged within the enclosure. These guns were left in Boston by Sir William Howe, and, thanks to the care of General Stone, when that gentleman was adjutant- general of the State, were preserved from the sale of a number of similar trophies as old iron. As the disappearance of the arsenal may soon be expected, it is to be hoped that the State of Massachusetts can afford to keep these old war-dogs which bear the crest and cipher of Queen Anne and the Second George. The largest of the cannon is a 32-pounder. All have the broad arrow, but rust and weather have nearly obliterated the inscriptions impressed at the royal foundry. The oldest legible date is 1687. Besides these, are two di- minutive mortars or cohorns. Within one of the houses are two beautiful brass field-pieces, bearing the crown and lilies of France. Each has its name on the muzzle, - one being the Venus and the other Le Faucon, - and on the breech the imprint of the royal arsenal of Strasburg, with the dates respectively of 1760 and 1761. A further search revealed, hidden away in an obscure corner and covered with lumber, a Spanish piece, which, when brought to light by the aid of some workmen, was found literally covered with engraving, beautifully executed, delineating the Spanish Crown and the monogram of Carlos III. It is inscribed, -- " El Uenado. Barcelona J8DE Deceimbre De J767."
Inquiry of the proper officials having failed to enlighten us
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as to the possession of these cannon by the State, we conclude them to be a remnant of the field artillery sent us by France during the Revolution. The Spaniard, when struck with a piece of metal, gave out a beautifully clear, melodious ring, as if it contained an alloy of silver, and brought to our mind those old slumberers on the ramparts of Panama, into whose yet molten mass the common people flung their silver reals, and the old dons their pieces of Eight, while the priest blessed the union with the baser metal and consecrated the whole to victory.
Whitefield's Elm, under which that remarkable man preached in 1744, formerly stood on a line with its illustrious fellow the Washington Elm, and not far from the turn as we pass from the northerly side of the Common into Garden Street. It ob- structed the way, and the axe of the spoiler was laid at its root two years ago.
Dr. Chauncy and Whitefield were not the best friends imaginable. They had mutually written at and preached against each other, and reciprocally soured naturally amiable tempers. The twain accidentally met. " How do you do, Brother Chauncy," says the itinerant laborer. " I am sorry to see you," replies Dr. C. " And so is the devil," retorted Whitefield.
In the early part of his life this gentleman happened to be preaching in the open fields, when a drummer was present, who was determined to interrupt the services, and beat his drum in a violent manner in order to drown the preacher's voice. Mr. Whitefield spoke very loud, but the din of the instrument overpowered his voice. He therefore called out to the drummer in these words : -
" Friend, you and I serve the two greatest masters existing, but in different callings. You may beat up volunteers for King George, I for the Lord Jesus Christ. In God's name, then, don't let us in- terrupt each other ; the world is wide enough for us both, and we may get recruits in abundance."
This speech had such effect that the drummer went away in great good-humor, and left the preacher in full possession of the field.
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THE WASHINGTON ELM.
Many a pilgrim daily wends his way to the spot where Washington placed himself at the head of the army. Above him towers
" A goodly elm, of noble girth, That, thrice the human span - While on their variegated course The constant seasons ran - Through gale, and hail, and fiery bolt, Had stood erect as man."
He surveys its crippled branches, swathed in bandages ; marks the scars, where, after holding aloft for a century their out- stretched arms, limb after limb has fallen nerveless and de- cayed ; he pauses to read the inscription lodged at the base of the august fabric, and departs the place in meditative mood, as he would leave a churchyard or an altar.
Apart from its association with a great event, there is some- thing impressive about this elm. It is a king among trees ; a
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monarch, native to the soil, whose subjects, once scattered abroad upon the plain before us, have all vanished and left it alone in solitary state. The masses of foliage which hide in a measure its mutilated members, droop gracefully athwart the old highway, and still beckon the traveller, as of old, to halt and breathe awhile beneath their shade. It is not pleasant to view the decay of one of these Titans of primeval growth. It is too suggestive of the waning forces of man, and of that
" Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history."
As a shrine of the Revolution, a temple not made with hands, we trust the old elm will long survive, a sacred memorial to generations yet to come. We need such monitors in our public places to arrest our headlong race, and bid us calmly count the cost of the empire we possess. We shall not feel the worse for such introspection, nor could we have a more impressive coun- sellor. The memory of the great is with it and around it ; it is indeed on consecrated ground.
When the camp was here Washington caused a platform to be built among the branches of this tree, where he was accus- tomed to sit and survey with his glass the country round. On the granite tablet we read that
UNDER THIS TREE WASHINGTON FIRST TOOK COMMAND OF THE AMERICAN ARMY, JULY 3D, 1775.
On the spot where the stone church is erected once stood an old gambrel-roofed house, long the habitat of the Moore family. It was a dwelling of two stories, with a single chimney stand- ing in the midst, like a tower, to support the weaker fabric. In front were three of those shapely Lombard poplars, erect and prim, like trees on parade. A flower-garden railed it in from the road ; a porch in front, and another at the northerly end, gave ingress according as the condition of the visitor might warrant.
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The Moores occupied the house in the memorable year '75, and saw from the windows the cavalcade conducting Washing- ton to his quarters, - this being, as before stated, the high-road from Watertown to Cambridge Common. On the following day the family might have witnessed the ceremonial of formal assumption of command by the chief, on whom all eyes were fixed and in whom all hopes were centred.
Deacon Moore - does he at length rest in peace ?- was, while in the flesh, much given to patching and repairing his fences, outbuildings, and the wooden belongings of his domain in general. He bore the character of an upright, downright, conscientious deacon, walking in the odor of sanctity, and was regarded with childish awe by the urchins of the grammar- school whenever he chose to appear abroad. The deacon's house had its inevitable best room, into which heaven's sunshine was never allowed to penetrate, and which was rarely opened except to admit a stranger or hold a funeral service. There are yet such rooms in New England, with their stiff, black hair-cloth furniture, their ghostly pictures, and dank, mouldy odors. The carefully varnished mahogany has a smell of the undertaker ; every sense is oppressed, and the soul pleads for release from the funereal chamber. We repeat, there are still such " best rooms " in New England.
Upon the decease of Deacon Moore it was discovered that some peculations had been made from the treasury of Dr. Holmes's church. These were laid at the door of the departed deacon. Now comes the startling revelation. Night after night the ghost of Deacon Moore revisited his earthly abode, and made night hideous with audible pounding, as if in the act of mending the fence, as was the deacon's wont in life. The affrighted neighbors, suddenly roused from slumber, fearfully drew their curtains aside, and peered forth into the night in quest of the spectre ; but still invisible the wraith pursued its midnight labors.
The Jennisons succeeded the Moores, and at length the shade came no more. Not many years ago the old house was demol- ished. A vault was discovered underneath the kitchen, walled
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up with rough stone, and in this receptacle were two human skeletons.
What tale of horror was here concealed, what deed of blood had caused the disappearance of two human beings from the face of the earth, was never revealed. For an unknown time they had remained sealed up in the manner related, and the later dwellers in the house were totally unconscious of their horrid tenants. A family servant had long slept immediately above these bones, and we marked, even after years had passed away, a strange glitter in his eye as he recalled his couch upon a tomb.
The remains were of adult persons, one a female. What motive had consigned them to this mysterious hiding-place is left to conjecture. Was it domestic vengeance, too deadly for the public ear ? We answer that two individuals could not have been suddenly taken out of the little community without question. Were they some unwary, tired wayfarers who had sought hospitable entertainment, and found graves instead ?
" But Echo never mocked the human tongue ; Some weighty crime that Heaven could not pardon, A secret curse on that old building hung, And its deserted garden."
We have lived to have grave doubts whether, as the old adage says, " Murder will out." Inspect, if you have the stomach for it, our calendar of crime, and mark the array of names which belonged to those whose fate is unknown, and who are there set down like the missing of an army after the battle. The record is startling ; only at the final muster will the victims answer to the fatal list, and speak
" Of graves, perchance, untimely scooped At midnight dark and dank."
In Spain an ancient custom constrains each passer-by to cast a stone upon the heap raised on the scene of wayside murder, until at length a monument arises to warn against assassination. The peasant always pauses to repeat an ave to the souls of the slain. On this spot a church has reared its huge bulk, piling
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stone upon stone until its steeple, overtopping the Old Elm, stands a mightier monument to the manes of the unknown dead.
The events in the life of Washington which have most im- pressed us are, the day when he unsheathed his sword beneath the Old Elm ; the morn of the battle of Trenton ; the address to his despairing, mutinous officers at Newburg ; and the fare- well to his generals at New York. As he was mounting his horse before Trenton, an officer presented him with a despatch. His remark, " What a time to bring me a letter !" is the sequel of his thoughts, - all had been staked on the issue. When he rose from his bed early in the morning of the meeting at New- burg, he told Colonel Humphreys that anxiety had prevented him from sleeping one moment the preceding night. Unwill- ing to trust to his powers of extempore speaking, Washington reduced what he meant to say to writing, and commenced read- ing it without spectacles, which at that time he used only occa- sionally. He found, however, that he could not proceed with- out them. He stopped, took them out, and as he prepared to place them, exclaimed, " I have grown blind as well as gray in the service of my country." In these instances we see the patriot ; in the adieu to his lieutenants, we see the man.
When Washington rode into town after the evacuation of Boston, he was accompanied by Mrs. Washington, who, in accordance with our old-time elegant manners, was styled " Lady " Washington. Upon reaching the Old South, the General wished to enter the building. Shubael Hewes, who at this time kept the keys, lived opposite, and the General there- fore drew up at his door.
With his usual courtesy the General inquired after the health of the family, and was told that Mrs. H. had, the day before, been delivered of a fine child. At this Mrs. Washington in- sisted upon seeing the infant, born on an occasion so auspicious as the repossession of Boston by our troops, and it was accord- ingly brought out to the carriage and placed in her lap.
The General, alighting, went into the meeting-house, and, ascending to the gallery, where he could fully observe the havoc made by Burgoyne's Light Horse, remarked to the per-
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son who accompanied him that he was surprised that the Eng- lish, who so reverenced their own places of worship, should have shown such a vandal disposition here.
Washington died at sixty-seven ; Knox, by an accident, at fifty-six ; Sullivan, at fifty-five ; Gates, at seventy-eight ; Greene, at forty-four ; Heath, at seventy-seven ; Arnold, at sixty ; and Lee, at fifty-one. Putnam lived to be seventy-two, and Stark to be ninety-three, so that it was commonly said of him, that he was first in the field and last out of it.
But other scenes await us, and though we feel that it is good for us to be here, we must reverently bid adieu to the Old Elm. It could perchance tell, were it, like the Dryads of old, loquacious, of the settlers' cabins, when it was a sapling, of the building of the old wooden seminary, and of the multitudes that have passed and repassed under its verdant arch. The smoke from a hundred rebel camp-fires drifted through its branches and wreathed around its royal dome in the day of maturity, while the drum-beat at the waking of the camp frighted the feathered songsters from their leafy retreats and silenced their matin lays. The huzzas that went up when our great leader bared the weapon he at length sheathed with all honor made every leaf tremulous with joy, and every brown and sturdy limb to wave their green banners in triumph on high. We salute thy patriarchal trunk, thy withered branches, and thy scanty tresses, O venerable and yet lordly Elm ! Vale !
It is much more a matter of regret than surprise that we have not in all New England a specimen of antique church architecture worthy of the name. Rigid economy dictated the barn-like structures which were the first Puritan houses of wor- ship. Quaint they certainly were, and not destitute of a cer- tain sombre picturesqueness, with their queer little towers and wonderful weather-vanes ; and even their blackening rafters of prodigious thickness, their long aisles, and carved balustrades, gave modest glimpses of a Rembrandt-like interior. But the beautiful forms of Jones and of Wren were left behind when the Mayflower sailed, and not a single type of Old England's pride of architecture stands on American soil. Simplicity in
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building, in manners, and in dress, as well as in religion, were the base on which our Puritan fathers builded. Had the means not been wanting, it may be doubted whether they would have been applied to the erection of splendid public edi- fices. The motives which enforced the adherence of the first settlers to the gaunt and unæsthetic structures of their time ceased, in a great measure, to exist a hundred years later, but no revival of taste appeared, and even the Episcopalians, with the memories of their glorious Old World temples, fell in with the prevailing lethargy which characterized the reign of ugliness.
Christ Church stands confronting the Common much as it looked in colonial times. The subscription was originally formed in Boston, the subscribers being either resident or en- gaged in business there. The lot included part of the Common and part of the estate of James Reed. The building was at first only sixty-five feet in length by forty-five in width, exclu- sive of chancel and tower, but has been much enlarged, to accommodate an increasing parish, - a work which its original plan, and the material of which it is constructed, rendered easy. Peter Harrison, the architect of King's Chapel in Bos- ton, was also the designer of this edifice, and seems to have followed the same plan as for that now venerable structure. Service was first held here on October 15, 1761, the Rev. East Apthorp, whom we have already visited, officiating. Of Dr. Apthorp's father it is written that he studied to mind his own business, - a circumstance so rare as to wellnigh deserve canonization.
In the alterations which have been called for the primitive appearance of the building has been, in a great measure, pre- served. The exterior is exceedingly simple, but harmonious, the tower, placed in the centre of the front, giving en- trances on three of its sides.' The old bell-tower appeared rather smaller than its successor, and had a pointed roof, sur- mounted, as at present, by a gilded ball. The symbolic cross, which the Puritans hated with superstitious antipathy, did not appear on the pinnacle, out of deference perhaps to the feeling
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which abominated a painted window, a Gothic arch, or chancel rail, as the concomitants of that Episcopacy against which the Cromwellian iconoclasts had waged unrelenting war in every cathedral from Chester to Canterbury.
Upon the Declaration of Independence by the Colonies, all the taverns and shops were despoiled of their kingly emblems. A Boston letter of that date says : -
" In consequence of Independence being declared here, all the signs which had crowns on them even the Mitre and Crown in the organ loft of the chappell were taken down, and Mr. Parker, (who is the Episcopal minister in town) left off praying for the king."
The interior of Christ Church is quiet and tasteful, with
"Storied windows richly dight, Casting a dim religious light."
The Corinthian pillars of solid wood and the original choir are still remaining. And, very like, the stiff, straight-backed pews are a relic of ancient discomfort. The tablets bearing the Ten Commandments are mementos of Old Trinity in Boston when the wooden edifice was taken down, and have by this means survived their mother church, which the great fire of 1872 left a magnificent ruin. A silver flagon and cup, now in use to celebrate the Holy Communion, were presented by Governor Hutchinson in 1772. These vessels were the property of King's Chapel, Boston, which then received a new service in exchange for the old. They are inscribed as
The Gift of K. William and Q Mary To ye Revd Samll. Myles For ye use of Theire Majesties' Chappell in N. England. MDCXCIV.
Dr. Apthorp was succeeded by Rev. Winwood Serjeant, in whose time, the Revolution having converted his wealthy and influential parishioners into refugees and driven him to seek an asylum elsewhere, the church became a barrack, in which Cap- tain Chester's company, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, was quar-
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tered at the time of Bunker Hill, and after them one of the companies of Southern riflemen. It appears also to have been some time occupied as a guard-house by our forces, rivalling in this respect the wanton usage of the Boston churches by the king's troops. But was not Westminster Abbey occupied by soldiery in 1643 ? General Washington, himself a churchman, attended a service here, held at the request of Mrs. Washing- ton, on Sunday, the last day of 1775. The religious rite was performed by Colonel William Palfrey, one of the General's aids. Mrs. Gates and Mrs. Custis were also present. There is a tradition that Washington continued to attend service here, but the General was probably too politic to have adopted a course so little in accord with the views of the army in gen- eral. He attended Dr. Appleton's church at times, and always showed himself possessed of true Christian liberality. On at least one occasion he partook of the Sacrament at the Presby- terian table. His generals were, in this respect, mindful of his example. At the baptism of a son of General Knox, in Boston, Lafayette, a Catholic, and Greene, a Quaker, stood godfathers to the child, Knox himself being a Presbyterian.
From 1775 until 1790 Christ Church remained in the con- dition in which the war had involved it. During that time it had neither parish nor rector, but in the latter year it was re- opened, the Rev. Dr. Parker of Trinity, Boston, officiating for the occasion. A chime of thirteen bells was placed in the belfry in 1860. For many interesting particulars of the history of this church the reader is referred to the historical discourse of Rev. Nicholas Hoppin, the present rector.
The remains of the unfortunate Richard Brown, a lieutenant of the Convention troops, were deposited under this church. We have briefly referred to the shooting of this officer on Prospect Hill, as he was riding out with two women. It gave rise to a paper war between General Phillips and General Heath, in which, every advantage being on the side of the latter, he may be said to have come off victorious. An inquest pronounced the shooting justifiable, but the British officers, exasperated to the highest degree by this melancholy affair,
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affected to believe themselves the objects of indiscriminate slaughter.
It was at the time the church was opened for the interment of Lieutenant Brown, according to the rite of the Church of England, that the damage to the interior took place. Ensign Anbury asserts that the Americans then seized the opportunity "to plunder, ransack, and deface everything they could lay their hands on, destroying the pulpit, reading-desk, and com- munion table, and, ascending the organ-loft, destroyed the bel- lows and broke all the pipes of a very handsome instrument." This organ was made by Snetzler.
The burial-place which lies between the churches has re- ceived from the earliest times of our history the ashes of freeman andslave, Mr squire and rustic. In its Nath repose mingle the dust of college presidents, soldiers of forgotten wars, and ministers of wellnigh for- gotten doctrines. The ear- liest inscription is in 1653, but the interments antecedent to this date were made, in many cases doubtless, without any graven tablet or other stone than some heavy mass selected at hazard, to protect the remains from beasts of prey. In still other instances the lines traced on the stones have been effaced by natural causes, and even the rude monuments themselves have disappeared beneath the mould.
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