USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Topographical and historical description of Boston > Part 10
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
were written; for the first bridge built from the town was Charles River Bridge, which was not opened for travel until the seventeenth of June, 1786; and Cambridge Bridge, usually known as West Boston Bridge, was not passable until the twenty-third of November, 1793. Until this last date, there was no comfortable approach to "the Colleges," as the university was generally called, except through Charlestown over Charlestown Neck, or else over Boston Neck and through Roxbury and Brookline, and finally over Great Bridge, on the pres- ent Brighton road. One relic of this old road remains standing at the corner of Washington and Centre streets in the Highlands-a large stone- which bears on its front the following inscription: "The Parting Stone, 1744. P. Dudley." On its northerly side it directs to "Cambridge" and "Watertown," and on its southerly side to "Dedham" and "Rhode Island." This guide-stone, which is constantly passed without even a notice, has, unquestionably, given information to inquirers, and rest to the weary for a century and a quarter, thanks to good old Judge Paul Dudley of blessed memory, to whom the old town 'of Roxbury was indebted for many good things.
J. P. Brissot de Warville, who was the Deputy of the Department of Paris in the first Legislature, and who suffered by the guillotine on the thirty-first of October, 1793, published a series of letters descriptive of travels in the United States, performed in 1788, containing a letter dated at Boston on the thirtieth of July, 1788, which gives an admirable picture of the social condition of Boston, and which will be well worth the space it takes in these chapters, even although so much has already been said on the subject. All of these French
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
works are deserving the attention of persons interested in the history of the progress of the country, and are mentioned in this connection, for the benefit of the curious reader. This unfortunate man, a true friend of liberty, thus wrote :-
"With what joy, my good friend, did I leap to this shore of liberty! I was weary of the sea; and the sight of trees, of towns, and even of men, gives a delicious re- freshment to eyes fatigued with the desert of the ocean. I flew from despotism, and came at last to enjoy the spectacle of liberty, among a people, where nature, edu- cation and habit had engraved the equality of rights, which everywhere else is treated as a chimera. With what pleasure did I contemplate this town, which first shook off the English yoke! which, for a long time, re- sisted all seductions, all the menaces, all the horrors of a civil war! How I delighted to wander up and down that long street, whose simple houses of wood border the magnificent channel of Boston, and whose full stores offer me all the productions of the continent which I had quitted! How I enjoyed the activity of the merchants, the artizans, and the sailors! It was not the noisy vor- tex of Paris; it was not the unquiet, eager mien of my countrymen; it was the simple, dignified air of men, who are conscious of liberty, and who see in all men their brothers and their equals. Everything in this street bears the marks of a town still in its infancy, but which, even in its infancy, enjoys a great prosperity. I thought myself in that Salentum, of which the lively pencil of Fenelon has left us so charming an image. But the prosperity of this new Salentum was not the work of one man, of a king, or a minister; it is the fruit of lib- erty, that mother of industry. Everything is rapid,
1
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
everything great, everything durable with her. A royal or ministerial prosperity, like a king or a minister, has only the duration of a moment. Boston is just rising from the devastation of war, and its commerce is flour- ishing; its manufactures, productions, arts and sciences offer a number of curious and interesting observa- tions."
The manners of the people are not exactly the same as described by M. de Creve Cœur. The writer speaks correctly. "You no longer meet here that Presbyterian austerity which interdicted all pleasures, even that of walking, which forbade travelling on Sunday, which persecuted men whose opinions were different from their own. The Bostonians unite simplicity of morals with the French politeness and delicacy of manners which render virtue more amiable. They are hospitable to strangers, and obliging to friends; they are tender hus- bands, fond and almost idolatrous parents, and kind mas- ters. Music, which their teachers formerly proscribed as a diabolic art, begins to make part of their education. In some houses you hear the forte-piano. This art, it is true, is still in its infancy; but the young novices who exercise it are so gentle, so complaisant, and so modest, that the proud perfection of art gives no pleasure equal to what they afford. God grant that the Bostonian women may never, like those of France, acquire the malady of perfection in this art! It is never attained, but at the expense of the domestic virtues.
"The young women here enjoy the liberty they do in England, that they did in Geneva when morals were there, and the republic existed; and they do not abuse it. Their frank and tender hearts have nothing to fear from the perfidy of men. Examples of this perfidy are
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
rare; the vows of love are believed; and love always respects them, or shame follows the guilty.
" The Bostonian mothers are reserved; their air is however frank, good and communicative. Entirely devoted to their families, they are occupied in rendering their husbands happy, and in training their children to virtue." IIe speaks of the law which makes the pillory and imprisonment the punishment of certain crimes, and remarks, " This law has scarcely ever been called into execution. It is because families are happy; and they are pure, because they are happy.
" Neatness without luxury, is a characteristic feature of this purity of manners; and this neatness is seen every- where at Boston, in their dress, in their houses, and in their churches. Nothing is more charming than an inside view of a church on Sunday. The good cloth coat covers the man; callicoes and chintzes dress the women and children, without being spoiled by those gewgaws which whim and caprice have added to them among our women. Powder and pomatum never sully the heads of infants and children: I see them with pain, however, on the heads of men: they invoke the art of the hair-dresser; for, unhappily, this art has already crossed the seas.
"I shall never call to mind, without emotion, the pleasure I had one day in hearing the respectable Mr. Clarke, successor to the learned Dr. Chauncey, the friend of mankind. This church is in close union with that of Dr. Cooper, to whom every good Frenchman, and every friend of liberty, owes a tribute of gratitude, for the love he bore the French, and the zeal with which he defended and preached the American independence. I remarked in this auditory the exterior of that ease and contentment
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
of which I have spoken; that collected calmness, result- ing from the habit of gravity, and the conscious presence of the Almighty; that religious decency, which is equally distant from grovelling idolatry, and from the light and wanton airs of those Europeans who go to a church as to a theatre.
'Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsæ.'
" But, to crown my happiness, I saw none of those livid wretches, covered with rags, who in Europe, soliciting our compassion at the foot of the altar, seem to bear testimony against Providence, our humanity, and the order of society. The discourse, the prayer, the wor- ship, every thing, bore the same simplicity. The sermon breathed the best morality, and it was heard with atten- tion." He continues, " All the sects admit nothing but morality, which is the same in all, and the only preaching proper for a great society of brothers. This tolerance is unlimited at Boston; a town formerly witness of bloody persecutions, especially against the Quakers; where many of this sect paid, with their life, for their per- severance in their religious opinions. Just Heaven! how is it possible there can exist men believing sincerely in God, and yet barbarous enough to inflict death on a woman, the intrepid Dyer, because she thee'd and thou'd men, because she did not believe in the divine mission of priests, because she would follow the Gospel literally?
"But let us draw the curtain over these scenes of horror; they will never again sully this new continent, destined by Heaven to be the asylum of liberty and humanity. Every one worships God in his own way, at Boston. Anabaptists, Methodists, Quakers, and Catho- lics, profess openly their opinions, and all offices of gov-
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
ernment, places, and emoluments, are equally open to all sects. Virtue and talents, and not religious opinions, are the tests of public confidence.
" Since the ancient puritan austerity has disappeared, you are no longer surprised to see a game of cards introduced among these good Presbyterians. When the mind is tranquil in the enjoyment of competence and peace, it is natural to occupy it in this way, especially in a country where there is no theatre, when men make it not a business to pay court to the women, where they read few books, and cultivate less the sciences. This taste for cards is certainly unhappy in a republican state. Happily it is not very considerable in Boston.
"There is no coffee-house at Boston, New York or Philadelphia. One house in each town, that they call by that name, serves as an Exchange. One of the principal pleasures of the inhabitants of these towns, consists in little parties for the country among families and friends. In this, as in their whole manner of living, the Ameri- cans resemble the English. Punch, warm and cold, before dinner; excellent beef and Spanish and Bordeaux wines, cover their tables, always solidly and abundantly served. Spruce beer, excellent cyder, and Philadelphia porter precede the wines. I have often found the Ameri- can cheese equal to the best Cheshire of England, or the Rocfort of France."
This writer tells us, that "The rum distilleries are on ' the decline since the suppression of the slave trade, in which their liquor was employed, and since the diminu- tion of the use of strong spirits by the country people. This is fortunate for the human race; and the American industry will soon repair the small loss it sustains from the decline of this fabrication of poisons." After giving
.
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
a very truthful account of the neighboring college, he remarks, "In a free country every thing ought to bear the stamp of patriotism. This patriotism, so happily displayed in the foundation, endowment, and encourage- ment of this university, appears every year in a solemn feast celebrated at Cambridge in honor of the sciences. This feast, which takes place once a year in all the col- leges of America, is called the commencement : it resem- bles the exercise and distribution of prizes in our colleges. It is a day of joy for Boston; almost all its inhabitants assemble in Cambridge. The most distin- guished of the students display their talents in the presence of the public; and these exercises, which are generally on patriotic subjects, are terminated by a feast, where reign the freest gaiety, and the most cordial fra- ternity."
One more extract, and we will leave this writer. "Let us not," he says, "blame the Bostonians; they think of the useful, before procuring to themselves the agreeable. They have no brilliant monuments; but they have neat and commodious churches, but they have good houses, but they have superb bridges [Charles River, Malden and Essex Bridges had then been recently built], and excellent ships. Their streets are well illuminated at night; while many ancient cities of Europe, containing proud monuments of art, have never yet thought of pre- venting the fatal effects of nocturnal darkness."
It is with much reluctance that we leave this charm- ing author, who, throughout his whole journal, gives the most admirable descriptions in the purest spirit of that liberty to which he so soon fell a martyr upon his return to France; but the object for which these author- ities were cited has been accomplished, that of giving
12
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
*** 4
a glance at the old town, and its social condition, as seen by strangers who were also cotemporaneous with their own accounts. It now remains to proceed with the contemplated object of these chapters.
TheTOWN of BOSTON
I have, exaustor this flaw und fine copy of the original Borton July 2 1835-
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EXPLANATION.
Planted An. Dom.1630 ; a. Tonon Houfe
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1
1
CHAPTER VI.
MAPS AND PLANS OF BOSTON.
Bonner's Map, 1722, 1733, 1743, 1769 . . . Burgiss's Map, 1728 . . . German Map, 1758 and 1764 . .. London Magazine Map, 1774 . . . Romans's Map, 1774 . . . Gentleman's Magazine Map, 1775 . . . Almon's Map, 1775 . . . Bunker Hill Map, 1775 . . . Pelham's Map, 1777 . .. Page's Map, 1777 . . . Gazetteer Map, 1784 . . . Norman's Map, 1789 . . . Carleton's Map, 1795 . . . Carleton's Large Map, 1800 ... Directory Map, 1809 - 1829 . . . Hales's Map, 1814 ... Annin and Smith's Map, 1824-1861 . . . Bowen's Map, 1824 . . . Morse's Map, 1828-1839 . . . Be- wick Company's Map, 1835 . . . Annin's Small Map, 1835 . . . Morse & Tuttle's Map, 1838 - 1840 . . . English Map, 1842 . . . McIntyre's Map, 1852 . . . Dripps's Map, 1852 . . . Colton's Map, 1855 . . . Mitchell's Map, 1860 . .. Walling's Map, 1861 . . . City Engineer's Map, 1861-1867 . .. City Engineer's Annexation Map, 1867 . . . City Engineer's New Map. 1868, 1869 . . . Insurance Maps, 1868 ... Charts of the Harbor ... William Gordon's Revolutionary Map, 1788 .. . Maps of Boston and vicinity . .. Maps of Roxbury and Dorchester.
BEFORE entering particularly upon the intended sub- ject of these chapters, it will not be inappropriate to give a brief account of some of the most important printed maps of Boston, almost all of which are accessible to per- sons who have sufficient interest in the topography of the place to search for them. Although outline maps of the coast of New England were very early made and published, no printed map of the peninsula, giving streets, sites of buildings and other landmarks, can be found prior to the one so well known as "Bonner's Plan," which was not drawn until some time after the commence- ment of the eighteenth century, and about ninety years after the settlement of the town. Many manuscript
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
plans of small localities of much older date have been preserved, and occasionally have proved of much value. The following list of printed maps, prepared with great care, after much investigation, comprises such as have come to the writer's knowledge and observation, and is believed to comprehend all of any considerable impor- tance:
Bonner's Map: Drawn by Captain John Bonner, and engraved and printed by Francis Dewing; first is- sued by Captain John Bonner and William Price in 1722, and afterwards published by Price with additions and emendations, in 1733, 1743, and 1769, and possibly in other years, as the date of the map was sometimes put upon it with writing-ink. The size of the plate is about 2 feet by 17 1-2 inches. An original impression from the plate of 1722 is preserved in the archives of the Mas- sachusetts Historical Society ; and a copy of it was made in 1835 by Stephen P. Fuller, and engraved and pub- lished by George G. Smith. The same map was reduced somewhat more than one-half about the time of its first publication, by Captain Cyprian Southack, a noted maker of charts about 1715-1725, and published in Lon- don about 1733, by I. Mount, T. Page, and W. Mount (size, 11 1-2 by 7 inches). Abel Bowen also reduced it to a smaller scale (6 1-4 by 4 inches) in 1825, for Snow's History of Boston; and George W. Boynton engraved it again, in 1852, on a plate measuring 10 by 6 inches, for the Boston Almanac. This last mentioned plate has been largely used by compilers and publishers.
Burgiss's Map: Engraved by Thomas Johnson in Boston, and dedicated to Governor William Burnett in 1728 by William Burgiss. Size, 14 1-2 by 11 inches, being on a scale of one-half that of Bonner's, of which
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
it is evidently a corrected and improved copy. Among the important changes are the extension of the Neck portion of the map, so as to include the South Windmill, the location of the Pond near the Great Tree, and the correction of the spelling of names. It has upon it the first division of the town into wards or companies de- noted by dotted lines. The Garden near the foot of Beacon Street is designated as " Banister's Gardens." The copy which has been preserved is in the possession of the family of the late Dr. Warren; and, although it has no date printed upon it, nevertheless bears positive evidence that it was executed in 1728, -the only year that Governor Burnett was actively the governor of Massachusetts, and nothing bearing date later than 1723 being delineated on it. This ancient map has been very accurately reproduced for this work.
German Map: This small map, 9 by 6 1-2 inches, including a small portion of Boston Harbor, was pub- lished by Arkstee and Merkus in 1758, at Leipsic, with a collection of voyages. The same map was published in Paris in 1764 by Jacq. Nic. Bellin, engineer; engraved by Arrivet. These were evidently copies of an early English map.
London Magazine Map: In the London Magazine for April, 1774, is published, engraved by J. Lodge, " A Chart of the Coast of New England, from Bev- erly to Scituate Harbor, including the Ports of Bos- ton and Salem," the plate measuring 10 by 7 1-2 inches. A neatly engraved "Plan of the Town of Boston" occupies one corner of the plate, and measures 5 inches from the Fortification on the Neck to Winnisimmet Fer- ry-ways, and about 31-2 inches in the extreme breadth of the town. Although the streets are laid out on this
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
map as they were at the time of making the plan, yet a very few names of the topographical points of interest only are noted on the plate. On the twenty-ninth of November, 1774, Thomas Jefferys, "Geographer to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales," published according to Act "A Map of the most Inhabited part of New England, containing the Provinces of Massachu- sets Bay and New Hampshire, with the Colonies of Conecticut and Rhode Island. Divided into Counties and Townships. The whole composed from actual sur- veys, and its situation adjusted by astronomical obser- vations." This contains in one corner the London Mag- azine Map enlarged (8 1-2 by 5 1-2 inches), and "a plan of Boston Harbor from an accurate survey" (5 3-4 by 5 1-2 inches). It also has upon it an emblematic vignette of the landing of the Plymouth Forefathers in 1620, wherein they are represented as being led on by a female bearing a liberty cap upon a wand, and as being received in a friendly manner by an Indian, who offers them beaver. The same plan was copied for "The American Atlas" by Mr. Thomas Jefferys, Geographer to the King, and printed and sold in London by R. Sayer and J. Bennett, in 1776. Another copy of the same map was made in 1778 from the last described, and published at Paris in " Atlas Ameriquain Septentrional" as "Plan de Boston," the names being in English, and the descriptive notes in French.
Romans's Map: A small engraving, made under B. Romans in 1774, measures 3 1-2 by 2 3-4 inches.
Gentleman's Magazine Map: A map 10 1-2 by 8 inches, designated as " A new and Correct Plan of the Town of Boston," was published, without name of either author or engraver, in the Gentleman's Magazine for
95
DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
October, 1775. This Map includes a portion of "Charles- town in ruins," and purports to have been "drawn upon the spot." It is executed remarkably well, and exhibits streets and topographical positions not on earlier plans of the town. In the January number of the magazine for the same year (1775) is a whole-sheet chart of the harbor of Boston, 14 by 12 inches, including a plan of the town done from an actual survey never before made public, and entitled "A Plan of the Town and Chart of the Harbour of Boston exhibiting a View of the Islands, Castle, Forts, and Entrances into the said Harbour," and bears date Feb. 1, 1775. It includes Chelsea on the north, and Hingham on the south; and is chiefly valu- able for the soundings, which are given with apparent precision.
Almon's Map: Published in the first volume of Almon's Remembrancer, in 1775; size, 10 1-4 by 8 1-4 inches. This is a very rudely drawn map of the envi- rons of Boston, and is very inaccurate in its details. Except that it was drawn in June, 1775, and published in London, Aug. 28, 1775, and that it gives the head- quarters, camps, and lines, together with the principal roads from Boston, it would be of very little value. It takes in a portion of Chelsea on the north, Hog Island on the east, Dorchester on the south, and Cam- bridge Colleges on the west.
Bunker-hill Map: A plan, by an officer present at the battle of Bunker Hill, contains a map of Boston and Charlestown, measuring 14 inches square; published in London by R. Sayer and J. Bennett, 27th November, 1775.
Pelham's Map: Done in aquatinta by Francis Jukes, from surveys made by Henry Pelham, half-brother of
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
Copley, the artist, and published in London, June 2, 1777. It contains also some of the environs, with the military works in 1775 and 1776. Size, 42 1-2 by 28 1-2 inches. Sometimes known as Urquahart's map.
Page's Map: Printed in London for William Faden, in 1777, from a drawing made by Lieutenant Page, of the English Corps of Engineers, in 1775. This map shows the military intrenchments of the town, and gives names to several streets and passage-ways, differing from Bonner's. Size 18 by 12 inches. Republished in 1849 in Frothingham's Siege of Boston.
Gazetteer Map: Engraved in 1784 for the contem- plated "Gazetteer of the Towns of Massachusetts," and published in the October number of the Boston Maga- zine for that year. It measures 9 by 6 1-4 inches, and is a very creditable performance. It is styled "A New and Accurate Plan of the Town of Boston in New England," and, like the London Magazine map, and Jefferys's map, gives to the Great Elm on the Common the name of "Liberty Tree." This map was re-engraved, in 1849, for an edition of the narrative of the Boston Massacre; and is interesting in some particulars which are not on other plans of the town.
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