USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Truro > Truro-Cape Cod; or, Land marks and sea marks > Part 28
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Fashions that are now called new, Have been worn by more than you; Elder times have used the same, Though these new ones get the name.
A silk gown was more prized than a paid-up life-insurance policy of to-day. For the silk dress was for life, with no danger of failing. A string of gold beads, or necklace, was the crowning glory and ambition of the young woman's toilet. They were heir-looms from generation to generation. Many such still survive. The more common dress of the women was loose gown and petticoat. In this graceful and health- ful costume, our mothers and sisters baked and brewed, washed and ironed, carded and spun, warped and filled, wove and quilted, laughed and sung, and rocked the cradle. They touched the spinning-wheel and distaff with deft fingers. From the whirring wheels and shining spindle flew warp and woof fine as gossamer and firm as threads of steel. A letter is published in the Massachusetts Gasateer, March 3, 1768, written at Barnstable, which says: "A few days since a number of Barnstable ladies paid me a visit, dressed all in homespun, even to their handkerchiefs and gloves, and not so much as a ribbon on their heads. They were entertained with Labrador tea; all were cheerful and merry. Toward
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THEY TOUCHED THE SPINNING-WHEEL AND DISTAFF.
night we had the company of some of the chief gentlemen of the town, who all drank Labrador tea." This was in the days when the bancful English teas was a question of loyalty. Labrador tea - ( Ledum latifolium ) -- a small plant that
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grows in or near swampy places, said to be a passable substi- tute for genuine tea.
The pride of these housekeepers culminated in their beds and bedding. Fine wool blankets, coverlets of elaborate designs, beautifully wrought, quilts in Grecian, mosaic and other artistic patterns ; linen sheets bleached white as snow. all home-made, and a live-geese feather bed, were the ex- pectancies for the trousseau of every fair-to-do young woman. Since the days of Lora Standish, fine needlework has been an accomplishment of the Old Colony daughters. The needle was a talisman, which if it did not always point to the North Star, drew many a star in its epicyele.
Tent-work, raised-work, laid-work, prest-work, net-work, Most curious pearl, or rare Italian cut-work. Fine fern-stitch, finny-stitch, new-stitch and chain-stitch, Brave bed-stitch, fisher-stitch, Irish-stitch and queen-stitch, The Spanish-stitch, rosemary-stitch and maw-stitch, The smarting whip-stitch, back-stitch and the cross-stitch, All these are good, and these we must allow; And these are everywhere in practice now .- Taylor the Water Poet.
Lora Standish's sampier is among the curiosities of Pil- grim Hall, with this gentle prayer wrought with her own hands : -
Lora Standish is my name, Lord, guide my heart that I may do thy will ; Also fill my hands with such convenient skill As will conduce to virtue void of shame, And I will give the glory to thy name.
Live-geese feather-beds were an object of considerable emu- lation, and moved the social barometer much as would now a solid silver service. The frequent visits of the fishermen to Belle Isle and Labrador (pronounced by the fishermen Lar- badore) afforded excellent opportunity to secure the genuine article. The sack that left home filled with straw, returned with the downy store, for bed and pillows, the latter called pillow bears, and apostrophized by the old people as pille'bers. Fifty years ago or less, high beds were as fashionable as now the other extreme. The boys used to joke about rigging a
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jury-mast and rattle down the shrouds to climb into bed. The first houses were usually built two story in front, with long slanting roofs reaching within a few feet of the ground in the rear. Later, the rule was one low story still lower in the rear, with two liberal-sized front rooms, an immense kitchen, with two bedrooms and a buttery, or pantry, on the lower floor, and a " square chamber " up-stairs. The construction and gen- eral arrangement were substantially the same as in the now so well-known, " old-fashioned double house," which Thoreau · describes as looking so fast anchored to the soil, and which, considering the cost and adaptation to the then style of living, the comfort for winter and summer, was a success, and could not be much bettered to-day. The cut on this page, which was intended for a larger size, is perhaps as good a specimen of the old- fashioned double house as can be found in Truro. It was built a hundred years ago by my grandfather, Joshua Rich, and has had no changes or modern innovations for fifty OLD-FASHIONED DOUBLE HOUSE. years. It is now owned and occupied by Leonard P. Rich, and is the easternmost house in Longnook Hollow.
All the houses fronted the south and told twelve o'clock meridian with the accuracy of a chronometer. Every window was a sun dial, and often the only time-keeper. The front of the house was always sunny, and sometime during the day the long kitchen was sure to catch the broad suubeams. The two front rooms were usually known as the "east room," where the family lived with the sunshine, say from November till April or May ; and the west room, known as the "great room," which was for guests and especial 'occasions. The spacious kitchens, always fresh and cool, were open to all work in summer, and used for storage and common work in winter.
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How altogether homelike and hospitable were these roomy, unrestricted old kitchens ; whitewashed, floor-sanded and wide fireplaced. What a sense of long-day comfort floated in the air. How a cool current drifting through the open north windows, invited a siesta on the old settle or red chest.
For many years, the houses as a rule, were innocent of paint or paper, and some of plastering, particularly the kitchen, though kept light and clean with frequent white- washing. The open beams, girders and walls were festooned with flowering herbs, stock-bearing seeds, and various home products for ornament and use, varying with the season. From the roots, herbs, berries, wild flowers, and a little New England rum, the mothers could prepare remedies to cure all the ills of body and soul.
O weary lady Geraldine, I pray you drink this cordial wine, It is a wine of virtuous powers ; My mother made it of wild flowers.
Old Gervase Markham, in his book called the English Housewife, containing "The inward and outward virtues which ought to be in a complete woman," places her skill principally in medicine. Tusser, an English botanist in the time of the Tudors, enumerates one hundred and sixty-six herbs and plants for the kitchen, for windows and pots, and for physic, which he inculcates in rhyme, beginning -
Good housewives provide ere an sickness do come, Of sundry good things in her house to have some.
Unquestionably there was virtue in many of these things, but there was evidently no little superstition, which, however, was more harmless and less expensive than the doctor.
The fire with well-dried logs supplied, Went roaring up the chimney wide.
The fireplaces were the old cord-wood pattern ; wide as that into which Froissart's knight threw the donkey with his load of fagots. Additional room was also required for one and
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sometimes two brick ovens. The fireplace equipments were an iron back, sometimes plain, sometimes corrugated, cor- nuted or crenulated ; or- namented with mediæval dragons, centaurs or apos- tolic scenes ; a long crane with graduated hooks and trammels ; huge strad- dling andirons, called in the West dogs; in one corner a form, in the other a dye-pot, well covered by the boys in cold weather ; the smoking kial on its favorite peg, with shovel (slice) and tongs right THE OLD FIREPLACE. and left, by machicolated fender made complete. The last not generally in use.
Every householder was understood to be a carpenter, cabinet-maker and upholsterer - a jack-of-all-trades according to necessity. The furniture was simple and inexpensive. The oak-framed, well-flagged chairs ranged round the room testified to his or the neighbors' handiwork. Perhaps here and there an old English arm-chair or table could be found. Clocks there were none. From its perch on the high mantel- tree, an hour-glass.did service ; occasionally an ancient bull's- eye hanging high over the bellows, beat time like a steam sledge-hammer. A row of polished iron and brass candlesticks, with tray and snuffers, were also on the mantel. Addison says, -- "The eye of the mistress made the pewter shine."
Pewter or block-tin ware, was largely in use. The cup- board or buttery shelves glittered with rows of platters, plates, pans, pitchers porringers and punch-bowl, which were the pride of every good housekeeper. Porringers were in com- mon use for drinking porridge, till tea and coffee banished them by introducing cups and saucers. A collection of the various styles and devices of pewter ware would be worth securing. Swift wrote : ---
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The porringers that in a row, Hang high and make a glittering show.
One hundred years ago few had carpets, and those only in front of the chairs. The floors were scrubbed white as snow, and sanded with white sand in puddles. Some of the best disciplined families kept the puddles intact from Monday to Monday, thus early training the boys to steer through the Dardanelles. In the last century, William Baker rendered a bill against the State of Massachusetts for scrubbing and sanding the Council Chamber, which was promptly paid. Those patterns of neatness, the Amsterdam housewives, carried this virtue to great excess. The Pilgrim mothers, of which little is said, while living in the Lowlands, quite likely borrowed the customs from the Dutch dames.
Settles were a standard piece of furniture. They were made of oak or pine, four or five feet long, with backs higher than the heads of the boys, to break the wind and cold while the ruddy blaze kept all warm in front. Or else -
Where glowing embers through the room Teach light to counterfeit a gloom.
Bean-porridge was among the good healthful regulation diets. Hence : -
Bean-porridge hot and bean-porridge cold.
Some of the skippers were charged with ordering the bean- soup thinner than the law allowed. One day when dinner was announced, the bean-soup placed upon the table and the skipper had taken his place at the head according to custom, a funny little Frenchman began to peel off his jacket. "What in creation are you going to do?" said the skipper. "To pull off my jacket and tive for pean, by Cot!" said the French- man. Thereafter they had no occasion to complain of their bean-soup on that voyage.
The family punch-bowl was seen oftener than the family coat of arms. Charles Chatterbox boasted that he had read of
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a man who swallowed a punch-bowl that held a gallon. That was about the standard size on the Cape. In the old-fashioned Cornish town of St. Colomb, mine host Polkinhorn of the " Red Lion," will be happy to show the huge silver punch- bowl presented to the elder Polkinhorn, for throwing the Devon champion at Tamar Green in 1826, after a three hours' tussle. It was said of the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who settled in Londonderry, " that they never gave up a pint of doc- trine or a pint of rum," and of the settlers of Amoskeag Fall : -
Their only wish and only prayer,
For the present world, and the world to come, Was a string of eels and a jug of rum.
The punch-bowl was in full favor till 1800. In common acceptation, everybody drank the famous punch and flip. At trainings, town-meetings, installations and funerals, it was sanctioned by general usage.
At a town meeting held by adjournment April 12, 1744, it was agreed and voted that the grass growing on the common meadows this year, should be sold at vendue at the highest bidder, and Elisha Snow bid ten dollars and it was struck off to him, and proprietors agreed and voted that the ten dollars shall be spent for liquor, and accordingly it was so spent.
Attest. ANTHONY SNOW. Proprietor's Clerk.
A barrel of wine was drunk at the funeral of a Boston minister. Old records groan with the abuses of this deplora- ble practice. The towns were saddled with bills for rum and cider at the funerals of paupers. The great temperance reform of 1826, that swept like wildfire, came none too soon. The punch-bowl was swept as effectually out of sight on the Cape as were Pharaoh's chariot wheels in the Red Sea. It is recorded in the Probate Office in Boston, that in 1678, at the funeral of Mrs. Mary Norton, widow of the celebrated John Norton, minister of the First Church, fifty-one and a half gallons of the best Malaga wine were consumed by the mourners. Where is the churl that says the old times were better than the new? In early times trenchers were used instead of plates. Among the effects of one family, were one dozen trenchers. The round were regarded the most fashiona-
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ble and most likely to nourish sinful tastes. A good Con- necticut deacon was charged with pride and worldly minded- ness because he used round trenchers in his family. When he explained that he turned them with his lathe, and did not mean to indulge in sinful tastes, the charge was withdrawn. Knives and forks were not much used in Europe till after 1600. They were generally used by the colonists, though it was no breach of good manners to eat with the fingers. Solo- mon said, " Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him." Our grandmothers used to bray samp in huge mortars with pestle to match. No little rivalry was sometimes manifest among the smart housewives for the early golden samp. Some of the old mortars and pestles are yet stored in side-chambers and out-houses. Occasionally I pay my compliments to one that has seen little of the world for fifty years.
The spider, or skillet, and the Dutch oven, should not be omitted from the list of kitchen furnishings. They were indispensable agents of happiness and civilization. Though not intended, I am not sure this remark does not contain a philosophical truth. To the spider we are indebted for the famous " spider cakes," that for tender, wholesome, and well- cooked bread of wheat, corn or rye-flour, that to this day cannot well be surpassed. The principal qualifications in this formula was " faculty." It is surprising how largely that sim- ple quantity permeated comfortable homes, and how large a factor it became in the social problem. Should I go further and venture an opinion, from a quite broad field of observation it would be that the one needed accomplishment in settling the domestic question of the day, is faculty. The favorite and never-failing item in the Cape bill of fare is pies. The Old Colony wives were well -
-versed in the arts Of pies, puddings and tarts,
proving most conclusively their relations with the counties of old Devon and Cornwall. A late writer states " that not one in a hundred of the population of the world have enough to eat."
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I should not hesitate to say that not one in a hundred of the Cape populations that did not have enough to eat. The tables were plain, but the people well fed. In old times the children did not always sit at the table with their parents, but were con- tent at a side table with good bean-porridge and brown bread, and sharp appetites, without which Dives' sumptuous fare was a mockery. Healthier and sweeter bread was never eaten than the substantial loaf made of native corn and rye and baked in the brick ovens. Saturdays' baking in some of the full- sized families, as the loaves ranged along the pantry shelf, resembled the ranges of Rocky Mountains in the school atlas. Sunday dinner was general for all, and not served till after both meetings were over. After long walks, long prayers, and two long sermons, they were fully prepared for the full courses. A boiled dinner with abundance of such vegetables as only grow on the Cape, was the substantial feature of a Sunday dinner ; a pyramid of Indian pudding was the dessert, and ended the eating for the Sabbath-day.
Pork and beans that have become nationalized, like many other Yankee institutions, were especially a Saturday night and Sunday morning dish. A modern market was not known in the country round. Twice a year the standard staple groceries were laid in, and husbanded like gold. Stores were few and money not plenty. It was the custom to lay in a supply of well-cured codfish twice a year. During the fall, winter and spring abundance of fresh fish, including eels - Cape Cod eels, scarcely surpassed in delicacy by any fish that swim -could generally be had for the labor of catching. Shell fish, clams on the flats, the great clam on the bars, quahaugs, in some places oysters, could be had the year through. In the spring came calves, in the season, lambs, fat hogs, occa- sionally a steer, or older beef, which with chickens and game for Thanksgiving and other occasions, made up the table sub- stantials. Flour bread was regarded a luxury, but a good corn-crib and rye-bin laughed at famine, while plenty of vege- tables and generally an orchard were important connections. A cow or two, a flock of sheep, and poultry, and the provident wives' stock of dried and preserved stores were the year-round
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dependencies in most all well-settled families. Whenever a calf, or pig, or steer was killed, all the neighbors received a piece ; as this was reciprocated, though meant and appreciated as a real kindness, it was really good policy. The poor widow, or some unfortunate family that could reciprocate in thanks only, were the real beneficiaries. Herbert Spencer says, | " Barter began by making a present and receiving one in return, and even now in the East, there continue traces of this primitive transaction."
Pumpkin was in great repute among the English settlers. The Pilgrims used to say :-
We have pumpkins at morning, and pumpkins at noon, If it was not for pumpkin, we should be undone.
They were cultivated largely by the Indians, and entered considerably into their support. Cape Cod is a paradise for pumpkins, and the " Pumpkin Pie " is fit for the gods.
I've tried the best In East and West. I've lunched 'neath tropic sun ; I've tested all The fruits that fall, And like them every one. But North or South, No human mouth, I will the world apprisc, Ve'er tasted food One-half so good .As our own pumpkin pies.
The early settlers devoted much attention to planting orchards. Every house was located with this especial refer- ence. Owing to the virgin soil, the protection by the orig- inal forests, or some other reason, the fruit-trees of the first hundred years and more, grew large, and yielded freely of fine, fair fruit. Great varieties of apples were cultivated. A favorite was the High-top Sweeting, the most delicious of summer apples, and in some particulars peculiar to the Cape. When fully ripe they were richly fragrant, and yellow as the
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apples of Hesperides. Unless I mistake, these lines will be read by more than one in the sere and yellow leaf, who will stop to dream of the tall trees, the pride of the old orchard, and of the fair, fragrant, dewy fruit lying every morning on the grass or among the corn. In the hurricane of 1804, many of these trees were destroyed. About fifty years ago, a Truro fisherman returning from the banks, just before sighting the Cape, discovered considerable quantities of apples on the water, which were eagerly secured, and regarded a precious bit of good luck. In fishermen's phrase, a god- send. These were the famous Summer Sweeting, fair and fresh as if just from the trees. Moreover, the boys declared that they came from their own orchards in Longnook, a famous place for these apples ; that Cape Cod must be sunk, and the fruit washed from the trees, or how could they be found floating upon the ocean ?
The Cape, however, was duly found, and their old homes and favorite Summer Sweeting. But there had been a severe easterly storm, and the highest tide ever known in the sum- mer on the Cape ; it had washed down some of the sand dikes and flooded the orchards, and, owing to the heavy wind, the apples were thick on the ground; had been carried out to sea, and the ocean currents had borne them to the hungry boys who knew the apples from their own orchards.
Some of the trees grew to prodigious size. A pear-tree known to be growing when the town was settled, is still flour- ishing in the old orchard of the late Hincks Gross. It is in a deep valley, protected by the surrounding hills, its roots strik- ing deep into living water springs. In 1812, as it had not borne fruit for some years, it was proposed to cut it down. Better council, however, prevailed. In gratitude for its pres- ervation, for more than sixty years it has never failed a boun- tiful yield. The tree is tall and symmetrical, giving no sign of decay, and when in full blossom is a mountain of beauty. Concerning this tree, there is a tradition that one of the May- flower party brought it from England, promising to plant it in the New World the first opportunity. That during the second visit to Truro, on the journey up the river in pursuit of fresh
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water springs, perceiving a favorable spot, they fulfilled their promise. In favor of this story it may be said that the tree is but a short distance from the river banks, and the path of the company must have been a few rods only from the place. The property is now in possession of Dr. O. R. Gross of New York. Whatever may be the cause, the few High top Sweet- ings, lone and dismantled, left here and there from once goodly orchards, will soon pass away. No other High-tops will take their place. All the apple-trees planted during the pres- ent century grow low, with wide-branching limbs. I have often seen trees cultivated as curi- osities, not half as fine specimens as these grown curious by hab- itat. Trees not higher than a man's head will often throw out lateral branches twenty feet THE HINCKS GROSS PEAR-TREF, ISS2. or more, and yield freely. It is not uncommon for the fruit growing on the uphill side, to rest on the ground. Quince and pears are now cultivated on all sheltered places with grat- ifying success. The old theory that fruit-trees could not be made to grow within a mile of the ocean is an old myth.
December 22, 1769, the Old Colony Club, still green and vigorous, was formed to resist the growing oppression of the Crown. On this day, the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims, known as Forefathers' Day, was celebrated for the first time. The Club consisted of seven original members.
As a specimen of Old Colony living, we present the bill of fare at that feast :
1. A large baked Indian huckleberry pudding.
2. A dish of succotash ( corn and beans ), Indian dish.
3. A dish of clams.
4. A dish of oysters and a dish of codfish.
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5. A haunch of venison, roasted by the first jack brought to the Colony.
9. A dish of roasted sea-fowl.
7. A dish of fresh fish and eels.
8. An apple pie.
9. A course of cranberry tarts and cheese made in the Old Colony.
After the feast the following toasts were given : -
I. To the memory of our brave and pious ancestors, the first settlers of the Old Colony.
2. To the memory of Governor Carver, and all the other Governors of the Old Colony.
3. To the memory of that pious man, and faithful, Mr. Secretary Morton.
4. To the memory of that brave and good officer, Captain Miles Standish.
5. To the memory of Massassoit, our first and best friend.
6. To the memory of Mr. Robert Cushman, who preached the first sermon in New England.
7. The Union of the Old Colony and Massachusetts.
8. May every person be professed of the same noble sentiments against arbitrary power, that our worthy ancestors were endowed with.
Doctor James Freeman delivered a sermon on the anniver- sary of Old Colony Club.
The Old Colony Pilgrim Society was formed November 9, 1819. February 24, 1820, it was incorporated by the name of the Pilgrim Society. December 22, 1820, Daniel Webster delivered the first address. Mr. Winthrop said, "From this time, he certainly stood second as an orator to no other man who spoke the English language."
Home was the scene of industry and contentment. More happiness than falls to the lot of average mortals. Where large families are raised under constant sacrifices and con- cessions for each other, a broad charity is fostered, and domestic discipline encouraged, that disarms common trials and deprivations of more than half their terror. It is un- doubtedly true that the majority of the common poor people of New England regard themselves "comfortably off," and never think or know that they are poor. Toil and close economy mean comfort and independence, and a ready hand for their friends in sickness and misfortune. Over all such homes, and they were not a few in the olden time on the Cape, the angel of peace spread her wing.
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