The Bible, prayer books and silver now in use were given in 1733 by King George I. The figures of cherubim in front of the organ were taken from a French vessel by the privateer “Queen of Hungary,” and presented to the church in 1746. There is an interesting bust of Washington in the church.
From the steeple of this church the historic sexton hung out the lanterns which warned the patriots on the other side of the river that an expedition was starting from the English camp, against Concord.
“One if by land—two if by sea,” says Mr. Longfellow, whose history of those days is more likely to be remembered well than any other. That steeple, as has been said, was blown down in 1804.
As they walked to the Chelsea car, which was to take them home, Nathan led them through the Copp’s Hill burying ground. Copp’s Hill has never been cut away. Fort Hill is wholly leveled, and Beacon Hill partly so. These were the three hills which were the landmarks of old Boston.
The Sixth Day.
On Monday morning the Roxbury boys took their cousins to see their tennis ground, and it may be believed that all parties there joined in one or two games. Mrs. Dudley and Mrs. Crehere went into Boston for some necessary shopping, and came back by the Art Museum, where was a good “Loan Exhibition.” The loan exhibition in summer is generally filled with masterpieces from the private galleries of people who are in their country homes. “I would not pay so much for pictures,” said one of these noble women, “if the people were not to enjoy them nine-tenths of the time.”
But Mrs. Dudley had so arranged her dinner that they might all take a street car for “Dorchester Heights” and see the view of the harbor from that point, and that the boys, who had had no chance to swim at Nahant, might take a sea bath on their return.
Accordingly, about five o’clock they started for South Boston. “Take any car for City Point,” was Nathan’s final direction as the party separated. “Ask for the Reservoir, and we will meet there.”
“Dorchester Heights” is simply the name, which only old fashioned people would understand, of the hills in what is now “South Boston,” now surmounted by the “Blind Institution” and a public park, in which is one of the city reservoirs. Visitors to Boston who are at all interested in education will do well to drop a line on arrival, for Mr. Anagnos, the chief of the Blind Institution, to ask what is the proper day for a visit there. Our friends were obliged to defer this interesting visit till the autumn, and they all gathered on the other hill and enjoyed the spectacle of the harbor, white with the sails of hundreds of yachts, and all alive with the movements of the lolling steamers as they went out, just before sunset, on their voyages to every port of the seaboard, not to say of the world.