Francis James graduated at Harvard in 1831, and died September 6, 1833.
LeBaron graduated at Harvard in 1832, and died August 19, 1889.
Lucia Jane, born November 22, 1821, married Rev. Dr. George W. Briggs, November 5, 1849, and died November 1, 1881.
LeBaron Russell, above mentioned, studied medicine in Boston and Paris, and established himself in Boston. Indisposed to active labor in his profession, he devoted himself to literary pursuits, and by his interest in the schools and charities of the city, led a useful and beneficent life.
The house itself, so long identified with the Russell family, deserves special notice. It is a fine example of the style of domestic architecture which had its origin in the middle of the eighteenth century. It has been suggested by some that it was designed by Charles Bulfinch, but I lived from 1849 to 1853 in a block of houses on Franklin street in Boston, designed by him, and I remember nothing in their exterior or interior to suggest his handiwork. I am inclined to think that it was modelled after the designs of Peter Harrison, an English architect, examples of whose work may be found in Salem, which were followed more or less closely in later times in that city, and in Marblehead and Portsmouth. Harrison came to Newport, R. I., in 1829, in the ship with Bishop Berkley and Smibert, the distinguished portrait painter, and before his death, which occurred in Boston, designed the Redwood library in Newport, King’s chapel in Boston, and Christ’s church in Cambridge. Symmetry and proportion were the characteristics of his work, and no better illustration of these exquisite qualities can be found than in his original efforts and their faithful copies. The beautiful old porch of the house in question, rounded in shape and supported by clover leaf columns, harmonizing with the windows beneath and above it, was replaced by the present one about 1840.
CHAPTER XXI.
To break the monotony of personal reminiscence, I shall recall some of the games which prevailed in my youth. When the April showers and the dog days come year after year at their appointed times, we are satisfied with the explanation that they are following the order of nature. When in their seasons the robins build their nests, and the blackbirds gather in flocks preparatory to their autumn flight, we are content with the statement that they are guided by instinct. But we have no answer to the question—why we boys, as if in obedience to a mysterious edict issued by a secret council, each year simultaneously in all our towns brought from their winter quarters our alleys and taws, and snapped our marbles on every available sidewalk. After the marble fever had run, like measles, a certain number of days, the scene suddenly changed, and driving hoop was the order of the day. The hoop was not one of those toy hoops we see in these days, galvanized iron rings, with an attachment to push them with, but the genuine hoop from an oil cask, one from the bilge for the larger boys, and one from the chine for the smaller ones. When we gathered at twilight, and either in single or double file, made the circuit of the town, we made the welkin ring literally to beat the band.
After the hoop came, as now, the ball games, skip, one old cat, two old cat, hit or miss, and round ball. We made our own balls, winding yarn over a core of India rubber, until the right size was reached, and then working a loop stitch all around it with good, hard, tightly spun twine. Attempts were occasionally made to play ball in the streets, but the by-laws of the town forbidding it were rigidly enforced. There were four gangs of boys, the North street gang, which played in the Jackson field in the rear of North street; the Court street gang, which played in Captain Joseph Bartlett’s field, where the easterly end of Russell street and the adjoining buildings are; the Summer street gang, which played in Cow Hill Valley, and the “tother side gang,” which played on Training Green, sometimes to the detriment of neighboring windows.
While the days were longest the street games were next in order, hare and hounds, prison bar, leap frog, Tom Tiddler’s ground, Red Lion in his den, I spy, hide and seek, nine holes, back side in the way, and follow the leader.
Over hill and dale,