It Has No Newtonian Or Miltonian Shades, But In Another
Century The Names Of Those Who Fill A Living Age With Lustre Will Have
Their Memorials Among Its Academic Groves.
There are several halls of dark
stone or red brick, of venerable appearance, and there are avenues of
stately elms.
The library is a fine Gothic edifice, and contains some
valuable manuscripts and illuminated editions of old works. There was a
small copy of the four evangelists, written in characters resembling
print, but so small that it cannot be read without a magnifying glass.
This volume was the labour of a lifetime, and the transcriber completed
his useless task upon his deathbed. While Mr. Longfellow was showing me
some autographs of American patriots, I remarked that as I was showing
some in a Canadian city, a gentleman standing by, on seeing the signature
of the Protector, asked, in the most innocent ignorance, who Oliver
Cromwell was? A lady answered that he was a successful rebel in the olden
time! "If you are asked the question a second time," observed the poet,
who doubtless fully appreciates the greatness of Cromwell, "say that he
was an eminent brewer."
Altogether there is very much both of interest and beauty in Boston and
its environs; and I was repeatedly told that I should have found the
society more agreeable than that of New York. With the exception of visits
paid to the houses of Longfellow and the late Mr. Abbott Lawrence, I did
not see any of the inhabitants of Boston, as I only spent three days in
the neighbourhood; but at Mr. Amy's house I saw what is agreeable in any
country, more especially in a land of transition and change - a happy
American home.
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