The Random Monthly Pick
“Hutchinson, naturally drawn to Milton, his great-grandfather having been one of its first settlers, made this his country seat in 1743, and it was his summer home from that time until his departure for England, in June, 1774, when things were becoming warm in Boston. After the destruction of his elegant town house at the North End, by the Stamp Act mob, this was his principal dwelling. Here he awaited the action of the people in the Old South Meeting-house, assembled on the eve of the “Boston Tea Party;” and here came “Quaker” Rotch, at their command, with his request for a pass for the Dartmouth with her cargo to clear forthwith, upon the refusal of which the “detested tea” was tipped overboard. Whatever may have been his faults as a crown officer, Hutchinson was a good Miltonian and made himself “respected and loved by all his neighbors.”...When he left for England, as it happened, never to return, “he walked from his home along the road, bidding adieu to his neighbors, and shaking hands with them. When near Dorchester Neck (now South Boston), he got into his carriage, which had followed him, and drove to Dorchester Point, where a boat was waiting to take him on board the Minerva.” further “After the Lexington affair, the house was taken possession of by the town, and subsequently confiscated. “Washington, it is said, rides in my coach to Cambridge,” Hutchinson mournfully writes in his diary upon receipt of letters from America. ............” (from “Walks and rides in the country round about Boston” by Edwin M. Bacon, for the Appalachian Mountain Club, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and NY, The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1898; p.323)
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6 comments:
This is a great idea and probably lots of fun to do.
Back to school for your daughter soon - last year, right?
Last year and already started! wow. I think the young pup is a tad younger?
Loved the French chateau houses, wish I could buy you one! :-)
I picked Mrs Smith, I thought her costume was rather rowdy, I'm surprised you didn't comment on her taste Hazel! The hat .....!
I'll do it, comment on that hat; it's fabulous!
I have to laugh at that! :-)))
But still. I get this heebyjeeby feeling, doesn't the dress look a bit young for Mrs. Barney Smith? Do I detect the hint of a double chin... ? covered by the collar of the dress? Its like, maybe Gibby tried his best to flatter the lady...but doing the math, she would have been 62~
62 was absolutely ancient back then, so good for her, tarting herself up and all in white and wearing a fabulous hat.
Nifty idea! Gilbert was obviously an honest painter, yet had a heart.
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