The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-09-06
THE OLDER BOSTON.
Something About The Town in The Very Early
DAYS.

Boston is one of the most interesting
towns In England to all American visitors
as the parent of their own greater city, and
they never fail to do justice to the extfaor-
binary beauty and stateliness of that glori-
ops tower always called in Lincolnshire
"Boston Stump" which our own country
men scarcely know as we'll as they should
do a pleasing memorial of the connection
between the towns is found in the restOra-
ton by American Bostonians of the South
west Chapel, in memory of John Cotton,
the erected Vicar of Boston, one Of the lead
ers OF The emigration TO the new colony in
1893 The trans Atlantic Boston is gen.
orally thought to have been so named On
place of its hideOus original name, Tri-
mOuntaiu) in compliment to Cotton, but
this is n mistake, the name having been
adopted from the leading position of Boston
men, especially Isaac Mountain, three years
before COtton's arrival.
Boston Church claims to be in cubic con-
tents the largest purely parochial church in
the kingdom, though We are not sure that
even in this respect st. MichaePS at CoYen-
try might not prove on accurate measure
ment somewhat larger. as 1t certainly is in
area; st. Nicholas at Yarmouth also covers
a some what larger area, but Is absurdly low.
and more like collection Of disJOinted
aSes. Boston, however, also loses en0r-
mously hy the unhappy wooden vault, made
in imitation OF stone grolning, which takes
away no less than twenty-five feet Of the
height.
Boston has number Of quaint corners
with old buildings, especially along South
street, where the picturesque Guidhall, the
Eizabethan Grammar School. the ware
houses of the De Spaynes and other famous
merchants, and fine brick tower, a smaller
copy of TatteTshail. are to be found,
every point of view dominated, of course.
rises straight from the river bank to a
height together with its beautiful lantern,
of 288 feet inches; that Is TO say, several
feet higher than Lincoln tower or Grant
ham spire, and only few feet short of the
spire of Louth. All the other great western
towers of England, at Taunton, Derby,
Wrlngton, Wymondham and the like, seem
dwarfed in comparison with it. and, like
the dome of st. Peters, the further one
goes away from the town the higher it
seems to rise, forming one of the most con-
spicuous objects both from Lincoln Minister
and from the cliff at Hunstanton in Nor
folk. Not that Boston is so entirely left to
live ON in its old traditions as IL was when
Hawthorne (who was much fascinated by
the place. wrote Our Old Home" He
says:
The whole scene made an odd impression OF
hustle and slugrishness and decay aud rem
nant OF whole ONE life; and | could not but con-
Irast IL with the mighty and pOpulous activity OF
our own Boston. which was once the feeble In
fant OF this old English town-the latter perhaps
almost stationary since that day, as " the birth
of such an offspring had taken away its own
principle of growth.
But things are changing again now. A
fine new dock has been made at cost of at
least $4,000, and new channel cut to the
sea; and, backed as it is by the Great
Northern Railway. Boston being the only
port to which that line has direct access, the
trade is now again slowly increasing. But
it is not at all likely to resume its thirteenth
century position, when it paid the highest
quinzicme of any port except London,
though it may develop rising trade with
Germany and the Baltic. and certainly now
has more than "a remnant of wholesome
fe."-The Quarterly Review.