CHAPTER LXVL "Lo! vales that teem with fruits, romantick hills, WE include in our map of Boston and its environs, some part of each of the towns of Dorchester, Roxbury, Brookline, Brighton, Cambridge, Watertown, Charlestown, and Chelsea. At DORCHESTER is a very pleasant town about 4 miles south from Boston, measuring from the centre of each town. present it contains about 2000 acres, including Thompson's Island and Moon Island. The soil is generally rich and highly cultivated. The roads are numerous and crooked, but mostly level and kept in good repair. Many fine country seats and substantial farm-houses are thickly arranged on their sides. The population amounts to 3684. They have a town house, 3 congregational meeting houses, and one for methodists. Savin Hill in this town is a place of considerable resort, and the peninsula of Squantum is famous for its yearly Feast of Shells. ROXBURY, adjoining Dorchester on the west, has a population of 4135. The portion of the town next to Boston is thickly settled and forms a handsome village. Here are three meeting houses, within a few rods of each other. There are two other churches in different parts of the town. The west part of the town, Jamaica plains, is a delightful spot, ornamented with elegant country seats and well cultivated gardens. The pond which supplies the Boston aqueduct lies in that quarter.* BROOKLINE, next to Roxbury on the west, was formerly considered part of Boston. This town contains about 4400 acres of land. Several gentlemen of Boston have their country seats here. The number of inhabitants by the last census was 900. This town lies on the west of the bay, and its hills and wood lands form a pleasing portion of the scenery in the view from Boston common. In a direct line, Brookline is four miles from the city. * The proprietors of the Boston Aqueduct were incorporated to bring water in subterraneous pipes from Jamaica Pond in Roxbury, to the town of Boston, by an Act of the Legislature, passed February, 27, 1795. Said Pond is about four miles from Boston, and there are four main logs from the pond, to and through most of the principal streets. The four main logs, and all the branches connected with them, amount to about forty miles in length. There are generally about eight hundred families supplied with water from the Aqueduct. BRIGHTON was formerly part of the town of Cambridge and known by the name of Little Cambridge. It lies between C. and Brookline. A cattle fair was commenced here during the revolutionary war and has been increasing in importance ever since. Most of the cattle for the supply of Boston market are brought in droves to this place; often from 2 to 8000 a week every Monday is the fair day, when the dealers in provisions resort thither to make their purchases. Once a year, in the month of October, the Mass. Agricultural Society encourage a Cattle Show and exhibition of Manufactures, by the offer and award of premiums, for the best animals, products or articles of specified descriptions, produced in any part of this state. Brighton numbers 702 inhabitants. WATERTOWN. The village of Watertown is a flourishing neighbourhood: it is the seat of several extensive manufactories. The United States have an arsenal established in this town. Fresh Pond, a place of genteel resort, five miles from Boston, lies partly within this town and partly in Cambridge. CAMBRIDGE is celebrated as the seat of Harvard College. This institution was founded in the year 1636,* and received its name from the Rev. John Harvard of Charlestown, who made the first great donation to its funds. Since that the benefactors of this institution have been numerous and liberal. The income of the College for the year 1824, arising from various permanent sources (i. e. exclusive of receipts from students and graduates) amounted to $22244, 74 cts. The expenditures during the same year amounted to $44841, 36 cts. principally in payment of salaries. The College buildings are situated on a delightful plain, three miles from Boston.† They are, University Hall, which is built of granite, 140 by 50 ft. on the ground, and 42 ft. high: Harvard, Massachu setts, Hollis, Stoughton and Holworthy halls, and Holden chapel are all of brick these buildings all stand within the enclosure of the College fence. (See plate, p. 81.) Besides these there are a new stone building lately erected and 3 College-houses occupied by students, the President's house, and * Colony Records, Oct. 25, 1636, contain the first notice of the College, towards which the Court makes a grant of 4007. to be paid when the work is finished-the Court to regulate the place and building.-Nov. 2, 1637, it is ordered that the College be at Newtown.~~ May, 1638, the name of Newtown was altered and it was called Cambridge.-First Commencement, 1642. The Massachusetts Medical College is situated in Mason street, near the Boston Common and Mall. The building is brick, 88 feet in length, and 43 in its greatest breadth. Its figure is oblong with a pediment in front, and an octagonal centre rising above the roof, and also forming a three sided projection in the rear of the building. This is surmounted by a dome, with a skylight and balustrade, giving an appearance of elegance to the neatness and fit proportions of the building. those of several of the professors, and the Medical College in Boston, all which belong to the University. The number of alumni, down to the last Wednesday of August, 1825, has been 4828. The present number of undergraduates is 234. Cambridge contains 3295 inhabitants: it has a court house, jail, state arsenal, and 5 houses of publick worship. There are three principal villages, Lechmere's point, Cambridgeport, and the neighbourhood of the Colleges. CHARLESTOWN is a town of singular shape extending in a northwesterly direction from Boston harbour, about nine miles in length and not averaging a breadth of one mile, and in some parts it is not a quarter of a mile in width. The compact or thickly settled part of the town is situated on a peninsula next to Boston, which is about 1 mile in length, and of a mile in breadth, and is laid out in regular streets. The Charlestown contains a population of 6591. It has 5 houses of publick worship, a spacious alms house, and a handsome market house. It is a port of entry in conjunction with Boston Bunker Hill Bank is recently established here. Besides Charlestown and Prison point bridges, which connect this town with Boston, there is Chelsea Bridge on the Salem turnpike, and Malden Bridge, both over the Mystick river. Breed's hill, and Bunker hill lie within this peninsula : the former is 62 feet in height, the latter 110 feet. U. S. Navy-yard consists of about 60 acres of land, on which are built a large brick warehouse, several arsenals, magazines for various kinds of stores, a large brick mansion house for the superintending officer, and a marine hospital. The State Prison is at the west end of the town, and is built of granite, 200 feet by 44, of 5 stories. The prison yard is 500 feet by 400, enclosed by a wall 15 feet high. The Massachusetts Insane Hospital is delightfully situated upon Pleasant hill, on the west side of the town. It has an elegant house for the superintendant, with 2 buildings, one on each side, handsomely built of brick, 3 stories high. CHELSEA is situated on the north side of Boston harbour and Mystick river, and on the west of Lynn bay: much of the land is low marsh or fen. The surface of the body of the town is broken into small eminences, the highest of which is Powder-Horn Hill, 220 feet above the sea. The settlements are thinly scattered over the town: the number of inhabitants is 642. Chelsea anciently was considered a part of Boston, and has always been connected with it as part of the county of Suffolk. By the law which established the City Police Court, the people of Chelsea are exempted from county taxes and deprived of their voice in county concerns. They have one meeting house occupied by a congregational church. |