CHAPTER XI.

BUNKER HILL AND THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.

THE city of Boston is full of the monuments of an heroic past. The stranger who visits it is surprised to note how strong patriotic sentiment has preserved the relics of the old colonial city amid the merchant palaces of the present time. The Old South Church, in which the duty of

FANEUIL HALL.

counselling armed protection of the provinces against a foreign power, still rises quaint and stately in the market place. Go where you will, in every part of the city the past lives again, and reads to the present its lessons.

Go to the State House, and examine its relics and monuments, and then make a circuit around it in the old-time streets.

The beacon light in colonial times was situated on the high ground not far distant from the spot now crowned by the gilded dome of the State House; and hence this point of land was called Beacon Hill.

The old Hancock House, now removed, stood here on Beacon Street, and the land now occupied by the State House was formerly a part of Governor Hancock's cowpasture, and was purchased by the town from the Governor's heirs for the State. The Hancock House, a fine old colonial structure, stood somewhat back from the street, on the ground now occupied by the elegant mansion of the late Gardner Brewer.

We cannot give place to a description of the familiar marbles in Doric Hall in the State House, which are associated with recent history, — the statue of Governor Andrew, the busts of Adams and Lincoln, and Milmore's incomparable bust of Sumner. We may mention, incidentally, that the corner-stone of the State House was laid in 1795, with a speech from Governor Samuel Adams. The most interesting objects to the antiquary in the State House are the fine statue of Washington by Chantrey, and copies of the memorial inscriptions of the Washington family in Brighton Parish, England. These are in a somewhat shadowy recess, which is separated from Doric Hall by a glass protector. In the Doric Hall stairway to the rotunda are four tablets taken from the base of a column completed on Beacon Hill in 1791. The Senate Chamber contains old-time relics and portraits, and the ancient codfish hangs from the ceiling in the House of Representatives, an emblem of the early industry of the State.

Passing down Beacon to Tremont Street, in the direc

1754.

King's Chapel.

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tion of the Tremont House, the visitor will easily recognize the quaint old stone King's Chapel, and will wish to cross Tremont Street, to take a look at King's Chapel buryingground.

The Chapel itself is rich with antiquities. The original communion service was presented by William and Mary, and the old organ was selected for it by Handel, after that maëstro had become blind. Its walls are lined with monuments. The burying-ground is a picturesque spot. The Boston branch of the Winslow family rest here. Here sleeps also the famous Mary Chilson, of honorable memory, who has been said to be the first to leap on shore from the Mayflower. She died in 1679. Here sleep Governor John Leverett (1679), Governor John Winthrop (1649), Governor John Winthrop, Jr. (1676), Elder Thomas Oliver (1658), and the celebrated John Cotton and John Davenport. The remains of Lady Anne Andros, wife of the unpopular governor of that name, whom the colonists deposed and imprisoned on account of the tax he levied upon them, were deposited here on a dull, cloudy day in the early part of 1689.

QUEEN MARY.

A few steps from King's Chapel, on the opposite side of the street, between the Tremont House and Park Street Church, the visitor will find the old Granary Burying