TEMPLE PLACE 13 



his seven children, a task shared by the mother of the 

 family with cheerful serenity. 



Temple Place was a court, connected with Wash- 

 ington Street only by a flight of steps leading down 

 to a short and narrow pavement that opened on the 

 thoroughfare. The name of Temple Place came from 

 the Masonic Temple, a substantial stone building 

 fronting on Tremont Street. In this temple there 

 was a hall used for concerts, and many were the 

 delightful hours we spent there making our first ac- 

 quaintance with the best music, for our household 

 was devoted to music. Lizzie and Mary sang delight- 

 fully together, and each younger child was expected 

 to play or sing or do both to add to the domestic 

 pleasure. 



This taste for music led to many valuable friend- 

 ships, and I often wonder how all these amateurs 

 learned to sing and play so well. I fancy that there 

 was a convenient supply of political exiles who 

 brought the fine arts of Europe to New England. 

 Exiles were greatly in fashion in the early nineteenth 

 century, and I remember one who taught my sisters 

 and their friends to sing some of the noble Italian 

 compositions sung in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. 

 This was Signor Gambardella, a man of versatile tal- 

 ents. He painted several beautiful portraits during 

 his stay in Boston, and became famous in later years 

 after his return to Europe, as assistant of Lord Ross 

 in his astronomical studies and in the making of his 

 wonderful telescope. 



But, however acquired, there was much talent for 



