

SOUTHERN OR PLANTATION HOUSE. 



i 



" John Endicott, 1749." 



" John Endicott, 1784." 



" John Endicott, 1817." 

 As our eyes read over this list, we were struck with the stability of a famil}^ who for 

 niaiij'- consecutive generations had occupied, by the same name, that venerable spot, and 

 ministered to the comfort of as many generations of travellers, and hicontinently took off 

 our hat in respect to the record of so much worth, drove our horse under the shed, had 

 him fed, went in, and took a quiet famil}- dinner with the civil, good tempered host, and 

 the equally kind-mannered hostess, then in the prime of life, surrounded with a fine fa- 

 mily of children, and heard from his own lips the history of his ancestors, from their first 

 emigration from England — not in the Mayflower, to whose immeasurable accommodations 

 oui good New-England ancestors are so prone to refer — but in one of her early successors. 

 All over the old thirteen states, from Maine to Georgia, can be found agricultural es- 

 tates now containing [;vmilies, the descendants of those who founded them — exceptions to 

 the general rule, we admit, of American stability of residence, but none the less gratify- 

 ing to the contemplation of those who respect a deep love of home, wherever it maj'^ be 

 found. For the moral of our episode on this subject, we cannot refrain from a descrip- 

 tion of a fine old estate which we have frequently seen, minus now the buildings, which 

 then existed, and long since supplanted b}' others equally respectable and commodious, 

 and erected b}' the successor of the original occupant, the late Dr. Boylston, of Roxbu- 

 ry, who long made the farm his summer i-esidence. The description is from an old work, 

 " The History of the County of Worcester, in the State of Massachusetts, by the Rev. 

 Peter Whitney, 1793:" 



" Many of the houses (in Princeton,) are large and elegant. This leads to a particular 

 mention, that in this town is the country seat of the lion. Moses Gill, Esq., (' Honora- 

 ble' meant something in those days,) who has been from the year 1775, one of the Judges 

 of the Court of Common Pleas for the count}' of Worcester, and for several 3'ears a coun- 

 sellor of this commonwealth. His noble and elegant seat is about one mile and a quarter 

 from the meeting house, to the south. The farm contains upwards of three thousand 

 acres. The count}"^ road from Princeton to Worcester passes through it, in front of the 

 house, which faces to the west. The buildings stand upon the highest land of the whole 

 farm; but it is level round about them for many rods, and then there is a very gradual 

 descent. The land on which these buildings stand is elevated between twelve and thir- 

 teen hundred feet above the level of the sea, as the Hon. James Winthkop, Esq., in- 

 forms me. The mansion house is large, being 50 by 50 feet, with four stacks of chim- 

 nies. The farm house is 40 feet by 3G : In a line with this stand the coach and chaise- 

 house, 50 feet by 36. This is joined to the barn by a shed 70 feet in length — the barn is 

 200 feet b}' 32. Verj- elegant fences are erected around the mansion house, the out-hou- 

 ses, find the garden. 



"The prospect fioin this seat is extensive and grand, taking in a horizon to the cast, 

 of seventy miles, at least. The blue hills in Milton are discernable Avith the naked eye, 

 from the windows of tliis superb edifice, distant not less than sixt}' miles; as also the 

 waters in the harbor of Boston, at certain seasons of the year. When we view this seat, 

 these buildings, and this farm of so many bundled acres, now under a liigh degree of pro- 

 fitable cultivation, and are told that in the year 17GG it was a perfect wilderness, M'e are 

 sti'uck with wonder, admiration and astonishment. The honorable proprietor thereof 

 must have great satisfaction in contemplating these improvements, so extensive, mad 

 der his diiection, and, I may add, by his own active industry. Judge Gill is a 



