28 BULLETIN OF THE ESSEX INSTITUTE. 



your speakers and writers encourage richness in the ap- 

 pearances of our farms, so far as our rugged soil will 

 allow, in the hope that the dress of Mother Earth may he 

 of the best and what she well deserves. 



President Rantoul, with the best wishes of the Com- 

 monwealth, may the Essex Institute, after this its fiftieth 

 birthday, continue, as now, always to deserve the confi- 

 dence of the people who have ties to Essex County, and 

 of all others ; may the help that comes to you from a large 

 membership with modest annual dues forever continue 

 and increase ; and may those who can give more largely 

 during life of money, relics, etc., or after death by will, 

 believe, as I do, that this Essex Institute, founded by men 

 to whose memory we can all bow in reverence, is always 

 to continue sound, as to its historical, and in its financial, 

 management, to the honor of Country, State and Nation. 



The President then said : It may not be generally known 

 that we came very near having the Massachusetts Bay 

 College established in our neighborhood. We came just 

 as near having it named Scruggs College instead of Har- 

 vard College, and so we should all have been looking 

 forward to the degree of LL.D. of Scruggs, and not to 

 the degree of LL.D. of Harvard. The facts are these. 

 One Thomas Scruggs, as early as January, 1635-6, got 

 possession of a part of that beautiful meadow lying be- 

 tween Swampscott and Marblehead, and looking out on 

 the Bay, and now dotted over with summer villas. It 

 was a favorite resort with Hawthorne, and is often referred 

 to in the "American Note Books." Having got the 

 delightful tract into his hands, Scruggs negotiated in April 

 with Captain Trask, our Massachusetts Bay Miles Standish, 

 and received in its stead a farm ut Bass River near 

 Wenham Pond. His object in the transaction was to secure 



