24 MR. rantoul's remarks. 



eral spring, were planted there by his hand. This at- 

 mosphere of periodical revelry may not improbably have 

 attracted to the neighborhood the stalwart old negro, Rob- 

 ert Arnold, better known as " Black Bob, " whose hum- 

 ble cabin, of which barely a trace survives to mark the 

 spot, stood on the rising ground opposite the station tow- 

 ards the north. Bits of the cellar-wall are probably the 

 only monument now left of this stately and interesting 

 relic of African slavery in Massachusetts, whose bald and 

 grizzled head was always bared with obsequious deference, 

 bred of his early condition in life, in presence of all such as 

 he saw fit to regard as the magnates of the town. But for 

 the venerable jurist, Nathan Dane, he reserved a special 

 greeting. On observing the approach of 'Squire Dane, 

 "Black Bob" selected a convenient spot whereon to " crook 

 the pregnant hinges of the knee," and, spreading a large 

 bandanna handkerchief on the ground on which he placed 

 his hat, prostrated himself with all the humility of a Mos- 

 lem devotee, bending his majestic figure to the earth at 

 the same time that he invoked heaven's choicest blessings 

 on "Masa Dane." 



President Wheatland called the Institute to order at 

 half-past two o'clock, and invited Vice President Rantoul, 

 who was present, to take the chair. Mr. Rantoul opened 

 the session with some remarks on local matters, alluding to 

 the ice trade at Wenham Lake^ and the vast proportions 

 this winter's husbandry had attained there ; to the last Field 

 Meeting in this neighborhood held at Wenham Lake on 

 February 11, 1882,^ and to a famous one at Stanley's 

 Grove, close by, on June 24, 1865 f to an old way lead- 

 ing from Montserrat to Draper's Point near Bass River 



> See Hist. Coll. Essex Inst., Vol. vi, pp. 82-3, 141-53. Also Appleton's Amer- 

 ican Cyclopaedia, article Ice. 



2 See Bulletin of the Essex Institute, Vol. xiv, pp. 58-63. 



' See Proceedings of the Essex Institute, Vol. iv, pp. cxxxii-cxxxvii. 



