BOSTON AND VICINITY. 61 



days was called a " show place." It was called Pleasant 

 Hill, probably the same as Poplar Grove, and was called 

 Cobble Hill in the Revolution. Mr. Barrell had a fine 

 garden in Summer street, in Boston. He also drained 

 and planted a garden at the lower part^of Franklin street, 

 and owned the famous "Mystic farms." He was a very 

 enterprising man, and one of the company which owned 

 the ships Columbia and Washington, that first crossed 

 the bar of the great river of Oregon, now bearing the 

 name of one of these vessels, on our Pacific coast. 1 



Horticulture had a cordial reception in the early 

 days of Medford, even back as far as the building of 

 the house of Mathew Craddock. The "Royall house," 

 once occupied by Col. Isaac Royall, though not so old, 

 stood in the midst of grounds laid out in elegant taste, 

 and embellished with fruit trees and shrubbery, 

 walks bordered with box, and a summer-house sur- 

 mounted by a cupola, and a statue of Mercury. 2 This 

 estate was purchased in 1810 by Jacob Tidd, who 

 afterwards removed to West Roxbury, and exhibited 

 at the rooms of the Horticultural Society the Horatio 

 or Nice grape, weighing over six pounds to the bunch. 

 Mr. Royall died in 1739, leaving the property to his 

 son Isaac, and by the name of Royall it is still known. 

 There were many fine gardens in Medford in our own 

 day ; such were those of Timothy Bigelow, Peter C. 

 Brooks, Thatcher Magoun, and others who were 

 interested in horticultural pursuits, and had good 

 gardens and greenhouses. 



West Cambridge, Arlington, Lexington, Concord, Wil- 

 mington, Winchester, Woburn, Reading, Revere, and 

 other towns in our vicinity, have been prominent in pro- 

 moting the science of horticulture during the present ceri- 



_ _ 



1 Old Landmarks, p. 254. 



2 Drake's Middlesex County, Vol. 2, p. Icr.. 



