CHAPTER XIV 

 THE ANCIENT OAKS AT WAYSIDE INN 



By noon and night the panting teams, 

 Stop under the great oaks that throw 



Tangles of light and shade below, 

 On roofs and doors and window-sills. 



Longfellow 



ABOUT twenty miles west of Boston, 

 in the town of Sudbury, there is a 

 very old and very famous inn known 

 as Longfellow's Wayside Inn. It is cele- 

 brated for its beautiful collection of antiques, 

 its remarkable fire-places and the attractive 

 arrangement of its many rooms; but chiefly 

 for the lure that surrounds it by reason of 

 the noted personalities who have been asso- 

 ciated with the place and its vicinity. Wash- 

 ington and Lafayette stopped there during 

 Revolutionary times, and there the beloved 

 American poet Longfellow found the in- 

 spiration for some of his best poetical works. 

 Opposite the .east wing, and on either 

 side of the State Road, stand the Ancient 



