THE METROPOLITAN PARK SYSTEM. 169 



There will be direct connections with Lynu and its beautiful 

 woods, as well as with the shores of Nahant and Swampscott, by 

 the fine old Parkway of Lynn Common. 



With its streams running clear and unpolluted, and with green 

 and pleasant banks, and with its bay-side and ocean-side reaches 

 free and beautiful ; with its playgrounds and blooming, tasteful 

 gardens, its miles of charming drives, its thousands of acres of 

 parks and public woodlands, the "Greater Boston," as the home 

 of a happy, intelligent, and truly prosperous people, will then be a 

 city worthier than ever of fame. 



[Since the above paper was prepared the Metropolitan Park 

 Commission has taken between 500 and 600 acres of woodland 

 wilderness in the West Roxbury district of Boston and the town 

 of Hyde Park, and nanred it the Stony Brook Reservation ; it has 

 also taken, in conjunction with the Boston Park Commission, lands 

 for connecting this reservation by a picturesque parkway, with the 

 Boston park system at the Arnold Arboretum, with the intention 

 of ultimately extending it to the Blue Hills. The Legislature has 

 also authorized a loan of $500,000 for the taking of Revere 

 beach, $300,000 for the taking of lands along the Charles River, 

 and $500,000 for the construction of boulevards and parkways — 

 the latter as a relief to the unemployed. — Sylvester Baxter.] 



Discussion. 



Jacob W. Manning said that about 1880 he became connected 

 with the Middlesex Fells Association, which was organized under the 

 inspiration and leadership of Elizur Wright of Medford. During 

 that season a meeting of the Association was held at Cheese Rock, 

 on Bear Hill, in Stoneham. Cheese Rock is the smooth, abrupt, 

 northerly termination of the top of Bear Hill. Its nearly flat 

 upper surface comprises several square rods, and its altitude is 

 sufficient to command an extended view of the country to the 

 north, the east, and the west. As the speaker was unable to 

 attend this meeting, he sent his son, Warren H. Manning, then a 

 minor, to observe the proceedings and report to him. This young 

 reporter w^as much impressed by the strong interest and public 

 spirit manifested by those present, but especially by the activity 

 and physical vigor of Mr. Wright, who, though then seventy-five 

 years old, climbed a bare-trunked cedar tree near by, with the 



