Life of Coimt Rumford. 377 



" 2 nice measuring tapes, of two poles or fifty links of the 

 chain in length ; enclosed in cases, &c. 



4 < A magnet, natural or artificial, highly affected, suitable for 

 impregnating the needles of the compass. 



" i set of glasses for a lucernal microscope. 



" I have an 1 8-inch reflecting telescope, the tube of which 

 is about 2! inches' diameter, but the reflector and speculum in 

 both a little sullied or tarnished. I wish to know whether 

 they can be repolished and put in order without the whole in- 

 strument being sent with them, and what the expense would 

 be of doing it. 



"'Yours, 



"L. BALDWIN. 



" The above letter sent by the Minerva." 



There is an interesting story connected with the 

 " Baldwin apples " referred to in the preceding let- 

 ter. The tree from which came the scions that have 

 now so widely propagated that very popular apple 

 grew on a hillside in Medford near the Woburn line. 

 The trunk of the tree having been drilled by wood- 

 peckers, the fruit was known as the " Woodpecker 

 apple," soon shortened into " Peckers." The tra- 

 .dition is, that Baldwin and Thompson first learned 

 the excellent quality of the fruit on one of their walks 

 to Professor Winthrop's lectures. If this be true, 

 it is strange that Baldwin made no reference to the 

 incident when sending the apples to Rumford. The 

 Colonel had given some scions of the tree to a nursery- 

 gardener, who named the fruit from the donor. The 

 old tree fell in the September gale of 1815.* 



* Brooks's History of Medford, pp. 19, 20. 



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