30 OCEAN TO OCEAN ON HORSEBACK. 



Hamlet." It would be interesting to conjecture what 

 the city's present place and condition might be, had 

 Governor Winthrop's and Deputy-Governor Dudley's 

 plan of making " New-towne" — the Cambridge of to- 

 day — the Bay Colony's principal settlement, been exe- 

 cuted. Instead, and fortunately, Governor Winthrop 

 became convinced of the superiority of Boston as an 

 embryo " county seat." ^' Trimountain," as it was first 

 called, was bought in 1630 from Rev. William 

 Blackstone, who dwelt somewhere between the Charles 

 River and what is now Louisburg Square, and held 

 the proprietary right of the entire Boston Peninsula 

 — a sort of American Selkirk, " monarch of all he 

 surveyed, and whose right there was none to dispute." 

 He was " bought off," however, for the modest 

 sum of £30, and retired to what was then the 

 wilderness, on the banks of the Blackstone River — 

 named after him — and left " Trimountain " to the 

 settlers. Then Boston began to grow, almost with 

 the quickness of Jack's fabled beanstalk. Always 

 one of the most important of colonial towns, it con- 

 ducted itself in sturdy Puritan style, fearing God, 

 honoring the King — with reservations — burning 

 witches and Quakers, waxing prosperous on cod- 

 fish, and placing education above every earthly thing 

 in value, until the exciting events of the Revolution, 

 which has left behind it relics which make Boston a 

 veritable ^^ old curiosity shop " for the antiquarian, or 

 indeed the ordinary loyal American, who can spend a 

 happy day, or week, or month, prowling around the 

 picturesque narrow streets, crooked as the proverbial 

 ram's horn, of Old Boston 



He will perhaps tur first, as I did, to the 



