BOSTON AND ITS ENVIEONS. 45 



coign of vantage which could be selected for it, its 

 gilded dome rises majestically against the blue sky and 

 imperiously beckons the visitor to come and pay his 

 respects to this most venerated of Boston institutions. 

 The State House stands, at a height of 110 feet, at the 

 junction of Beacon and Mt. Vernon streets and Han- 

 cock avenue, on a lot which Governor Hancock once 

 used for pasturing his cows, and was erected in 1795, 

 beginning its existence in a blaze of glory, with the 

 corner-stone laid by Paul Revere, then Grand Master 

 of the Masons, and an oration by Samuel Adams. 

 The building contains Doric Hall, which is approached 

 by a fine series of stone terraces from Beacon street; 

 Hall of Representatives, the Senate Chamber, the 

 Goverment Room, and the State Library. 



It abounds in relics, among which are the tattered 

 shreds of flags brought back l)y Massachusetts soldiers 

 from Southern battlefields — a sight which must stir 

 every loyal heart, to whatsoever State it owes alle- 

 giance ; the guns carried by the Concord minute-men in 

 the Revolutionary conflict ; and duplicates of the gift to 

 the State by Charles Sumner, of the memorial tablets 

 of the Washington family in England. Doric Hall 

 contains busts of Sumner, Adams, Lincolu, and other 

 great men, and several fine statues — one of Washing- 

 ton, by Chantrey, au<l one by Thomas Ball ; a speaking 

 likeness in marble of John A. Andre<v, the indomita- 

 ble old War Governor of Massaciuisetts. 



On the handsome terraces in front of the building 

 stand two superb bronzes, one is the Horace Mann 

 statue, by Emma Stebbins, which was erected in 1865, 

 and paid for by contributions from teachers and school 

 children all over Massachusetts ; the other Hiram Powers' 



