94 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 
Charlestown, which was under consideration, proved 
undesirable because of lack of good water; and event¬ 
ually the choice fell on “the peninsula” recommended 
by Mr. Blackstone. The house built by Governor 
Winthrop here, which was torn down by the soldiers 
and used for firewood during the occupation of the 
town by the military in 1775-76, stood “under the 
shadow of the Old South,” the church itself having 
been built upon the site of his “garden.” That he 
raised in this garden the things needful for his table is 
of course a certainty; it is now most equally certain 
that not many plants which had only their blossoms to 
recommend them, were admitted. There is but a 
single reference to the garden, made some sixteen 
years after he had established his household. The 
occasion was the visit of two “Papists” who were 
passing through the town on their way to labors in 
the interior. 
They lingered over a Sunday and, fearful lest they 
break the ironclad rule of the town by unseemly gad¬ 
ding about, “The Lord’s Day they were here the 
Governour acquainting them with our manner that all 
men either come to our public meetings or keep them¬ 
selves quiet in their house, and finding that the place 
where they lodged would not be convenient for them 
that day, invited them home to his house, where they 
continued private all that day until sunset, and made 
