[p. 53] spring and
fall, boats to be launched by the river and, above all, the chores for a large family.
And there must have been the frequent passing of boats up the river, tediously tacking about the curve called ‘Labor in Vain,’ or else lighters loaded with brick or timber floating out to the river's mouth.
Every family had its lane leading back to the clearing, and at that time there lay just beyond the brick house, on the south side of the road, near that curve on which we now swing into the boulevard toward
Boston, a great pine swamp, the stumps of whose trunks still tell the passers of woods perhaps once like the cathedral woods of Intervale, but now perhaps indicating by their submergence, a slow subsidence of this land.
This wood and the fells behind must have afforded wood for ship-building and for fire.
On Sundays the family attended the first meeting-house, where
Captain Peter built a pew for himself in the best location, an indication of his important position in the community as well as of his wealth.
I have not attempted to trace the course of the house through all its varied history.
It soon passed out of the hands of the Tufts family, and we have no traditions to build up about its part in the Revolution.
It cannot there compete with the Royall house.
It finally passed into the hands of General Lawrence, who with his usual public spirit and generosity, saved the old building and put it into repair.
He might doubtless have done more had not the fallacy of the Cradock legend been discovered at that time, so that the house lost its claim to a unique position.
Last week, taking as my guide, cicerone and friend, Mr. Mann, I spent a morning in studying the old house.
Of course, much of the interior is restoration, and even the bricks of some of the old fireplaces are replaced.
But take it all in all, it is still a house of exceptional charm within.
The seven great fireplaces are a marvel to our modern eyes.
Mr. Mann took his yardstick and measured the great one in the southwest room.
The inside
