The Old Coast Road

The Old Coast Road, by Agnes
Rothery,

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Illustrated by Louis H. Ruyl
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Title: The Old Coast Road From Boston to Plymouth
Author: Agnes Rothery

Release Date: June 21, 2007 [eBook #21895]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE OLD COAST ROAD
From Boston to Plymouth
by
AGNES EDWARDS
With Illustrations by Louis H. Ruyl

[Illustration]
Boston and New York Houghton Mifflin Company The Riverside Press
Cambridge 1920
Copyright, 1920, by Agnes Edwards Pratt All Rights Reserved

[Illustration]

THE OLD COAST ROAD
From Boston to Plymouth

CONTENTS
BOSTON: A FOREWORD ix
I. DORCHESTER HEIGHTS AND THE OLD COAST ROAD 1
II. MILTON AND THE BLUE HILLS 19
III. SHIPBUILDING AT QUINCY 35
IV. THE ROMANCE OF WEYMOUTH 57
V. ECCLESIASTICAL HINGHAM 75
VI. COHASSET LEDGES AND MARSHES 92
VII. THE SCITUATE SHORE 111
VIII. MARSHFIELD, THE HOME OF DANIEL WEBSTER 123
IX. DUXBURY HOMES 142
X. KINGSTON AND ITS MANUSCRIPTS 157
XI. PLYMOUTH 175

ILLUSTRATIONS

A BIT OF COMMERCIAL STREET IN WEYMOUTH Frontispiece
THE STATE HOUSE FROM PARK STREET ix

MAP OF THE SOUTH SHORE facing 1
DORCHESTER BAY 1
OFF FOR PLYMOUTH BY THE OLD COAST ROAD 18
GREAT BLUE HILL 19
MILTON ESTATES facing 20
THE FORE RIVER SHIPYARD 35
THE ADAMS HOUSES IN QUINCY 56
THE WEYMOUTH WATER-FRONT 57
RATTLING ALONG THE OLD COAST ROAD 74
THE LINCOLN HOUSE IN HINGHAM 75
THE OLD SHIP MEETING-HOUSE facing 76
INTERIOR OF THE NEW NORTH CHURCH IN HINGHAM, WITH
ITS SLAVE GALLERIES 91
COHASSET LEDGES AND MINOT'S LEDGE LIGHT 92
MODERN COHASSET 110
DRYING SEA-MOSS AT SCITUATE HARBOR 111
FOURTH CLIFF, SCITUATE 122
THE WEBSTER HOUSE 123
MARSHFIELD MEADOWS facing 136
A DUXBURY COTTAGE 142
A BAY VIEW TO DUXBURY BEACH 156

THE STANDISH MONUMENT AS SEEN FROM KINGSTON 157
OLD RECORDS 174
THE MEMORIAL BUILDING FOR THE TOWN OF PLYMOUTH,
DESIGNED BY LITTLE AND RUSSELL, ARCHITECTS 175
VIEW FROM STEPS OF BURIAL HILL, PLYMOUTH, SHOWING
THE TOWN SQUARE, LEYDEN STREET, THE CHURCH OF THE
PILGRIMAGE, THE FIRST CHURCH, AND, IN THE DISTANCE,
THE PILGRIM MONUMENT IN PROVINCETOWN facing 192
CLARK'S ISLAND, PLYMOUTH 203

BOSTON: A FOREWORD
[Illustration]
To love Boston or to laugh at Boston--it all depends on whether or not
you are a Bostonian. Perhaps the happiest attitude--and the most
intelligent--is tinged with both amusement and affection: amusement at
the undeviating ceremonial of baked beans on Saturday night and fish
balls on Sunday morning; at the Boston bag (not so ubiquitous now as
formerly); at the indefatigable consumption of lectures; at the
Bostonese pronunciation; affection for the honorable traditions, noble
buildings, distinguished men and women. Boston is an old city--one
must remember that it was settled almost three centuries ago--and old
cities, like old people, become tenacious of their idiosyncrasies,
admitting their inconsistencies and prejudices with complacency,
wisely aware that age has bestowed on them a special value, which is
automatically increased with the passage of time.
To tell the story of an old city is like cutting down through the various
layers of a fruity layer cake. When you turn the slice over, you see that
every piece is a cross-section. So almost every locality and phase of
this venerable metropolis could be studied, and really should be studied,
according to its historical strata: Colonial, Provincial, Revolutionary,

economic, and literary. All of these periods have piled up their
associations one upon the other, and all of them must be somewhat
understood if one would sincerely comprehend what has aptly been
called not a city, but a "state of mind."
It is as impossible for the casual sojourner to grasp the significance of
the multifarious historical and literary events which have transpired
here as for a few pages to outline them. Wherever one stands in Boston
suggests the church of San Clemente in Rome, where, you remember,
there are three churches built one upon the other. However, those who
would take the lovely journey from Boston to Plymouth needs must
make some survey, no matter how superficial,