The legend of ‘cheese Rock.’
For the Forest Festival, June 7, 1882.
In sixteen hundred thirty-one,It was a winter day,
When Winthrop, Nowell, Eliot,
To northward strolled away.
The frozen Mistick flood they crossed,
Ere Cradock's mansion stood;
O'er swamps and rocky hills they pressed,
Through miles of lofty wood.
They crossed a lovely ice-bound lake,
With islands here and there;
‘spot pond’ they called it, from the rocks
That showed their noddles bare.
Then up northwestwardly they climbed,
A hill well crowned with trees,
And hungry there, as well might be,
They dined on simple cheese.
For, why? the guv'nor's man in haste,
And careless how they fed,
His basket loaded with the cheese
And quite forgot the bread.
This fact so simple and so grand,
To us they handed down;
‘cheese Rock’ they named that lovely hill,
Those men of high renown.
Some smaller men cut off the trees
And then they named it ‘Bare’;
And when the bushes wildly grew
The spelled it ‘B-e-a-r.’
[p. 104] But nature still asserts her rights
Against all vulgar spells,
And cries aloud, “Restore the pines
To these my favorite Fells.
Mount Winthrop you may call this spot
If you'll preserve the trees
That canopied with winter's green
The guv'nor's lunch of cheese!”
