Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,while sitting on the slope of this hill. The silence is, relieved by frequent bird-songs, and the sombre hues of the evergreens by the flash of the tanager's wing as he flits to and fro. Many of the towns around Boston are the proud possessors of single trees of noble dimensions, and it is hoped they may long be landmarks. Milton, Dedham, and Quincy all boast of trees worth mention on the point of age and beauty. In Dedham and Quincy are trees which figure on the seals of those towns, and there is a tradition that a large pine tree in Malden served as the model for the tree on the seal of the state of Maine. The Dexter elm, in Malden, on the corner of Elm and Dexter streets, must be at least two hundred years old. The Stone elm, East Watertown, stands near the corner of Washington and Grove streets. It is said to have been brought from Fresh Pond in 1763. On the Brooks estate, at West Medford, are several old trees, and some of them, the hickories, if tradition may be believed, were in their prime at the time of the Revolution. A black walnut was planted on the estate some time previous to 1768. Mr. Peter C. Brooks set out a horse-chestnut in 1810, and an elm tree at a later time. On Main street, Medford, are three elm trees which are of interest, not so much from their age, which is said to be fifty or sixty years, but from the fact that their immediate ancestor was brought from England in a bandbox at an early date. Until within ten or fifteen years a row of fine elm trees could be seen over-topping the houses along Inman street, Cambridge. They marked the line of an old road, which is shown on all Revolutionary maps, which led from Charlestown to that part of Cambridge where the City Hall now is. A very few of these trees are still standing. (To be continued.)
Sermons in stones, and good in everything,
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some of which rise a hundred feet, their straight trunks relieved by glints of sunlight, is ever an inspiring sight.
On a quiet Sunday morning we may
Somerville. Historical Society. , 1907.
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