A Rill from an ancient spring.
A writer in the
Pawtucket (R. I.) Chronicle (April, 1885) tells of ‘Ancient Times’ and ‘A Boston Well,’ and says, ‘Forty years ago, the inhabitants of
Boston became disgusted with the water of the city,’ which had become polluted with house drainage.
After alluding to the introduction of Cochituate water he said, ‘It seems that here and there an ancient well has continued to be used.
Dug in a lot less crowded with buildings and fed perhaps by a living spring, it has still been allowed to furnish rills to slake human thirst.
One of these wells was in an estate owned by
Peter C. Brooks. ...
Mr. Brooks was known by report at least to some of our citizens . . . His former [city] residence was at 89 Mt. Vernon street and was sold last week.
The lot contained about a quarter of an acre, and has on it a well which has always been known as
Blackstone's well.
Its water is uncontaminated and has continued to be used till the present day. The brown stone house just sold, stands on the site of the house which
Blackstone occupied over two centuries and a half ago .... There were “sweet and pleasant springs” which promised a more healthful beverage’ to the early settlers who came from
Salem to
Charlestown and were not satisfied with the supply of
[p. 54] water there to be had and so went over to ‘Trimountain’ where Blaxton had already located.
Only a few years ago, while excavating for the foundations of the
Old South Building, in Spring lane, the ancient ‘Governor's spring’ (
Winthrop's) bubbled up anew.
It is now twenty-six years since the above was written and given to the world in the
Chronicle; and recently the country seat of
Mr. Brooks, in West Medford, has gone into other hands.
That he was the owner of the ancient Blaxton spring is of interest to
Medford, and the Register thus notes the same as above stated.
