1

alterations and additions as circumstances seemed to require, including the inscription mentioned above. It measures a trifle less than the other in size, this difference being probably due to shrinkage occasioned by the more moist condition of the paper at the time of receiving the impression.

The earlier print thus unexpectedly brought to light has a special interest and value, as being the only known copy of one of the earliest impressions of the plate first published in 1726, preserving to us the form and lineaments of the three venerable halls then standing, the earliest issue on which are delineated the architectural representatives of Harvard College.*

Of these buildings, the oldest, Harvard Hall, was commenced in 1672. The previous hall, or "Harvard College,' as it was called, was built of wood, and in 1669 had shown such signs of decay that subscriptions were opened in many places for funds to build a new one. The College was then very poor, and in a depressed condition. The foundation of the new building was laid three years later, and "a fair and stately edifice of brick," says Hubbard, "was erected anew not far from the place where the former stood." The Indian war delayed its completion, but in 1677 it was "so far finished that the public acts of the Commencement were there performed."§ It was completed in 1682.

Edward Randolph, who first came to New England in 1676, in a letter written in October of that year to the Lords of the Privy Council, says: "There are three colleges built in Cambridge, one with timber, at the charge of Mr. Harvard, and bears his name." This was the building to which we have referred above as then going to decay. Second, "a small brick building called the Indian College, where some few Indians did study; but now it is a printing house." This was a small brick edifice, thirty feet long by twenty feet wide, designed to accommodate some twenty Indian scholars. It was built in 1665, at the charge of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England, at a cost of between three and four hundred pounds, a benevolent, but an abortive

*The Wadsworth or President's House, now standing, was raised May 24, 1726, and was first occupied October 27, when not half finished within." See Proceedings for September, 1872, p. 257.

† See Quincy's History of Harvard University, vol. i. p. 31. In preparing this notice of the old Harvard halls for the Proceedings, I have been kindly aided by some memoranda furnished by our Associate, Mr. Deane.

Sibley's Graduates, pp. 330, 367; Belknap's New Hampshire, vol. i. p. 98. § Hubbard's History of New England, p. 610.

1 Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. vii. pp. 24, 25.

scheme so far as it related to the education of the Indian race. Third, "New College, built at the public charge, is a fair pile of brick building covered with tiles, by reason of the late Indian war not yet finished. It contains twenty chambers for students, two in a chamber; a large hall, which serves for a chapel; over that a convenient library, with some few of the ancient fathers and school divines, but in regard divinity is the general study, there are many English books of the late non-conformist writers, especially Mr. Baxter and Dr. Owen," &c.*

This last building described by Randolph, the oldest of the three in our picture, called soon after it was erected, "New College," afterward took the name of its predecessor, "Harvard College." Cotton Mather, writing before 1697, in his "History of Harvard College," speaks of the contribution at this time for the wants of the Corporation, and says, "And this contribution... quickly produced a New College, wearing still the name of the Old One, which Old One is now so mouldered away that

"Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit.'"†

The precise location of the first Harvard Hall is not known. Hubbard says that the new building was erected "not far from the place where the former stood." The Harvard

* Hutchinson Papers, p. 501.

† Magnalia, Book IV. p. 129.

The following allusion to Cambridge is from the "Journal of a Voyage to New York and a Tour in several of the American Colonies, in 1679-80," by Dankers and Sluyter, printed in the "Memoirs of the L. I. Historical Society," vol. i. p. 384. The visit to Cambridge was on the 9th July, 1680.

"9 Tuesday. We started out to go to Cambridge, lying to the north-east of Boston, in order to see their college and printing office. We left about six o'clock in the morning, and were set across the river at Charlestown. We followed the road which we supposed was the right one, but went full half an hour out of the way, and would have gone still further, had not a negro who met us, and of whom we inquired, disabused us of our mistake. We went back to the right road, which is a very pleasant one. We reached Cambridge about eight o'clock. It is not a large village, and the houses stand very much apart. The college building is the most conspicuous among them. We went to it, expecting to see something curious, as it is the only college, or would-be academy of the Protestants, in all America, but we found ourselves mistaken. In approaching the house, we neither heard nor saw any thing mentionable; but going to the other side of the building, we heard noise enough in an upper room to lead my comrade to suppose they were engaged in disputation. We entered and went upstairs, when a person met us, and requested us to walk in, which we did. We found there eight or ten young fellows sitting around, smoking tobacco, with the smoke of which the room was so full that you could hardly see; and the whole house smelt so strong of it that when I was going upstairs, I said, ‘This is certainly a tavern.' We excused ourselves that we could speak English only a little, but understood Dutch or French, which they did not. However, we

Hall in our picture was burned in 1764, and a new building, the present one, was erected the same year on the same spot.

Stoughton Hall was taken down in 1780, and no other building erected on the spot. The present Stoughton was built twenty-five years after the demolition of the former. Massachusetts Hall is yet standing, and is the oldest of the college buildings.

Mr. Samuel A. Eliot, in his "History of Harvard College," published in 1848, gives a plan of the "College Enclosure' or yard, on which he indicates the "probable site of the Indian College," as at a short distance in the rear of the old President's House, now standing on Harvard Street.

In Quincy's "History of Harvard University,” vol. i. p. 347, is a copy of this picture taken from one issued by Price, of which the College has a copy now very imperfect. On page 43 of the same volume is a picture of Harvard Hall by itself, restored, so to speak, by Miss Quincy, from the representation in this picture. There being no front view, and the architectural details being so minutely given at the end, she was able to turn the ancient edifice round and give a representation of it as it must have appeared in front.*

The picture of Stoughton, on page 194 of the same volume, was also drawn by Miss Quincy, in order to give a better representation of the building than is afforded by the reduced copy of the whole picture.

The President read a communication from Mrs. Helen Bigelow Merriman, offering a thousand dollars to the Society as a memorial of her father, the late Erastus B. Bigelow, an

and

spoke as well as we could. We inquired how many professors there were, they replied, Not one, that there was no money to support one. We asked how many students there were. They said, at first, thirty, and then came down to twenty; I afterwards understood there are probably not ten. They could hardly speak a word of Latin, so that my comrade could not converse with them. They took us to the Library, where there was nothing particular. We looked over it a little. They presented us with a glass of wine. This is all we ascertained there. The minister of the place goes there morning and evening to make prayer, and has charge over them. The students have tutors or mas ters. Our visit was soon over, and we left them to go and look at the land about there. We found the place beautifully situated on a large plain, more than eight miles square, with a fine stream in the middle of it, capable of bearing heavily laden vessels. As regards the fertility of the soil, we consider the poorest in New York superior to the best here. As we were tired, we took a mouthful to eat, and left. We passed by the printing office, but there was nobody in it; the paper sash, however, being broken, we looked in, and saw two presses, with six or eight cases of type. There is not much work done there. Our printing office is well worth two of it, and even more."

* Letter from Miss Quincy to Mr. Deane.

Associate Member, and proposed, with the concurrence of the Council, the following Resolution: --

Resolved, That the best thanks of the Massachusetts Historical Society be presented to Mrs. Helen Bigelow Merriman, for her generous contribution of a thousand dollars to our funds, and that the Treasurer be instructed, agreeably to her wish, to enter and keep the account of this gift, under the name of her distinguished and lamented father, as "The Erastus B. Bigelow Fund," and so to employ the interest of said sum, by accumulation for a time or otherwise, as shall be best for the welfare of the Society, and for doing honor to the memory of an Associate so highly esteemed and regretted by us all.

This Resolution was unanimously adopted.

The President then announced the deaths of one of our Corresponding Members and one of our foreign Honorary Members, both of them men of more than ordinary mark.

The death of Professor Diman (he said), at so early an age, is a serious loss to American history, and a sad one to his friends. He had shown remarkable ability, and remarkable candor, judgment, and accuracy in dealing with more than one historical topic, and had given promise of most valuable work in the future. His death is deeply lamented by us all. The President then proceeded as follows:

When recently, while at Washington, I saw the announcement of Carlyle's death, I felt that there was only one man in our Society, or perhaps anywhere on this side of the Atlantic, who could give authoritative and adequate expression to the views of his character and career which should follow such an announcement, and I wrote at once to Mr. Emerson to beg him to be with us this afternoon.

The interest which Carlyle had evinced in the life of Franklin, and in the English localities and associations of Franklin's ancestors, as shown in a letter from the great historian to Edward Everett, many years ago, induced us first to think of decorating our honorary roll with his name. But his grand biography of Cromwell, with all its admirable illustrations of the Puritan age, left us no excuse for failing to unite in doing honor to his great historical labors and triumphs.

Peculiarities of style, peculiarities of temper, more than doubtful views of our late struggle for the Union, have given

occasion to many differences of opinion, and many harshnesses of expression, from time to time, in regard to his merits. But now that the end has come, and that this remarkable thinker and writer, in the eighty-sixth year of his age, is going down to his grave this very afternoon, as the telegram informs us, by the side of his wife, instead of claiming, as he might have done, a place in Westminster Abbey, it will be universally agreed that one of the very most marked men of the age has disappeared, and we shall all be ready to speak of him, and think of him, and hear of him, as such.

I am now happy to call on Mr. Emerson, who has kindly complied with my invitation to be with us.

Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson then read, from the original manuscript, a paper upon Thomas Carlyle, written immediately after seeing him in the year 1848:

Thomas Carlyle is an immense talker, as extraordinary in his conversation as in his writing, — I think even more so. He is not mainly a scholar, like the most of my acquaintances, but a practical Scotchman, such as you would find in any saddler's or iron-dealer's shop, and then only accidentally, and by a surprising addition, the admirable scholar and writer he is. If you would know precisely how he talks, just suppose Hugh Whelan (the gardener) had found leisure enough in addition to all his daily work to read Plato and Shakspeare, Augustine and Calvin, and, remaining Hugh Whelan all the time, should talk scornfully of all this nonsense of books that he had been bothered with, and you shall have just the tone and talk and laughter of Carlyle.

I called him a trip-hammer with "an Æolian attachment." He has, too, the strong religious tinge you sometimes find in burly people. That, and all his qualities, have a certain virulence, coupled though it be in his case with the utmost impatience of Christendom and Jewdom and all existing presentments of the good old story. He talks like a very unhappy man, profoundly solitary, displeased and hindered by all men and things about him, and, biding his time, meditating how to undermine and explode the whole world of, nonsense which torments him. He is obviously greatly respected by all sorts of people, understands his own value quite as well as Webster, of whom his behavior sometimes reminds me, and can see society on his own terms.

And, though no mortal in America could pretend to talk with Carlyle, who is also as remarkable in England as the