Gage's well-known proclamation was thus humorously hit off soon after its appearance : "Tom Gage's Proclamation, Or blustering Denunciation, "Thus graciously the war I wage, TOM GAGE." Sir William Howe, as Gage's military successor, took up his quarters at the Province House, and occupied it during the winter of 1775-76. As the siege had now begun, its position was central and well adapted for communication with the works at the Neck, or at Copp's Hill, from which it was about equally distant. The "Governour's House" now presented a busy scene, and so indeed did the neighborhood. The dragoons held possession of the Old South. The orderlies' horses stood hitched in front of the general's quarters, and armed heel and sabre clattered up and down the broad staircase, bringing reports from the various outposts. Howe was a good soldier, but not an enterprising one. He had fought with Wolfe at Quebec as cornet, and received the grade of major-general in 1772. During the siege he coolly gave the order to occupy or pull down churches or dwellings as necessity dictated. He has been much execrated for setting fire to Charlestown, but the fire kept up from some of the houses justified the act in a military view. Finally Howe effected the withdrawal of his army without loss from Boston, by making the safety of the town a guaranty of his own. His after career in America was measurably successful; defeating Washington at Long Island and White Plains, he took possession of New York, while the battles of Brandywine and Germantown gave him Philadelphia. He was relieved by his old comrade Sir H. Clinton, and returned home in 1778, when an official inquiry was made into his conduct. Howe's address to his troops before the battle of Bunker Hill is a soldierly document. "Gentlemen, I am very happy in having the honor of commanding so fine a body of men; I do not in the least doubt that you will behave like Englishmen, and as becometh good soldiers. "If the enemy will not come from their intrenchments, we must drive them out, at all events, otherwise the town of Boston will be set on fire by them. "I shall not desire one of you to go a step further than where I go myself at your head. "Remember, gentlemen, we have no recourse to any resources if we lose Boston, but to go on board our ships, which will be very disagreeable to us all." There is every reason to believe Sir William's military duties did not prevent his exercising a generous hospitality. The hall of audience has no doubt resounded with mirth and music when the general received. There were his royalist neighbors, the Mascarenes, Harrison Gray, the Boutineaus and Master Lovell, with many kindred spirits of the court party. There were Clinton, Burgoyne, the noble Percy, and many more of the army and navy to grace the levees of their commander by their presence. The buzz of conversation ceases as Sir William leads out some beautiful tory for the stately minuet, an example speedily followed by his guests. Perhaps amid the strains of the Fusileer's band strikes in the deep diapason of the continental cannon. The coming of the troops into Boston made formidable innovations in the customs and dress of the old founders. The sad-colored garments and high-crowned hats gave place to velvet coat, ruffles, and cocked hat. Gentlemen of condition wore the small sword in full dress, with a gold-headed cane to set off the lace depending from their sleeves. A gentleman's ball dress was a white coat, trimmed with silver basket buttons, collar and button-holes crossed with silver lace. Or, a coat of blue or scarlet cloth trimmed with gold might serve a gallant of the period. His hair was craped and powdered. A satin embroidered waistcoat reaching below the hips, with small clothes of the same material, gold or silver knee-bands, white silk stockings, and high-heeled morocco shoes, with buckles of some precious metal, completed a truly elegant attire. The ladies wore a sacque with a long trail petticoat handsomely trimmed. Satin shoes with paste or metal buckle confined delicate feet. The hair was craped and ornamented according to fancy, and profusely sprinkled with white powder. The gown was set off to advantage by two or three tiers of ruffles. Such was court dress, and court etiquette prevailed. The manners were distinguished for stiffness and formality, relaxing a little under the influence of the ballroom. The last queen's ball was held February 22, 1775. Our reader will care little to know who originally owned the ground whereon stood the Province House. Peter Sargeant built it in the year 1679, and the Provincial Legislature became its purchaser in 1716. After the Revolution it was occupied by the Treasurer and other officers of the Commonwealth. When the building was reconstructed in 1851, old copper coins of the reign of the Georges, and some even of as old date as 1612, were taken from the floors and ceilings, where they had lain perdu since dropped by a careless functionary, or perhaps from the breeches pocket of my Lord Howe.] Ancient-looking bottles of Holland make were found too, suggestive of Schnapps and Dutch courage. Burnet perchance may have inherited the weakness with his Dutch blood. After the adoption of the State Constitution it became a “Government House." The easterly half was occupied by the Governor and Council, Secretary of State and Receiver-General. The other half was the dwelling of the Treasurer. The State was inclined to keep up the character of the Province House by making it the governor's official residence, and voted sums of money for the purpose. In 1796 the Commonwealth, being then engaged in building the present State House, sold the Province House to John Peck, but it reverted back to the State in 1799, Peck being unable to fulfil his part of the contract. Governor Caleb Strong occupied it after his election in 1800. He had been active in promoting the cause of the Revolution, and took part in all the prominent measures of organization of the body politic at its end. He was in the United States Senate in 1789-97. In 1812 he was again elected governor. Being a strong Federalist, he refused to answer the calls made upon him for troops by the general government, but took measures to protect the State from invasion. The old revolutionary works at South Boston were strengthened and manned, and a new one erected on Noddle's Island in 1814, which bore the governor's name. This conflict between State and Federal authority forms a curious chapter in the political history of the times. Governor Strong is described as a tall man, of moderate fulness; of rather long visage, dark complexion, and blue eyes. He wore his hair loose combed over his forehead, and slightly powdered. He had nothing of the polish of cities in his demeanor, but a gentle complaisance and kindness. In 1811 the Massachusetts General Hospital was incorporated and endowed by the State with the Province House. The trustees of the institution leased the estate, in 1817, to David Greenough for ninety-nine years, who, erecting the stores in its front, converted it into the uses of trade. It became a tavern, a hall of negro minstrelsy, and was finally destroyed by fire in October, 1864. Some relics of this venerable and historic structure remain. The Indian came into the possession of Henry Greenough, Esq., of Cambridge, and was permitted to remain some time in the hands of the late Dr. J. C. Warren, of Park Street, but at his decease no traces of it could be discovered, much to the regret of its owner. Perhaps it is still in existence. The royal arms are in the possession of the Historical Society. Colonel Benjamin Perley Poore became the possessor of much of the cedar wainscot and of the porch. The panelling he has devoted to the finish of a pre-Revolutionary suite of rooms, while the porch forms the entrance to his garden at Indian Hill, West Newbury. The grand staircase down which Hawthorne's ghostly procession descended led to apartments devoted to domestic uses. The massive oaken timbers were memorials of the stanch and solid traits of the builders. Here Shute brooded and fumed; here Burnet wrote and Bernard plotted; and here Gage and Howe planned and schemed in vain. All have passed away. The Blue Bell and Indian Queen tavern stood on each side of a passage formerly leading from Washington Street to Hawley. Nathaniel Bishop kept it in 1673, which entitles it to be ranked with the old ordinaries. The officers from the Province House and Old South often dropped in to take their cognac neat. The landlady, at this time, a stanch whig, had the repute of an amazon. Some officers one day, exciting her ire by calling for brandy under the name of "Yankee blood," she seized a spit and drove them from her house. Zadock Pomeroy kept the inn in 1800. About 1820 the Washington Coffee House was erected in place of the Indian Queen, but it, too, has vanished. It will be remembered as the starting-place of the old Roxbury Hourlies. No. 158 indicates the site, corre sponding with the Parker Block. Another Indian Queen was in Bromfield's Lane, since Street. Isaac Trask kept it, and after him Nabby, his widow, until 1816. Simeon Boyden was next proprietor; Preston Shepard in 1823, afterwards of the Pearl Street House; and W. Munroe. This was the late Bromfield House, now occupied by a handsome granite block styled the Wesleyan Association Building. It was a great centre for stages while they continued to The likeness of an Indian princess gave the name to old run. and new tavern. The Bromfield House site becomes important as the birthplace of Thomas Cushing, lieutenant-governor under Hancock and Bowdoin, friend and coworker in the patriot cause with Adams, Otis, and Warren. The British Ministry ascribed great influence to Cushing. He was member both of the Provincial and Continental Congresses, and commissary-general in 1775. Governor Cushing was a member of the Old South. He died in 1788, and was buried in the Granary Burying Ground. A few paces from the site of the old Indian Queen, or, according to the present landmarks, 166 Washington Street, was the abode of the gifted Josiah Quincy, Jr., and the birthplace of his son, Josiah, who is best known to Boston as the greatest of her chief magistrates. Uriah Cotting, Charles Bulfinch, and Josiah Quincy are the triumvirate who, by waving their magi |