once stood Captain Hammond's house, in which, as far back as the year 1825, the sessions of the Newton Theological Institution were begun. Until 1809 a public school-house stood near the Harbach house, on this fair rural demesne. One day a mischievous lad climbed up on the roof and lowered a fishing-line and hook down the chimney, and another waggish confederate managed to slip the hook into old Master Hovey's wig, which flew away up the chimney, to the vast amazement of the pedagogue. On the Harbach site dwelt for half a century, from 1663, the valiant old trooper, Captain Thomas Prentice, who had been one of Cromwell's iron soldiers against King Charles, and who, in later years, commanded a company of Massachusetts cavalry in the war against King Philip, and raided gallantly throughout the doomed Narragansett country. When Sudbury was assailed by the savages, and well-nigh overpowered, it was Prentice who galloped into the burning town with a band of his rough-riding troopers, and rescued the beleaguered garrison. But after the war was over the Indians turned to him as their best friend, and he kept one of the Nipmuck sachems and a band of warriors at his house for a long time. The tribes at Natick, Ponkapoag, Wamesic, and other places petitioned the General Court (in 1691) to make him their ruler. Prentice and his dragoons composed the escort sent to lead Sir Edmund Andros a prisoner into Boston, after that hot-headed cavalier had well-nigh escaped from Massachusetts. The old captain's courage was so great that he seemed to know no fear. One day a huge bear made a foray into his domain, during haying time, and fiercely attacked one of the farm-hands. The trembling yokel kept his assailant at bay with a pitchfork, until Prentice ran up with an axe, and despatched the shaggy intruder. Until the very last, the old trooper remained in the saddle, riding through the wild Newton glens; and at the age of 89 this Prince Rupert of the colonies met his death by a fall from a horse; and the company of troopers followed his remains to the grave. His son was a member of the company, with carbine and pistols and cutlass; and his grandson, Captain Thomas Prentice, inherited the old estate, where he held slaves, and cherished the sword. It was on his grave that this quaint verse was written: "He that's here interr'd needs no versifying, a vertuos life will keep ye name from dying, Back of the Harbach place is the old mansion of Obadiah Curtis, a valiant patriot of the Revolutionary era, and a member of the famous Boston Tea-Party. He was so detested by the Royalists that on the outbreak of hostilities he feared to remain here, within a half-hour's gallop of the British light cavalry, and took refuge in Providence until the siege of Boston was over. He died in 1811, and was buried in the old cemetery on Centre Street. In this same region of heroes dwelt Ebenezer Brown, a minute-man in the company commanded by President John Adams's brother; sergeant in Bailey's 2d Massachusetts Regiment; shot through the body by Burgoyne's yagers; an ensign in Vose's 1st Massachusetts; a veteran of Lafayette's Virginia campaigns; and then for sixty years a citizen of this fair and breezy upland. Another of Newton's warriors was Nathaniel Seger, who fought at Bunker Hill; helped build Fort Montgomery on the Hudson; served through the Canadian campaigns, the Saratoga battles, and the RhodeIsland campaign of 1778; and was led a captive by the Indians from Bethel, Maine, to Canada, in 1781, together with two other Newton-born pilgrims, Lieutenant Jonathan Clark and Benjamin Clark. Turning abruptly from this era of hauberks and morions and spontoons to the practical comforts of to-day, let us notice that one of the most interesting features of the Cochituate Aqueduct is the great tunnel on the Harbach estate, east of Waverley Avenue, cut through 2,410 feet of intensely hard porphyritic rock. The work was furthered by two shafts, 84 feet deep, sunk from the surface of the ground to the bottom of the tunnel. Not far from the region which we have now reached in our ramble, the gray spires of Newton Centre may be seen on one side, and on the other side rises the reservoir on high Waban Hill. All around stretch peaceful farm-lands, running along the fair plateau, and fringed with lines of ancient trees. Newtonville. HULL'S CROSSING.-OLD-TIME SCHOLARS. THE VILLAGE SQUARE. SCHOOL. THE CLAFLIN ESTATE. GEN. WILLIAM HULL.- SLAVERY IN NEWTON.- BULLOUGH'S POND. THE NEWTON CEMETERY. HEROES OF THE LAST AMERICAN WAR. As one rambles westward from Newton, past the Jackson estate and the tall Church of Our Lady, in a mile or two he enters another quiet and cleanly village, known as Newtonville, which may be interpreted as the City of the Town that is New. And a few of the things that the friendly explorer may find here we shall set down, briefly, and in order. It is a place of about 2,500 inhabitants, covering the plain between the Cheesecake Brook and Cold-Spring Brook, along the line of the rushing and |