It is with justifiable pride that the native of Hingham looks back
through the two and one-half centuries of her history.
"Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam,
His first, best country ever is at home."
* * * * *
THE HOUSE OF TICKNOR.
WITH A GLIMPSE OF THE OLD CORNER BOOKSTORE.
By Barry Lyndon.
The great Boston fire of 1872 had a forerunner in the same city. In 1711
a most sweeping conflagration occurred, which burned down all the houses
on both sides of Cornhill, from School street to Dock square, besides
the First Church, the Town House, all the upper part of King street, and
the greater part of Pudding Lane, between Water street and Spring Lane.
Nearly one hundred houses were destroyed, of which the _debris_ was
used to fill up Long Wharf. The fire "broke out," says an account in the
Boston _News-Letter_, "in an old tenement within a backyard in
Cornhill, near the First Meeting-house, occasioned by the carelessness
of a poor Scottish woman by using fire near a parcel of ocum, chips, and
other combustible rubbish."
The houses which were rebuilt along Cornhill, soon after the fire, were
"of brick, three stories high, with a garret, a flat roof, and
balustrade.
Pages:
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107