d and pursued our
men till they got safely back to Hog Island."

A spirited engagement ensued, attended, however, with no serious loss to
the American forces. The regulars were supported by an armed schooner
which the enemy were obliged to abandon, having first set the vessel on
fire.

[Illustration: A TILED FIREPLACE. (Low's Art Tile Works.)]

General Putnam, Colonel Stark, and Dr. Joseph Warren, are said to have
been present during the contest, either as actors or witnesses.

"During the siege of Boston, Chelsea formed the extreme left of the line
of circumvallation; and on the south-eastern slope of Mount Washington
stands the house of Robert Pratt, which occupies the site of an earlier
house at which Washington lunched when inspecting the lines."

In closing this sketch, the writer wishes to give credit to the
Honorable Mellen Chamberlain, an honored resident of Chelsea, for
information relating to the early history of the town, which he has
kindly furnished, and to the researches embodied in his valuable
article, "Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh, Pullen Point, and Chelsea, in the
Provincial Period," printed in the second volume of the Memorial History
of Boston, published by James R. Osgood and Company, in 1881.

It is not difficult to predict the future of Chelsea. Situated as it is
on navigable waters, with an extensive waterfront, near to the
metropolis of New England, and already the site of many important
industries, prosperity awaits it. Time alone can tell whether, like its
namesake in the Mother-Country, it becomes absorbed in the neighboring
and growing city, or develops into a great manufacturing suburb, like
Newark and Patterson.

[Illustration]

[Footnote 3: Date of Act, January 10, 1739.

Chelsea, as every Englishman is aware, is the name of a suburb of
London, where are situated the great national hospitals of Great Briton.
It was in existence as a village as early as A.D. 785, but was long
since absorbed by the expanding city.]

* * * * *

JOHN WISWALL, THE OBJURGATORY BOSTON BOY.

John Wiswall, a "young man with somewhat original objurgatory
tendencies," was not of the meaner sort of families. His grandfather,
John Wiswall, then some eighty-three years old, ever took an active
interest in the church and social affairs, first in Dorchester, and
afterward in Boston. Mr. Savage says that he was a brother of Thomas
Wiswall, a public-spirited man of Cambrid