ting historical, but now uncanny
houses of the North End, was often remarked. Occasionally he was
recognized by the policeman, who would inform suspicious or inquiring
fellow foreigners or adopted sons of the Commonwealth, that "the old
fellow was only a countryman in town, and wouldn't do any harm."

Lest some might get a false idea, I need only state that Mr. Coffin
was a man of dignified dress, and scrupulously neat. He was a
gentleman whose engaging presence might suggest the older and more
altruistic, rather than the newer and perhaps brusquer style of
manners. His was a "mild and magnificent" blue eye in which so many,
who loved him so, liked to dwell, and he had no need to wear glasses.
The only sign of ornament about him was his gold watch-chain and
cross-bar in his black vest buttonhole.

CHAPTER XXIII.

SHAWMUT CHURCH.

Shawmut Church, in Boston, stands at the corner of Tremont and
Brookline Streets. Its history is one of unique interest. Its very
name connects the old and new world together. A Saxon monk, named
Botolph, after completing his Christian studies in Germany, founded,
A. D. 654, a monastery in Lincolnshire, on the Witham, near the sea,
and made it a centre of holy light and knowledge. He was the friend of
sailors and boat-folk. The houses which grew up around the monastery
became Botolph's Town, or Boston. "Botolph" is itself but another form
of boat-help, and the famous tower of this English parish church,
finer than many cathedrals, is crowned by an octagon lantern, nearly
three hundred feet above the ground. It serves as a beacon-light,
being visible forty miles distant, and, as of old, is the boat-help of
Saint Botolph's Town. This ecclesiastical lighthouse is familiarly
called "Boston Stump," and overlooks Lincolnshire, the cradle of
Massachusetts history. At Scrooby, a few miles to the west, lived and
worshipped the Pilgrim Fathers and Mothers. From this shire, also,
came the English people who settled at Shawmut on the 17th of
September, 1630.

The Indian name, Shawmut, was that of the "place near the neck,"[1]
probably the present Haymarket Square. The three-hilled peninsula
called Tremont, or Boston, by the white settlers, was connected with
the main land at Roxbury by a long, narrow neck or causeway. The
future "South End" was then under the waves. After about two centuries
of use as a wagon road, this narrow strip between Boston and
Roxbury--so narrow that, at high tide, b