BOSTON – on the freedom trail

We start out this section by not being very Freedom Trailed – this morning was the Boston Red Sox Parade.  That is a baseball team for all of us who haven’t got a clue.  They have just won the World Series and I wonder why they call it a World Series when only teams from the USA play.  Oh well, just one of those things.

By the time we get back into the city the parade has finished but there are stacks of people and red, white and blue streamers everywhere – time for lunch and we spied this Irish pub with a fabulous name and it seemed a good idea but when we got closer there was no space.  We continued on to try to find somewhere to eat but everywhere is packed.  Looks like the trusty Golden Arches if we can find one or maybe we will have to wait until we get back to the hotel and eat the rest of our apples that we bought at the Cider Mill!…..

We continue our walk towards the House of Paul Revere.  You do know who he was don’t you? No, it was not Paul Revere the singer out of Paul Revere and the Raiders with Mark Lindsay.  Oh please.  Our Paul Revere was the American patriot who, in 1775, made the famous midnight ride and warned of the approaching British soldiers yelling out the British are coming! the British are coming! He was also a participant in the Boston Tea Party where the patriots threw the British tea into the harbour.

The original three-storey house was built around 1680 making it the oldest house in downtown Boston and it definitely looks out of place in today’s surroundings.

Not so far away, about a 5 minute walk – there is a wonderful little square with a statue of said Paul Revere.  Have these Bostonians no respect? Someone has climbed atop and dressed our Paul in a Red Sox jersey.  This statue is at one end of the square and at the other is the Old North Church.  Christ Church in the City of Boston, also known as Old North Church, is the oldest standing church building in Boston, having first opened its doors to worshippers on December 29, 1723.

Its 191 foot steeple is the tallest in Boston and, because of its prominence, it would play a dramatic role in the American Revolution and would be immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. (see above).

On April 18, 1775 Paul Revere met up with the sexton Robert Newman to tell him how to signal the advancement of British troops towards Lexington and Concord. Newman then met fellow Sons of Liberty Captain Pulling and Thomas Bernard. Leaving Bernard to keep watch outside, Newman opened the church and he and Pulling climbed the stairs and ladders up eight stories to hang two lanterns for a few moments in the two windows at the top of the steeple.  It was long enough for patriots in Charlestown to learn what has been immortalized by the phrase “one if by land, two if by sea” in Longfellow’s poem. The British were advancing by boat across the Charles River.

It is only a 2 minute walk to our next stop – Copps Hill Burying Ground.  This is one of the places we visited on our Halloween Tour.  Mmmm something is to be said for visiting these places in the ‘dead’ of night.  Today in the sunlight it does not have the character but one good point is that it does not have that child cavorting all over the place!

Copps Hill is Boston’s second oldest burying ground.  It was first founded in 1659 as Windmill Hill but was later named after the shoemaker William Copp who once owned the land.   There are thousands of people buried here – including African Americans who lived in the ‘New Guinea’ community and are buried in unmarked graves.

Time to head back towards our hotel – it is a 20 minute walk to our last point of interest – Granary Burial Ground.  Established in 1660 and named after a bushel grain storage building that was once next door, this is the last resting place of several notable persons including our Paul Revere.  There are 2,300 grave markers but it is estimated that there are over 5,000 people buried here.  In the photo on the right you can see the headstone of Samuel Adams – signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Puritan churches did not believe in religious icons or imagery, so the people of Boston used tombstones as an outlet for artistic expression of their beliefs about the afterlife.  One of the most popular motifs was the ‘Soul Effigy’ – a skull or ‘death’s head’ with a wing on each side that was a representation of the soul flying to Heaven after death.  Elaborate scroll work, poetic epitaphs and depictions of the Grim Reaper and Father Time also adorn many headstones.We did not go into this cemetery on our night tour – but today we get to see that it is cooped in on all sides – not much room for expansion – and across the road from a pub.

For lunch we got some fast take-away. I bought a BBQ chicken roll and a piece of cannoli.  How nutritious is that!  We are glad to get back to the hotel – this holiday is starting to take its toll – –

Highlight of the afternoon – Paul Revere in his Red Sox jersey!