But
as the Damsel I have been describing would neither anticipate nor
contradict the will of her Parents, so do I assure you she is
against Forcing her own, by marrying where she cannot love; and
that is the reason she is still a Virgin."

Hence it may be seen that though there was not in Boston the "glorious
phalanx of old maids" of Theodore Parker's description, yet the Boston
old maid was lovely even in colonial days, though she did bear the
odious name of thornback.

An English traveller, Josselyn, gives a glimpse of Boston love-making in
the year 1663.

"On the South there is a small but pleasant Common, where the
Gallants, a little before sunset, walk with their Marmalet-Madams
till the nine o'clock bell rings them home to their respective
habitations."

This simple and quaint picture of youthful love in the soft summer
twilight, at that ever beautiful trysting-place, gives an unwonted touch
of sentiment to the austere daily life of colonial New England. The
omnipotent Puritan law-giver, who meddled and interfered in every
detail, small and great, of the public and private life of the citizen,
could not leave untouched, in fancy free, these soberly promenading
Puritan sweethearts. A Boston gallant must choose well his
marmalet-madam, must proceed cautiously in his love-making in the
gloaming, obtaining first the formal permission of parents or guardians
ere he take any step in courtship. Fines, imprisonment, or the
whipping-post awaited him, did he "inveigle the affections of any maide
or maide servant" by making love to her without proper authority.
Numberless examples might be given to prove that this law was no dead
letter. In 1647, in Stratford, Will Colefoxe was fined L5 for "laboring
to invegle the affection of Write his daughter." In 1672 Jonathan
Coventry, of Plymouth town, was indicted for "making a motion of
marriage" to Katharine Dudley without obtaining formal consent. The
sensible reason for these courtship regulations was "to prevent young
folk from intangling themselves by rash and inconsiderate contracts of
maridge." The Governor of Plymouth colony, Thomas Prence, did not
hesitate to drag his daughter's love affairs before the public, in 1660,
by prosecuting Arthur Howland for "disorderly and unrighteously
endeavouring to gain the affections of Mistress Elizabeth Prence." The
unrighteous lover was fined L5. Seven years later, patient Arthur, who
would n