and
Instruments, Drawings, Colours, Brushes, several curious Optick
Glasses, and sundry things of Value that I brought from India and China,
that I cannot replace for money."[147]

At this time was pulled down the Old North Church, the steeple of the
West Church, and John Winthrop's house, one of the oldest landmarks in
the town. Over in Charlestown the troops used for fuel the deserted
houses that had not been consumed on the 17th of June. At one time they
were demolishing a mill near the American lines, but the provincials
drove them away and presently burnt the mill. At another time, by a
similar endeavor to lessen the British supply of fuel, there was brought
about one of the more amusing incidents of the siege.

The officers in Boston, having little active work to do, were
endeavoring to forget the irksomeness and the humiliation of their
situation. Through no fault of their own the position was a hard one;
they had boasted, and were not allowed to make good their vainglory;
they had despised their adversaries, and were cooped up in a provincial
town. In letters home they uneasily endeavored to explain their
inaction; by return mail they learned what the wits of London had to say
of both them and the country. "Mrs. Brittania," remarked Horace Walpole,
"orders her Senate to proclaim America a continent of cowards, and vote
it should be starved, unless it would drink tea with her. She sends her
only army to be besieged in one of her towns, and half her fleet to
besiege the _terra firma_; but orders her army to do nothing, in hopes
that the American Senate in Philadelphia will be so frightened at the
British army being besieged in Boston that it will sue for peace." There
was sting in these words, but no remedy for the smart.

In order to forget such flings, and to banish the consideration of
crowded quarters, irregular rations (for there still were periods of
lean supply), slow pay, and inaction, the officers tried to kill time.
The cavalry regiments searched for a means of exercising their horses,
and Burgoyne is credited with the solution of their problem. Newell
recorded in his journal how his church, after being profaned by
Morrison, was examined by the colonel of the light horse, to see if the
building was available for a riding-school. "But when it was considered
that the Pillars must be taken away, which would bring down the roof,
they altered their mind--so that the Pillars saved us."

A more notable buil