oat, trimmed with richest gold lace at the neck and wrists.
Small-clothes and gold knee and shoe buckles complete the picture of one
who, when his mansion was planned, insisted upon an avenue fifty feet
wide, and so nicely graded that visitors on entering from the street
might see the gleam of his gold knee buckles as he stood on the distant
porch. The avenue, however, was never completed, as Belcher was
appointed governor of, and transferred to, New Jersey shortly after.

Two other men of note, who, since the days of our years are but
threescore and ten, chose that their days without number should be spent
in the town they loved, were Wendell Phillips and Rimmer the sculptor,
who are both buried at Milton.

Not only notable personages, but notable events have been engendered
under the shadow of these hills. The Suffolk Resolves, which were the
prelude of the Declaration of Independence, were adopted at the Vose
House, which still stands, square and unadorned, easy of access from the
sidewalk, as is suitable for a home of democracy. The first piano ever
made in this country received its conception and was brought to
fulfillment in the Crehore house, which, although still sagging a bit,
is by no means out of commission. And Wilde's Tavern, where was formed
the public opinion in a day when the forming of public opinion was of
preeminent importance, still retains, in its broad, hospitable lines,
some shred of its ancient charm.

Milton is full of history. From the Revolutionary days, when the
cannonading at Bunker Hill shook the foundations of the houses, but not
the nerves of the Milton ladies, down to the year 1919, when the Fourth
Liberty Loan of $2,955,250 was subscribed from a population of 9000, all
the various vicissitudes of peace and war have been sustained on the
high level that one might expect from men and women nobly nurtured by
the strength of the hills.

How much of its success Milton attributes to its location--for one
joins, indeed, a distinguished fellowship when one builds upon a hill,
or on several hills, as Roman as well as Bostonian history
testifies--can only be guessed by its tribute in the form of the Blue
Hills Reservation. This State recreation park and forest reserve of
about four thousand acres--a labyrinth of idyllic footpaths and leafy
trails, of twisting drives and walks that open out upon superb vistas,
is now the property of the people of Massachusetts. The granite quarry
man--far more