introducing us to not a few of the most refined and cultivated, as well
as distinguished people of New England.

There is ever a charm about old-fashioned people and places, as about old
books and pictures, antique furniture and china; they affect us by the
very contrast they afford with ourselves and our surroundings, even
though it is with a touch of pathos and sadness.

Long years ago a much-traveled man, who knew the country well, said,
"Jamaica Plain is the Eden of America." He was not a Bostonian, and our
village was still a part of Roxbury, so that the suggestion of conceit
and boasting over this small portion of "the Hub" could not be imputed to
him.

It has often seemed to us that the loving, favoring smile of heaven
rested peculiarly upon our plain, environed as it is by gently rising
hills, which, with their robes of verdure and noble trees, shelter it
from harsh winds, and hold it in the warmth and freedom of a pure
health-giving atmosphere. Our charming lake, covering more than
sixty-five acres, nestles like a gem in its western borders, mirroring
forms and colors, all of beauty, and holds upon its banks some of the
most delightful of our homes.

In early days it gave of its clear, soft waters for the needs of the
neighboring city; while through the eastern portion of our village the
quiet Stony River made glad the farms and yielded power for mill and
factory.

We find that the name originally given to out village was Pond Plain, but
as early as 1667, it is referred to in an official paper as the "Jamaica