same way and lately given to Harvard, and six for Mr. Henry W. Cunningham. . . . They also had fourteen copies, made the exact size of the original, for themselves and for various relatives; and also two more copies, four times the size of the original, one my aunt has kept, the other she had framed and lent to the exhibit of historical pictures, &c., sent to the Jamestown Exposition by the Colonial Dames. These very large copies are not as satisfactory as the smaller ones.

At the request of Professor NORTON, Dr. Green also presented, in the name of Mrs. J. A. Swan of Cambridge, two water-color drawings which represent a part of Summer and of Winter Streets, giving excellent views of Trinity Church as it formerly appeared. They are by the English artist Vautin, who resided in Boston for some years, near the middle of the last century, and gave instruction in drawing which was much esteemed. One of these water-colors is dated 1846, and the other was made a few years later. They are now given to the Society by the lady who has owned them ever since they were painted, and from whose pencil sketch one of them was made. She is the widow of the Rev. Joshua A. Swan (H. C. 1846), the daughter of the late Rev. R. M. Hodges (H. C. 1815), the sister of Dr. Hodges (H. C. 1847), and the mother of Mrs. Governor Russell.

GRENVILLE H. NORCROSS presented the following note:

In the "Report on Canadian Archives" by Douglas Brymner, Archivist, for the year 1889, which contains the Private Diary of General Sir Frederick Haldimand, in the original French and in an English translation, Mr. Brymner calls attention to a passage in the Diary as follows:

At page 213 of the diary, as printed in this Report, is a curious contribution to the history of the Yorktown capitulation, a strike among the carpenters in New York having delayed for a fortnight the departure of the fleet intended to co-operate with Cornwallis.

The entry in Haldimand's Diary, made probably in 1786, as translated in the Report, is as follows:

He [Robertson] is certain that he [Low] was among the first who returned to America, but afterwards was among the ranks of the government party and was very useful. Robertson1 gave me a striking instance

1 James Robertson (1720?-1788), Royal Governor of New York, 1779-1783, rose from the ranks until he became Lieutenant-General in 1782.

of this. Our fleet which was at New York, required immediate repair in order to set sail to protect Lord Cornwallis; there were not enough of workmen in the yard. Robertson proposed to collect all the carpenters and put them in charge of Mr. Low, who found a great many of them. But those in the yard would not receive them, so that the fleet lost a fortnight by the delay, which was partly the cause of Cornwallis' misfortune. This anecdote is little known. This same Mr. Low engaged about 300 or 400 men in the Admiral's fleet when it set sail.

Haldimand (1718-1791), a Swiss in the service of England, was the general to whom the Boston Latin School boys protested against the destruction of their coast on Beacon Street in 1775. He was Governor of Canada from 1778 to 1784.

The President presented, in behalf of Mr. William G. Brooks, a volume by John Cotton entitled "Practical Commentary, or an Exposition . . . upon The First Epistle Generall of John (London, 1656), containing the bookplate of his brother Phillips Brooks, a descendant of Cotton.

...

The Council reported the appointment of Messrs. Charles C. Smith, Grenville H. Norcross, and Samuel S. Shaw as House Committee.

DECEMBER MEETING, 1907.

THE stated meeting was held on Thursday, the 12th instant, at three o'clock, P. M.; the President in the chair.

The record of the November meeting was read and approved; and in the absence of the Librarian, the Corresponding Secretary read the list of donors to the Library during the past month.

The President announced that the History of Chelsea, prepared by the late Judge Chamberlain, the publication of which was provided for by his bequest to the Society, is nearly ready to be published.

JOHN D. LONG presented a memoir of Solomon Lincoln, and EDWARD STANWOOD a memoir of Peleg W. Chandler. BARRETT WENDELL, in presenting some papers relating to Longfellow, spoke as follows:

On behalf of Mrs. C. V. Jamison, of New Orleans, I have the honor to offer to the Society these papers, which record a deeply characteristic episode in the life of Longfellow. The story may best be told in her own words, from a letter which she has kindly sent me with them:

The acquaintance began through my brother, who at that time had a large book-making establishment in Cambridge and often saw Mr. Longfellow in a business way. These frequent interviews about the printing of his books resulted in his being interested in my brother, who had an uncommonly fine mind, which the great scholar recognized and respected.

Shortly before Mr. Longfellow left Cambridge for his last visit to Europe, he happened to visit my brother's office, and mentioned that he hoped to spend the following winter in Italy, whereupon my brother told him that I, his sister, was studying painting in Rome. He at once asked for my address, and kindly promised to call on me, when there, and to be useful to me in any way that he could. When he arrived in Rome, in the winter of '68-9, he remembered his promise, came to see me, and introduced me to his family and many of his friends. It is needless to say how helpful his friendship was to a young woman in a

strange country, with little experience, and less confidence in her ability to accomplish what her immense ambition led her to undertake. My ambition was for art, and I had thought of writing only as a means of expressing what was hampered and confined by the drudgery of learning to paint. On one of his visits to me I showed him a little Italian sketch, just published in "Appleton's Journal," my first published article. He read it with great interest; then he said, "You must write and it need not prevent your painting. Raphael wrote his hundred sonnets," and added more pleasant advice to that effect.

I saw him frequently during the winter, in my own home, in society, and in the galleries where I copied, and had the joy of listening to his delightful conversation and kindly criticisms, which always inspired and encouraged me to greater effort. When he was about to leave Rome, I told him that I was writing some descriptions of Italian towns which I hoped to make a book of when I returned home. He said that subject had been overdone, and advised me to introduce a story, with the places for a background. I followed his advice, and my first novel, "Woven of Many Threads," was the result.

When I returned home, a year and a half later, I was staying for a short time with my sister in Braintree. There he came to see me, and we talked over the story and read parts of it, and before he left he made an appointment with me to meet him at Mr. Fields' office on a certain day. I went to the appointment with fear and trembling, and experienced the trying ordeal of reading several chapters of my story to an audience of two, Mr. Longfellow and Mr. Fields, and you can imagine my surprise and delight when that autocrat of publishers said he liked what I had read, and would accept it.

The final arrangements were made, and it was put at once into the hands of the printer, and just as I was dreading proof sheets Mr. Fields told me that Mr. Longfellow had kindly offered to make the final corrections, and asked me if he should send me the sheets afterward. I replied "No" emphatically, and I never saw them until they were sent to me after the book was published.

This act of kindness, on the part of the most eminent American man of letters in the full height of his career, can be fully appreciated only by those who have despairingly struggled with their own proof. From that time till the end of his life he remained, in all Mrs. Jamison's literary work, a constant, helpful friend.

When, last summer, she had the goodness to show me this. proof, it seemed to me worthy of more certain preservation than could be assured it in private hands. Slight though the episode may seem, in the full history of Longfellow's career,

none, I think, could more beautifully indicate those qualities of his which made him in his life, as in his memory, worthily beloved. At my suggestion, accordingly, she requests that this Society will accept the proof, corrected by his hand, together with the letters which he subsequently wrote her.

M. A. DE WOLFE HOWE communicated the following paper on the bust of George Bancroft:

Last spring our President told me that he had long been looking in vain for a bust of George Bancroft for the rooms of the Society, and invited such aid as I could render in the search. Up to that time I had seen in the records of Mr. Bancroft's life no reference to any sculpture of his head. The circumstances which led to the acquisition of the bust, unveiled at the November meeting, have at least the interest of processes known as the "longest way round," and at the President's request they are made the subject of this brief narrative.

In October last I was happy to find among Mr. Bancroft's papers the photograph of what appeared to be a marble bust, under which the words, "Bancroft. R. S. Greenough Fecit," were inscribed. On the back of the picture was written, "Hon. George Bancroft, with Richard S. Greenough's compliments and cordial respect." The existence of a bust was no longer a matter of doubt; but how was it to be secured for the rooms of the Society? Instead of applying at once to a maker and seller of busts, the zeal of careful investigation led me to write to a grandson of Mr. Bancroft, asking where the Greenough sculpture might be found. He promptly replied that a nephew of his grandfather who is also a member of this Society had asked him last year about the same bust, "but " -to quote from the letter "I could not give him any information. So far as I know I have never seen it. . . . Do you suppose it could be in the Harvard Library without any one knowing it?" He touched on the unlikelihood of its being in the Worcester Art Museum or in Berlin, on the possibility of tracing it" from the Greenough end," and of waiting for it to turn up, as it undoubtedly would some day.

A few days after receiving this letter, I found myself in the Harvard College Library, displayed the photograph which I