Boston Rambles

Boston Rambles

A Rambler Walks and Talks About the Hub of the Universe

Posts filed under Walking the Post Road

Westwood, Massachusetts. Mile 14: Shunpiking Ye Waye Through Ye Swamp (WTPR #15)

“Great commotion about the course of the turnpike thro’ Dedham. Many dread it as bad as a standing army, to spunge them of money.” Fisher Ames Diary, May 19, 1802. “plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose” Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, January 1849 issue of his journal Les Guêpes (“The Wasps”) ***** This is entry… (read more)

Dedham, Massachusetts. Mile 10: Trials and Tribulations (WTPR#12)

“He told me that this place was the most sharping country ever I was in and that this little piddling trick was only the beginning of it and nothing to what I should experience if I stayed there but some weeks.”1Dr. Alexander Hamilton, Gentleman’s Progress: The Itinerarium of Dr. Alexander Hamilton, 1744. edited with an… (read more)

Mile 0, Boston, Massachusetts: The Origin of the Post Road (WTPR#2)

“For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people upon us.” John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity *** This is the second entry from my previous project, Walking the Post Road. I have been slowly transferring the entries over to this project for a… (read more)

Milestone 5, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts: The Art of Walking (WTPR #1)

“I have met but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of walking…” Henry David Thoreau, Walking *** This is the very first of the entries from my previous project, Walking the Post Road, which I have been slowly transferring over to this project for a number of… (read more)

West Roxbury: The Arc of the Moral Universe (WTPR#11)

“ I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.” Theodore… (read more)

Jamaica Plain & Roslindale: Steeple Chase (WTPR#10)

“In answer to the petition it was clearly voted…that the petitioners together with all such as dwell on the south side of the afores’d line who are willing to joyne with them, and do embody so as to maintain an able learned Orthodox minister amongst them, shall be freed from any charge to the minister… (read more)

Jamaica Plain: Home Stretch (WTPR#9)

“But I have promises to keep,  And miles to go before I sleep,  And miles to go before I sleep.” Robert Frost from “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” This is another of the entries from my previous project, Walking the Post Road, which I have transferred over to this project for two reasons…. (read more)

Jamaica Plain: Traveling the World (WTPR#8)

This is another of the entries from my previous project, Walking the Post Road, which I have transferred over to this project for two reasons. The first reason is that it is relevant to this project in that it is a ‘ramble’ about Boston. The second reason is that the previous project was done on… (read more)