Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/254

 230 The Old Taverns and Stage-Coaches of Groton.

A LOCK OF HAIR.

[From " The Transcript."]

It lies before me. A bright tress of hair

That once, lang syne, thy young, proud head didst bear

To its adornment. Yet I have no need

Of relic fond or token, e'er to lead

My memory back to thee. Thou wast and art

The dearest, aye, and nearest to my heart ;

And though from Death I rescued only this

Of thee, for loving look and reverent kiss,

Yet impotent is he to touch or rive

Our souls' sure bond, v/hose viewless, mystic gyve

From the unseen doth hold thee close to me

In presence sweet with gentle ministry.

��Oh, precious souvenir ! With tenderest care I treasure this soft, shining lock of hair.

��D. A. Kellogg.

��THE OLD TAVERNS AND STAGE-COACHES OF GROTON.

Bv THE Hon. Samuel Abbott Green, M.D.

It has been said that there is nothing ers," — the innkeeper of that period contrived by man which has produced being generally addressed by the title so much happiness as a good tavern, of landlord. I do not know who sue- Without granting or denying the state- ceeded him in his useful and important ment, all will agree that many good functions.

times have been passed around the The next tavern of which I have any

cheerful hearth of the old-fashioned knowledge was the one kept by Captain

inn. Jonathan Keep, during the latter part

The earliest tavern in Groton, of of the Revolution. In "The Independ- which there is any record or tradition, ent Chronicle" (Boston), February 15, was kept by Samuel Bowers, jun., in the 1781, the Committee of the General house lately and for a long time occu- Court, for the sale of confiscated prop- pied by the Champney family. Mr. erty in Middlesex County, advertise Bowers was born in Groton, on Decem- the estate of Dr. Joseph Adams of ber 21, 1711; and, according to his Townsend, to be sold " at Mr. Keep's, tombstone, died on "the Sixteenth innholder in Groton." This tavern has Day of December Anno Domini 1 768. now been kept as an inn during more Half a hour after Three of the Clock than a century. It was originally built in y« Afternoon, and in the Fifty Eight for a dwelling-house, and before the year of his age." He kept the house Revolution occupied by the Reverend during many years, and was known in Samuel Dana ; though since that time the neighborhood as "land'urd Bow- it has been lengthened in front and

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