at the same day the merry lads bound up Tyburn
Hill paused for a last deep, strong draught of
spiced ale or mighty spirits at the hostelrie known
as The Highwayman's Exchange, and the drover
to look about him.
"Roxbury, eh?" again remarked Samuel Cheeseboro, restoring the bandanna to his pocket and the hat to his head. " Well, 'tis a tidy little town enough, but not a patch upon Stonington."
A verdict loyal and self-respecting upon the part of the Stonington man, but liable to controversy if a Roxbury man had heard it, for Roxburians at that date considered their settlement rather as the Court End of Boston, the dignified retreat of its wealthiest citizens, than as a village by itself.
Turning his back upon the Parting Stone, one now faces a quaint old meeting-house, and sees the Norfolk House at his right hand. Samuel Cheeseboro, standing where the Stone should be but was not yet, faced the ancestor in the fourth degree of that meeting-house, and saw at his right hand a comfortable hostelrie called the Flower-de-Luce, kept by Samuel Ruggles, a worthy citizen of Roxbury.
Grouped around the meeting-house were several substantial mansions belonging to magnates of the settlement. Chief of these was the great mansion and the seven acres of merestead originally set off for Governor Thomas Dudley, and in 1699 owned by his son Joseph, and grandson Paul, who benevolently placed the Stone. The house stood nearly
