The first meeting-houses were often built in the valleys, in the meadow lands; for the dwelling-houses must be clustered around them, since the colonists were ordered by law to build their new homes within half a mile of the meeting-house. — Alice Morse Earle Copy Share Image
Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination. You are always living three, or indeed six, months hence. I believe that people entirely devoid of imagination never can be really good gardeners. To be content… — Alice Morse Earle Copy Share Image
The grape Hyacinth is the favorite spring flower of my garden - but no! I though a minute ago the Scilla was! and what… — Alice Morse Earle Copy Share Image
In the early days of the New England colonies, no more embarrassing or hampering condition, no greater temporal ill, could befall any adult Puritan… — Alice Morse Earle Copy Share Image
It is plainly evident that, in a country where land was to be had for the asking, fuel for the cutting, corn for the… — Alice Morse Earle Copy Share Image
By the year 1670, wooden chimneys and log houses of the Plymouth and Bay colonies were replaced by more sightly houses of two stories,… — Alice Morse Earle Copy Share Image
In the seventeenth century, the science of medicine had not wholly cut asunder from astrology and necromancy; and the trusting Christian still believed in… — Alice Morse Earle Copy Share Image
The seventeenth-century baby slept, as his nineteenth-century descendant does, in a cradle. Nothing could be prettier than the old cradles that have survived successive… — Alice Morse Earle Copy Share Image
One of the earliest institutions in every New England community was a pair of stocks. The first public building was a meeting-house, but often… — Alice Morse Earle Copy Share Image
The brank, or scold's bridle, was unknown in America in its English shape: though from colonial records we learn that scolding women were far… — Alice Morse Earle Copy Share Image
It is easy to gain a definite notion of the furnishing of colonial houses from a contemporary and reliable source - the inventories of… — Alice Morse Earle Copy Share Image
It is heartrending to read the entries in many an old family Bible - the records of suffering, distress, and blasted hopes. — Alice Morse Earle Copy Share Image
The clock is running. Make the most of today. Time waits for no man. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a… — Alice Morse Earle Copy Share Image
Our Puritan forefathers, though bitterly denouncing all forms and ceremonies, were great respecters of persons; and in nothing was the regard for wealth and… — Alice Morse Earle Copy Share Image
