himself. They were land holders in Boston so early as 1660. Nearly half the space between West and Winter streets, on Washington street, and extending westerly towards Tremont street, 275 feet, belonged to this family, as did also a large tract of land on Essex, Rowe and Bedford streets, upon which now stand two churches and a large number of dwelling houses. So much for Mother Goose. Now for her melodies.

It is well known to antiquarians that more than two hundred years ago there was a small book in circulation in London bearing the name of " Rhymes for the Nursery or LullaByes for Children," which contained many of the identical pieces which have been handed down to us and now form part of the "Mother Goose's Melodies" of the present day. It contained also other pieces much more silly, if possible, and some that the American types of

the present day would refuse to give off an in pression. The "cuts" or illustration there were of the coarsest description,

The first book of the kind known to 1 printed in this country bears the title of "Son for the Nursery; or, Mother Goose's Melod for Children." Something probably intend to represent a goose with a very long neck an mouth wide open, covered a large part of t title page, at the bottom of which, Printed 1 T. Fleet, at his printing house, Pudding lan 1719. Price, two. coppers. Several pag

were missing, so that the whole number cou not be ascertained.

This T. Fleet, according to Isaiah Thoma was a man of considerable talent and of gre wit and humor. He was born in England, an was brought up in a printing office in the ci of Bristol, where he afterwards worked as journeyman. Although he was considered

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man of sense, he was never thought to be overburdened with religious sentiments; he certainly was not in his latter days. Yet he was more than suspected of being actively engaged in the riotous proceedings connected with the trial of Dr. Sacheverell, in Queen Ann's time. In London, Bristol, and many other places, the mobs and riots were of a very serious nature. In London several meeting houses were sacked and pulled down, and the materials and contents made into bonfires, and much valuable property destroyed. Several of the rioters were arrested, tried and convicted. The trials of some of them are now before me. How deeply Fleet was implicated in these disturbances was never known, but being of the same mind with Jack Falstaff, that "the better part of valor is discretion," thought it prudent to put the Ocean between himself and danger. He made his way to this country and arrived

in Boston, 1712. Being a man of some enter prise, he soon established a printing office in Pudding lane (now Devonshire street), where he printed small books, pamphlets, ballads, and such matter as offered. Being industrious and prudent, he gradually accumulated property. It was not long before he became acquainted with the "wealthy family of Goose," a branch of which he had before known in Bristol, and was shortly married to the eldest daughter.

By therecord of marriages in the City Registrar's office, it appears that in "1715, June 8, was married by Rev. Cotton Mather, Thomas Fleet to Elizabeth Goose." The happy couple took up their residence in the same house with the printing office in Pudding lane. In due time, their family was increased by the birth of a son and heir. Mother Goose, like all good grandmothers, was in ecstacies at the event; her joy was unbounded; she spent her

whole time in the nursery, and in wandering about the house, pouring forth, in not the most melodious strains, the songs and ditties which she had learned in her younger days, greatly to the annoyance of the whole neighborhood-to Fleet in particular, who was a man fond of quiet. It was in vain he exhausted his shafts of wit and ridicule, and every expedient he could devise: it was of no usethe old lady was not thus to be put down; so, like others similarly situated, he was obliged to submit. His shrewdness, however, did not forsake him; from this seeming evil he contrived to educe.some good; he conceived the the idea of collecting the songs and ditties as they came from his mother, and such as he could gather from other sources, and publishing them for the benefit of the world—not forgetting himself. This he did—and thus Mother Goose's Melodies" were brought forth.