Literary Boston of to Day

m, and an honour, to be asked to the home of Mrs. James T. Fields. " When the social quarter of Boston was squeezed and pressed upon by the growth of business," said Time and the Hour, " so that Summer Street and Franklin Street, West and Bedford, Winter and Tremont Streets were no longer tolerable for dwelling-places, it was a problem where it should find a new development. At this time, the water-front on the Charles offered itself as a pleasant place for a fresh start, and fine rows of stately mansions were soon built, with a quiet street for a frontage and the river in the rear. Doctor Holmes occupied one of them, and not far away Mr. James T. Fields, his friend and publisher, set up his household gods. " The old settlers, or their children, have almost all migrated to the newer Back Bay now, the district with accommodations for stepping westward to the sunset, and Charles Street has become a thoroughfare for the most heavy, creaking, rattling traffic of the town, while apart of the water view has been cut off by stealing a further strip of land from the river, and interposing Brimmer Street. Not so at 148 Charles Street, however. The uproar and the jangle rage before this house front as well as before all the others in the street, but, when one is admitted into Mrs. James T. Fields's home, and passing up the stairs, is seated in the drawing-room, with its westward windows, he looks over a calm expanse of water beyond a quiet garden, which might be...