Merry Mount: A Romance of the Massachusetts Colony

by John Lothrop Motley

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494 pages, Hardcover

Published May 21, 2016

About the author

U.S. Minister to Austria 1861-67 and to Great Britain 1869-70.

Reviews

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read an original copy of this book, dated 1848. It's a real gem, especially for anyone with a strong connection to Boston. Imagine paddling from the plantation at Mattapan (Dorchester) to the Shawmut Peninsula (Boston) on a bright April morning in 1628, when the Charles River was called Quinobeguin and primeval forest extended from the shore to infinity. Imagine spending time with the rascals of Merrymount (Wollaston), whose irreverent behavior irritated the humorless Puritans of Plymouth Plantation to no end. What would it be like to live in Massachusetts Bay when there were just a few tiny settlements, an abundance of fish and wildlife, and complex relationships with the Native Americans? This Bostonian author and historian paints a vivid portrait of these times.

Apparently, this book was not popular when it appeared. Perhaps this is because The Spectator, a British periodical, published a really nasty review of it shortly after it was published. The only positive comments in the review were that "the subject is not a bad one" and the book derives "a little novelty from New England scenery." Ha!