celebrated with much ceremony. The day (October 15, 1861) was a remarkably fine one, and fifty clergymen, as well as an immense congregation, were present to listen to the fine historical sermon preached by the rector.

On that glad occasion the peal of the Harvard Chime, presented to the church by a committee of University graduates, first rang out on the still Cambridge air. These chimes are operated from the ringing-room in the second story of the tower, where the old-fashioned system of a frame, into which the ends of the bell-ropes lead, is in use. There are thirteen bells in the set, and each bears in Latin a portion of the "Gloria in Excelsis." From the outset the Chime has been regarded as a common object of interest and enjoyment for the whole city, and because of its intimate connection with the University, it

has been rung, not alone on church days, but also on all festivals and special occasions of the college. Thus the music of Christ's sweet-toned bells has for more than forty years now been associated in the minds of Cambridge students with all that is most beautiful in the life of their Alma Mater, and through this medium the oldest institution in Cambridge has become identified with the oldest church.

A FAMOUS TORY WIT AND

T

DIVINE

HE Hollis Street Church is now

the Hollis Street Theatre.

But

the exterior walls of the building

are the same as those put up in 1810 when the third meeting-house was here erected on the site which, since 1732, had been the church "at the south part of Boston." The original house of worship was dedicated by the Reverend Doctor Sewall, of the Old South Church, and the first minister settled there was the Reverend Mather Byles, a Tory wit and scholar. Doctor Byles's salary began at £3 10s. a week, but it was gradually increased from year to year until, in 1757,

it reached £11 per week. So for more than forty-four years he served his people acceptably. Then the Revolution dawned, and in the crisis resulting Doctor Byles's course was such as to bring him into marked disfavour. He was therefore tried in the church, the specific offences instanced against him by his parishioners being: "(1) His associating and spending a considerable portion of his time with the officers of the British army, having them frequently at his house, and lending them his glasses for the purpose of viewing the works erected for our defence; (2) That he treated the public calamity with lightness; (3) Meeting before and after service with a number of our inveterate enemies at a certain place in King Street called Tory Hall; (4) That he prayed in public that America might submit to grate Britain."

The Tory doctor was dismissed August 14, 1776, and in the following May was denounced at town meeting. Being there convicted as a man "inimical to America," he was sentenced to imprisonment with his family in a guard-ship, and condemned to be sent in forty days to England. The sentence was afterward commuted to confinement in his own house, and a sentinel was placed before his door.

Very amusing stories have come down to us of this imprisonment of Doctor Byles, "the great Boston wit." At one time during his imprisonment in his own residence at the corner of Nassau and Tremont Streets, he required, we read, to have an errand performed. No one was at home for the time being and so, interviewing the sentinel, he asked permission to absent himself for a little while. But this permission was not granted. There