The Historical Society.

The Historical Society held its first regular meeting at the house of Mr. Justin Winsor on Sparks street, Thurs-evening. An executive committee, consisting of the president and secretary and J. M. Newell, F. E. Zinkeisen, and M. Whitridge was appointed. This committee will take charge of the work of the Society during the winter and will arrange programmes for the meeting. Dr. Charles Gross and Mr. Bendelari, of the Department of History, were unanimously elected members and a number of names were presented for consideration.

The meeting was one of the largest in the history of the Society, many of the instructors in the University and a number of graduates being present. Mr. Justin Winsor, the host of the evening, read to those who were present an account of an incident which occurred at Plymouth during the period of excitement attending the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765. By means of a large map, Mr. Winsor examined the features of Plymouth Harbor and incidentally the adventures of the people of the Mayflower on that stormy Friday night when they first landed on American soil, He then described the scenes attending the removal of a fragment of the original rock on the shore to its present position and told the story of the feat of General Winslow and his horse Beausejour in swimming the channel at the entrance to the harbor. General Winslow had made a wager with three of his companions that he would give them an hour's start on their horses, and that, notwithstanding, he would reach the Gurnett, a point on the sand-spit at the entrance to the harbor, before they could do so. The three men were compelled to ride around the shore through Duxbury, while General Winslow, relying on the good qualities of Beausejour, swam the horse across the channel between the sandspits and won the wager. Mr. Winsor spent much of the summer at Plymouth and devoted part of his time to a study of the region and its history.