Lucy M. Boston (1892–1990), born Lucy Maria Wood, was an English novelist who wrote for children and adults, publishing her work entirely after the age of 60. She is best known for her "Green Knowe" series: six low fantasy children's novels published by Faber between 1954 and 1976. The setting is Green Knowe, an old country manor house based on Boston's Cambridgeshire home at Hemingford Grey. For the fourth book in the series, A Stranger at Green Knowe (1961), she won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.
During her long life, she distinguished herself as a writer, mainly of children’s books, and as the creator of a magical garden. She was also an accomplished artist who had studied drawing and painting in Vienna, and a needlewoman who produced a series of patchworks.
Lucy Wood was born in Southport, Lancashire, on 10 December 1892, the fifth of six children of James Wood, engineer and sometime Mayor of Stockport, and Mary Garrett. She had two older brothers, two older sisters and a younger brother. In her memoir, Perverse and Foolish, she describes life in a typically solid and affluent middle class Victorian family of committed Wesleyans. Her father was "eccentric with big ideas, a small, good-humoured, dynamic man", to whom it was said she bore a striking resemblance. She was also said to be his favourite and she clearly loved and admired him.
Boston (1833–1850), was an outstanding chestnut Thoroughbred racehorse and a Leading sire in North America three times from 1851 to 1853. He started in about 45 races, winning 40 of these, including 15 in succession. Boston was later one of the initial inductees into the Hall of Fame.
He was a chestnut stallion with a white blaze on his nose and he was foaled in Richmond, Virginia. Boston was bred by the Virginia attorney John Wickham (who had been Aaron Burr's counsel in his trial for treason). He was by the very good racehorse, Timoleon (by the great Sir Archy), his dam was Sister to Tuckahoe by Ball’s Florizel. Boston was inbred to Diomed in the third generation (3m x 3f). He was a half-brother to the Shylock mare who founded a successful family. They were from the number 40 family which traced back to the imported mare, Kitty Fisher.
As a two-year-old, Boston was lost by his breeder in a card game and was given to Wickham's friend Nathaniel Rives, of Richmond to repay his debt of $800. He was named after a popular card game and later given the nickname of "Old Whitenose". Boston had a wilful temperament and was difficult to train. Sent to the stable of John Belcher, and then to the trainer L. White, and then back to Belcher, White said, "The horse should either be castrated or shot—preferably the latter."
A Boston is a cocktail made with London dry gin, apricot brandy, grenadine, and the juice of a lemon.
The Boston refers to a series of various step dances, considered a slow Americanized version of the waltz presumably named after where it originated. It is completed in one measure with the weight kept on the same foot through two successive beats. The "original" Boston is also known as the New York Boston or Boston Point.
Variations of the Boston include: