Signs of normalcy returned to Boston in the wake of the British exodus in March 1776, including the resumption of Election Day, when inhabitants voted for town officers. This was always an occasion for one of Boston's native sons, Jeremy Belknap, to return to the city to experience the annual expression of the spirit of liberty, which was expressed more vociferously this year than usual. Belknap arrived on 1 June and stayed for ‘a lmost a week. He preached for Andrew Eliot, dined with friends, and saw the sights, which meant, of course, the signs of battle. He journeyed to Fort Hill, the eminence in Roxbury that looked out upon the Neck, to Dorchester Heights, and to Cambridge. After a week of catching up, feeling a sense of relief that Boston still stood with very few scars, Belknap returned to Dover. Summer in Dover involved household chores, such as gardening, to supplement the salt pork that typically dominated the family dinners. Belknap was constantly engaged in visiting the sick and widowed and presiding over burials, baptisms and marriages. He kept up with any war news coming out of Portsmouth, such as the launch a few weeks earlier of the ‘32 Gun frigate’, Raleigh. On 25 June and again a fortnight later he watched men train on the town green in preparation of joining an expedition to Canada.