It is in (I thnk) one o those marvellous books of Penguin Comic and Curious Verse where I read it in the Sixties . I hadn't the slightest idea what it meant of course.

I first heard it from an English friend in London, which I thought was funny since I’m from Beantown and never heard it there. “Love that dirty water,” the MBTA, and the Red Sox were closer to my experience of Boston, although I did have an ice cream cone once or twice at Cabot’s in Newton. I think my friend recited only the last three lines, and put it in Jerome's wording.

Jonathan Raban quotes it in the introduction to his Faber selection of Robert Lowell's Poems. I think I have probably also seen it in the anthologies quoted by John.

FWIW, it didn't ring a bell for me until Jerome mentioned "only to Cabots".

I too thought I must have seen it in the Penguin anthologies John and Gregory mention. But can't find it there. Also thought it must have been quoted in the bios preceding work by T.S. Eliot in other anthologies, but again can't find it. But perfectly familiar from somewhere from a fairly early age.

This thread has led me to check other things that were always a vague puzzle. The Boston Cabots were founded by a Channel Islander born 1680 (hence the French-sounding name?)and no connection with John Cabot the Italian who discovered Newfoundland, and baked beans (in a pot) were a Native American invention passed on to the early settlers of New England.

Thank you, Michael.

Yes, usually in the form of a toast, "So here's to good old Boston."

Dialogue from Yes Minsiter about titles for civil servants.

Bernard:Well, take the Foreign Office. First you get the CMG, then the KCMG, then the GCMG; the Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, Knight Commander of St Michael and St George, Knight Grand Cross of St Michael and St George. Of course, in the Service, CMG stands for "Call Me God," and KCMG for "Kindly Call Me God."
Hacker: [chuckles] What does GCMG stand for?
Bernard: "God Calls Me God."

Yes, many times, from an early age, but I remember it like so:

Here’s to good ol’ Boston
Home of the bean and the cod
Where the Lowells speak only to Cabots
And the Cabots speak only to God

I heard it a long time ago, probably in high school.

Yes, I heard or read it many years back, but I couldn't tell you when, where, or anything about the context.