for his services. He secured the quarry from which the granite was obtained, and appears among the list of contributors set down for a generous sum.

Edward Everett gave heart and voice to the work, as he afterwards did to the rescue of Mount Vernon from the hazard of becoming a prey to private speculation.

In taking our leave of an object so familiar to the citizens of Massachusetts, and which bears itself proudly up without a single sculptured line upon its face to tell of its purpose, we yet remember that its stony finger pointing to the heavens has a moral which lips by which all hearts were swayed when shall we hear their like again?— disclosed to us in these words. "To-day it speaks to us. Its future auditories will be the successive generations of men, as they rise up before it, and gather around it. Its speech will be of patriotism and courage, of civil and religious liberty, of free government, of the moral improvement and elevation of mankind, and of the immortal. memory of those who, with heroic devotion, have sacrificed their lives for their country."

Bunker Hill, on which the British erected a very strong fortress, was named for George Bunker, an early settler. It is now crowned by the steeple of a Catholic church, which, thanks to its lofty elevation, can be seen for a considerable distance inland. The hill is already much encroached upon, and must soon follow some of its predecessors into the waters of the river. This eminence, Mount Benedict, and Winter Hill are situated in a range from east to west, each of them on or near Mystic River. Mount Benedict (Ploughed Hill) is in the middle, and is the lowest of the three; its summit was only half a mile from the English citadel where we stand, and which Sir Henry Clinton commanded in 1775.

As late as 1840 the summit and northern face of the hill retained the impress of the enemy's extensive works. The utmost labor and skill the British generals could command were expended to make the position impregnable. It could have been turned, and actually was turned, by a force crossing the mill-pond causeway to its rear; but its fire commanded

every point of approach, and its strong ramparts effectually protected the garrison. There is evidence that General Sullivan intended making a demonstration in force in this direction during the winter of 1775, but some untoward accident prevented the accomplishment of his design.

It becomes our duty to refer to the almost obliterated vestiges of what was once the great artery of traffic between Boston and the falls of the Merrimack. It seems incredible that the Middlesex Canal, the great enterprise of its day, should have so quickly faded out of recollection. We have traced its scanty remains through the towns of Medford and Woburn, and have found its grass-grown basin and long-neglected tow-path quite distinct at the foot of Winter Hill in the former town, and along the railway to Lowell in the latter. In many places houses occupy its former channel. The steam caravan rushes by with a scream of derision at the ruin of its decayed predecessor, and easily accomplishes in an hour the distance the canal-boats achieved in twelve.

In 1793 James Sullivan of Boston, Oliver Prescott of Groton, James Winthrop of Cambridge, Loammi Baldwin of Woburn, Benjamin Hall, Jonathan Porter, and others of Medford, were incorporated, and begun the construction of the canal. It was at first contemplated to unite the Merrimack at Chelmsford with the Mystic at Medford, but subsequent legislation carried the canal to Charles River by a lock at Charlestown Neck, admitting the boats into the mill-pond, and another by which they gained an entrance to the river. The boats were received into the canal across the town of Boston, and unloaded at the wharves of the harbor. The surveys for the canal were made by Weston, an English engineer, and Colonel Baldwin superintended the excavation, etc. In 1803 the sweet waters flowed through and mingled with the ocean. Superseded by the railway, the canal languished and at length became disused. While it existed it furnished the theme of many a pleasant fiction of perils encountered on its raging stream; but now it has gone to rest with its fellow, the old stage-coach, and we are dragged with resistless speed on our journey in the train of

the iron monster. Peace to the relics of the canal, it was slow but sure. There was not a reasonable doubt but that you would awake in the morning in the same world in which you went to sleep; but now you repose on a luxurious couch, to awake perhaps in eternity.

CHAPTER IV.

THE CONTINENTAL TRENCHES.

"From camp to camp thro' the foul womb of night,
The hum of either army stilly sounds,
That the fix'd sentinels almost receive

The secret whispers of each other's watch."

SHAKESPEARE.

THE military position between the Mystic and Charles will be better understood by a reference to the roads that in 1775 gave communication to the town of Boston.

From Roxbury the main road passed through Brookline and Little Cambridge, now Brighton, crossing the causeway and bridge which leads directly to the Colleges. This was the route by which Lord Percy marched to Lexington.

From Charlestown, after passing the Neck by an artificial causeway, constructed in 1717, two roads diverged, as they now do, at what was then a common, now known as Sullivan Square. Near the point where these roads separated was Anna Whittemore's tavern, at which the Committee of Safety held some of its earliest sessions in 1774, and which had been an inn kept by her father as early as the famous year '45, and perhaps earlier. Malden Bridge is located upon the site of the old Penny Ferry, over which travel to the eastward once passed.

The first of these roads, now known as Washington Street, in Somerville, skirts the base of Prospect Hill, leaving the McLean Asylum on the south, and conducting straight on to

the Colleges. By this road the Americans marched to and retreated from Bunker Hill. Lord Percy entered it at what is now Union Square, in Somerville, and led his worn battalions over it to Charlestown.

The second road proceeded by Mount Benedict to the summit of Winter Hill, where it divided, as at present; one branch turning northward by General Royall's to Medford, while the other pursued its way by the powder-magazine to what is now Arlington, then known as Menotomy. The road over Winter Hill, by the magazine, which it has been stated was not laid out in 1775, is denominated a country road as early as 1703, and appears on the map included in this volume.

Besides these there were no other roads leading to the colonial capital. The shore between was yet a marsh, unimproved, except for the hay it afforded, and reached only at a few points by unfrequented cartways. A causeway from the side of Prospect Hill, and a bridge across what is now Miller's River, gave access to the farm at Lechmere's Point. From the road first described a way is seen parting at what is now Union Square, crossing the river just named by a bridge, and leading by a circuitous route to Inman's, house in Cambridgeport, and from thence to the Colleges. This road, from the nature of the ground, could have been but little used.

Mount Benedict is the first point where we encounter the American line of investment during the siege of Boston, after passing Charlestown Neck. In Revolutionary times it was called Ploughed Hill, probably from the circumstance of its. being cultivated when the Americans took possession, while Winter and Prospect Hills were still untilled. The hill was within short cannon-range of the British post on Bunker Hill, and its occupation by the Americans on the 26th of August, 1775, was expected to bring on an engagement; in fact, Washington offered the enemy battle here, but the challenge. was not accepted.

Ploughed Hill was fortified by General Sullivan under a severe cannonade, the working party being covered by a detachment of riflemen, or riflers, as they were commonly called,