OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 357 



cated apparatus, and no unusual skill or force when once known. 

 But if, as it is supposed, it has produced these great changes, fur- 

 nished the community with a most excellent building material at a 

 cheap rate, and has filled our city with the permanent and sumptuous 

 structures which are everywhere rising to constitute one of its chief 

 ornaments, it seems an object of laudable curiosity to ascertain its 

 origin and introduction, to learn who invented or first practised it, or 

 whether it was in use elsewhere, and brought here, and by whom. 



This brings me to my main purpose, a statement given by the late 

 Governor Robbins of Milton, as to the origin of the art of splitting 

 stone. I give it with all the names and particulars, in order that the 

 statement may be verified, or refuted, by showing another and a differ- 

 ent origin of the introduction of this art, or by showing some other 

 mode in which it was invented, or brought here from elsewhere. 



Prior to 1798, Castle Island in Boston Harbor, now Fort Indepen- 

 dence, was the prison of the State, where convicts were sent to be 

 punished by confinement and hard labor. About that time, the United 

 States, in anticipation of hostilities with the French, were desirous of 

 having possession of Castle Island, in order to erect thereon a strong 

 fortification for the defence of Boston, and for that purpose urged on 

 the Commonwealth the necessity of having immediate possession of 

 the island. The Commonwealth acceded, and caused the prisoners to 

 be removed, although the State prison at Charlestown was not built or 

 ready for their reception, nor was it so for some time after. This 

 fixes the time when the State prison was in the process of building. 

 Governor Robbins of Milton was one of the first Commissioners, and 

 in this capacity put himself into communication with all the workers 

 and dealers in stone, and found their prices very uniform, though, as he 

 thought, very high. 



The narrative I am about to state he made to me some twenty 

 years after. I was then one of the agents for the public, in erecting 

 a stone building for the county, and probably that was the occasion of 

 my interview with him. It was this : — 



Desirous of getting the stone for the prison on the best terms, and 

 believing the prices high, though general, he thought much and con- 

 versed much on the subject. In that state of mind, and deeply inter- 

 ested in the subject of stone, he had occasion to pass through Salem 

 in a chaise. In passing along a street, he noticed a building ap- 



