GROTON MILE-STONES. 163 



The stone stands about a mile from the village, near Cady 

 Pond, though probably not where it was originally placed. 

 It is not known when or by whom it was put up ; but proba- 

 bly the date goes back to the eighteenth century. The 

 width near the top is about fourteen inches. 



According to the guide-board at the north-west corner of the 

 Common, the distance from Groton to Boston is thirty-four 

 miles ; and this is considered to be correct. In the years 1902 

 and 1903 the selectmen caused to be set up, on the several 

 roads leading to the outer limits of the town, granite posts 

 marking the distance of each mile from the Town-house. 

 Twenty-eight such stones have been thus placed by the road- 

 side for the benefit of the wayfarer ; and they stand about two 

 and a half feet out of the ground. 



It may not be amiss here to note the fact that there was 

 some lettering on a boulder formerly in an old wall that stood 

 within a few rods of the mile-stone mentioned at the head of 

 this article. It bears the initials of Dr. Oliver Prescott as well 

 as those of his grandfather, who more than a century before 

 had cut his own initials on the same stone. It is possible that 

 this inscription in the old wall first suggested to Dr. Prescott 

 the idea of erecting mile-stones in close proximity to the 

 boulder. The inscription on the boulder is as follows: 



I P 



1680 



Rebuilt by 



P 

 1784 



rebuilt by 

 S. J. Park 



1 841. 



The initials I. P. are those of Jonas Prescott, — rudely cut, 

 undoubtedly by himself, as he was a blacksmith, — and O. P. 



