HISTORICAL FOOTPRINTS IN AMERICA. 299 



There for my lady's bower, 

 Built I the lofty tower, 

 Which, to thia very hour. 



Stands looking seaward. ' 



Bnt the modern Skald who rehearses the old Viking's tale, claims 

 at the same time a poet's license. " That this building could not 

 have been erected for a windmill," says Professor Rafn, " is what an 

 architect can easily discern." " I will not enter into a discussion of 

 the point," responds the poet. "It is sufficiently well established 

 for the purpose of a ballad ; though doubtless many an honest citizen 

 of Newport, who has passed his days within sight of the Round 

 Tower, will be ready to exclaim with Sancho, ' God bless me ! did I 

 not warn you to have a care of what you were doing, for that is 

 nothing but a windmill ; and nobody could mistake it but one who 

 had the like in his head.' " 



The controversy was still maintained among the New England 

 Oldbucks and Wardours, when in 1847, a learned mediator dating 

 from " Brown University, Providence," proseeded to publish, under 

 the nom de plume of " Antiquarian," a series of abstracts from a joint 

 Report of Professor Rafn of Copenhagen, and *'Graetz of Gotten- 

 burg," and from an elaborate narrative prepared by " Professor 

 Scrobein," a distinguished geologist, despatched to Rhode Island by 

 the unanimous vote of the Royal College at Copenhagen. From the 

 researches of this well accredited commissioner, the ruined tower is 

 ascertained to have been " an appendage to a temple, and used for 

 religious offices, as a baptistery or baptismal font. It appears to have 

 been erected by the Northmen, in the eleventh century, during a 

 sojourn of Bishop Eric in Vinland, as the island was called, from the 

 excellency of its wine and abundance of its grapes." Excavations 

 within the ruin brought to light " the foundations of the receptimum, 

 or place where the candidates stood while receiving the baptismal 

 shower ... In close proximity to this was a second foundation, 

 that of the palestrium ;" and the discovery was completed, and 

 placed beyond all dispute by the finding of various ancient coins, 

 including " some of Henry II. 1160, which would lead us to believe 

 that some kind of commercial intercourse existed in those days." 



To the manifest delight of the rogue — an undergraduate we may sur- 

 mise, — who palmed off this grave hoax on the Rhode Islanders, it was 

 taken up seriously. " Graetz of Gottenburg " passed muster under 



