On the Forts around Boston. 339 
ing eleven months, and finally compelled them to carry 
their arms and their warfare to other lands. Impelled by 
curiosity, let us visit these lines, which will be so celebra- 
ted in history—where the standards of liberty were un- 
furled, and freedom proclaimed to the vast continent of 
America—where the first entrenchments were raised 
against the forces of Britain—and from which, as from a 
barrier of iron, their armies recoiled. There cannot be 
any nobler monuments than these on the earth; if they do 
not yet boast 
‘¢La Gloria di una remotissima antichita,” 
every passing day, every hour, every momeat, is confer- 
ring this quality upon them. 
Nearly half a century has elapsed since these lines 
were erected, and it is desirable to have some record by 
which posterity may know, how much they have suffered, 
during that period by the war of the elements, and by the 
hands of men. ‘The first cause of destruction has been 
trifling, but the storms of a thousand years would not have 
achieved the injury which has been committed by the 
industrious farmers. Wherever these works were an im- 
pediment to cultivation, they have been levelled to the 
ground, and fortresses, which were directed by a Wash- 
ton, or built by a Putnam, or a Greene, have been destroy- 
ed, to give room for the production of Indian corn, or to 
afford a level pasture for cattle. It would redound to the 
high honor of the state of Massachusetts. if some plan were 
devised, by which the forts, which still remain, could be 
saved from the oblivion which apparently menaces them. 
Annexed to Marshall’s Life of Washington isa Map of 
the country around Boston, in which the situation of the 
various forts and batteries is represented, and a stranger 
will find it a guide to many of the positions; but on an 
attentive examination he will perceive that the map is 
rather inaccurate in some of the details. 
1. At Breed’s Mill, that blood-stained field, the redoubt 
thrown up by the Americans is nearly effaced; scarcely 
the slightest trace of it remains; but the entrenchment, 
which extended from the redoubt to the marsh, is still 
marked by a slight elevation of the ground. ‘The redoubt 
thrown up by the British on the summit of the hill, may be 
easily distinguished. 
