C XXV 2 



flows through the centre, forming a notable hazard. 

 FHnt's Pond has been made a source of water-supply 

 for Lincoln and Concord, and Bateman's Pond is 

 staked out with a rowing course for a boys' private 

 school near by. Thoreau and his co-saunterer Chan- 

 ning were desperately aggrieved one day to find that 

 "a new staring house" had been erected just beyond 

 Hubbard's Bridge, "thereby doing irreparable in- 

 jury to a large section of country for walkers." "It 

 obliges us," he complained, "to take still more steps 

 after weary ones to reach the secluded fields and 

 woods," and they talked of petitioning the owner to 

 remove the house and thus abate a nuisance. What 

 would the two friends say to-day on finding the same 

 house, not only greatly enlarged and made still more 

 conspicuous, but surrounded by a whole cluster of 

 similar ornate dwellings.'' And then looking in the op- 

 posite direction, imagine their indignation on behold- 

 ing the sacred slopes of Fair Haven Hill taken up with 

 "gentlemen's estates," with their lawns, gardens, and 

 tennis courts ! 



But there has been one compensation for this pri- 

 vate appropriation of choice portions of the land- 

 scape. "No Shooting" is a more frequent sign than 

 "No Trespassing," and these extensive estates thus 

 guarded are proving places of refuge for many forms 

 of wild life which in Thoreau's day were the free booty 

 of unrestrained hunters. Partridges and gray squir- 

 rels are multiplying, pheasants (lately introduced) 



