pringfield, 1771."

In Sutton, on the "Old Connecticut Path," stands still the king of all
these 1771 mile-stones. It is of red sandstone, is five feet high, and
nearly three feet wide. It is marked, "48 Mls to Boston 1771 B. W." The
letters B. W. stand for Bartholomew Woodbury, a jovial and liberal old
Sutton tavern-keeper who died in 1775. When the mile-stones were set out
by the provincial government, the place for this Sutton stone fell a few
rods from Landlord Woodbury's house; but he obtained permission and set
up this handsome stone at his own expense, beside his great horse-block
under his swinging sign at his open, welcoming door. He fancied,
perhaps, that it would attract the attention, and thus cause the halting
of travellers. Tavern-keeper and tavern are gone; no vestiges even of
cobblestone chimneys or cellar walls remain. The old post-road is now
but little travelled, but the great mile-stone and its neighbor, the
worn stepping-block, still stand, lonely monuments of past days and past
pleasures. On warm summer nights perhaps the silent old mile-stone
awakes and sadly tells his companion of the gay coaches that rattled by,
and the rollicking bucks and blades, the gallant soldiers that galloped
past him in the days of his youth, a century ago. And the
stepping-block may tell in turn of the good old days when her broad
sunny face was pressed by the feet of fair colonial dames who, with
faces hidden in riding-hoods and masks, stepped lightly from saddle or
pillion to "board and bait" at Bartholomew Woodbury's cheerful inn.

In Roxbury, Mass., there still stands at the corner of Centre and
Washington Streets the famous Roxbury Parting Stone. It is a great
square stone, bearing on one face the words: "The Parting Stone 1744. P.
Dudley;" on another face the words: "Dedham--Rhode Island," and on a
third "Cambridge--Watertown." It has had set on it recently an iron
frame or fixture for a gas-lamp. This stone, with many others in Norfolk
County, was placed by Paul Dudley at his own expense in the middle of
the last century. It has seen the separation or "parting" of many a
brave company that had ridden out to it from Boston. Many a
distinguished traveller has passed it and glanced at its carved words.
Lord Percy's soldiers took counsel of it one hot April morning to find
the road to Lexington.

Governor Belcher set out a row of mile-stones from Boston Town House to
his home in Milton. Some of them are still stand