Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1845-07-11
MISCELLANEOUS.


To Light, and Truth aud Love of Heaven!
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MISCELLANEOUS.
From the Boston tsurnal.
LEXINGTON AND IT'S BATTLE GROUND
Sleep on, ye slaughtered ones!
shall guard your dust
While Winter comes IN gloom,
While Spring returns with bloom,
Nay till this honored tomb
Gives mp its trust
When wars first blast heard
Those stood forth TO guard
Thy house, oh God!
And now thy house shall keep
Ito vr where they sleep,
And still its shadows sweep
Der the green sod.-PIIRPoNT
A few years ago | stood on the plains of Water
loo, and with intense interest surveyed the spot
where in 1915 the greatest battle of modern times
was fought. was pointed out the place where
Napoleon watched the progress of the heavy fight
and that where the victorious Wellington stood
when he shouted to the Life Guards, "Upme and
at them~ As gazcd, listening with dull ear to
the hired jargon of the guide, | endeavored to
picture tosmyself the field of carnage during the
heat of the conflict, but the attempt fruitless
for above me was the bright summers sky, around
me swelled the glad notes of birds, and far away
far as the eve could reach, sheltered hamlets
and quiet villages while on the blood stained sod
rose in harvest glory
"the golden corn,
Peace brooded over the landscape, and scarceya
vestige was left to tell that here bloody conflict
was terminated, and stop put to the career OF
him who to 90 forth and vex the nations no
more.
know that felt certain degree of national
pride whilst standing on that field Of conflict, and
it was natural that ii should be So Within the last
few days, have paced another battle ground less
in extent, but scarcely less associated with mighty
consequences to the fortunes of great nation, than
was that of Waterloo. Strange semblances and
striking contrasts! here on this green spot of
ground at Lexington, so small that the eye of the
careless stranger would scarcely be attracted to it.
were witnessed the first lutierngs of the Eaglet.
There at Waterloo, the vultures of Napoleon were
stricken down forever. At Lexington, a mighty
struggle was commonwealth Waterloo terrific
conflict was closed. Here Liberty drew its sacred
blade, and there Vengeance, gluttcd with carnage,
returned the reeking weapon to its scabbard.
As I stood on that bright June day, within the
shadow of the church which borders side of
the green space, and looked Englishman as | was,
through eyes from before which hope the distort-
ing mists of prejudice have long since been blown
away, on the granite shaft which marks the resting
place of those who fell there in seventeen hundred
and seventy five, felt that if ever righteous wal
waged on EARTH it was the that had on that spot
its commencement. There nothing, rs there
had been at Waterloo, to rouse my eXultatiun, but
experienced what, after all, may be a better feel
ing,-a consciousness that there Right had battled
for its inalenabe privileges, and that the spirit Of
Freedom hallowed the ground where her children
fell. Lexington Battle Ground is to the American
what the Field Of Grutli was to Tell and his brave
compatriots.
All the instance of gentleman of Lexington
who, on observing my intention of making some
"Vists in the Vicinity" for the especial edifca-
ton of the readers of the Boston Journal kindly
invited me to pay him q visit, one day last week
in n frip o,dr
ceved from descendant of one who fell on the
battle ground, hearty New English welcome to
his pleasant New England village.
And pleasant indeed, are these New ENGLAND
villages so different too, from those of old Eng
land-the former with so much of newness about
them the latter so grave and venerable in their ap
pearance. In the old country, II love to hear the
almost faint recognition of it, on some calm sum
rner evening. you descend hill side, green anC
fragrant with heath and broom blossoms, whilst
stream goes on dancing to its own music at you
feet, you behold cluster of houses from which
thin blue curling smoke ascends, in the valley be
low, from which one horny ediice arises in sombrC
prominence. 1t is of gothic design, and in thu
mullioned windows the lozenged. shaped pane!
glow like gems in the red sunset; and as that In
minary goes down behind bank of gorreou
clouds, his slant beams creep slowly up the steepe
Cvy-cad almost to its summit until at last the bal
and vane glow like molten brass against the skv
whilst all below is left in gloom. Around that sa
cred edi6ce rise shadowy ancestral elms, beneat
whose broad shadows lie in their dreamless Stun
bers, the "rude forefathers of the hamlet" the pa
triarchs Of the parish, and the little children VIII
died yesterday. Pass on, and you enter the villag
street. Every thing has the stamp of ace upon if
the cottage roofs green with the NOSES of cen
turtles. There is the old manor house, with it
quaint roof its pointed gables, its monsrous doors
with ponderous hinges, its fantastic carvings {
grotesque heads, which stand out in bold relief n