On the eastern slope of the hill over which the early settlers of Woburn penetrated the primeval forests to locate their Charlestown village, lies a great boulder that is worthy of notice, partly because of its lonely position, and also because of its peculiar shape. No artificial work on this, for ages agone it was left there by the irresistible forces of nature that shaped it thus. It bears the semblance of a great stone beast, and of one that has ever been the human sculptor's favorite, the kingly lion. Reposefully he lies on his rocky bed, his visage grim and dark with the suns and storms of centuries long past. Could he but speak, what a story might be told of those ages long gone; of his far-away home, and how he was left stranded strangely alone on this rocky hillside! Compared with those, the time when the red men came would be modern. And he might tell of the last of that race that dwelt in our city but a few rods away from him, until they went for their last abode farther off in the rocky fastness now known as the Fells. He would tell how the early settlers made their first road northward just behind him, and of the people and traffic that went over it for two hundred years. Within his view, not far away, the first Medford meeting-house was built, and nearer still the woodland lane that still remains led to some early settler's home on Cedar hill beyond the brook.
Not till seventy years ago was the new road (Winthrop street) cut through Sugar-loaf hill, and the stream of travel from Woburn and farther north flowed down at his feet. A little later, when steam had been utilized, some adventurous ones began the building of a railroad. They failed in their effort, and work stopped with the rock-cut beside the lane sixty years ago. For years a band of gypsies had their summer rendezvous just below his rocky lair, but they come no more.
Silent as the Sphinx in Mount Auburn, this Medford one has beheld sorrowful processions pass with their loved ones to the ever increasing but silent city of the dead. Silently, also, has he seen some stranded by the
