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Show 6 BOSTON----FROM BOSTON TO BUNKERS HILL. this busy evening. All Boston, rich and poor, was here assembled, in the most elegant dresses. Groups were sitting, or lying in the grass; rows of tables and little stalls were set out, where there was a real oyster feast, in which the people indulged to an extent that rendered the appearance of the tables anything but inviting. As it grew dark, there was a very indifferent display of fireworks, on the eminence, in honour of the day, the expense of which was defrayed by subscription. Several companies of city militia had previously paraded the streets; they are all volunteers, who equip themselves, and that in a very superior manner ; but their uniforms are very gay and motley, as may be expected, where every one is left to follow his own taste. Each company, or troop, had a different uniform-one red, another blue, and, in part, richly embroidered with gold. There were very few men in a company. It seemed very strange that the musicians, who preceded them, were, for the most, in plain clothes of all colours, with round hats. " The Yankee-doodle," the favourite popular song of the Americans, was heard in different directions; and it is much to the credit of this motley assemblage, that there was no impropriety of conduct or unseemly noise. The effect of the light on the mixed crowd of whites and negroes was very interesting, and we enjoyed the scene till the coolness and damp of the night air made us retire to our inn. On the following morning, the shops were opened, and Boston resumed its usual appearance of commercial activity. Our baggage was put on board a schooner bound to New York, to which city I wished to go by land. Our next excursion was to the monument on Bunker's Hill, from which there is the best view of the surrounding country. Early in the morning we got into our carriages, and drove rapidly through the streets, refreshed by the cool morning breeze, where many wagons were arriving with the productions of the environs. We noticed vehicles of various descriptions, with four or two wheels, often with an awning of linen, or leather, open at the sides, and drawn by two or four horses. The drivers, generally in a white summer dress, with straw hats, sit on a bear skin, which is here worth eight or ten dollars. On the causeway, out of the city, the dust was troublesome, but a number of water-carts (like those used in the streets of London) were already preparing to water the road. Boston is joined to the Continent by a narrow tongue of land, at the two sides of which creeks, or bays run into the land. Over these creeks there are several long wooden bridges, made to draw up in the middle, one of which leads, in a north-west direction, to the neighbouring town of Charlestown ; another, more to the south, to Cambridge, where there is a college, or university. All these places have been described by several travellers. We took the road through Charlestown, to the Navy Yard, close to which is the eminence on which the Bunker's Hill monument is erected. The hill is called Breed's Hill, and immediately beyond it is Bunker's Hill, where the English troops were posted during the battle fought in 1775. The Americans were repulsed, and lost their leader, who was a physician. The monument in memory of this action |