to molest him in his experiments, by “shooting in any gun within half a mile of the ponds,” where, by the regulations of the town, he shall be allowed to place the decoys.  The court afterwards granted to other towns liberty to set up duck-coys, with similar privileges.  What was the particular structure of the contrivance, and how far it succeeded in operation, is not known; but the thing shows the spirit of the man.  He at once took hold of his farm with energy, and gathered workmen upon it.  Winthrop in his journal has this entry, Aug. 2, 1645:—­

“Mr. Downing having built a new house at his farm, he being gone to England, and his wife and family gone to the church meeting on the Lord’s day, the chimney took fire and burned down the house, and bedding, apparel and household, to the value of 200 pounds.”

This proves that his family resided on the farm; and it indicates, that, when he first occupied it, he had only such a house as could have been seasonably put up at the start, but that a more commodious one had been erected at his leisure:  the expression “having built a new house” appears to carry this idea.  On his return from England, he undoubtedly built again, and had other houses for his workmen and tenants; for we find that one of them, in 1648, was allowed to keep an ordinary, “as Mr. Downing’s farm, on the road between Lynn and Ipswich, was a convenient place” for such an accommodation to travellers.  Public travel to and from those points goes over that same road to-day.  That it was so early laid out is probably owing to the fact, that such men as Emanuel Downing were on its route, and John Winthrop, Jr., at Ipswich.  Downing called his farm “Groton,” in dear remembrance of his wife’s ancestral home in “the old country.”

Originally, travel was on a track more interior.  The opening of roads did not begin until after the more immediate and necessary operations of erecting houses and bringing the land, on the most available spots near them at the points first settled, under culture.  Originally, communication from farm to farm, through the woods, was by marking the trees,—­sometimes by burning and blackening spots on their sides, and sometimes by cutting off a piece of the bark.  The traveller found his way step by step, following the trees thus marked, or “blazed,” as it was called whichever method had been adopted.  When the branches and brush were sufficiently cleared away, horses could be used.  At places rendered difficult by large roots, partly above ground, intercepting the passage, or by rough stones, the rider would dismount, and lead the horse.  From this, it was called a “bridle-path.”  After the way had become sufficiently opened for ox-carts or other vehicles to pass, it would begin to receive the name of a road.  On reaching a cleared and fenced piece of land, the traveller would cross it, opening and closing gates, or taking down and replacing bars, as the case might be.  There were arrangements among the settlers,