. . . The rocks for age, grey with time,
Their soft, rounded outlines wear away
Whole races of men. What time! What time!
Mysterious was the boulder-field in the fog.
I might have lost myself here. . . "
Thoreau Country: Location Note
The Boulder Field is a group of glacial erratics that was conspicuous in a high pasture (now wooded and obscured) in the middle of the Estabrook Woods. Glacial erratics are large boulders dragged south by the glaciers and dropped at random as the glacier melted back north. Seen in various lights and weather, they sparked the imagination. For example, Ellery Channing penciled this poem fragment in his pocket diary, one cold and foggy February day. His route took him up the Deserted Road, which was Channing's name for the Estabrook Road (Thoreau's old Carlisle road):
"Feb. 5, 1853. To the Deserted Road...
. . . The rocks for age, grey with time,
Their soft, rounded outlines wear away
Whole races of men. What time! What time!
Mysterious was the boulder-field in the fog.
I might have lost myself here. . . "
"Elm at Boulder Field, Concord, Massachusetts, Feb. 24, 1895."
by William Brewster
[First photo is by Herbert Gleason, ca. 1900 (from archives of Thoreau
Institute, used with permission). The second is by Janet Buerger. Third by
Stephen Ells, 1997. Fourth photo by William Brewster is from print owned by S.
Ells, from Brewster Collection of Mass. Audubon Society. Poem fragment is from
W. E. Channing's Pocket Diaries, transcribed by F.T. McGill; MS at Houghton
Library; courtesy of Thomas Blanding.]
Note by S. Ells, March, 2002.
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