Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/198

origin; but the only answer they receive is, that it has always been known by the name of "The old stone mill." It has excited the most lively interest among the learned in those parts, and many conjectures have been hazarded about its origin and object; but these, say the wags, with great solemnity of phrase, "are shrouded with mystery and all that can be learned from the inhabitants is, that as long as people can remember it has been called "the old stone mill." But whether this structure could have been built for a mill, although no doubt it is so well adapted for a mill that it may have been used for such purpose at some period, is matter of grave doubt to many; because no similar building, of old or new date, for any purpose, exists in the neighbourhood, or in all the country. They send, along with their communication concerning this interesting structure of the original Scandinavian discoverers of Vinland in the 11th century, drawings of the exterior and interior, a ground plan and an elevation of the old stone mill; all which they submit to the consideration of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries at Copenhagen. It must be allowed that these Rhode Island wags have played off their joke with admirable dexterity. They conceal nothing that fixes the building to have been beyond all doubt a mill; neither the name it has always gone by,—nor its windmill plan and site,—nor its modern walls built with lime and sand, and roughcast,—nor General Arnold's will calling it his stone mill,—nor Air. Peter Easton's memorandum of the year in which it was built; but they cunningly keep all these circumstances in the background, and bring to the front "the dilapidated structure,"—"the wonder of strangers from all parts of the United States,"—"the structure bearing an antique appearance,"—its origin and use " shrouded with mystery,"—"but possibly ante-Columbian,"—"a remain, possibly, of the Scandi-