he grounds, and
substantial houses began to cluster about it.

A few years before the Revolution, the Colonial Assembly purchased in
England a leaden statue of King George the Third, and set it up in the
centre of the Bowling Green, in May 1771. The grounds at this time had
no fence around them, as we learn from a resolution of the Common
Council, and were made the receptacle of filth and dirt, thrown there,
doubtless, by the patriots as an insult to the royalists. As the
troubles thickened, the people became more hostile to the statue of King
George, and heaped many indignities upon it, and after the breaking out
of the war, the unlucky monarch was taken down and run into bullets for
the guns of the Continental army.

After the close of the Revolution, Chancellor Livingston enclosed the
grounds with the iron fence which still surrounds them, and subsequently
a fountain was erected on the site of the statue.

III. THE PARK.

"THE PARK" is the title given by New Yorkers to the enclosure containing
the City Hall and County Buildings. It originally embraced an area of
eleven acres, but within the past year and a half the lower end has been
ceded to the General Government by the city, and upon this portion the
Federal authorities are erecting a magnificent edifice to be used as a
City Post Office. This building covers the extreme southern end of the
old Park, and the northern portion is occupied by the City Hall, the new
County Court-House and the Department of Finance of the city and county.

In the days of the Dutch in New Amsterdam, the site of the Park, which
was far outside the village limits, was set apart as a common, and was
known as the "Vlachte," or "Flat," and subsequently as the "Second
Plains," "Commons," and "Fields." It was the common grazing ground of
the Knickerbocker cows, and was by universal consent made public
property--the first ever owned by the city. It is believed that previous
to this it was the site of the village of the Manhattan Indians, a belief
which is strengthened by the frequent finding of Indian relics in digging
up the soil on this spot. It was connected with the Dutch village by a
road which ran through a beautiful valley now known as Maiden lane.

[Picture: THE CITY HALL PARK]

Every morning the village cowherd, who was a most important personage,
would walk the streets of New Amsterdam and sound his horn at each
burgher's door. The cows were