ended by many German and
other merchants. Two annual fairs and two weekly markets were granted
by Henry VIII.'s charter, and are still held. The Great Mart survives
only in the Beast Mart held on the 11th of December.

See Pishey Thompson, _History and Antiquities of Boston and the
Hundred of Skirbeck_ (Boston, 1856); George Jebb, _Guide to the Church
of St Botolph, with Notes on the History of Boston; Victoria County
History: Lincolnshire_.

BOSTON, the capital of the state of Massachusetts, U.S.A., in Suffolk
county; lat. 42 deg. 21' 27.6" N., long. 71 deg. 3' 30" W. Pop. (1900)
560,892, (197,129 being foreign born); (1905, state census) 595,580;
(1910), 670,585. Boston is the terminus of the Boston & Albany (New York
Central), the Old Colony system of the New York, New Haven & Hartford,
and the Boston & Maine railway systems, each of which controls several
minor roads once independent. The city lies on Massachusetts bay, on
what was once a pear-shaped peninsula attached to the mainland by a
narrow, marshy neck, often swept by the spray and water. On the north is
the Charles river, which widens here into a broad, originally much
broader, inner harbour or back-bay. The surface of the peninsula was
very hilly and irregular, the shore-line was deeply indented with coves,
and there were salt marshes that fringed the neck and the river-channel
and were left oozy by the ebbing tides. Until after the War of
Independence the primitive topography remained unchanged, but it was
afterwards subjected to changes greater than those effected on the site
of any other American city. The area of the original Boston was only 783
acres, but by the filling in of tidal flats (since 1804) this was
increased to 1829 acres; while the larger corporate Boston of the
present day--including the annexed territories of South Boston (1804),
Roxbury (1868), Charlestown, Dorchester, Brighton and West Roxbury
(1874)--comprehends almost 43 sq. m. The beautiful Public Garden and the
finest residential quarter of the city--the Back Bay, so called from
that inner harbour from whose waters it was reclaimed (1856-1886)--stand
on what was once the narrowest, but to-day is the widest and fairest
portion of the original site. Whole forests, vast quarries of granite,
and hills of gravel were used in fringing the water margins,
constructing wharves, piers and causeways, redeeming flats, and
furnishing piling and solid foundations for building