to his memory in the cemetery at South Coventry,
near the spot where his father expected to be buried.
It still stands there and has been declared to be one
of the best examples of the lettering of the times.
It bears this inscription:

"Durable stone preserve the monumental record.
Nathan Hale Esq. a Capt. in the army of the United
States, who was born June 6th, 1755, and received
the first honors of Yale College, Sept. 1773, resigned
his life a sacrifice to his country's liberty
at New York, Sept. 22d, 1776, Etatis 22d."

One by one were placed near his, his father's
stone (his father died at eighty-five), and those of
other members of his family. These graves are in
a common burial lot near the Congregational Church
in South Coventry where the family had worshiped.

In November, 1837, the Hale Monument Association
was formed for the purpose of erecting at
Coventry a fitting memorial of the martyr-soldier.
Congress was applied to for several years, but was
slow in appropriating money to honor the dead,--strangely
unlike England in honoring her martyrs,
as will be seen later.

Appeals were made to the State legislature, and
Stuart, Hale's earliest biographer and sincere admirer,
used his influence as a legislator in securing
an appropriation of twelve hundred and fifty dol-

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v?