New England bygones . ell-defined to the antiquary. I have seen thelatter coax out from a grass-grown summit the underlying sodsof an old structure. He paced it for me, and told me where wereits pulpit, its door, and its towers. He rebuilt for me this quainthouse into the tamed landscape. One cannot at this day wellappreciate the heroism of that armed devotion. It is easier toimagine how dazed one of the old watchmen would be to findhimself suddenly resurrected u|)on his tower, with no foe to fightagainst. When the Lidians had passed away the meeting-houses werestill, for convenience, centrall
New England bygones . ell-defined to the antiquary. I have seen thelatter coax out from a grass-grown summit the underlying sodsof an old structure. He paced it for me, and told me where wereits pulpit, its door, and its towers. He rebuilt for me this quainthouse into the tamed landscape. One cannot at this day wellappreciate the heroism of that armed devotion. It is easier toimagine how dazed one of the old watchmen would be to findhimself suddenly resurrected u|)on his tower, with no foe to fightagainst. When the Lidians had passed away the meeting-houses werestill, for convenience, centrally located ; and, being used l)y awhole townslii[), were often far away from any habitation. Later,however, the isolated meeting-house, with its Gods acre, wasdeserted. Population incieased, villages sprang up, and newplaces of worship were laiilt to meet the growing means andneeds of the people. The old burial-grounds began to seemtoo far away and too lonely for the beloved dead. Villat!;e people THE BUBIAL-PLACE. 127. ay tnem m ^omespot near l;)y, which wasfenced carefully out and adornedwith trees and shrubs. At the sametime the thriftv farmer set aside a spot7 fX^ in some field, apt to be the most conspicuous o ?! P !•* point on his farm. Meanwhile the deserted plat, sown thick with thebones of Christian pioneers, was taken up and cared for by clung to it, ghosts haunted it, vegetation ran riot overit, its walls tumbled, its stones were zigzag, it was ragged anduneven and wild, but beautiful. It lay upon the landscape alegend of the past, whether you read it in its rude inscriptions 128 ySW EXGLAJB BYGOXES. or in the gray desolateness of its aspect. It came to be knownas the old graveyard,—something incorporated into tlie historyand atmosphere of the pkice; a solemn suburb, in the sentimentof which every villager had an inherited or acquired mile away ironi a Xew England village, on the edge of aprimeval forest, by the side of a deserted hig
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublisherphila, bookyear1883
