170 History of Hingham. 



But the fair October sunset itself has faded into twilight, leav- 

 ing a beautiful afterglow that promises another fine day for to- 

 morrow. If the promise is fulfilled, we will start in the early 

 morning to visit the Hingham landmarks. 



A morning like that of yesterday, " so cool, so calm, so bright," 

 ushers in a second perfect autumn day, of all times in the year 

 the finest for rambles in the saddle. Let us take up our subject 

 this morning at the point where three townships meet. 



The Jerusalem Road ends at the Hingham line, where the 

 towns of Cohasset, Hingham, and Hull form a junction. To the 

 right, northerly, lies Nantasket Beach, about half a mile distant. 

 A few rods to the north, the road to the beach crosses the old 

 Mill Lane Bridge, which separates Strait's Pond from the little 

 estuary called Lyford's Liking, or Weir River. This, however, 

 is not the river itself, but merely an extension of the bay into 

 which Weir river empties. The origin of this quaint name, 

 LyforcTs Liking, is buried in obscurity. In 1642, however, in 

 Suffolk Deeds, Vol. I., the names of Ruth Leyford, John Leyford 

 her father, and Mordecay Leyford her brother, appear ; and in 

 1649 an old deed speaks of "foure Acres meadow, more or less, 

 at Laiford's Likeing." 



The road coming from the south, on the left hand, Hull Street, 

 divides Hingham from Cohasset, and winds through the rocky 

 village known as Tugmanug, an old Indian name of the locality. 

 Until within thirty-odd years, this was the only road from Hing- 

 ham to Nantasket Beach. 



Rockland Street runs west along the marshes for nearly a mile, 

 skirting a range of higher and rocky table land lying to the 

 south, which is known as Canterbury. It was probably included 

 in a grant to Cornelius Canterbury, who settled in Hingham be- 

 fore 1649. 



In the ditch by the side of this street, where it runs through 

 the salt marsh, are the stumps of gigantic trees, which were dug 

 out of the roadway here when the street was made, about the 

 year 1855. These trees were unquestionably members of a forest 

 which lived and flourished here untold ages ago. The lands 

 where it existed were probably low, and near the then coast 

 line; and through some gradual subsidence of the land, or sud- 

 den convulsion of nature, there Avas a breaking in of the sea, with 

 consequent destruction of the forest. All through the period of 

 submergence of this locality these stumps were preserved, being 

 under salt water, and now, perhaps a thousand years after the 

 catastrophe that ended their lives, the relics of the trunks of these 

 old trees are mouldering to decay in the rays of the same sun- 

 shine that caused their buds to break into leafy beauty in the last 

 springtime of their existence. 



