Ancient Landmarks. 183 



due south to Queen Ann's Turnpike, is discontinued, although 

 even now it is a delightful bridle path through the thick woods. 

 Where it crosses a small branch of Plymouth River is a pecu- 

 liarly shaped field always known as Ox-13ow Meadow. The 

 present part of Ward Street between its junction with Old Ward 

 Street and Gushing Street, used to be called Fox Lane. Root's 

 Bridge and Root's Hill are near the junction referred to. 



Riding through the pleasant old deserted Ward Street, we reach 

 Whiting Street, formerly Queen Ann's Turnpike (or " Quean " 

 Ann's Turnpike). This name, sad to say, was not bestowed in 

 honor of good Queen Anne, but was derived from the sobriquet 

 of a far less reputable individual, who kept a tavern of unsavory 

 reputation upon it in former days. 



This street enters Hingham from Weymouth, and makes its 

 exit at Queen Ann's Corner, just east of Accord Pond, at the 

 point where it meets Main Street. On Whiting Street, near the 

 Weymouth line, is a rocky ridge across the street, called The 

 Devil's Back. It is said that whatever may be done in the 

 way of covering this ridge, or lowering it by blasting, it always 

 in time reappears. Whether the inhabitants of an earlier gene- 

 ration considered this peculiarity as evincing undue activity on 

 the part of Satan in making travel in that vicinity more labori- 

 ous, or whether they surmised that the " Ward Witches " had a 

 hand in the mischief, instigated thereto by the Evil One, they 

 bestowed upon the ridge this unsanctified name. The territory 

 certainly must have been within the jurisdiction of these " Ward 

 Witches," who were lady members of a family which formerly 

 dwelt in a part of the town not very far away, and who were 

 popularly believed to practise the Black Art. 



Passing southeast over this old turnpike we come to a deep 

 ravine through which flows, in a northerly direction, an active 

 little stream called Plymouth River. Further on, a branch of 

 the same crosses the road. This " river," now but a brook in 

 size, received its name from the fact of its being on the way to 

 Plymouth, as it crossed the Old Indian Path which was in this 

 vicinity, and which was the only road which the earlv settlers 

 had between Boston and Plymouth. 



It must be noted that the little streams called " rivers " in 

 Hingham, were doubtless in aboriginal days much wider and 

 deeper than now. The denudation of the country by the extir- 

 pation of the heavy forests, with the consequent desiccation of 

 lands which then held in their sponge-like soils, mulched by thou- 

 sands of generations of fallen leaves, volumes of water vastly in 

 excess of what falls upon or remains in them now, has resulted 

 in the dwarfing of the once good-sized streams, and the diminu- 

 tion of the annual rainfall ; and the dry and starveling wood- 

 lands (as compared with the primeval forest), cannot retain the 

 moisture necessary to the formation of rivers of any size. 



A short distance southeast of the easterly branch of Plymouth 



