Ancient Landmarks. 180 



there, as the slope had been in the early days a part of the burial 

 ground, and the First Meeting-House of the early settlers with 

 Rev. Peter Hobart stood in front of the present site of the Derby 

 Academy. It was probably a log house, and there was a belfry 

 upon it, containing a bell. It was fortified by palisades. 



When the street was lowered to the present level by cutting- 

 down the hill and removing the buildings upon it, many graves 

 were found in and about the roadway, containing the bones of 

 some of the first settlers. These were reverently gathered to- 

 gether and reinterred within the breastworks of the Old Fort, 

 which is a circular earthwork on the summit of the burial hill, 

 back of the Academy. This fort was built to command the ap- 

 proach by water, either of Indians in their canoes during King 

 Philip's War, or in anticipation of a possible attack at the time of 

 the troubles with the Dutch at New York. It is kept in a fine 

 state of preservation, and a plain granite shaft in the centre was 

 erected by the town to the memory of the first settlers. Around 

 its outer slope are set many very quaint and ancient gravestones, 

 unearthed here and there in the process of repairs or improve- 

 ment of this beautiful cemeterv In the arrangement and adorn- 

 ment of this resting-place of the dead, the taste displayed and the 

 great work done by Dr. R. T. P Fiske and Mr. John Todd, the 

 gentlemen who have had it in charge during the past fifty years, 

 have been in the highest degree creditable and honorable to them. 



In this cemetery are interred some of the most distinguished of 

 Americans, as well as those men who came from over the sea to 

 make Hingham their home. Here sleep the long line of eminent 

 pastors of the First Parish, who preached in the Old Meeting- 

 house yonder, — Hobart, Gay, Norton, Ware, Richardson, Lincoln. 

 Many families whose members have attained to high position in 

 the political, military, professional, or business circles of the re- 

 public bring their dead here to the home of their ancestors, to 

 slumber in the beautifully wooded hills or valleys of this lovely 

 spot. 



Many a soldier, from the general commanding an army to the 

 riflemen who stood shoulder to shoulder in the line of battle, awaits 

 the last reveille here. Many a sailor, who fought under " Old 

 Glory " behind the cannon on the high seas, is ready to start up 

 from this ground when " All hands on deck ! " is piped for the last 

 time. The tomb of Major-General Benjamin Lincoln, of the Rev- 

 olutionary Army, is here. John Albion Andrew, the " great war 

 governor" of Massachusetts during the Rebellion, rests here by 

 his monument. The shaft to those who died by land or sea in the 

 war for the Union crowns one of these beautiful heights. 



On Main Street, in front of the entrance to the cemetery and on 

 a height above the road, the handsome retaining wall of which is 

 draped with ampelopsis, now beautiful in autumn coloring, is The 

 Old Meeting-House of the First Parish, now in the two hundred 

 and eighth year of its existence. Standing far apart from and 



