226 History of Eingham. 



ceding the attack of a few days after in the south part of the 

 town. Other neighbors were Dr. Cutler, known as " the Dutch- 

 man," and Arthur Caine ; while Joseph Bate's house stood 

 where Mr. William 0. Lincoln, who is of the eighth generation 

 occupying the same spot, now resides, — Clement Bate, the 

 father of Joseph, being the first. Next east lived Nathaniel 

 Beal, Senior, cordwainer and constable, and who had formerly 

 been chosen by the selectmen to keep an ordinary to sell sack and 

 strong waters, and who may still have been engaged in the same 

 pursuits. His ordinary and home was about opposite Thaxter's 

 bridge. Across the travelled way, and on the lot occupied by 

 the building in which the District Court holds its sessions, were 

 the stocks, — conveniently near the place where the strong 

 waters, which perhaps frequently led to their occupancy, were 

 dispensed. The street now so beautiful in all its long course 

 from Broad Bridge to Queen Anne's Corner, is the street of the 

 old days which we are picturing, and has undergone little change 

 of location. Its northerly part was known however at that time 

 as Bachelor's Row. We must recollect, however, that the hill 

 upon which Derby Academy stands then extended over the pres- 

 ent Main Street, sloping down nearly to the houses on the west, 

 and that going south it fell away to about the present level of 

 the street in front of Loring Hall, when the ascent again com- 

 menced, terminating in quite a little eminence opposite the Bas- 

 sett house, but which has largely disappeared through the cutting 

 off of the crown and the filling of the swampy tract beyond, — a 

 process which, repeated a short distance south, in the vicinity of 

 Water Street, has also modified the appearance of Main Street 

 quite materially at that point. The old road was in fact a suc- 

 cession of ascents and descents almost continuously, until after 

 reaching the level above Pear-tree Hill. The first meeting-house 

 stood upon the part of the hill near Broad Bridge, which has 

 been removed, and probably not far from, and a few rods in front 

 of, the site of Derby Academy. It has already been described. 

 Over the hill, and probably to the eastward of the Meeting-house 

 ran a road, and around the base was another, doubtless more easy 

 to travel. These two commencing at the same point near the 

 bridge, soon united into one again at or near where Loring Hall 

 stands. On the slopes of the hill and around the meeting-house 

 our fathers were buried, and there they doubtless thought to 

 sleep undisturbed forever. Their remains now rest in the old 

 fort in the cemetery, of which in life they were the garrison, — a 

 most fitting sepulchre for the sturdy old soldiers. This fort, still 

 in an admirable state of preservation, was probably erected in 

 1675 or early in 1676, and was the main defence of the inhabi- 

 tants. It overlooked and commanded most of the village and 

 the main approaches thereto, and in connection with the palisaded 

 Meeting-house and the garrison house across the brook, provided 



