No. 4.] HIGHWAYS. 217 



The rule in NeAV England towns was one main street, 

 with cross-roads intersecting it or leading from it. Some 

 of these were of unusual width and beauty. Illustrations 

 of these are apparent everywhere in the valley portion of 

 the Commonwealth, in Springfield, Northampton, Hadley, 

 Deerfield, Greenfield, Northfield, Amherst, South Hadley, 

 Chicopeo and many others that might be named. Old 

 Hadley Street, famous the world over, was copied after the 

 broad street of AVethersfield, Conn., whence came a large 

 contingent of the Hadley settlers in 1659. It is a mile 

 long, running due north and south, connecting the extremi- 

 ties of a five mile ox-bow in the Connecticut River, (|uite 

 level, and at the present day shaded with beautiful elms. 

 It was originally laid out twenty rods wide, and house lots, 

 all of equal size, were assigned to the sixty different 

 " adventurers," as they were called, on either side. Each 

 abutter was required to fence his own lot, and thus a com- 

 mon place of pasturage Avas created, in which cattle were 

 securely enclosed. This street was subsequently narrowed 

 to sixteen rods, which, I believe, is about its present 

 width. 



The East Precinct of Hadley, now the town of Amherst, 

 was divided and assigned to the Hadley settlers by lot 

 according to their several estates ; and a curious feature of 

 the laying out of the lands of the precinct was that it was 

 divided into tlu'ee divisions, separated by two roads running- 

 north and south, each forty rods wide, which extended in 

 straight, parallel lines throughout the whole length of the 

 town, some seven miles. The reason for this undoubtedly 

 was that travellers might have the opportunity of seeking 

 the most eligible spots over a wide space in passing from 

 point to point. Thus brooks could be most conveniently 

 crossed and swampy places and steep grades could be 

 measurably avoided. 



The settlement began about 1730. In 1754 the more 

 westerly of these wide highways were reduced to twenty 

 rods in width and the easterly to twelve rods ; and in 1788 

 the highways of the town were again narrowed, some to 

 six rods, some to four, the town selling the land to the 



